The Ocean Book: Food Chains...Come and Eat!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Science Activities, 1989

1989-01-01

Six paper and pencil activities on marine ecology are presented with answers. Included are a food pyramid, a maze, a find-a-word puzzle, a sea food chain, a crossword puzzle, and a predator-prey puzzle. (CW)

Reply to Shaw

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Batalha, N. E.; Kopparapu, R. K.; Haqq-Misra, J.; Kasting, J. F.

2018-02-01

We welcome George Shaw's comment on our recent paper on climate limit cycling on early Mars. Those who have been involved in the early Mars' climate debate know that this issue has been contentious for at least three decades. As we will outline below, the reason we have not been able to solve the puzzle may be because we have been missing some of the pieces.

Hiding in Plain Sight: The Sibling Connection in Eating Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blessing, Deborah

2007-01-01

In this paper the author argues that sibling relationships are a missing piece of the eating disorder puzzle. She notes that disturbing relationships with siblings have been present all along in the literature, but have not been included as a separate area of study. They have thus been hiding in plain sight, present but not accounted for in our…

L-Tromino Tiling of Multilated Chessboards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Martin

2009-01-01

An "n" x "n" chessboard is called deficient if one square is missing from any spot on the board. Can all deficient boards with a number of cells divisible by 3 be tiled by bent (or L-shaped) trominoes? The answer is yes, with exception of the order-5 board. This paper deals with the general problem plus numerous related puzzles and proofs…

False beliefs predict increased circumcision satisfaction in a sample of US American men.

PubMed

Earp, Brian D; Sardi, Lauren M; Jellison, William A

2017-12-06

Critics of non-therapeutic male and female childhood genital cutting claim that such cutting is harmful. It is therefore puzzling that 'circumcised' women and men do not typically regard themselves as having been harmed by the cutting, notwithstanding the loss of sensitive, prima facie valuable tissue. For female genital cutting (FGC), a commonly proposed solution to this puzzle is that women who had part(s) of their vulvae removed before sexual debut 'do not know what they are missing' and may 'justify' their genitally-altered state by adopting false beliefs about the benefits of FGC, while simultaneously stigmatising unmodified genitalia as unattractive or unclean. Might a similar phenomenon apply to neonatally circumcised men? In this survey of 999 US American men, greater endorsement of false beliefs concerning circumcision and penile anatomy predicted greater satisfaction with being circumcised, while among genitally intact men, the opposite trend occurred: greater endorsement of false beliefs predicted less satisfaction with being genitally intact. These findings provide tentative support for the hypothesis that the lack-of-harm reported by many circumcised men, like the lack-of-harm reported by their female counterparts in societies that practice FGC, may be related to holding inaccurate beliefs concerning unaltered genitalia and the consequences of childhood genital modification.

Preparing Our Youth for an Inclusive and Sustainable World: The OECD PISA Global Competence Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

OECD Publishing, 2018

2018-01-01

In 2015, 193 countries committed to achieving the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a shared vision of humanity that provides the missing piece of the globalisation puzzle. The extent to which that vision becomes a reality will depend on today's classrooms; and it is educators who hold the key to ensuring that the SDGs become a real…

Missing piece of the puzzle in the science of consciousness: Resting state and endogenous correlates of consciousness.

PubMed

Havlík, Marek

2017-03-01

Consciousness still stands as one of the most interesting and the most elusive problems of neuroscience. Finding its correlates is the first step toward its satisfactory explanation. Several theories have proposed its correlates but none of them seem to be generally accepted even though most of them share some very similar elements. These elements are the activity of the thalamus, which is considered by some as the central region for consciousness, and gamma synchronization, which should be the general principal for the emergence of conscious experience. However, all of these proposed theories share one characteristic and that is that they do not take into consideration the recently discovered endogenous activity of the brain, which is generally associated with the default mode network. Although the activity of this large scale brain network is in correlation with various levels of consciousness it is still missing in discussions of consciousness. This review recognizes the importance of endogenous activity and points out the important discoveries of endogenous activity that could be an important step toward a satisfactory explanation of consciousness. Copyright © 2017 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Paradigm Change: Targeting Enemy Leadership in a Complex Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-10

hunt Pablo Escobar, Centra Spike needed patience and supporting networks to uncover the puzzle of the Medellin Cartel. Although US and British... Medellin Cartel; who calls the shots? Eventually, Escobar stood out, but he was not the first target. Jose Rodriquez Gacha’s outspoken attitude...Alzate, the hired suicide bomber, flipped the switch and 110 passengers were dead. The Medellin Cartel missed their target, but the intent was loud and

Math Mind Benders Warm Up: Deductive Reasoning Mathematics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harnadek, Anita

This book contains "math mind benders," puzzles that are worked like crossword puzzles except that each square is filled with a digit rather than a letter. Clues to the puzzles are interrelated with each other and a given story. Clear thinking and deductive reasoning must be used to find potential answers and eliminate those that fail to meet all…

Breath-giving cooperation: critical review of origin of mitochondria hypotheses : Major unanswered questions point to the importance of early ecology.

PubMed

Zachar, István; Szathmáry, Eörs

2017-08-14

The origin of mitochondria is a unique and hard evolutionary problem, embedded within the origin of eukaryotes. The puzzle is challenging due to the egalitarian nature of the transition where lower-level units took over energy metabolism. Contending theories widely disagree on ancestral partners, initial conditions and unfolding of events. There are many open questions but there is no comparative examination of hypotheses. We have specified twelve questions about the observable facts and hidden processes leading to the establishment of the endosymbiont that a valid hypothesis must address. We have objectively compared contending hypotheses under these questions to find the most plausible course of events and to draw insight on missing pieces of the puzzle. Since endosymbiosis borders evolution and ecology, and since a realistic theory has to comply with both domains' constraints, the conclusion is that the most important aspect to clarify is the initial ecological relationship of partners. Metabolic benefits are largely irrelevant at this initial phase, where ecological costs could be more disruptive. There is no single theory capable of answering all questions indicating a severe lack of ecological considerations. A new theory, compliant with recent phylogenomic results, should adhere to these criteria. This article was reviewed by Michael W. Gray, William F. Martin and Purificación López-García.

The Incomplete Glutathione Puzzle: Just Guessing at Numbers and Figures?

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Abstract Significance: Glutathione metabolism is comparable to a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces. It is supposed to comprise (i) the reduction of disulfides, hydroperoxides, sulfenic acids, and nitrosothiols, (ii) the detoxification of aldehydes, xenobiotics, and heavy metals, and (iii) the synthesis of eicosanoids, steroids, and iron–sulfur clusters. In addition, glutathione affects oxidative protein folding and redox signaling. Here, I try to provide an overview on the relevance of glutathione-dependent pathways with an emphasis on quantitative data. Recent Advances: Intracellular redox measurements reveal that the cytosol, the nucleus, and mitochondria contain very little glutathione disulfide and that oxidative challenges are rapidly counterbalanced. Genetic approaches suggest that iron metabolism is the centerpiece of the glutathione puzzle in yeast. Furthermore, recent biochemical studies provide novel insights on glutathione transport processes and uncoupling mechanisms. Critical Issues: Which parts of the glutathione puzzle are most relevant? Does this explain the high intracellular concentrations of reduced glutathione? How can iron–sulfur cluster biogenesis, oxidative protein folding, or redox signaling occur at high glutathione concentrations? Answers to these questions not only seem to depend on the organism, cell type, and subcellular compartment but also on different ideologies among researchers. Future Directions: A rational approach to compare the relevance of glutathione-dependent pathways is to combine genetic and quantitative kinetic data. However, there are still many missing pieces and too little is known about the compartment-specific repertoire and concentration of numerous metabolites, substrates, enzymes, and transporters as well as rate constants and enzyme kinetic patterns. Gathering this information might require the development of novel tools but is crucial to address potential kinetic competitions and to decipher uncoupling mechanisms to solve the glutathione puzzle. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 27, 1130–1161. PMID:28540740

The Incomplete Glutathione Puzzle: Just Guessing at Numbers and Figures?

PubMed

Deponte, Marcel

2017-11-20

Glutathione metabolism is comparable to a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces. It is supposed to comprise (i) the reduction of disulfides, hydroperoxides, sulfenic acids, and nitrosothiols, (ii) the detoxification of aldehydes, xenobiotics, and heavy metals, and (iii) the synthesis of eicosanoids, steroids, and iron-sulfur clusters. In addition, glutathione affects oxidative protein folding and redox signaling. Here, I try to provide an overview on the relevance of glutathione-dependent pathways with an emphasis on quantitative data. Recent Advances: Intracellular redox measurements reveal that the cytosol, the nucleus, and mitochondria contain very little glutathione disulfide and that oxidative challenges are rapidly counterbalanced. Genetic approaches suggest that iron metabolism is the centerpiece of the glutathione puzzle in yeast. Furthermore, recent biochemical studies provide novel insights on glutathione transport processes and uncoupling mechanisms. Which parts of the glutathione puzzle are most relevant? Does this explain the high intracellular concentrations of reduced glutathione? How can iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis, oxidative protein folding, or redox signaling occur at high glutathione concentrations? Answers to these questions not only seem to depend on the organism, cell type, and subcellular compartment but also on different ideologies among researchers. A rational approach to compare the relevance of glutathione-dependent pathways is to combine genetic and quantitative kinetic data. However, there are still many missing pieces and too little is known about the compartment-specific repertoire and concentration of numerous metabolites, substrates, enzymes, and transporters as well as rate constants and enzyme kinetic patterns. Gathering this information might require the development of novel tools but is crucial to address potential kinetic competitions and to decipher uncoupling mechanisms to solve the glutathione puzzle. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 27, 1130-1161.

Fascial preadipocytes: another missing piece of the puzzle to understand fibromyalgia?

PubMed

Bordoni, Bruno; Marelli, Fabiola; Morabito, Bruno; Cavallaro, Francesca; Lintonbon, David

2018-01-01

Fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome is a chronic condition causing pain, affecting approximately 0.5%-6% of the developed countries' population, and on average, 2% of the worldwide population. Despite the large amount of scientific literature available, the FM etiology is still uncertain. The diagnosis is based on the clinical presentation and the severity of the symptomatology. Several studies pointed out pathological alterations within the central nervous system, suggesting that FM could originate from a central sensitization of the pain processing centers. Research supports the thesis of a peripheral neuropathic component, with the finding of axonal damages. The fibromyalgia patient has many myofascial system abnormalities, such as pain and fatigue, impairing the symptomatic profile. This paper revises the myopathic compensations, highlighting the possible role of the fascia in generating symptoms, being aware of the new information about the fascia's activity in stimulating inflammation and fat cell production.

Fascial preadipocytes: another missing piece of the puzzle to understand fibromyalgia?

PubMed Central

Bordoni, Bruno; Marelli, Fabiola; Morabito, Bruno; Cavallaro, Francesca; Lintonbon, David

2018-01-01

Fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome is a chronic condition causing pain, affecting approximately 0.5%–6% of the developed countries’ population, and on average, 2% of the worldwide population. Despite the large amount of scientific literature available, the FM etiology is still uncertain. The diagnosis is based on the clinical presentation and the severity of the symptomatology. Several studies pointed out pathological alterations within the central nervous system, suggesting that FM could originate from a central sensitization of the pain processing centers. Research supports the thesis of a peripheral neuropathic component, with the finding of axonal damages. The fibromyalgia patient has many myofascial system abnormalities, such as pain and fatigue, impairing the symptomatic profile. This paper revises the myopathic compensations, highlighting the possible role of the fascia in generating symptoms, being aware of the new information about the fascia’s activity in stimulating inflammation and fat cell production. PMID:29750060

Puzzling practice: a strategy for working with clinical practice issues.

PubMed

Walsh, Kenneth; Moss, Cheryle; Lawless, Jane; McKelvie, Rhonda; Duncan, Lindsay

2008-04-01

In this paper we aim to share the evolution of innovative ways to explore, 'unpack' and reframe clinical issues that exist in everyday practice. The elements of these processes, which we call 'puzzling practice', and the techniques associated with them, were delineated over a two year period by the four authors using action theory based processes. The authors have evolved several different frameworks for 'puzzling practice' which we draw on and use in our practice development work and in our research practice. This paper pays attention to a particular form of puzzling practice that we have found to be useful in assisting individual clinicians and teams to explore and find workable solutions to practice issues. The paper uses a semi-fictitious example of 'Puzzling Practice' gleaned from our experience as practice development facilitators. In this example 'puzzling practice' uses seven different elements; naming the issue; puzzling the issue; testing the puzzle exploring the heart of out practice; formulating the puzzle question; visualizing the future; and generating new strategies for action. Each of the elements is illustrated by the story and the key foundations and ideas behind each element is explored.

Early Puzzle Play: A predictor of preschoolers’ spatial transformation skill

PubMed Central

Levine, S.C.; Ratliff, K.R.; Huttenlocher, J.; Cannon, J.

2011-01-01

Individual differences in spatial skill emerge prior to kindergarten entry. However, little is known about the early experiences that may contribute to these differences. The current study examines the relation between children’s early puzzle play and their spatial skill. Children and parents (n = 53) were observed at home for 90 minutes every four months (six times) between 2 and 4 years of age (26 to 46 months). When children were 4 years 6 months old, they completed a spatial task involving mental transformations of 2D shapes. Children who were observed playing with puzzles performed better on this task than those who did not, controlling for parent education, income, and overall parent word types. Moreover, among those children who played with puzzles, frequency of puzzle play predicted performance on the spatial transformation task. Although the frequency of puzzle play did not differ for boys and girls, the quality of puzzle play (a composite of puzzle difficulty, parent engagement, and parent spatial language) was higher for boys than girls. In addition, variation in puzzle play quality predicted performance on the spatial transformation task for girls but not boys. Implications of these findings as well as future directions for research on the role of the role of puzzle play in the development of spatial skill are discussed. PMID:22040312

Sc2C2@D3h(14246)-C74: A Missing Piece of the Clusterfullerene Puzzle.

PubMed

Wang, Yaofeng; Tang, Qiangqiang; Feng, Lai; Chen, Ning

2017-02-20

Clusterfullerenes with variable carbon cages have been extensively studied in recent years. However, despite all these efforts, C 74 cage-based clusterfullerene remains a missing piece of the puzzle. Herein, we show that single-crystal X-ray crystallographic analysis unambiguously assigns the previously reported dimetallofullerene Sc 2 @C 76 to a novel carbide clusterfullerene, Sc 2 C 2 @D 3h (14246)-C 74 , the first experimentally proven clusterfullerene with a C 74 cage. In addition, Sc 2 C 2 @D 3h (14246)-C 74 was charaterized by mass spectrometry, ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared absorption spectroscopy, 45 Sc nuclear magnetic resonance, and cyclic voltammetry. Comparative studies of the motion of the carbide cluster in Sc 2 C 2 @D 3h (14246)-C 74 and Sc 2 C 2 @C 2n (n = 40-44) revealed that a combination of factors, involving both the shape and size of the cage, is crucial in dictating the cluster motion. Moreover, structural studies of D 3h (14246)-C 74 revealed that it can be easily converted to C s (10528)-C 72 and T d (19151)-C 76 cages via C 2 desertion/insertion and Stone-Wales transformation. This suggests that D 3h (14246)-C 74 might play an important role in the growth pathway of clusterfullerenes.

Early puzzle play: a predictor of preschoolers' spatial transformation skill.

PubMed

Levine, Susan C; Ratliff, Kristin R; Huttenlocher, Janellen; Cannon, Joanna

2012-03-01

Individual differences in spatial skill emerge prior to kindergarten entry. However, little is known about the early experiences that may contribute to these differences. The current study examined the relation between children's early puzzle play and their spatial skill. Children and parents (n = 53) were observed at home for 90 min every 4 months (6 times) between 2 and 4 years of age (26 to 46 months). When children were 4 years 6 months old, they completed a spatial task involving mental transformations of 2-dimensional shapes. Children who were observed playing with puzzles performed better on this task than those who did not, controlling for parent education, income, and overall parent word types. Moreover, among those children who played with puzzles, frequency of puzzle play predicted performance on the spatial transformation task. Although the frequency of puzzle play did not differ for boys and girls, the quality of puzzle play (a composite of puzzle difficulty, parent engagement, and parent spatial language) was higher for boys than for girls. In addition, variation in puzzle play quality predicted performance on the spatial transformation task for girls but not for boys. Implications of these findings as well as future directions for research on the role of puzzle play in the development of spatial skill are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Association of Crossword Puzzle Participation with Memory Decline in Persons Who Develop Dementia

PubMed Central

Pillai, Jagan A.; Hall, Charles B.; Dickson, Dennis W.; Buschke, Herman; Lipton, Richard B.; Verghese, Joe

2013-01-01

Participation in cognitively stimulating leisure activities such as crossword puzzles may delay onset of the memory decline in the preclinical stages of dementia, possibly via its effect on improving cognitive reserve. We followed 488 initially cognitively intact community residing individuals with clinical and cognitive assessments every 12–18 months in the Bronx Aging Study. We assessed the influence of crossword puzzle participation on the onset of accelerated memory decline as measured by the Buschke Selective Reminding Test in 101 individuals who developed incident dementia using a change point model. Crossword puzzle participation at baseline delayed onset of accelerated memory decline by 2.54 years. Inclusion of education or participation in other cognitively stimulating activities did not significantly add to the fit of the model beyond the effect of puzzles. Our findings show that late life crossword puzzle participation, independent of education, was associated with delayed onset of memory decline in persons who developed dementia. Given the wide availability and accessibility of crossword puzzles, their role in preventing cognitive decline should be validated in future clinical trials. PMID:22040899

A puzzle form of a non-verbal intelligence test gives significantly higher performance measures in children with severe intellectual disability

PubMed Central

Bello, Katrina D; Goharpey, Nahal; Crewther, Sheila G; Crewther, David P

2008-01-01

Background Assessment of 'potential intellectual ability' of children with severe intellectual disability (ID) is limited, as current tests designed for normal children do not maintain their interest. Thus a manual puzzle version of the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) was devised to appeal to the attentional and sensory preferences and language limitations of children with ID. It was hypothesized that performance on the book and manual puzzle forms would not differ for typically developing children but that children with ID would perform better on the puzzle form. Methods The first study assessed the validity of this puzzle form of the RCPM for 76 typically developing children in a test-retest crossover design, with a 3 week interval between tests. A second study tested performance and completion rate for the puzzle form compared to the book form in a sample of 164 children with ID. Results In the first study, no significant difference was found between performance on the puzzle and book forms in typically developing children, irrespective of the order of completion. The second study demonstrated a significantly higher performance and completion rate for the puzzle form compared to the book form in the ID population. Conclusion Similar performance on book and puzzle forms of the RCPM by typically developing children suggests that both forms measure the same construct. These findings suggest that the puzzle form does not require greater cognitive ability but demands sensory-motor attention and limits distraction in children with severe ID. Thus, we suggest the puzzle form of the RCPM is a more reliable measure of the non-verbal mentation of children with severe ID than the book form. PMID:18671882

A puzzle form of a non-verbal intelligence test gives significantly higher performance measures in children with severe intellectual disability.

PubMed

Bello, Katrina D; Goharpey, Nahal; Crewther, Sheila G; Crewther, David P

2008-08-01

Assessment of 'potential intellectual ability' of children with severe intellectual disability (ID) is limited, as current tests designed for normal children do not maintain their interest. Thus a manual puzzle version of the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) was devised to appeal to the attentional and sensory preferences and language limitations of children with ID. It was hypothesized that performance on the book and manual puzzle forms would not differ for typically developing children but that children with ID would perform better on the puzzle form. The first study assessed the validity of this puzzle form of the RCPM for 76 typically developing children in a test-retest crossover design, with a 3 week interval between tests. A second study tested performance and completion rate for the puzzle form compared to the book form in a sample of 164 children with ID. In the first study, no significant difference was found between performance on the puzzle and book forms in typically developing children, irrespective of the order of completion. The second study demonstrated a significantly higher performance and completion rate for the puzzle form compared to the book form in the ID population. Similar performance on book and puzzle forms of the RCPM by typically developing children suggests that both forms measure the same construct. These findings suggest that the puzzle form does not require greater cognitive ability but demands sensory-motor attention and limits distraction in children with severe ID. Thus, we suggest the puzzle form of the RCPM is a more reliable measure of the non-verbal mentation of children with severe ID than the book form.

(Mis)perception of Sleep in Insomnia: A Puzzle and a Resolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, Allison G.; Tang, Nicole K. Y.

2012-01-01

Insomnia is prevalent, causing severe distress and impairment. This review focuses on illuminating the puzzling finding that many insomnia patients misperceive their sleep. They overestimate their sleep onset latency (SOL) and underestimate their total sleep time (TST), relative to objective measures. This tendency is ubiquitous (although not…

Three Modes of Hydrogeophysical Investigation: Puzzles, Mysteries, and Conundrums

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferre, P. A.

2011-12-01

In an article in the New Yorker in 2007, Malcolm Gladwell discussed the distinction that national security expert Gregory Treverton has made between puzzles and mysteries. Specifically, puzzles are problems that we understand and that will eventually be solved when we amass enough information. (Think crossword puzzles.) Mysteries are problems for which we have the necessary information, but it is often overwhelmed by irrelevant or misleading input. To solve a mystery, we require improved analysis. (Think find-a-word.) Gladwell goes on to explain that, in the national security realm, the Cold War was a puzzle while the current national security condition is a mystery. I will discuss the past, current, and future trajectories of hydrogeophysics in terms of puzzles and mysteries. I will also add a third class of problem: conundrums - those for which we lack sufficient information about their structure to know how to solve them. A conundrum is a mystery with an unexpected twist. I hope to make the case that the future growth of hydrogeophysics lies in our ability to address this more challenging and more interesting class of problem.

An Interactive 3D Virtual Anatomy Puzzle for Learning and Simulation - Initial Demonstration and Evaluation.

PubMed

Messier, Erik; Wilcox, Jascha; Dawson-Elli, Alexander; Diaz, Gabriel; Linte, Cristian A

2016-01-01

To inspire young students (grades 6-12) to become medical practitioners and biomedical engineers, it is necessary to expose them to key concepts of the field in a way that is both exciting and informative. Recent advances in medical image acquisition, manipulation, processing, visualization, and display have revolutionized the approach in which the human body and internal anatomy can be seen and studied. It is now possible to collect 3D, 4D, and 5D medical images of patient specific data, and display that data to the end user using consumer level 3D stereoscopic display technology. Despite such advancements, traditional 2D modes of content presentation such as textbooks and slides are still the standard didactic equipment used to teach young students anatomy. More sophisticated methods of display can help to elucidate the complex 3D relationships between structures that are so often missed when viewing only 2D media, and can instill in students an appreciation for the interconnection between medicine and technology. Here we describe the design, implementation, and preliminary evaluation of a 3D virtual anatomy puzzle dedicated to helping users learn the anatomy of various organs and systems by manipulating 3D virtual data. The puzzle currently comprises several components of the human anatomy and can be easily extended to include additional organs and systems. The 3D virtual anatomy puzzle game was implemented and piloted using three display paradigms - a traditional 2D monitor, a 3D TV with active shutter glass, and the DK2 version Oculus Rift, as well as two different user interaction devices - a space mouse and traditional keyboard controls.

The Relations of Parental Affect and Encouragement to Children's Moral Emotions and Behaviour.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spinrad, Tracy L.; Losoya, Sandra H.; Eisenburg, Nancy; Fabes, Richard A.; Shepard, Stephanie A.; Cumberland, Amanda; Guthrie, Ivanna K.; Murphy, Bridget C.

1999-01-01

Explores the role of observed parental affect and encouragement in children's empathy-related responding and moral behavior, specifically cheating on a puzzle activity. Finds that (1) parents' affect and encouragement positively related to children's sympathy (not empathy) and (2) boys' cheating on the puzzle correlated to parents' affect and…

Resolving the Tevatron Top Quark Forward-Backward Asymmetry Puzzle: Fully Differential Next-to-Next-to-Leading-Order Calculation.

PubMed

Czakon, Michal; Fiedler, Paul; Mitov, Alexander

2015-07-31

We determine the dominant missing standard model (SM) contribution to the top quark pair forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron. Contrary to past expectations, we find a large, around 27%, shift relative to the well-known value of the inclusive asymmetry in next-to-leading order QCD. Combining all known standard model corrections, we find that A(FB)(SM)=0.095±0.007. This value is in agreement with the latest DØ measurement [V. M. Abazov et al. (D0 Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 90, 072011 (2014)] A(FB)(D∅)=0.106±0.03 and about 1.5σ below that of CDF [T. Aaltonen et al. (CDF Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 87, 092002 (2013)] A(FB)(CDF)=0.164±0.047. Our result is derived from a fully differential calculation of the next-to-next-to leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to inclusive top pair production at hadron colliders and includes-without any approximation-all partonic channels contributing to this process. This is the first complete fully differential calculation in NNLO QCD of a two-to-two scattering process with all colored partons.

Resolving the Tevatron Top Quark Forward-Backward Asymmetry Puzzle: Fully Differential Next-to-Next-to-Leading-Order Calculation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Czakon, Michal; Fiedler, Paul; Mitov, Alexander

2015-07-01

We determine the dominant missing standard model (SM) contribution to the top quark pair forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron. Contrary to past expectations, we find a large, around 27%, shift relative to the well-known value of the inclusive asymmetry in next-to-leading order QCD. Combining all known standard model corrections, we find that AF BS M = 0.095 ±0.007 . This value is in agreement with the latest DØ measurement [V. M. Abazov et al. (D0 Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 90, 072011 (2014)] AFBD ∅=0.106 ±0.03 and about 1.5 σ below that of CDF [T. Aaltonen et al. (CDF Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 87, 092002 (2013)] AFBCDF=0.164 ±0.047 . Our result is derived from a fully differential calculation of the next-to-next-to leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to inclusive top pair production at hadron colliders and includes—without any approximation—all partonic channels contributing to this process. This is the first complete fully differential calculation in NNLO QCD of a two-to-two scattering process with all colored partons.

Piecing together the puzzle: Improving event content coverage for real-time sub-event detection using adaptive microblog crawling

PubMed Central

Tokarchuk, Laurissa; Wang, Xinyue; Poslad, Stefan

2017-01-01

In an age when people are predisposed to report real-world events through their social media accounts, many researchers value the benefits of mining user generated content from social media. Compared with the traditional news media, social media services, such as Twitter, can provide more complete and timely information about the real-world events. However events are often like a puzzle and in order to solve the puzzle/understand the event, we must identify all the sub-events or pieces. Existing Twitter event monitoring systems for sub-event detection and summarization currently typically analyse events based on partial data as conventional data collection methodologies are unable to collect comprehensive event data. This results in existing systems often being unable to report sub-events in real-time and often in completely missing sub-events or pieces in the broader event puzzle. This paper proposes a Sub-event detection by real-TIme Microblog monitoring (STRIM) framework that leverages the temporal feature of an expanded set of news-worthy event content. In order to more comprehensively and accurately identify sub-events this framework first proposes the use of adaptive microblog crawling. Our adaptive microblog crawler is capable of increasing the coverage of events while minimizing the amount of non-relevant content. We then propose a stream division methodology that can be accomplished in real time so that the temporal features of the expanded event streams can be analysed by a burst detection algorithm. In the final steps of the framework, the content features are extracted from each divided stream and recombined to provide a final summarization of the sub-events. The proposed framework is evaluated against traditional event detection using event recall and event precision metrics. Results show that improving the quality and coverage of event contents contribute to better event detection by identifying additional valid sub-events. The novel combination of our proposed adaptive crawler and our stream division/recombination technique provides significant gains in event recall (44.44%) and event precision (9.57%). The addition of these sub-events or pieces, allows us to get closer to solving the event puzzle. PMID:29107976

Piecing together the puzzle: Improving event content coverage for real-time sub-event detection using adaptive microblog crawling.

PubMed

Tokarchuk, Laurissa; Wang, Xinyue; Poslad, Stefan

2017-01-01

In an age when people are predisposed to report real-world events through their social media accounts, many researchers value the benefits of mining user generated content from social media. Compared with the traditional news media, social media services, such as Twitter, can provide more complete and timely information about the real-world events. However events are often like a puzzle and in order to solve the puzzle/understand the event, we must identify all the sub-events or pieces. Existing Twitter event monitoring systems for sub-event detection and summarization currently typically analyse events based on partial data as conventional data collection methodologies are unable to collect comprehensive event data. This results in existing systems often being unable to report sub-events in real-time and often in completely missing sub-events or pieces in the broader event puzzle. This paper proposes a Sub-event detection by real-TIme Microblog monitoring (STRIM) framework that leverages the temporal feature of an expanded set of news-worthy event content. In order to more comprehensively and accurately identify sub-events this framework first proposes the use of adaptive microblog crawling. Our adaptive microblog crawler is capable of increasing the coverage of events while minimizing the amount of non-relevant content. We then propose a stream division methodology that can be accomplished in real time so that the temporal features of the expanded event streams can be analysed by a burst detection algorithm. In the final steps of the framework, the content features are extracted from each divided stream and recombined to provide a final summarization of the sub-events. The proposed framework is evaluated against traditional event detection using event recall and event precision metrics. Results show that improving the quality and coverage of event contents contribute to better event detection by identifying additional valid sub-events. The novel combination of our proposed adaptive crawler and our stream division/recombination technique provides significant gains in event recall (44.44%) and event precision (9.57%). The addition of these sub-events or pieces, allows us to get closer to solving the event puzzle.

Bistability of Hydrogen in ZnO: Origin of Doping Limit and Persistent Photoconductivity

PubMed Central

Nahm, Ho-Hyun; Park, C. H.; Kim, Yong-Sung

2014-01-01

Substitutional hydrogen at oxygen site (HO) is well-known to be a robust source of n-type conductivity in ZnO, but a puzzling aspect is that the doping limit by hydrogen is only about 1018 cm−3, even if solubility limit is much higher. Another puzzling aspect of ZnO is persistent photoconductivity, which prevents the wide applications of the ZnO-based thin film transistor. Up to now, there is no satisfactory theory about two puzzles. We report the bistability of HO in ZnO through first-principles electronic structure calculations. We find that as Fermi level is close to conduction bands, the HO can undergo a large lattice relaxation, through which a deep level can be induced, capturing electrons and the deep state can be transformed into shallow donor state by a photon absorption. We suggest that the bistability can give explanations to two puzzling aspects. PMID:24535157

Bistability of hydrogen in ZnO: origin of doping limit and persistent photoconductivity.

PubMed

Nahm, Ho-Hyun; Park, C H; Kim, Yong-Sung

2014-02-18

Substitutional hydrogen at oxygen site (HO) is well-known to be a robust source of n-type conductivity in ZnO, but a puzzling aspect is that the doping limit by hydrogen is only about 10(18) cm(-3), even if solubility limit is much higher. Another puzzling aspect of ZnO is persistent photoconductivity, which prevents the wide applications of the ZnO-based thin film transistor. Up to now, there is no satisfactory theory about two puzzles. We report the bistability of HO in ZnO through first-principles electronic structure calculations. We find that as Fermi level is close to conduction bands, the HO can undergo a large lattice relaxation, through which a deep level can be induced, capturing electrons and the deep state can be transformed into shallow donor state by a photon absorption. We suggest that the bistability can give explanations to two puzzling aspects.

Pieces of the Puzzle: Factors in the Improvement of Urban School Districts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Abstract

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casserly, Michael; Price-Baugh, Ricki; Corcoran, Amanda; Lewis, Sharon; Uzzell, Renata; Simon, Candace; Heppen, Jessica; Leinwand, Steve; Salinger, Terry; de Mello, Victor Bandeira; Dogan, Enis; Novotny, Laura

2011-01-01

This is an abridged, summary report of selected findings from "Pieces of the Puzzle: Factors in the Improvement of Urban School Districts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress"--a comprehensive study prepared by the Council of the Great City Schools in collaboration with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and with…

Blastocystis: Taxonomy, biology and virulence

PubMed Central

Parija, Subhash Chandra; Jeremiah, SS

2013-01-01

The unicellular protist Blastocystis has long been an unsolved puzzle for taxonomists, microbiologists and clinicians. Over the years, the organism has been bounced on and off the different branches of the tree of life due the possession of unique phenotypic characters intermediary to different organisms. The organism is polymorphic with only few of forms such as vacuolar, granular, amoeboid, and the cyst form being commonly known. However it could exist in other forms much more frequently than the widely known forms which could be missed by the unaware observer. Certain older concepts in the life cycle of Blastocystis although has been proven wrong are still being followed in various textbooks and other trustworthy internet sources. The causal role of Blastocystis in human disease has long been a subject of controversy. It is widely believed that certain subtypes of the organism are virulent. But this is not so as other factors are also involved in the clinical outcome of the infection. In these contexts, this review intends to shed light on the past misconceptions and the recent findings on the taxonomy, biology and the virulence of this organism. PMID:23961437

Paramagnetic and glass transitions in sudoku

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, A.; Ackland, G. J.

2012-09-01

We study the statistical mechanics of a model glassy system based on sudoku, a familiar and popular mathematical puzzle. Sudoku puzzles provide a very rare example of a class of frustrated systems with a unique ground state without symmetry. Here, the puzzle is recast as a thermodynamic system where the number of violated rules defines the energy. We use Monte Carlo simulation to show that the “sudoku Hamiltonian” exhibits two transitions as a function of temperature, a paramagnetic, and a glass transition. Of these, the intermediate condensed phase is the only one that visits the ground state (i.e., it solves the puzzle, though this is not the purpose of the study). Both transitions are associated with an entropy change, paramagnetism measured from the dynamics of the Monte Carlo run, showing a peak in specific heat, while the residual glass entropy is determined by finding multiple instances of the glass by repeated annealing. There are relatively few such simple models for frustrated or glassy systems that exhibit both ordering and glass transitions; sudoku puzzles are unique for the ease with which they can be obtained, with the proof of the existence of a unique ground state via the satisfiability of all constraints. Simulations suggest that in the glass phase there is an increase in information entropy with lowering temperature. In fact, we have shown that sudoku puzzles have the type of rugged energy landscape with multiple minima that typifies glasses in many physical systems. This puzzling result is a manifestation of the paradox of the residual glass entropy. These readily available puzzles can now be used as solvable model Hamiltonian systems for studying the glass transition.

The interrupted power law and the size of shadow banking.

PubMed

Fiaschi, Davide; Kondor, Imre; Marsili, Matteo; Volpati, Valerio

2014-01-01

Using public data (Forbes Global 2000) we show that the asset sizes for the largest global firms follow a Pareto distribution in an intermediate range, that is "interrupted" by a sharp cut-off in its upper tail, where it is totally dominated by financial firms. This flattening of the distribution contrasts with a large body of empirical literature which finds a Pareto distribution for firm sizes both across countries and over time. Pareto distributions are generally traced back to a mechanism of proportional random growth, based on a regime of constant returns to scale. This makes our findings of an "interrupted" Pareto distribution all the more puzzling, because we provide evidence that financial firms in our sample should operate in such a regime. We claim that the missing mass from the upper tail of the asset size distribution is a consequence of shadow banking activity and that it provides an (upper) estimate of the size of the shadow banking system. This estimate-which we propose as a shadow banking index-compares well with estimates of the Financial Stability Board until 2009, but it shows a sharper rise in shadow banking activity after 2010. Finally, we propose a proportional random growth model that reproduces the observed distribution, thereby providing a quantitative estimate of the intensity of shadow banking activity.

Effects of age and type of picture on visuospatial working memory assessed with a computerized jigsaw-puzzle task.

PubMed

Toril, Pilar; Reales, José M; Mayas, Julia; Ballesteros, Soledad

2017-09-15

We investigated the effect of age and color in a computerized version of the jigsaw-puzzle task. In Experiment 1, young and older adults were presented with puzzles in color and black-and-white line drawings, varying in difficulty from 4 to 9 pieces. Older adults performed the task better with the black-and-white stimuli and younger adults performed better with the color ones. In Experiment 2, new older and young adults identified the same fragmented pictures as fast and accurately as possible. The older group identified the black-and-white stimuli faster than those presented in color, while the younger adults identified both similarly. In Experiment 3A, new older and young groups performed the puzzle task with the same color pictures and their monochrome versions. In Experiment 3B, participants performed a speeded identification task with the two sets. The findings of these experiments showed that older adults have a memory not a perceptual difficulty.

The B → π K puzzle revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beaudry, Nicolas Boisvert; Datta, Alakabha; London, David; Rashed, Ahmed; Roux, Jean-Samuel

2018-01-01

For a number of years, there has been a certain inconsistency among the measurements of the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of the four B → π K decays ( B + → π+ K 0, B + → π0 K +, B d 0 → π - K +, B d 0 → π 0 K 0). In this paper, we re-examine this B → π K puzzle. We find that the key unknown parameter is | C ' /T '|, the ratio of color-suppressed and color-allowed tree amplitudes. If this ratio is large, | C ' /T '| = 0 .5, the SM can explain the data. But if it is small, | C ' /T '| = 0 .2, the SM cannot explain the B → π K puzzle —new physics (NP) is needed. The two types of NP that can contribute to B → π K at tree level are Z ' bosons and diquarks. Z ' models can explain the puzzle if the Z ' couples to right-handed uū and/or d\\overline{d} , with g R dd ≠ g R uu . Interestingly, half of the many Z ' models proposed to explain the present anomalies in b → sμ + μ - decays have the required Z ' couplings to uū and/or d\\overline{d} . Such models could potentially explain both the b → sμ + μ - anomalies and the B → π K puzzle. The addition of a color sextet diquark that couples to ud can also explain the puzzle.

Beyond the cliff of creativity: a novel key to Bipolar Disorder and creativity.

PubMed

Ricciardiello, Luciana; Fornaro, Pantaleo

2013-05-01

How brain processes translate into creativity is still an unsolved puzzle in science. Although a number of conceptual models of creativity has been proposed to date, the exact nature of the process is still unknown. Recent findings support the idea that creativity may reside upon a continuum with psychopathology. If creativity is meant as "the capability of generating novel and appropriate ideas to solve problems", the missing pieces of the puzzle might be nested in the link between creativity and Bipolar Disorder. The existence of such a link is widely accepted by the Scientific Community. What still remains unknown is the nature of this link. An unconventional perspective is adopted during the investigation. Starting from the observation that depression in Bipolar Disorder might possibly trace back to ancient survival strategies in extreme climatic conditions - i.e. hibernation - the paper analyses old and recent findings in different disciplines: paleo-anthropology, information technology, neurobiology. Hints from the related research fields are linked together. The unified framework that emerges, still as a set of hypotheses, is reported in the conclusions. A novel key of interpretation of both creativity and Bipolar Disorder is thus provided. The core result is that normal people, creative individuals and patients affected by Bipolar Disorder share the same mind mechanism for problem-solving. The mechanism consists of two specific components, which are described in detail in the paper. Dysfunctions in brain myelination, making signal interference possible, hold a big role. The conclusions of the paper are in agreement with reports by patients affected by Bipolar Disorder concerning their subjective experience during mania, which is traditionally described as prone to creativity. To make readers aware of such an experience, a synthesis was elaborated by the first author, in the unusual shape of a short story. The short story is the narrative version of a real diary of a real patient, tutored by the second author. The short story is available to readers on request. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cell therapy for spinal cord injury informed by electromagnetic waves.

PubMed

Finnegan, Jack; Ye, Hui

2016-10-01

Spinal cord injury devastates the CNS, besetting patients with symptoms including but not limited to: paralysis, autonomic nervous dysfunction, pain disorders and depression. Despite the identification of several molecular and genetic factors, a reliable regenerative therapy has yet to be produced for this terminal disease. Perhaps the missing piece of this puzzle will be discovered within endogenous electrotactic cellular behaviors. Neurons and stem cells both show mediated responses (growth rate, migration, differentiation) to electromagnetic waves, including direct current electric fields. This review analyzes the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury, the rationale for regenerative cell therapy and the evidence for directing cell therapy via electromagnetic waves shown by in vitro experiments.

Toddler’s Self-Regulation Strategies in a Challenge Context are Nap-Dependent

PubMed Central

Miller, Alison L.; Seifer, Ronald; Crossin, Rebecca; LeBourgeois, Monique K.

2015-01-01

SUMMARY Early childhood represents a time of developmental changes in both sleep and self-regulation, a construct reflecting the ability to control one’s behavior, attention, and emotion when challenged. Links between sleep and self-regulation processes have been proposed, but experimental evidence with young children is lacking. In the current study, we tested the effects of acute sleep restriction (nap deprivation) on toddlers’ self-regulation. Healthy children (n=12; 4 males; 30–36 months (33.9±1.7) slept on a strict schedule (verified with actigraphy and sleep diaries) for 5 days before each of two afternoon assessments following a Nap and a No-Nap condition (~11-day protocol). Children were videotaped while attempting an unsolvable puzzle, and 10 mutually exclusive self-regulation strategies were later coded. On average, children lost ~90 min of sleep on the No-Nap versus the Nap day. Nap deprivation resulted in moderate-to-large effects on self-regulation strategies, with decreases in skepticism (d=0.77; 7% change), negative self-appraisal (d=0.92; 5% change), and increases in physical self-soothing (d=0.68; 10% change), focus on the puzzle piece that would not fit (perseveration; d=0.50; 9% change), and insistence on completing the unsolvable puzzle (d=0.91; 10% change). Results suggest sleep serves an important role in the way toddlers respond to challenging events in their daily lives. After losing daytime sleep, toddlers were less able to effectively engage in a difficult task and reverted to less mature self-regulation strategies, than when they were well-rested. Over time, chronically missed sleep may impair young children’s self-regulation abilities, resulting in risk for social-emotional, behavioral, and school problems. PMID:25394169

Toddler's self-regulation strategies in a challenge context are nap-dependent.

PubMed

Miller, Alison L; Seifer, Ronald; Crossin, Rebecca; Lebourgeois, Monique K

2015-06-01

Early childhood represents a time of developmental changes in both sleep and self-regulation, a construct reflecting the ability to control one's behaviour, attention and emotions when challenged. Links between sleep and self-regulation processes have been proposed, but experimental evidence with young children is lacking. In the current study, we tested the effects of acute sleep restriction (nap deprivation) on toddlers' self-regulation. Healthy children (n = 12; four males; aged 30-36 months (33.9 ± 1.7)) slept on a strict schedule (verified with actigraphy and sleep diaries) for 5 days before each of two afternoon assessments following a nap and a no-nap condition (~11-day protocol). Children were videotaped while attempting an unsolvable puzzle, and 10 mutually exclusive self-regulation strategies were later coded. On average, children lost ~90 min of sleep on the no-nap versus the nap day. Nap deprivation resulted in moderate-to-large effects on self-regulation strategies, with decreases in scepticism (d = 0.77; 7% change), negative self-appraisal (d = 0.92; 5% change) and increases in physical self-soothing (d = 0.68; 10% change), focus on the puzzle piece that would not fit (perseveration; d = 0.50; 9% change) and insistence on completing the unsolvable puzzle (d = 0.91; 10% change). Results suggest that sleep serves an important role in the way that toddlers respond to challenging events in their daily lives. After losing daytime sleep, toddlers were less able to engage effectively in a difficult task and reverted to less mature self-regulation strategies than when they were well rested. Over time, chronically missed sleep may impair young children's self-regulation abilities, resulting in risk for social-emotional, behavioural and school problems. © 2014 European Sleep Research Society.

The Interrupted Power Law and the Size of Shadow Banking

PubMed Central

Fiaschi, Davide; Kondor, Imre; Marsili, Matteo; Volpati, Valerio

2014-01-01

Using public data (Forbes Global 2000) we show that the asset sizes for the largest global firms follow a Pareto distribution in an intermediate range, that is “interrupted” by a sharp cut-off in its upper tail, where it is totally dominated by financial firms. This flattening of the distribution contrasts with a large body of empirical literature which finds a Pareto distribution for firm sizes both across countries and over time. Pareto distributions are generally traced back to a mechanism of proportional random growth, based on a regime of constant returns to scale. This makes our findings of an “interrupted” Pareto distribution all the more puzzling, because we provide evidence that financial firms in our sample should operate in such a regime. We claim that the missing mass from the upper tail of the asset size distribution is a consequence of shadow banking activity and that it provides an (upper) estimate of the size of the shadow banking system. This estimate–which we propose as a shadow banking index–compares well with estimates of the Financial Stability Board until 2009, but it shows a sharper rise in shadow banking activity after 2010. Finally, we propose a proportional random growth model that reproduces the observed distribution, thereby providing a quantitative estimate of the intensity of shadow banking activity. PMID:24728096

Weak deflection gravitational lensing for photons coupled to Weyl tensor in a Schwarzschild black hole

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Wei-Guang; Xie, Yi

2018-03-01

Beyond the Einstein-Maxwell model, electromagnetic field might couple with gravitational field through the Weyl tensor. In order to provide one of the missing puzzles of the whole physical picture, we investigate weak deflection lensing for photons coupled to the Weyl tensor in a Schwarzschild black hole under a unified framework that is valid for its two possible polarizations. We obtain its coordinate-independent expressions for all observables of the geometric optics lensing up to the second order in the terms of ɛ which is the ratio of the angular gravitational radius to angular Einstein radius of the lens. These observables include bending angle, image position, magnification, centroid and time delay. The contributions of such a coupling on some astrophysical scenarios are also studied. We find that, in the cases of weak deflection lensing on a star orbiting the Galactic Center Sgr A*, Galactic microlensing on a star in the bulge and astrometric microlensing by a nearby object, these effects are beyond the current limits of technology. However, measuring the variation of the total flux of two weak deflection lensing images caused by the Sgr A* might be a promising way for testing such a coupling in the future.

Sequential Monte Carlo for Maximum Weight Subgraphs with Application to Solving Image Jigsaw Puzzles.

PubMed

Adluru, Nagesh; Yang, Xingwei; Latecki, Longin Jan

2015-05-01

We consider a problem of finding maximum weight subgraphs (MWS) that satisfy hard constraints in a weighted graph. The constraints specify the graph nodes that must belong to the solution as well as mutual exclusions of graph nodes, i.e., pairs of nodes that cannot belong to the same solution. Our main contribution is a novel inference approach for solving this problem in a sequential monte carlo (SMC) sampling framework. Usually in an SMC framework there is a natural ordering of the states of the samples. The order typically depends on observations about the states or on the annealing setup used. In many applications (e.g., image jigsaw puzzle problems), all observations (e.g., puzzle pieces) are given at once and it is hard to define a natural ordering. Therefore, we relax the assumption of having ordered observations about states and propose a novel SMC algorithm for obtaining maximum a posteriori estimate of a high-dimensional posterior distribution. This is achieved by exploring different orders of states and selecting the most informative permutations in each step of the sampling. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed inference framework significantly outperforms loopy belief propagation in solving the image jigsaw puzzle problem. In particular, our inference quadruples the accuracy of the puzzle assembly compared to that of loopy belief propagation.

Sequential Monte Carlo for Maximum Weight Subgraphs with Application to Solving Image Jigsaw Puzzles

PubMed Central

Adluru, Nagesh; Yang, Xingwei; Latecki, Longin Jan

2015-01-01

We consider a problem of finding maximum weight subgraphs (MWS) that satisfy hard constraints in a weighted graph. The constraints specify the graph nodes that must belong to the solution as well as mutual exclusions of graph nodes, i.e., pairs of nodes that cannot belong to the same solution. Our main contribution is a novel inference approach for solving this problem in a sequential monte carlo (SMC) sampling framework. Usually in an SMC framework there is a natural ordering of the states of the samples. The order typically depends on observations about the states or on the annealing setup used. In many applications (e.g., image jigsaw puzzle problems), all observations (e.g., puzzle pieces) are given at once and it is hard to define a natural ordering. Therefore, we relax the assumption of having ordered observations about states and propose a novel SMC algorithm for obtaining maximum a posteriori estimate of a high-dimensional posterior distribution. This is achieved by exploring different orders of states and selecting the most informative permutations in each step of the sampling. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed inference framework significantly outperforms loopy belief propagation in solving the image jigsaw puzzle problem. In particular, our inference quadruples the accuracy of the puzzle assembly compared to that of loopy belief propagation. PMID:26052182

The mechanism of collagen cross-linking in diabetes: a puzzle nearing resolution.

PubMed

Monnier, V M; Glomb, M; Elgawish, A; Sell, D R

1996-07-01

Considerable interest has been focused in recent years on the mechanism of collagen cross-linking by high glucose in vitro and in vivo. Experiments in both diabetic humans and in animals have shown that over time collagen becomes less soluble, less digestible by collagenase, more stable to heat-induced denaturation, and more glycated. In addition, collagen becomes more modified by advanced products of the Maillard reaction, i.e., immunoreactive advanced glycation end products and the glycoxidation markers carboxymethyllysine and pentosidine. Mechanistic studies have shown that collagen cross-linking in vitro can be uncoupled from glycation by the use of antioxidants and chelating agents. Experiments in the authors' laboratory revealed that approximately 50% of carboxymethyllysine formed in vitro originates from pathways other than oxidation of Amadori products, i.e., most likely the oxidation of Schiff base-linked glucose. In addition, the increase in thermal stability of rat tail tendons exposed to high glucose in vitro or in vivo was found to strongly depend on H2O2 formation. The final missing piece of the puzzle is that of the structure of the major cross-link. We speculate that it is a nonfluorescent nonultraviolet active cross-link between two lysine residues, which includes a fragmentation product of glucose linked in a nonreducible bond labile to both strong acids and bases.

NICHD Research Networks Help Piece Together the Puzzle of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

MedlinePlus

... Browse AZTopics Browse A-Z Adrenal Gland Disorders Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Down Syndrome Endometriosis Learning Disabilities Menstruation and ... NICHD Research Information Find a Study More Information Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) About NICHD Research Information Find a Study ...

Set selection dynamical system neural networks with partial memories, with applications to Sudoku and KenKen puzzles.

PubMed

Boreland, B; Clement, G; Kunze, H

2015-08-01

After reviewing set selection and memory model dynamical system neural networks, we introduce a neural network model that combines set selection with partial memories (stored memories on subsets of states in the network). We establish that feasible equilibria with all states equal to ± 1 correspond to answers to a particular set theoretic problem. We show that KenKen puzzles can be formulated as a particular case of this set theoretic problem and use the neural network model to solve them; in addition, we use a similar approach to solve Sudoku. We illustrate the approach in examples. As a heuristic experiment, we use online or print resources to identify the difficulty of the puzzles and compare these difficulties to the number of iterations used by the appropriate neural network solver, finding a strong relationship. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INA-Rxiv: The Missing Puzzle in Indonesia’s Scientific Publishing Workflow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahim, R.; Irawan, D. E.; Zulfikar, A.; Hardi, R.; Arliman S, L.; Gultom, E. R.; Ginting, G.; Wahyuni, S. S.; Mesran, M.; Mahjudin, M.; Saputra, I.; Waruwu, F. T.; Suginam, S.; Buulolo, E.; Abraham, J.

2018-04-01

INA-Rxiv is the first Indonesia preprint server marking the new development initiated by the open science community. This study aimed at describing the development of INA-Rxiv and its conversations. It usedanalyzer of Inarxiv.id, WhatsApp Group Analyzer, and Twitter Analytics as the tools for data analysis complemented with observation.The results showed that INA-Rxiv users are growing because of the numerous discussions in social media, e.g.WhatsApp,as well as some other positive response of writers who have been using INA- Rxiv. The perspective of growth mindset and the implication of INA-Rxiv movement for filling up the gap in accelerating scientific dissemination process are presented at the end of this article.

Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Nucleus with Exotic Nuclei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ormand, Erich

2006-10-01

Despite more than fifty years of study, many questions about now nuclei are put together remain. While nuclei near the valley of stability have provided a wealth of information, they are not sufficient to provide us with a comprehensive and unified description of the nucleus. Especially lacking is an accurate picture of those exotic species that are the basis of cosmic alchemy. The missing pieces in the puzzle can be filled in with a determined experimental and theoretical effort focusing on nuclei lying far from the valley of stability. Here, I will outline the intellectual challenges that can be addressed by proposed exotic-beam facilities, and how new experimental data will quide and refine theoretical descriptions of the nucleus.

Corporate culture: the missing piece of the healthcare puzzle.

PubMed

Waldman, J Deane; Smith, Howard L; Hood, Jacqueline N

2003-01-01

The U.S. healthcare system requires radical, not incremental, change. Management issues in healthcare delivery are fundamentally different from those in the business world. Systems thinking forces a focus on corporate culture, about which there is little hard data. The use of cost/benefit analysis suffers from the lack of any accepted measure of long-term "benefit." The authors make four observations: (1) corporate culture is both part of the cause and part of the cure for healthcare; (2) long-term financial and functional measures are necessary to make evidence-based decisions; (3) valid, nationwide data must be developed regarding the corporate culture of medicine; and (4) direct (unmodified) application of management theory or practices will not achieve sustainable improvements.

Missing pieces to modeling the Arctic-Boreal puzzle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fisher, Joshua B.; Hayes, Daniel J.; Schwalm, Christopher R.; Huntzinger, Deborah N.; Stofferahn, Eric; Schaefer, Kevin; Luo, Yiqi; Wullschleger, Stan D.; Goetz, Scott; Miller, Charles E.; Griffith, Peter; Chadburn, Sarah; Chatterjee, Abhishek; Ciais, Philippe; Douglas, Thomas A.; Genet, Hélène; Ito, Akihiko; Neigh, Christopher S. R.; Poulter, Benjamin; Rogers, Brendan M.; Sonnentag, Oliver; Tian, Hanqin; Wang, Weile; Xue, Yongkang; Yang, Zong-Liang; Zeng, Ning; Zhang, Zhen

2018-02-01

NASA has launched the decade-long Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). While the initial phases focus on field and airborne data collection, early integration with modeling activities is important to benefit future modeling syntheses. We compiled feedback from ecosystem modeling teams on key data needs, which encompass carbon biogeochemistry, vegetation, permafrost, hydrology, and disturbance dynamics. A suite of variables was identified as part of this activity with a critical requirement that they are collected concurrently and representatively over space and time. Individual projects in ABoVE may not capture all these needs, and thus there is both demand and opportunity for the augmentation of field observations, and synthesis of the observations that are collected, to ensure that science questions and integrated modeling activities are successfully implemented.

Puzzling Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Deventer, M. Oskar

2009-01-01

The basis of a good mechanical puzzle is often a puzzling mechanism. This article will introduce some new puzzling mechanisms, like two knots that engage like gears, a chain whose links can be interchanged, and flat gears that do not come apart. It illustrates how puzzling mechanisms can be transformed into real mechanical puzzles, e.g., by…

The puzzle box as a simple and efficient behavioral test for exploring impairments of general cognition and executive functions in mouse models of schizophrenia.

PubMed

Ben Abdallah, Nada M-B; Fuss, Johannes; Trusel, Massimo; Galsworthy, Michael J; Bobsin, Kristin; Colacicco, Giovanni; Deacon, Robert M J; Riva, Marco A; Kellendonk, Christoph; Sprengel, Rolf; Lipp, Hans-Peter; Gass, Peter

2011-01-01

Deficits in executive functions are key features of schizophrenia. Rodent behavioral paradigms used so far to find animal correlates of such deficits require extensive effort and time. The puzzle box is a problem-solving test in which mice are required to complete escape tasks of increasing difficulty within a limited amount of time. Previous data have indicated that it is a quick but highly reliable test of higher-order cognitive functioning. We evaluated the use of the puzzle box to explore executive functioning in five different mouse models of schizophrenia: mice with prefrontal cortex and hippocampus lesions, mice treated sub-chronically with the NMDA-receptor antagonist MK-801, mice constitutively lacking the GluA1 subunit of AMPA-receptors, and mice over-expressing dopamine D2 receptors in the striatum. All mice displayed altered executive functions in the puzzle box, although the nature and extent of the deficits varied between the different models. Deficits were strongest in hippocampus-lesioned and GluA1 knockout mice, while more subtle deficits but specific to problem solving were found in the medial prefrontal-lesioned mice, MK-801-treated mice, and in mice with striatal overexpression of D2 receptors. Data from this study demonstrate the utility of the puzzle box as an effective screening tool for executive functions in general and for schizophrenia mouse models in particular. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Do Puzzle Pieces and Autism Puzzle Piece Logos Evoke Negative Associations?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gernsbacher, Morton Ann; Raimond, Adam R.; Stevenson, Jennifer L.; Boston, Jilana S.; Harp, Bev

2018-01-01

Puzzle pieces have become ubiquitous symbols for autism. However, puzzle-piece imagery stirs debate between those who support and those who object to its use because they believe puzzle-piece imagery evokes negative associations. Our study empirically investigated whether puzzle pieces evoke negative associations in the general public.…

New results on water in bulk, nanoconfined, and biological environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanley, H. E.; Kumar, Pradeep; Xu, Limei; Yan, Zhenyu; Mazza, Marco G.; Buldyrev, S. V.; Chen, S.-H.; Mallamace, F.

2007-12-01

Water is perhaps the most ubiquitous, and the most essential, of any molecule on earth. Despite decades of research, however, water's puzzling properties are not understood and 63 anomalies that distinguish water from other liquids remain unsolved. We present evidence from experiments and computer simulations supporting the hypothesis that water displays polyamorphism, i.e., water separates into two distinct liquid phases. This concept of a new liquid-liquid critical point is finding application to other liquids as well as water, such as silicon and silica. We also discuss related puzzles, such as the mysterious behavior of water near a biomolecule.

Predictors of the frequency and subjective experience of cycling near misses: Findings from the first two years of the UK Near Miss Project.

PubMed

Aldred, Rachel; Goodman, Anna

2018-01-01

Using 2014 and 2015 data from the UK Near Miss Project, this paper examines the stability of self-report incident rates for cycling near misses across these two years. It further examines the stability of the individual-level predictors of experiencing a near miss, including what influences the scariness of an incident. The paper uses three questions asked for only in 2015, which allow further exploration of factors shaping near miss rates and impacts of incidents. Firstly, a respondent's level of cycling experience; secondly, whether an incident was perceived as deliberate; and finally, whether the respondent themselves described the incident as a 'near miss' (as opposed to only a frightening and/or annoying non-injury incident). Using this data, we find a decline of almost a third in incident rates in 2015 compared to 2014, which we believe is likely to be largely an artefact due to differences in reporting rates. This suggests caution about interpreting small fluctuations in subjectively reported near miss rates. However, in both years near miss rates are many times more frequent than injury collisions. In both years of data collection our findings are very similar in terms of the patterning of incident types, and how frightening different incident categories are, which increases confidence in these findings. We find that new cyclists experience very high incident rates compared to other cyclists, and test a conceptual model explaining how perceived deliberateness, near-miss status, and scariness are connected. For example, incidents that are perceived to be deliberate are more likely to be experienced as very frightening, independent of their 'near miss' status. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A role of low dose chemical mixtures in adipose tissue in carcinogenesis.

PubMed

Lee, Duk-Hee; Jacobs, David R; Park, Ho Yong; Carpenter, David O

2017-11-01

The Halifax project recently hypothesized a composite carcinogenic potential of the mixture of low dose chemicals which are commonly encountered environmentally, yet which are not classified as human carcinogens. A long neglected but important fact is that adipose tissue is an important exposure source for chemical mixtures. In fact, findings from human studies based on several persistent organic pollutants in general populations with only background exposure should be interpreted from the viewpoint of chemical mixtures because serum concentrations of these chemicals can be seen as surrogates for chemical mixtures in adipose tissue. Furthermore, in conditions such as obesity with dysfunctional adipocytes or weight loss in which lipolysis is increased, the amount of the chemical mixture released from adipose tissue to circulation is increased. Thus, both obesity and weight loss can enhance the chance of chemical mixtures reaching critical organs, however paradoxical this idea may be when fat mass is the only factor considered. The complicated, interrelated dynamics of adipocytes and chemical mixtures can explain puzzling findings related to body weight among cancer patients, including the obesity paradox. The contamination of fat in human diet with chemical mixtures, occurring for reasons similar to contamination of human adipose tissue, may be a missing factor which affects the association between dietary fat intake and cancer. The presence of chemical mixtures in adipose tissue should be considered in future cancer research, including clinical trials on weight management among cancer survivors. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The leukotriene E4 puzzle: finding the missing pieces and revealing the pathobiologic implications.

PubMed

Austen, K Frank; Maekawa, Akiko; Kanaoka, Yoshihide; Boyce, Joshua A

2009-09-01

The intracellular parent of the cysteinyl leukotrienes (cysLTs), leukotriene (LT) C(4), is formed by conjugation of LTA(4) and reduced glutathione by LTC(4) synthase in mast cells, eosinophils, basophils, and macrophages. After extracellular export, LTC(4) is converted to LTD(4) and LTE(4) through sequential enzymatic removal of glutamic acid and then glycine. Only LTE(4) is sufficiently stable to be prominent in biologic fluids, such as urine or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, of asthmatic individuals and at sites of inflammation in animal models. LTE(4) has received little attention because it binds poorly to the classical type 1 and 2 cysLT receptors and is much less active on normal airways than LTC(4) or LTD(4). However, early studies indicated that LTE(4) caused skin swelling in human subjects as potently as LTC(4) and LTD(4), that airways of asthmatic subjects (particularly those that were aspirin sensitive) were selectively hyperresponsive to LTE(4), and that a potential distinct LTE(4) receptor was present in guinea pig trachea. Recent studies have begun to uncover receptors selective for LTE(4): P2Y(12), an adenosine diphosphate receptor, and CysLT(E)R, which was observed functionally in the skin of mice lacking the type 1 and 2 cysLT receptors. These findings prompt a renewed focus on LTE(4) receptors as therapeutic targets that are not currently addressed by available receptor antagonists.

Fitness consequences of polymorphic inversions in the zebra finch genome.

PubMed

Knief, Ulrich; Hemmrich-Stanisak, Georg; Wittig, Michael; Franke, Andre; Griffith, Simon C; Kempenaers, Bart; Forstmeier, Wolfgang

2016-09-29

Inversion polymorphisms constitute an evolutionary puzzle: they should increase embryo mortality in heterokaryotypic individuals but still they are widespread in some taxa. Some insect species have evolved mechanisms to reduce the cost of embryo mortality but humans have not. In birds, a detailed analysis is missing although intraspecific inversion polymorphisms are regarded as common. In Australian zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), two polymorphic inversions are known cytogenetically and we set out to detect these two and potentially additional inversions using genomic tools and study their effects on embryo mortality and other fitness-related and morphological traits. Using whole-genome SNP data, we screened 948 wild zebra finches for polymorphic inversions and describe four large (12-63 Mb) intraspecific inversion polymorphisms with allele frequencies close to 50 %. Using additional data from 5229 birds and 9764 eggs from wild and three captive zebra finch populations, we show that only the largest inversions increase embryo mortality in heterokaryotypic males, with surprisingly small effect sizes. We test for a heterozygote advantage on other fitness components but find no evidence for heterosis for any of the inversions. Yet, we find strong additive effects on several morphological traits. The mechanism that has carried the derived inversion haplotypes to such high allele frequencies remains elusive. It appears that selection has effectively minimized the costs associated with inversions in zebra finches. The highly skewed distribution of recombination events towards the chromosome ends in zebra finches and other estrildid species may function to minimize crossovers in the inverted regions.

A Missing Puzzle Piece in Murray's Law: the Optimal Angle of Junctions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Ruo-Qian; Taylor, Katherine; Winter, Amos G.; Global Engineering; Research Lab Team

2014-11-01

Branching flows are common in biological systems, such as the circulatory and respiratory systems of animals. The optimal radii of parent and daughter branches can be explained with Murray's law, which dictates that the sum of metabolic and pumping costs is minimized. Murray's Law can be used to determine the diameter of cascading channels but misses an important parameter: the angles of the branches. Past hydraulic studies have investigated the angle effect, but have not focused on whether this geometry follows Murray's Law; while a simple network optimization is able to show that at low Reynolds numbers a branch with a parent channel connecting to n equally distant channels obeying Murray's Law has a minimum total head loss with a branching angle θ, such that cos θ =n-2/3 , but it's not valid for high Reynolds number flows, which may experience separation and turbulence at the branches. The present study is focused on determining the optimal branch angle that complies with Murray's Law for moderate Reynolds numbers. Computational studies using Open FOAM and experiments using 3D printed branched channels will be presented. These results will be used to quantify the effect of Reynolds number on optimal branch geometry.

Math in the Newspaper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

May, Lola J.

1994-01-01

Daily newspapers can be used to teach mathematics skills in a variety of ways. Students can analyze sports scores and averages, practice using the index, assemble imaginary stock portfolios, find numbers in articles, and complete puzzles. (MDM)

Why are women slimmer than men in developed countries?

PubMed

Maruyama, Shiko; Nakamura, Sayaka

2018-04-22

Women have a lower BMI than men in developed countries, yet the opposite is true in developing countries. We call this the gender BMI puzzle and investigate its underlying cause. We begin by studying time trends in Japan, where, consistent with the cross-country puzzle, the BMI of adult women has steadily decreased since the 1950s, whereas the BMI of adult men has steadily increased. We study how changes in energy intake and energy expenditure account for the over-time gender BMI puzzle using the Japanese National Nutrition Survey from 1975 to 2010, which provides nurse-measured height and weight and nutritionist-assisted food records. Because long-term data on energy expenditure do not exist, we calculate energy expenditure using a steady-state body weight model. We then conduct cross-country regression analysis to corroborate what we learn from the Japanese data. We find that both energy intake and energy expenditure have significantly decreased for Japanese adult men and women and that a larger reduction in energy expenditure among men than women accounts for the increasing male-to-female BMI gap. Trends in BMI and energy expenditure vary greatly by occupation, suggesting that a relatively large decrease in physical activity in the workplace among men underlies the gender BMI puzzle. The cross-country analysis supports the generalizability of the findings beyond the Japanese data. Furthermore, the analysis suggests the increasing male-to-female BMI gap is driven not only by a reduction in the energy requirements of physically demanding work but also by weakening occupational gender segregation. No support is found for other explanations, such as increasing female labor force participation, greater female susceptibility to malnutrition in utero, and gender inequality in nutrition in early life. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emotional intelligence in anorexia nervosa: is anxiety a missing piece of the puzzle?

PubMed

Hambrook, David; Brown, Gary; Tchanturia, Kate

2012-11-30

Problematic emotional processing has been implicated in the genesis and maintenance of anorexia nervosa (AN). This study built on existing research and explored performance-based emotional intelligence (EI) in people with AN. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) was administered to 32 women diagnosed with AN and 32 female healthy controls (HC). Compared to HC women, the AN group demonstrated significantly lower total EI scores and poorer ability to understand how emotions can progress and change over time. Despite scores within the broadly average range compared to published EI norms, there was a general pattern of poorer performance in the AN sample. Self-reported anxiety symptoms were the strongest predictor of EI, over and above a diagnosis of AN. This study adds to the literature documenting the socioemotional phenotype of AN, suggesting this group of individuals may find it relatively difficult to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions, and to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought. Anxiety was highlighted as a putative variable partially explaining why people with AN demonstrated lower EI compared to controls. Implications for further research are discussed, including the need to explore the specificity of EI difficulties in AN using larger samples and additional control groups. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Do puzzle pieces and autism puzzle piece logos evoke negative associations?

PubMed

Gernsbacher, Morton Ann; Raimond, Adam R; Stevenson, Jennifer L; Boston, Jilana S; Harp, Bev

2018-02-01

Puzzle pieces have become ubiquitous symbols for autism. However, puzzle-piece imagery stirs debate between those who support and those who object to its use because they believe puzzle-piece imagery evokes negative associations. Our study empirically investigated whether puzzle pieces evoke negative associations in the general public. Participants' ( N = 400) implicit negative associations were measured with an Implicit Association Task, which is a speeded categorization task, and participants' explicit associations were measured with an Explicit Association Task, which is a standard task for assessing consumers' explicit associations with brands (and images of those brands). Puzzle pieces, both those used as autism logos and those used more generically, evoked negative implicit associations ( t(399) = -5.357, p < 0.001) and negative explicit associations ( z = 4.693, p < 0.001, d = 0.491). Participants explicitly associated puzzle pieces, even generic puzzle pieces, with incompleteness, imperfection, and oddity. Our results bear public policy implications. If an organization's intention for using puzzle-piece imagery is to evoke negative associations, our results suggest the organization's use of puzzle-piece imagery is apt. However, if the organization's intention is to evoke positive associations, our results suggest that puzzle-piece imagery should probably be avoided.

Binary Paths to Type Ia Supernovae Explosions: the Highlights

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrario, Lilia

2013-01-01

This symposium was focused on the hunt for the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Is there a main channel for the production of SNe Ia? If so, are these elusive progenitors single degenerate or double degenerate systems? Although most participants seemed to favor the single degenerate channel, there was no general agreement on the type of binary system at play. An observational puzzle that was highlighted was the apparent paucity of supersoft sources in our Galaxy and also in external galaxies. The single degenerate channel (and as it was pointed out, quite possibly also the double degenerate channel) requires the binary system to pass through a phase of steady nuclear burning. However, the observed number of supersoft sources falls short by a factor of up to 100 in explaining the estimated birth rates of SNe Ia. Thus, are these supersoft sources somehow hidden away and radiating at different wavelengths, or are we missing some important pieces of this puzzle that may lead to the elimination of a certain class of progenitor? Another unanswered question concerns the dependence of SNe Ia luminosities on the age of their host galaxy. Several hypotheses were put forward, but none was singled out as the most likely explanation. It is fair to say that at the end of the symposium the definitive answer to the vexed progenitor question remained well and truly wide open.

(Mis)perception of sleep in insomnia: a puzzle and a resolution.

PubMed

Harvey, Allison G; Tang, Nicole K Y

2012-01-01

Insomnia is prevalent, causing severe distress and impairment. This review focuses on illuminating the puzzling finding that many insomnia patients misperceive their sleep. They overestimate their sleep onset latency (SOL) and underestimate their total sleep time (TST), relative to objective measures. This tendency is ubiquitous (although not universal). Resolving this puzzle has clinical, theoretical, and public health importance. There are implications for assessment, definition, and treatment. Moreover, solving the puzzle creates an opportunity for real-world applications of theories from clinical, perceptual, and social psychology as well as neuroscience. Herein we evaluate 13 possible resolutions to the puzzle. Specifically, we consider the possible contribution, to misperception, of (1) features inherent to the context of sleep (e.g., darkness); (2) the definition of sleep onset, which may lack sensitivity for insomnia patients; (3) insomnia being an exaggerated sleep complaint; (4) psychological distress causing magnification; (5) a deficit in time estimation ability; (6) sleep being misperceived as wake; (7) worry and selective attention toward sleep-related threats; (8) a memory bias influenced by current symptoms and emotions, a confirmation bias/belief bias, or a recall bias linked to the intensity/recency of symptoms; (9) heightened physiological arousal; (10) elevated cortical arousal; (11) the presence of brief awakenings; (12) a fault in neuronal circuitry; and (13) there being 2 insomnia subtypes (one with and one without misperception). The best supported resolutions were misperception of sleep as wake, worry, and brief awakenings. A deficit in time estimation ability was not supported. We conclude by proposing several integrative solutions.

(Mis)Perception of Sleep in Insomnia: A puzzle and a resolution

PubMed Central

Harvey, Allison G.; Tang, Nicole

2011-01-01

Insomnia is prevalent, causing severe distress and impairment. This review focuses on illuminating the puzzling finding that many insomnia patients misperceive their sleep. They overestimate their sleep onset latency (SOL) and underestimate their total sleep time (TST), relative to objective measures. This tendency is ubiquitous (although not universal). Resolving this puzzle has clinical, theoretical, and public health importance. There are implications for assessment, definition, and treatment. Moreover, solving the puzzle creates an opportunity for "real world" applications of theories from clinical, perceptual, and social psychology as well as neuroscience. Herein we evaluate thirteen possible resolutions to the puzzle. Specifically, we consider the possible contribution, to misperception, of: (1) features inherent to the context of sleep (e.g., darkness); (2) the definition of sleep onset which may lack sensitivity for insomnia patients; (3) insomnia being an exaggerated sleep complaint; (4) psychological distress causing magnification; (5) a deficit in time estimation ability; (6) sleep being misperceived as wake; (7) worry and selective attention toward sleep-related threats; (8) a memory bias influenced by current symptoms and emotions, a confirmation bias/belief bias or a recall bias linked to the intensity/recency of symptoms; (9) heightened physiological arousal; (10) elevated cortical arousal; (11) the presence of brief awakenings; (12) a fault in neuronal circuitry; and (13) there being two insomnia subtypes (one with and one without misperception). The best supported resolutions were misperception of sleep as wake, worry, and brief awakenings. A deficit in time estimation ability was not supported. We conclude by proposing several integrative solutions. PMID:21967449

Puzzle of magnetic moments of Ni clusters revisited using quantum Monte Carlo method.

PubMed

Lee, Hung-Wen; Chang, Chun-Ming; Hsing, Cheng-Rong

2017-02-28

The puzzle of the magnetic moments of small nickel clusters arises from the discrepancy between values predicted using density functional theory (DFT) and experimental measurements. Traditional DFT approaches underestimate the magnetic moments of nickel clusters. Two fundamental problems are associated with this puzzle, namely, calculating the exchange-correlation interaction accurately and determining the global minimum structures of the clusters. Theoretically, the two problems can be solved using quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations and the ab initio random structure searching (AIRSS) method correspondingly. Therefore, we combined the fixed-moment AIRSS and QMC methods to investigate the magnetic properties of Ni n (n = 5-9) clusters. The spin moments of the diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) ground states are higher than those of the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof ground states and, in the case of Ni 8-9 , two new ground-state structures have been discovered using the DMC calculations. The predicted results are closer to the experimental findings, unlike the results predicted in previous standard DFT studies.

The puzzling unsolved mysteries of liquid water: Some recent progress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanley, H. E.; Kumar, P.; Xu, L.; Yan, Z.; Mazza, M. G.; Buldyrev, S. V.; Chen, S.-H.; Mallamace, F.

2007-12-01

Water is perhaps the most ubiquitous, and the most essential, of any molecule on earth. Indeed, it defies the imagination of even the most creative science fiction writer to picture what life would be like without water. Despite decades of research, however, water's puzzling properties are not understood and 63 anomalies that distinguish water from other liquids remain unsolved. We introduce some of these unsolved mysteries, and demonstrate recent progress in solving them. We present evidence from experiments and computer simulations supporting the hypothesis that water displays a special transition point (which is not unlike the “tipping point” immortalized by Malcolm Gladwell). The general idea is that when the liquid is near this “tipping point,” it suddenly separates into two distinct liquid phases. This concept of a new critical point is finding application to other liquids as well as water, such as silicon and silica. We also discuss related puzzles, such as the mysterious behavior of water near a protein.

Sleep for Kids: Games and Puzzles

MedlinePlus

Games and Puzzles These games and puzzles can help you learn more about sleep! Learn about sleep with this fun crossword puzzle! Test your memory ... can't sleep? • dreams • • bring out the stars • games and puzzles • pj bear booklet • • home • about us • ...

Puzzle-based versus traditional lecture: comparing the effects of pedagogy on academic performance in an undergraduate human anatomy and physiology II lab.

PubMed

Stetzik, Lucas; Deeter, Anthony; Parker, Jamie; Yukech, Christine

2015-06-23

A traditional lecture-based pedagogy conveys information and content while lacking sufficient development of critical thinking skills and problem solving. A puzzle-based pedagogy creates a broader contextual framework, and fosters critical thinking as well as logical reasoning skills that can then be used to improve a student's performance on content specific assessments. This paper describes a pedagogical comparison of traditional lecture-based teaching and puzzle-based teaching in a Human Anatomy and Physiology II Lab. Using a single subject/cross-over design half of the students from seven sections of the course were taught using one type of pedagogy for the first half of the semester, and then taught with a different pedagogy for the second half of the semester. The other half of the students were taught the same material but with the order of the pedagogies reversed. Students' performance on quizzes and exams specific to the course, and in-class assignments specific to this study were assessed for: learning outcomes (the ability to form the correct conclusion or recall specific information), and authentic academic performance as described by (Am J Educ 104:280-312, 1996). Our findings suggest a significant improvement in students' performance on standard course specific assessments using a puzzle-based pedagogy versus a traditional lecture-based teaching style. Quiz and test scores for students improved by 2.1 and 0.4% respectively in the puzzle-based pedagogy, versus the traditional lecture-based teaching. Additionally, the assessments of authentic academic performance may only effectively measure a broader conceptual understanding in a limited set of contexts, and not in the context of a Human Anatomy and Physiology II Lab. In conclusion, a puzzle-based pedagogy, when compared to traditional lecture-based teaching, can effectively enhance the performance of students on standard course specific assessments, even when the assessments only test a limited conceptual understanding of the material.

Robust Sex Differences in Jigsaw Puzzle Solving—Are Boys Really Better in Most Visuospatial Tasks?

PubMed Central

Kocijan, Vid; Horvat, Marina; Majdic, Gregor

2017-01-01

Sex differences are consistently reported in different visuospatial tasks with men usually performing better in mental rotation tests while women are better on tests for memory of object locations. In the present study, we investigated sex differences in solving jigsaw puzzles in children. In total 22 boys and 24 girls were tested using custom build tablet application representing a jigsaw puzzle consisting of 25 pieces and featuring three different pictures. Girls outperformed boys in solving jigsaw puzzles regardless of the picture. Girls were faster than boys in solving the puzzle, made less incorrect moves with the pieces of the puzzle, and spent less time moving the pieces around the tablet. It appears that the strategy of solving the jigsaw puzzle was the main factor affecting differences in success, as girls tend to solve the puzzle more systematically while boys performed more trial and error attempts, thus having more incorrect moves with the puzzle pieces. Results of this study suggest a very robust sex difference in solving the jigsaw puzzle with girls outperforming boys by a large margin. PMID:29109682

Robust Sex Differences in Jigsaw Puzzle Solving-Are Boys Really Better in Most Visuospatial Tasks?

PubMed

Kocijan, Vid; Horvat, Marina; Majdic, Gregor

2017-01-01

Sex differences are consistently reported in different visuospatial tasks with men usually performing better in mental rotation tests while women are better on tests for memory of object locations. In the present study, we investigated sex differences in solving jigsaw puzzles in children. In total 22 boys and 24 girls were tested using custom build tablet application representing a jigsaw puzzle consisting of 25 pieces and featuring three different pictures. Girls outperformed boys in solving jigsaw puzzles regardless of the picture. Girls were faster than boys in solving the puzzle, made less incorrect moves with the pieces of the puzzle, and spent less time moving the pieces around the tablet. It appears that the strategy of solving the jigsaw puzzle was the main factor affecting differences in success, as girls tend to solve the puzzle more systematically while boys performed more trial and error attempts, thus having more incorrect moves with the puzzle pieces. Results of this study suggest a very robust sex difference in solving the jigsaw puzzle with girls outperforming boys by a large margin.

A Creative Teacher's Innovative-Mind-Expanding Vertebrate Project Ideas.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winters, Faye H.

1981-01-01

The article provides a collection of teaching ideas about vertebrate animals. Ideas include making a poem book about a group of animals, rhyming words with animal names, and finding animal names in a puzzle. (DB)

Teaching the Blue-Eyed Islanders Puzzle in a Liberal Arts Mathematics Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shea, Stephen

2012-01-01

The blue-eyed islanders puzzle is an old and challenging logic puzzle. This is a narrative of an experience introducing a variation of this puzzle on the first day of classes in a liberal arts mathematics course for non-majors. I describe an exercise that was used to facilitate the class's understanding of the puzzle.

Are We Really Missing Small Galaxies?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2018-02-01

One long-standing astrophysical puzzle is that of so-called missing dwarf galaxies: the number of small dwarf galaxies that we observe is far fewer than that predicted by theory. New simulations, however, suggest that perhaps theres no mystery after all.Missing DwarfsDark-matter cosmological simulations predict many small galaxy halos for every large halo that forms. [The Via Lactea project]Models of a lambda-cold-dark-matter (CDM) universe predict the distribution of galaxy halo sizes throughout the universe, suggesting there should be many more small galaxies than large ones. In what has become known as the missing dwarf problem, however, we find that while we observe the expected numbers of galaxies at the larger end of the scale, we dont see nearly enough small galaxies to match the predictions.Are these galaxies actually missing? Are our predictions wrong? Or are the galaxies there and were just not spotting them? A recent study led by Alyson Brooks (Rutgers University) uses new simulations to explore whatscausing the difference between theory and observation.The fraction of detectable halos as a function of velocity, according to the authors simulations. Below 35 km/s, the detectability of the galaxies drops precipitously. [Brooks et al. 2017]Simulating Galactic VelocitiesBecause we cant weigh a galaxy directly, one proxy used for galaxy mass is its circular velocity; the more massive a galaxy, the faster gas and stars rotate around its center. The discrepancy between models and observations lies in whats known as the galaxy velocity function, which describes the number density of galaxies for a given circular velocity. While theory and observations agree for galaxies with circular velocities above 100 km/s, theory predicts far more dwarfs below this velocity than we observe.To investigate this problem, Brooks and collaborators ran a series of cosmological simulations based on our understanding of a CDM universe. Instead of exploring the result using only dark matter, however, the team included baryons in their simulations. They then produced mock observations of the resulting galaxy velocities to see what an observed velocity function would look like for their simulated galaxies.No Problem After All?Comparison of theoretical velocity functions to observations. The black dashed line shows the original, dark-matter-only model predictions; the black solid line includes the effects of detectability. Blue lines show the authors new model, including the effects of detectability and inclusion of baryons. The red and teal data points from observations match this corrected model well. [Brooks et al. 2017]Based on their baryon-inclusive simulations, Brooks and collaborators argue that there are two main factors that have contributed to the seeming theory/observation mismatch of the missing dwarf problem:Galaxies with low velocities arent detectable by our current surveys.The authors found that the detectable fraction of their simulated galaxies plunges as soon as galaxy velocity drops below 35 km/s. They conclude that were probably unable to see a large fraction of the smallest galaxies.Were not correctly inferring the circular velocity of the galaxies.Circular velocity is usually measured by looking at the line width of a gas tracer like HI. The authors find that this doesnt trace the full potential wells of the dwarf galaxies, however, resulting in an incorrect interpretation of their velocities.The authors show that the inclusion of these effects in the theoretical model significantly changes the predicted shape of the galaxy velocity function. This new function beautifully matches observations, neatly eliminating the missing dwarf problem. Perhaps this long-standing mystery has been a problem of interpretation all along!CitationAlyson M. Brooks et al 2017 ApJ 850 97. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa9576

Strategy Effects Counteract Distractor Inhibition: Negative Priming with Constantly Absent Probe Distractors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frings, Christian; Wentura, Dirk

2006-01-01

It is an accepted, albeit puzzling finding that negative priming (NP) hinges on the presence of distractors in probe displays. In three experiments without probe distractors, the authors yielded evidence that response-biasing processes based on the contingency between prime and probe displays may have caused this finding. It is argued that it is…

Puzzling through General Chemistry: A Light-Hearted Approach to Engaging Students with Chemistry Content

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyd, Susan L.

2007-01-01

Several puzzles are designed to be used by chemistry students as learning tools and teach them basic chemical concepts. The topics of the puzzles are based on the chapters from Chemistry, The Central Science used in general chemistry course and the puzzles are in various forms like crosswords, word searches, number searches, puzzles based on…

Finding All Solutions to the Magic Hexagram

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holland, Jason; Karabegov, Alexander

2008-01-01

In this article, a systematic approach is given for solving a magic star puzzle that usually is accomplished by trial and error or "brute force." A connection is made to the symmetries of a cube, thus the name Magic Hexahedron.

Solar System Puzzle Kit: An Activity for Earth and Space Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vogt, Gregory L.; Rosenberg, Carla B.

This Solar System Puzzle Kit for grades 5-8, allows students to create an eight-cube paper puzzle of the solar system and may be duplicated for classroom use or used as a take home activity for children and parents. By assembling the puzzle, hand-coloring the bodies of the solar system, and viewing the puzzle's 12 sides, students can reinforce…

Solving the Puzzle of Metastasis: The Evolution of Cell Migration in Neoplasms

PubMed Central

Chen, Jun; Sprouffske, Kathleen; Huang, Qihong; Maley, Carlo C.

2011-01-01

Background Metastasis represents one of the most clinically important transitions in neoplastic progression. The evolution of metastasis is a puzzle because a metastatic clone is at a disadvantage in competition for space and resources with non-metastatic clones in the primary tumor. Metastatic clones waste some of their reproductive potential on emigrating cells with little chance of establishing metastases. We suggest that resource heterogeneity within primary tumors selects for cell migration, and that cell emigration is a by-product of that selection. Methods and Findings We developed an agent-based model to simulate the evolution of neoplastic cell migration. We simulated the essential dynamics of neoangiogenesis and blood vessel occlusion that lead to resource heterogeneity in neoplasms. We observed the probability and speed of cell migration that evolves with changes in parameters that control the degree of spatial and temporal resource heterogeneity. Across a broad range of realistic parameter values, increasing degrees of spatial and temporal heterogeneity select for the evolution of increased cell migration and emigration. Conclusions We showed that variability in resources within a neoplasm (e.g. oxygen and nutrients provided by angiogenesis) is sufficient to select for cells with high motility. These cells are also more likely to emigrate from the tumor, which is the first step in metastasis and the key to the puzzle of metastasis. Thus, we have identified a novel potential solution to the puzzle of metastasis. PMID:21556134

Especially for High School Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howell, J. Emory

1999-04-01

Secondary School Feature Articles * Amino Acid Wordsearch, by Terry L. Helser, p 495. Games, Puzzles, and Humor In honor of April Fools' Day this issue contains 22 pages devoted to games and puzzles that can be used to teach aspects of chemistry. Most are designed for high school and first-year college students. The lead article, p 481, contains an annotated bibliography of chemistry games, complete with a vendor list. Many of the annotated games must be purchased, but the other articles that follow in this issue describe some games and puzzles that require minimal preparation using a word processor and readily available materials. Actually, JCE has a long tradition of publishing games and puzzles for chemistry teachers and their students. Read the letter by Helser and the Editor's response, p 468, for some recent background. Not having counted articles over past years, I became curious and turned to the online index, accessed by way of http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/. Because I wanted to search the entire 75-year life of the Journal, I searched titles for the words "game", "puzzle", and "humor" and obtained a total of 85 hits from the three searches. After eliminating titles of articles that were not applicable, I found that at least 25 games, 48 puzzles, and 5 humor articles have appeared during the past 75 years. At an average of one per year, the JCE editors hardly can be accused of frivolity, but game, puzzle, and humor articles have been published. The term "game" did not appear in any titles during 1945-1970, "puzzle" did not appear from 1927 to 1953, and there was no mention of humor (in the titles) prior to 1974. What appears to be the earliest article (1929) about a game was authored by an undergraduate student at the University of Colorado (1). It was titled "Chemical Bank", and the game pieces were tokens cut from cork stoppers. Wire hooks were inserted in the side of the token to represent valence electrons available for bonding. Carbon contained 4 hooks at 90° relative to each other, nitrogen contained three hooks at 120°, etc. The wires were sufficiently long and flexible that multiple bonding could be represented. Each player was dealt several game pieces and the first player received an extra carbon. The objective was to hook pieces together to make an acceptable molecule. Players took turns and the first player to use all his or her pieces was declared the winner. The first crossword puzzle to appear in JCE was written by a high school teacher from Hollywood, California (2). Ruth Van Vleet had observed that her students were caught up in the popularity of crossword puzzles of the time (1925) and used that interest to help students learn chemical facts. The puzzle published in the article was submitted by one of her students after completing one year of chemistry. The first article which carried the term "humor" in the title was published in 1974 (3). To meet the requirements of a class assignment to compare two elements, one student wrote an imaginary dialog between ytterbium and lutetium. Word play and puns were used to described similar and differing properties of the two elements. This article, however, was not the first account of using humor as a vehicle for stimulating student interest. Games, puzzles, and humor certainly can be overused. Usually they do not lead to the development of conceptual understanding. However, appropriate use, as many JCE readers have discovered, can stimulate student interest and reinforce factual knowledge. Some strategy games may help develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The games, humor, and puzzles published in JCE are peer-reviewed so that inaccuracies and errors are not perpetuated. So why not take advantage of this resource? And look forward to next April, or whenever, for more games, puzzles, and humor. Feedback Requested for View from My Classroom Feature David Byrum, editor of the View From My Classroom feature, requests the assistance of readers. During a recent conference on the preparation of new teachers, a question was asked about what specific ideas, procedures, concepts, and skills teachers wished that they had known more about as they started their first job. Some of the responses at the conference were:

• How to choose which concepts/ideas/skills to teach
• How to justify which concepts/ideas/skills to leave out
• How to set up the equipment and supplies needed for common experiments
• How to choose, set up, and perform useful demonstrations
• How to order materials and supplies for the classroom and laboratory
• How district, school, and department budgets work and how to order for the classroom or laboratory

The deuteron-radius puzzle is alive: A new analysis of nuclear structure uncertainties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hernandez, O. J.; Ekström, A.; Nevo Dinur, N.; Ji, C.; Bacca, S.; Barnea, N.

2018-03-01

To shed light on the deuteron radius puzzle we analyze the theoretical uncertainties of the nuclear structure corrections to the Lamb shift in muonic deuterium. We find that the discrepancy between the calculated two-photon exchange correction and the corresponding experimentally inferred value by Pohl et al. [1] remain. The present result is consistent with our previous estimate, although the discrepancy is reduced from 2.6 σ to about 2 σ. The error analysis includes statistic as well as systematic uncertainties stemming from the use of nucleon-nucleon interactions derived from chiral effective field theory at various orders. We therefore conclude that nuclear theory uncertainty is more likely not the source of the discrepancy.

The Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McQuinn, Matthew

2016-09-01

The bulk of cosmic matter resides in a dilute reservoir that fills the space between galaxies, the intergalactic medium (IGM). The history of this reservoir is intimately tied to the cosmic histories of structure formation, star formation, and supermassive black hole accretion. Our models for the IGM at intermediate redshifts (2≲z≲5) are a tremendous success, quantitatively explaining the statistics of Lyα absorption of intergalactic hydrogen. However, at both lower and higher redshifts (and around galaxies) much is still unknown about the IGM. We review the theoretical models and measurements that form the basis for the modern understanding of the IGM, and we discuss unsolved puzzles (ranging from the largely unconstrained process of reionization at high z to the missing baryon problem at low z), highlighting the efforts that have the potential to solve them.

The effectiveness of supermarket posters in helping to find missing children.

PubMed

Lampinen, James Michael; Arnal, Jack; Hicks, Jason L

2009-03-01

One approach used to help find missing children is to place posters of them at the exits of supermarkets. The present research addresses the question of how effective that approach is likely to be. Posters of 8 missing children were displayed on a bulletin board at a cooperating grocery store. Customers leaving the store completed a survey and took a recognition memory test for the children. Most customers thought the problem of missing children was an important issue. However, the majority of customers also reported either not looking at the posters or only briefly looking at the posters. Recognition memory for children depicted in the posters did not reliably differ from chance. It appears that there is much room for improvement when it comes to increasing the attention paid to posters meant to help find missing children.

Psychological Approaches within Sustainable and Global Learning. Think Global Thinkpiece Series 2013

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sander, Jane; Conway, Paula

2013-01-01

In this paper the authors explore what gets in the way of embedding a meaningful global learning curriculum and why some teachers and students find it difficult to engage with global issues. The authors use a psychodynamic model to try and make sense of what some global learning practitioners might find puzzling and frustrating. A psychodynamic…

Public Understanding of Cognitive Neuroscience Research Findings: Trying to Peer beyond Enchanted Glass

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grotzer, Tina A.

2011-01-01

This article considers the appeal of cognitive neuroscience research to the general public within the context of the deep puzzles involved in using our minds to understand how our minds work. It offers a few promising examples of findings that illuminate the ways of the mind and reveal these workings to be counter-intuitive with our subjective…

A new technique for solving puzzles.

PubMed

Makridis, Michael; Papamarkos, Nikos

2010-06-01

This paper proposes a new technique for solving jigsaw puzzles. The novelty of the proposed technique is that it provides an automatic jigsaw puzzle solution without any initial restriction about the shape of pieces, the number of neighbor pieces, etc. The proposed technique uses both curve- and color-matching similarity features. A recurrent procedure is applied, which compares and merges puzzle pieces in pairs, until the original puzzle image is reformed. Geometrical and color features are extracted on the characteristic points (CPs) of the puzzle pieces. CPs, which can be considered as high curvature points, are detected by a rotationally invariant corner detection algorithm. The features which are associated with color are provided by applying a color reduction technique using the Kohonen self-organized feature map. Finally, a postprocessing stage checks and corrects the relative position between puzzle pieces to improve the quality of the resulting image. Experimental results prove the efficiency of the proposed technique, which can be further extended to deal with even more complex jigsaw puzzle problems.

The Effectiveness of Supermarket Posters in Helping to Find Missing Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lampinen, James Michael; Arnal, Jack; Hicks, Jason L.

2009-01-01

One approach used to help find missing children is to place posters of them at the exits of supermarkets. The present research addresses the question of how effective that approach is likely to be. Posters of 8 missing children were displayed on a bulletin board at a cooperating grocery store. Customers leaving the store completed a survey and…

Sudoku Puzzles as Chemistry Learning Tools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crute, Thomas D.; Myers, Stephanie A.

2007-01-01

A sudoku puzzle was designed that incorporated lists of chemistry terms like polyatomic ions, organic functional groups or strong nucleophiles that students need to learn. It was found that students enjoyed solving such puzzles and also such puzzles made the boring tasks of memorizing basic chemical terms an exciting one.

Tapping into community wisdom and integrating local knowledge into revitalization efforts

EPA Science Inventory

Local decision-making is sometimes considered a puzzle by research ecologists, resource managers, and policy researchers. The eternal hope is to find that model or concept that provides the “right” information to support local environmental decisions. Researchers have...

Hybrid computing using a neural network with dynamic external memory.

PubMed

Graves, Alex; Wayne, Greg; Reynolds, Malcolm; Harley, Tim; Danihelka, Ivo; Grabska-Barwińska, Agnieszka; Colmenarejo, Sergio Gómez; Grefenstette, Edward; Ramalho, Tiago; Agapiou, John; Badia, Adrià Puigdomènech; Hermann, Karl Moritz; Zwols, Yori; Ostrovski, Georg; Cain, Adam; King, Helen; Summerfield, Christopher; Blunsom, Phil; Kavukcuoglu, Koray; Hassabis, Demis

2016-10-27

Artificial neural networks are remarkably adept at sensory processing, sequence learning and reinforcement learning, but are limited in their ability to represent variables and data structures and to store data over long timescales, owing to the lack of an external memory. Here we introduce a machine learning model called a differentiable neural computer (DNC), which consists of a neural network that can read from and write to an external memory matrix, analogous to the random-access memory in a conventional computer. Like a conventional computer, it can use its memory to represent and manipulate complex data structures, but, like a neural network, it can learn to do so from data. When trained with supervised learning, we demonstrate that a DNC can successfully answer synthetic questions designed to emulate reasoning and inference problems in natural language. We show that it can learn tasks such as finding the shortest path between specified points and inferring the missing links in randomly generated graphs, and then generalize these tasks to specific graphs such as transport networks and family trees. When trained with reinforcement learning, a DNC can complete a moving blocks puzzle in which changing goals are specified by sequences of symbols. Taken together, our results demonstrate that DNCs have the capacity to solve complex, structured tasks that are inaccessible to neural networks without external read-write memory.

Teaching Proofs and Algorithms in Discrete Mathematics with Online Visual Logic Puzzles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cigas, John; Hsin, Wen-Jung

2005-01-01

Visual logic puzzles provide a fertile environment for teaching multiple topics in discrete mathematics. Many puzzles can be solved by the repeated application of a small, finite set of strategies. Explicitly reasoning from a strategy to a new puzzle state illustrates theorems, proofs, and logic principles. These provide valuable, concrete…

Algorithmic Puzzles: History, Taxonomies, and Applications in Human Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levitin, Anany

2017-01-01

The paper concerns an important but underappreciated genre of algorithmic puzzles, explaining what these puzzles are, reviewing milestones in their long history, and giving two different ways to classify them. Also covered are major applications of algorithmic puzzles in cognitive science research, with an emphasis on insight problem solving, and…

Increased Perceptual and Conceptual Processing Difficulty Makes the Immeasurable Measurable: Negative Priming in the Absence of Probe Distractors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frings, Christian; Spence, Charles

2011-01-01

Negative priming (NP) refers to the finding that people's responses to probe targets previously presented as prime distractors are usually slower and more error prone than to unrepeated stimuli. In a typical NP experiment, each probe target is accompanied by a distractor. It is an accepted, albeit puzzling, finding that the NP effect depends on…

Problem solving in great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, and Pongo abelii): the effect of visual feedback.

PubMed

Völter, Christoph J; Call, Josep

2012-09-01

What kind of information animals use when solving problems is a controversial topic. Previous research suggests that, in some situations, great apes prefer to use causally relevant cues over arbitrary ones. To further examine to what extent great apes are able to use information about causal relations, we presented three different puzzle box problems to the four nonhuman great ape species. Of primary interest here was a comparison between one group of apes that received visual access to the functional mechanisms of the puzzle boxes and one group that did not. Apes' performance in the first two, less complex puzzle boxes revealed that they are able to solve such problems by means of trial-and-error learning, requiring no information about the causal structure of the problem. However, visual inspection of the functional mechanisms of the puzzle boxes reduced the amount of time needed to solve the problems. In the case of the most complex problem, which required the use of a crank, visual feedback about what happened when the handle of the crank was turned was necessary for the apes to solve the task. Once the solution was acquired, however, visual feedback was no longer required. We conclude that visual feedback about the consequences of their actions helps great apes to solve complex problems. As the crank task matches the basic requirements of vertical string pulling in birds, the present results are discussed in light of recent findings with corvids.

Pedagogy Corner: The Year Puzzle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lovitt, Charles

2017-01-01

As a self described lesson collector, author Charles Lovett enjoys gathering "interesting" lessons and teasing them apart to find out what makes them "tick", particularly the pedagogy. He often wonders what decisions the teacher made that generated such an interesting and successful learning environment. Here he describes a…

Retirement and Health Insurance: Finding New Solutions to the Benefits Puzzle.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stanley, Ron

1993-01-01

Presents guidelines for colleges on selecting employee health insurance carriers and retirement investment programs. Reviews types of insurance programs, presenting examples from several states. Discusses mechanisms for reducing insurance premiums, including claim reduction, self-funding, mail-order pharmaceuticals, and forming consortia with…

Economic fluctuations and statistical physics: Quantifying extremely rare and less rare events in finance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanley, H. E.; Gabaix, Xavier; Gopikrishnan, Parameswaran; Plerou, Vasiliki

2007-08-01

One challenge of economics is that the systems treated by these sciences have no perfect metronome in time and no perfect spatial architecture-crystalline or otherwise. Nonetheless, as if by magic, out of nothing but randomness one finds remarkably fine-tuned processes in time. We present an overview of recent research joining practitioners of economic theory and statistical physics to try to better understand puzzles regarding economic fluctuations. One of these puzzles is how to describe outliers, phenomena that lie outside of patterns of statistical regularity. We review evidence consistent with the possibility that such outliers may not exist. This possibility is supported by recent analysis of databases containing information about each trade of every stock.

Gaia's view of the λ Boo star puzzle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, Simon J.; Paunzen, Ernst

2017-04-01

The evolutionary status of the chemically peculiar class of λ Boo stars has been intensely debated. It is now agreed that the λ Boo phenomenon affects A stars of all ages, from star formation to the terminal age main sequence, but the cause of the chemical peculiarity is still a puzzle. We revisit the debate of their ages and temperatures in order to shed light on the phenomenon, using the new parallaxes in Gaia Data Release 1 with existing Hipparcos parallaxes and multicolour photometry. We find that no single formation mechanism is able to explain all the observations, and suggest that there are multiple channels producing λ Boo spectra. The relative importance of these channels varies with age, temperature and environment.

Preferences, constraints, and the process of sex segregation in college majors: A choice analysis.

PubMed

Ochsenfeld, Fabian

2016-03-01

The persistence of horizontal sex segregation in higher education continues to puzzle social scientists. To help resolve this puzzle, we analyze a sample of college entrants in Germany with a discrete choice design that allows for social learning from the experiences of others. We make at least two contributions to the state of research. First, we test whether essentialist gender stereotypes affect major selection mostly through internalization or rather as external constraints that high school graduates adapt their behavior to. Empirically, we find that internalized vocational interests better explain gendered major choices than conformance with friends' and parents' expectations does. Second, we scrutinize whether segregation results from women's anticipation of gendered family roles or from their anticipation of sex-based discrimination, but we find no evidence for either of these hypotheses. As in most previous studies, differences in mathematics achievement fail to explain gendered patterns of selection into college majors. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Analysis of Instructor-Created Crossword Puzzles for Student Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weisskirch, Robert S.

2006-01-01

This article evaluates the use of instructor-created crossword puzzles as a means of reviewing course material. Students completed one crossword puzzle in class to prepare for an exam, and then they had the opportunity to complete a second crossword puzzle outside of class to prepare for the second exam. Students generally rated the crossword…

An Empirical Evaluation of Puzzle-Based Learning as an Interest Approach for Teaching Introductory Computer Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merrick, K. E.

2010-01-01

This correspondence describes an adaptation of puzzle-based learning to teaching an introductory computer programming course. Students from two offerings of the course--with and without the puzzle-based learning--were surveyed over a two-year period. Empirical results show that the synthesis of puzzle-based learning concepts with existing course…

Puzzle Pedagogy: A Use of Riddles in Mathematics Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farnell, Elin

2017-01-01

In this article, I present a collection of puzzles appropriate for use in a variety of undergraduate courses, along with suggestions for relevant discussion. Logic puzzles and riddles have long been sources of amusement for mathematicians and the general public alike. I describe the use of puzzles in a classroom setting, and argue for their use as…

Puzzles in modern biology. I. Male sterility, failure reveals design

PubMed Central

Frank, Steven A.

2016-01-01

Many human males produce dysfunctional sperm. Various plants frequently abort pollen. Hybrid matings often produce sterile males. Widespread male sterility is puzzling. Natural selection prunes reproductive failure. Puzzling failure implies something that we do not understand about how organisms are designed. Solving the puzzle reveals the hidden processes of design. PMID:28004842

Search Methods Used to Locate Missing Cats and Locations Where Missing Cats Are Found

PubMed Central

Huang, Liyan; Coradini, Marcia; Rand, Jacquie; Morton, John; Albrecht, Kat; Wasson, Brigid; Robertson, Danielle

2018-01-01

Simple Summary A least 15% of cat owners lose their pet in a five-year period and some are never found. This paper reports on data gathered from an online questionnaire that asked questions regarding search methods used to locate missing cats and locations where missing cats were found. The most important finding from this retrospective case series was that approximately one third of cats were recovered within 7 days. Secondly, a physical search increased the chances of finding cats alive and 75% of cats were found within a 500 m radius of their point of escape. Thirdly, those cats that were indoor-outdoor and allowed outside unsupervised traveled longer distances compared with indoor cats that were never allowed outside. Lastly, cats considered to be highly curious in nature were more likely to be found inside someone else’s house compared to other personality types. These findings suggest that a physical search within the first week of a cat going missing could be a useful strategy. In light of these findings, further research into this field may show whether programs such as shelter, neuter and return would improve the chances of owners searching and finding their missing cats as well as decreasing euthanasia rates in shelters. Abstract Missing pet cats are often not found by their owners, with many being euthanized at shelters. This study aimed to describe times that lost cats were missing for, search methods associated with their recovery, locations where found and distances travelled. A retrospective case series was conducted where self-selected participants whose cat had gone missing provided data in an online questionnaire. Of the 1210 study cats, only 61% were found within one year, with 34% recovered alive by the owner within 7 days. Few cats were found alive after 90 days. There was evidence that physical searching increased the chance of finding the cat alive (p = 0.073), and 75% of cats were found within 500 m of the point of escape. Up to 75% of cats with outdoor access traveled 1609 m, further than the distance traveled by indoor-only cats (137 m; p ≤ 0.001). Cats considered to be highly curious were more likely to be found inside someone else’s house compared to other personality types. These findings suggest that thorough physical searching is a useful strategy, and should be conducted within the first week after cats go missing. They also support further investigation into whether shelter, neuter and return programs improve the chance of owners recovering missing cats and decrease numbers of cats euthanized in shelters. PMID:29301322

Puzzles, Pastimes, Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eperson, D. B.

1987-01-01

Presents five puzzles or problems that may be used for mathematics enrichment. Ideas include magic squares, tests for divisibility, geometry, palindromic numbers, and a jigsaw puzzle. Solutions are included. (PK)

Best Practices for Missing Data Management in Counseling Psychology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schlomer, Gabriel L.; Bauman, Sheri; Card, Noel A.

2010-01-01

This article urges counseling psychology researchers to recognize and report how missing data are handled, because consumers of research cannot accurately interpret findings without knowing the amount and pattern of missing data or the strategies that were used to handle those data. Patterns of missing data are reviewed, and some of the common…

Silver Alerts and the Problem of Missing Adults with Dementia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carr, Dawn; Muschert, Glenn W.; Kinney, Jennifer; Robbins, Emily; Petonito, Gina; Manning, Lydia; Brown, J. Scott

2010-01-01

In the months following the introduction of the National AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert plan used to locate missing and abducted children, Silver Alert programs began to emerge. These programs use the same infrastructure and approach to find a different missing population, cognitively impaired older adults. By late…

Capture Their Attention: Capturing Lessons Using Screen Capture Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drumheller, Kristina; Lawler, Gregg

2011-01-01

When students miss classes for university activities such as athletic and academic events, they inevitably miss important class material. Students can get notes from their peers or visit professors to find out what they missed, but when students miss new and challenging material these steps are sometimes not enough. Screen capture and recording…

The impact of memory load and perceptual cues on puzzle learning by 24-month olds.

PubMed

Barr, Rachel; Moser, Alecia; Rusnak, Sylvia; Zimmermann, Laura; Dickerson, Kelly; Lee, Herietta; Gerhardstein, Peter

2016-11-01

Early childhood is characterized by memory capacity limitations and rapid perceptual and motor development [Rovee-Collier (1996). Infant Behavior & Development, 19, 385-400]. The present study examined 2-year olds' reproduction of a sliding action to complete an abstract fish puzzle under different levels of memory load and perceptual feature support. Experimental groups were compared to baseline controls to assess spontaneous rates of production of the target actions; baseline production was low across all experiments. Memory load was manipulated in Exp. 1 by adding pieces to the puzzle, increasing sequence length from 2 to 3 items, and to 3 items plus a distractor. Although memory load did not influence how toddlers learned to manipulate the puzzle pieces, it did influence toddlers' achievement of the goal-constructing the fish. Overall, girls were better at constructing the puzzle than boys. In Exp. 2, the perceptual features of the puzzle were altered by changing shape boundaries to create a two-piece horizontally cut puzzle (displaying bilateral symmetry), and by adding a semantically supportive context to the vertically cut puzzle (iconic). Toddlers were able to achieve the goal of building the fish equally well across the 2-item puzzle types (bilateral symmetry, vertical, iconic), but how they learned to manipulate the puzzle pieces varied as a function of the perceptual features. Here, as in Exp. 1, girls showed a different pattern of performance from the boys. This study demonstrates that changes in memory capacity and perceptual processing influence both goal-directed imitation learning and motoric performance. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Puzzles, Pastimes, Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eperson, D. B.

1985-01-01

Presents six mathematical problems (with answers) which focus on: (1) chess moves; (2) patterned numbers; (3) quadratics with rational roots; (4) number puzzles; (5) Euclidean geometry; and (6) Carrollian word puzzles. (JN)

Finding a Place to Live.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

NatureScope, 1985

1985-01-01

Provides background information and student activities on bird habitats, how birds have adapted to living in these habitats, and bird migration. Each activity includes an objective, recommended age level(s), subject area(s), list of materials needed, and procedures. Ready-to-copy student materials (puzzles and worksheets) are included. (JN)

Illness-Specific Risk-Taking in Adolescence: A Missing Piece of the Nonadherence Puzzle for Youth With Type 1 Diabetes?

PubMed Central

Anderson, Barbara J.; Schwartz, David D.

2017-01-01

Risky behavior is often at its lifetime peak in adolescence. Chronic illness creates additional opportunities for risk because nonadherence behaviors can jeopardize adolescents’ health. Adolescents with type 1 diabetes could engage in risky behavior around insulin administration that would put them in danger of severe health consequences. It is possible that some nonadherence behaviors observed in adolescents with type 1 diabetes may result from youth taking risks with their medical treatment. Illness-specific risk-taking behaviors are not captured in most assessments of adherence, which primarily focus on frequency of adherence behaviors. This article reviews current models of general risk-taking and their implications for diabetes management. The authors argue that illness-specific risk-taking may be an important, understudied aspect of illness management that can inform future studies and treatment of nonadherence in adolescents with type 1 diabetes. PMID:28270709

Finite conformal quantum gravity and spacetime singularities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Modesto, Leonardo; Rachwał, Lesław

2017-12-01

We show that a class of finite quantum non-local gravitational theories is conformally invariant at classical as well as at quantum level. This is actually a range of conformal anomaly-free theories in the spontaneously broken phase of the Weyl symmetry. At classical level we show how the Weyl conformal invariance is able to tame all the spacetime singularities that plague not only Einstein gravity, but also local and weakly non-local higher derivative theories. The latter statement is proved by a singularity theorem that applies to a large class of weakly non-local theories. Therefore, we are entitled to look for a solution of the spacetime singularity puzzle in a missed symmetry of nature, namely the Weyl conformal symmetry. Following the seminal paper by Narlikar and Kembhavi, we provide an explicit construction of singularity-free black hole exact solutions in a class of conformally invariant theories.

A missing piece of the workforce puzzle. The experiences of internationally qualified nurses in New Zealand: a literature review.

PubMed

Jenkins, Brittany Lauren; Huntington, Annette

2015-01-01

To analyse the literature regarding the context and experiences of internationally qualified registered nurses, particularly Filipino and Indian nurses, who have transitioned to New Zealand. Internationally qualified nurses are a significant proportion of the nursing workforce in many developed countries including New Zealand. This is increasingly important as populations age, escalating demand for nurses. Understanding the internationally qualified nurse experience is required as this could influence migration in a competitive labour market. Examination of peer-reviewed research, policy and discussion documents, and technical reports. A systematic literature search sought articles published between 2001 and 2014 using Google Scholar, CINAHL, and Medline. Articles were critically appraised for relevance, transferability, and methodological rigour. Fifty-one articles met inclusion criteria and demonstrate internationally qualified nurses face significant challenges transitioning into New Zealand. The internationally qualified nurse experience of transitioning into a new country is little researched and requires further investigation.

Ku band airborne radar altimeter observations of marginal sea ice during the 1984 Marginal Ice Zone Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Drinkwater, Mark R.

1991-01-01

Pulse-limited, airborne radar data taken in June and July 1984 with a 13.8-GHz altimeter over the Fram Strait marginal ice zone are analyzed with the aid of large-format aerial photography, airborne synthetic aperture radar data, and surface observations. Variations in the radar return pulse waveforms are quantified and correlated with ice properties recorded during the Marginal Ice Zone Experiment. Results indicate that the wide-beam altimeter is a flexible instrument, capable of identifying the ice edge with a high degree of accuracy, calculating the ice concentration, and discriminating a number of different ice classes. This suggests that microwave radar altimeters have a sensitivity to sea ice which has not yet been fully exploited. When fused with SSM/I, AVHRR and ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar imagery, future ERS-1 altimeter data are expected to provide some missing pieces to the sea ice geophysics puzzle.

Pebble Puzzles. A Source Book of Simple Puzzles and Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibbs, William M.

This booklet is a collection of puzzles, games, and investigations. All that children need are some stones or shells, on some of which they must write numerals. For playing with the whole class, the game or puzzles may be marked out on the floor or in sand; in that case, larger objects such as small rocks and empty tins may be used. Children are…

Puzzle based teaching versus traditional instruction in electrocardiogram interpretation for medical students--a pilot study.

PubMed

Rubinstein, Jack; Dhoble, Abhijeet; Ferenchick, Gary

2009-01-13

Most medical professionals are expected to possess basic electrocardiogram (EKG) interpretation skills. But, published data suggests that residents' and physicians' EKG interpretation skills are suboptimal. Learning styles differ among medical students; individualization of teaching methods has been shown to be viable and may result in improved learning. Puzzles have been shown to facilitate learning in a relaxed environment. The objective of this study was to assess efficacy of teaching puzzle in EKG interpretation skills among medical students. This is a reader blinded crossover trial. Third year medical students from College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University participated in this study. Two groups (n = 9) received two traditional EKG interpretation skills lectures followed by a standardized exam and two extra sessions with the teaching puzzle and a different exam. Two other groups (n = 6) received identical courses and exams with the puzzle session first followed by the traditional teaching. EKG interpretation scores on final test were used as main outcome measure. The average score after only traditional teaching was 4.07 +/- 2.08 while after only the puzzle session was 4.04 +/- 2.36 (p = 0.97). The average improvement after the traditional session was followed up with a puzzle session was 2.53 +/- 1.94 while the average improvement after the puzzle session was followed with the traditional session was 2.08 +/- 1.73 (p = 0.67). The final EKG exam score for this cohort (n = 15) was 84.1 compared to 86.6 (p = 0.22) for a comparable sample of medical students (n = 15) at a different campus. Teaching EKG interpretation with puzzles is comparable to traditional teaching and may be particularly useful for certain subgroups of students. Puzzle session are more interactive and relaxing, and warrant further investigations on larger scale.

Enhancing Verbal Creativity via Brief Interventions during an Incubation Interval

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hao, Ning; Ku, Yixuan; Liu, Meigui; Hu, Yi; Grabner, Roland H.; Fink, Andreas

2014-01-01

Previous studies revealed inconsistent findings about the effects of cognitively low or high demanding interpolated tasks during incubation period on post-incubation creative performance. To explain this contradiction, two intervention tasks were administered (Reflecting on the generated ideas [RF] and the Word puzzle task [WP]), which are…

Progress in Understanding Autism: 2007-2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutter, Michael L.

2011-01-01

Scientific progress is discussed in relation to clinical issues; genetic issues; environmental issues; and the state of play on psychological treatments. It is concluded that substantial gains in knowledge have been achieved during the last 3 years, and there have been some unexpected findings, but major puzzles remain. We should be hopeful of…

A Reply to John Searle and Other Traditionalists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brice, Robert Greenleaf

2008-01-01

In an article entitled "Traditionalists & Their Challengers," John Searle says there is "supposed to be a major debate" in the universities as to whether liberal education should be replaced with multiculturalism. He finds this debate "puzzling," "disappointing," even "depressing." By dividing academia into two groups, the so-called "defenders of…

Strengthening Principal Leadership Is Only One Piece of the Puzzle. Lessons from Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Killion, Joellen

2015-01-01

In this article, Joellen Killion highlights the methodology, analysis, findings, and limitations of Jacob, R., Goddard, R., Kim, M., Miller, R., & Goddard, Y. (2015, September). "Exploring the causal impact of the McREL Balanced Leadership program on leadership, principal efficacy, instructional climate, educator turnover, and student…

Children with Prader-Willi syndrome vs. Williams syndrome: indirect effects on parents during a jigsaw puzzle task.

PubMed

Ly, T M; Hodapp, R M

2005-12-01

Genetic disorders predispose individuals to exhibit characteristic behaviours, which in turn elicit particular behaviours from others. In response to the strength of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and weakness of Williams syndrome (WS) in visual-spatial tasks such as jigsaw puzzles, parents' behaviours can be affected by their child's level of puzzle ability or syndrome diagnosis. Children were asked to complete two jigsaw puzzles (one with the experimenter and the other with the parent) for 5 min each. Frequencies of parental helping and reinforcement behaviours, along with ratings of parental directiveness, were examined as parents interacted with their children on a jigsaw puzzle task. Within each aetiological group, correlates of parental behaviours with child characteristics were also examined. Compared to parents of children with PWS, parents of children with WS engaged in a more directive style of interaction, and provided more help and reinforcement. Relative to parents of children with higher puzzle abilities (from both aetiologies), parents of children with lower abilities also showed the same pattern. Both the child's aetiology and puzzle abilities were important in predicting parents' directiveness and helping and reinforcement behaviours. Within the PWS group, parents' behaviours correlated negatively with the child's puzzle abilities and general cognitive functioning; no such relations occurred in the WS group. Parents' behaviours were affected by both the child's diagnosis and actual puzzle abilities, suggesting important implications for understanding and intervening with parents and children with different genetic syndromes.

Asian American parents' attributions of children with Down syndrome: connections with child characteristics and culture.

PubMed

Ly, Tran M

2008-04-01

This study explores cultural differences between European American (n = 26) and Asian American (n = 17) parents' attributional ratings of children with Down syndrome. Links were examined among parents' attributions, reactions, and behaviors regarding their child's jigsaw-puzzle performance. Although the children's puzzle abilities did not differ, compared with European American parents, Asian American parents judged their child as less successful and had lower expectations for future success. Asian American parents also attributed the child's performance to lower ability and lower effort. Affectively, they indicated less sympathy and more anger and blame toward the child. Despite striking ethnic differences, parents in both groups judged their older children as more successful and reported offering them less encouragement and help. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Evolutionary robotics simulations help explain why reciprocity is rare in nature

PubMed Central

André, Jean-Baptiste; Nolfi, Stefano

2016-01-01

The relative rarity of reciprocity in nature, contrary to theoretical predictions that it should be widespread, is currently one of the major puzzles in social evolution theory. Here we use evolutionary robotics to solve this puzzle. We show that models based on game theory are misleading because they neglect the mechanics of behavior. In a series of experiments with simulated robots controlled by artificial neural networks, we find that reciprocity does not evolve, and show that this results from a general constraint that likely also prevents it from evolving in the wild. Reciprocity can evolve if it requires very few mutations, as is usually assumed in evolutionary game theoretic models, but not if, more realistically, it requires the accumulation of many adaptive mutations. PMID:27616139

BOUNDS ON LEPTON FLAVOR CHANGING CURRENTS AND THE SOLAR NEUTRINO PUZZLE:. Bounds on Lepton Flavor Changing Currents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

degl'Innocenti, Scilla; Ricci, Barbara

We present a phenomenological analysis of a lepton flavor changing current, considering the case of interactions among leptons which change the neutrino flavor and are diagonal in the charged lepton sector. In the case of νe↔νµ transition, we derive a bound on the vector coupling constant GV≤0.16 GF from experimental data on νµ-e scattering. For a transition νe↔νx, from (anti) νe-e scattering experiments and from the analysis of advanced stellar evolutionary phases, we find GV≤0.55 GF. We discuss the compatibility of these data with a possible explanation of the solar neutrino puzzle. We also analyze how the present bounds can be improved in future long baseline neutrino experiments and atmospheric neutrino detectors.

"It's like a puzzle": Pregnant women's perceptions of professional support in midwifery care.

PubMed

Bäckström, Caroline A; Mårtensson, Lena B; Golsäter, Marie H; Thorstensson, Stina A

2016-12-01

Pregnant women are not always satisfied with the professional support they receive during their midwifery care. More knowledge is needed to understand what professional support pregnant women need for childbirth and parenting. Childbearing and the transition to becoming a parent is a sensitive period in one's life during which one should have the opportunity to receive professional support. Professional support does not always correspond to pregnant women's needs. To understand pregnant women's needs for professional support within midwifery care, it is crucial to further illuminate women's experiences of this support. To explore pregnant women's perceptions of professional support in midwifery care. A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. Fifteen women were interviewed during gestational weeks 36-38. Data was analysed using phenomenography. The women perceived professional support in midwifery care to be reassuring and emotional, to consist of reliable information, and to be mediated with pedagogical creativity. The professional support facilitated new social contacts, partner involvement and contributed to mental preparedness. The findings of the study were presented in six categories and the category Professional support contributes to mental preparedness was influenced by the five other categories. Pregnant women prepare for childbirth and parenting by using several different types of professional support in midwifery care: a strategy that could be described as piecing together a puzzle. When the women put the puzzle together, each type of professional support works as a valuable piece in the whole puzzle. Through this, professional support could contribute to women's mental preparedness for childbirth and parenting. Copyright © 2016 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Economics, human biology and inequality: A review of "puzzles" and recent contributions from a Deatonian perspective.

PubMed

Baten, Joerg

2017-05-01

The Nobel laureate Angus Deaton concentrated his work on puzzling developments and phenomena in economics. Puzzles are exciting elements in economics, because readers feel challenged by the question of how they can be solved. Among the puzzles analyzed by Deaton are: (1) Mortality increase of white, U.S. non-Hispanic men (2000 to today); (2) Why are height and income sometimes closely correlated, but not always?; (3) Height inequality among males and females; and (4) The Indian puzzle of declining consumption of calories during overall expenditure growth. This article reviews these "puzzles" and the main insights that Deaton derived from their discussion insofar as they pertain to the biological aspects of human development. I will focus on the field of this journal, Economics and Human Biology, in which Deaton has been very active over the last two decades. I will also document some of the responses by other scholars and their contributions to these puzzles, as they relate to the field of economics and human biology. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Making Peer-Assisted Content Distribution Robust to Collusion Using Bandwidth Puzzles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reiter, Michael K.; Sekar, Vyas; Spensky, Chad; Zhang, Zhenghao

Many peer-assisted content-distribution systems reward a peer based on the amount of data that this peer serves to others. However, validating that a peer did so is, to our knowledge, an open problem; e.g., a group of colluding attackers can earn rewards by claiming to have served content to one another, when they have not. We propose a puzzle mechanism to make contribution-aware peer-assisted content distribution robust to such collusion. Our construction ties solving the puzzle to possession of specific content and, by issuing puzzle challenges simultaneously to all parties claiming to have that content, our mechanism prevents one content-holder from solving many others' puzzles. We prove (in the random oracle model) the security of our scheme, describe our integration of bandwidth puzzles into a media streaming system, and demonstrate the resulting attack resilience via simulations.

Quantum Loop Expansion to High Orders, Extended Borel Summation, and Comparison with Exact Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noreen, Amna; Olaussen, Kåre

2013-07-01

We compare predictions of the quantum loop expansion to (essentially) infinite orders with (essentially) exact results in a simple quantum mechanical model. We find that there are exponentially small corrections to the loop expansion, which cannot be explained by any obvious “instanton”-type corrections. It is not the mathematical occurrence of exponential corrections but their seeming lack of any physical origin which we find surprising and puzzling.

Chemistry of Art and Color Sudoku Puzzles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Welsh, Michael J.

2007-01-01

Sudoku puzzle format was used to teach light science and chemistry terms to students of Chemistry of Art and Color. The puzzles were used to motivate and encourage students to learn chemistry in an easier and in friendly fashion.

Inferential Precision in Single-Case Time-Series Data Streams: How Well Does the EM Procedure Perform When Missing Observations Occur in Autocorrelated Data?

PubMed Central

Smith, Justin D.; Borckardt, Jeffrey J.; Nash, Michael R.

2013-01-01

The case-based time-series design is a viable methodology for treatment outcome research. However, the literature has not fully addressed the problem of missing observations with such autocorrelated data streams. Mainly, to what extent do missing observations compromise inference when observations are not independent? Do the available missing data replacement procedures preserve inferential integrity? Does the extent of autocorrelation matter? We use Monte Carlo simulation modeling of a single-subject intervention study to address these questions. We find power sensitivity to be within acceptable limits across four proportions of missing observations (10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%) when missing data are replaced using the Expectation-Maximization Algorithm, more commonly known as the EM Procedure (Dempster, Laird, & Rubin, 1977).This applies to data streams with lag-1 autocorrelation estimates under 0.80. As autocorrelation estimates approach 0.80, the replacement procedure yields an unacceptable power profile. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. PMID:22697454

A puzzle used to teach the cardiac cycle.

PubMed

Marcondes, Fernanda K; Moura, Maria J C S; Sanches, Andrea; Costa, Rafaela; de Lima, Patricia Oliveira; Groppo, Francisco Carlos; Amaral, Maria E C; Zeni, Paula; Gaviao, Kelly Cristina; Montrezor, Luís H

2015-03-01

The aim of the present article is to describe a puzzle developed for use in teaching cardiac physiology classes. The puzzle presents figures of phases of the cardiac cycle and a table with five columns: phases of cardiac cycle, atrial state, ventricular state, state of atrioventricular valves, and pulmonary and aortic valves. Chips are provided for use to complete the table. Students are requested to discuss which is the correct sequence of figures indicating the phases of cardiac cycle. Afterward, they should complete the table with the chips. Students of biology, dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, and nursing graduation courses from seven institutions performed the puzzle evaluation. They were invited to indicate whether the puzzle had been useful for learning about the subject by filling one of four alternatives. Of the students, 4.6% answered that it was not necessary but helped them to confirm what they had learned, 64.5% reported that although they had previously understood the cardiac cycle, the puzzle helped them to solve doubts and promoted a better understanding of it, and 30.9% said that they needed the puzzle to understand the cardiac cycle, without differences among courses, institutions, and course semesters. The results of the present study suggest that a simple and inexpensive puzzle may be useful as an active learning methodology applied after the theoretical lecture, as a complementary tool for studying cardiac cycle physiology. Copyright © 2015 The American Physiological Society.

Engage, Investigate, and Report: Enhancing the Curriculum with Scientific Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blake, Sally

2009-01-01

Young children are called natural scientists for good reason. Even infants investigate their surroundings, using their senses to look, touch, smell, hear, and taste. As children discover objects and situations that are puzzling or intriguing--things that provoke their curiosity--they begin looking for ways to find answers, all in an effort to…

Parties, Unions, Policies and Occupational Sex Segregation in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moller, Stephanie; Li, Huiping

2009-01-01

We utilize the 2000 Equal Employment Opportunity file of the U.S. Census and various secondary resources to determine if party control, union density and states' anti-discrimination and family leave policy legacies affect levels of occupational sex segregation across large counties. Our findings offer a puzzle to political sociologists because two…

Blacks and High Self-Esteem: A Puzzle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simmons, Roberta G.

1978-01-01

Changes in research findings related to the self-esteem of blacks may be due to the impact of ideology; or to methodological differences, such as the populations studied, the definitions and dimensions of self-image conceptualized, and the measures used. This article is a commentary on the previous Adam article (TM 503 243). (BW)

Math Thinkercises. A Good Apple Math Activity Book for Students. Grades 4-8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daniel, Becky

This booklet designed for students in grades 4-8 provides 52 activities, including puzzles and problems. Activities range from simple to complex, giving learners practice in finding patterns, numeration, permutation, and problem solving. Calculators should be available, and students should be encouraged to discuss solutions with classmates,…

The Spider and the Fly

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mellinger, Keith E.; Viglione, Raymond

2012-01-01

The Spider and the Fly puzzle, originally attributed to the great puzzler Henry Ernest Dudeney, and now over 100 years old, asks for the shortest path between two points on a particular square prism. We explore a generalization, find that the original solution only holds in certain cases, and suggest how this discovery might be used in the…

In Defense of Unification (Comments on West and Koch’s review of Causality)

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

textbook exercises versus unknown variables in ill-understood real life problems? I am similarly puzzled by W-C’s other findings. For example: “[In Pearl’s...version forthcoming, Journal of Sociological Methods and Research. Pearl, J. and Bareinboim, E. (2014). External validity: From do- calculus to

Puzzle based teaching versus traditional instruction in electrocardiogram interpretation for medical students – a pilot study

PubMed Central

Rubinstein, Jack; Dhoble, Abhijeet; Ferenchick, Gary

2009-01-01

Background Most medical professionals are expected to possess basic electrocardiogram (EKG) interpretation skills. But, published data suggests that residents' and physicians' EKG interpretation skills are suboptimal. Learning styles differ among medical students; individualization of teaching methods has been shown to be viable and may result in improved learning. Puzzles have been shown to facilitate learning in a relaxed environment. The objective of this study was to assess efficacy of teaching puzzle in EKG interpretation skills among medical students. Methods This is a reader blinded crossover trial. Third year medical students from College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University participated in this study. Two groups (n = 9) received two traditional EKG interpretation skills lectures followed by a standardized exam and two extra sessions with the teaching puzzle and a different exam. Two other groups (n = 6) received identical courses and exams with the puzzle session first followed by the traditional teaching. EKG interpretation scores on final test were used as main outcome measure. Results The average score after only traditional teaching was 4.07 ± 2.08 while after only the puzzle session was 4.04 ± 2.36 (p = 0.97). The average improvement after the traditional session was followed up with a puzzle session was 2.53 ± 1.94 while the average improvement after the puzzle session was followed with the traditional session was 2.08 ± 1.73 (p = 0.67). The final EKG exam score for this cohort (n = 15) was 84.1 compared to 86.6 (p = 0.22) for a comparable sample of medical students (n = 15) at a different campus. Conclusion Teaching EKG interpretation with puzzles is comparable to traditional teaching and may be particularly useful for certain subgroups of students. Puzzle session are more interactive and relaxing, and warrant further investigations on larger scale. PMID:19144134

Teaching the Pursuit of Assumptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Peter; Johnson, Stephen

2015-01-01

Within the school of thought known as Critical Thinking, identifying or finding missing assumptions is viewed as one of the principal thinking skills. Within the new subject in schools and colleges, usually called Critical Thinking, the skill of finding missing assumptions is similarly prominent, as it is in that subject's public examinations. In…

Should genes with missing data be excluded from phylogenetic analyses?

PubMed

Jiang, Wei; Chen, Si-Yun; Wang, Hong; Li, De-Zhu; Wiens, John J

2014-11-01

Phylogeneticists often design their studies to maximize the number of genes included but minimize the overall amount of missing data. However, few studies have addressed the costs and benefits of adding characters with missing data, especially for likelihood analyses of multiple loci. In this paper, we address this topic using two empirical data sets (in yeast and plants) with well-resolved phylogenies. We introduce varying amounts of missing data into varying numbers of genes and test whether the benefits of excluding genes with missing data outweigh the costs of excluding the non-missing data that are associated with them. We also test if there is a proportion of missing data in the incomplete genes at which they cease to be beneficial or harmful, and whether missing data consistently bias branch length estimates. Our results indicate that adding incomplete genes generally increases the accuracy of phylogenetic analyses relative to excluding them, especially when there is a high proportion of incomplete genes in the overall dataset (and thus few complete genes). Detailed analyses suggest that adding incomplete genes is especially helpful for resolving poorly supported nodes. Given that we find that excluding genes with missing data often decreases accuracy relative to including these genes (and that decreases are generally of greater magnitude than increases), there is little basis for assuming that excluding these genes is necessarily the safer or more conservative approach. We also find no evidence that missing data consistently bias branch length estimates. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sudoku Puzzles for First-Year Organic Chemistry Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perez, Alice L.; Lamoureux, G.

2007-01-01

Sudoku puzzle was designed to teach about amino acids and functional groups to the students of undergraduate organic chemistry students. The puzzles focus on helping the student learn the name, 3-letter code and 1-letter code of common amino acids and functional groups.

78 FR 55121 - Proposed Submission of Information Collection for OMB Review; Comment Request; Termination of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-09

...; Comment Request; Termination of Single-Employer Plans, Missing Participants AGENCY: Pension Benefit... information in its regulations on Termination of Single-Employer Plans and Missing Participants, and... missing participants (29 CFR part 4050). When PBGC conducts post-termination audits, it sometimes finds...

Help for Finding Missing Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCormick, Kathleen

1984-01-01

Efforts to locate missing children have expanded from a federal law allowing for entry of information into an F.B.I. computer system to companion bills before Congress for establishing a national missing child clearinghouse and a Justice Department center to help in conducting searches. Private organizations are also involved. (KS)

Pythagoras and Four Colours

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unal, Hasan

2008-01-01

One way to teach Pythagoras' Theorem is through use of puzzles. Marshall (2004:1) points out that, "in creating their individual solutions to puzzles, students may reveal mathematical thinking on which approaches to the standard curriculum could be based." This article describes a puzzle-like spatial structuring activity related to…

The Anatomy Puzzle Book.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacob, Willis H.; Carter, Robert, III

This document features review questions, crossword puzzles, and word search puzzles on human anatomy. Topics include: (1) Anatomical Terminology; (2) The Skeletal System and Joints; (3) The Muscular System; (4) The Nervous System; (5) The Eye and Ear; (6) The Circulatory System and Blood; (7) The Respiratory System; (8) The Urinary System; (9) The…

Accelerating Student Learning of Technology Terms: "The Crossword Puzzle Exercise"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whisenand, Thomas G.; Dunphy, Steven M.

2010-01-01

The authors suggest using an alternative teaching methodology to impart knowledge regarding information systems phraseology and vocabulary. Specifically, a series of crossword puzzles or scrabbles are used to present information system (IS) terminology to students in an introductory business information systems course. The puzzle terms and answers…

Word Search Packet: Climbing the Hills of Math Skills. California Demonstration Mathematics Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ontario-Montclair School District, Ontario, CA.

Thirty word-search puzzles on mathematics and mathematicians are presented. The puzzles are used periodically as homework assignments in a self-paced, individualized mathematics program which is designed to improve the achievement of junior high school students. Answers to the puzzles are not included. (DC)

Crossword Puzzles as Learning Tools in Introductory Soil Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barbarick, K. A.

2010-01-01

Students in introductory courses generally respond favorably to novel approaches to learning. To this end, I developed and used three crossword puzzles in spring and fall 2009 semesters in Introductory Soil Science Laboratory at Colorado State University. The first hypothesis was that crossword puzzles would improve introductory soil science…

Changes in food intake and abnormal behavior using a puzzle feeder in newly acquired sub-adult rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta): a short term study.

PubMed

Lee, Jae-Il; Lee, Chi-Woo; Kwon, Hyouk-Sang; Kim, Young-Tae; Park, Chung-Gyu; Kim, Sang-Joon; Kang, Byeong-Cheol

2008-10-01

The majority of newly acquired nonhuman primates encounter serious problems adapting themselves to new environments or facilities. In particular, loss of appetite and abnormal behavior can occur in response to environmental stresses. These adaptation abnormalities can ultimately have an affect on the animal's growth and well-being. In this study, we evaluated the affects of a puzzle feeder on the food intake and abnormal behavior of newly acquired rhesus monkeys for a short period. The puzzle feeder was applied to 47- to 58-month-old animals that had never previously encountered one. We found that there was no difference in the change of food intake between the bucket condition and the puzzle feeder condition. In contrast, the time spent for consumption of food was three times longer in the puzzle feeder condition than in the bucket condition. Two monkeys initially exhibited stereotypic behavior. One showed a decreasing, and the other an increasing pattern of abnormal behavior after introduction of the puzzle feeder. In conclusion, this result suggests that over a short period, the puzzle feeder can only affect the time for food consumption since it failed to affect the food intake and did not consistently influence stereotypic behaviors in newly acquired rhesus monkeys.

Individual Differences and Intervention Flaws: A Sequential Explanatory Study of College Students' Copy-and-Paste Note Taking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Igo, L. Brent; Kiewra, Kenneth A.; Bruning, Roger

2008-01-01

In this study, qualitative themes and quantitative findings from previous research were used to justify the exploration of four experimental, note-taking conditions and the impact of those conditions on student learning from Web-based text. However, puzzling results obtained from dependent measures of student learning were quite inconsistent with…

Historical jigsaw puzzles: piecing together the understory of Garry Oak (Quercus garryana) ecosystems and the implications for restoration

Treesearch

Carrina Maslovat

2002-01-01

Ecosystem restoration requires a set of reference vegetation conditions which are difficult to find for Garry oak (Quercus garryana) ecosystems in Canada because contemporary sites have been drastically altered. A survey of historical information provides only limited clues about the original understory vegetation. Although there is considerable...

A Comparison of the Electromagnetic and Acoustic Doppler Effects Using Geometrical Diagrams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bokor, Nandor

2009-01-01

Students often find the difference in the electromagnetic and the acoustic Doppler formulae somewhat puzzling. As is shown below, geometrical diagrams and the concept of "event"--a point in spacetime having coordinates (x,y,z,t)--can be a useful and simple way to explain the physical background behind the fundamental differences between the two…

Retrolife and the Pawns Neighbors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elran, Yossi

2012-01-01

One of Martin Gardner's most famous columns introduced John Conway's game of Life. The inverse problem, finding a previous generation in the Game of Life given some extra constraints, was introduced a few years ago and is referred to as Retrolife. In this paper we present a puzzle played on a chessboard that is isomorphic to a variation of…

Mazes and Maps: Can Young Children Find Their Way?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jirout, Jamie J.; Newcombe, Nora S.

2014-01-01

Games provide important informal learning activities for young children, and spatial game play (e.g., puzzles and blocks) has been found to relate to the development of spatial skills. This study investigates 4- and 5-year-old children's use of scaled and unscaled maps when solving mazes, asking whether an important aspect of spatial…

Inferential precision in single-case time-series data streams: how well does the em procedure perform when missing observations occur in autocorrelated data?

PubMed

Smith, Justin D; Borckardt, Jeffrey J; Nash, Michael R

2012-09-01

The case-based time-series design is a viable methodology for treatment outcome research. However, the literature has not fully addressed the problem of missing observations with such autocorrelated data streams. Mainly, to what extent do missing observations compromise inference when observations are not independent? Do the available missing data replacement procedures preserve inferential integrity? Does the extent of autocorrelation matter? We use Monte Carlo simulation modeling of a single-subject intervention study to address these questions. We find power sensitivity to be within acceptable limits across four proportions of missing observations (10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%) when missing data are replaced using the Expectation-Maximization Algorithm, more commonly known as the EM Procedure (Dempster, Laird, & Rubin, 1977). This applies to data streams with lag-1 autocorrelation estimates under 0.80. As autocorrelation estimates approach 0.80, the replacement procedure yields an unacceptable power profile. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Tangrams: Puzzles of Art

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fee, Brenda

2009-01-01

Challenging one's brain is the beginning of making great art. Tangrams are a great way to keep students thinking about their latest art project long after leaving the classroom. A tangram is a Chinese puzzle. The earliest known reference to tangrams appears in a Chinese book dated 1813, but the puzzles existed long before that date. The puzzle…

GAMES AND PUZZLES FOR THE MORE ABLE STUDENT.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

GOLDSMITH, JOHN

SUCH MATHEMATICAL GAMES AS DOMINOES FOR PRIMARY NUMBER RECOGNITION AND AS MILK BOTTLE TOPS FOR ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION ARE LISTED. A LIST OF SEVERAL MATH PROBLEMS, PUZZLES AND BRAIN TEASERS FOLLOW. QUIET GAMES OF PAPER CUTTING AND CROSS WORD PUZZLES FOR MATH VOCABULARY ARE INCLUDED. THE NEXT SECTION OF GAMES CONCERNS LANGUAGE. THESE INCLUDE…

Enumerating Small Sudoku Puzzles in a First Abstract Algebra Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lorch, Crystal; Lorch, John

2008-01-01

Two methods are presented for counting small "essentially different" sudoku puzzles using elementary group theory: one method (due to Jarvis and Russell) uses Burnside's counting formula, while the other employs an invariant property of sudoku puzzles. Ideas are included for incorporating this material into an introductory abstract algebra course.…

The Clock Is Ticking: Library Orientation as Puzzle Room

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reade, Tripp

2017-01-01

Tripp Reade is the school librarian at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. This article describes how he redesigned his school's library orientation program after learning about escape rooms and a variant known as puzzle rooms. Puzzle rooms present players with a set of challenges to solve; they require "teamwork,…

Economics - A Puzzle: The People Power Solution.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartlett, Glenda; Price, Marlene H.

A third-grade class and fifth-grade remedial reading students gained a positive attitude toward contemporary economic problems by studying economics as a puzzle in this award-winning project. The following concepts were each approached as pieces of the puzzle to be solved: money, wants and needs, income, goods and services, scarcity, consumption…

A Puzzle Used to Teach the Cardiac Cycle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marcondes, Fernanda K.; Moura, Maria J. C. S.; Sanches, Andrea; Costa, Rafaela; Oliveira de Lima, Patricia; Groppo, Francisco Carlos; Amaral, Maria E. C.; Zeni, Paula; Gaviao, Kelly Cristina; Montrezor, Luís H.

2015-01-01

The aim of the present article is to describe a puzzle developed for use in teaching cardiac physiology classes. The puzzle presents figures of phases of the cardiac cycle and a table with five columns: phases of cardiac cycle, atrial state, ventricular state, state of atrioventricular valves, and pulmonary and aortic valves. Chips are provided…

Crossword Puzzle Makes It Fun: Introduce Green Manufacturing in Wood Technology Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iley, John L.; Hague, Doug

2012-01-01

Sustainable, or "green," manufacturing and its practices are becoming more and more a part of today's industry, including wood product manufacturing. This article provides introductory information on green manufacturing in wood technology and a crossword puzzle based on green manufacturing terms. The authors use the puzzle at the college level to…

What Puzzles Teachers in Rio de janeiro, and What Keeps Them Going?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyra, Isolina; Fish, Solange; Braga, Walewska Gomes

2003-01-01

Focuses on the key mechanism of "puzzling" in Exploratory Practice (EP), a form of practitioner research, and the critical issue of sustainability in the context of volunteer teacher development work in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Investigated puzzles (concerns) of language teachers and grouped them into six categories; motivation, anxiety,…

A new theory of cryptogenic stroke and its relationship to patent foramen ovale; or, the puzzle of the missing extra risk.

PubMed

Eggers, Arnold E

2006-01-01

Cryptogenic stroke (or stroke of undetermined cause) is a common cause of stroke and is statistically associated with patent foramen ovale (PFO). The largest study of cryptogenic stroke is the Homma study, which is a sub-study of the WARSS trial; it produced the following data: cryptogenic stroke patients with and without PFO, when treated with either aspirin or warfarin, all had identical recurrence rates. This is puzzling because it seems as though there ought to have been some extra risk in one of the two groups under one of the two treatments. How could everything come out the same? A review of the epidemiology of cryptogenic stroke shows that, compared to patients with stroke of determined cause, cryptogenic stroke patients are a little younger and have lower doses of the usual risk factors (hypertension and diabetes mellitus) but more PFO. Cryptogenic strokes appear to be embolic strokes from an unknown source. A previously published article setting forth a hypothetical theory of stress-induced stroke was used to analyze these data. It is suggested that stress can induce episodic systemic platelet activation and hypercoagulability, which causes transient thrombus formation and subsequent embolization on both the arterial and venous sides of the circulation; the latter requires a PFO to cause a stroke (paradoxical embolism). The sum of these two mechanisms explains cryptogenic stroke. The PFO subset of cryptogenic stroke includes patients with both early and late stage disease who have an aggregate risk approximately equal to that of patients without PFO. Cryptogenic stroke is part of the disease of stress-induced cerebrovascular disease. Aspirin and warfarin have already been shown to be equally effective in secondary prevention of ischemic stroke.

The chaos within Sudoku.

PubMed

Ercsey-Ravasz, Mária; Toroczkai, Zoltán

2012-01-01

The mathematical structure of Sudoku puzzles is akin to hard constraint satisfaction problems lying at the basis of many applications, including protein folding and the ground-state problem of glassy spin systems. Via an exact mapping of Sudoku into a deterministic, continuous-time dynamical system, here we show that the difficulty of Sudoku translates into transient chaotic behavior exhibited by this system. We also show that the escape rate κ, an invariant of transient chaos, provides a scalar measure of the puzzle's hardness that correlates well with human difficulty ratings. Accordingly, η = -log₁₀κ can be used to define a "Richter"-type scale for puzzle hardness, with easy puzzles having 0 < η ≤ 1, medium ones 1 < η ≤ 2, hard with 2 < η ≤ 3 and ultra-hard with η > 3. To our best knowledge, there are no known puzzles with η > 4.

The Chaos Within Sudoku

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ercsey-Ravasz, Mária; Toroczkai, Zoltán

2012-10-01

The mathematical structure of Sudoku puzzles is akin to hard constraint satisfaction problems lying at the basis of many applications, including protein folding and the ground-state problem of glassy spin systems. Via an exact mapping of Sudoku into a deterministic, continuous-time dynamical system, here we show that the difficulty of Sudoku translates into transient chaotic behavior exhibited by this system. We also show that the escape rate κ, an invariant of transient chaos, provides a scalar measure of the puzzle's hardness that correlates well with human difficulty ratings. Accordingly, η = -log10 κ can be used to define a ``Richter''-type scale for puzzle hardness, with easy puzzles having 0 < η <= 1, medium ones 1 < η <= 2, hard with 2 < η <= 3 and ultra-hard with η > 3. To our best knowledge, there are no known puzzles with η > 4.

Shared Environment Estimates for Educational Attainment: A Puzzle and Possible Solutions.

PubMed

Freese, Jeremy; Jao, Yu-Han

2017-02-01

Classical behavioral genetics models for twin and other family designs decompose traits into heritability, shared environment, and nonshared environment components. Estimates of heritability of adult traits are pervasively observed to be far higher than those of shared environment, which has been used to make broad claims about the impotence of upbringing. However, the most commonly studied nondemographic variable in many areas of social science, educational attainment, exhibits robustly high estimates both for heritability and for shared environment. When previously noticed, the usual explanation has emphasized family resources, but evidence suggests this is unlikely to explain the anomalous high estimates for shared environment of educational attainment. We articulate eight potential complementary explanations and discuss evidence of their prospective contributions to resolving the puzzle. In so doing, we hope to further consideration of how behavioral genetics findings may advance studies of social stratification beyond the effort to articulate specific genetic influences. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Building the Leviathan – Voluntary centralisation of punishment power sustains cooperation in humans

PubMed Central

Gross, Jörg; Méder, Zsombor Z.; Okamoto-Barth, Sanae; Riedl, Arno

2016-01-01

The prevalence of cooperation among humans is puzzling because cooperators can be exploited by free riders. Peer punishment has been suggested as a solution to this puzzle, but cumulating evidence questions its robustness in sustaining cooperation. Amongst others, punishment fails when it is not powerful enough, or when it elicits counter-punishment. Existing research, however, has ignored that the distribution of punishment power can be the result of social interactions. We introduce a novel experiment in which individuals can transfer punishment power to others. We find that while decentralised peer punishment fails to overcome free riding, the voluntary transfer of punishment power enables groups to sustain cooperation. This is achieved by non-punishing cooperators empowering those who are willing to punish in the interest of the group. Our results show how voluntary power centralisation can efficiently sustain cooperation, which could explain why hierarchical power structures are widespread among animals and humans. PMID:26888519

Parental autonomy support moderates the link between ADHD symptomatology and task perseverance.

PubMed

Thomassin, Kristel; Suveg, Cynthia

2012-12-01

The current study investigated the moderating role of mother and father autonomy support in the link between youth Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms and task perseverance. ADHD symptomatology was assessed using a multi-informant composite of mother, father, and teacher ratings, and youth perseverance and parental support of autonomy were examined using a behavioral observation paradigm (i.e., difficult puzzle task). Results indicated that youth who were rated as exhibiting more symptoms of ADHD persevered less on a difficult puzzle task and that this relationship was moderated by parental level of autonomy support. In the context of high parental autonomy support, the negative relation between ADHD and perseverance became nonsignificant. Findings indicate that supporting youth autonomy may have significant implications for their development and that it would be valuable to aid parents in developing the appropriate skills necessary for them to successfully support their child's autonomy.

Building the Leviathan--Voluntary centralisation of punishment power sustains cooperation in humans.

PubMed

Gross, Jörg; Méder, Zsombor Z; Okamoto-Barth, Sanae; Riedl, Arno

2016-02-18

The prevalence of cooperation among humans is puzzling because cooperators can be exploited by free riders. Peer punishment has been suggested as a solution to this puzzle, but cumulating evidence questions its robustness in sustaining cooperation. Amongst others, punishment fails when it is not powerful enough, or when it elicits counter-punishment. Existing research, however, has ignored that the distribution of punishment power can be the result of social interactions. We introduce a novel experiment in which individuals can transfer punishment power to others. We find that while decentralised peer punishment fails to overcome free riding, the voluntary transfer of punishment power enables groups to sustain cooperation. This is achieved by non-punishing cooperators empowering those who are willing to punish in the interest of the group. Our results show how voluntary power centralisation can efficiently sustain cooperation, which could explain why hierarchical power structures are widespread among animals and humans.

Missed Nursing Care and Unit-Level Nurse Workload in the Acute and Post-Acute Settings.

PubMed

Orique, Sabrina B; Patty, Christopher M; Woods, Ellen

2016-01-01

This study replicates previous research on the nature and causes of missed nursing care and adds an explanatory variable: unit-level nurse workload (patient turnover percentage). The study was conducted in California, which legally mandates nurse staffing ratios. Findings demonstrated no significant relationship between patient turnover and missed nursing care.

Missing the Boat--Impact of Just Missing Identification as a High-Performing School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiner, Jennie; Donaldson, Morgaen; Dougherty, Shaun M.

2017-01-01

This study capitalizes on the performance identification system under the No Child Left Behind waivers to estimate the school-level impact of just missing formal state recognition as a high-performing school. Using a fuzzy regression-discontinuity design and data from the early years of waiver implementation in Rhode Island, we find that, when…

Why Early Prevention of Childhood Obesity Is More Than a Medical Concern: A Health Economic Approach.

PubMed

Sonntag, Diana

2017-01-01

Childhood overweight and obesity are a non-deniable health concern with increasing economic attention. International studies provide robust evidence about substantial lifetime excess costs due to childhood obesity, thereby underscoring the urgent need to implement potent obesity prevention programs in early childhood. Fortunately, this is happening more and more, as evidenced by the increase in well-conducted interventions. Nevertheless, an important piece of the puzzle is often missing, that is, health economic evaluations. There are 3 main reasons for this: an insufficient number of economic approaches which consider the complexity of childhood obesity, a lack of (significant) long-term effect sizes of an intervention, and inadequate planning of health economic evaluations in the design phase of an intervention. Key Messages: It is advisable to involve health economists during the design phase of an intervention. Equally necessary is the development of a tailored toolbox for efficient data acquisition. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

A project-based system for including farmers in the EU ETS.

PubMed

Brandt, Urs Steiner; Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard

2011-04-01

Farmers in the EU do not trade greenhouse gases under the Kyoto agreement. This is an empirical puzzle because agriculture is a significant contributor of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the EU and may harvest private net gains from trade. Furthermore, the US has strongly advocated land-use practices as 'the missing link' in past climate negotiations. We argue that farmers have relatively low marginal reduction costs and that consequences in terms of the effect on permit price and technology are overall positive in the EU Emission Trading System (ETS). Thus, we propose a project-based system for including the farming practices in the EU ETS that reduces the uncertainty from measuring emission reduction in this sector. The system encourages GHG reduction either by introducing a new and less polluting practice or by reducing the polluting activity. When doing so, farmers will receive GHG permits corresponding to the amount of reduction which can be stored for later use or sold in the EU ETS. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of emotions in the maintenance of cooperative behaviors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Chunyan; Zhang, Jianlei; Weissing, Franz J.

2014-04-01

Our attention is focused on how individual emotions influence collective behaviors, which captures an aspect of reality missing from past studies: free riders may suffer some stress, which could adapt jointly with the individual stress intensity and size of the gaming group. With an evolutionary game theoretical approach, we gain the fixation probability for one mutant cooperator to invade and dominate the whole defecting population. When the stress intensity exceeds a threshold, natural selection favors cooperators replacing defectors in a finite population. We further infer that lower stress intensity is sufficient for one mutant cooperator to become fixed with an advantageous probability in a larger population. Moreover, when the gaming group is smaller than the population size, the more the return from the public goods, the lower the threshold of stress intensity required to facilitate the full dominance of cooperators. We hope our studies may show that individual sentiments or psychological activities will open up novel explanations for the puzzle of collective actions.

The Economics of Public Health: Missing Pieces to the Puzzle of Health System Reform.

PubMed

Mays, Glen P; Atherly, Adam J; Zaslavsky, Alan M

2017-12-01

The United States continues to experiment with health care delivery and financing innovations, but relatively little attention is given to the public health system and its capacity for improving health status in the U.S. population at large. The public health system operates as a multisector enterprise in which government agencies work in conjunction with private and voluntary organizations to identify health risks in the population and to mobilize community-wide actions that prevent and contain these risks. The Affordable Care Act and related health reform initiatives are generating new interest in the question of how best to expand and integrate public health approaches into the larger U.S. health system. The research articles featured in this issue of Health Services Research cluster around two broad topics: how public health agencies can deliver services efficiently and how public health agencies can interact productively with other elements of the health system. The results suggest promising avenues for aligning medical care and public health practices. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Disentangling the intragroup HI in Compact Groups of galaxies by means of X3D visualization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verdes-Montenegro, Lourdes; Vogt, Frederic; Aubery, Claire; Duret, Laetitie; Garrido, Julián; Sánchez, Susana; Yun, Min S.; Borthakur, Sanchayeeta; Hess, Kelley; Cluver, Michelle; Del Olmo, Ascensión; Perea, Jaime

2017-03-01

As an extreme kind of environment, Hickson Compact groups (HCGs) have shown to be very complex systems. HI-VLA observations revealed an intrincated network of HI tails and bridges, tracing pre-processing through extreme tidal interactions. We found HCGs to show a large HI deficiency supporting an evolutionary sequence where gas-rich groups transform via tidal interactions and ISM (interstellar medium) stripping into gas-poor systems. We detected as well a diffuse HI component in the groups, increasing with evolutionary phase, although with uncertain distribution. The complex net of detected HI as observed with the VLA seems hence so puzzling as the missing one. In this talk we revisit the existing VLA information on the HI distribution and kinematics of HCGs by means of X3D visualization. X3D constitutes a powerful tool to extract the most from HI data cubes and a mean of simplifying and easing the access to data visualization and publication via three-dimensional (3-D) diagrams.

CRISPR-Mediated Epigenome Editing

PubMed Central

Enríquez, Paul

2016-01-01

Mounting evidence has called into question our understanding of the role that the central dogma of molecular biology plays in human pathology. The conventional view that elucidating the mechanisms for translating genes into proteins can account for a panoply of diseases has proven incomplete. Landmark studies point to epigenetics as a missing piece of the puzzle. However, technological limitations have hindered the study of specific roles for histone post-translational modifications, DNA modifications, and non-coding RNAs in regulation of the epigenome and chromatin structure. This feature highlights CRISPR systems, including CRISPR-Cas9, as novel tools for targeted epigenome editing. It summarizes recent developments in the field, including integration of optogenetic and functional genomic approaches to explore new therapeutic opportunities, and underscores the importance of mitigating current limitations in the field. This comprehensive, analytical assessment identifies current research gaps, forecasts future research opportunities, and argues that as epigenome editing technologies mature, overcoming critical challenges in delivery, specificity, and fidelity should clear the path to bring these technologies into the clinic. PMID:28018139

7Be(n,α) and 7Be(n,p) cross-section measurement for the cosmological lithium problem at the n_TOF facility at CERN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barbagallo, M.; Colonna, N.; Aberle, O.; Andrzejewski, J.; Audouin, L.; Bécares, V.; Bacak, M.; Balibrea, J.; Barros, S.; Bečvář, F.; Beinrucker, C.; Berthoumieux, E.; Billowes, J.; Bosnar, D.; Brugger, M.; Caamaño, M.; Calviño, F.; Calviani, M.; Cano-Ott, D.; Cardella, R.; Casanovas, A.; Castelluccio, D. M.; Cerutti, F.; Chen, Y. H.; Chiaveri, E.; Cortés, G.; Cortés-Giraldo, M. A.; Cosentino, L.; Damone, L. A.; Diakaki, M.; Domingo-Pardo, C.; Dressler, R.; Dupont, E.; Durán, I.; Fernández-Domínguez, B.; Ferrari, A.; Ferreira, P.; Finocchiaro, P.; Furman, V.; Göbel, K.; García, A. R.; Gawlik, A.; Glodariu, T.; Gonçalves, I. F.; González, E.; Goverdovski, A.; Griesmayer, E.; Guerrero, C.; Gunsing, F.; Harada, H.; Heftrich, T.; Heinitz, S.; Heyse, J.; Jenkins, D. G.; Jericha, E.; Käppeler, F.; Kadi, Y.; Katabuchi, T.; Kavrigin, P.; Ketlerov, V.; Khryachkov, V.; Kimura, A.; Kivel, N.; Kokkoris, M.; Krtička, M.; Leal-Cidoncha, E.; Lederer, C.; Leeb, H.; Lerendegui-Marco, J.; Meo, S. Lo; Lonsdale, S. J.; Losito, R.; Macina, D.; Marganiec, J.; Martínez, T.; Massimi, C.; Mastinu, P.; Mastromarco, M.; Matteucci, F.; Maugeri, E. A.; Mendoza, E.; Mengoni, A.; Milazzo, P. M.; Mingrone, F.; Mirea, M.; Montesano, S.; Musumarra, A.; Nolte, R.; Oprea, A.; Patronis, N.; Pavlik, A.; Perkowski, J.; Porras, J. I.; Praena, J.; Quesada, J. M.; Rajeev, K.; Rauscher, T.; Reifarth, R.; Riego-Perez, A.; Rout, P. C.; Rubbia, C.; Ryan, J. A.; Sabaté-Gilarte, M.; Saxena, A.; Schillebeeckx, P.; Schmidt, S.; Schumann, D.; Sedyshev, P.; Smith, A. G.; Stamatopoulos, A.; Tagliente, G.; Tain, J. L.; Tarifeño-Saldivia, A.; Tassan-Got, L.; Tsinganis, A.; Valenta, S.; Vannini, G.; Variale, V.; Vaz, P.; Ventura, A.; Vlachoudis, V.; Vlastou, R.; Wallner, A.; Warren, S.; Weigand, M.; Weiss, C.; Wolf, C.; Woods, P. J.; Wright, T.; Žugec, P.

2017-09-01

The Cosmological Lithium Problem refers to the large discrepancy between the abundance of primordial 7Li predicted by the standard theory of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the value inferred from the so-called "Spite plateau" in halo stars. A possible explanation for this longstanding puzzle in Nuclear Astrophysics is related to the incorrect estimation of the destruction rate of 7Be, which is responsible for the production of 95% of primordial Lithium. While charged-particle induced reactions have mostly been ruled out, data on the 7Be(n,α) and 7Be(n,p) reactions are scarce or completely missing, so that a large uncertainty still affects the abundance of 7Li predicted by the standard theory of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Both reactions have been measured at the n_TOF facility at CERN, providing for the first time data in a wide neutron energy range.

CRISPR-Mediated Epigenome Editing.

PubMed

Enríquez, Paul

2016-12-01

Mounting evidence has called into question our understanding of the role that the central dogma of molecular biology plays in human pathology. The conventional view that elucidating the mechanisms for translating genes into proteins can account for a panoply of diseases has proven incomplete. Landmark studies point to epigenetics as a missing piece of the puzzle. However, technological limitations have hindered the study of specific roles for histone post-translational modifications, DNA modifications, and non-coding RNAs in regulation of the epigenome and chromatin structure. This feature highlights CRISPR systems, including CRISPR-Cas9, as novel tools for targeted epigenome editing. It summarizes recent developments in the field, including integration of optogenetic and functional genomic approaches to explore new therapeutic opportunities, and underscores the importance of mitigating current limitations in the field. This comprehensive, analytical assessment identifies current research gaps, forecasts future research opportunities, and argues that as epigenome editing technologies mature, overcoming critical challenges in delivery, specificity, and fidelity should clear the path to bring these technologies into the clinic.

Counting missing values in a metabolite-intensity data set for measuring the analytical performance of a metabolomics platform.

PubMed

Huan, Tao; Li, Liang

2015-01-20

Metabolomics requires quantitative comparison of individual metabolites present in an entire sample set. Unfortunately, missing intensity values in one or more samples are very common. Because missing values can have a profound influence on metabolomic results, the extent of missing values found in a metabolomic data set should be treated as an important parameter for measuring the analytical performance of a technique. In this work, we report a study on the scope of missing values and a robust method of filling the missing values in a chemical isotope labeling (CIL) LC-MS metabolomics platform. Unlike conventional LC-MS, CIL LC-MS quantifies the concentration differences of individual metabolites in two comparative samples based on the mass spectral peak intensity ratio of a peak pair from a mixture of differentially labeled samples. We show that this peak-pair feature can be explored as a unique means of extracting metabolite intensity information from raw mass spectra. In our approach, a peak-pair peaking algorithm, IsoMS, is initially used to process the LC-MS data set to generate a CSV file or table that contains metabolite ID and peak ratio information (i.e., metabolite-intensity table). A zero-fill program, freely available from MyCompoundID.org , is developed to automatically find a missing value in the CSV file and go back to the raw LC-MS data to find the peak pair and, then, calculate the intensity ratio and enter the ratio value into the table. Most of the missing values are found to be low abundance peak pairs. We demonstrate the performance of this method in analyzing an experimental and technical replicate data set of human urine metabolome. Furthermore, we propose a standardized approach of counting missing values in a replicate data set as a way of gauging the extent of missing values in a metabolomics platform. Finally, we illustrate that applying the zero-fill program, in conjunction with dansylation CIL LC-MS, can lead to a marked improvement in finding significant metabolites that differentiate bladder cancer patients and their controls in a metabolomics study of 109 subjects.

What Older People Like to Play: Genre Preferences and Acceptance of Casual Games.

PubMed

Chesham, Alvin; Wyss, Patric; Müri, René Martin; Mosimann, Urs Peter; Nef, Tobias

2017-04-18

In recent computerized cognitive training studies, video games have emerged as a promising tool that can benefit cognitive function and well-being. Whereas most video game training studies have used first-person shooter (FPS) action video games, subsequent studies found that older adults dislike this type of game and generally prefer casual video games (CVGs), which are a subtype of video games that are easy to learn and use simple rules and interfaces. Like other video games, CVGs are organized into genres (eg, puzzle games) based on the rule-directed interaction with the game. Importantly, game genre not only influences the ease of interaction and cognitive abilities CVGs demand, but also affects whether older adults are willing to play any particular genre. To date, studies looking at how different CVG genres resonate with older adults are lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate how much older adults enjoy different CVG genres and how favorably their CVG characteristics are rated. A total of 16 healthy adults aged 65 years and above playtested 7 CVGs from 4 genres: casual action, puzzle, simulation, and strategy video games. Thereafter, they rated casual game preference and acceptance of casual game characteristics using 4 scales from the Core Elements of the Gaming Experience Questionnaire (CEGEQ). For this, participants rated how much they liked the game (enjoyment), understood the rules of the game (game-play), learned to manipulate the game (control), and make the game their own (ownership). Overall, enjoyment and acceptance of casual game characteristics was high and significantly above the midpoint of the rating scale for all CVG genres. Mixed model analyses revealed that ratings of enjoyment and casual game characteristics were significantly influenced by CVG genre. Participants' mean enjoyment of casual puzzle games (mean 0.95 out of 1.00) was significantly higher than that for casual simulation games (mean 0.75 and 0.73). For casual game characteristics, casual puzzle and simulation games were given significantly higher game-play ratings than casual action games. Similarly, participants' control ratings for casual puzzle games were significantly higher than that for casual action and simulation games. Finally, ownership was rated significantly higher for casual puzzle and strategy games than for casual action games. The findings of this study show that CVGs have characteristics that are suitable and enjoyable for older adults. In addition, genre was found to influence enjoyment and ratings of CVG characteristics, indicating that puzzle games are particularly easy to understand, learn, and play, and are enjoyable. Future studies should continue exploring the potential of CVG interventions for older adults in improving cognitive function, everyday functioning, and well-being. We see particular potential for CVGs in people suffering from cognitive impairment due to dementia or brain injury. ©Alvin Chesham, Patric Wyss, René Martin Müri, Urs Peter Mosimann, Tobias Nef. Originally published in JMIR Serious Games (http://games.jmir.org), 18.04.2017.

What Older People Like to Play: Genre Preferences and Acceptance of Casual Games

PubMed Central

Chesham, Alvin; Wyss, Patric; Müri, René Martin

2017-01-01

Background In recent computerized cognitive training studies, video games have emerged as a promising tool that can benefit cognitive function and well-being. Whereas most video game training studies have used first-person shooter (FPS) action video games, subsequent studies found that older adults dislike this type of game and generally prefer casual video games (CVGs), which are a subtype of video games that are easy to learn and use simple rules and interfaces. Like other video games, CVGs are organized into genres (eg, puzzle games) based on the rule-directed interaction with the game. Importantly, game genre not only influences the ease of interaction and cognitive abilities CVGs demand, but also affects whether older adults are willing to play any particular genre. To date, studies looking at how different CVG genres resonate with older adults are lacking. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate how much older adults enjoy different CVG genres and how favorably their CVG characteristics are rated. Methods A total of 16 healthy adults aged 65 years and above playtested 7 CVGs from 4 genres: casual action, puzzle, simulation, and strategy video games. Thereafter, they rated casual game preference and acceptance of casual game characteristics using 4 scales from the Core Elements of the Gaming Experience Questionnaire (CEGEQ). For this, participants rated how much they liked the game (enjoyment), understood the rules of the game (game-play), learned to manipulate the game (control), and make the game their own (ownership). Results Overall, enjoyment and acceptance of casual game characteristics was high and significantly above the midpoint of the rating scale for all CVG genres. Mixed model analyses revealed that ratings of enjoyment and casual game characteristics were significantly influenced by CVG genre. Participants’ mean enjoyment of casual puzzle games (mean 0.95 out of 1.00) was significantly higher than that for casual simulation games (mean 0.75 and 0.73). For casual game characteristics, casual puzzle and simulation games were given significantly higher game-play ratings than casual action games. Similarly, participants’ control ratings for casual puzzle games were significantly higher than that for casual action and simulation games. Finally, ownership was rated significantly higher for casual puzzle and strategy games than for casual action games. Conclusions The findings of this study show that CVGs have characteristics that are suitable and enjoyable for older adults. In addition, genre was found to influence enjoyment and ratings of CVG characteristics, indicating that puzzle games are particularly easy to understand, learn, and play, and are enjoyable. Future studies should continue exploring the potential of CVG interventions for older adults in improving cognitive function, everyday functioning, and well-being. We see particular potential for CVGs in people suffering from cognitive impairment due to dementia or brain injury. PMID:28420601

Meaning of Missing Values in Eyewitness Recall and Accident Records

PubMed Central

Uttl, Bob; Kisinger, Kelly

2010-01-01

Background Eyewitness recalls and accident records frequently do not mention the conditions and behaviors of interest to researchers and lead to missing values and to uncertainty about the prevalence of these conditions and behaviors surrounding accidents. Missing values may occur because eyewitnesses report the presence but not the absence of obvious clues/accident features. We examined this possibility. Methodology/Principal Findings Participants watched car accident videos and were asked to recall as much information as they could remember about each accident. The results showed that eyewitnesses were far more likely to report the presence of present obvious clues than the absence of absent obvious clues even though they were aware of their absence. Conclusions One of the principal mechanisms causing missing values may be eyewitnesses' tendency to not report the absence of obvious features. We discuss the implications of our findings for both retrospective and prospective analyses of accident records, and illustrate the consequences of adopting inappropriate assumptions about the meaning of missing values using the Avaluator Avalanche Accident Prevention Card. PMID:20824054

Building a kinetic Monte Carlo model with a chosen accuracy.

PubMed

Bhute, Vijesh J; Chatterjee, Abhijit

2013-06-28

The kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method is a popular modeling approach for reaching large materials length and time scales. The KMC dynamics is erroneous when atomic processes that are relevant to the dynamics are missing from the KMC model. Recently, we had developed for the first time an error measure for KMC in Bhute and Chatterjee [J. Chem. Phys. 138, 084103 (2013)]. The error measure, which is given in terms of the probability that a missing process will be selected in the correct dynamics, requires estimation of the missing rate. In this work, we present an improved procedure for estimating the missing rate. The estimate found using the new procedure is within an order of magnitude of the correct missing rate, unlike our previous approach where the estimate was larger by orders of magnitude. This enables one to find the error in the KMC model more accurately. In addition, we find the time for which the KMC model can be used before a maximum error in the dynamics has been reached.

Decoding Codewords: Statistical Analysis of a Newspaper Puzzle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meacock, Susan; Meacock, Geoff

2012-01-01

In recent years English newspapers have started featuring a number of puzzles other than the ubiquitous crossword. Many of the puzzles are of Japanese origin such as Sudoku, Kakuro or Hidato. However, one recent one is very English and is called variously Cross-code, Alphapuzzle or some other name. In this article, it will be known as Codeword.…

Musings on the puzzle piece.

PubMed

Goin-Kochel, Robin P

2016-02-01

Following is a brief musing on Roy Grinker's discussion of what the puzzle piece symbolizes for autism during his presentation at the 2015 International Meeting for Autism Research. In his words, "The puzzle piece is ubiquitous." It likely holds a different meaning for each of us, and this is how one autism researcher sees it. © The Author(s) 2015.

Strategies and Correlates of Jigsaw Puzzle and Visuospatial Performance by Persons with Prader-Willi Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verdine, Brian N.; Troseth, Georgene L.; Hodapp, Robert M.; Dykens, Elisabeth M.

2008-01-01

Some individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome exhibit strengths in solving jigsaw puzzles. We compared visuospatial ability and jigsaw puzzle performance and strategies of 26 persons with Prader-Willi syndrome and 26 MA-matched typically developing controls. Individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome relied on piece shape. Those in the control group…

An Easy & Fun Way to Teach about How Science "Works": Popularizing Haack's Crossword-Puzzle Analogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pavlova, Iglika V.; Lewis, Kayla C.

2013-01-01

Science is a complex process, and we must not teach our students overly simplified versions of "the" scientific method. We propose that students can uncover the complex realities of scientific thinking by exploring the similarities and differences between solving the familiar crossword puzzles and scientific "puzzles."…

An Alternative Evaluation: Online Puzzle as a Course-End Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Genç, Zülfü; Aydemir, Emrah

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine whether the use of online puzzles in the instructional process has an effect on student achievement and learning retention. This study examined students ' perception and experiences on use of puzzle as an alternative evaluation tool. To achieve this aim, the following hypotheses were tested: using…

Lockean Puzzles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milligan, Tony

2007-01-01

In analytic moral philosophy it is standard to use unrealistic puzzles to set up moral dilemmas of a sort that I will call Lockean Puzzles. This paper will try to pinpoint just what is and what is not problematic about their use as a teaching tool or component part of philosophical arguments. I will try to flesh out the claim that what may be lost…

Su Doku and Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macintyre, Tom

2006-01-01

A lot has been made of the topical puzzle Su Doku, with various claims that it can support development of mathematical abilities. The latest, in March this year, came from the Training and Development Agency when a giant puzzle was used to attract graduates into a career of maths teaching. A giant Su Doku puzzle toured busy city centres with the…

Puzzle-Based Learning in Engineering Mathematics: Students' Attitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klymchuk, Sergiy

2017-01-01

The article reports on the results of two case studies on the impact of the regular use of puzzles as a pedagogical strategy in the teaching and learning of engineering mathematics. The intention of using puzzles is to engage students' emotions, creativity and curiosity and also to enhance their generic thinking skills and lateral thinking…

Using the Tower of Hanoi Puzzle to Infuse Your Mathematics Classroom with Computer Science Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marzocchi, Alison S.

2016-01-01

This article suggests that logic puzzles, such as the well-known Tower of Hanoi puzzle, can be used to introduce computer science concepts to mathematics students of all ages. Mathematics teachers introduce their students to computer science concepts that are enacted spontaneously and subconsciously throughout the solution to the Tower of Hanoi…

The Chaos Within Sudoku

PubMed Central

Ercsey-Ravasz, Mária; Toroczkai, Zoltán

2012-01-01

The mathematical structure of Sudoku puzzles is akin to hard constraint satisfaction problems lying at the basis of many applications, including protein folding and the ground-state problem of glassy spin systems. Via an exact mapping of Sudoku into a deterministic, continuous-time dynamical system, here we show that the difficulty of Sudoku translates into transient chaotic behavior exhibited by this system. We also show that the escape rate κ, an invariant of transient chaos, provides a scalar measure of the puzzle's hardness that correlates well with human difficulty ratings. Accordingly, η = −log10 κ can be used to define a “Richter”-type scale for puzzle hardness, with easy puzzles having 0 < η ≤ 1, medium ones 1 < η ≤ 2, hard with 2 < η ≤ 3 and ultra-hard with η > 3. To our best knowledge, there are no known puzzles with η > 4. PMID:23061008

Well-Being and Social Capital: Does Suicide Pose a Puzzle?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helliwell, John F.

2007-01-01

This paper has a double purpose: to see how well Durkheim's [1897, Le Suicide (Paris: 1e edition)] findings apply a century later, and to see if the beneficial effects of social capital on suicide prevention are parallel to those already found for subjective well-being (Helliwell 2003, Economic Modelling 20(2), pp. 331-360). The results show that…

Two-Dimensional Parson's Puzzles: The Concept, Tools, and First Observations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ihantola, Petri; Karavirta, Ville

2011-01-01

Parson's programming puzzles are a family of code construction assignments where lines of code are given, and the task is to form the solution by sorting and possibly selecting the correct code lines. We introduce a novel family of Parson's puzzles where the lines of code need to be sorted in two dimensions. The vertical dimension is used to order…

Math Puzzlers: 25 Reproducible Puzzles, Games, and Activities that Boost the Math Skills and Up the Fun! Grades 2-5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kimble-Ellis, Sonya

Puzzles, games, and activities provide perfect opportunities for students to work in groups, interact, communicate with each other, and discuss strategies. The activities, games, and puzzles contained in this book are designed to help students learn mathematics in a fun yet challenging way. The activities are designed to encourage students to…

The King and Prisoner Puzzle: A Way of Introducing the Components of Logical Structures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roh, Kyeong Hah; Lee, Yong Hah; Tanner, Austin

2016-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide issues related to student understanding of logical components that arise when solving word problems. We designed a logic problem called the King and Prisoner Puzzle--a linguistically simple, yet logically challenging problem. In this paper, we describe various student solutions to the puzzle and discuss the…

Factors influencing the academic motivation of individual college students.

PubMed

Yoshida, Masahiro; Tanaka, Masaaki; Mizuno, Kei; Ishii, Akira; Nozaki, Kumi; Urakawa, Ayako; Cho, Yuki; Kataoka, Yosky; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

2008-10-01

Motivation is an important psychological concept in academic learning. Subjects performed jigsaw puzzle and square puzzle sessions (as difficulty variant task) and 80%, 50%, and 20% completion sessions (as completion variant task). After square puzzle or 20% completion sessions, subjective motivation decreased. Although baseline scores on an academic motivation scale were negatively correlated with changes in subjective motivation for the square puzzle session, a positive correlation was observed for the 20% completion session. These suggest that while continual completion of facile task trials may support the motivation of college students with lower academic motivation, attempting difficult task trials may sustain that of those with higher academic motivation.

PSQP: Puzzle Solving by Quadratic Programming.

PubMed

Andalo, Fernanda A; Taubin, Gabriel; Goldenstein, Siome

2017-02-01

In this article we present the first effective method based on global optimization for the reconstruction of image puzzles comprising rectangle pieces-Puzzle Solving by Quadratic Programming (PSQP). The proposed novel mathematical formulation reduces the problem to the maximization of a constrained quadratic function, which is solved via a gradient ascent approach. The proposed method is deterministic and can deal with arbitrary identical rectangular pieces. We provide experimental results showing its effectiveness when compared to state-of-the-art approaches. Although the method was developed to solve image puzzles, we also show how to apply it to the reconstruction of simulated strip-shredded documents, broadening its applicability.

Satisfiability modulo theory and binary puzzle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Utomo, Putranto

2017-06-01

The binary puzzle is a sudoku-like puzzle with values in each cell taken from the set {0, 1}. We look at the mathematical theory behind it. A solved binary puzzle is an n × n binary array where n is even that satisfies the following conditions: (1) No three consecutive ones and no three consecutive zeros in each row and each column, (2) Every row and column is balanced, that is the number of ones and zeros must be equal in each row and in each column, (3) Every two rows and every two columns must be distinct. The binary puzzle had been proven to be an NP-complete problem [5]. Research concerning the satisfiability of formulas with respect to some background theory is called satisfiability modulo theory (SMT). An SMT solver is an extension of a satisfiability (SAT) solver. The notion of SMT can be used for solving various problem in mathematics and industries such as formula verification and operation research [1, 7]. In this paper we apply SMT to solve binary puzzles. In addition, we do an experiment in solving different sizes and different number of blanks. We also made comparison with two other approaches, namely by a SAT solver and exhaustive search.

Usefulness of Crossword Puzzles in Helping First-Year BVSc Students Learn Veterinary Terminology.

PubMed

Abuelo, Angel; Castillo, Cristina; May, Stephen A

Appropriate terminology is essential for successful communication among health professionals. However, students have traditionally been encouraged to learn terminology by rote memorization and recall, strategies that students try to avoid. The use of crossword puzzles as a learning tool has been evaluated in other education disciplines, but not for terminology related to veterinary science. Hence, the objective of this study was to test whether crossword puzzles might be an effective aid to learning veterinary terminology. Forty-two first-year students enrolled in a Bachelor of Veterinary Science program were randomly divided into two groups and their previous knowledge of veterinary terms tested. One group received a list of 30 terms with their definitions. The other group received the same list plus six specially designed puzzles incorporating these 30 terms. After 50 minutes, both groups completed a post-intervention test and the results were compared statistically. The results showed that the students using the crossword puzzles performed better in the post-intervention test, correctly retaining more terms than the students using only rote learning. In addition, qualitative data, gathered through an electronic survey and focus group discussions, revealed a positive attitude among students toward the use of crossword puzzles.

Mining Missing Hyperlinks from Human Navigation Traces: A Case Study of Wikipedia.

PubMed

West, Robert; Paranjape, Ashwin; Leskovec, Jure

Hyperlinks are an essential feature of the World Wide Web. They are especially important for online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia: an article can often only be understood in the context of related articles, and hyperlinks make it easy to explore this context. But important links are often missing, and several methods have been proposed to alleviate this problem by learning a linking model based on the structure of the existing links. Here we propose a novel approach to identifying missing links in Wikipedia. We build on the fact that the ultimate purpose of Wikipedia links is to aid navigation. Rather than merely suggesting new links that are in tune with the structure of existing links, our method finds missing links that would immediately enhance Wikipedia's navigability. We leverage data sets of navigation paths collected through a Wikipedia-based human-computation game in which users must find a short path from a start to a target article by only clicking links encountered along the way. We harness human navigational traces to identify a set of candidates for missing links and then rank these candidates. Experiments show that our procedure identifies missing links of high quality.

Mining Missing Hyperlinks from Human Navigation Traces: A Case Study of Wikipedia

PubMed Central

West, Robert; Paranjape, Ashwin; Leskovec, Jure

2015-01-01

Hyperlinks are an essential feature of the World Wide Web. They are especially important for online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia: an article can often only be understood in the context of related articles, and hyperlinks make it easy to explore this context. But important links are often missing, and several methods have been proposed to alleviate this problem by learning a linking model based on the structure of the existing links. Here we propose a novel approach to identifying missing links in Wikipedia. We build on the fact that the ultimate purpose of Wikipedia links is to aid navigation. Rather than merely suggesting new links that are in tune with the structure of existing links, our method finds missing links that would immediately enhance Wikipedia's navigability. We leverage data sets of navigation paths collected through a Wikipedia-based human-computation game in which users must find a short path from a start to a target article by only clicking links encountered along the way. We harness human navigational traces to identify a set of candidates for missing links and then rank these candidates. Experiments show that our procedure identifies missing links of high quality. PMID:26634229

Jigsaw Puzzles As Cognitive Enrichment (PACE) - the effect of solving jigsaw puzzles on global visuospatial cognition in adults 50 years of age and older: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Fissler, Patrick; Küster, Olivia C; Loy, Laura S; Laptinskaya, Daria; Rosenfelder, Martin J; von Arnim, Christine A F; Kolassa, Iris-Tatjana

2017-09-06

Neurocognitive disorders are an important societal challenge and the need for early prevention is increasingly recognized. Meta-analyses show beneficial effects of cognitive activities on cognition. However, high financial costs, low intrinsic motivation, logistic challenges of group-based activities, or the need to operate digital devices prevent their widespread application in clinical practice. Solving jigsaw puzzles is a cognitive activity without these hindering characteristics, but cognitive effects have not been investigated yet. With this study, we aim to evaluate the effect of solving jigsaw puzzles on visuospatial cognition, daily functioning, and psychological outcomes. The pre-posttest, assessor-blinded study will include 100 cognitively healthy adults 50 years of age or older, who will be randomly assigned to a jigsaw puzzle group or a cognitive health counseling group. Within the 5-week intervention period, participants in the jigsaw puzzle group will engage in 30 days of solving jigsaw puzzles for at least 1 h per day and additionally receive cognitive health counseling. The cognitive health counseling group will receive the same counseling intervention but no jigsaw puzzles. The primary outcome, global visuospatial cognition, will depict the average of the z-standardized performance scores in visuospatial tests of perception, constructional praxis, mental rotation, processing speed, flexibility, working memory, reasoning, and episodic memory. As secondary outcomes, we will assess the eight cognitive abilities, objective and subjective visuospatial daily functioning, psychological well-being, general self-efficacy, and perceived stress. The primary data analysis will be based on mixed-effects models in an intention-to-treat approach. Solving jigsaw puzzles is a low-cost, intrinsically motivating, cognitive leisure activity, which can be executed alone or with others and without the need to operate a digital device. In the case of positive results, these characteristics allow an easy implementation of solving jigsaw puzzles in clinical practice as a way to improve visuospatial functioning. Whether cognitive impairment and loss of independence in everyday functioning might be prevented or delayed in the long run has to be examined in future studies. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02667314 . Registered on 27 January 2016.

A resolution of the inclusive flavor-breaking τ |Vus| puzzle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hudspith, Renwick J.; Lewis, Randy; Maltman, Kim; Zanotti, James

2018-06-01

We revisit the puzzle of |Vus | values obtained from the conventional implementation of hadronic-τ- decay-based flavor-breaking finite-energy sum rules lying > 3 σ below the expectations of three-family unitarity. Significant unphysical dependences of |Vus | on the choice of weight, w, and upper limit, s0, of the experimental spectral integrals entering the analysis are confirmed, and a breakdown of assumptions made in estimating higher dimension, D > 4, OPE contributions identified as the main source of these problems. A combination of continuum and lattice results is shown to suggest a new implementation of the flavor-breaking sum rule approach in which not only |Vus |, but also D > 4 effective condensates, are fit to data. Lattice results are also used to clarify how to reliably treat the slowly converging D = 2 OPE series. The new sum rule implementation is shown to cure the problems of the unphysical w- and s0-dependence of |Vus | and to produce results ∼0.0020 higher than those of the conventional implementation employing the same data. With B-factory input, and using, in addition, dispersively constrained results for the Kπ branching fractions, we find |Vus | = 0.2231(27)exp(4)th, in excellent agreement with the result from Kℓ3, and compatible within errors with the expectations of three-family unitarity, thus resolving the long-standing inclusive τ |Vus | puzzle.

Age-related changes in learning across early childhood: a new imitation task.

PubMed

Dickerson, Kelly; Gerhardstein, Peter; Zack, Elizabeth; Barr, Rachel

2013-11-01

Imitation plays a critical role in social and cognitive development, but the social learning mechanisms contributing to the development of imitation are not well understood. We developed a new imitation task designed to examine social learning mechanisms across the early childhood period. The new task involves assembly of abstract-shaped puzzle pieces in an arbitrary sequence on a magnet board. Additionally, we introduce a new scoring system that extends traditional goal-directed imitation scoring to include measures of both children's success at copying gestures (sliding the puzzle pieces) and goals (connecting the puzzle pieces). In Experiment 1, we demonstrated an age-invariant baseline from 1.5 to 3.5 years of age, accompanied by age-related changes in success at copying goals and gestures from a live demonstrator. In Experiment 2, we applied our new task to learning following a video demonstration. Imitation performance in the video demonstration group lagged behind that of the live demonstration group, showing a protracted video deficit effect. Across both experiments, children were more likely to copy gestures at earlier ages, suggesting mimicry, and only later copy both goals and gestures, suggesting imitation. Taken together, the findings suggest that different social learning strategies may predominate in imitation learning dependent upon the degree of object affordance, task novelty, and task complexity. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

ASB Clinical Biomechanics Award Paper 2010: Virtual Pre-Operative Reconstruction Planning for Comminuted Articular Fractures

PubMed Central

Thomas, Thaddeus P.; Anderson, Donald D.; Willis, Andrew R.; Liu, Pengcheng; Marsh, J. Lawrence; Brown, Thomas D.

2010-01-01

Background Highly comminuted intra-articular fractures are complex and difficult injuries to treat. Once emergent care is rendered, the definitive treatment objective is to restore the original anatomy while minimizing surgically induced trauma. Operations that use limited or percutaneous approaches help preserve tissue vitality, but reduced visibility makes reconstruction more difficult. A pre-operative plan of how comminuted fragments would best be re-positioned to restore anatomy helps in executing a successful reduction. Methods In this study, methods for virtually reconstructing a tibial plafond fracture were developed and applied to clinical cases. Building upon previous benchtop work, novel image analysis techniques and puzzle solving algorithms were developed for clinical application. Specialty image analysis tools were used to segment the fracture fragment geometries from CT data. The original anatomy was then restored by matching fragment native (periosteal and subchondral) bone surfaces to an intact template, generated from the uninjured contralateral limb. Findings Virtual reconstructions obtained for ten tibial plafond fracture cases had average alignment errors of 0.39 (0.5 standard deviation) mm. In addition to precise reduction planning, 3D puzzle solutions can help identify articular deformities and bone loss. Interpretation The results from this study indicate that 3D puzzle solving provides a powerful new tool for planning the surgical reconstruction of comminuted articular fractures. PMID:21215501

Having Fun and Accepting Challenges Are Natural Instincts: Jigsaw Puzzles to Challenge Students and Test Their Abilities While Having Fun!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodenbaugh, Hanna R.; Lujan, Heidi L.; Rodenbaugh, David W.; DiCarlo, Stephen E.

2014-01-01

Because jigsaw puzzles are fun, and challenging, students will endure and discover that persistence and grit are rewarded. Importantly, play and fun have a biological place just like sleep and dreams. Students also feel a sense of accomplishment when they have completed a puzzle. Importantly, the reward of mastering a challenge builds confidence…

Utility of Self-Made Crossword Puzzles as an Active Learning Method to Study Biochemistry in Undergraduate Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coticone, Sulekha Rao

2013-01-01

To incorporate an active learning component in a one-semester biochemistry course, students were asked to create crossword puzzles using key concepts. Student observations on the use of self-made crossword puzzles as an active-learning instructional tool were collected using a 5-point Likert survey at the end of the semester. A majority of the…

Search Methods Used to Locate Missing Cats and Locations Where Missing Cats Are Found.

PubMed

Huang, Liyan; Coradini, Marcia; Rand, Jacquie; Morton, John; Albrecht, Kat; Wasson, Brigid; Robertson, Danielle

2018-01-02

Missing pet cats are often not found by their owners, with many being euthanized at shelters. This study aimed to describe times that lost cats were missing for, search methods associated with their recovery, locations where found and distances travelled. A retrospective case series was conducted where self-selected participants whose cat had gone missing provided data in an online questionnaire. Of the 1210 study cats, only 61% were found within one year, with 34% recovered alive by the owner within 7 days. Few cats were found alive after 90 days. There was evidence that physical searching increased the chance of finding the cat alive ( p = 0.073), and 75% of cats were found within 500 m of the point of escape. Up to 75% of cats with outdoor access traveled 1609 m, further than the distance traveled by indoor-only cats (137 m; p ≤ 0.001). Cats considered to be highly curious were more likely to be found inside someone else's house compared to other personality types. These findings suggest that thorough physical searching is a useful strategy, and should be conducted within the first week after cats go missing. They also support further investigation into whether shelter, neuter and return programs improve the chance of owners recovering missing cats and decrease numbers of cats euthanized in shelters.

Persons with dementia missing in the community: is it wandering or something unique?

PubMed

Rowe, Meredeth A; Vandeveer, Sydney S; Greenblum, Catherine A; List, Cassandra N; Fernandez, Rachael M; Mixson, Natalie E; Ahn, Hyo C

2011-06-05

At some point in the disease process many persons with dementia (PWD) will have a missing incident and be unable to safely return to their care setting. In previous research studies, researchers have begun to question whether this phenomenon should continue to be called wandering since the antecedents and characteristics of a missing incident are dissimilar to accepted definitions of wandering in dementia. The purpose of this study was to confirm previous findings regarding the antecedents and characteristics of missing incidents, understand the differences between those found dead and alive, and compare the characteristics of a missing incident to that of wandering. A retrospective design was used to analyse 325 newspaper reports of PWD missing in the community. The primary antecedent to a missing incident, particularly in community-dwelling PWD, was becoming lost while conducting a normal and permitted activity alone in the community. The other common antecedent was a lapse in supervision with the expectation that the PWD would remain in a safe location but did not. Deaths most commonly occurred in unpopulated areas due to exposure and drowning. Those who died were found closer to the place last seen and took longer to find, but there were no significant differences in gender or age. The key characteristics of a missing incident were: unpredictable, non-repetitive, temporally appropriate but spatially-disordered, and while using multiple means of movement (walking, car, public transportation). Missing incidents occurred without the discernible pattern present in wandering such as lapping or pacing, repetitive and temporally-disordered. This research supports the mounting evidence that the concept of wandering, in its formal sense, and missing incidents are two distinct concepts. It will be important to further develop the concept of missing incidents by identifying the differences and similarities from wandering. This will allow a more targeted assessment and intervention strategy for each problem.

Persons with dementia missing in the community: Is it wandering or something unique?

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background At some point in the disease process many persons with dementia (PWD) will have a missing incident and be unable to safely return to their care setting. In previous research studies, researchers have begun to question whether this phenomenon should continue to be called wandering since the antecedents and characteristics of a missing incident are dissimilar to accepted definitions of wandering in dementia. The purpose of this study was to confirm previous findings regarding the antecedents and characteristics of missing incidents, understand the differences between those found dead and alive, and compare the characteristics of a missing incident to that of wandering. Methods A retrospective design was used to analyse 325 newspaper reports of PWD missing in the community. Results The primary antecedent to a missing incident, particularly in community-dwelling PWD, was becoming lost while conducting a normal and permitted activity alone in the community. The other common antecedent was a lapse in supervision with the expectation that the PWD would remain in a safe location but did not. Deaths most commonly occurred in unpopulated areas due to exposure and drowning. Those who died were found closer to the place last seen and took longer to find, but there were no significant differences in gender or age. The key characteristics of a missing incident were: unpredictable, non-repetitive, temporally appropriate but spatially-disordered, and while using multiple means of movement (walking, car, public transportation). Missing incidents occurred without the discernible pattern present in wandering such as lapping or pacing, repetitive and temporally-disordered. Conclusions This research supports the mounting evidence that the concept of wandering, in its formal sense, and missing incidents are two distinct concepts. It will be important to further develop the concept of missing incidents by identifying the differences and similarities from wandering. This will allow a more targeted assessment and intervention strategy for each problem. PMID:21639942

The treatment of missing data in a large cardiovascular clinical outcomes study.

PubMed

Little, Roderick J; Wang, Julia; Sun, Xiang; Tian, Hong; Suh, Eun-Young; Lee, Michael; Sarich, Troy; Oppenheimer, Leonard; Plotnikov, Alexei; Wittes, Janet; Cook-Bruns, Nancy; Burton, Paul; Gibson, C Michael; Mohanty, Surya

2016-06-01

The potential impact of missing data on the results of clinical trials has received heightened attention recently. A National Research Council study provides recommendations for limiting missing data in clinical trial design and conduct, and principles for analysis, including the need for sensitivity analyses to assess robustness of findings to alternative assumptions about the missing data. A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee raised missing data as a serious concern in their review of results from the ATLAS ACS 2 TIMI 51 study, a large clinical trial that assessed rivaroxaban for its ability to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction or stroke in patients with acute coronary syndrome. This case study describes a variety of measures that were taken to address concerns about the missing data. A range of analyses are described to assess the potential impact of missing data on conclusions. In particular, measures of the amount of missing data are discussed, and the fraction of missing information from multiple imputation is proposed as an alternative measure. The sensitivity analysis in the National Research Council study is modified in the context of survival analysis where some individuals are lost to follow-up. The impact of deviations from ignorable censoring is assessed by differentially increasing the hazard of the primary outcome in the treatment groups and multiply imputing events between dropout and the end of the study. Tipping-point analyses are described, where the deviation from ignorable censoring that results in a reversal of significance of the treatment effect is determined. A study to determine the vital status of participants lost to follow-up was also conducted, and the results of including this additional information are assessed. Sensitivity analyses suggest that findings of the ATLAS ACS 2 TIMI 51 study are robust to missing data; this robustness is reinforced by the follow-up study, since inclusion of data from this study had little impact on the study conclusions. Missing data are a serious problem in clinical trials. The methods presented here, namely, the sensitivity analyses, the follow-up study to determine survival of missing cases, and the proposed measurement of missing data via the fraction of missing information, have potential application in other studies involving survival analysis where missing data are a concern. © The Author(s) 2016.

Probes for dark matter physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khlopov, Maxim Yu.

The existence of cosmological dark matter is in the bedrock of the modern cosmology. The dark matter is assumed to be nonbaryonic and consists of new stable particles. Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) miracle appeals to search for neutral stable weakly interacting particles in underground experiments by their nuclear recoil and at colliders by missing energy and momentum, which they carry out. However, the lack of WIMP effects in their direct underground searches and at colliders can appeal to other forms of dark matter candidates. These candidates may be weakly interacting slim particles, superweakly interacting particles, or composite dark matter, in which new particles are bound. Their existence should lead to cosmological effects that can find probes in the astrophysical data. However, if composite dark matter contains stable electrically charged leptons and quarks bound by ordinary Coulomb interaction in elusive dark atoms, these charged constituents of dark atoms can be the subject of direct experimental test at the colliders. The models, predicting stable particles with charge ‑ 2 without stable particles with charges + 1 and ‑ 1 can avoid severe constraints on anomalous isotopes of light elements and provide solution for the puzzles of dark matter searches. In such models, the excessive ‑ 2 charged particles are bound with primordial helium in O-helium atoms, maintaining specific nuclear-interacting form of the dark matter. The successful development of composite dark matter scenarios appeals for experimental search for doubly charged constituents of dark atoms, making experimental search for exotic stable double charged particles experimentum crucis for dark atoms of composite dark matter.

Chance findings about early holocene tidal marshes of Grays Harbor, Washington, in relation to rapidly rising seas and great subduction earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Phipps, James B.; Hemphill-Haley, Eileen; Atwater, Brian F.

2015-06-18

The puzzles posed by these findings include: (1) How did the marshes manage to endure centuries of relative sea-level rise that likely approached 1 cm/yr on average? (2) Did the marshes also endure subsidence that accompanied great thrust earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone? (3) Was their eventual drowning triggered by a Cascadia earthquake of unusually large size, or can the drowning be explained by sea-level rise that included a jump from drainage of glacial Lake Agassiz?

Family caregivers of palliative cancer patients at home: the puzzle of pain management.

PubMed

Mehta, Anita; Cohen, S Robin; Carnevale, Franco A; Ezer, Hélène; Ducharme, Francine

2010-01-01

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to understand the processes used by family caregivers to manage the pain of cancer patients at home. A total of 24 family caregivers participated. They were recruited using purposeful then theoretical sampling. The data sources were taped, transcribed (semi-structured) interviews and field notes. Data analysis was based on Strauss and Corbin's (1998) requirements for open, axial, and selective coding. The result was an explanatory model titled "the puzzle of pain management," which includes four main processes: "drawing on past experiences"; "strategizing a game plan"; "striving to respond to pain"; and "gauging the best fit," a decision-making process that joins the puzzle pieces. Understanding how family caregivers assemble their puzzle pieces can help health care professionals make decisions related to the care plans they create for pain control and help them to recognize the importance of providing information as part of resolving the puzzle of pain management.

The odd-even effect in Sudoku puzzles: effects of working memory, aging, and experience.

PubMed

Chang, Hye-Sang; Gibson, Janet M

2011-01-01

The odd-even effect in numerical processing has been explained as the easier processing of even numbers compared with odd numbers. We investigated this effect in Sudoku puzzles, a reasoning problem that uses numbers but does not require arithmetic operations. Specifically, we asked whether the odd-even effect occurred with Sudoku puzzles and whether individual differences in working memory (WM), aging, and experience with Sudoku modulated this effect. We manipulated the presence of odd and even numbers in Sudoku puzzles, measured WM with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and backward digit span task, tested older and younger adults, and collected Sudoku experience frequency. Performance on Sudoku was more accurate for even puzzles than odd ones. Younger, experienced, and higher-WM participants were more accurate on Sudoku, but these individual difference variables did not interact with the odd-even effect. Odd numbers may impose more cognitive load than even numbers, but future research is needed to examine how age, experience, or WM may influence the odd-even effect.

Intelligence Secrecy and Transparency: Finding the Proper Balance from the War of Independence to the War on Terror (Strategic Insights, Volume 6, Issue 3, May 2007)

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-05-01

NIE), requested by Congress, prior to the House and Senate vote to authorize the President to use force against Iraq. Secretary of State Colin ... Bamford , The Puzzle Palace (London: Penguin Books, 1982), and David Kahn, Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes 1939-1943

Determination of Al Content in Commercial Samples through Stoichiometry: A Simple Experiment for an Advanced High-School Chemistry Olympiad Preparatory Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Lima, Kassio M. G.; da Silva, Amison R. L.; de Souza, Joao P. F.; das Neves, Luiz S.; Gasparotto, Luiz H. S.

2014-01-01

Stoichiometry has always been a puzzling subject. This may be partially due to the way it is introduced to students, with stoichiometric coefficients usually provided in the reaction. If the stoichiometric coefficients are not given, students find it very difficult to solve problems. This article describes a simple 4-h laboratory experiment for…

Piecing Together the Puzzle of Graduate Employment: Factors that Shape the Graduate Work Expectations of Human Resource Management Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parris, Melissa A.; Saville, Kerrie

2011-01-01

Providing graduates with a set of skills and attributes relevant to their future employment remains a key topic in both higher education policy and research. This paper reports findings from a pilot study of human resource management (HRM) students' perceptions of the graduate work experience. Specifically, it focuses on how these perceptions are…

A general method for handling missing binary outcome data in randomized controlled trials

PubMed Central

Jackson, Dan; White, Ian R; Mason, Dan; Sutton, Stephen

2014-01-01

Aims The analysis of randomized controlled trials with incomplete binary outcome data is challenging. We develop a general method for exploring the impact of missing data in such trials, with a focus on abstinence outcomes. Design We propose a sensitivity analysis where standard analyses, which could include ‘missing = smoking’ and ‘last observation carried forward’, are embedded in a wider class of models. Setting We apply our general method to data from two smoking cessation trials. Participants A total of 489 and 1758 participants from two smoking cessation trials. Measurements The abstinence outcomes were obtained using telephone interviews. Findings The estimated intervention effects from both trials depend on the sensitivity parameters used. The findings differ considerably in magnitude and statistical significance under quite extreme assumptions about the missing data, but are reasonably consistent under more moderate assumptions. Conclusions A new method for undertaking sensitivity analyses when handling missing data in trials with binary outcomes allows a wide range of assumptions about the missing data to be assessed. In two smoking cessation trials the results were insensitive to all but extreme assumptions. PMID:25171441

Training Methods and Tactical Decision-Making Simulations

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

TDS TDG ALL Standard Deviation 100.60 14.85 87.40 Puzzle, Card , Board Subjects Responding 5 3 8 Total # of Hours/Year 805 774 1579 Minimum...Table 7 shows that participants had the most commercial game experience with puzzle, card , board, and adventure/fantasy type games. Participants...circle all that apply) 1. first person shooter 2. flight simulations 3. racing 4. other sports 5. puzzle, strategy, card , board

Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology.

PubMed

Schlomer, Gabriel L; Bauman, Sheri; Card, Noel A

2010-01-01

This article urges counseling psychology researchers to recognize and report how missing data are handled, because consumers of research cannot accurately interpret findings without knowing the amount and pattern of missing data or the strategies that were used to handle those data. Patterns of missing data are reviewed, and some of the common strategies for dealing with them are described. The authors provide an illustration in which data were simulated and evaluate 3 methods of handling missing data: mean substitution, multiple imputation, and full information maximum likelihood. Results suggest that mean substitution is a poor method for handling missing data, whereas both multiple imputation and full information maximum likelihood are recommended alternatives to this approach. The authors suggest that researchers fully consider and report the amount and pattern of missing data and the strategy for handling those data in counseling psychology research and that editors advise researchers of this expectation.

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

Pichara, Karim; Protopapas, Pavlos

We present an automatic classification method for astronomical catalogs with missing data. We use Bayesian networks and a probabilistic graphical model that allows us to perform inference to predict missing values given observed data and dependency relationships between variables. To learn a Bayesian network from incomplete data, we use an iterative algorithm that utilizes sampling methods and expectation maximization to estimate the distributions and probabilistic dependencies of variables from data with missing values. To test our model, we use three catalogs with missing data (SAGE, Two Micron All Sky Survey, and UBVI) and one complete catalog (MACHO). We examine howmore » classification accuracy changes when information from missing data catalogs is included, how our method compares to traditional missing data approaches, and at what computational cost. Integrating these catalogs with missing data, we find that classification of variable objects improves by a few percent and by 15% for quasar detection while keeping the computational cost the same.« less

RNA-Puzzles Round III: 3D RNA structure prediction of five riboswitches and one ribozyme

PubMed Central

Biesiada, Marcin; Boniecki, Michał J.; Chou, Fang-Chieh; Ferré-D'Amaré, Adrian R.; Das, Rhiju; Dunin-Horkawicz, Stanisław; Geniesse, Caleb; Kappel, Kalli; Kladwang, Wipapat; Krokhotin, Andrey; Łach, Grzegorz E.; Major, François; Mann, Thomas H.; Pachulska-Wieczorek, Katarzyna; Patel, Dinshaw J.; Piccirilli, Joseph A.; Popenda, Mariusz; Purzycka, Katarzyna J.; Ren, Aiming; Rice, Greggory M.; Santalucia, John; Tandon, Arpit; Trausch, Jeremiah J.; Wang, Jian; Weeks, Kevin M.; Williams, Benfeard; Xiao, Yi; Zhang, Dong; Zok, Tomasz

2017-01-01

RNA-Puzzles is a collective experiment in blind 3D RNA structure prediction. We report here a third round of RNA-Puzzles. Five puzzles, 4, 8, 12, 13, 14, all structures of riboswitch aptamers and puzzle 7, a ribozyme structure, are included in this round of the experiment. The riboswitch structures include biological binding sites for small molecules (S-adenosyl methionine, cyclic diadenosine monophosphate, 5-amino 4-imidazole carboxamide riboside 5′-triphosphate, glutamine) and proteins (YbxF), and one set describes large conformational changes between ligand-free and ligand-bound states. The Varkud satellite ribozyme is the most recently solved structure of a known large ribozyme. All puzzles have established biological functions and require structural understanding to appreciate their molecular mechanisms. Through the use of fast-track experimental data, including multidimensional chemical mapping, and accurate prediction of RNA secondary structure, a large portion of the contacts in 3D have been predicted correctly leading to similar topologies for the top ranking predictions. Template-based and homology-derived predictions could predict structures to particularly high accuracies. However, achieving biological insights from de novo prediction of RNA 3D structures still depends on the size and complexity of the RNA. Blind computational predictions of RNA structures already appear to provide useful structural information in many cases. Similar to the previous RNA-Puzzles Round II experiment, the prediction of non-Watson–Crick interactions and the observed high atomic clash scores reveal a notable need for an algorithm of improvement. All prediction models and assessment results are available at http://ahsoka.u-strasbg.fr/rnapuzzles/. PMID:28138060

Effect of a puzzle on the process of students' learning about cardiac physiology.

PubMed

Cardozo, Lais Tono; Miranda, Aline Soares; Moura, Maria José Costa Sampaio; Marcondes, Fernanda Klein

2016-09-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of using a puzzle to learn about cardiac physiology. Students were divided into control and game groups. In class 1, the control group had a 2-h theoretical class about cardiac physiology, including a detailed description of the phases of the cardiac cycle, whereas the game group had a 50-min theoretical class without the description of the cardiac cycle. In class 2, the control group did an assessment exercise before an activity with the cardiac puzzle and the game group answered questions after the above-mentioned activity. While solving the puzzle, the students had to describe the cardiac cycle by relating the concepts of heart morphology and physiology. To evaluate short-term learning, the number of wrong answers and grades in the assessment exercise were compared between the control and game groups. To evaluate medium-term learning, we compared the grades obtained by students of the control and game groups in questions about cardiac physiology that formed part of the academic exam. In the assessment exercise, the game group presented a lower number of errors and higher score compared with the control group. In the academic exam, applied after both groups had used the puzzle, there was no difference in the scores obtained by the control and game groups in questions about cardiac physiology. These results showed a positive effect of the puzzle on students' learning about cardiac physiology compared with those not using the puzzle. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

Replacing missing values using trustworthy data values from web data sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Izham Jaya, M.; Sidi, Fatimah; Mat Yusof, Sharmila; Suriani Affendey, Lilly; Ishak, Iskandar; Jabar, Marzanah A.

2017-09-01

In practice, collected data usually are incomplete and contains missing value. Existing approaches in managing missing values overlook the importance of trustworthy data values in replacing missing values. In view that trusted completed data is very important in data analysis, we proposed a framework of missing value replacement using trustworthy data values from web data sources. The proposed framework adopted ontology to map data values from web data sources to the incomplete dataset. As data from web is conflicting with each other, we proposed a trust score measurement based on data accuracy and data reliability. Trust score is then used to select trustworthy data values from web data sources for missing values replacement. We successfully implemented the proposed framework using financial dataset and presented the findings in this paper. From our experiment, we manage to show that replacing missing values with trustworthy data values is important especially in a case of conflicting data to solve missing values problem.

Near-misses are an opportunity to improve patient safety: adapting strategies of high reliability organizations to healthcare.

PubMed

Van Spall, Harriette; Kassam, Alisha; Tollefson, Travis T

2015-08-01

Near-miss investigations in high reliability organizations (HROs) aim to mitigate risk and improve system safety. Healthcare settings have a higher rate of near-misses and subsequent adverse events than most high-risk industries, but near-misses are not systematically reported or analyzed. In this review, we will describe the strategies for near-miss analysis that have facilitated a culture of safety and continuous quality improvement in HROs. Near-miss analysis is routine and systematic in HROs such as aviation. Strategies implemented in aviation include the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, which undertakes systematic analyses of near-misses, so that findings can be incorporated into Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Other strategies resulting from incident analyses include Crew Resource Management (CRM) for enhanced communication, situational awareness training, adoption of checklists during operations, and built-in redundancy within systems. Health care organizations should consider near-misses as opportunities for quality improvement. The systematic reporting and analysis of near-misses, commonplace in HROs, can be adapted to health care settings to prevent adverse events and improve clinical outcomes.

Puzzling Ways to Learn

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

School Shop, 1975

1975-01-01

Four authors present crossword and wordfind puzzles developed for students in the areas of electricity, principles of hydraulics, finishing, construction, thermoplastic materials, patternmaking, wood, occupations, and drafting. (BP)

Missing data within a quantitative research study: How to assess it, treat it, and why you should care.

PubMed

Bannon, William

2015-04-01

Missing data typically refer to the absence of one or more values within a study variable(s) contained in a dataset. The development is often the result of a study participant choosing not to provide a response to a survey item. In general, a greater number of missing values within a dataset reflects a greater challenge to the data analyst. However, if researchers are armed with just a few basic tools, they can quite effectively diagnose how serious the issue of missing data is within a dataset, as well as prescribe the most appropriate solution. Specifically, the keys to effectively assessing and treating missing data values within a dataset involve specifying how missing data will be defined in a study, assessing the amount of missing data, identifying the pattern of the missing data, and selecting the best way to treat the missing data values. I will touch on each of these processes and provide a brief illustration of how the validity of study findings are at great risk if missing data values are not treated effectively. ©2015 American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Missing Dimensions of Mathematics Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyer, Walter

1995-01-01

Emphasizes how to express the breadth of mathematics itself. Addresses other missing dimensions which make mathematics attractive to a larger number of students by making it appear less isolated and more tied to thoughts and experiences that students find familiar and congenial. (ASK)

Puzzling Findings in Studying the Outcome of “Real World” Adolescent Mental Health Services: The TRAILS Study

PubMed Central

Jörg, Frederike; Ormel, Johan; Reijneveld, Sijmen A.; Jansen, Daniëlle E. M. C.; Verhulst, Frank C.; Oldehinkel, Albertine J.

2012-01-01

Background The increased use and costs of specialist child and adolescent mental health services (MHS) urge us to assess the effectiveness of these services. The aim of this paper is to compare the course of emotional and behavioural problems in adolescents with and without MHS use in a naturalistic setting. Method and Findings Participants are 2230 (pre)adolescents that enrolled in a prospective cohort study, the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). Response rate was 76%, mean age at baseline 11.09 (SD 0.56), 50.8% girls. We used data from the first three assessment waves, covering a six year period. Multiple linear regression analysis, propensity score matching, and data validation were used to compare the course of emotional and behavioural problems of adolescents with and without MHS use. The association between MHS and follow-up problem score (β 0.20, SE 0.03, p-value<0.001) was not confounded by baseline severity, markers of adolescent vulnerability or resilience nor stressful life events. The propensity score matching strategy revealed that follow-up problem scores of non-MHS-users decreased while the problem scores of MHS users remained high. When taking into account future MHS (non)use, it appeared that problem scores decreased with limited MHS use, albeit not as much as without any MHS use, and that problem scores with continuous MHS use remained high. Data validation showed that using a different outcome measure, multiple assessment waves and multiple imputation of missing values did not alter the results. A limitation of the study is that, although we know what type of MHS participants used, and during which period, we lack information on the duration of the treatment. Conclusions The benefits of MHS are questionable. Replication studies should reveal whether a critical examination of everyday care is necessary or an artefact is responsible for these results. PMID:23028584

Variable domain glycosylation of ACPA-IgG: A missing link in the maturation of the ACPA response?

PubMed

Kempers, Ayla C; Hafkenscheid, Lise; Scherer, Hans Ulrich; Toes, René E M

2018-01-01

Anti-citrullinated Protein Antibodies (ACPA) are excellent markers for Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and are postulated to have a pathogenic role in the disease process. A multistep model for the evolution of the ACPA response in RA was proposed in which an initial break of tolerance causes, as "first hit", "silent" production of ACPA without any clinical symptoms. The model further proposes that the ACPA immune response matures upon a certain (unknown) trigger, a "second hit", which leads to epitope spreading, an increase in ACPA titres and extended isotype usage before clinical RA manifestations. These occurrences are indicative of an expansion of the citrulline-specific B cell response, though ACPA remain of low avidity even in established disease. This persistence of low avidity is puzzling, as the typical signs of maturation of the immune response seem to be uncoupled from the classical process of affinity maturation. In fact, it suggests that B cells expressing ACPA could bypass selection mechanisms that otherwise control the expansion of auto-reactive B cells. In the established, chronic phase, we recently found that ACPA-IgG are extensively glycosylated in the variable (Fab) domain. More than 90% of ACPA-IgG molecules carry Fab glycans that are highly sialylated. This molecular feature is striking and may provide a missing link in our understanding of the maturation of the ACPA immune response. This review, therefore, describes the current knowledge about ACPA Fab glycosylation in the pathogenesis of RA. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Counting Knights and Knaves

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levin,Oscar; Roberts, Gerri M.

2013-01-01

To understand better some of the classic knights and knaves puzzles, we count them. Doing so reveals a surprising connection between puzzles and solutions, and highlights some beautiful combinatorial identities.

The Measurement of Intelligence in the XXI Century using Video Games.

PubMed

Quiroga, M A; Román, F J; De La Fuente, J; Privado, J; Colom, R

2016-12-05

This paper reviews the use of video games for measuring intelligence differences and reports two studies analyzing the relationship between intelligence and performance on a leisure video game. In the first study, the main focus was to design an Intelligence Test using puzzles from the video game. Forty-seven young participants played "Professor Layton and the curious village"® for a maximum of 15 hours and completed a set of intelligence standardized tests. Results show that the time required for completing the game interacts with intelligence differences: the higher the intelligence, the lower the time (d = .91). Furthermore, a set of 41 puzzles showed excellent psychometric properties. The second study, done seven years later, confirmed the previous findings. We finally discuss the pros and cons of video games as tools for measuring cognitive abilities with commercial video games, underscoring that psychologists must develop their own intelligence video games and delineate their key features for the measurement devices of next generation.

Solving the "Personhood Jigsaw Puzzle" in Residential Care Homes for the Elderly in the Hong Kong Chinese Context.

PubMed

Kong, Sui-Ting; Fang, Christine Meng-Sang; Lou, Vivian W Q

2017-02-01

End-of-life care studies on the nature of personhood are bourgeoning; however, the practices utilized for achieving personhood in end-of-life care, particularly in a cultural context in which interdependent being and collectivism prevail, remain underexplored. This study seeks to examine and conceptualize good practices for achieving the personhood of the dying elderly in residential care homes in a Chinese context. Twelve interviews were conducted with both medical and social care practitioners in four care homes to collect narratives of practitioners' practices. Those narratives were utilized to develop an "end-of-life case graph." Constant comparative analysis led to an understanding of the practice processes, giving rise to a process model of "solving the personhood jigsaw puzzle" that includes "understanding the person-in-relationship and person-in-time," "identifying the personhood-inhibiting experiences," and "enabling personalized care for enhanced psychosocial outcomes." Findings show how the "relational personhood" of the elderly can be maintained when physical deterioration and even death are inevitable.

Puzzling Two-Proton Decay of 67Kr

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, S. M.; Nazarewicz, W.

2018-05-01

Ground-state two-proton (2 p ) radioactivity is a rare decay mode found in a few very proton-rich isotopes. The 2 p decay lifetime and properties of emitted protons carry invaluable information on nuclear structure in the presence of a low-lying proton continuum. The recently measured 2 p decay of 67Kr turned out to be unexpectedly fast. Since 67Kr is expected to be a deformed system, we investigate the impact of deformation effects on the 2 p radioactivity. We apply the recently developed Gamow coupled-channel framework, which allows for a precise description of three-body systems in the presence of rotational and vibrational couplings. This is the first application of a three-body approach to a two-nucleon decay from a deformed nucleus. We show that deformation couplings significantly increase the 2 p decay width of 67Kr; this finding explains the puzzling experimental data. The calculated angular proton-proton correlations reflect a competition between 1 p and 2 p decay modes in this nucleus.

Exfoliation syndrome: assembling the puzzle pieces.

PubMed

Pasquale, Louis R; Borrás, Terete; Fingert, John H; Wiggs, Janey L; Ritch, Robert

2016-09-01

To summarize various topics and the cutting edge approaches to refine XFS pathogenesis that were discussed at the 21st annual Glaucoma Foundation Think Tank meeting in New York City, Sept. 19-20, 2014. The highlights of three categories of talks on cutting edge research in the field were summarized. Exfoliation syndrome (XFS) is a systemic disorder with a substantial ocular burden, including high rates of cataract, cataract surgery complications, glaucoma and retinal vein occlusion. New information about XFS is akin to puzzle pieces that do not quite join together to reveal a clear picture regarding how exfoliation material (XFM) forms. Meeting participants concluded that it is unclear how the mild homocysteinemia seen in XFS might contribute to the disarrayed extracellular aggregates characteristic of this syndrome. Lysyl oxidase-like 1 (LOXL1) variants are unequivocally genetic risk factors for XFS but exactly how these variants contribute to the assembly of exfoliation material (XFM) remains unclear. Variants in a new genomic region, CACNA1A associated with XFS, may alter calcium concentrations at the cell surface and facilitate XFM formation but much more work is needed before we can place this new finding in proper context. It is hoped that various animal model and ex vivo systems will emerge that will allow for proper assembly of the puzzle pieces into a coherent picture of XFS pathogenesis. A clear understanding of XFS pathogenesis may lead to 'upstream solutions' to reduce the ocular morbidity produced by XFS. © 2015 Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

WAIS-IV subtest covariance structure: conceptual and statistical considerations.

PubMed

Ward, L Charles; Bergman, Maria A; Hebert, Katina R

2012-06-01

D. Wechsler (2008b) reported confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) with standardization data (ages 16-69 years) for 10 core and 5 supplemental subtests from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV). Analyses of the 15 subtests supported 4 hypothesized oblique factors (Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory, Perceptual Reasoning, and Processing Speed) but also revealed unexplained covariance between Block Design and Visual Puzzles (Perceptual Reasoning subtests). That covariance was not included in the final models. Instead, a path was added from Working Memory to Figure Weights (Perceptual Reasoning subtest) to improve fit and achieve a desired factor pattern. The present research with the same data (N = 1,800) showed that the path from Working Memory to Figure Weights increases the association between Working Memory and Matrix Reasoning. Specifying both paths improves model fit and largely eliminates unexplained covariance between Block Design and Visual Puzzles but with the undesirable consequence that Figure Weights and Matrix Reasoning are equally determined by Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory. An alternative 4-factor model was proposed that explained theory-implied covariance between Block Design and Visual Puzzles and between Arithmetic and Figure Weights while maintaining compatibility with WAIS-IV Index structure. The proposed model compared favorably with a 5-factor model based on Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory. The present findings emphasize that covariance model comparisons should involve considerations of conceptual coherence and theoretical adherence in addition to statistical fit. (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Hubble Gazes Into a Black Hole of Puzzling Light

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

The beautiful spiral galaxy visible in the center of the image is known as RX J1140.1+0307, a galaxy in the Virgo constellation imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and it presents an interesting puzzle. At first glance, this galaxy appears to be a normal spiral galaxy, much like the Milky Way, but first appearances can be deceptive! The Milky Way galaxy, like most large galaxies, has a supermassive black hole at its center, but some galaxies are centered on lighter, intermediate-mass black holes. RX J1140.1+0307 is such a galaxy — in fact, it is centered on one of the lowest black hole masses known in any luminous galactic core. What puzzles scientists about this particular galaxy is that the calculations don’t add up. With such a relatively low mass for the central black hole, models for the emission from the object cannot explain the observed spectrum. There must be other mechanisms at play in the interactions between the inner and outer parts of the accretion disk surrounding the black hole. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Why the Body Comes First: Effects of Experimenter Touch on Infants' Word Finding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seidl, Amanda; Tincoff, Ruth; Baker, Christopher; Cristia, Alejandrina

2015-01-01

The lexicon of 6-month-olds is comprised of names and body part words. Unlike names, body part words do not often occur in isolation in the input. This presents a puzzle: How have infants been able to pull out these words from the continuous stream of speech at such a young age? We hypothesize that caregivers' interactions directed at and on…

The Effect of a Case-Based Reasoning Instructional Model on Korean High School Students' Awareness in Climate Change Unit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jeong, Jinwoo; Kim, Hyoungbum; Chae, Dong-hyun; Kim, Eunjeong

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the case-based reasoning instructional model on learning about climate change unit. Results suggest that students showed interest because it allowed them to find the solution to the problem and solve the problem for themselves by analogy from other cases such as crossword puzzles in an…

Exploring the evolutionary origins of overimitation: a comparison across domesticated and non-domesticated canids.

PubMed

Johnston, Angie M; Holden, Paul C; Santos, Laurie R

2017-07-01

When learning from others, human children tend to faithfully copy - or 'overimitate' - the actions of a demonstrator, even when these actions are irrelevant for solving the task at hand. We investigate whether domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris) and dingoes (Canis dingo) share this tendency to overimitate in three experiments. In Experiment 1, dogs and dingoes had the opportunity to solve a puzzle after watching an ostensive demonstrator who used both a relevant action and an irrelevant action. We find clear evidence against overimitation in both species. In contrast to human children (Horner & Whiten, 2005), dogs and dingoes used the irrelevant action less often across trials, suggesting that both species were filtering out the irrelevant action as they gained experience with the puzzle (like chimpanzees; Horner & Whiten, 2005). Experiments 2 and 3 provide further evidence against overimitation, demonstrating that both species' behavior is better characterized by individual exploration than overimitation. Given that both species, particularly dogs, show human-like social learning in other contexts, these findings provide additional evidence that overimitation may be a unique aspect of human social learning. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/g2mRniJZ7aU. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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

Goodenough, D; Olafsdottir, H; Olafsson, I

Purpose: To automatically quantify the amount of missing tissue in a digital breast tomosynthesis system using four stair-stepped chest wall missing tissue gauges in the Tomophan™ from the Phantom Laboratory and image processing from Image Owl. Methods: The Tomophan™ phantom incorporates four stair-stepped missing tissue gauges by the chest wall, allowing measurement of missing chest wall in two different locations along the chest wall at two different heights. Each of the four gauges has 12 steps in 0.5 mm increments rising from the chest wall. An image processing algorithm was developed by Image Owl that first finds the two slicesmore » containing the steps then finds the signal through the highest step in all four gauges. Using the signal drop at the beginning of each gauge the distance to the end of the image gives the length of the missing tissue gauge in millimeters. Results: The Tomophan™ was imaged in digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) systems from various vendors resulting in 46 cases used for testing. The results showed that on average 1.9 mm of 6 mm of the gauges are visible. A small focus group was asked to count the number of visible steps for each case which resulted in a good agreement between observer counts and computed data. Conclusion: First, the results indicate that the amount of missing chest wall can differ between vendors. Secondly it was shown that an automated method to estimate the amount of missing chest wall gauges agreed well with observer assessments. This finding indicates that consistency testing may be simplified using the Tomophan™ phantom and analysis by an automated image processing named Tomo QA. In general the reason for missing chest wall may be due to a function of the beam profile at the chest wall as DBT projects through the angular sampling. Research supported by Image Owl, Inc., The Phantom Laboratory, Inc. and Raforninn ehf; Mallozzi and Healy employed by The Phantom Laboratory, Inc.; Goodenough is a consultant to The Phantom Laboratory, Inc.; Fredriksson, Kristbjornsson, Olafsson, Oskarsdottir and Olafsdottir are employed by Raforninn, Ehf.« less

Identification of Missing Proteins Defined by Chromosome-Centric Proteome Project in the Cytoplasmic Detergent-Insoluble Proteins.

PubMed

Chen, Yang; Li, Yaxing; Zhong, Jiayong; Zhang, Jing; Chen, Zhipeng; Yang, Lijuan; Cao, Xin; He, Qing-Yu; Zhang, Gong; Wang, Tong

2015-09-04

Finding protein evidence (PE) for protein coding genes is a primary task of the Phase I Chromosome-Centric Human Proteome Project (C-HPP). Currently, there are 2948 PE level 2-4 coding genes per neXtProt, which are deemed missing proteins in the human proteome. As most samples prepared and analyzed in the C-HPP framework were focusing on detergent soluble proteins, we posit that as a natural composition the cytoplasmic detergent-insoluble proteins (DIPs) represent a source of finding missing proteins. We optimized a workflow and separated cytoplasmic DIPs from three human lung and three human hepatoma cell lines via differential speed centrifugation. We verified that the detergent-soluble proteins (DSPs) could be sufficiently depleted and the cytoplasmic DIP isolation was partially reproducible with Spearman r > 0.70 according to two independent SILAC MS experiments. Through label-free MS, we identified 4524 and 4156 DIPs from lung and liver cells, respectively. Among them, a total of 23 missing proteins (22 PE2 and 1 PE4) were identified by MS, and 18 of them had translation evidence; in addition, six PE5 proteins were identified by MS, three with translation evidence. We showed that cytoplasmic DIPs were not an enrichment of transmembrane proteins and were chromosome-, cell type-, and tissue-specific. Furthermore, we demonstrated that DIPs were distinct from DSPs in terms of structural and physical-chemical features. In conclusion, we have found 23 missing proteins and 6 PE5 proteins from the cytoplasmic insoluble proteome that is biologically and physical-chemically different from the soluble proteome, suggesting that cytoplasmic DIPs carry comprehensive and valuable information for finding PE of missing proteins. The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium with the data set identifier PXD001694.

If You Don’t Find It Often, You Often Don’t Find It: Why Some Cancers Are Missed in Breast Cancer Screening

PubMed Central

Evans, Karla K.; Birdwell, Robyn L.; Wolfe, Jeremy M.

2013-01-01

Mammography is an important tool in the early detection of breast cancer. However, the perceptual task is difficult and a significant proportion of cancers are missed. Visual search experiments show that miss (false negative) errors are elevated when targets are rare (low prevalence) but it is unknown if low prevalence is a significant factor under real world, clinical conditions. Here we show that expert mammographers in a real, low-prevalence, clinical setting, miss a much higher percentage of cancers than are missed when the mammographers search for the same cancers under high prevalence conditions. We inserted 50 positive and 50 negative cases into the normal workflow of the breast cancer screening service of an urban hospital over the course of nine months. This rate was slow enough not to markedly raise disease prevalence in the radiologists’ daily practice. Six radiologists subsequently reviewed all 100 cases in a session where the prevalence of disease was 50%. In the clinical setting, participants missed 30% of the cancers. In the high prevalence setting, participants missed just 12% of the same cancers. Under most circumstances, this low prevalence effect is probably adaptive. It is usually wise to be conservative about reporting events with very low base rates (Was that a flying saucer? Probably not.). However, while this response to low prevalence appears to be strongly engrained in human visual search mechanisms, it may not be as adaptive in socially important, low prevalence tasks like medical screening. While the results of any one study must be interpreted cautiously, these data are consistent with the conclusion that this behavioral response to low prevalence could be a substantial contributor to miss errors in breast cancer screening. PMID:23737980

Children's missed healthcare appointments: professional and organisational responses.

PubMed

Appleton, Jane; Powell, Catherine; Coombes, Lindsey

2016-09-01

This National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) funded UK study sought to examine organisational and professional responses to children's missed healthcare appointments. The study comprised two parts: phase I was a web-based scoping and systematic analysis of UK National Health Service healthcare organisations' internal policies on missed appointments. Phase II involved a case study of how missed appointments were managed within one hospital trust, including interviews with hospital-based staff, review of organisational data and examination of policies and 'systems' in place. Policies accessed were of variable quality when benchmarked against a predetermined set of evidence-based standards. Additional material (eg, board minutes) gleaned through the searches found an apparent disconnect between nationally determined safeguarding requirements and strategies to reduce the cost pressures arising from missed appointments. Findings from the case study included the continuing use of the adult-centric term 'did not attend' (DNA), the challenges that may be inherent in attending appointments (with concomitant sympathy for parents) and a need to further explore general practitioner responses to DNA notifications, particularly given the acknowledged association between missed appointments and child maltreatment. The web-based scoping exercise yielded a small number of organisational policies. These were of variable quality when rated against predetermined standards. Other material gathered through the search strategy found evidence that 'missed appointment' strategies aimed at reducing costs did not always acknowledge the discrete needs of children. The case study findings contribute to an understanding of the complexities and challenges of responding to a missed appointment and the importance of taking a child-centred approach. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Near miss and minor occupational injury: Does it share a common causal pathway with major injury?

PubMed

Alamgir, Hasanat; Yu, Shicheng; Gorman, Erin; Ngan, Karen; Guzman, Jaime

2009-01-01

An essential assumption of injury prevention programs is the common cause hypothesis that the causal pathways of near misses and minor injuries are similar to those of major injuries. The rates of near miss, minor injury and major injury of all reported incidents and musculoskeletal incidents (MSIs) were calculated for three health regions using information from a surveillance database and productive hours from payroll data. The relative distribution of individual causes and activities involved in near miss, minor injury and major injury were then compared. For all reported incidents, there were significant differences in the relative distribution of causes for near miss, minor, and major injury. However, the relative distribution of causes and activities involved in minor and major MSIs were similar. The top causes and activities involved were the same across near miss, minor, and major injury. Finding from this study support the use of near miss and minor injury data as potential outcome measures for injury prevention programs. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Order-restricted inference for means with missing values.

PubMed

Wang, Heng; Zhong, Ping-Shou

2017-09-01

Missing values appear very often in many applications, but the problem of missing values has not received much attention in testing order-restricted alternatives. Under the missing at random (MAR) assumption, we impute the missing values nonparametrically using kernel regression. For data with imputation, the classical likelihood ratio test designed for testing the order-restricted means is no longer applicable since the likelihood does not exist. This article proposes a novel method for constructing test statistics for assessing means with an increasing order or a decreasing order based on jackknife empirical likelihood (JEL) ratio. It is shown that the JEL ratio statistic evaluated under the null hypothesis converges to a chi-bar-square distribution, whose weights depend on missing probabilities and nonparametric imputation. Simulation study shows that the proposed test performs well under various missing scenarios and is robust for normally and nonnormally distributed data. The proposed method is applied to an Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative data set for finding a biomarker for the diagnosis of the Alzheimer's disease. © 2017, The International Biometric Society.

A Play on Words: Using Cognitive Computing as a Basis for AI Solvers in Word Puzzles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manzini, Thomas; Ellis, Simon; Hendler, James

2015-12-01

In this paper we offer a model, drawing inspiration from human cognition and based upon the pipeline developed for IBM's Watson, which solves clues in a type of word puzzle called syllacrostics. We briefly discuss its situation with respect to the greater field of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and how this process and model might be applied to other types of word puzzles. We present an overview of a system that has been developed to solve syllacrostics.

A Puzzling Alcohol Dehydration Reaction Solved by GC-MS Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelter, Michael W.; Macudzinski, Rebecca M.

1999-06-01

We have adapted the dehydration of 2-methyl-2-propanol to a "puzzle" approach for use in our second-semester chemistry major organic laboratory. The reaction of 2-methyl-2-propanol with ~50% sulfuric acid at 100 °C yields isobutylene, which reacts further by a "puzzling" reaction. By coupling the GC/MS analysis of the product mixture with their knowledge of the mechanism of alcohol dehydration and alkene reactivity, students are able to identify the major products of this reaction.

The Candy Crush Sweet Tooth: How 'Near-misses' in Candy Crush Increase Frustration, and the Urge to Continue Gameplay.

PubMed

Larche, Chanel J; Musielak, Natalia; Dixon, Mike J

2017-06-01

Like many gambling games, the exceedingly popular and lucrative smartphone game "Candy Crush" features near-miss outcomes. In slot machines, a near-miss involves getting two of the needed three high-paying symbols on the pay-line (i.e., just missing the big win). In Candy Crush, the game signals when you just miss getting to the next level by one or two moves. Because near-misses in gambling games have consistently been shown to invigorate play despite being frustrating outcomes, the goal of the present study was to examine whether such near-misses trigger increases in player arousal, frustration and urge to continue play in Candy Crush. Sixty avid Candy Crush players were recruited to play the game for 30 min while having their Heart Rate, Skin Conductance Level, subjective arousal, frustration and urge to play recorded for three types of outcomes: wins (where they level up), losses (where they don't come close to levelling up), and near-misses (where they just miss levelling up). Near-misses were more arousing than losses as indexed by increased heart rate and greater subjective arousal. Near-misses were also subjectively rated as the most frustrating of all outcomes. Most importantly, of any type of outcome, near-misses triggered the most substantial urge to continue play. These findings suggest that near-misses in Candy Crush play a role in player commitment to the game, and may contribute to players playing longer than intended.

Multiple imputation of missing passenger boarding data in the national census of ferry operators

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-08-01

This report presents findings from the 2006 National Census of Ferry Operators (NCFO) augmented : with imputed values for passengers and passenger miles. Due to the imputation procedures used to calculate missing data, totals in Table 1 may not corre...

Correlates of rediscovery and the detectability of extinction in mammals

PubMed Central

Fisher, Diana O.; Blomberg, Simon P.

2011-01-01

Extinction is difficult to detect, even in well-known taxa such as mammals. Species with long gaps in their sighting records, which might be considered possibly extinct, are often rediscovered. We used data on rediscovery rates of missing mammals to test whether extinction from different causes is equally detectable and to find which traits affect the probability of rediscovery. We find that species affected by habitat loss were much more likely to be misclassified as extinct or to remain missing than those affected by introduced predators and diseases, or overkill, unless they had very restricted distributions. We conclude that extinctions owing to habitat loss are most difficult to detect; hence, impacts of habitat loss on extinction have probably been overestimated, especially relative to introduced species. It is most likely that the highest rates of rediscovery will come from searching for species that have gone missing during the 20th century and have relatively large ranges threatened by habitat loss, rather than from additional effort focused on charismatic missing species. PMID:20880890

Randomly and Non-Randomly Missing Renal Function Data in the Strong Heart Study: A Comparison of Imputation Methods

PubMed Central

Shara, Nawar; Yassin, Sayf A.; Valaitis, Eduardas; Wang, Hong; Howard, Barbara V.; Wang, Wenyu; Lee, Elisa T.; Umans, Jason G.

2015-01-01

Kidney and cardiovascular disease are widespread among populations with high prevalence of diabetes, such as American Indians participating in the Strong Heart Study (SHS). Studying these conditions simultaneously in longitudinal studies is challenging, because the morbidity and mortality associated with these diseases result in missing data, and these data are likely not missing at random. When such data are merely excluded, study findings may be compromised. In this article, a subset of 2264 participants with complete renal function data from Strong Heart Exams 1 (1989–1991), 2 (1993–1995), and 3 (1998–1999) was used to examine the performance of five methods used to impute missing data: listwise deletion, mean of serial measures, adjacent value, multiple imputation, and pattern-mixture. Three missing at random models and one non-missing at random model were used to compare the performance of the imputation techniques on randomly and non-randomly missing data. The pattern-mixture method was found to perform best for imputing renal function data that were not missing at random. Determining whether data are missing at random or not can help in choosing the imputation method that will provide the most accurate results. PMID:26414328

Randomly and Non-Randomly Missing Renal Function Data in the Strong Heart Study: A Comparison of Imputation Methods.

PubMed

Shara, Nawar; Yassin, Sayf A; Valaitis, Eduardas; Wang, Hong; Howard, Barbara V; Wang, Wenyu; Lee, Elisa T; Umans, Jason G

2015-01-01

Kidney and cardiovascular disease are widespread among populations with high prevalence of diabetes, such as American Indians participating in the Strong Heart Study (SHS). Studying these conditions simultaneously in longitudinal studies is challenging, because the morbidity and mortality associated with these diseases result in missing data, and these data are likely not missing at random. When such data are merely excluded, study findings may be compromised. In this article, a subset of 2264 participants with complete renal function data from Strong Heart Exams 1 (1989-1991), 2 (1993-1995), and 3 (1998-1999) was used to examine the performance of five methods used to impute missing data: listwise deletion, mean of serial measures, adjacent value, multiple imputation, and pattern-mixture. Three missing at random models and one non-missing at random model were used to compare the performance of the imputation techniques on randomly and non-randomly missing data. The pattern-mixture method was found to perform best for imputing renal function data that were not missing at random. Determining whether data are missing at random or not can help in choosing the imputation method that will provide the most accurate results.

Missing Value Imputation Approach for Mass Spectrometry-based Metabolomics Data.

PubMed

Wei, Runmin; Wang, Jingye; Su, Mingming; Jia, Erik; Chen, Shaoqiu; Chen, Tianlu; Ni, Yan

2018-01-12

Missing values exist widely in mass-spectrometry (MS) based metabolomics data. Various methods have been applied for handling missing values, but the selection can significantly affect following data analyses. Typically, there are three types of missing values, missing not at random (MNAR), missing at random (MAR), and missing completely at random (MCAR). Our study comprehensively compared eight imputation methods (zero, half minimum (HM), mean, median, random forest (RF), singular value decomposition (SVD), k-nearest neighbors (kNN), and quantile regression imputation of left-censored data (QRILC)) for different types of missing values using four metabolomics datasets. Normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE) and NRMSE-based sum of ranks (SOR) were applied to evaluate imputation accuracy. Principal component analysis (PCA)/partial least squares (PLS)-Procrustes analysis were used to evaluate the overall sample distribution. Student's t-test followed by correlation analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects on univariate statistics. Our findings demonstrated that RF performed the best for MCAR/MAR and QRILC was the favored one for left-censored MNAR. Finally, we proposed a comprehensive strategy and developed a public-accessible web-tool for the application of missing value imputation in metabolomics ( https://metabolomics.cc.hawaii.edu/software/MetImp/ ).

Facebook intrusion, fear of missing out, narcissism, and life satisfaction: A cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Błachnio, Agata; Przepiórka, Aneta

2018-01-01

Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites. The present paper examines the relations between fear of missing out, narcissism, Facebook intrusion, and life satisfaction. We hypothesized that the fear of missing out and narcissism would play a significant role in Facebook intrusion. The participants in the study were 360 Polish users of Facebook. We administered the Facebook Intrusion Scale, the Fear of Missing Out Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. The results showed that a high level of fear of missing out and high narcissism are predictors of Facebook intrusion, while a low level of fear of missing out and high narcissism are related to satisfaction with life. Our findings provide a more comprehensive picture of the predictors of Facebook intrusion and reveal interesting patterns. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Concept of Missing Incidents in Persons with Dementia

PubMed Central

Rowe, Meredeth; Houston, Amy; Molinari, Victor; Bulat, Tatjana; Bowen, Mary Elizabeth; Spring, Heather; Mutolo, Sandra; McKenzie, Barbara

2015-01-01

Behavioral symptoms of dementia often present the greatest challenge for informal caregivers. One behavior, that is a constant concern for caregivers, is the person with dementia leaving a designated area such that their whereabouts become unknown to the caregiver or a missing incident. Based on an extensive literature review and published findings of their own research, members of the International Consortium on Wandering and Missing Incidents constructed a preliminary missing incidents model. Examining the evidence base, specific factors within each category of the model were further described, reviewed and modified until consensus was reached regarding the final model. The model begins to explain in particular the variety of antecedents that are related to missing incidents. The model presented in this paper is designed to be heuristic and may be used to stimulate discussion and the development of effective preventative and response strategies for missing incidents among persons with dementia. PMID:27417817

The Concept of Missing Incidents in Persons with Dementia.

PubMed

Rowe, Meredeth; Houston, Amy; Molinari, Victor; Bulat, Tatjana; Bowen, Mary Elizabeth; Spring, Heather; Mutolo, Sandra; McKenzie, Barbara

2015-11-10

Behavioral symptoms of dementia often present the greatest challenge for informal caregivers. One behavior, that is a constant concern for caregivers, is the person with dementia leaving a designated area such that their whereabouts become unknown to the caregiver or a missing incident. Based on an extensive literature review and published findings of their own research, members of the International Consortium on Wandering and Missing Incidents constructed a preliminary missing incidents model. Examining the evidence base, specific factors within each category of the model were further described, reviewed and modified until consensus was reached regarding the final model. The model begins to explain in particular the variety of antecedents that are related to missing incidents. The model presented in this paper is designed to be heuristic and may be used to stimulate discussion and the development of effective preventative and response strategies for missing incidents among persons with dementia.

Mixed infections in tuberculosis: The missing part in a puzzle.

PubMed

Tarashi, Samira; Fateh, Abolfazl; Mirsaeidi, Mehdi; Siadat, Seyed Davar; Vaziri, Farzam

2017-12-01

The mixed strains infection phenomenon is a major problem posing serious challenges in control of tuberculosis (TB). In patients with mixed infection, several different strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be isolated simultaneously. Although different genotyping methods and various molecular approaches can be employed for detection of mixed infection in clinical samples, the MIRU-VNTR technique is more sensitive with higher discriminative power than many widely used techniques. Furthermore, the recent introduction of whole genome sequencing (WGS) promises to reveal more details about mixed infection with high resolution. WGS has been used for detection of mixed infection with high sensitivity and discriminatory, but the technology is currently limited to developed countries. Mixed infection may involve strains with different susceptibility patterns, which may alter the treatment outcome. In this report, we review the current concepts of mixed strains infection and also infection involving strains with a different susceptibility pattern in TB. We evaluate the importance of identifying mixed infection for diagnosis as well as treatment and highlight the accuracy and clinical utility of direct genotyping of clinical specimens. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The emergence of embedded structure: insights from Kafr Qasem Sign Language

PubMed Central

Kastner, Itamar; Meir, Irit; Sandler, Wendy; Dachkovsky, Svetlana

2014-01-01

This paper introduces data from Kafr Qasem Sign Language (KQSL), an as-yet undescribed sign language, and identifies the earliest indications of embedding in this young language. Using semantic and prosodic criteria, we identify predicates that form a constituent with a noun, functionally modifying it. We analyze these structures as instances of embedded predicates, exhibiting what can be regarded as very early stages in the development of subordinate constructions, and argue that these structures may bear directly on questions about the development of embedding and subordination in language in general. Deutscher (2009) argues persuasively that nominalization of a verb is the first step—and the crucial step—toward syntactic embedding. It has also been suggested that prosodic marking may precede syntactic marking of embedding (Mithun, 2009). However, the relevant data from the stage at which embedding first emerges have not previously been available. KQSL might be the missing piece of the puzzle: a language in which a noun can be modified by an additional predicate, forming a proposition within a proposition, sustained entirely by prosodic means. PMID:24917837

A massive hypergiant star as the progenitor of the supernova SN 2005gl.

PubMed

Gal-Yam, A; Leonard, D C

2009-04-16

Our understanding of the evolution of massive stars before their final explosions as supernovae is incomplete, from both an observational and a theoretical standpoint. A key missing piece in the supernova puzzle is the difficulty of identifying and studying progenitor stars. In only a single case-that of supernova SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud-has a star been detected at the supernova location before the explosion, and been subsequently shown to have vanished after the supernova event. The progenitor of SN 1987A was a blue supergiant, which required a rethink of stellar evolution models. The progenitor of supernova SN 2005gl was proposed to be an extremely luminous object, but the association was not robustly established (it was not even clear that the putative progenitor was a single luminous star). Here we report that the previously proposed object was indeed the progenitor star of SN 2005gl. This very massive star was likely a luminous blue variable that standard stellar evolution predicts should not have exploded in that state.

Cataract, phacoemulsification and intraocular pressure: Is the anterior segment anatomy the missing piece of the puzzle?

PubMed

Masis Solano, Marisse; Lin, Shan C

2018-01-29

Cataract extraction is a safe and effective surgery that has a lowering effect on the intraocular pressure. The specific mechanisms for this effect are still unclear. A direct inflammatory effect on the trabecular meshwork, alteration of the blood aqueous barrier, changes in the ciliary body and mechanical changes of the anterior segment anatomy are the key to understand cataract surgery and it's effects on aqueous humor dynamics. Additionally, with the advent of AS OCT, changes in the anterior segment of the eye have been studied and several parameters (such as lens vault, angle opening distance and anterior chamber depth) have been identified as predictors of intraocular pressure change. In eyes with narrow angles there is a greater drop in intraocular pressure after cataract surgery and it is correlated with parameters related to anterior chamber space. It is safe to affirm that cataract surgery is an important part of the modern glaucoma treatment and evidence should be analyzed as part of a bigger picture in order to more accurately understand its clinical relevance. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Approach to addressing missing data for electronic medical records and pharmacy claims data research.

PubMed

Bounthavong, Mark; Watanabe, Jonathan H; Sullivan, Kevin M

2015-04-01

The complete capture of all values for each variable of interest in pharmacy research studies remains aspirational. The absence of these possibly influential values is a common problem for pharmacist investigators. Failure to account for missing data may translate to biased study findings and conclusions. Our goal in this analysis was to apply validated statistical methods for missing data to a previously analyzed data set and compare results when missing data methods were implemented versus standard analytics that ignore missing data effects. Using data from a retrospective cohort study, the statistical method of multiple imputation was used to provide regression-based estimates of the missing values to improve available data usable for study outcomes measurement. These findings were then contrasted with a complete-case analysis that restricted estimation to subjects in the cohort that had no missing values. Odds ratios were compared to assess differences in findings of the analyses. A nonadjusted regression analysis ("crude analysis") was also performed as a reference for potential bias. Veterans Integrated Systems Network that includes VA facilities in the Southern California and Nevada regions. New statin users between November 30, 2006, and December 2, 2007, with a diagnosis of dyslipidemia. We compared the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the crude, complete-case, and multiple imputation analyses for the end points of a 25% or greater reduction in atherogenic lipids. Data were missing for 21.5% of identified patients (1665 subjects of 7739). Regression model results were similar for the crude, complete-case, and multiple imputation analyses with overlap of 95% confidence limits at each end point. The crude, complete-case, and multiple imputation ORs (95% CIs) for a 25% or greater reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were 3.5 (95% CI 3.1-3.9), 4.3 (95% CI 3.8-4.9), and 4.1 (95% CI 3.7-4.6), respectively. The crude, complete-case, and multiple imputation ORs (95% CIs) for a 25% or greater reduction in non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were 3.5 (95% CI 3.1-3.9), 4.5 (95% CI 4.0-5.2), and 4.4 (95% CI 3.9-4.9), respectively. The crude, complete-case, and multiple imputation ORs (95% CIs) for 25% or greater reduction in TGs were 3.1 (95% CI 2.8-3.6), 4.0 (95% CI 3.5-4.6), and 4.1 (95% CI 3.6-4.6), respectively. The use of the multiple imputation method to account for missing data did not alter conclusions based on a complete-case analysis. Given the frequency of missing data in research using electronic health records and pharmacy claims data, multiple imputation may play an important role in the validation of study findings. © 2015 Pharmacotherapy Publications, Inc.

Why are they missing? : Bioinformatics characterization of missing human proteins.

PubMed

Elguoshy, Amr; Magdeldin, Sameh; Xu, Bo; Hirao, Yoshitoshi; Zhang, Ying; Kinoshita, Naohiko; Takisawa, Yusuke; Nameta, Masaaki; Yamamoto, Keiko; El-Refy, Ali; El-Fiky, Fawzy; Yamamoto, Tadashi

2016-10-21

NeXtProt is a web-based protein knowledge platform that supports research on human proteins. NeXtProt (release 2015-04-28) lists 20,060 proteins, among them, 3373 canonical proteins (16.8%) lack credible experimental evidence at protein level (PE2:PE5). Therefore, they are considered as "missing proteins". A comprehensive bioinformatic workflow has been proposed to analyze these "missing" proteins. The aims of current study were to analyze physicochemical properties, existence and distribution of the tryptic cleavage sites, and to pinpoint the signature peptides of the missing proteins. Our findings showed that 23.7% of missing proteins were hydrophobic proteins possessing transmembrane domains (TMD). Also, forty missing entries generate tryptic peptides were either out of mass detection range (>30aa) or mapped to different proteins (<9aa). Additionally, 21% of missing entries didn't generate any unique tryptic peptides. In silico endopeptidase combination strategy increased the possibility of missing proteins identification. Coherently, using both mature protein database and signal peptidome database could be a promising option to identify some missing proteins by targeting their unique N-terminal tryptic peptide from mature protein database and or C-terminus tryptic peptide from signal peptidome database. In conclusion, Identification of missing protein requires additional consideration during sample preparation, extraction, digestion and data analysis to increase its incidence of identification. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

River and Stream Pollution

MedlinePlus

... downstream clean, too. Other stuff you might like ... Games & Puzzles Games galore! Piles of Puzzles! Go! What's That Word ... and classroom materials. Back to Top Check out games and songs for little kids! Topics Games Activities ...

Healthy Living

MedlinePlus

... Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Science – How It Works The Natural World Games Brainteasers Puzzles Riddles Songs Activities Be a ... Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Science – How It Works The Natural World Games Expand Brainteasers Puzzles Riddles Songs Activities Expand ...

Puzzle Imaging: Using Large-Scale Dimensionality Reduction Algorithms for Localization.

PubMed

Glaser, Joshua I; Zamft, Bradley M; Church, George M; Kording, Konrad P

2015-01-01

Current high-resolution imaging techniques require an intact sample that preserves spatial relationships. We here present a novel approach, "puzzle imaging," that allows imaging a spatially scrambled sample. This technique takes many spatially disordered samples, and then pieces them back together using local properties embedded within the sample. We show that puzzle imaging can efficiently produce high-resolution images using dimensionality reduction algorithms. We demonstrate the theoretical capabilities of puzzle imaging in three biological scenarios, showing that (1) relatively precise 3-dimensional brain imaging is possible; (2) the physical structure of a neural network can often be recovered based only on the neural connectivity matrix; and (3) a chemical map could be reproduced using bacteria with chemosensitive DNA and conjugative transfer. The ability to reconstruct scrambled images promises to enable imaging based on DNA sequencing of homogenized tissue samples.

The Puzzle of Science; Making Sense of Incomplete Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shorey, B. U.

2015-12-01

There are many topics within Earth science including evolution, historical geology, and climate change, which have gained the status of theory becuse they have overwhelming evidence, yet there is still fragmentary information which can frustrate a student from coming to solid conclusions. Using a jigsaw puzzle whose image has been hidden, and the pieces only given out sparingly, students go though the process of getting more information. How does one get more puzzle pieces and what is the interpretive process? Experience with this exercise demonstrates how students can sketch out an incredibly accurate conception of the "big picture", despite not having all the puzzle pieces. The goal of this talk is to give a complete tool kit to perform as a comprehensive lesson plan. Guiding questions and copies of lesson plans and materials are supplied for this exercise.

International trade network: fractal properties and globalization puzzle.

PubMed

Karpiarz, Mariusz; Fronczak, Piotr; Fronczak, Agata

2014-12-12

Globalization is one of the central concepts of our age. The common perception of the process is that, due to declining communication and transport costs, distance becomes less and less important. However, the distance coefficient in the gravity model of trade, which grows in time, indicates that the role of distance increases rather than decreases. This, in essence, captures the notion of the globalization puzzle. Here, we show that the fractality of the international trade system (ITS) provides a simple solution for the puzzle. We argue that the distance coefficient corresponds to the fractal dimension of ITS. We provide two independent methods, the box counting method and spatial choice model, which confirm this statement. Our results allow us to conclude that the previous approaches to solving the puzzle misinterpreted the meaning of the distance coefficient in the gravity model of trade.

International Trade Network: Fractal Properties and Globalization Puzzle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karpiarz, Mariusz; Fronczak, Piotr; Fronczak, Agata

2014-12-01

Globalization is one of the central concepts of our age. The common perception of the process is that, due to declining communication and transport costs, distance becomes less and less important. However, the distance coefficient in the gravity model of trade, which grows in time, indicates that the role of distance increases rather than decreases. This, in essence, captures the notion of the globalization puzzle. Here, we show that the fractality of the international trade system (ITS) provides a simple solution for the puzzle. We argue that the distance coefficient corresponds to the fractal dimension of ITS. We provide two independent methods, the box counting method and spatial choice model, which confirm this statement. Our results allow us to conclude that the previous approaches to solving the puzzle misinterpreted the meaning of the distance coefficient in the gravity model of trade.

Secretaries, depression and absenteeism.

PubMed

Garrison, R; Eaton, W W

1992-01-01

This study examines the prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder; missed work; and mental health services use among secretaries and other women employed full-time. In a random sample of 3,484 women employed full-time, women employed as secretaries were significantly more likely to be depressed than other women even after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics (odds ratio = 1.69, 95% confidence interval = 1.05, 2.73). Secretaries were significantly more likely to report missing work in the last three months (odds ratio = 1.77, confidence interval = 1.01, 3.11); a finding not attributable to depression. Secretaries were also more likely to seek mental health services, but this finding was not significant (odds ratio = 1.78, confidence interval = 0.55, 5.78). It is possible that these findings are attributable to a selection effect whereby depressed women, and women who are likely to miss work, become secretaries. A second possibility is that women employed as secretaries have more "nonwork role stress" than other employed women. Alternatively, job conditions which result in dissatisfaction and stress may lead to depression and absenteeism. We believe our findings warrant further investigation into the work environment of secretaries.

Examining solutions to missing data in longitudinal nursing research.

PubMed

Roberts, Mary B; Sullivan, Mary C; Winchester, Suzy B

2017-04-01

Longitudinal studies are highly valuable in pediatrics because they provide useful data about developmental patterns of child health and behavior over time. When data are missing, the value of the research is impacted. The study's purpose was to (1) introduce a three-step approach to assess and address missing data and (2) illustrate this approach using categorical and continuous-level variables from a longitudinal study of premature infants. A three-step approach with simulations was followed to assess the amount and pattern of missing data and to determine the most appropriate imputation method for the missing data. Patterns of missingness were Missing Completely at Random, Missing at Random, and Not Missing at Random. Missing continuous-level data were imputed using mean replacement, stochastic regression, multiple imputation, and fully conditional specification (FCS). Missing categorical-level data were imputed using last value carried forward, hot-decking, stochastic regression, and FCS. Simulations were used to evaluate these imputation methods under different patterns of missingness at different levels of missing data. The rate of missingness was 16-23% for continuous variables and 1-28% for categorical variables. FCS imputation provided the least difference in mean and standard deviation estimates for continuous measures. FCS imputation was acceptable for categorical measures. Results obtained through simulation reinforced and confirmed these findings. Significant investments are made in the collection of longitudinal data. The prudent handling of missing data can protect these investments and potentially improve the scientific information contained in pediatric longitudinal studies. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

High-mass twins & resolution of the reconfinement, masquerade and hyperon puzzles of compact star interiors

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

Blaschke, David; Instytut Fizyki Teoretycznej, Uniwersytet Wroclawski, 50-204 Wroclaw; Alvarez-Castillo, David E.

2016-01-22

We aim at contributing to the resolution of three of the fundamental puzzles related to the still unsolved problem of the structure of the dense core of compact stars (CS): (i) the hyperon puzzle: how to reconcile pulsar masses of 2 M{sub ⊙} with the hyperon softening of the equation of state (EoS); (ii) the masquerade problem: modern EoS for cold, high density hadronic and quark matter are almost identical; and (iii) the reconfinement puzzle: what to do when after a deconfinement transition the hadronic EoS becomes favorable again? We show that taking into account the compositeness of baryons (bymore » excluded volume and/or quark Pauli blocking) on the hadronic side and confining and stiffening effects on the quark matter side results in an early phase transition to quark matter with sufficient stiffening at high densities which removes all three present-day puzzles of CS interiors. Moreover, in this new class of EoS for hybrid CS falls the interesting case of a strong first order phase transition which results in the observable high mass twin star phenomenon, an astrophysical observation of a critical endpoint in the QCD phase diagram.« less

Formative Assessment Probes: Mountaintop Fossil: A Puzzling Phenomenon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keeley, Page

2015-01-01

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month's issue describes using formative assessment probes to uncover several ways of thinking about the puzzling discovery of a marine fossil on top of a mountain.

Jigsaw: Because Reading Your Math Book Shouldn't Be a Puzzle.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Draper, Roni Jo

1997-01-01

Describes a jigsaw puzzle activity, a two-part cooperative learning activity useful at any level of mathematics instruction, intended to teach students to become "strategic readers" of their mathematics textbooks. (SR)

What Is the Difference between a Puzzle and a Maths Question?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eastaway, Robert

1997-01-01

Discusses the differences between puzzles and mathematics questions. Argues that mathematics teachers need to be thoroughly grounded in the well-documented recreational side of mathematics and be encouraged to use it. (JRH)

The Sexual Exploitation of Missing Children: A Research Review.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hotaling, Gerald T.; Finkelhor, David

This paper evaluates current knowledge about the prevalence, dynamics, and short- and long-term effects of sexual exploitation among missing children. It is based upon empirical research findings from books, papers presented at professional meetings, doctoral dissertations, works in progress, and more than 75 articles in professional journals.…

32 CFR 718.1 - General provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY PERSONNEL MISSING PERSONS ACT § 718.1 General provisions. (a) Under the provisions of the Missing Persons Act, as amended, a finding of... presumptive death are never made when the “missing” status has not continued for at least 12 months. Whenever...

32 CFR 718.1 - General provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY PERSONNEL MISSING PERSONS ACT § 718.1 General provisions. (a) Under the provisions of the Missing Persons Act, as amended, a finding of... presumptive death are never made when the “missing” status has not continued for at least 12 months. Whenever...

Morphological Deficits of Children with SLI: Evaluation of Number Marking and Agreement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Mabel L.; Oetting, Janna B.

1993-01-01

Grammatical deficits (e.g., missing feature, surface account, and missing agreement) reported for children with specific language impairment (SLI) were evaluated in spontaneous language transcripts from 108 preschool children. Results indicated that children with SLI do control number marking but find number agreement across clausal boundaries…

Puzzle-based learning in engineering mathematics: students' attitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klymchuk, Sergiy

2017-11-01

The article reports on the results of two case studies on the impact of the regular use of puzzles as a pedagogical strategy in the teaching and learning of engineering mathematics. The intention of using puzzles is to engage students' emotions, creativity and curiosity and also to enhance their generic thinking skills and lateral thinking 'outside the box'. Students' attitudes towards this pedagogical strategy are evaluated via short questionnaires with two groups of university students taking a second-year engineering mathematics course. Students' responses to the questionnaire are presented and analyzed in the paper.

Method variation in the impact of missing data on response shift detection.

PubMed

Schwartz, Carolyn E; Sajobi, Tolulope T; Verdam, Mathilde G E; Sebille, Veronique; Lix, Lisa M; Guilleux, Alice; Sprangers, Mirjam A G

2015-03-01

Missing data due to attrition or item non-response can result in biased estimates and loss of power in longitudinal quality-of-life (QOL) research. The impact of missing data on response shift (RS) detection is relatively unknown. This overview article synthesizes the findings of three methods tested in this special section regarding the impact of missing data patterns on RS detection in incomplete longitudinal data. The RS detection methods investigated include: (1) Relative importance analysis to detect reprioritization RS in stroke caregivers; (2) Oort's structural equation modeling (SEM) to detect recalibration, reprioritization, and reconceptualization RS in cancer patients; and (3) Rasch-based item-response theory-based (IRT) models as compared to SEM models to detect recalibration and reprioritization RS in hospitalized chronic disease patients. Each method dealt with missing data differently, either with imputation (1), attrition-based multi-group analysis (2), or probabilistic analysis that is robust to missingness due to the specific objectivity property (3). Relative importance analyses were sensitive to the type and amount of missing data and imputation method, with multiple imputation showing the largest RS effects. The attrition-based multi-group SEM revealed differential effects of both the changes in health-related QOL and the occurrence of response shift by attrition stratum, and enabled a more complete interpretation of findings. The IRT RS algorithm found evidence of small recalibration and reprioritization effects in General Health, whereas SEM mostly evidenced small recalibration effects. These differences may be due to differences between the two methods in handling of missing data. Missing data imputation techniques result in different conclusions about the presence of reprioritization RS using the relative importance method, while the attrition-based SEM approach highlighted different recalibration and reprioritization RS effects by attrition group. The IRT analyses detected more recalibration and reprioritization RS effects than SEM, presumably due to IRT's robustness to missing data. Future research should apply simulation techniques in order to make conclusive statements about the impacts of missing data according to the type and amount of RS.

Using the Tower of Hanoi puzzle to infuse your mathematics classroom with computer science concepts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marzocchi, Alison S.

2016-07-01

This article suggests that logic puzzles, such as the well-known Tower of Hanoi puzzle, can be used to introduce computer science concepts to mathematics students of all ages. Mathematics teachers introduce their students to computer science concepts that are enacted spontaneously and subconsciously throughout the solution to the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. These concepts include, but are not limited to, conditionals, iteration, and recursion. Lessons, such as the one proposed in this article, are easily implementable in mathematics classrooms and extracurricular programmes as they are good candidates for 'drop in' lessons that do not need to fit into any particular place in the typical curriculum sequence. As an example for readers, the author describes how she used the puzzle in her own Number Sense and Logic course during the federally funded Upward Bound Math/Science summer programme for college-intending low-income high school students. The article explains each computer science term with real-life and mathematical examples, applies each term to the Tower of Hanoi puzzle solution, and describes how students connected the terms to their own solutions of the puzzle. It is timely and important to expose mathematics students to computer science concepts. Given the rate at which technology is currently advancing, and our increased dependence on technology in our daily lives, it has become more important than ever for children to be exposed to computer science. Yet, despite the importance of exposing today's children to computer science, many children are not given adequate opportunity to learn computer science in schools. In the United States, for example, most students finish high school without ever taking a computing course. Mathematics lessons, such as the one described in this article, can help to make computer science more accessible to students who may have otherwise had little opportunity to be introduced to these increasingly important concepts.

Sleep Moderates the Association Between Response Inhibition and Self-Regulation in Early Childhood

PubMed Central

Schumacher, Allyson M.; Miller, Alison L.; Watamura, Sarah E.; Kurth, Salome; Lassonde, Jonathan M.; LeBourgeois, Monique K.

2017-01-01

Early childhood is a time of rapid developmental changes in sleep, cognitive control processes, and the regulation of emotion and behavior. This experimental study examined sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition and self-regulation, as well as whether acute sleep restriction moderated the association between these processes. Preschool children (N = 19; 45.6 ± 2.2 months; 11 female) followed a strict sleep schedule for at least 3 days before each of 2 morning behavior assessments: baseline (habitual nap/night sleep) and sleep restriction (missed nap/delayed bedtime). Response inhibition was evaluated via a go/no-go task. Twelve self-regulation strategies were coded from videotapes of children while attempting an unsolvable puzzle. We then created composite variables representing adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation strategies. Although we found no sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition or self-regulation measures, linear mixed-effects regression showed that acute sleep restriction moderated the relationship between these processes. At baseline, children with better response inhibition were more likely to use adaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., self-talk, alternate strategies), and those with poorer response inhibition showed increased use of maladaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., perseveration, fidgeting); however, response inhibition was not related to self-regulation strategies following sleep restriction. Our results showing a sleep-dependent effect on the associations between response inhibition and self-regulation strategies indicate that adequate sleep facilitates synergy between processes supporting optimal social-emotional functioning in early childhood. Although replication studies are needed, findings suggest that sleep may alter connections between maturing emotional and cognitive systems, which have important implications for understanding risk for or resilience to developmental psychopathology. PMID:27652491

The barriers and enablers of healthy eating among young adults: a missing piece of the obesity puzzle: A scoping review.

PubMed

Munt, A E; Partridge, S R; Allman-Farinelli, M

2017-01-01

Young adults in Western countries are gaining weight faster than their parents and are more likely to gain weight than any other age cohort. Despite this, investigation into the complex young adults' food choice motives, which enable and prevent healthy eating, has not been widely investigated. A scoping review was conducted involving an extensive literature search of four major electronic databases: Medline, Embase, PsychInfo and CINAHL. Data were collected from 34 articles: study descriptions numerically analysed and key findings thematically analysed. The key barriers found included: male apathy towards diet; unhealthy diet of friends and family; expected consumption of unhealthy foods in certain situations; relative low cost of unhealthy foods; lack of time to plan, shop, prepare and cook healthy foods; lack of facilities to prepare, cook and store healthy foods; widespread presence of unhealthy foods; lack of knowledge and skills to plan, shop, prepare and cook healthy foods; lack of motivation to eat healthily (including risk-taking behaviour). The key enablers found included: female interest in a healthy diet; healthy diet of friends and family; support/encouragement of friends and family to eat healthy; desire for improved health; desire for weight management; desire for improved self-esteem; desire for attractiveness to potential partners and others; possessing autonomous motivation to eat healthy and existence and use of self-regulatory skills. This research provides evidence that can be used to tailor interventions for healthy eating and overweight and obesity in this population. However, government intervention in addressing food access, affordability, marketing and taxation remains essential to any significant change. © 2016 World Obesity Federation.

Sleep Moderates the Association Between Response Inhibition and Self-Regulation in Early Childhood.

PubMed

Schumacher, Allyson M; Miller, Alison L; Watamura, Sarah E; Kurth, Salome; Lassonde, Jonathan M; LeBourgeois, Monique K

2017-01-01

Early childhood is a time of rapid developmental changes in sleep, cognitive control processes, and the regulation of emotion and behavior. This experimental study examined sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition and self-regulation, as well as whether acute sleep restriction moderated the association between these processes. Preschool children (N = 19; 45.6 ± 2.2 months; 11 female) followed a strict sleep schedule for at least 3 days before each of 2 morning behavior assessments: baseline (habitual nap/night sleep) and sleep restriction (missed nap/delayed bedtime). Response inhibition was evaluated via a go/no-go task. Twelve self-regulation strategies were coded from videotapes of children while attempting an unsolvable puzzle. We then created composite variables representing adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation strategies. Although we found no sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition or self-regulation measures, linear mixed-effects regression showed that acute sleep restriction moderated the relationship between these processes. At baseline, children with better response inhibition were more likely to use adaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., self-talk, alternate strategies), and those with poorer response inhibition showed increased use of maladaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., perseveration, fidgeting); however, response inhibition was not related to self-regulation strategies following sleep restriction. Our results showing a sleep-dependent effect on the associations between response inhibition and self-regulation strategies indicate that adequate sleep facilitates synergy between processes supporting optimal social-emotional functioning in early childhood. Although replication studies are needed, findings suggest that sleep may alter connections between maturing emotional and cognitive systems, which have important implications for understanding risk for or resilience to developmental psychopathology.

Contamination in the MACHO data set and the puzzle of Large Magellanic Cloud microlensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griest, Kim; Thomas, Christian L.

2005-05-01

In a recent series of three papers, Belokurov, Evans & Le Du and Evans & Belokurov reanalysed the MACHO collaboration data and gave alternative sets of microlensing events and an alternative optical depth to microlensing towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Although these authors examined less than 0.2 per cent of the data, they reported that by using a neural net program they had reliably selected a better (and smaller) set of microlensing candidates. Estimating the optical depth from this smaller set, they claimed that the MACHO collaboration overestimated the optical depth by a significant factor and that the MACHO microlensing experiment is consistent with lensing by known stars in the Milky Way and LMC. As we show below, the analysis by these authors contains several errors, and as a result their conclusions are incorrect. Their efficiency analysis is in error, and since they did not search through the entire MACHO data set, they do not know how many microlensing events their neural net would find in the data nor what optical depth their method would give. Examination of their selected events suggests that their method misses low signal-to-noise ratio events and thus would have lower efficiency than the MACHO selection criteria. In addition, their method is likely to give many more false positives (non-lensing events identified as lensing). Both effects would increase their estimated optical depth. Finally, we note that the EROS discovery that LMC event 23 is a variable star reduces the MACHO collaboration estimates of optical depth and the Macho halo fraction by around 8 per cent, and does open the question of additional contamination.

Solving the small-scale structure puzzles with dissipative dark matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foot, Robert; Vagnozzi, Sunny

2016-07-01

Small-scale structure is studied in the context of dissipative dark matter, arising for instance in models with a hidden unbroken Abelian sector, so that dark matter couples to a massless dark photon. The dark sector interacts with ordinary matter via gravity and photon-dark photon kinetic mixing. Mirror dark matter is a theoretically constrained special case where all parameters are fixed except for the kinetic mixing strength, epsilon. In these models, the dark matter halo around spiral and irregular galaxies takes the form of a dissipative plasma which evolves in response to various heating and cooling processes. It has been argued previously that such dynamics can account for the inferred cored density profiles of galaxies and other related structural features. Here we focus on the apparent deficit of nearby small galaxies (``missing satellite problem"), which these dissipative models have the potential to address through small-scale power suppression by acoustic and diffusion damping. Using a variant of the extended Press-Schechter formalism, we evaluate the halo mass function for the special case of mirror dark matter. Considering a simplified model where Mbaryons propto Mhalo, we relate the halo mass function to more directly observable quantities, and find that for epsilon ≈ 2 × 10-10 such a simplified description is compatible with the measured galaxy luminosity and velocity functions. On scales Mhalo lesssim 108 Msolar, diffusion damping exponentially suppresses the halo mass function, suggesting a nonprimordial origin for dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies, which we speculate were formed via a top-down fragmentation process as the result of nonlinear dissipative collapse of larger density perturbations. This could explain the planar orientation of satellite galaxies around Andromeda and the Milky Way.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Kids' Pages

MedlinePlus

... Recycle Science – How It Works The Natural World Games Brainteasers Puzzles Riddles Songs Activities Be a Scientist ... Recycle Science – How It Works The Natural World Games Expand Brainteasers Puzzles Riddles Songs Activities Expand Be ...

Investigating the Human Skeleton.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slesnick, Irwin L.

1982-01-01

Instructions are provided for assembly of a pull-out, two-sided picture puzzle of the skeleton of a seven-year-old girl. Suggestions for activities using the assembled puzzle and comments on bones and bone morphology are also provided. (Author/JN)

Do semantic contextual cues facilitate transfer learning from video in toddlers?

PubMed Central

Zimmermann, Laura; Moser, Alecia; Grenell, Amanda; Dickerson, Kelly; Yao, Qianwen; Gerhardstein, Peter; Barr, Rachel

2015-01-01

Young children typically demonstrate a transfer deficit, learning less from video than live presentations. Semantically meaningful context has been demonstrated to enhance learning in young children. We examined the effect of a semantically meaningful context on toddlers’ imitation performance. Two- and 2.5-year-olds participated in a puzzle imitation task to examine learning from either a live or televised model. The model demonstrated how to assemble a three-piece puzzle to make a fish or a boat, with the puzzle demonstration occurring against a semantically meaningful background context (ocean) or a yellow background (no context). Participants in the video condition performed significantly worse than participants in the live condition, demonstrating the typical transfer deficit effect. While the context helped improve overall levels of imitation, especially for the boat puzzle, only individual differences in the ability to self-generate a stimulus label were associated with a reduction in the transfer deficit. PMID:26029131

Puzzle Imaging: Using Large-Scale Dimensionality Reduction Algorithms for Localization

PubMed Central

Glaser, Joshua I.; Zamft, Bradley M.; Church, George M.; Kording, Konrad P.

2015-01-01

Current high-resolution imaging techniques require an intact sample that preserves spatial relationships. We here present a novel approach, “puzzle imaging,” that allows imaging a spatially scrambled sample. This technique takes many spatially disordered samples, and then pieces them back together using local properties embedded within the sample. We show that puzzle imaging can efficiently produce high-resolution images using dimensionality reduction algorithms. We demonstrate the theoretical capabilities of puzzle imaging in three biological scenarios, showing that (1) relatively precise 3-dimensional brain imaging is possible; (2) the physical structure of a neural network can often be recovered based only on the neural connectivity matrix; and (3) a chemical map could be reproduced using bacteria with chemosensitive DNA and conjugative transfer. The ability to reconstruct scrambled images promises to enable imaging based on DNA sequencing of homogenized tissue samples. PMID:26192446

Piecing It Together: The Effect of Background Music on Children's Puzzle Assembly.

PubMed

Koolidge, Louis; Holmes, Robyn M

2018-04-01

This study explored the effects of background music on cognitive (puzzle assembly) task performance in young children. Participants were 87 primarily European-American children (38 boys, 49 girls; mean age = 4.77 years) enrolled in early childhood classes in the northeastern United States. Children were given one minute to complete a 12-piece puzzle task in one of three background music conditions: music with lyrics, music without lyrics, and no music. The music selection was "You're Welcome" from the Disney movie "Moana." Results revealed that children who heard the music without lyrics completed more puzzle pieces than children in either the music with lyrics or no music condition. Background music without distracting lyrics may be beneficial and superior to background music with lyrics for young children's cognitive performance even when they are engaged independently in a nonverbal task.

Do semantic contextual cues facilitate transfer learning from video in toddlers?

PubMed

Zimmermann, Laura; Moser, Alecia; Grenell, Amanda; Dickerson, Kelly; Yao, Qianwen; Gerhardstein, Peter; Barr, Rachel

2015-01-01

Young children typically demonstrate a transfer deficit, learning less from video than live presentations. Semantically meaningful context has been demonstrated to enhance learning in young children. We examined the effect of a semantically meaningful context on toddlers' imitation performance. Two- and 2.5-year-olds participated in a puzzle imitation task to examine learning from either a live or televised model. The model demonstrated how to assemble a three-piece puzzle to make a fish or a boat, with the puzzle demonstration occurring against a semantically meaningful background context (ocean) or a yellow background (no context). Participants in the video condition performed significantly worse than participants in the live condition, demonstrating the typical transfer deficit effect. While the context helped improve overall levels of imitation, especially for the boat puzzle, only individual differences in the ability to self-generate a stimulus label were associated with a reduction in the transfer deficit.

Outlier Removal in Model-Based Missing Value Imputation for Medical Datasets.

PubMed

Huang, Min-Wei; Lin, Wei-Chao; Tsai, Chih-Fong

2018-01-01

Many real-world medical datasets contain some proportion of missing (attribute) values. In general, missing value imputation can be performed to solve this problem, which is to provide estimations for the missing values by a reasoning process based on the (complete) observed data. However, if the observed data contain some noisy information or outliers, the estimations of the missing values may not be reliable or may even be quite different from the real values. The aim of this paper is to examine whether a combination of instance selection from the observed data and missing value imputation offers better performance than performing missing value imputation alone. In particular, three instance selection algorithms, DROP3, GA, and IB3, and three imputation algorithms, KNNI, MLP, and SVM, are used in order to find out the best combination. The experimental results show that that performing instance selection can have a positive impact on missing value imputation over the numerical data type of medical datasets, and specific combinations of instance selection and imputation methods can improve the imputation results over the mixed data type of medical datasets. However, instance selection does not have a definitely positive impact on the imputation result for categorical medical datasets.

Multiple imputation by chained equations for systematically and sporadically missing multilevel data.

PubMed

Resche-Rigon, Matthieu; White, Ian R

2018-06-01

In multilevel settings such as individual participant data meta-analysis, a variable is 'systematically missing' if it is wholly missing in some clusters and 'sporadically missing' if it is partly missing in some clusters. Previously proposed methods to impute incomplete multilevel data handle either systematically or sporadically missing data, but frequently both patterns are observed. We describe a new multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE) algorithm for multilevel data with arbitrary patterns of systematically and sporadically missing variables. The algorithm is described for multilevel normal data but can easily be extended for other variable types. We first propose two methods for imputing a single incomplete variable: an extension of an existing method and a new two-stage method which conveniently allows for heteroscedastic data. We then discuss the difficulties of imputing missing values in several variables in multilevel data using MICE, and show that even the simplest joint multilevel model implies conditional models which involve cluster means and heteroscedasticity. However, a simulation study finds that the proposed methods can be successfully combined in a multilevel MICE procedure, even when cluster means are not included in the imputation models.

Standards should be applied in the prevention and handling of missing data for patient-centered outcomes research: a systematic review and expert consensus.

PubMed

Li, Tianjing; Hutfless, Susan; Scharfstein, Daniel O; Daniels, Michael J; Hogan, Joseph W; Little, Roderick J A; Roy, Jason A; Law, Andrew H; Dickersin, Kay

2014-01-01

To recommend methodological standards in the prevention and handling of missing data for primary patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). We searched National Library of Medicine Bookshelf and Catalog as well as regulatory agencies' and organizations' Web sites in January 2012 for guidance documents that had formal recommendations regarding missing data. We extracted the characteristics of included guidance documents and recommendations. Using a two-round modified Delphi survey, a multidisciplinary panel proposed mandatory standards on the prevention and handling of missing data for PCOR. We identified 1,790 records and assessed 30 as having relevant recommendations. We proposed 10 standards as mandatory, covering three domains. First, the single best approach is to prospectively prevent missing data occurrence. Second, use of valid statistical methods that properly reflect multiple sources of uncertainty is critical when analyzing missing data. Third, transparent and thorough reporting of missing data allows readers to judge the validity of the findings. We urge researchers to adopt rigorous methodology and promote good science by applying best practices to the prevention and handling of missing data. Developing guidance on the prevention and handling of missing data for observational studies and studies that use existing records is a priority for future research. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A study of using smartphone to detect and identify construction workers' near-miss falls based on ANN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Mingyuan; Cao, Tianzhuo; Zhao, Xuefeng

2018-03-01

As an effective fall accident preventive method, insight into near-miss falls provides an efficient solution to find out the causes of fall accidents, classify the type of near-miss falls and control the potential hazards. In this context, the paper proposes a method to detect and identify near-miss falls that occur when a worker walks in a workplace based on artificial neural network (ANN). The energy variation generated by workers who meet with near-miss falls is measured by sensors embedded in smart phone. Two experiments were designed to train the algorithm to identify various types of near-miss falls and test the recognition accuracy, respectively. At last, a test was conducted by workers wearing smart phones as they walked around a simulated construction workplace. The motion data was collected, processed and inputted to the trained ANN to detect and identify near-miss falls. Thresholds were obtained to measure the relationship between near-miss falls and fall accidents in a quantitate way. This approach, which integrates smart phone and ANN, will help detect near-miss fall events, identify hazardous elements and vulnerable workers, providing opportunities to eliminate dangerous conditions in a construction site or to alert possible victims that need to change their behavior before the occurrence of a fall accident.

Relationship of Number of Missing Teeth to Hip Fracture in Elderly Patients: A Cohort Pilot Study.

PubMed

Priebe, Jennifer; Wermers, Robert A; Sems, Stephen A; Viozzi, Christopher F; Koka, Sreenivas

2017-09-15

To determine the relationship between the number of missing natural teeth or remaining natural teeth and osteoporotic hip fracture in elderly patients and to determine the relationship between the number of missing teeth or remaining teeth and osteoporotic fracture risk assessment (FRAX) probability. Number of missing teeth was determined by clinical oral exam on a total of 100 subjects, 50 with hip fractures and 50 without. Ten-year fracture risk and hip fracture risk probabilities were calculated using the FRAX tool. Statistical analyses were performed to determine strength of associations between number of missing natural teeth and likelihood of experiencing a fracture. Degree of correlation between number of missing natural teeth and FRAX probabilities were calculated. There appears to be an association between the number of missing natural teeth and hip fractures. For every 5-tooth increase in the number of missing teeth, the likelihood of being a subject in the hip fracture group increased by 26%. Number of missing natural teeth was positively correlated with FRAX overall fracture and hip fracture probability. Number of missing natural teeth may be a valuable tool to assist members of medical and dental teams in identifying patients with higher FRAX scores and higher likelihood of experiencing a hip fracture. Additional research is necessary to validate these findings. © 2017 by the American College of Prosthodontists.

Effects of correcting missing daily feed intake values on the genetic parameters and estimated breeding values for feeding traits in pigs.

PubMed

Ito, Tetsuya; Fukawa, Kazuo; Kamikawa, Mai; Nikaidou, Satoshi; Taniguchi, Masaaki; Arakawa, Aisaku; Tanaka, Genki; Mikawa, Satoshi; Furukawa, Tsutomu; Hirose, Kensuke

2018-01-01

Daily feed intake (DFI) is an important consideration for improving feed efficiency, but measurements using electronic feeder systems contain many missing and incorrect values. Therefore, we evaluated three methods for correcting missing DFI data (quadratic, orthogonal polynomial, and locally weighted (Loess) regression equations) and assessed the effects of these missing values on the genetic parameters and the estimated breeding values (EBV) for feeding traits. DFI records were obtained from 1622 Duroc pigs, comprising 902 individuals without missing DFI and 720 individuals with missing DFI. The Loess equation was the most suitable method for correcting the missing DFI values in 5-50% randomly deleted datasets among the three equations. Both variance components and heritability for the average DFI (ADFI) did not change because of the missing DFI proportion and Loess correction. In terms of rank correlation and information criteria, Loess correction improved the accuracy of EBV for ADFI compared to randomly deleted cases. These findings indicate that the Loess equation is useful for correcting missing DFI values for individual pigs and that the correction of missing DFI values could be effective for the estimation of breeding values and genetic improvement using EBV for feeding traits. © 2017 The Authors. Animal Science Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Society of Animal Science.

Temporal-logic analysis of microglial phenotypic conversion with exposure to amyloid-β.

PubMed

Anastasio, Thomas J

2015-02-01

Alzheimer Disease (AD) remains a leading killer with no adequate treatment. Ongoing research increasingly implicates the brain's immune system as a critical contributor to AD pathogenesis, but the complexity of the immune contribution poses a barrier to understanding. Here I use temporal logic to analyze a computational specification of the immune component of AD. Temporal logic is an extension of logic to propositions expressed in terms of time. It has traditionally been used to analyze computational specifications of complex engineered systems but applications to complex biological systems are now appearing. The inflammatory component of AD involves the responses of microglia to the peptide amyloid-β (Aβ), which is an inflammatory stimulus and a likely causative AD agent. Temporal-logic analysis of the model provides explanations for the puzzling findings that Aβ induces an anti-inflammatory and well as a pro-inflammatory response, and that Aβ is phagocytized by microglia in young but not in old animals. To potentially explain the first puzzle, the model suggests that interferon-γ acts as an "autocrine bridge" over which an Aβ-induced increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines leads to an increase in anti-inflammatory mediators also. To potentially explain the second puzzle, the model identifies a potential instability in signaling via insulin-like growth factor 1 that could explain the failure of old microglia to phagocytize Aβ. The model predicts that augmentation of insulin-like growth factor 1 signaling, and activation of protein kinase C in particular, could move old microglia from a neurotoxic back toward a more neuroprotective and phagocytic phenotype.

Mobile Phone Use, Emotion Regulation, and Well-Being.

PubMed

Hoffner, Cynthia A; Lee, Sangmi

2015-07-01

This study examined the use of mobile phones to regulate negative emotions, considering both the role of different aspects of phone use and individual differences in emotion regulation strategies. A total of 287 young adult smartphone users completed an online survey that addressed use of mobile phones for negative emotion regulation. They responded to a phone loss scenario by rating how much they would miss various uses/functions of the phone (which could be involved in emotion regulation). Habitual use of reappraisal to regulate emotion was associated with missing both interpersonal contact and social support, but not access to entertainment/information. In contrast, habitual use of emotion suppression was associated only with missing entertainment/information content. Regulating negative emotions via mobile phone was associated with missing all three uses/functions of the phone, but perception that the phone was effective in remediating negative emotion was associated only with missing social support. Well-being was related to greater use and perceived effectiveness of the mobile phone for emotion regulation. Overall, this study demonstrates that mobile phones can yield psychological benefits, depending on how they are used. Findings suggest that using the phone for social support is most likely to lead to effective remediation of negative emotion. Interpretations and implications of the findings are discussed.

Finding the missing stimulus mismatch negativity (MMN): Emitted MMN to violations of an auditory gestalt

PubMed Central

Salisbury, Dean F

2011-01-01

Deviations from repetitive auditory stimuli evoke a mismatch negativity (MMN). Counter-intuitively, omissions of repetitive stimuli do not. Violations of patterns reflecting complex rules also evoke MMN. To detect a MMN to missing stimuli, we developed an auditory gestalt task using one stimulus. Groups of 6 pips (50 msec duration, 330 msec stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), 400 trials), were presented with an inter-trial interval (ITI) of 750 msec while subjects (n=16) watched a silent video. Occasional deviant groups had missing 4th or 6th tones (50 trials each). Missing stimuli evoked a MMN (p<.05). The missing 4th (−0.8 uV, p <.01) and the missing 6th stimuli (−1.1 uV, p <.05) were more negative than standard 6th stimuli (0.3 uV). MMN can be elicited by a missing stimulus at long SOAs by violation of a gestalt grouping rule. Homogenous stimulus streams appear to differ in the relative weighting of omissions than strongly patterned streams. PMID:22221004

Performance Testing of Lidar Components Subjected to Space Exposure in Space via MISSE 7 Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prasad, Narasimha S.

2012-01-01

.The objective of the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) is to study the performance of novel materials when subjected to the synergistic effects of the harsh space environment for several months. MISSE missions provide an opportunity for developing space qualifiable materials. Several laser and lidar components were sent by NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) as a part of the MISSE 7 mission. The MISSE 7 module was transported to the international space station (ISS) via STS 129 mission that was launched on Nov 16, 2009. Later, the MISSE 7 module was brought back to the earth via the STS 134 that landed on June 1, 2011. The MISSE 7 module that was subjected to exposure in space environment for more than one and a half year included fiber laser, solid-state laser gain materials, detectors, and semiconductor laser diode. Performance testing of these components is now progressing. In this paper, the current progress on post-flight performance testing of a high-speed photodetector and a balanced receiver is discussed. Preliminary findings show that detector characteristics did not undergo any significant degradation.

Electronic Medical Records and Same Day Patient Tracing Improves Clinic Efficiency and Adherence to Appointments in a Community Based HIV/AIDS Care Program, in Uganda

PubMed Central

Alamo, Stella T.; Wagner, Glenn J.; Sunday, Pamela; Wanyenze, Rhoda K.; Ouma, Joseph; Kamya, Moses; Colebunders, Robert; Wabwire-Mangen, Fred

2013-01-01

Patients who miss clinic appointments make unscheduled visits which compromise the ability to plan for and deliver quality care. We implemented Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and same day patient tracing to minimize missed appointments in a community-based HIV clinic in Kampala. Missed, early, on-schedule appointments and waiting times were evaluated before (pre-EMR) and 6 months after implementation of EMR and patient tracing (post-EMR). Reasons for missed appointments were documented pre and post-EMR. The mean daily number of missed appointments significantly reduced from 21 pre-EMR to 8 post-EMR. The main reason for missed appointments was forgetting (37%) but reduced significantly by 30% post-EMR. Loss to follow-up (LTFU) also significantly decreased from 10.9 to 4.8% The total median waiting time to see providers significantly decreased from 291 to 94 min. Our findings suggest that EMR and same day patient tracing can significantly reduce missed appointments, and LTFU and improve clinic efficiency. PMID:21739285

A cross sectional study of maternal 'near-miss' cases in major public hospitals in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.

PubMed

Bashour, Hyam; Saad-Haddad, Ghada; DeJong, Jocelyn; Ramadan, Mohammed Cherine; Hassan, Sahar; Breebaart, Miral; Wick, Laura; Hassanein, Nevine; Kharouf, Mayada

2015-11-13

The maternal near-miss approach has been increasingly used as a tool to evaluate and improve the quality of care in maternal health. We report findings from the formative stage of a World Health Organization (WHO) funded implementation research study that was undertaken to collect primary data at the facility level on the prevalence, characteristics, and management of maternal near-miss cases in four major public referral hospitals - one each in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. We conducted a cross sectional study of maternal near-miss cases in the four contexts beginning in 2011, where we collected data on severe maternal morbidity in the four study hospitals, using the WHO form (Individual Form HRP A65661). In each hospital, a research team including trained hospital healthcare providers carried out the data collection. A total of 9,063 live birth deliveries were reported during the data collection period across the four settings, with a total of 77 cases of severe maternal outcomes (71 maternal near-miss cases and 6 maternal deaths). Higher indices for the maternal mortality index were found in both Al Galaa hospital, in Egypt (8.6%) and Dar Al Tawleed hospital in Syria (14.3%), being large referral hospitals, compared to Ramallah hospital in Palestine and Rafik Hariri University hospital in Lebanon. Compared to the WHO's Multicountry Survey using the same data collection tool, our study's mortality indices are higher than the index of 5.6% among countries with a moderate maternal mortality ratio in the WHO Survey. Overall, haemorrhage-related complications were the most frequent conditions among maternal near-miss cases across the four study hospitals. In all hospitals, coagulation dysfunctions (76.1%) were the most prevalent dysfunction among maternal near-miss cases, followed by cardiovascular dysfunctions. The coverage of key evidence-based interventions among women experiencing a near-miss was either universal or very high in the study hospitals. Findings from this formative stage confirmed the need for quality improvement interventions. The high reported coverage of the main clinical interventions in the study hospitals would appear to be in contradiction with the above findings as the level of coverage of key evidence-based interventions was high.

GenomewidePDB 2.0: A Newly Upgraded Versatile Proteogenomic Database for the Chromosome-Centric Human Proteome Project.

PubMed

Jeong, Seul-Ki; Hancock, William S; Paik, Young-Ki

2015-09-04

Since the launch of the Chromosome-centric Human Proteome Project (C-HPP) in 2012, the number of "missing" proteins has fallen to 2932, down from ∼5932 since the number was first counted in 2011. We compared the characteristics of missing proteins with those of already annotated proteins with respect to transcriptional expression pattern and the time periods in which newly identified proteins were annotated. We learned that missing proteins commonly exhibit lower levels of transcriptional expression and less tissue-specific expression compared with already annotated proteins. This makes it more difficult to identify missing proteins as time goes on. One of the C-HPP goals is to identify alternative spliced product of proteins (ASPs), which are usually difficult to find by shot-gun proteomic methods due to their sequence similarities with the representative proteins. To resolve this problem, it may be necessary to use a targeted proteomics approach (e.g., selected and multiple reaction monitoring [S/MRM] assays) and an innovative bioinformatics platform that enables the selection of target peptides for rarely expressed missing proteins or ASPs. Given that the success of efforts to identify missing proteins may rely on more informative public databases, it was necessary to upgrade the available integrative databases. To this end, we attempted to improve the features and utility of GenomewidePDB by integrating transcriptomic information (e.g., alternatively spliced transcripts), annotated peptide information, and an advanced search interface that can find proteins of interest when applying a targeted proteomics strategy. This upgraded version of the database, GenomewidePDB 2.0, may not only expedite identification of the remaining missing proteins but also enhance the exchange of information among the proteome community. GenomewidePDB 2.0 is available publicly at http://genomewidepdb.proteomix.org/.

Is using multiple imputation better than complete case analysis for estimating a prevalence (risk) difference in randomized controlled trials when binary outcome observations are missing?

PubMed

Mukaka, Mavuto; White, Sarah A; Terlouw, Dianne J; Mwapasa, Victor; Kalilani-Phiri, Linda; Faragher, E Brian

2016-07-22

Missing outcomes can seriously impair the ability to make correct inferences from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Complete case (CC) analysis is commonly used, but it reduces sample size and is perceived to lead to reduced statistical efficiency of estimates while increasing the potential for bias. As multiple imputation (MI) methods preserve sample size, they are generally viewed as the preferred analytical approach. We examined this assumption, comparing the performance of CC and MI methods to determine risk difference (RD) estimates in the presence of missing binary outcomes. We conducted simulation studies of 5000 simulated data sets with 50 imputations of RCTs with one primary follow-up endpoint at different underlying levels of RD (3-25 %) and missing outcomes (5-30 %). For missing at random (MAR) or missing completely at random (MCAR) outcomes, CC method estimates generally remained unbiased and achieved precision similar to or better than MI methods, and high statistical coverage. Missing not at random (MNAR) scenarios yielded invalid inferences with both methods. Effect size estimate bias was reduced in MI methods by always including group membership even if this was unrelated to missingness. Surprisingly, under MAR and MCAR conditions in the assessed scenarios, MI offered no statistical advantage over CC methods. While MI must inherently accompany CC methods for intention-to-treat analyses, these findings endorse CC methods for per protocol risk difference analyses in these conditions. These findings provide an argument for the use of the CC approach to always complement MI analyses, with the usual caveat that the validity of the mechanism for missingness be thoroughly discussed. More importantly, researchers should strive to collect as much data as possible.

Examining Solutions to Missing Data in Longitudinal Nursing Research

PubMed Central

Roberts, Mary B.; Sullivan, Mary C.; Winchester, Suzy B.

2017-01-01

Purpose Longitudinal studies are highly valuable in pediatrics because they provide useful data about developmental patterns of child health and behavior over time. When data are missing, the value of the research is impacted. The study’s purpose was to: (1) introduce a 3-step approach to assess and address missing data; (2) illustrate this approach using categorical and continuous level variables from a longitudinal study of premature infants. Methods A three-step approach with simulations was followed to assess the amount and pattern of missing data and to determine the most appropriate imputation method for the missing data. Patterns of missingness were Missing Completely at Random, Missing at Random, and Not Missing at Random. Missing continuous-level data were imputed using mean replacement, stochastic regression, multiple imputation, and fully conditional specification. Missing categorical-level data were imputed using last value carried forward, hot-decking, stochastic regression, and fully conditional specification. Simulations were used to evaluate these imputation methods under different patterns of missingness at different levels of missing data. Results The rate of missingness was 16–23% for continuous variables and 1–28% for categorical variables. Fully conditional specification imputation provided the least difference in mean and standard deviation estimates for continuous measures. Fully conditional specification imputation was acceptable for categorical measures. Results obtained through simulation reinforced and confirmed these findings. Practice Implications Significant investments are made in the collection of longitudinal data. The prudent handling of missing data can protect these investments and potentially improve the scientific information contained in pediatric longitudinal studies. PMID:28425202

Impact of Healthcare Information Technology on Nursing Practice.

PubMed

Piscotty, Ronald J; Kalisch, Beatrice; Gracey-Thomas, Angel

2015-07-01

To report additional mediation findings from a descriptive cross sectional study to examine if nurses' perceptions of the impact of healthcare information technology on their practice mediates the relationship between electronic nursing care reminder use and missed nursing care. The study used a descriptive design. The sample (N = 165) was composed of registered nurses working on acute care hospital units. The sample was obtained from a large teaching hospital in Southeast Michigan in the fall of 2012. All eligible nursing units (n = 19) were included. The MISSCARE Survey, Nursing Care Reminders Usage Survey, and the Impact of Healthcare Information Technology Scale were used to collect data to test for mediation. Mediation was tested using the method described by Baron and Kenny. Multiple regression equations were used to analyze the data to determine if mediation occurred between the variables. Missed nursing care, the outcome variable, was regressed on the predictor variable, reminder usage, and the mediator variable impact of technology on nursing practice. The impact of healthcare information technology (IHIT) on nursing practice negatively affected missed nursing care (t = -4.12, p < .001), explaining 9.8% of variance in missed nursing care. With IHIT present, the predictor (reminder usage) was no longer significant (t = -.70, p = .48). Thus, the reduced direct association between reminder usage and missed nursing care when IHIT was in the model supported the hypothesis that IHIT was at least one of the mediators in the relationship between reminder usage and missed nursing care. The perceptions of the impact of healthcare information technology mediates the relationship between nursing care reminder use and missed nursing care. The findings are beneficial to the advancement of healthcare technology in that designers of healthcare information technology systems need to keep in mind that perceptions regarding impacts of the technology will influence usage. Many times, information technology systems are not designed to match the workflow of nurses. Systems built with redundant or impertinent reminders may be ignored. System designers must study which reminders nurses find most useful and which reminders result in the best quality outcomes. © 2015 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Missing Links: A Serendipitous Journey into Teaching Styles.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Worfel, Paul

This paper documents the journey of a researcher into the teacher effectiveness movement and efforts to find missing links to show the correlations between teacher behavior and student learning. The paper also considers how the forces within education tend to consume embryonic ideas in teacher education, rather than nurture them in an effort to…

Discovery of a new motion mechanism of biomotors similar to the earth revolving around the sun without rotation

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

Guo, Peixuan, E-mail: peixuan.guo@uky.edu; Schwartz, Chad; Haak, Jeannie

Biomotors have been classified into linear and rotational motors. For 35 years, it has been popularly believed that viral dsDNA-packaging apparatuses are pentameric rotation motors. Recently, a third class of hexameric motor has been found in bacteriophage phi29 that utilizes a mechanism of revolution without rotation, friction, coiling, or torque. This review addresses how packaging motors control dsDNA one-way traffic; how four electropositive layers in the channel interact with the electronegative phosphate backbone to generate four steps in translocating one dsDNA helix; how motors resolve the mismatch between 10.5 bases and 12 connector subunits per cycle of revolution; and howmore » ATP regulates sequential action of motor ATPase. Since motors with all number of subunits can utilize the revolution mechanism, this finding helps resolve puzzles and debates concerning the oligomeric nature of packaging motors in many phage systems. This revolution mechanism helps to solve the undesirable dsDNA supercoiling issue involved in rotation. - Highlights: • New motion mechanism of revolution without rotation found for phi29 DNA packaging. • Revolution motor finding expands classical linear and rotation biomotor classes. • Revolution motors transport dsDNA unidirectionally without supercoiling. • New mechanism solves many puzzles, mysteries, and debates in biomotor studies. • Motors with all numbers of subunits can utilize the revolution mechanism.« less

Impact of teamwork on missed care in four Australian hospitals.

PubMed

Chapman, Rose; Rahman, Asheq; Courtney, Mary; Chalmers, Cheyne

2017-01-01

Investigate effects of teamwork on missed nursing care across a healthcare network in Australia. Missed care is universally used as an indicator of quality nursing care, however, little is known about mitigating effects of teamwork on these events. A descriptive exploratory study. Missed Care and Team Work surveys were completed by 334 nurses. Using Stata software, nursing staff demographic information and components of missed care and teamwork were compared across the healthcare network. Statistical tests were performed to identify predicting factors for missed care. The most commonly reported components of missed care were as follows: ambulation three times per day (43·3%), turning patient every two hours (29%) and mouth care (27·7%). The commonest reasons mentioned for missed care were as follows: inadequate labour resources (range 69·8-52·7%), followed by material resources (range 59·3-33·3%) and communication (range 39·3-27·2%). There were significant differences in missed care scores across units. Using the mean scores in regression correlation matrix, the negative relationship of missed care and teamwork was supported (r = -0·34, p < 0·001). Controlling for occupation of the staff member and staff characteristics in multiple regression models, teamwork alone accounted for about 9% of missed nursing care. Similar to previous international research findings, our results showed nursing teamwork significantly impacted on missed nursing care. Teamwork may be a mitigating factor to address missed care and future research is needed. These results may provide administrators, educators and clinicians with information to develop practices and policies to improve patient care internationally. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Piecing together stakeholder puzzles-puzzling about (opioid substitute treatment---OST) stakeholders and their pieces: a rambling point-of-view.

PubMed

Einstein, Stan

2013-08-01

This point-of-view presentation explores "stakeholders" and "opioid substitute treatment," their dimensions, selected enabling necessary conditions to operate, or not, implications, and consequences from a range of selected perspectives.

The Retrofit Puzzle Extended: Optimal Fleet Owner Behavior over Multiple Time Periods

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-08-04

In "The Retrofit Puzzle: Optimal Fleet Owner Behavior in the Context of Diesel Retrofit Incentive Programs" (1) an integer program was developed to model profit-maximizing diesel fleet owner behavior when selecting pollution reduction retrofits. Flee...

Classroom Proven Motivational Mathematics Games, Monograph No. 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

This collection includes 50 mathematical games and puzzles for classroom use at all grade levels. Also included is a wide variety of activities with cubes, flash cards, graphs, dots, number patterns, geometric shapes, cross-number puzzles, and magic squares. (MM)

Invasiveness as a barrier to self-monitoring of blood glucose in diabetes.

PubMed

Wagner, Julie; Malchoff, Carl; Abbott, Gina

2005-08-01

This study investigated the degree to which the invasive characteristic of glucose monitoring is a barrier to self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). A paper-and-pencil Measure of Invasiveness as a reason for Skipping SMBG (MISS) was created and administered to 339 people with diabetes. The correlations between MISS scores and actual SMBG frequency, percent adherence to SMBG recommendations, SMBG anxiety, SMBG burden, and knowledge of the importance of glycemic control for avoiding diabetes complications were each explored. On a scale of 0-28, the average MISS score was M = 4.3 (SD = 5.4, range 0-28). Fully 63% (nearly two-thirds) of respondents reported skipping SMBG because of the invasiveness of the procedure. MISS scores were negatively related to percent adherence to healthcare provider SMBG recommendations as measured by memory function of automated meters (Spearman's r= -0.47, P < 0.01). MISS scores were also negatively related to absolute SMBG frequency regardless of SMBG recommendations (Spearman's r= -0.11, P < 0.05). Correlation between the MISS and SMBG anxiety was significant (Spearman's r = 0.50, P < 0.01). With highly anxious participants deleted, the magnitude of the correlation was attenuated, but persisted (Spearman's r = 0.28, P < 0.01), suggesting that invasiveness is associated with SMBG anxiety even among patients without a blood or injection phobia. MISS scores were also correlated with the degree to which patients find routine and non-routine SMBG checks a burden (routine r = 0.38, P < 0.01; non-routine r = 0.45, P < 0.01). Results of Mann-Whitney U tests indicated higher MISS scores among participants with less knowledge about the importance of glycemic control in the development of diabetes vascular complications. Invasiveness is a common and serious barrier to SMBG. These findings suggest that people with diabetes would perform SMBG more frequently and have improved quality of life with non-invasive SMBG.

Jigsaw puzzle metasurface for multiple functions: polarization conversion, anomalous reflection and diffusion.

PubMed

Zhao, Yi; Cao, Xiangyu; Gao, Jun; Liu, Xiao; Li, Sijia

2016-05-16

We demonstrate a simple reconfigurable metasurface with multiple functions. Anisotropic tiles are investigated and manufactured as fundamental elements. Then, the tiles are combined in a certain sequence to construct a metasurface. Each of the tiles can be adjusted independently which is like a jigsaw puzzle and the whole metasurface can achieve diverse functions by different layouts. For demonstration purposes, we realize polarization conversion, anomalous reflection and diffusion by a jigsaw puzzle metasurface with 6 × 6 pieces of anisotropic tile. Simulated and measured results prove that our method offers a simple and effective strategy for metasurface design.

Early predictors of helpless thoughts and behaviors in children: developmental precursors to depressive cognitions.

PubMed

Cole, David A; Warren, Dana E; Dallaire, Danielle H; Lagrange, Beth; Travis, Rebekah; Ciesla, Jeffrey A

2007-04-01

Learned helplessness behavior and cognitions were assessed in 95 kindergarten-age children during a series of impossible puzzle trials followed by a solvable puzzle trial. Latent growth curve analysis revealed reliable individual differences in the trajectories of children's affect, motivation, and self-cognitions over time. Parents' reports of negative life events, harsh/negative parenting, and warm/positive parenting were associated with their children's learned helplessness behavioral trajectories and outcomes over the course of the puzzle trials. Results support speculations about the developmental origins of depressive explanatory or attributional style in children.

The Computational Complexity of the Kakuro Puzzle, Revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruepp, Oliver; Holzer, Markus

We present a new proof of NP-completeness for the problem of solving instances of the Japanese pencil puzzle Kakuro (also known as Cross-Sum). While the NP-completeness of Kakuro puzzles has been shown before [T. Seta. The complexity of CROSS SUM. IPSJ SIG Notes, AL-84:51-58, 2002], there are still two interesting aspects to our proof: we show NP-completeness for a new variant of Kakuro that has not been investigated before and thus improves the aforementioned result. Moreover some parts of the proof have been generated automatically, using an interesting technique involving SAT solvers.

Free-style puzzle flap: the concept of recycling a perforator flap.

PubMed

Feng, Kuan-Ming; Hsieh, Ching-Hua; Jeng, Seng-Feng

2013-02-01

Theoretically, a flap can be supplied by any perforator based on the angiosome theory. In this study, the technique of free-style perforator flap dissection was used to harvest a pedicled or free skin flap from a previous free flap for a second difficult reconstruction. The authors call this a free-style puzzle flap. For the past 3 years, the authors treated 13 patients in whom 12 pedicled free-style puzzle flaps were harvested from previous redundant free flaps and recycled to reconstruct soft-tissue defects at various anatomical locations. One free-style free puzzle flap was harvested from a previous anterolateral thigh flap for buccal cancer to reconstruct a foot defect. Total flap survival was attained in 12 of 13 flaps. One transferred flap failed completely. This patient had received postoperative radiotherapy after the initial cancer ablation and free anterolateral thigh flap reconstruction. Another free flap was used to close and reconstruct the wound. All the donor sites could be closed primarily. The free-style puzzle flap, harvested from a previous redundant free flap and used as a perforator flap to reconstruct a new defect, has proven to be versatile and reliable. When indicated, it is an alternative donor site for further reconstruction of soft-tissue defects.

Neutron-deuteron analyzing power data at En = 21 MeV and the energy dependence of the three-nucleon analyzing power puzzle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weisel, G. J.; Tornow, W.; Esterline, J. H.

2015-08-01

We present measurements of n-d analyzing power, {A}y(θ ), at En = 21.0 MeV. The experiment produces neutrons via the 2H(d, n)3He reaction and uses a deuterated liquid-scintillator center detector and six pairs of liquid-scintillator neutron side detectors. Elastic neutron scattering events are identified by using time-of-flight techniques and by setting a gate in the center-detector pulse-height spectrum. Beam polarization is monitored by using a high-pressure helium gas scintillator. The n-d {A}y(θ ) data at 21.0 MeV show a significant discrepancy with the results of rigorous three-body calculations and are consistent with data taken previously by us at 19.0 and 22.5 MeV. We review the overall energy dependence of the three-nucleon analyzing power puzzle in neutron-deuteron elastic scattering, using the best data available. We find that the relative difference between calculations and data is nearly constant at 25% up to En = 22.5 MeV.

Cohabitants' perspective on housing adaptations: a piece of the puzzle.

PubMed

Granbom, Marianne; Taei, Afsaneh; Ekstam, Lisa

2017-12-01

As part of the Swedish state-funded healthcare system, housing adaptations are used to promote safe and independent living for disabled people in ordinary housing through the elimination of physical environmental barriers in the home. The aim of this study was to describe the cohabitants' expectations and experiences of how a housing adaptation, intended for the partner, would impact their everyday life. In-depth interviews were conducted with cohabitants of nine people applying for a housing adaptation, initially at the time of the application and then again 3 months after the housing adaptation was installed. A longitudinal analysis was performed including analysis procedures from Grounded Theory. The findings revealed the expectations and experiences in four categories: partners' activities and independence; cohabitants' everyday activities and caregiving; couples' shared recreational/leisure activities; and housing decisions. A core category putting the intervention into perspective was called 'Housing adaptations - A piece of the puzzle'. From the cohabitants' perspective, new insights on housing adaptations emerged, which are important to consider when planning and carrying out successful housing adaptations. © 2017 Nordic College of Caring Science.

The Compatibility Between Biomphalaria glabrata Snails and Schistosoma mansoni: An Increasingly Complex Puzzle.

PubMed

Mitta, G; Gourbal, B; Grunau, C; Knight, M; Bridger, J M; Théron, A

2017-01-01

This review reexamines the results obtained in recent decades regarding the compatibility polymorphism between the snail, Biomphalaria glabrata, and the pathogen, Schistosoma mansoni, which is one of the agents responsible for human schistosomiasis. Some results point to the snail's resistance as explaining the incompatibility, while others support a "matching hypothesis" between the snail's immune receptors and the schistosome's antigens. We propose here that the two hypotheses are not exclusive, and that the compatible/incompatible status of a particular host/parasite couple probably reflects the balance of multiple molecular determinants that support one hypothesis or the other. Because these genes are involved in a coevolutionary arms race, we also propose that the underlying mechanisms can vary. Finally, some recent results show that environmental factors could influence compatibility. Together, these results make the compatibility between B. glabrata and S. mansoni an increasingly complex puzzle. We need to develop more integrative approaches in order to find targets that could potentially be manipulated to control the transmission of schistosomiasis. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dark energy and the quietness of the local Hubble flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Axenides, M.; Perivolaropoulos, L.

2002-06-01

The linearity and quietness of the local (<10 Mpc) Hubble flow (LHF) in view of the very clumpy local universe is a long standing puzzle in standard and in open CDM (cold dark matter) cosmogony. The question addressed in this paper is whether the antigravity component of the recently discovered dark energy can cool the velocity flow enough to provide a solution to this puzzle. We calculate the growth of matter fluctuations in a flat universe containing a fraction ΩX(t0) of dark energy obeying the time independent equation of state pX=wρX. We find that dark energy can indeed cool the LHF. However the dark energy parameter values required to make the predicted velocity dispersion consistent with the observed value vrms~=40 km/s have been ruled out by other observational tests constraining the dark energy parameters w and ΩX. Therefore despite the claims of recent qualitative studies, dark energy with time independent equation of state cannot by itself explain the quietness and linearity of the local Hubble flow.

The birth order puzzle.

PubMed

Zajonc, R B; Markus, H; Markus, G B

1979-08-01

Studies relating intellectual performance to birth order report conflicting results, some finding intellectual scores to increase, others to decrease with birth order. In contrast, the relationship between intellectual performance and family size is stable and consistently replicable. Why do these two highly related variables generate such divergent results? This birth order puzzle is resolved by means of the confluence model that quantifies the influences upon intellectual growth arising within the family context. At the time of a new birth, two opposing influences act upon intellectual growth of the elder sibling: (a) his or her intellectual environment is "diluted" and (b) he or she loses the "last-born's handicap" and begins serving as an intellectual resource to the younger sibling. Since these opposite effects are not equal in magnitude, the differences in intellectual performance among birth ranks are shown to be age dependent. While elder children may surpass their younger siblings in intellectual performance at some ages, they may be overtaken by them at others. Thus when age is taken into consideration, the birth order literature loses its chaotic character and an orderly pattern of results emerges.

Evolutionary contributions to solving the "matrilineal puzzle": a test of Holden, Sear, and Mace's model.

PubMed

Mattison, Siobhán M

2011-07-01

Matriliny has long been debated by anthropologists positing either its primitive or its puzzling nature. More recently, evolutionary anthropologists have attempted to recast matriliny as an adaptive solution to modern social and ecological environments, tying together much of what was known to be associated with matriliny. This paper briefly reviews the major anthropological currents in studies of matriliny and discusses the contribution of evolutionary anthropology to this body of literature. It discusses the utility of an evolutionary framework in the context of the first independent test of Holden et al.'s 2003 model of matriliny as daughter-biased investment. It finds that historical daughter-biased transmission of land among the Mosuo is consistent with the model, whereas current income transmission is not. In both cases, resources had equivalent impacts on male and female reproduction, a result which predicts daughter-biased resource transmission given any nonzero level of paternity uncertainty. However, whereas land was transmitted traditionally to daughters, income today is invested in both sexes. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.

Variations in Missed Care Across Oncology Nursing Specialty Units.

PubMed

Villamin, Colleen; Anderson, Jacqueline; Fellman, Bryan; Urbauer, Diana; Brassil, Kelly

2018-04-19

An opportunity was identified to compare perceptions of the occurrence and types of missed care at a comprehensive cancer center. The purpose was to evaluate the difference in perceived occurrence and types of missed care between medical, surgical, and hematologic oncology units in the context of a newly implemented patient care delivery system, Primary Team Nursing (PTN). A descriptive, repeated-measures design was used. The MISSCARE survey was distributed electronically to 580 staff members across 6 inpatient units. Frequently perceived elements of missed nursing care were ambulation, turning every 2 hours, and care conference attendance. At the time of study implementation, surgical units reported 0.24 higher scores than medical units (P = .017); hematology units reported 0.26 lower scores than surgical units (P = .005). PTN status did not affect MISSCARE scores (P = .525). Study findings suggest that perceived missed care in a comprehensive cancer center is similar to that in other hospital settings.

Jouer avec les Mots Fleches (Playing with Word Puzzles).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beltran, Roger Rodriguez

1996-01-01

Focuses on how to work crossword puzzles, such as those published in magazines or specialized publications. The article emphasizes the importance of the dictionary for this activity, which can be a pleasant cultural exercise in vocabulary development and spelling instruction. (Author/CK)

What impact do assumptions about missing data have on conclusions? A practical sensitivity analysis for a cancer survival registry.

PubMed

Smuk, M; Carpenter, J R; Morris, T P

2017-02-06

Within epidemiological and clinical research, missing data are a common issue and often over looked in publications. When the issue of missing observations is addressed it is usually assumed that the missing data are 'missing at random' (MAR). This assumption should be checked for plausibility, however it is untestable, thus inferences should be assessed for robustness to departures from missing at random. We highlight the method of pattern mixture sensitivity analysis after multiple imputation using colorectal cancer data as an example. We focus on the Dukes' stage variable which has the highest proportion of missing observations. First, we find the probability of being in each Dukes' stage given the MAR imputed dataset. We use these probabilities in a questionnaire to elicit prior beliefs from experts on what they believe the probability would be in the missing data. The questionnaire responses are then used in a Dirichlet draw to create a Bayesian 'missing not at random' (MNAR) prior to impute the missing observations. The model of interest is applied and inferences are compared to those from the MAR imputed data. The inferences were largely insensitive to departure from MAR. Inferences under MNAR suggested a smaller association between Dukes' stage and death, though the association remained positive and with similarly low p values. We conclude by discussing the positives and negatives of our method and highlight the importance of making people aware of the need to test the MAR assumption.

Sleepy driver near-misses may predict accident risks.

PubMed

Powell, Nelson B; Schechtman, Kenneth B; Riley, Robert W; Guilleminault, Christian; Chiang, Rayleigh Ping-ying; Weaver, Edward M

2007-03-01

To quantify the prevalence of self-reported near-miss sleepy driving accidents and their association with self-reported actual driving accidents. A prospective cross-sectional internet-linked survey on driving behaviors. Dateline NBC News website. Results are given on 35,217 (88% of sample) individuals with a mean age of 37.2 +/- 13 years, 54.8% women, and 87% white. The risk of at least one accident increased monotonically from 23.2% if there were no near-miss sleepy accidents to 44.5% if there were > or = 4 near-miss sleepy accidents (P < 0.0001). After covariate adjustments, subjects who reported at least one near-miss sleepy accident were 1.13 (95% CI, 1.10 to 1.16) times as likely to have reported at least one actual accident as subjects reporting no near-miss sleepy accidents (P < 0.0001). The odds of reporting at least one actual accident in those reporting > or = 4 near-miss sleepy accidents as compared to those reporting no near-miss sleepy accidents was 1.87 (95% CI, 1.64 to 2.14). Furthermore, after adjustments, the summary Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score had an independent association with having a near-miss or actual accident. An increase of 1 unit of ESS was associated with a covariate adjusted 4.4% increase of having at least one accident (P < 0.0001). A statistically significant dose-response was seen between the numbers of self-reported sleepy near-miss accidents and an actual accident. These findings suggest that sleepy near-misses may be dangerous precursors to an actual accident.

Network sampling coverage II: The effect of non-random missing data on network measurement

PubMed Central

Smith, Jeffrey A.; Moody, James; Morgan, Jonathan

2016-01-01

Missing data is an important, but often ignored, aspect of a network study. Measurement validity is affected by missing data, but the level of bias can be difficult to gauge. Here, we describe the effect of missing data on network measurement across widely different circumstances. In Part I of this study (Smith and Moody, 2013), we explored the effect of measurement bias due to randomly missing nodes. Here, we drop the assumption that data are missing at random: what happens to estimates of key network statistics when central nodes are more/less likely to be missing? We answer this question using a wide range of empirical networks and network measures. We find that bias is worse when more central nodes are missing. With respect to network measures, Bonacich centrality is highly sensitive to the loss of central nodes, while closeness centrality is not; distance and bicomponent size are more affected than triad summary measures and behavioral homophily is more robust than degree-homophily. With respect to types of networks, larger, directed networks tend to be more robust, but the relation is weak. We end the paper with a practical application, showing how researchers can use our results (translated into a publically available java application) to gauge the bias in their own data. PMID:27867254

Network sampling coverage II: The effect of non-random missing data on network measurement.

PubMed

Smith, Jeffrey A; Moody, James; Morgan, Jonathan

2017-01-01

Missing data is an important, but often ignored, aspect of a network study. Measurement validity is affected by missing data, but the level of bias can be difficult to gauge. Here, we describe the effect of missing data on network measurement across widely different circumstances. In Part I of this study (Smith and Moody, 2013), we explored the effect of measurement bias due to randomly missing nodes. Here, we drop the assumption that data are missing at random: what happens to estimates of key network statistics when central nodes are more/less likely to be missing? We answer this question using a wide range of empirical networks and network measures. We find that bias is worse when more central nodes are missing. With respect to network measures, Bonacich centrality is highly sensitive to the loss of central nodes, while closeness centrality is not; distance and bicomponent size are more affected than triad summary measures and behavioral homophily is more robust than degree-homophily. With respect to types of networks, larger, directed networks tend to be more robust, but the relation is weak. We end the paper with a practical application, showing how researchers can use our results (translated into a publically available java application) to gauge the bias in their own data.

Missed Opportunities for Health Education on Pap Smears in Peru

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayer, Angela M.; Nussbaum, Lauren; Cabrera, Lilia; Paz-Soldan, Valerie A.

2011-01-01

Despite cervical cancer being one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among women in Peru, cervical Pap smear coverage is low. This article uses findings from 185 direct clinician observations in four cities of Peru (representing the capital and each of the three main geographic regions of the country) to assess missed opportunities for…

Toward Best Practices in Analyzing Datasets with Missing Data: Comparisons and Recommendations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, David R.; Young, Rebekah

2011-01-01

Although several methods have been developed to allow for the analysis of data in the presence of missing values, no clear guide exists to help family researchers in choosing among the many options and procedures available. We delineate these options and examine the sensitivity of the findings in a regression model estimated in three random…

Genetic Diversity Analysis of Highly Incomplete SNP Genotype Data with Imputations: An Empirical Assessment

PubMed Central

Fu, Yong-Bi

2014-01-01

Genotyping by sequencing (GBS) recently has emerged as a promising genomic approach for assessing genetic diversity on a genome-wide scale. However, concerns are not lacking about the uniquely large unbalance in GBS genotype data. Although some genotype imputation has been proposed to infer missing observations, little is known about the reliability of a genetic diversity analysis of GBS data, with up to 90% of observations missing. Here we performed an empirical assessment of accuracy in genetic diversity analysis of highly incomplete single nucleotide polymorphism genotypes with imputations. Three large single-nucleotide polymorphism genotype data sets for corn, wheat, and rice were acquired, and missing data with up to 90% of missing observations were randomly generated and then imputed for missing genotypes with three map-independent imputation methods. Estimating heterozygosity and inbreeding coefficient from original, missing, and imputed data revealed variable patterns of bias from assessed levels of missingness and genotype imputation, but the estimation biases were smaller for missing data without genotype imputation. The estimates of genetic differentiation were rather robust up to 90% of missing observations but became substantially biased when missing genotypes were imputed. The estimates of topology accuracy for four representative samples of interested groups generally were reduced with increased levels of missing genotypes. Probabilistic principal component analysis based imputation performed better in terms of topology accuracy than those analyses of missing data without genotype imputation. These findings are not only significant for understanding the reliability of the genetic diversity analysis with respect to large missing data and genotype imputation but also are instructive for performing a proper genetic diversity analysis of highly incomplete GBS or other genotype data. PMID:24626289

Association Between Missing Posterior Teeth and Occurrence of Temporomandibular Joint Condylar Erosion: A Cone Beam Computed Tomography Study.

PubMed

Bertram, Felix; Hupp, Linus; Schnabl, Dagmar; Rudisch, Ansgar; Emshoff, Rüdiger

To determine a possible association between asymptomatic temporomandibular joint (TMJ) condylar erosion and the number of missing posterior teeth and their location, as well as the number of dental quadrants with missing posterior teeth. This case-control study involved 210 patients (male to female ratio = 98:112) aged 16-74 years, with 105 asymptomatic patients with TMJ condylar erosion and a control group of 105 patients without TMJ condylar erosion. Cone beam computed tomography images were evaluated to classify the severity of TMJ condylar erosion as grade 0 (absence of erosion), grade I (slight erosion), grade II (moderate erosion), or grade III (extensive erosion). The number of missing posterior teeth (mean ± standard deviation [SD]; 2.7 ± 2.4 vs 0.7 ± 1.2) (P < .001), number of dental quadrants with missing posterior teeth (1.5 ± 1.3 vs 0.6 ± 0.9) (P < .001), and bilateral location of missing posterior teeth (41 ± 39.0 vs 10 ± 9.5) (P < .001) were all significantly higher in patients with erosion than in those without erosion. The condylar erosion grade was significantly associated with the number of missing posterior teeth (odds ratio [OR] = 1.24; P = .006), the number of dental quadrants with missing posterior teeth (OR = 1.36; P = .006), and the bilateral occurrence of missing posterior teeth (OR = 3.03; P = .002). The findings from this study suggest a possible association between TMJ condylar erosion grades and the number of missing posterior teeth, the number of quadrants with missing posterior teeth, and the bilateral occurrence of missing posterior teeth.

The role of trauma team leaders in missed injuries: does specialty matter?

PubMed

Leeper, W Robert; Leeper, Terrence John; Vogt, Kelly Nancy; Charyk-Stewart, Tanya; Gray, Daryl Kenneth; Parry, Neil Geordie

2013-09-01

Previous studies have identified missed injuries as a common and potentially preventable occurrence in trauma care. Several patient- and injury-related variables have been identified, which predict for missed injuries; however, differences in rate and severity of missed injuries between surgeon and nonsurgeon trauma team leaders (TTLs) have not previously been reported. A retrospective review was conducted on a random sample of 10% of all trauma patients (Injury Severity Score [ISS] > 12) from 1999 to 2009 at a Canadian Level I trauma center. Missed injuries were defined as those identified greater than 24 hours after presentation and were independently adjudicated by two reviewers. TTLs were identified as either surgeons or nonsurgeons. Of our total trauma population of 2,956 patients, 300 charts were randomly pulled for detailed review. Missed injuries occurred in 46 patients (15%). Most common missed injuries were fractures (n = 32, 70%) and thoracic injuries (n = 23, 50%). The majority of missed injuries resulted in minor morbidity with only 5 (11%) requiring operative intervention. On univariate analysis, higher ISS (p < 0.01), higher maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) score of the thorax (p < 0.01), and nonsurgeon TTL status were predictive of missed injuries (p = 0.02). Multivariable logistic regression revealed that, after adjustment for age, ISS, and severe head injuries, the presence of a nonsurgeon TTL was associated with an increased odds of missed injury (odds ratio, 2.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-4.20). Missed injuries occurred in 15% of patients. A unique finding was the increased odds of missed injury with nonsurgeon TTLs. Further research should be undertaken to explore this relationship, elucidate potential causes, and propose interventions to narrow this discrepancy between TTL provider types. Therapeutic study, level IV. Prognostic and epidemiologic study, level III.

Bayesian sensitivity analysis methods to evaluate bias due to misclassification and missing data using informative priors and external validation data.

PubMed

Luta, George; Ford, Melissa B; Bondy, Melissa; Shields, Peter G; Stamey, James D

2013-04-01

Recent research suggests that the Bayesian paradigm may be useful for modeling biases in epidemiological studies, such as those due to misclassification and missing data. We used Bayesian methods to perform sensitivity analyses for assessing the robustness of study findings to the potential effect of these two important sources of bias. We used data from a study of the joint associations of radiotherapy and smoking with primary lung cancer among breast cancer survivors. We used Bayesian methods to provide an operational way to combine both validation data and expert opinion to account for misclassification of the two risk factors and missing data. For comparative purposes we considered a "full model" that allowed for both misclassification and missing data, along with alternative models that considered only misclassification or missing data, and the naïve model that ignored both sources of bias. We identified noticeable differences between the four models with respect to the posterior distributions of the odds ratios that described the joint associations of radiotherapy and smoking with primary lung cancer. Despite those differences we found that the general conclusions regarding the pattern of associations were the same regardless of the model used. Overall our results indicate a nonsignificantly decreased lung cancer risk due to radiotherapy among nonsmokers, and a mildly increased risk among smokers. We described easy to implement Bayesian methods to perform sensitivity analyses for assessing the robustness of study findings to misclassification and missing data. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Easy Toys for Infants and Toddlers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Texas Child Care, 2002

2002-01-01

Provides instructions for creating inexpensive activities and toys for infants and toddlers to supplement major toy purchases in early care programs. Includes instructions for making bean bags, cellophane snakes, sock bracelets, one-piece puzzles, milk carton blocks, a pounding bench, paint gloves, and people puzzles. (KB)

Teaching Inductive Reasoning with Puzzles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wanko, Jeffrey J.

2017-01-01

Working with language-independent logic structures can help students develop both inductive and deductive reasoning skills. The Japanese publisher Nikoli (with resources available both in print and online) produces a treasure trove of language-independent logic puzzles. The Nikoli print resources are mostly in Japanese, creating the extra…

Exploring Organic Mechanistic Puzzles with Molecular Modeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horowitz, Gail; Schwartz, Gary

2004-01-01

The molecular modeling was used to reinforce more general skills such as deducing and drawing reaction mechanisms, analyzing reaction kinetics and thermodynamics and drawing reaction coordinate energy diagrams. This modeling was done through the design of mechanistic puzzles, involving reactions not familiar to the students.

Parenting and Independent Problem-Solving in Preschool Children With Food Allergy

PubMed Central

Power, Thomas G.; Hahn, Amy L.; Hoehn, Jessica L.; Thompson, Caitlin C.; Herbert, Linda J.; Law, Emily F.; Bollinger, Mary Elizabeth

2015-01-01

Objective To examine autonomy-promoting parenting and independent problem-solving in children with food allergy. Methods 66 children with food allergy, aged 3–6 years, and 67 age-matched healthy peers and their mothers were videotaped while completing easy and difficult puzzles. Coders recorded time to puzzle completion, children’s direct and indirect requests for help, and maternal help-giving behaviors. Results Compared with healthy peers, younger (3- to 4-year-old) children with food allergy made more indirect requests for help during the easy puzzle, and their mothers were more likely to provide unnecessary help (i.e., explain where to place a puzzle piece). Differences were not found for older children. Conclusions The results suggest that highly involved parenting practices that are medically necessary to manage food allergy may spill over into settings where high levels of involvement are not needed, and that young children with food allergy may be at increased risk for difficulties in autonomy development. PMID:25326001

Limited Abdominal Sonography for Evaluation of Children With Right Lower Quadrant Pain.

PubMed

Munden, Martha M; Wai, Shannon; DiStefano, Michael C; Zhang, Wei

2017-01-01

To determine whether a complete abdominal sonographic examination is necessary in the evaluation of children with right lower quadrant pain that is suspicious for appendicitis in the emergency department and whether performing a limited, more-focused study would miss clinically important disease. With Institutional Review Board approval, a retrospective study was performed of 704 patients, from ages 5-19 years, presenting to the emergency department with right lower quadrant pain that was suspicious for appendicitis who underwent a complete abdominal sonographic examination. Data were extracted from the complete abdominal sonographic examination to see whether abnormalities were noted in the pancreas, spleen, and left kidney. Patients' medical charts were reviewed to see whether any positive findings in these organs were clinically important. Of the 65 studies with a finding that would have been missed with a limited study, only 6 were found to be clinically important. Of those, 5 were managed medically and 1 surgically. The chance of missing a potentially important finding using a limited study with our group of patients was 65 of 704 patients (9.2%), with a 95% confidence interval of 7.2% to 11.7%. The chance of missing an abnormality that was clinically important was 6 of 704 patients (0.85%), with a 95% confidence interval of 0.35% to 1.94%. In children older than 5 years with abdominal pain that is suspicious for appendicitis, performing only a limited abdominal sonographic examination that excludes the pancreas, left kidney, and spleen will yield a miss rate for clinically important disease that is acceptably low to justify the savings of examination time. © 2016 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

Progress and pitfalls in finding the 'missing proteins' from the human proteome map.

PubMed

Segura, Victor; Garin-Muga, Alba; Guruceaga, Elizabeth; Corrales, Fernando J

2017-01-01

The Human Proteome Project was launched with two main goals: the comprehensive and systematic definition of the human proteome map and the development of ready to use analytical tools to measure relevant proteins in their biological context in health and disease. Despite the great progress in this endeavour, there is still a group of reluctant proteins with no, or scarce, experimental evidence supporting their existence. These are called the 'missing proteins' and represent one of the biggest challenges to complete the human proteome map. Areas covered: This review focuses on the description of the missing proteome based on the HUPO standards, the analysis of the reasons explaining the difficulty of detecting missing proteins and the strategies currently used in the search for missing proteins. The present and future of the quest for the missing proteins is critically revised hereafter. Expert commentary: An overarching multidisciplinary effort is currently being done under the HUPO umbrella to allow completion of the human proteome map. It is expected that the detection of missing proteins will grow in the coming years since the methods and the best tissue/cell type sample for their search are already on the table.

The Spatial Distribution of Resolved Young Stars in Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, K.; Crone, M. M.

2002-12-01

We present the first results from a survey of the distribution of resolved young stars in Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies. In order to identify the dominant physical processes driving star formation in these puzzling galaxies, we use a multi-scale cluster-finding algorithm to quantify the characteristic scales and properties of star-forming regions, from sizes smaller than 10 pc up to the size of each entire galaxy. This project was partially funded by the Lubin Chair at Skidmore College.

The vacuum friction paradox and related puzzles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnett, Stephen M.; Sonnleitner, Matthias

2018-04-01

The frequency of light emitted by a moving source is shifted by a factor proportional to its velocity. We find that this Doppler shift requires the existence of a paradoxical effect: that a moving atom radiating in otherwise empty space feels a net or average force acing against its direction motion and proportional in magnitude to is speed. Yet there is no preferred rest frame, either in relativity or in Newtonian mechanics, so how can there be a vacuum friction force?

Game Theory and Social Psychology: Conformity Games

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alessio, Danielle; Kilgour, D. Marc

2011-11-01

Game models can contribute to understanding of how social biases and pressures to conform can lead to puzzling behaviour in social groups. A model of the psychological biases false uniqueness and false consensus is set out. The model predicts the phenomenon of pluralistic ignorance, which is well-studied in social psychology, showing how it arises as a result of the prevalence of false uniqueness and the desire to conform. An efficient method is developed for finding Nash equilibria of the model under certain restrictions.

Deductive Puzzling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wanko, Jeffrey J.

2010-01-01

To help fifth- through eighth-grade students develop their deductive reasoning skills, the author used a ten-week supplementary curriculum so that students could answer logic questions. The curriculum, a series of lessons built around language-independent logic puzzles, has been used in classrooms of fifth through eighth grades. In most cases,…

New Light on Autism and Other Puzzling Disorders of Childhood. Science Reports.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yahraes, Herbert

The pamphlet discusses several puzzling disorders of childhood, including autism, atypical personality development (childhood psychosis), psychosocial dwarfism, and Tourette's syndrome. Psychosocial dwarfism is said to be characterized by a marked reduction in physical development and by immaturity in behavior, while Tourette's syndrome involves…

Activities U.S.A.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolger, Charlene

A compilation of over 50 elementary school activities focuses on developing students' familiarity with the 50 states. Exercises such as word searches, scrambled word puzzles, shape puzzles, spelling bees, match games, and atlas games introduce students to the capitals, major cities, main characteristics, and location of each state. The document is…

Instant Insanity II

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richmond, Tom; Young, Aaron

2013-01-01

"Instant Insanity II" is a sliding mechanical puzzle whose solution requires the special alignment of 16 colored tiles. We count the number of solutions of the puzzle's classic challenge and show that the more difficult ultimate challenge has, up to row permutation, exactly two solutions, and further show that no…

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment: functional MR imaging study of response in posterior cingulate cortex and adjacent precuneus during problem-solving tasks.

PubMed

Jin, Guangwei; Li, Kuncheng; Hu, Yingying; Qin, Yulin; Wang, Xiangqing; Xiang, Jie; Yang, Yanhui; Lu, Jie; Zhong, Ning

2011-11-01

To compare the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response, measured with functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and adjacent precuneus regions between healthy control subjects and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) during problem-solving tasks. This study was approved by the institutional review board. Each subject provided written informed consent. Thirteen patients with amnestic MCI and 13 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects participated in the study. The functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging tasks were simplified 4 × 4-grid number placement puzzles that were divided into a simple task (using the row rule or the column rule to solve the puzzle) and a complex task (using both the row and column rules to solve the puzzle). Behavioral results and functional imaging results between the healthy control group and the amnestic MCI group were analyzed. The accuracy for the complex task in the healthy control group was significantly higher than that in the amnestic MCI group (P < .05). The healthy control group exhibited a deactivated BOLD signal intensity (SI) change in the bilateral PCC and adjacent precuneus regions during the complex task, whereas the amnestic MCI group showed activation. The positive linear correlations between the BOLD SI change in bilateral PCC and adjacent precuneus regions and in bilateral hippocampi in the amnestic MCI group were significant (P < .001), while in the healthy control group, they were not (P ≥ .23). These findings suggest that an altered BOLD response in amnestic MCI patients during complex tasks might be related to a decline in problem-solving ability and to memory impairment and, thus, may indicate a compensatory response to memory impairment. RSNA, 2011

The RPA Atomization Energy Puzzle.

PubMed

Ruzsinszky, Adrienn; Perdew, John P; Csonka, Gábor I

2010-01-12

There is current interest in the random phase approximation (RPA), a "fifth-rung" density functional for the exchange-correlation energy. RPA has full exact exchange and constructs the correlation with the help of the unoccupied Kohn-Sham orbitals. In many cases (uniform electron gas, jellium surface, and free atom), the correction to RPA is a short-ranged effect that is captured by a local spin density approximation (LSDA) or a generalized gradient approximation (GGA). Nonempirical density functionals for the correction to RPA were constructed earlier at the LSDA and GGA levels (RPA+), but they are constructed here at the fully nonlocal level (RPA++), using the van der Waals density functional (vdW-DF) of Langreth, Lundqvist, and collaborators. While they make important and helpful corrections to RPA total and ionization energies of free atoms, they correct the RPA atomization energies of molecules by only about 1 kcal/mol. Thus, it is puzzling that RPA atomization energies are, on average, about 10 kcal/mol lower than those of accurate values from experiment. We find here that a hybrid of 50% Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof GGA with 50% RPA+ yields atomization energies much more accurate than either one does alone. This suggests a solution to the puzzle: While the proper correction to RPA is short-ranged in some systems, its contribution to the correlation hole can spread out in a molecule with multiple atomic centers, canceling part of the spread of the exact exchange hole (more so than in RPA or RPA+), making the true exchange-correlation hole more localized than in RPA or RPA+. This effect is not captured even by the vdW-DF nonlocality, but it requires the different kind of full nonlocality present in a hybrid functional.

Socially transmitted diffusion of a novel behaviour from subordinate chimpanzees

PubMed Central

Watson, Stuart K; Reamer, Lisa A; Mareno, Mary Catherine; Vale, Gillian; Harrison, Rachel A; Lambeth, Susan P; Schapiro, Steven J; Whiten, Andrew

2017-01-01

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) demonstrate much cultural diversity in the wild, yet a majority of novel behaviours do not become group-wide traditions. Since many such novel behaviours are introduced by low-ranking individuals, a bias toward copying dominant individuals (‘rank-bias’) has been proposed as an explanation for their limited diffusion. Previous experimental work showed that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) preferentially copy dominant over low-rank models. We investigated whether low ranking individuals may nevertheless successfully seed a beneficial behaviour as a tradition if there are no ‘competing’ models. In each of four captive groups, either a single high-rank (HR, n=2) or a low-rank (LR, n=2) chimpanzee model was trained on one method of opening a two-action puzzle-box, before demonstrating the trained method in a group context. This was followed by eight hours of group-wide, open-access to the puzzle-box. Successful manipulations and observers of each manipulation were recorded. Barnard’s exact tests showed that individuals in the LR groups used the seeded method as their first-choice option at significantly above chance levels, whereas those in the HR groups did not. Furthermore, individuals in the LR condition used the seeded method on their first attempt significantly more often than those in the HR condition. A network-based diffusion analysis revealed that the best supported statistical models were those in which social transmission occurred only in groups with subordinate models. Finally, we report an innovation by a subordinate individual that built cumulatively on existing methods of opening the puzzle-box and was subsequently copied by a dominant observer. These findings illustrate that chimpanzees are motivated to copy rewarding novel behaviours that are demonstrated by subordinate individuals and that, in some cases, social transmission may be constrained by high-rank demonstrators. PMID:28171684

The role of the dentist in identifying missing and unidentified persons.

PubMed

Riley, Amber D

2015-01-01

The longer a person is missing, the more profound the need for dental records becomes. In 2013, there were >84,000 missing persons and >8,000 unidentified persons registered in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. Tens of thousands of families are left without answers or closure, always maintaining hope that their relative will be located. Law enforcement needs the cooperation of organized dentistry to procure dental records, translate their findings, and upload them into the NCIC database for cross-matching with unidentified person records created by medical examiner and coroner departments across the United States and Canada.

Classroom Ideas for April 1980.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Bakersfield, Ca. Div. of Instructional Services.

One of a series of activity guides, this publication offers a variety of learning activities and resource materials for elementary school students. The activities and resources include: poems; word puzzles and other puzzles; arts and crafts activities; facts and activities about Easter; language arts activities; facts and activities about animals;…

Polyomino Dissections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hohn, Tiina; Liu, Andy

2012-01-01

One of Gardner's passions was to introduce puzzles into the classroom. From this point of view, polyomino dissections are an excellent topic. They require little background, provide training in geometric visualization, and mostly they are fun. In this article, we put together a large collection of such puzzles, introduce a new approach in solving…

Crossword Puzzles as a Learning Tool for Vocabulary Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orawiwatnakul, Wiwat

2013-01-01

Introduction: Since vocabulary is a key basis on which reading achievement depends, various vocabulary acquisition techniques have become pivotal. Among the many teaching approaches, traditional or otherwise, the use of crossword puzzles seems to offer potential and a solution for the problem of learning vocabulary. Method: This study was…

Japanese Logic Puzzles and Proof

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wanko, Jeffrey J.

2009-01-01

An understanding of proof does not start in a high school geometry course. Rather, attention to logical reasoning throughout a student's school experience can help the development of proof readiness. In the spirit of problem solving, the author has begun to use some Japanese logic puzzles other than sudoku to help students develop additional…

Building a Peaceable Kingdom Piece by Piece.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawlor, Antoine T.

2000-01-01

Reports on New Jersey Catholic schools celebrating and demonstrating the meaning of the Gospel. States that each Catholic school in New Jersey made an 8.5"x11" puzzle showcasing current outreach service activities, and that each diocese displayed the puzzles for Catholic Schools Week. Lists outreach activities being performed by the…

The Crossword Puzzle as a Teaching Tool.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crossman, Edward K.

1983-01-01

In courses such as the history of psychology, it is necessary to learn a variety of relationships, events, and sequences, in addition to the task of having to pair certain key concepts with related names, e.g., phrenology--Hall. One tool useful in this type of learning is the crossword puzzle. (RM)

More Pebble Puzzles.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibbs, William M.

This booklet is a collection of puzzles, investigations, and games. They are designed to be used with large objects such as tins or stones and diagrams marked on the ground. The children are to be encouraged to use an experimental, trial-and-error approach at first, and then develop methods of solution. (MNS)

Cles: Etes-vous bon detective?; Enigmes grammaticales; Problemes policiers; Kidnapping (Keys: Are You a Good Detective?; Grammatical Puzzles; Detective Mysteries; Kidnapping).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Debyser, Francis; And Others

1984-01-01

Four sets of French classroom activities are presented: a mystery whose clues include two postcard messages; three puzzles with grammar-related clues; a mystery contained in three comic strip frames; and the solving of a kidnapping mystery. (MSE)

Brain Stretchers, Book 3 - Advanced.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stickels, Terry H.

Current thinking suggests that solving brainteasing puzzles uses the same critical thinking skills needed to solve difficult math, science, and business problems. This book is a non-intimidating exploration of the wonderful powers of the mind with an emphasis on the joy of thinking and learning. It contains 100 puzzles, presented in order of…

Threshold Concepts in the Development of Problem-Solving Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wismath, Shelly; Orr, Doug; MacKay, Bruce

2015-01-01

Problem-solving skills are often identified as a key component of 21st century education. This study collected data from students enrolled in a university-level Liberal Education science course called "Problems and Puzzles," which introduced students to the theory and practice of problem solving via puzzles. Based on classroom…

[Educational Therapy Using Games and Puzzles.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Locker, Chava

Ways in which games can be used as tools in observing, diagnosing, and providing educational therapy for learning dysfunctions are listed and described in a series of four related papers: (a) "Educational Therapy for Learning Dysfunctions"; (2) "Educational Therapy and Puzzles"; (3) "Educational Therapy and Reading Fluency"; and (4) "Spelling…

Children's Task Engagement during Challenging Puzzle Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Feihong; Algina, James; Snyder, Patricia; Cox, Martha

2017-01-01

We examined children's task engagement during a challenging puzzle task in the presence of their primary caregivers by using a representative sample of rural children from six high-poverty counties across two states. Weighted longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to identify a task engagement factor…

Chinese American and Caucasian American Family Interaction Patterns in Spatial Rotation Puzzle Solutions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hutsinger, Carol S.; Jose, Paul E.

1995-01-01

Examined sociocultural influences on mathematics achievement. First generation Chinese American and Caucasian American mother-father-daughter triads were audiotaped as the fifth- and sixth-grade girls solved a spatial puzzle. Chinese American triads were quieter, more respectful, more serious, and more orderly, whereas Caucasian American triads…

Intellectual Development Beyond Elementary School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karplus, Elizabeth F.; Karplus, Robert

A Piagetian type task, The Island Puzzle, was administered to children grades 5 to 12, to science teachers attending a National Science Teachers Association Convention, and to college physics teachers attending a regional meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers. The procedures differed from those of Piaget in that the puzzle was…

Revealing the neural fingerprints of a missing hand.

PubMed

Kikkert, Sanne; Kolasinski, James; Jbabdi, Saad; Tracey, Irene; Beckmann, Christian F; Johansen-Berg, Heidi; Makin, Tamar R

2016-08-23

The hand area of the primary somatosensory cortex contains detailed finger topography, thought to be shaped and maintained by daily life experience. Here we utilise phantom sensations and ultra high-field neuroimaging to uncover preserved, though latent, representation of amputees' missing hand. We show that representation of the missing hand's individual fingers persists in the primary somatosensory cortex even decades after arm amputation. By demonstrating stable topography despite amputation, our finding questions the extent to which continued sensory input is necessary to maintain organisation in sensory cortex, thereby reopening the question what happens to a cortical territory once its main input is lost. The discovery of persistent digit topography of amputees' missing hand could be exploited for the development of intuitive and fine-grained control of neuroprosthetics, requiring neural signals of individual digits.

Design, implementation and reporting strategies to reduce the instance and impact of missing patient-reported outcome (PRO) data: a systematic review

PubMed Central

Mercieca-Bebber, Rebecca; Palmer, Michael J; Brundage, Michael; Stockler, Martin R; King, Madeleine T

2016-01-01

Objectives Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) provide important information about the impact of treatment from the patients' perspective. However, missing PRO data may compromise the interpretability and value of the findings. We aimed to report: (1) a non-technical summary of problems caused by missing PRO data; and (2) a systematic review by collating strategies to: (A) minimise rates of missing PRO data, and (B) facilitate transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data in clinical research. Our systematic review does not address statistical handling of missing PRO data. Data sources MEDLINE and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases (inception to 31 March 2015), and citing articles and reference lists from relevant sources. Eligibility criteria English articles providing recommendations for reducing missing PRO data rates, or strategies to facilitate transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data were included. Methods 2 reviewers independently screened articles against eligibility criteria. Discrepancies were resolved with the research team. Recommendations were extracted and coded according to framework synthesis. Results 117 sources (55% discussion papers, 26% original research) met the eligibility criteria. Design and methodological strategies for reducing rates of missing PRO data included: incorporating PRO-specific information into the protocol; carefully designing PRO assessment schedules and defining termination rules; minimising patient burden; appointing a PRO coordinator; PRO-specific training for staff; ensuring PRO studies are adequately resourced; and continuous quality assurance. Strategies for transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data include utilising auxiliary data to inform analysis; transparently reporting baseline PRO scores, rates and reasons for missing data; and methods for handling missing PRO data. Conclusions The instance of missing PRO data and its potential to bias clinical research can be minimised by implementing thoughtful design, rigorous methodology and transparent reporting strategies. All members of the research team have a responsibility in implementing such strategies. PMID:27311907

Fast optimization algorithms and the cosmological constant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bao, Ning; Bousso, Raphael; Jordan, Stephen; Lackey, Brad

2017-11-01

Denef and Douglas have observed that in certain landscape models the problem of finding small values of the cosmological constant is a large instance of a problem that is hard for the complexity class NP (Nondeterministic Polynomial-time). The number of elementary operations (quantum gates) needed to solve this problem by brute force search exceeds the estimated computational capacity of the observable Universe. Here we describe a way out of this puzzling circumstance: despite being NP-hard, the problem of finding a small cosmological constant can be attacked by more sophisticated algorithms whose performance vastly exceeds brute force search. In fact, in some parameter regimes the average-case complexity is polynomial. We demonstrate this by explicitly finding a cosmological constant of order 10-120 in a randomly generated 1 09-dimensional Arkani-Hamed-Dimopoulos-Kachru landscape.

Timing in turn-taking and its implications for processing models of language

PubMed Central

Levinson, Stephen C.; Torreira, Francisco

2015-01-01

The core niche for language use is in verbal interaction, involving the rapid exchange of turns at talking. This paper reviews the extensive literature about this system, adding new statistical analyses of behavioral data where they have been missing, demonstrating that turn-taking has the systematic properties originally noted by Sacks et al. (1974; hereafter SSJ). This system poses some significant puzzles for current theories of language processing: the gaps between turns are short (of the order of 200 ms), but the latencies involved in language production are much longer (over 600 ms). This seems to imply that participants in conversation must predict (or ‘project’ as SSJ have it) the end of the current speaker’s turn in order to prepare their response in advance. This in turn implies some overlap between production and comprehension despite their use of common processing resources. Collecting together what is known behaviorally and experimentally about the system, the space for systematic explanations of language processing for conversation can be significantly narrowed, and we sketch some first model of the mental processes involved for the participant preparing to speak next. PMID:26124727

Preventive HIV/AIDS education through physical education: reflections from Zambia.

PubMed

Njelesani, Donald

2011-01-01

Governments, UN agencies and international and local NGOs have mounted a concerted effort to remobilise sport as a vehicle for broad, sustainable social development. This resonates with the call for sport to be a key component in national and international development objectives. Missing in these efforts is an explicit focus on physical education within state schools, which still enroll most children in the global South. This article focuses on research into one of the few instances where physical education within the national curriculum is being revitalised as part of the growing interest in leveraging the appeal of sport and play as means to address social development challenges such as HIV/AIDS. It examines the response to the Zambian government's 2006 Declaration of Mandatory Physical Education (with a preventive education focus on HIV/AIDS) by personnel charged with its implementation and illustrates weaknesses within the education sector. The use of policy instruments such as decrees/mandates helps ensure the mainstreaming of physical education in development. However, the urgency required to respond to new mandates, particularly those sanctioned by the highest levels of government, can result in critical pieces of the puzzle being ignored, thereby undermining the potential of physical education (and sport) within development.

Selective two-photon absorption in carbon dots: a piece of the photoluminescence emission puzzle.

PubMed

Santos, Carla I M; Mariz, Inês F A; Pinto, Sandra N; Gonçalves, Gil; Bdikin, Igor; Marques, Paula A A P; Neves, Maria Graça P M S; Martinho, José M G; Maçôas, Ermelinda M S

2018-06-22

Carbon nanodots (Cdots) are now emerging as promising nonlinear fluorophores for applications in biological environments. A thorough and systematic approach to the two-photon induced emission of Cdots that could provide design guidelines to control their nonlinear emission properties is still missing. In this work, we address the nonlinear optical spectroscopy of Cdots prepared by controlled chemical cutting of graphene oxide (GO). The two-photon absorption in the 700-1000 nm region and the corresponding emission spectrum are carefully investigated. The highest two-photon absorption cross-section estimated was 130 GM at 720 nm. This value is comparable with the one reported for graphene nanoribbons with push-pull architecture. The emission spectrum depends on the excitation mode. At the same excitation energy, nonlinear excitation results in excitation-wavelength independent emission, while upon linear excitation the emission is excitation-wavelength dependent. The biphotonic interaction seems to be selective towards sp2 clusters bearing electron donor and acceptor groups found in push-pull architectures. Both linear and nonlinear emission can be understood based on the existence of isolated sp2 clusters involved in π-π stacking interactions with clusters in adjacent layers.

Obsolete English names of North American birds and their modern equivalents

USGS Publications Warehouse

Banks, Richard C.

1988-01-01

This index should also be useful to other workers and for other purposes. Ornithologists not well versed in taxonomic matters might save valuable research time if they could immediately relate a bit of information recorded in the older literature to the name of a species with which they are familiar. Law enforcement personnel might find some support in convincing a gunner (or judge) that the old or colloquial name of a bird shot is the same as the name in the list of species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Serious birders, historians, collectors of natural history books—even crossword puzzle fans and trivialists—might find something of use or interest.

Reporting and handling missing outcome data in mental health: a systematic review of Cochrane systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

PubMed

Spineli, Loukia M; Pandis, Nikolaos; Salanti, Georgia

2015-06-01

The purpose of the study was to provide empirical evidence about the reporting of methodology to address missing outcome data and the acknowledgement of their impact in Cochrane systematic reviews in the mental health field. Systematic reviews published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews after January 1, 2009 by three Cochrane Review Groups relating to mental health were included. One hundred ninety systematic reviews were considered. Missing outcome data were present in at least one included study in 175 systematic reviews. Of these 175 systematic reviews, 147 (84%) accounted for missing outcome data by considering a relevant primary or secondary outcome (e.g., dropout). Missing outcome data implications were reported only in 61 (35%) systematic reviews and primarily in the discussion section by commenting on the amount of the missing outcome data. One hundred forty eligible meta-analyses with missing data were scrutinized. Seventy-nine (56%) of them had studies with total dropout rate between 10 and 30%. One hundred nine (78%) meta-analyses reported to have performed intention-to-treat analysis by including trials with imputed outcome data. Sensitivity analysis for incomplete outcome data was implemented in less than 20% of the meta-analyses. Reporting of the techniques for handling missing outcome data and their implications in the findings of the systematic reviews are suboptimal. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Correlation based system to assess the completeness and correctness of cognitive stimulation activities of elders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

González-Fraga, J. A.; Morán, A. L.; Meza-Kubo, V.; Tentori, M.; Santiago, E.

2009-08-01

During a cognitive stimulation session where elders with cognitive decline perform stimulation activities, such as solving puzzles, we observed that they require constant supervision and support from their caregivers, and caregivers must be able to monitor the stimulation activity of more than one patient at a time. In this paper, aiming at providing support for the caregiver, we developed a vision-based system using an Phase-SDF filter that generates a composite reference image which is correlated to a captured wooden-puzzle image. The output correlation value allows to automatically verify the progress on the puzzle solving task, and to assess its completeness and correctness.

How to get paid for having fun.

PubMed

Koshland, D E

1996-01-01

As I look back, I am still amazed that I was actually paid to do something I loved and others could describe as work. Yet my situation is no different from that of most scientists who find that they are asked to pursue their innate curiosity to solve puzzles, the solutions to which fortunately are of value to society. I enjoyed the beautiful logic of mathematics in elementary grades and was entranced by the exciting solution of puzzles described by DeKruif. So I drifted into the scientific profession without a clear idea of what to do or how to do it. Each experience prepared my mind and supplied the base for the next job, creating what was for me a smooth flow from scientist to professor to editor to scientist. Fortunately for me and fellow scientists the problems of the world never disappear. "The one who rides the tiger can never get off" is an aphorism that expresses society's dependence on science. Automobiles improve transportation and create pollution, medical advantages prolong life and create over-population, pesticides bring cheaper food and create soil problems. Each advance brings on the need for more science to solve the new problems. Society, which likes to live well, is addicted to the products of science, and fortunately a peculiar set of humans are addicted to solving the problems. I am one of those typical addicts who finds the obstacle course fascinating and the endlessness of the quest utopia.

Femoral head avascular necrosis: a frequently missed incidental finding on multidetector CT.

PubMed

Barille, M F; Wu, Jim S; McMahon, Colm J

2014-03-01

To determine the incidence of missed femoral head avascular necrosis (AVN) on pelvic computed tomography (CT) performed for clinical indications other than assessment for AVN. The study was a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant retrospective study. The picture archiving and communication system (PACS) database was queried for patients with diagnosis of femoral head AVN on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), who also underwent pelvic multidetector CT after or <30 days before the MRI examination. The MRI and CT images of 144 hips of 72 patients (39 patients with reported AVN on MRI and 33 age-matched controls; mean age = 60 years, 28 male, 44 female), were reviewed in consensus by two readers in a randomized, blinded manner. Using MRI-proven CT-visible AVN as a reference standard, the incidence of missed AVN on initial CT interpretation was determined. Readers confirmed AVN in 33 patients on the MRI images. Nine hips with AVN underwent joint replacement of the affected joint(s) prior to subsequent CT and were excluded. Forty-three MRI-proven AVN cases in 28 patients (15 bilateral, 13 unilateral) were available for analysis. The study readers diagnosed 35/43 (81%) MRI-proven AVN cases in 22/28 (79%) patients. Four of the 35 (11%) cases of MRI-proven, CT-visible AVN were prospectively reported in 3/22 (14%) patients at initial clinical interpretation, with a miss rate of 89% per hip and 86% per patient. Multidetector CT has high accuracy for detection of AVN; however, this is frequently missed as an incidental finding (89% missed in the present study). Assessment for signs of femoral AVN should be part of routine search pattern in interpretation of pelvic CT. Copyright © 2013 The Royal College of Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The impact of loss to follow-up on hypothesis tests of the treatment effect for several statistical methods in substance abuse clinical trials.

PubMed

Hedden, Sarra L; Woolson, Robert F; Carter, Rickey E; Palesch, Yuko; Upadhyaya, Himanshu P; Malcolm, Robert J

2009-07-01

"Loss to follow-up" can be substantial in substance abuse clinical trials. When extensive losses to follow-up occur, one must cautiously analyze and interpret the findings of a research study. Aims of this project were to introduce the types of missing data mechanisms and describe several methods for analyzing data with loss to follow-up. Furthermore, a simulation study compared Type I error and power of several methods when missing data amount and mechanism varies. Methods compared were the following: Last observation carried forward (LOCF), multiple imputation (MI), modified stratified summary statistics (SSS), and mixed effects models. Results demonstrated nominal Type I error for all methods; power was high for all methods except LOCF. Mixed effect model, modified SSS, and MI are generally recommended for use; however, many methods require that the data are missing at random or missing completely at random (i.e., "ignorable"). If the missing data are presumed to be nonignorable, a sensitivity analysis is recommended.

Meaning of missing values in eyewitness recall and accident records.

PubMed

Uttl, Bob; Kisinger, Kelly

2010-09-02

Eyewitness recalls and accident records frequently do not mention the conditions and behaviors of interest to researchers and lead to missing values and to uncertainty about the prevalence of these conditions and behaviors surrounding accidents. Missing values may occur because eyewitnesses report the presence but not the absence of obvious clues/accident features. We examined this possibility. Participants watched car accident videos and were asked to recall as much information as they could remember about each accident. The results showed that eyewitnesses were far more likely to report the presence of present obvious clues than the absence of absent obvious clues even though they were aware of their absence. One of the principal mechanisms causing missing values may be eyewitnesses' tendency to not report the absence of obvious features. We discuss the implications of our findings for both retrospective and prospective analyses of accident records, and illustrate the consequences of adopting inappropriate assumptions about the meaning of missing values using the Avaluator Avalanche Accident Prevention Card.

Applying Neurological Learning Research to an Online Undergraduate Science Laboratory Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrd, Dana; Byrd, Gene

2013-01-01

Neurological research has demonstrated that pre-test verbal preparation improves performance. The well-tested Tower of London puzzle can assess cognitive skills of a wide age range of participants. Preschoolers who talked to themselves about future puzzle moves had greatly improved Tower of London performance over those without such preparation.…

Classroom Ideas-Winter 1983. Focus on Geology: Rocks, Sand and Crystals. Primary Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Bakersfield, Ca. Div. of Instructional Services.

One of a series of activity guides, this publication offers a variety of learning activities and resource materials for primary grade students. The activities and resources include: science activities (especially dealing with soil and rocks); word puzzles and other puzzles; arts and crafts activities (including Christmas tree ornaments);…

Grobner Basis Representations of Sudoku

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taalman, Laura; Arnold, Elizabeth; Lucas, Stephen

2010-01-01

This paper uses Grobner bases to explore the inherent structure of Sudoku puzzles and boards. In particular, we develop three different ways of representing the constraints of Sudoku puzzles with a system of polynomial equations. In one case, we explicitly show how a Grobner basis can be used to obtain a more meaningful representation of the…

Reinforcing Geometric Properties with Shapedoku Puzzles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wanko, Jeffrey J.; Nickell, Jennifer V.

2013-01-01

Shapedoku is a new type of puzzle that combines logic and spatial reasoning with understanding of basic geometric concepts such as slope, parallelism, perpendicularity, and properties of shapes. Shapedoku can be solved by individuals and, as demonstrated here, can form the basis of a review for geometry students as they create their own. In this…

Using Sudoku to Introduce Proof Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snyder, Brian A.

2010-01-01

In this article we show how the Sudoku puzzle and the three simple rules determining its solution can be used as an introduction to proof-based mathematics. In the completion of the puzzle, students can construct multi-step solutions that involve sequencing of steps, use methods such as backtracking and proof by cases, and proof by contradiction…

Asian American Parents' Attributions of Children with Down Syndrome: Connections with Child Characteristics and Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ly, Tran M.

2008-01-01

This study explores cultural differences between European American (n = 26) and Asian American (n = 17) parents' attributional ratings of children with Down syndrome. Links were examined among parents' attributions, reactions, and behaviors regarding their child's jigsaw-puzzle performance. Although the children's puzzle abilities did not differ,…

Think Inside the Box. Integrating Math in Your Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naylor, Michael

2005-01-01

This brief article describes a few entertaining math "puzzles" that are easy to use with students at any grade level and with any operation. Not only do these puzzles help provide practice with facts and operations, they are also self-checking and may lead to some interesting big ideas in algebra.

A Geometric Puzzle That Leads To Fibonacci Sequences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rulf, Benjamin

1998-01-01

Illustrates how mathematicians work and do mathematical research through the use of a puzzle. Demonstrates how general rules, then theorems develop from special cases. This approach may be used as a research project in high school classrooms or math club settings with the teacher helping to formulate questions, set goals, and avoid becoming…

Mathematical History: Activities, Puzzles, Stories, and Games.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitchell, Merle

Based on the history of mathematics, these materials have been planned to enrich the teaching of mathematics in grades four, five, and six. Puzzles and games are based on stories about topics such as famous mathematicians, numerals of ancient peoples, and numerology. The sheets are arranged by grade level and are designed for easy duplication.…

To Txt or Not to Txt: That's the Puzzle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goh, Tiong-Thye; Hooper, Val

2007-01-01

This paper describes the potential use of a mobile phone Short Message Service (SMS) crossword puzzle system to promote interaction through learning activities in a large classroom environment. While personal response systems (PRS) have been used in the classroom environment to foster interaction, it is not an ideal tool with respect to cost and…

A Personal Intelligent Mentor for Promoting Metacognition in Solving Logic Word Puzzles.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baylor, Amy L.; Kozbe, Barcin

This paper describes a Personal Intelligent Mentor (PIM) that facilitates metacognitive development in the domain of solving logic word puzzles. Metacognition is an important aspect for critical thinking skills. High school students must develop logical and critical thinking abilities as a prerequisite for higher-level math and computer…

The Potential of Crossword Puzzles in Aiding English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merkel, Warren

2016-01-01

In an academic environment, teachers utilize crossword puzzles to help students learn or remember terminology. Outside the classroom, typically in daily newspapers, crosswords aid in vocabulary development, used as a learning tool, a leisure activity, or both. However, both the content and the grid structure of the crosswords in these two…

"Pieces of a Puzzle": Seeing the Light in a Darkened Room.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lang, Frederick K.

The film "Pieces of a Puzzle" (part of the series "Writers Writing" that was coproduced by WNET and Learning Designs and televised by WNET in 1985), helped students become better writers and facilitated the discovery of material and techniques appropriate to academic writing. First, students were introduced to reader response…

Classroom Ideas-Spring 1983. Intermediate Edition. Volume 6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Bakersfield, Ca. Div. of Instructional Services.

One of a series of activity guides, this publication offers a variety of learning activities and resource materials for intermediate grade students. The activities and resources include: a calendar which lists important days and birthdays in March, April, and May; poems; word puzzles and other puzzles; science activities; language arts activities;…

A solution to B → ππ puzzle and B → KK

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baek, Seungwon

2008-01-01

The large ratio of color-suppressed tree amplitude to color-allowed one in B → ππ decays is difficult to understand within the Standard Model, which is known as the " B → ππ puzzle". The two tree diagrams contain the up- and charm-quark component of penguin amplitude, Puc, which cannot be separated by measuring B → ππ decays alone. We show that the measurements of the branching ratio and direct CP asymmetry of B+ →K+K0 bar decay enable one to disentangle the Puc with two-fold ambiguity. One of the two degenerate solutions of the Puc can solve the B → ππ puzzle by giving | C / T | ∼ 0.3 which is consistent with the expectation in the Standard Model. We also show that the two solutions can be discriminated by the measurement of the indirect CP asymmetry of B0 →K0K0 bar. We point out that the corresponding puzzle in B → πK decays is not solved in this way.

Parenting and independent problem-solving in preschool children with food allergy.

PubMed

Dahlquist, Lynnda M; Power, Thomas G; Hahn, Amy L; Hoehn, Jessica L; Thompson, Caitlin C; Herbert, Linda J; Law, Emily F; Bollinger, Mary Elizabeth

2015-01-01

To examine autonomy-promoting parenting and independent problem-solving in children with food allergy. 66 children with food allergy, aged 3-6 years, and 67 age-matched healthy peers and their mothers were videotaped while completing easy and difficult puzzles. Coders recorded time to puzzle completion, children's direct and indirect requests for help, and maternal help-giving behaviors. Compared with healthy peers, younger (3- to 4-year-old) children with food allergy made more indirect requests for help during the easy puzzle, and their mothers were more likely to provide unnecessary help (i.e., explain where to place a puzzle piece). Differences were not found for older children. The results suggest that highly involved parenting practices that are medically necessary to manage food allergy may spill over into settings where high levels of involvement are not needed, and that young children with food allergy may be at increased risk for difficulties in autonomy development. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

An interference account of the missing-VP effect

PubMed Central

Häussler, Jana; Bader, Markus

2015-01-01

Sentences with doubly center-embedded relative clauses in which a verb phrase (VP) is missing are sometimes perceived as grammatical, thus giving rise to an illusion of grammaticality. In this paper, we provide a new account of why missing-VP sentences, which are both complex and ungrammatical, lead to an illusion of grammaticality, the so-called missing-VP effect. We propose that the missing-VP effect in particular, and processing difficulties with multiply center-embedded clauses more generally, are best understood as resulting from interference during cue-based retrieval. When processing a sentence with double center-embedding, a retrieval error due to interference can cause the verb of an embedded clause to be erroneously attached into a higher clause. This can lead to an illusion of grammaticality in the case of missing-VP sentences and to processing complexity in the case of complete sentences with double center-embedding. Evidence for an interference account of the missing-VP effect comes from experiments that have investigated the missing-VP effect in German using a speeded grammaticality judgments procedure. We review this evidence and then present two new experiments that show that the missing-VP effect can be found in German also with less restricting procedures. One experiment was a questionnaire study which required grammaticality judgments from participants without imposing any time constraints. The second experiment used a self-paced reading procedure and did not require any judgments. Both experiments confirm the prior findings of missing-VP effects in German and also show that the missing-VP effect is subject to a primacy effect as known from the memory literature. Based on this evidence, we argue that an account of missing-VP effects in terms of interference during cue-based retrieval is superior to accounts in terms of limited memory resources or in terms of experience with embedded structures. PMID:26136698

Use of a position-sensitive multi-anode photomultiplier tube for finding gamma-ray source direction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mukhopadhyay, Sanjoy; Maurer, Richard; Guss, Paul

2014-09-01

Organizations that fail to use known near-miss data when making operational decisions may be inadvertently rewarding risky behavior. Over time such risk taking compounds as similar near-misses are repeatedly observed and the ability to recognize anomalies and document the events decreases (i.e., normalization of deviance [1,2,3]). History from the space shuttle program shows that only the occasional large failure increases attention to anomalies again. This paper discusses prescriptions for project managers based on several on-going activities at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to improve the lesson learning process for space missions. We discuss how these efforts can contribute to reducing near-miss bias and the normalization of deviance. This research should help organizations design learning processes that draw lessons from near-misses.

Schroedinger's Wave Structure of Matter (WSM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wolff, Milo; Haselhurst, Geoff

2009-10-01

The puzzling electron is due to the belief that it is a discrete particle. Einstein deduced this structure was impossible since Nature does not allow the discrete particle. Clifford (1876) rejected discrete matter and suggested structures in `space'. Schroedinger, (1937) also eliminated discrete particles writing: What we observe as material bodies and forces are nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space. Particles are just schaumkommen (appearances). He rejected wave-particle duality. Schroedinger's concept was developed by Milo Wolff and Geoff Haselhurst (SpaceAndMotion.com) using the Scalar Wave Equation to find spherical wave solutions in a 3D quantum space. This WSM, the origin of all the Natural Laws, contains all the electron's properties including the Schroedinger Equation. The origin of Newton's Law F=ma is no longer a puzzle; It originates from Mach's principle of inertia (1883) that depends on the space medium and the WSM. Carver Mead (1999) at CalTech used the WSM to design Intel micro-chips correcting errors of Maxwell's magnetic Equations. Applications of the WSM also describe matter at molecular dimensions: alloys, catalysts, biology and medicine, molecular computers and memories. See ``Schroedinger's Universe'' - at Amazon.com

The Universe according to Schroedinger and Milo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wolff, Milo

2009-10-01

The puzzling electron is due to the belief that it is a discrete particle. Schroedinger, (1937) eliminated discrete particles writing: What we observe as material bodies and forces are nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space. Particles are just schaumkommen (appearances). Thus he rejected wave-particle duality. Schroedinger's concept was developed by Milo Wolff using a Scalar Wave Equation in 3D quantum space to find wave solutions. The resulting Wave Structure of Matter (WSM) contains all the electron's properties including the Schroedinger Equation. Further, Newton's Law F=ma is no longer a puzzle; It originates from Mach's principle of inertia (1883) that depends on the space medium and the WSM. These the origin of all the Natural Laws. Carver Mead (1999) at CalTech used the WSM to design Intel micro-chips and to correct errors of Maxwell's Equations. Applications of the WSM describe matter at molecular dimensions: Industrial alloys, catalysts, biology and medicine, molecular computers and memories. See book ``Schroedinger's Universe'' - at Amazon.com. Pioneers of the WSM are growing rapidly. Some are: SpaceAndMotion.com, QuantumMatter.com, treeincarnation.com/audio/milowolff.htm, daugerresearch.com/orbitals/index.shtml, glafreniere.com/matter.html =A new Universe.

Schroedinger's Wave Structure of Matter (WSM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wolff, Milo

2009-05-01

The puzzling electron is due to the belief that it is a discrete particle. Einstein deduced this structure impossible since Nature does not match the discrete particle. Clifford (1876) rejected discrete matter and suggested structures in `space'. Schroedinger, (1937) also eliminated discrete particles writing: What we observe as material bodies and forces are nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space. Particles are just schaumkommen (appearances). He rejected wave-particle duality. Schroedinger's concept was developed by Milo Wolff and Geoff Haselhurst (http://www.SpaceAndMotion.com) using the Scalar Wave Equation to find spherical wave solutions in a 3D quantum space. This WSM is the origin of all the Natural Laws; thus it contains all the electron's properties including the Schroedinger Equation. The origin of Newton's Law F=ma is no longer a puzzle; it is shown to originate from Mach's principle of inertia (1883) that depends on the space medium. Carver Mead (1999) applied the WSM to design Intel micro-chips correcting errors of Maxwell's magnetic Equations. Applications of the WSM describe matter at molecular dimensions: alloys, catalysts, the mechanisms of biology and medicine, molecular computers and memories. See http://www.amazon.com/Schro at Amazon.com.

Educational inequalities in health in European welfare states: a social expenditure approach.

PubMed

Dahl, Espen; van der Wel, Kjetil A

2013-03-01

A puzzle in comparative health inequality research is the finding that egalitarian welfare states do not necessarily demonstrate narrow health inequalities. This paper interrogates into this puzzle by moving beyond welfare regimes to examine how welfare spending affect inequalities in self-rated across Europe. We operationalise welfare spending in four different ways and compare both absolute and relative health inequalities, as well as the level of poor self-rated health in the low education group across varying levels of social spending. The paper employs data from the EU Statistics of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and includes a sample of approximately 245,000 individuals aged 25-80+ years from 18 European countries. The data were examined by means of gender stratified multilevel logistic regression analyses. The results show that social expenditures are associated with lower health inequalities among women and, to a lesser degree, among men. Especially those with primary education benefit from high social transfers as compared with those who have tertiary education. This means that lower educational inequalities in health - in absolute and relative terms- are linked to higher social spending. The four different operationalisations of social spending produce similar patterns. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Antarctic Temperature Extremes from MODIS Land Surface Temperatures: New Processing Methods Reveal Data Quality Puzzles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grant, G.; Gallaher, D. W.

2017-12-01

New methods for processing massive remotely sensed datasets are used to evaluate Antarctic land surface temperature (LST) extremes. Data from the MODIS/Terra sensor (Collection 6) provides a twice-daily look at Antarctic LSTs over a 17 year period, at a higher spatiotemporal resolution than past studies. Using a data condensation process that creates databases of anomalous values, our processes create statistical images of Antarctic LSTs. In general, the results find few significant trends in extremes; however, they do reveal a puzzling picture of inconsistent cloud detection and possible systemic errors, perhaps due to viewing geometry. Cloud discrimination shows a distinct jump in clear-sky detections starting in 2011, and LSTs around the South Pole exhibit a circular cooling pattern, which may also be related to cloud contamination. Possible root causes are discussed. Ongoing investigations seek to determine whether the results are a natural phenomenon or, as seems likely, the results of sensor degradation or processing artefacts. If the unusual LST patterns or cloud detection discontinuities are natural, they point to new, interesting processes on the Antarctic continent. If the data artefacts are artificial, MODIS LST users should be alerted to the potential issues.

The placebo puzzle: examining the discordant space between biomedical science and illness/healing.

PubMed

Pohlman, Shawn; Cibulka, Nancy J; Palmer, Janice L; Lorenz, Rebecca A; SmithBattle, Lee

2013-03-01

The placebo response presents an enigma to biomedical science: how can 'inert' or 'sham' procedures reduce symptoms and produce physiological changes that are comparable to prescribed treatments? In this study, we examine this puzzle by explicating the discordant space between the prevailing biomedical paradigm, which focuses on a technical understanding of diagnosis and treatment, and a broader understanding of illness and healing as relational and embodied. Although biomedical achievements are impressive, the knowledge resulting from this paradigm is limited by its ontological and epistemological assumptions. When the body and world are objectified, illness meanings, therapeutic relationships, and healing practices are dismissed or distorted. In spite of a robust critique of the tenets of biomedicine for guiding practice, the biomedical paradigm retains a tenacious hold on evidence-based medicine and nursing, downplaying our clinical understanding of the sentient body, patients' life-worlds, and illness and healing. In reality, skilled nurses rely on multiple forms of knowledge in providing high-quality care to particular patients. Clinically wise nurses integrate their experience and knowledge of patients' priorities, fears, and illness trajectories along with biomedical findings to make astute judgments and promote health and healing. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The opportunity to collaborate increases preschoolers' motivation for challenging tasks.

PubMed

Butler, Lucas P; Walton, Gregory M

2013-12-01

Collaborating on challenging endeavors is a foundation of human society. Recent research suggests that young children are not only motivated to cooperate with others-for instance, to help others accomplish their goals-but may also be motivated to collaborate with others-to pursue shared goals. However, a primary reason why collaboration is so important is because opportunities to collaborate can bring people together to work hard to overcome challenges. Two studies (N=70) tested whether the collaborative nature of an activity itself can cause preschoolers to enjoy challenging tasks more and to persist longer on them. To isolate the psychological feeling of collaboration, we tested this hypothesis by manipulating purely psychological cues of collaboration; in all cases, children worked while physically alone. Both studies found that such cues substantially increased preschoolers' motivation on a challenging puzzle, including their persistence on and liking for the puzzle, relative to two non-collaborative control conditions. We suggest that an early emerging drive to engage in shared collaborative activities leads children to find collaborative activities to be intrinsically motivating. This may represent an important basis of motivation as children embark on formal schooling. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Methodological Encounters with the Phenomenal Kind.

PubMed

Shea, Nicholas

2012-03-01

Block's well-known distinction between phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness has generated a large philosophical literature about putative conceptual connections between the two. The scientific literature about whether they come apart in any actual cases is rather smaller. Empirical evidence gathered to date has not settled the issue. Some put this down to a fundamental methodological obstacle to the empirical study of the relation between phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness. Block (2007) has drawn attention to the methodological puzzle and attempted to answer it. While the evidence Block points to is relevant and important, this paper puts forward a more systematic framework for addressing the puzzle. To give it a label, the approach is to study phenomenal consciousness as a natural kind. The approach allows consciousness studies to move beyond initial means of identifying instances of the kind like verbal report, and to find its underlying nature. It is well-recognised that facts about an underlying kind may allow identification of instances of the kind that do not match the initial means of identification (cp. non-liquid samples of water). This paper shows that the same method can be deployed to investigate phenomenal consciousness independently of access consciousness.

Use of handheld sonar to locate a missing diver.

PubMed

McGrane, Owen; Cronin, Aaron; Hile, David

2013-03-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a handheld sonar device significantly reduces the mean time needed to locate a missing diver. This institutional review board approved, prospective, crossover study used a voluntary convenience sample of 10 scuba divers. Participants conducted both a standard and modified search to locate a simulated missing diver. The standard search utilized a conventional search pattern starting at the point where the missing diver (simulated) was last seen. The modified search used a sonar beacon to augment the search. For each search method, successful completion of the search was defined as locating the missing diver within 40 minutes. Twenty total dives were completed. Using a standard search pattern, the missing diver was found by only 1 diver (10%), taking 18 minutes and 45 seconds. In the sonar-assisted search group, the missing diver was found by all 10 participants (100%), taking an average of 2 minutes and 47 seconds (SD 1 minute, 20 seconds). Using the nonparametric related samples Wilcoxon signed rank test, actual times between the sonar group and the standard group were significant (P < .01). Using paired samples t tests, the sonar group's self-assessed confidence increased significantly after using the sonar (P < .001), whereas the standard group decreased in confidence (not statistically significant, P = .111). Handheld sonar significantly reduces the mean duration to locate a missing diver as well as increasing users' confidence in their ability to find a missing diver when compared with standard search techniques. Copyright © 2013 Wilderness Medical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A general method for handling missing binary outcome data in randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Jackson, Dan; White, Ian R; Mason, Dan; Sutton, Stephen

2014-12-01

The analysis of randomized controlled trials with incomplete binary outcome data is challenging. We develop a general method for exploring the impact of missing data in such trials, with a focus on abstinence outcomes. We propose a sensitivity analysis where standard analyses, which could include 'missing = smoking' and 'last observation carried forward', are embedded in a wider class of models. We apply our general method to data from two smoking cessation trials. A total of 489 and 1758 participants from two smoking cessation trials. The abstinence outcomes were obtained using telephone interviews. The estimated intervention effects from both trials depend on the sensitivity parameters used. The findings differ considerably in magnitude and statistical significance under quite extreme assumptions about the missing data, but are reasonably consistent under more moderate assumptions. A new method for undertaking sensitivity analyses when handling missing data in trials with binary outcomes allows a wide range of assumptions about the missing data to be assessed. In two smoking cessation trials the results were insensitive to all but extreme assumptions. © 2014 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for the Study of Addiction.

Comparing multiple imputation methods for systematically missing subject-level data.

PubMed

Kline, David; Andridge, Rebecca; Kaizar, Eloise

2017-06-01

When conducting research synthesis, the collection of studies that will be combined often do not measure the same set of variables, which creates missing data. When the studies to combine are longitudinal, missing data can occur on the observation-level (time-varying) or the subject-level (non-time-varying). Traditionally, the focus of missing data methods for longitudinal data has been on missing observation-level variables. In this paper, we focus on missing subject-level variables and compare two multiple imputation approaches: a joint modeling approach and a sequential conditional modeling approach. We find the joint modeling approach to be preferable to the sequential conditional approach, except when the covariance structure of the repeated outcome for each individual has homogenous variance and exchangeable correlation. Specifically, the regression coefficient estimates from an analysis incorporating imputed values based on the sequential conditional method are attenuated and less efficient than those from the joint method. Remarkably, the estimates from the sequential conditional method are often less efficient than a complete case analysis, which, in the context of research synthesis, implies that we lose efficiency by combining studies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Why Is the Sky Dark at Night?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stinner, Arthur

2014-01-01

The puzzle as to just why the sky is dark at night, given that there are so many stars, has been around at least since Newton. This article summarizes six cosmological models that have been used to attempt to give an account of this puzzle including the Copernican universe, the Newton-Halley universe, the nineteenth century "one galaxy"…

Creating Engaging Escape Rooms for the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicholson, Scott

2018-01-01

Escape rooms are "live-action team-based games where players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish a specific goal (usually escaping from the room) in a limited amount of time." Escape Rooms are one type of Escape Game, which are narrative-based challenges that use puzzles, tasks,…

Enhancing the Understanding of Government and Nonprofit Accounting with THE PUZZLE GAME: A Pilot Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elson, Raymond J.; Ostapski, S. Andrew; O'Callaghan, Susanne; Walker, John P.

2012-01-01

Nontraditional teaching aids such as crossword puzzles have been successfully used in the classroom to enhance student learning. Government and nonprofit accounting is a confusing course for students since it has strange terminologies and contradicts the accounting concepts learned in other courses. As such, it is an ideal course for a…

Gardner's Two Children Problems and Variations: Puzzles with Conditional Probability and Sample Spaces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Wendy; Stacey, Kaye

2014-01-01

This article presents "The Two Children Problem," published by Martin Gardner, who wrote a famous and widely-read math puzzle column in the magazine "Scientific American," and a problem presented by puzzler Gary Foshee. This paper explains the paradox of Problems 2 and 3 and many other variations of the theme. Then the authors…

The Role of Inhibitory Control in Children's Cooperative Behaviors during a Structured Puzzle Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giannotta, Fabrizia; Burk, William J.; Ciairano, Silvia

2011-01-01

This study examined the role of inhibitory control (measured by Stroop interference) in children's cooperative behaviors during a structured puzzle task. The sample consisted of 250 8-, 10-, and 12-year-olds (117 girls and 133 boys) attending classrooms in three primary schools in Northern Italy. Children individually completed an elaborated…

Explorers, Detectives, Matchmakers, and Lion Tamers: Understanding Jigsaw Puzzlers' Techniques and Motivations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Angela Cora

2013-01-01

Why do people enjoy jigsaw puzzles, which--challenging and time-consuming as they are--might be considered more like work than play? The author investigates the motivations, preferences, and satisfactions of individuals working on jigsaw puzzles, and she explores how these elements of play relate to the procedures and strategies puzzlers use to…

Triangular Numbers, Gaussian Integers, and KenKen

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watkins, John J.

2012-01-01

Latin squares form the basis for the recreational puzzles sudoku and KenKen. In this article we show how useful several ideas from number theory are in solving a KenKen puzzle. For example, the simple notion of triangular number is surprisingly effective. We also introduce a variation of KenKen that uses the Gaussian integers in order to…

Construction-Paper Puzzle Masterpieces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vance, Shelly

2010-01-01

Creating an appreciation of art history in her junior-high students has always been one of the author's greatest challenges as an art teacher. In this article, the author describes how her eighth-grade students re-created a famous work of art--piece by piece, like a puzzle or a stained-glass window--out of construction paper. (Contains 1 resource.)

Engaging Reluctant Readers in a French Immersion Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capina, Amanda Borton; Bryan, Gregory

2017-01-01

Reading engagement is like a puzzle consisting of many pieces to emplace for successful engagement to occur. The author, a French Immersion teacher/researcher, found that many of her grade one reluctant readers--those students who could read but chose not to--approached reading with some pieces of the puzzle. They had strategies and knowledge but…

A Public-Key Based Authentication and Key Establishment Protocol Coupled with a Client Puzzle.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, M. C.; Fung, Chun-Kan

2003-01-01

Discusses network denial-of-service attacks which have become a security threat to the Internet community and suggests the need for reliable authentication protocols in client-server applications. Presents a public-key based authentication and key establishment protocol coupled with a client puzzle protocol and validates it through formal logic…

Unraveling "Braid": Puzzle Games and Storytelling in the Imperative Mood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnott, Luke

2012-01-01

"Unraveling Braid" analyzes how unconventional, non-linear narrative fiction can help explain the ways in which video games signify. Specifically, this essay looks at the links between the semiotic features of Jonathan Blow's 2008 puzzle-platform video game Braid and similar elements in Georges Perec's 1978 novel "Life A User's Manual," as well as…

Studies in Mathematics, Volume XVIII: Puzzle Problems and Games Project. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dilworth, R. P.; And Others

This is a self-contained manual for use by teachers in preparation for classroom presentations. One of the goals of the report is to show how games and puzzles can provide effective means for developing mathematical understanding and skills. The authors indicate that this type of activity is well adapted for discovery teaching techniques. The…

The Retention Puzzle Reconsidered: Second Year Student Attitudes and Experiences with Advising

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Michael Edward

2013-01-01

College student retention has been described as a puzzle because retention rates have stagnated, and in some cases declined, despite over seventy years of research into the problem. The magnitude of the problem is that 50 percent of college students will leave their institution before obtaining a degree (Braxton, Hirschy, & McClendon, 2011).…

Puzzling Science: Using the Rubik's Cube to Teach Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rohrig, Brian

2010-01-01

A major goal of education is to help learners store information in long-term memory and use that information on later occasions to effectively solve problems (Vockell 2010). Therefore, this author began to use the Rubik's cube to help students learn to problem solve. There is something special about this colorful three-dimensional puzzle that…

Schooling, Cognitive Skills, and the Latin American Growth Puzzle. NBER Working Paper No. 15066

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanushek, Eric A.; Woessmann, Ludger

2009-01-01

Economic development in Latin America has trailed most other world regions over the past four decades despite its relatively high initial development and school attainment levels. This puzzle can be resolved by considering the actual learning as expressed in tests of cognitive skills, on which Latin American countries consistently perform at the…

Bullet-Block Science Video Puzzle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shakur, Asif

2015-01-01

A science video blog, which has gone viral, shows a wooden block shot by a vertically aimed rifle. The video shows that the block hit dead center goes exactly as high as the one shot off-center. (Fig. 1). The puzzle is that the block shot off-center carries rotational kinetic energy in addition to the gravitational potential energy. This leads a…

Children with Praderwilli Syndrome Vs. Williams Syndrome: Indirect Effects on Parents during a Jigsaw Puzzle Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ly, T. M.; Hodapp, R. M.

2005-01-01

Background: Genetic disorders predispose individuals to exhibit characteristic behaviours, which in turn elicit particular behaviours from others. In response to the strength of Prader?Willi syndrome (PWS) and weakness of Williams syndrome (WS) in visual-spatial tasks such as jigsaw puzzles, parents' behaviours can be affected by their child's…

Understanding flavour at the LHC

ScienceCinema

Nir, Yosef

2018-05-22

Huge progress in flavour physics has been achieved by the two B-factories and the Tevatron experiments. This progress has, however, deepened the new physics flavour puzzle: If there is new physics at the TeV scale, why aren't flavour changing neutral current processes enhanced by orders of magnitude compared to the standard model predictions? The forthcoming ATLAS and CMS experiments can potentially solve this puzzle. Perhaps even more surprisingly, these experiments can potentially lead to progress in understanding the standard model flavour puzzle: Why is there smallness and hierarchy in the flavour parameters? Thus, a rich and informative flavour program is awaiting us not only in the flavour-dedicated LHCb experiment, but also in the high-pT ATLAS and CMS experiments.

Critical thinking, delegation, and missed care in nursing practice.

PubMed

Bittner, Nancy Phoenix; Gravlin, Gayle

2009-03-01

The aim of this study was to understand how nurses use critical thinking to delegate nursing care. Nurses must synthesize large amounts of information and think through complex and often emergent clinical situations when making critical decisions about patient care, including delegation. A qualitative, descriptive study was used in this article. Before delegating, nurses reported considering patient condition, competency, experience, and workload of unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP). Nurses expected UAP to report significant findings and have higher level knowledge, including assessment and prioritizing skills. Successful delegation was dependent on the relationship between the RN and the UAP, communication, system support, and nursing leadership. Nurses reported frequent instances of missed or omitted routine care. Findings from this project provide insight into factors that influence delegation effectiveness. These can guide CNOs and frontline nurse leaders to focus on implementing strategies to mitigate the consequence of missed care. Ineffective delegation of basic nursing care can result in poor patient outcomes, potentially impacting quality measures, satisfaction, and reimbursement for the institution.

Evidence for k-dependent, in-plane anisotropy of the superconducting gap in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wells, B. O.; Shen, Z. X.; Dessau, D. S.; Spicer, W. E.; Mitzi, D. B.; Lombardo, L.; Kapitulnik, A.; Arko, A. J.

1992-11-01

We find the superconducting gap in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals is anisotropic in k space by roughly a factor of 2 using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Matching the k-space symmetry of the gap values provides a stringent constraint on theories of the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity. A review of the literature shows that many puzzling results can be explained by anisotropic gaps in the high-Tc cuprates.

Microscopic theory of cation exchange in CdSe nanocrystals.

PubMed

Ott, Florian D; Spiegel, Leo L; Norris, David J; Erwin, Steven C

2014-10-10

Although poorly understood, cation-exchange reactions are increasingly used to dope or transform colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots). We use density-functional theory and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to develop a microscopic theory that explains structural, optical, and electronic changes observed experimentally in Ag-cation-exchanged CdSe nanocrystals. We find that Coulomb interactions, both between ionized impurities and with the polarized nanocrystal surface, play a key role in cation exchange. Our theory also resolves several experimental puzzles related to photoluminescence and electrical behavior in CdSe nanocrystals doped with Ag.

The Hydra genome: insights, puzzles and opportunities for developmental biologists.

PubMed

Steele, Robert E

2012-01-01

The sequencing of a Hydra genome marked the beginning of a new era in the use of Hydra as a developmental model. Analysis of the genome sequence has led to a number of interesting findings, has required revisiting of previous work, and most importantly presents new opportunities for understanding the developmental biology of Hydra. This review will de-scribe the history of the Hydra genome project, a selection of results from it that are relevant to developmental biologists, and some future research opportunities provided by Hydra genomics.

Explicating the Conditions Under Which Multilevel Multiple Imputation Mitigates Bias Resulting from Random Coefficient-Dependent Missing Longitudinal Data.

PubMed

Gottfredson, Nisha C; Sterba, Sonya K; Jackson, Kristina M

2017-01-01

Random coefficient-dependent (RCD) missingness is a non-ignorable mechanism through which missing data can arise in longitudinal designs. RCD, for which we cannot test, is a problematic form of missingness that occurs if subject-specific random effects correlate with propensity for missingness or dropout. Particularly when covariate missingness is a problem, investigators typically handle missing longitudinal data by using single-level multiple imputation procedures implemented with long-format data, which ignores within-person dependency entirely, or implemented with wide-format (i.e., multivariate) data, which ignores some aspects of within-person dependency. When either of these standard approaches to handling missing longitudinal data is used, RCD missingness leads to parameter bias and incorrect inference. We explain why multilevel multiple imputation (MMI) should alleviate bias induced by a RCD missing data mechanism under conditions that contribute to stronger determinacy of random coefficients. We evaluate our hypothesis with a simulation study. Three design factors are considered: intraclass correlation (ICC; ranging from .25 to .75), number of waves (ranging from 4 to 8), and percent of missing data (ranging from 20 to 50%). We find that MMI greatly outperforms the single-level wide-format (multivariate) method for imputation under a RCD mechanism. For the MMI analyses, bias was most alleviated when the ICC is high, there were more waves of data, and when there was less missing data. Practical recommendations for handling longitudinal missing data are suggested.

Missing link in the evolution of Hox clusters.

PubMed

Ogishima, Soichi; Tanaka, Hiroshi

2007-01-31

Hox cluster has key roles in regulating the patterning of the antero-posterior axis in a metazoan embryo. It consists of the anterior, central and posterior genes; the central genes have been identified only in bilaterians, but not in cnidarians, and are responsible for archiving morphological complexity in bilaterian development. However, their evolutionary history has not been revealed, that is, there has been a "missing link". Here we show the evolutionary history of Hox clusters of 18 bilaterians and 2 cnidarians by using a new method, "motif-based reconstruction", examining the gain/loss processes of evolutionarily conserved sequences, "motifs", outside the homeodomain. We successfully identified the missing link in the evolution of Hox clusters between the cnidarian-bilaterian ancestor and the bilaterians as the ancestor of the central genes, which we call the proto-central gene. Exploring the correspondent gene with the proto-central gene, we found that one of the acoela Hox genes has the same motif repertory as that of the proto-central gene. This interesting finding suggests that the acoela Hox cluster corresponds with the missing link in the evolution of the Hox cluster between the cnidarian-bilaterian ancestor and the bilaterians. Our findings suggested that motif gains/diversifications led to the explosive diversity of the bilaterian body plan.

5 CFR 880.207 - Adjustment of accounts after finding of death.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Adjustment of accounts after finding of death. 880.207 Section 880.207 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL... Procedures § 880.207 Adjustment of accounts after finding of death. After a missing annuitant is determined...

5 CFR 880.207 - Adjustment of accounts after finding of death.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Adjustment of accounts after finding of death. 880.207 Section 880.207 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL... Procedures § 880.207 Adjustment of accounts after finding of death. After a missing annuitant is determined...

5 CFR 880.207 - Adjustment of accounts after finding of death.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Adjustment of accounts after finding of death. 880.207 Section 880.207 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL... Procedures § 880.207 Adjustment of accounts after finding of death. After a missing annuitant is determined...

Design, implementation and reporting strategies to reduce the instance and impact of missing patient-reported outcome (PRO) data: a systematic review.

PubMed

Mercieca-Bebber, Rebecca; Palmer, Michael J; Brundage, Michael; Calvert, Melanie; Stockler, Martin R; King, Madeleine T

2016-06-15

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) provide important information about the impact of treatment from the patients' perspective. However, missing PRO data may compromise the interpretability and value of the findings. We aimed to report: (1) a non-technical summary of problems caused by missing PRO data; and (2) a systematic review by collating strategies to: (A) minimise rates of missing PRO data, and (B) facilitate transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data in clinical research. Our systematic review does not address statistical handling of missing PRO data. MEDLINE and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases (inception to 31 March 2015), and citing articles and reference lists from relevant sources. English articles providing recommendations for reducing missing PRO data rates, or strategies to facilitate transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data were included. 2 reviewers independently screened articles against eligibility criteria. Discrepancies were resolved with the research team. Recommendations were extracted and coded according to framework synthesis. 117 sources (55% discussion papers, 26% original research) met the eligibility criteria. Design and methodological strategies for reducing rates of missing PRO data included: incorporating PRO-specific information into the protocol; carefully designing PRO assessment schedules and defining termination rules; minimising patient burden; appointing a PRO coordinator; PRO-specific training for staff; ensuring PRO studies are adequately resourced; and continuous quality assurance. Strategies for transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data include utilising auxiliary data to inform analysis; transparently reporting baseline PRO scores, rates and reasons for missing data; and methods for handling missing PRO data. The instance of missing PRO data and its potential to bias clinical research can be minimised by implementing thoughtful design, rigorous methodology and transparent reporting strategies. All members of the research team have a responsibility in implementing such strategies. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Juggling the life-puzzle with Geosciences: personal experience and strategies from a female leader

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arheimer, Berit

2017-04-01

People are very complex and difficult to categorize. For instance, in the Geosciences community I am representing both minorities and majorities. When being in minority, I am both Underrepresented and Overrepresented by the composition of this community vs the global population, and also at EGU I am both under- and over-represented vs the total geoscience community. At present, I am underrepresented being a Woman in Geosciences but earlier in my carrier, I was also underrepresented being a Young Leader - so I will focus my presentation on both gender and age, as it is difficult for me to separate these two barriers from various sorts of exclusions I experienced. Underrepresentation is bad for several reasons, for instance (i) We might miss talents if equality of opportunities are not given in geosciences; (ii) Teams work less efficient than if they are composed by different characters, competences and skills; (iii) We are less prepared for new circumstances in this rapidly changing and unstable world; (iv) We degrade in communication skills and perception, if we don't understand similarities and differences. I will discuss some representative differences that may lead to unequal opportunities in geosciences. However, we need to be careful when searching for representation as it involves attribution of characteristics, which may lead to stigmatization and oversimplify the complexity of personality. Differences between individuals in a population are still much larger than between the averages of the populations. In my presentation I will give examples from my personal experience of barriers during 25 years in geosciences and the strategies I have used to overcome them. I will also give examples of successful methods that I have used in my 17 years of leadership when building efficient teams, to make them benefit from differences between individuals. I am currently leading a group of 26 scientists with origin from 13 countries world-wide. Finally, I will give some recommendations from being a single-mother with scientific and international ambitions, working in an operational environment, on how to juggle the dynamic life puzzle.

Developing a framework to review near-miss maternal morbidity in India: a structured review and key stakeholder analysis.

PubMed

Bhattacharyya, Sanghita; Srivastava, Aradhana; Knight, Marian

2014-11-13

In India there is a thrust towards promoting institutional delivery, resulting in problems of overcrowding and compromise to quality of care. Review of near-miss obstetric events has been suggested to be useful to investigate health system functioning, complementing maternal death reviews. The aim of this project was to identify the key elements required for a near-miss review programme for India. A structured review was conducted to identify methods used in assessing near-miss cases. The findings of the structured review were used to develop a suggested framework for conducting near-miss reviews in India. A pool of experts in near-miss review methods in low and middle income countries (LMICs) was identified for vetting the framework developed. Opinions were sought about the feasibility of implementing near-miss reviews in India, the processes to be followed, factors that made implementation successful and the associated challenges. A draft of the framework was revised based on the experts' opinions. Five broad methods of near-miss case review/audit were identified: Facility-based near-miss case review, confidential enquiries, criterion-based clinical audit, structured case review (South African Model) and home-based interviews. The opinion of the 11 stakeholders highlighted that the methods that a facility adopts should depend on the type and number of cases the facility handles, availability and maintenance of a good documentation system, and local leadership and commitment of staff. A proposed framework for conducting near-miss reviews was developed that included a combination of criterion-based clinical audit and near-miss review methods. The approach allowed for development of a framework for researchers and planners seeking to improve quality of maternal care not only at the facility level but also beyond, encompassing community health workers and referral. Further work is needed to evaluate the implementation of this framework to determine its efficacy in improving the quality of care and hence maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality.

Particle Filter with State Permutations for Solving Image Jigsaw Puzzles

PubMed Central

Yang, Xingwei; Adluru, Nagesh; Latecki, Longin Jan

2016-01-01

We deal with an image jigsaw puzzle problem, which is defined as reconstructing an image from a set of square and non-overlapping image patches. It is known that a general instance of this problem is NP-complete, and it is also challenging for humans, since in the considered setting the original image is not given. Recently a graphical model has been proposed to solve this and related problems. The target label probability function is then maximized using loopy belief propagation. We also formulate the problem as maximizing a label probability function and use exactly the same pairwise potentials. Our main contribution is a novel inference approach in the sampling framework of Particle Filter (PF). Usually in the PF framework it is assumed that the observations arrive sequentially, e.g., the observations are naturally ordered by their time stamps in the tracking scenario. Based on this assumption, the posterior density over the corresponding hidden states is estimated. In the jigsaw puzzle problem all observations (puzzle pieces) are given at once without any particular order. Therefore, we relax the assumption of having ordered observations and extend the PF framework to estimate the posterior density by exploring different orders of observations and selecting the most informative permutations of observations. This significantly broadens the scope of applications of the PF inference. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed inference framework significantly outperforms the loopy belief propagation in solving the image jigsaw puzzle problem. In particular, the extended PF inference triples the accuracy of the label assignment compared to that using loopy belief propagation. PMID:27795660

To enforce or not to enforce? The use of collaborative interfaces to promote social skills in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Ben-Sasson, Ayelet; Lamash, Liron; Gal, Eynat

2013-09-01

The goal of this stud was to examine whether a technological touch activated Collaborative Puzzle Game (CPG) increased positive social behaviors in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). The CPG involved construction of a virtual puzzle by selecting and dragging pieces into the solution area on a touch screen table. The target picture was presented on the top of the screen. Six dyads of children with HFASD (aged 8-11 years) engaged in the CPG in a Free Play (FP) mode in which partners could independently move puzzle pieces versus in an Enforced Collaboration (EC) mode in which partners could only move puzzle pieces together. Videos of the dames were coded for the frequencies of positive and negative social interaction, affect, play, and autistic behaviors. Parents completed the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Wilcoxon Signed-ranks tests indicated that children with HFASD showed significantly higher frequencies of positive social interaction and collaborative play in the EC versus FP modes but there were no differences in negative social behaviors. Differences in social behaviors between partners during the puzzle games were not significant; however there were differences within pair in the severity of social deficits as assessed by the SRS questionnaire. The CPG in an EC mode was effective in promoting positive social interaction by requiring children to work together towards a mutual goal. However, the increased challenge in this mode, particularly for children with lower social-communication skills, suggests the need for establishing selection criteria and mediation steps for such interventions.

Post-Flight Test Results of Seed Laser Module Subjected to Space Exposure. Paper No. 8876-9

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prasad, Narasimha S.

2013-01-01

The objective of the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) is to study the performance of novel materials when subjected to the synergistic effects of the harsh space environment for several months. MISSE missions provide an opportunity for developing space qualifiable materials. Several laser and lidar components were sent by NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) as a part of the MISSE 7 mission. The MISSE 7 module was transported to the international space station (ISS) via STS 129 mission that was launched on Nov 16, 2009. Later, the MISSE 7 module was brought back to the earth via the STS 134 that landed on June 1, 2011. The MISSE 7 module that was subjected to exposure in space environment for more than one and a half year included fiber laser, solid-state laser gain materials, detectors, and semiconductor laser diode. Performance testing of these components is now progressing. In this paper, the results of performance testing of a laser diode module sent by NASA Langley Research Center on MISSE 7 mission will be discussed. This paper will present the comparison of pre-flight and post-flight performance curves and discuss the effect of space exposure on the laser diode module. Preliminary findings on output power measurements show that the COTS laser diode characteristics did not undergo any significant performance degradation.

Parent health literacy and adherence-related outcomes in children with epilepsy.

PubMed

Paschal, Angelia M; Mitchell, Qshequilla P; Wilroy, Jereme D; Hawley, Suzanne R; Mitchell, Jermaine B

2016-03-01

The relationship between parent health literacy and adherence to treatment in children with epilepsy has not been fully explored. The purpose of this study was to determine whether parent health literacy and other variables predicted factors associated with adherence, such as missed medication doses, missed medical appointments, and seizure frequency, in children with epilepsy between 1 and 12 years old. It was hypothesized that parents with adequate parent health literacy would report fewer missed doses, missed appointments, and seizure occurrences. Using a nonexperimental, cross-sectional study design, interviews were conducted with 146 parents and guardians of children with epilepsy who resided in rural communities. Univariate analyses, including ANOVA, and multiple linear regressions were conducted. Results indicated that parent health literacy was the strongest predictor of two of the adherence-related factors. Higher health literacy scores were associated with fewer missed medication doses and seizure occurrences. However, health literacy was not associated with missed medical appointments. Among other study variables, higher household income was also predictive of fewer missed doses. The study findings suggest that inadequate health literacy among parents may serve as an independent risk factor for adherence-related outcomes among children with epilepsy. Further research, as well as effective, targeted parent health literacy strategies used to improve epilepsy management and care in children, is recommended. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reducing false negatives in clinical practice: the role of neural network technology.

PubMed

Mango, L J

1996-10-01

The fact that some cervical smears result in false-negative findings is an unavoidable and unpredictable consequence of the conventional (manual microscopic) method of screening. Errors in the detection and interpretation of abnormality are cited as leading causes of false-negative cytology findings; these are random errors that are not known to correlate with any patient risk factor, which makes the false-negative findings a "silent" threat that is difficult to prevent. Described by many as a labor-intensive procedure, the microscopic evaluation of a cervical smear involves a detailed search among hundreds of thousands of cells on each smear for a possible few that may indicate abnormality. Investigations into causes of false-negative findings preceding the discovery of high-grade lesions found that many smears had very few diagnostic cells that were often very small in size. These small cells were initially overlooked or misinterpreted and repeatedly missed on rescreening. PAPNET testing is designed to supplement conventional screening by detecting abnormal cells that initially may have been missed by microscopic examination. This interactive system uses neural networks, a type of artificial intelligence well suited for pattern recognition, to automate the arduous search for abnormality. The instrument focuses the review of suspicious cells by a trained cytologist. Clinical studies indicate that PAPNET testing is sensitive to abnormality typically missed by conventional screening and that its use as a supplemental test improves the accuracy of screening.

Adding a Piece to the Leaf Epidermal Cell Shape Puzzle.

PubMed

von Wangenheim, Daniel; Wells, Darren M; Bennett, Malcolm J

2017-11-06

The jigsaw puzzle-shaped pavement cells in the leaf epidermis collectively function as a load-bearing tissue that controls organ growth. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Majda et al. (2017) shed light on how the jigsaw shape can arise from localized variations in wall stiffness between adjacent epidermal cells. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

General intelligence is an emerging property, not an evolutionary puzzle.

PubMed

Ramus, Franck

2017-01-01

Burkart et al. contend that general intelligence poses a major evolutionary puzzle. This assertion presupposes a reification of general intelligence - that is, assuming that it is one "thing" that must have been selected as such. However, viewing general intelligence as an emerging property of multiple cognitive abilities (each with their own selective advantage) requires no additional evolutionary explanation.

Minimal Groups Increase Young Children's Motivation and Learning on Group-Relevant Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Master, Allison; Walton, Gregory M.

2013-01-01

Three experiments ("N" = 130) used a minimal group manipulation to show that just perceived membership in a social group boosts young children's motivation for and learning from group-relevant tasks. In Experiment 1, 4-year-old children assigned to a minimal "puzzles group" persisted longer on a challenging puzzle than children identified as the…

Instructional Media Production for Early Childhood Education: A. B. C. Jig-Saw Puzzle, a Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yusuf, Mudashiru Olalere; Olanrewaju, Olatayo Solomon; Soetan, Aderonke K.

2015-01-01

In this paper, a. b. c. jig-saw puzzle was produced for early childhood education using local materials. This study was a production based type of research, to serve as a supplemental or total learning resource. Its production followed four phases of development referred to as information, design, production and evaluation. The storyboard cards,…

Pedagogy Corner: The Architect's Puzzle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lovitt, Charles

2017-01-01

Some years back, the author found the following problem in a spatial puzzle book: how many ways can you put four blocks together, face to face (with no vertical rotation symmetry)? He gave each student just four blocks and they collectively tried combinations to eventually agree on the answer of 15. He used to think it was a halfway decent task,…

Why Face a Challenge? The Reason behind Intrinsically Motivated Students' Spontaneous Choice of Challenging Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inoue, Noriyuki

2007-01-01

In a task choice situation, why do some students spontaneously choose challenging tasks while others do not? In the study, 114 undergraduate students were first asked of their perceived competence and interest in solving number puzzles at both individual and situational levels, and then asked to choose one puzzle from four difficulty levels. They…

The Quark Puzzle: A Novel Approach to Visualizing the Color Symmetries of Quarks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gettrust, Eric

2010-01-01

This paper describes a simple hands-on and visual-method designed to introduce physics students of many age groups to the topic of quarks and their role in forming composite particles (baryons and mesons). A set of puzzle pieces representing individual quarks that fit together in ways consistent with known restrictions of flavor, color, and charge…

A puzzle assembly strategy for fabrication of large engineered cartilage tissue constructs.

PubMed

Nover, Adam B; Jones, Brian K; Yu, William T; Donovan, Daniel S; Podolnick, Jeremy D; Cook, James L; Ateshian, Gerard A; Hung, Clark T

2016-03-21

Engineering of large articular cartilage tissue constructs remains a challenge as tissue growth is limited by nutrient diffusion. Here, a novel strategy is investigated, generating large constructs through the assembly of individually cultured, interlocking, smaller puzzle-shaped subunits. These constructs can be engineered consistently with more desirable mechanical and biochemical properties than larger constructs (~4-fold greater Young׳s modulus). A failure testing technique was developed to evaluate the physiologic functionality of constructs, which were cultured as individual subunits for 28 days, then assembled and cultured for an additional 21-35 days. Assembled puzzle constructs withstood large deformations (40-50% compressive strain) prior to failure. Their ability to withstand physiologic loads may be enhanced by increases in subunit strength and assembled culture time. A nude mouse model was utilized to show biocompatibility and fusion of assembled puzzle pieces in vivo. Overall, the technique offers a novel, effective approach to scaling up engineered tissues and may be combined with other techniques and/or applied to the engineering of other tissues. Future studies will aim to optimize this system in an effort to engineer and integrate robust subunits to fill large defects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Right frontal gamma and beta band enhancement while solving a spatial puzzle with insight.

PubMed

Rosen, A; Reiner, M

2017-12-01

Solving a problem with an "a-ha" effect is known as insight. Unlike incremental problem solving, insight is sudden and unique, and the question about its distinct brain activity, intrigues many researchers. In this study, electroencephalogram signals were recorded from 12 right handed, human participants before (baseline) and while they solved a spatial puzzle known as the '10 coin puzzle' that could be solved incrementally or by insight. Participants responded as soon as they reached a solution and reported whether the process was incremental or by sudden insight. EEG activity was recorded from 19 scalp locations. We found significant differences between insight and incremental solvers in the Gamma and Beta 2 bands in frontal areas (F8) and in the alpha band in right temporal areas (T6). The right-frontal gamma indicates a process of restructuring which leads to an insight solution, in spatial problems, further suggesting a universal role of gamma in restructuring. These results further suggest that solving a spatial puzzle via insight requires exclusive brain areas and neurological-cognitive processes which may be important for meta-cognitive components of insight solutions, including attention and monitoring of the solution. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Puzzle Assembly Strategy for Fabrication of Large Engineered Cartilage Tissue Constructs

PubMed Central

Nover, Adam B.; Jones, Brian K.; Yu, William T.; Donovan, Daniel S.; Podolnick, Jeremy D.; Cook, James L.; Ateshian, Gerard A.; Hung, Clark T.

2016-01-01

Engineering of large articular cartilage tissue constructs remains a challenge as tissue growth is limited by nutrient diffusion. Here, a novel strategy is investigated, generating large constructs through the assembly of individually cultured, interlocking, smaller puzzle-shaped subunits. These constructs can be engineered consistently with more desirable mechanical and biochemical properties than larger constructs (~4-fold greater Young's modulus). A failure testing technique was developed to evaluate the physiologic functionality of constructs, which were cultured as individual subunits for 28 days, then assembled and cultured for an additional 21-35 days. Assembled puzzle constructs withstood large deformations (40-50% compressive strain) prior to failure. Their ability to withstand physiologic loads may be enhanced by increases in subunit strength and assembled culture time. A nude mouse model was utilized to show biocompatibility and fusion of assembled puzzle pieces in vivo. Overall, the technique offers a novel, effective approach to scaling up engineered tissues and may be combined with other techniques and/or applied to the engineering of other tissues. Future studies will aim to optimize this system in an effort to engineer and integrate robust subunits to fill large defects. PMID:26895780

Food puzzles for cats: Feeding for physical and emotional wellbeing.

PubMed

Dantas, Leticia Ms; Delgado, Mikel M; Johnson, Ingrid; Buffington, Ca Tony

2016-09-01

Many pet cats are kept indoors for a variety of reasons (eg, safety, health, avoidance of wildlife predation) in conditions that are perhaps the least natural to them. Indoor housing has been associated with health issues, such as chronic lower urinary tract signs, and development of problem behaviors, which can cause weakening of the human-animal bond and lead to euthanasia of the cat. Environmental enrichment may mitigate the effects of these problems and one approach is to take advantage of cats' natural instinct to work for their food. In this article we aim to equip veterinary professionals with the tools to assist clients in the use of food puzzles for their cats as a way to support feline physical health and emotional wellbeing. We outline different types of food puzzles, and explain how to introduce them to cats and how to troubleshoot challenges with their use. The effect of food puzzles on cats is a relatively new area of study, so as well as reviewing the existing empirical evidence, we provide case studies from our veterinary and behavioral practices showing health and behavioral benefits resulting from their use. © The Author(s) 2016.

Lorentz violation in the gravity sector: The t puzzle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonder, Yuri

2015-06-01

Lorentz violation is a candidate quantum-gravity signal, and the Standard-Model Extension (SME) is a widely used parametrization of such a violation. In the gravitational SME sector, there is an elusive coefficient for which no effects have been found. This is known as the t puzzle and, to date, it has no compelling explanation. This paper analyzes whether there is a fundamental explanation for the t puzzle. To tackle this question, several approaches are followed. Mainly, redefinitions of the dynamical fields are studied, showing that other SME coefficients can be moved to nongravitational sectors. It is also found that the gravity SME sector can be consistently treated à la Palatini, and that, in the presence of spacetime boundaries, it is possible to correct its action to get the desired equations of motion. Moreover, through a reformulation as a Lanczos-type tensor, some problematic features of the t term, which should arise at the phenomenological level, are revealed. The most important conclusion of the paper is that there is no evidence of a fundamental explanation for the t puzzle, suggesting that it may be linked to the approximations taken at the phenomenological level.

EFFECTS OF BIASES IN VIRIAL MASS ESTIMATION ON COSMIC SYNCHRONIZATION OF QUASAR ACCRETION

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

Steinhardt, Charles L.

2011-09-01

Recent work using virial mass estimates and the quasar mass-luminosity plane has yielded several new puzzles regarding quasar accretion, including a sub-Eddington boundary (SEB) on most quasar accretion, near-independence of the accretion rate from properties of the host galaxy, and a cosmic synchronization of accretion among black holes of a common mass. We consider how these puzzles might change if virial mass estimation turns out to have a systematic bias. As examples, we consider two recent claims of mass-dependent biases in Mg II masses. Under any such correction, the surprising cosmic synchronization of quasar accretion rates and independence from themore » host galaxy remain. The slope and location of the SEB are very sensitive to biases in virial mass estimation, and various mass calibrations appear to favor different possible physical explanations for feedback between the central black hole and its environment. The alternative mass estimators considered do not simply remove puzzling quasar behavior, but rather replace it with new puzzles that may be more difficult to solve than those using current virial mass estimators and the Shen et al. catalog.« less

Puzzle maker in SmB6: accompany-type valence fluctuation state

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Qi; Sun, Liling

2017-11-01

In recent years, studying the Kondo insulator SmB6, a strongly correlated electron material that has been puzzling the community for decades, has again become an attractive topic due to the discovery of its unusual metallic surface state coexisting with the bulk insulating state. Many efforts have been made to understand the microphysics in SmB6, but some puzzles that have been hotly debated and argued have not been solved. In this article, based on the latest progress made in our high-pressure studies on SmB6 and the accumulating results reported by other groups, we propose a notion named the ‘accompany-type valence fluctuation state’, which possibly coexists with the bulk Kondo insulating ground state of SmB6. We expect that this notion could be taken as a common starting point for understanding in a unified way most of the low-temperature phenomena observed by different experimental investigations on SmB6, thus promoting the deciphering of the puzzles. We also expect that this notion could attract rigorous theoretical interpretation and further experimental investigation, or stimulate better thinking on the physics in SmB6.

Neptune's 5:2 mean motion resonance in the Kuiper Belt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lan, Lei; Malhotra, Renu

2018-04-01

Recent observations of distant Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) in Neptune's 5:2 mean motion resonance (MMR) present two dynamical puzzles: this third order MMR, located at a semi-major axis of about 55 AU, hosts a surprisingly large population, comparable to the well-known and prominent populations of Plutinos and Twotinos in the 3:2 and the 2:1 MMRs, respectively; secondly, the eccentricities of these resonant KBOs are concentrated near ∼0.4. To shed light on these puzzles, we investigate the phase space structure near this resonance with use of Poincaré sections of the circular planar restricted three body model, for the full range of eccentricities, (0—1). With this non-perturbative numerical analysis, we find that the resonance width in semi-major axis is narrow for very small eccentricities, but widens dramatically for eccentricities ≥ 0.2. The resonance width reaches a maximum near eccentricity 0.4, where it is similar to the maximum widths of the 2:1 and 3:2 MMRs. We confirm these results with numerical simulations of the three dimensional N-body problem of KBOs in the gravitational field of the Sun and the four giant planets; our simulations include a wide range of orbital inclinations of the KBOs relative to the solar system’s invariable plane. From these simulations, we find that the boundaries of the stable zone of the 5:2 MMR in the semimajor axis—eccentricity plane are very similar to those found with the simplified circular planar restricted three body model of the Sun-Neptune-KBO, with the caveat that orbits of eccentricity above ~0.55 are long term unstable; such orbits, which have perihelion distance less than ~25 AU, are phase-protected from close encounters with Neptune but not from destabilizing encounters with Uranus. Additionally, the numerical simulations show that the long term stability of KBOs in Neptune’s 5:2 MMR is only mildly sensitive to KBO inclination. We conclude that the two dynamical puzzles presented by the observations of the KBOs in Neptune’s 5:2 MMR can be understood fairly naturally in light of the phase space structure of this resonance combined with basic considerations of their long term stability.

Extending theories on muon-specific interactions

DOE PAGES

Carlson, Carl E.; Freid, Michael C.

2015-11-23

The proton radius puzzle, the discrepancy between the proton radius measured in muonic hydrogen and electronic hydrogen, has yet to be resolved. There are suggestions that beyond the standard model (BSM) physics could resolve both this puzzle and the muon anomalous magnetic moment discrepancy. Karshenboim et al. point out that simple, nonrenormalizable, models in this direction involving new vector bosons have serious problems when confronting high energy data. The prime example is radiative corrections to W to μν decay which exceed experimental bounds. We show how embedding the model in a larger and arguably renormalizable theory restores gauge invariance ofmore » the vector particle interactions and controls the high energy behavior of decay and scattering amplitudes. Thus BSM explanations of the proton radius puzzle can still be viable.« less

Spectroscopy of muonic atoms and the proton radius puzzle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antognini, Aldo

2017-09-01

We have measured several 2 S -2 P transitions in muonic hydrogen (μp), muonic deuterium (μd) and muonic helium ions (μ3He, μ4He). From muonic hydrogen we extracted a proton charge radius 20 times more precise than obtained from electron-proton scattering and hydrogen high-precision laser spectroscopy but at a variance of 7 σ from these values. This discrepancy is nowadays referred to as the proton radius puzzle. New insight has been recently provided by the first determination of the deuteron charge radius from laser spectroscopy of μd. The status of the proton charge radius puzzle including the new insights obtained by μd spectroscopy will be discussed. Work supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF-200021-165854 and the ERC CoG. #725039.

Extending theories on muon-specific interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlson, Carl E.; Freid, Michael

2015-11-01

The proton radius puzzle, the discrepancy between the proton radius measured in muonic hydrogen and electronic hydrogen, has yet to be resolved. There are suggestions that beyond-the-standard-model physics could resolve both this puzzle and the muon anomalous magnetic moment discrepancy. Karshenboim et al. point out that simple, nonrenormalizable, models in this direction involving new vector bosons have serious problems when confronting high energy data. The prime example is radiative corrections to W →μ ν decay which exceed experimental bounds. We show how embedding the model in a larger and arguably renormalizable theory restores gauge invariance of the vector particle interactions and controls the high energy behavior of decay and scattering amplitudes. Thus, beyond-the-standard-model explanations of the proton radius puzzle can still be viable.

Health inequalities and welfare state regimes: theoretical insights on a public health 'puzzle'.

PubMed

Bambra, Clare

2011-09-01

Welfare states are important determinants of health. Comparative social epidemiology has almost invariably concluded that population health is enhanced by the relatively generous and universal welfare provision of the Scandinavian countries. However, most international studies of socioeconomic inequalities in health have thrown up something of a public health 'puzzle' as the Scandinavian welfare states do not, as would generally be expected, have the smallest health inequalities. This essay outlines and interrogates this puzzle by drawing upon existing theories of health inequalities--artefact, selection, cultural--behavioural, materialist, psychosocial and life course--to generate some theoretical insights. It discusses the limits of these theories in respect to cross-national research; it questions the focus and normative paradigm underpinning contemporary comparative health inequalities research; and it considers the future of comparative social epidemiology.

The role of missing killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor ligands in T cell replete peripheral blood stem cell transplantation from HLA-identical siblings.

PubMed

Clausen, Johannes; Kircher, Brigitte; Auberger, Jutta; Schumacher, Petra; Ulmer, Hanno; Hetzenauer, Gabriele; Wolf, Dominik; Gastl, Günther; Nachbaur, David

2010-02-01

The contribution of natural killer (NK) cells to graft-versus-malignancy (GVM) effects following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) remains uncertain, particularly in the HLA-identical setting. A model considering missing HLA ligands to the donor's inhibitory killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR), termed the missing KIR ligand model, has been established in T cell depleted bone marrow transplantation (BMT), but lacks validity in other cohorts with different treatment characteristics. We hypothesized that the impact of missing KIR ligands on relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) in T cell replete peripheral blood SCT (PBSCT) differs from that in the T cell depleted BMT setting, and retrospectively evaluated 100 consecutive, HLA-identical sibling transplantations for hematologic malignancies. In addition to KIR ligand status, we considered the donors' activating KIRs and grafted NK, T, and CD34(+) cell doses. Our findings demonstrate noninferiority for OS (P = .005) and RFS (P = .002) for the heterozygous HLA-C group KIR ligand status (C1/2; n = 47) compared with patients missing either C1 or C2 (n = 53). Similarly, OS (P = .031) and RFS (P = .034) of Bw4-positive patients was noninferior to that of patients missing a Bw4 ligand to KIR3DL1. By multivariate analysis, C1/2 heterozygous patients had a favorable risk ratio (RR) for relapse (RR = 0.28; P = .003), RFS (RR = 0.56; P = .046), and acute graft-versus-host disease grade II-IV (RR = 0.36; P = .05). Following reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC), but not standard-intensity conditioning, myeloablative (MA) transplantation, a grafted NK cell dose above the median (3.4 x 10(7)/kg) was associated with a lower risk of relapse (RR = 0.57; P = .003) and improved survival (RR = 0.78; P = .03). Overall, our findings support a role for NK alloreactivity in HLA-identical HSCT, but argue against a favorable impact of missing KIR ligands in the given setting. We conclude that the mechanism favoring the missing KIR ligand constellation in T cell depleted BMT may not operate in T cell replete PBSCT. The reasons for this differential effect remain unresolved. Copyright 2010 American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Difference Between Ice Cream and Nazis: Moral Externalization and the Evolution of Human Cooperation.

PubMed

Stanford, P Kyle

2017-07-06

A range of empirical findings are first used to more precisely characterize our distinctive tendency to objectify or externalize moral demands, and it is then argued that this salient feature of our moral cognition represents a profound puzzle for evolutionary approaches to human moral psychology that existing proposals do not help to resolve. It is then proposed that such externalization facilitated a broader shift to a vastly more cooperative form of social life by establishing and maintaining a connection between the extent to which an agent is herself motivated by a given moral norm and the extent to which she uses conformity to that same norm as a criterion in evaluating candidate partners in social interaction generally. This connection ensures the correlated interaction necessary to protect those prepared to adopt increasingly cooperative, altruistic, and other prosocial norms of interaction from exploitation, especially as such norms were applied in novel ways and/or to novel circumstances and as the rapid establishment of new norms allowed us to reap still greater rewards from hypercooperation. A wide range of empirical findings are then used to support this hypothesis, showing why the status we ascribe to moral demands and considerations exhibits the otherwise puzzling combination of objective and subjective elements that it does as well as showing how the need to effectively advertise our externalization of particular moral commitments generates features of our social interaction so familiar that they rarely strike us as standing in need of any explanation in the first place.

Geoscience Data Puzzles: Developing Students' Ability to Make Meaning from Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kastens, K. A.; Turrin, M.

2010-12-01

One of the most fundamental aspects of geoscience expertise is the ability to extract insights from observational earth data. Where an expert might see trends, patterns, processes, and candidate causal relationships, a novice could look at the same data representation and see dots, wiggles and blotches of color. The problem is compounded when the student was not personally involved in collecting the data or samples and thus has no experiential knowledge of the Earth setting that the data represent. In other words, the problem is especially severe when students tap into the vast archives of professionally-collected data that the geoscience community has worked so hard to make available for instructional use over the internet. Moreover, most high school and middle school teachers did not themselves learn Earth Science through analyzing data, and they may lack skills and/or confidence needed to scaffold students through the process of learning to interpret realistically-complex data sets. We have developed “Geoscience Data Puzzles” with the paired goals of (a) helping students learn about the earth from data, and (b) helping teachers learn to teach with data. Geoscience Data Puzzles are data-using activities that purposefully present a low barrier-to-entry for teachers and a high ratio of insight-to-effort for students. Each Puzzle uses authentic geoscience data, but the data are carefully pre-selected in order to illuminate a fundamental Earth process within tractable snippets of data. Every Puzzle offers "Aha" moments, when the connection between data and process comes clear in a rewarding burst of insight. Every Puzzle is accompanied by a Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) guide, which explicates the chain of reasoning by which the puzzle-solver can use the evidence provided by the data to construct scientific claims. Four types of reasoning are stressed: spatial reasoning, in which students make inferences from observations about location, orientation, shape, configuration or trajectory of objects or phenomena; temporal reasoning, in which students make inferences from observations of timing, rates and sequence of Earth events and processes; quantitative reasoning, which makes use of numerical information; and concept-based reasoning, in which students must tap into their knowledge of Earth Science concepts. A book of classroom-tested Data Puzzles and accompanying PCK guides is scheduled for late 2010 publication by the National Science Teachers Association. Topics (with data types) include paleoclimate (lithology and pollen taxa), weather (precipitation, air temperature, air pressure, wind direction), historic earthquake (eye witness accounts), estuary (salinity and precipitation), watershed (precipitation and streamflow), and hydrothermal vents (water temperature).

Measuring the Association Between Body Mass Index and All-Cause Mortality in the Presence of Missing Data: Analyses From the Scottish National Diabetes Register.

PubMed

Read, Stephanie H; Lewis, Steff C; Halbesma, Nynke; Wild, Sarah H

2017-04-15

Incorrectly handling missing data can lead to imprecise and biased estimates. We describe the effect of applying different approaches to handling missing data in an analysis of the association between body mass index and all-cause mortality among people with type 2 diabetes. We used data from the Scottish diabetes register that were linked to hospital admissions data and death registrations. The analysis was based on people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 2004 and 2011, with follow-up until May 31, 2014. The association between body mass index and mortality was investigated using Cox proportional hazards models. Findings were compared using 4 different missing-data methods: complete-case analysis, 2 multiple-imputation models, and nearest-neighbor imputation. There were 124,451 cases of type 2 diabetes, among which there were 17,085 deaths during 787,275 person-years of follow-up. Patients with missing data (24.8%) had higher mortality than those without missing data (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.36, 95% confidence interval: 1.31, 1.41). A U-shaped relationship between body mass index and mortality was observed, with the lowest hazard ratios occurring among moderately obese people, regardless of the chosen approach for handling missing data. Missing data may affect absolute and relative risk estimates differently and should be considered in analyses of routinely collected data. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Striatal connectivity changes following gambling wins and near-misses: Associations with gambling severity.

PubMed

van Holst, Ruth J; Chase, Henry W; Clark, Luke

2014-01-01

Frontostriatal circuitry is implicated in the cognitive distortions associated with gambling behaviour. 'Near-miss' events, where unsuccessful outcomes are proximal to a jackpot win, recruit overlapping neural circuitry with actual monetary wins. Personal control over a gamble (e.g., via choice) is also known to increase confidence in one's chances of winning (the 'illusion of control'). Using psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses, we examined changes in functional connectivity as regular gamblers and non-gambling participants played a slot-machine game that delivered wins, near-misses and full-misses, and manipulated personal control. We focussed on connectivity with striatal seed regions, and associations with gambling severity, using voxel-wise regression. For the interaction term of near-misses (versus full-misses) by personal choice (participant-chosen versus computer-chosen), ventral striatal connectivity with the insula, bilaterally, was positively correlated with gambling severity. In addition, some effects for the contrast of wins compared to all non-wins were observed at an uncorrected (p < .001) threshold: there was an overall increase in connectivity between the striatal seeds and left orbitofrontal cortex and posterior insula, and a negative correlation for gambling severity with the connectivity between the right ventral striatal seed and left anterior cingulate cortex. These findings corroborate the 'non-categorical' nature of reward processing in gambling: near-misses and full-misses are objectively identical outcomes that are processed differentially. Ventral striatal connectivity with the insula correlated positively with gambling severity in the illusion of control contrast, which could be a risk factor for the cognitive distortions and loss-chasing that are characteristic of problem gambling.

Selection-Fusion Approach for Classification of Datasets with Missing Values

PubMed Central

Ghannad-Rezaie, Mostafa; Soltanian-Zadeh, Hamid; Ying, Hao; Dong, Ming

2010-01-01

This paper proposes a new approach based on missing value pattern discovery for classifying incomplete data. This approach is particularly designed for classification of datasets with a small number of samples and a high percentage of missing values where available missing value treatment approaches do not usually work well. Based on the pattern of the missing values, the proposed approach finds subsets of samples for which most of the features are available and trains a classifier for each subset. Then, it combines the outputs of the classifiers. Subset selection is translated into a clustering problem, allowing derivation of a mathematical framework for it. A trade off is established between the computational complexity (number of subsets) and the accuracy of the overall classifier. To deal with this trade off, a numerical criterion is proposed for the prediction of the overall performance. The proposed method is applied to seven datasets from the popular University of California, Irvine data mining archive and an epilepsy dataset from Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan (total of eight datasets). Experimental results show that classification accuracy of the proposed method is superior to those of the widely used multiple imputations method and four other methods. They also show that the level of superiority depends on the pattern and percentage of missing values. PMID:20212921