Cloud computing task scheduling strategy based on improved differential evolution algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ge, Junwei; He, Qian; Fang, Yiqiu

2017-04-01

In order to optimize the cloud computing task scheduling scheme, an improved differential evolution algorithm for cloud computing task scheduling is proposed. Firstly, the cloud computing task scheduling model, according to the model of the fitness function, and then used improved optimization calculation of the fitness function of the evolutionary algorithm, according to the evolution of generation of dynamic selection strategy through dynamic mutation strategy to ensure the global and local search ability. The performance test experiment was carried out in the CloudSim simulation platform, the experimental results show that the improved differential evolution algorithm can reduce the cloud computing task execution time and user cost saving, good implementation of the optimal scheduling of cloud computing tasks.

The Relative Efficiency of Two Strategies for Conducting Cognitive Task Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Catherine L.

2012-01-01

Cognitive task analysis (CTA) has evolved over the past half century to capture the mental decisions and analysis that experts have learned to implement when solving complex problems. Since expertise is largely automated and nonconscious, a variety of observation and interview strategies have been developed to identify the most critical cognitive…

Dynamic Multiple Work Stealing Strategy for Flexible Load Balancing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adnan; Sato, Mitsuhisa

Lazy-task creation is an efficient method of overcoming the overhead of the grain-size problem in parallel computing. Work stealing is an effective load balancing strategy for parallel computing. In this paper, we present dynamic work stealing strategies in a lazy-task creation technique for efficient fine-grain task scheduling. The basic idea is to control load balancing granularity depending on the number of task parents in a stack. The dynamic-length strategy of work stealing uses run-time information, which is information on the load of the victim, to determine the number of tasks that a thief is allowed to steal. We compare it with the bottommost first work stealing strategy used in StackThread/MP, and the fixed-length strategy of work stealing, where a thief requests to steal a fixed number of tasks, as well as other multithreaded frameworks such as Cilk and OpenMP task implementations. The experiments show that the dynamic-length strategy of work stealing performs well in irregular workloads such as in UTS benchmarks, as well as in regular workloads such as Fibonacci, Strassen's matrix multiplication, FFT, and Sparse-LU factorization. The dynamic-length strategy works better than the fixed-length strategy because it is more flexible than the latter; this strategy can avoid load imbalance due to overstealing.

Exploring Ways to Implement the Health Services Mobility Study: A Feasibility Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lavine, Eileen M.; Moore, Audrey

A feasibility study was aimed at developing a strategy for implementing and utilizing the job analysis methodology which resulted from the Health Services Mobility Study (HSMS), particularly as it can be applied to the field of diagnostic radiology. (The HSMS method of job analysis starts with task descriptions analyzing the tasks that make up a…

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Energy Action Plan

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

Conrad, M. D.; Ness, J. E.

2013-07-01

This document describes the three near-term energy strategies selected by the CNMI Energy Task Force during action planning workshops conducted in March 2013, and outlines the steps being taken to implement those strategies. The three energy strategies selected by the task force are (1) designing a demand-side management program focusing on utility, residential and commercial sectors, (2) developing an outreach and education plan focused on energy conservation in government agencies and businesses, including workplace rules, and (3) exploring waste-to-energy options. The task force also discussed several other medium- and long-term energy strategies that could be explored at a future date.

Task-selective memory effects for successfully implemented encoding strategies.

PubMed

Leshikar, Eric D; Duarte, Audrey; Hertzog, Christopher

2012-01-01

Previous behavioral evidence suggests that instructed strategy use benefits associative memory formation in paired associate tasks. Two such effective encoding strategies--visual imagery and sentence generation--facilitate memory through the production of different types of mediators (e.g., mental images and sentences). Neuroimaging evidence suggests that regions of the brain support memory reflecting the mental operations engaged at the time of study. That work, however, has not taken into account self-reported encoding task success (i.e., whether participants successfully generated a mediator). It is unknown, therefore, whether task-selective memory effects specific to each strategy might be found when encoding strategies are successfully implemented. In this experiment, participants studied pairs of abstract nouns under either visual imagery or sentence generation encoding instructions. At the time of study, participants reported their success at generating a mediator. Outside of the scanner, participants further reported the quality of the generated mediator (e.g., images, sentences) for each word pair. We observed task-selective memory effects for visual imagery in the left middle occipital gyrus, the left precuneus, and the lingual gyrus. No such task-selective effects were observed for sentence generation. Intriguingly, activity at the time of study in the left precuneus was modulated by the self-reported quality (vividness) of the generated mental images with greater activity for trials given higher ratings of quality. These data suggest that regions of the brain support memory in accord with the encoding operations engaged at the time of study.

Increasing Coverage of Appropriate Vaccinations

PubMed Central

Jacob, Verughese; Chattopadhyay, Sajal K.; Hopkins, David P.; Morgan, Jennifer Murphy; Pitan, Adesola A.; Clymer, John

2016-01-01

Context Population-level coverage for immunization against many vaccine-preventable diseases remains below optimal rates in the U.S. The Community Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended several interventions to increase vaccination coverage based on systematic reviews of the evaluation literature. The present study provides the economic results from those reviews. Evidence acquisition A systematic review was conducted (search period, January 1980 through February 2012) to identify economic evaluations of 12 interventions recommended by the Task Force. Evidence was drawn from included studies; estimates were constructed for the population reach of each strategy, cost of implementation, and cost per additional vaccinated person because of the intervention. Analyses were conducted in 2014. Evidence synthesis Reminder systems, whether for clients or providers, were among the lowest-cost strategies to implement and the most cost effective in terms of additional people vaccinated. Strategies involving home visits and combination strategies in community settings were both costly and less cost effective. Strategies based in settings such as schools and managed care organizations that reached the target population achieved additional vaccinations in the middle range of cost effectiveness. Conclusions The interventions recommended by the Task Force differed in reach, cost, and cost effectiveness. This systematic review presents the economic information for 12 effective strategies to increase vaccination coverage that can guide implementers in their choice of interventions to fit their local needs, available resources, and budget. PMID:26847663

A Framework for Implementing Individualized Self-Regulated Learning Strategies in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ness, Bryan M.; Middleton, Michael J.

2012-01-01

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a conceptual model that can be used to design and implement individualized learning strategies for students with learning disabilities. Students who self-regulate their learning engage in planning, performance, and self-evaluation during academic tasks. This article highlights one approach for teaching SRL skills…

Watch This! A Guide to Implementing Video Modeling in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wynkoop, Kaylee Stahr

2016-01-01

The video modeling (VM) teaching strategy is one in which a student watches a video of someone performing a specific behavior, skill, or task and is then expected to complete the behavior, skill, or task. This column discusses the variety of ways in which VM has been documented within the literature and supports teacher interest in the strategy by…

Designing for Teaching and Learning in an Open World: Task Supported Open Architecture Language Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Derderian, Ani

2017-01-01

Concepts about tasks have been considered as the major part of analysis in different teaching approaches. Instructors are being more interested in the use of task-based instruction in foreign and second language teaching. Task-based instruction and teaching strategies are implemented by emphasizing meaning. The purpose of this paper is to…

Strategies for Encouraging Students to Persist on Challenging Tasks: Some Insights from Work in Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roche, Anne; Clarke, Doug; Sullivan, Peter; Cheeseman, Jill

2013-01-01

This article promotes the use of mathematically appropriate, engaging and challenging tasks to support learning that is worthwhile. The authors share insights from a three-lesson design experiment and the three tasks along with the results from their implementation are explored.

Space station operations task force summary report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

A companion to the Space Stations Operation Task Force Panels' Reports, this document summarizes all space station program goals, operations, and the characteristics of the expected user community. Strategies for operation and recommendations for implementation are included.

Learning in Neural Networks: VLSI Implementation Strategies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duong, Tuan Anh

1995-01-01

Fully-parallel hardware neural network implementations may be applied to high-speed recognition, classification, and mapping tasks in areas such as vision, or can be used as low-cost self-contained units for tasks such as error detection in mechanical systems (e.g. autos). Learning is required not only to satisfy application requirements, but also to overcome hardware-imposed limitations such as reduced dynamic range of connections.

Task-Selective Memory Effects for Successfully Implemented Encoding Strategies

PubMed Central

Leshikar, Eric D.; Duarte, Audrey; Hertzog, Christopher

2012-01-01

Previous behavioral evidence suggests that instructed strategy use benefits associative memory formation in paired associate tasks. Two such effective encoding strategies–visual imagery and sentence generation–facilitate memory through the production of different types of mediators (e.g., mental images and sentences). Neuroimaging evidence suggests that regions of the brain support memory reflecting the mental operations engaged at the time of study. That work, however, has not taken into account self-reported encoding task success (i.e., whether participants successfully generated a mediator). It is unknown, therefore, whether task-selective memory effects specific to each strategy might be found when encoding strategies are successfully implemented. In this experiment, participants studied pairs of abstract nouns under either visual imagery or sentence generation encoding instructions. At the time of study, participants reported their success at generating a mediator. Outside of the scanner, participants further reported the quality of the generated mediator (e.g., images, sentences) for each word pair. We observed task-selective memory effects for visual imagery in the left middle occipital gyrus, the left precuneus, and the lingual gyrus. No such task-selective effects were observed for sentence generation. Intriguingly, activity at the time of study in the left precuneus was modulated by the self-reported quality (vividness) of the generated mental images with greater activity for trials given higher ratings of quality. These data suggest that regions of the brain support memory in accord with the encoding operations engaged at the time of study. PMID:22693593

A Designer’s Guide to Human Performance Modelling (La Modelisation des Performances Humaines: Manuel du Concepteur).

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-12-01

failure detection, monitoring, and decision making.) moderator function. Originally, the output from these One of the best known OCM implementations, the...imposed by the tasks themselves, the information and equipment provided, the task environment, operator skills and experience, operator strategies , the...problem-solving situation, including the toward failure.) knowledge necessary to generate the right problem- solving strategies , the attention that

Knowledge-based load leveling and task allocation in human-machine systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chignell, M. H.; Hancock, P. A.

1986-01-01

Conventional human-machine systems use task allocation policies which are based on the premise of a flexible human operator. This individual is most often required to compensate for and augment the capabilities of the machine. The development of artificial intelligence and improved technologies have allowed for a wider range of task allocation strategies. In response to these issues a Knowledge Based Adaptive Mechanism (KBAM) is proposed for assigning tasks to human and machine in real time, using a load leveling policy. This mechanism employs an online workload assessment and compensation system which is responsive to variations in load through an intelligent interface. This interface consists of a loading strategy reasoner which has access to information about the current status of the human-machine system as well as a database of admissible human/machine loading strategies. Difficulties standing in the way of successful implementation of the load leveling strategy are examined.

Taking a lesson from patients' recovery strategies to optimize training during robot-aided rehabilitation.

PubMed

Colombo, Roberto; Sterpi, Irma; Mazzone, Alessandra; Delconte, Carmen; Pisano, Fabrizio

2012-05-01

In robot-assisted neurorehabilitation, matching the task difficulty level to the patient's needs and abilities, both initially and as the relearning process progresses, can enhance the effectiveness of training and improve patients' motivation and outcome. This study presents a Progressive Task Regulation algorithm implemented in a robot for upper limb rehabilitation. It evaluates the patient's performance during training through the computation of robot-measured parameters, and automatically changes the features of the reaching movements, adapting the difficulty level of the motor task to the patient's abilities. In particular, it can select different types of assistance (time-triggered, activity-triggered, and negative assistance) and implement varied therapy practice to promote generalization processes. The algorithm was tuned by assessing the performance data obtained in 22 chronic stroke patients who underwent robotic rehabilitation, in which the difficulty level of the task was manually adjusted by the therapist. Thus, we could verify the patient's recovery strategies and implement task transition rules to match both the patient's and therapist's behavior. In addition, the algorithm was tested in a sample of five chronic stroke patients. The findings show good agreement with the therapist decisions so indicating that it could be useful for the implementation of training protocols allowing individualized and gradual treatment of upper limb disabilities in patients after stroke. The application of this algorithm during robot-assisted therapy should allow an easier management of the different motor tasks administered during training, thereby facilitating the therapist's activity in the treatment of different pathologic conditions of the neuromuscular system.

Exploration Requirements Development Utilizing the Strategy-to-Task-to-Technology Development Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Drake, Bret G.; Josten, B. Kent; Monell, Donald W.

2004-01-01

The Vision for Space Exploration provides direction for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to embark on a robust space exploration program that will advance the Nation s scientific, security, and economic interests. This plan calls for a progressive expansion of human capabilities beyond low earth orbit seeking to answer profound scientific and philosophical questions while responding to discoveries along the way. In addition, the Vision articulates the strategy for developing the revolutionary new technologies and capabilities required for the future exploration of the solar system. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration faces new challenges in successfully implementing the Vision. In order to implement a sustained and affordable exploration endeavor it is vital for NASA to do business differently. This paper provides an overview of the strategy-to-task-to-technology process being used by NASA s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to develop the requirements and system acquisition details necessary for implementing a sustainable exploration vision.

International Energy Agency (IEA): Implementing Agreement for Co-operation in the Research and Development of Wind Turbine Systems (IEA Wind)

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

Sinclair, Karin C

This fact sheet covers the work that is being done via the International Energy Agency Task 34 (WREN). The fact sheet highlights the objective, strategy, primary activities, members, and contacts for this task.

Implementation strategies for collaborative primary care-mental health models.

PubMed

Franx, Gerdien; Dixon, Lisa; Wensing, Michel; Pincus, Harold

2013-09-01

Extensive research exists that collaborative primary care-mental health models can improve care and outcomes for patients. These programs are currently being implemented throughout the United States and beyond. The purpose of this study is to review the literature and to generate an overview of strategies currently used to implement such models in daily practice. Six overlapping strategies to implement collaborative primary care-mental health models were described in 18 selected studies. We identified interactive educational strategies, quality improvement change processes, technological support tools, stakeholder engagement in the design and execution of implementation plans, organizational changes in terms of expanding the task of nurses and financial strategies such as additional collaboration fees and pay for performance incentives. Considering the overwhelming evidence about the effectiveness of primary care-mental health models, there is a lack of good studies focusing on their implementation strategies. In practice, these strategies are multifaceted and locally defined, as a result of intensive and required stakeholder engagement. Although many barriers still exist, the implementation of collaborative models could have a chance to succeed in the United States, where new service delivery and payment models, such as the Patient-Centered Medical Home, the Health Home and the Accountable Care Organization, are being promoted.

Spotlight on the Middle: Report of the Texas Task Force on Middle School Education. Executive Summary and State Board of Education Policy Statement on Middle Grade Education and Middle Grade Schools. Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Texas Education Agency, Austin.

This summary highlights implementation strategies from the full report for restructuring middle grade education in Texas. The task force was guided by a central theme--a vision of Texas schools using each other as resources and the campus planning process as a vehicle for implementing research-based concepts and practices in the middle grades.…

SU43. The Effect of Implementation Intention on Different Types of Prospective Memory Performance in Patients With Schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Wang, Ya; Liu, Lu-lu; Gan, Ming-yuan; Tan, Shu-ping; Shum, David; Chan, Raymond

2017-01-01

Abstract Background: Prospective memory (PM) refers to remembering to execute a planned intention in the future, which can been divided as event-based PM (focal, nonfocal) and time-based PM according to the nature of the cue. Focal event-based PM, where the ongoing task requires processing of the characteristics of PM cues, has been found to be benefited from implementation intention (II, ie, an encoding strategy in the format of “if I see X, then I will do Y”). However, to date, it is unclear whether implementation intention can produce a positive effect on nonfocal event-based PM (where the ongoing task is irrelevant with the PM cues) and time-based PM. Moreover, patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) were found to have impairments in these types of PM, and few studies have been conducted to examine the effect of II on these types of PM. This study investigated whether (and how) implementation intention can improve nonfocal event-based PM and time-based PM performance in patients with SCZ. Methods: Forty-two patients with SCZ and 42 healthy control participants were administered both computerized nonfocal event-based PM task and time-based PM task. Patients and healthy controls were further randomly allocated to implementation intention condition (N = 21) and typical instruction condition (N = 21). Results: Patients with SCZ in the implementation intention group showed higher PM accuracy than the typical instruction group in both nonfocal event-based PM task (0.51 ± 0.32 vs 0.19 ± 0.29, t(40) = 3.39, P = .002) and time-based PM task (0.72 ± 0.31 vs 0.39 ± 0.40, t(40) = 2.98, P = .005). Similarly, healthy controls in the II group also showed better PM performance than the typical instruction group in both tasks (all P’s < 0.05). Time check frequency of time-based PM task in the II group of all the participants was significantly higher than the typical instruction group. Conclusion: Implementation intention is an effective strategy for improving different types of PM performance in patients with schizophrenia and can be applied for clinical settings.

Knowledge-based system for flight information management. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ricks, Wendell R.

1990-01-01

The use of knowledge-based system (KBS) architectures to manage information on the primary flight display (PFD) of commercial aircraft is described. The PFD information management strategy used tailored the information on the PFD to the tasks the pilot performed. The KBS design and implementation of the task-tailored PFD information management application is described. The knowledge acquisition and subsequent system design of a flight-phase-detection KBS is also described. The flight-phase output of this KBS was used as input to the task-tailored PFD information management KBS. The implementation and integration of this KBS with existing aircraft systems and the other KBS is described. The flight tests are examined of both KBS's, collectively called the Task-Tailored Flight Information Manager (TTFIM), which verified their implementation and integration, and validated the software engineering advantages of the KBS approach in an operational environment.

Planning, Implementing, and Assessing an Authentic Performance Task in Middle Grades Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Nicole C.; Urbankowski, Daniel

2014-01-01

As young adolescents, middle grades students experience a wide variety of changes related to their cognitive capabilities, social and emotional well-being, and use of self-regulation strategies. Authentic performance tasks challenge students to apply their knowledge and skills to realistic problems to create products or performances--consistent…

Adaptive Allocation of Decision Making Responsibility Between Human and Computer in Multi-Task Situations. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chu, Y. Y.

1978-01-01

A unified formulation of computer-aided, multi-task, decision making is presented. Strategy for the allocation of decision making responsibility between human and computer is developed. The plans of a flight management systems are studied. A model based on the queueing theory was implemented.

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

Chrisochoides, N.; Sukup, F.

In this paper we present a parallel implementation of the Bowyer-Watson (BW) algorithm using the task-parallel programming model. The BW algorithm constitutes an ideal mesh refinement strategy for implementing a large class of unstructured mesh generation techniques on both sequential and parallel computers, by preventing the need for global mesh refinement. Its implementation on distributed memory multicomputes using the traditional data-parallel model has been proven very inefficient due to excessive synchronization needed among processors. In this paper we demonstrate that with the task-parallel model we can tolerate synchronization costs inherent to data-parallel methods by exploring concurrency in the processor level.more » Our preliminary performance data indicate that the task- parallel approach: (i) is almost four times faster than the existing data-parallel methods, (ii) scales linearly, and (iii) introduces minimum overheads compared to the {open_quotes}best{close_quotes} sequential implementation of the BW algorithm.« less

An Examination of Strategy Implementation during Abstract Nonlinguistic Category Learning in Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vallila-Rohter, Sofia; Kiran, Swathi

2015-01-01

Purpose: Our purpose was to study strategy use during nonlinguistic category learning in aphasia. Method: Twelve control participants without aphasia and 53 participants with aphasia (PWA) completed a computerized feedback-based category learning task consisting of training and testing phases. Accuracy rates of categorization in testing phases…

Children's Theories of Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gurland, Suzanne T.; Glowacky, Victoria C.

2011-01-01

To investigate children's theories of motivation, we asked 166 children (8-12 years of age) to rate the effect of various motivational strategies on task interest, over the short and long terms, in activities described as appealing or unappealing. Children viewed the rewards strategy as resulting in greatest interest except when implemented over…

The cooking task: making a meal of executive functions

PubMed Central

Doherty, T. A.; Barker, L. A.; Denniss, R.; Jalil, A.; Beer, M. D.

2015-01-01

Current standardized neuropsychological tests may fail to accurately capture real-world executive deficits. We developed a computer-based Cooking Task (CT) assessment of executive functions and trialed the measure with a normative group before use with a head-injured population. Forty-six participants completed the computerized CT and subtests from standardized neuropsychological tasks, including the Tower and Sorting Tests of executive function from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) and the Cambridge prospective memory test (CAMPROMPT), in order to examine whether standardized executive function tasks, predicted performance on measurement indices from the CT. Findings showed that verbal comprehension, rule detection and prospective memory contributed to measures of prospective planning accuracy and strategy implementation of the CT. Results also showed that functions necessary for cooking efficacy differ as an effect of task demands (difficulty levels). Performance on rule detection, strategy implementation and flexible thinking executive function measures contributed to accuracy on the CT. These findings raise questions about the functions captured by present standardized tasks particularly at varying levels of difficulty and during dual-task performance. Our preliminary findings also indicate that CT measures can effectively distinguish between executive function and Full Scale IQ abilities. Results of the present study indicate that the CT shows promise as an ecologically valid measure of executive function for future use with a head-injured population and indexes selective executive function’s captured by standardized tests. PMID:25717294

The cooking task: making a meal of executive functions.

PubMed

Doherty, T A; Barker, L A; Denniss, R; Jalil, A; Beer, M D

2015-01-01

Current standardized neuropsychological tests may fail to accurately capture real-world executive deficits. We developed a computer-based Cooking Task (CT) assessment of executive functions and trialed the measure with a normative group before use with a head-injured population. Forty-six participants completed the computerized CT and subtests from standardized neuropsychological tasks, including the Tower and Sorting Tests of executive function from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) and the Cambridge prospective memory test (CAMPROMPT), in order to examine whether standardized executive function tasks, predicted performance on measurement indices from the CT. Findings showed that verbal comprehension, rule detection and prospective memory contributed to measures of prospective planning accuracy and strategy implementation of the CT. Results also showed that functions necessary for cooking efficacy differ as an effect of task demands (difficulty levels). Performance on rule detection, strategy implementation and flexible thinking executive function measures contributed to accuracy on the CT. These findings raise questions about the functions captured by present standardized tasks particularly at varying levels of difficulty and during dual-task performance. Our preliminary findings also indicate that CT measures can effectively distinguish between executive function and Full Scale IQ abilities. Results of the present study indicate that the CT shows promise as an ecologically valid measure of executive function for future use with a head-injured population and indexes selective executive function's captured by standardized tests.

Authentic Tasks to Foster Oral Production among English as a Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramírez Ortiz, Sandra Milena; Artunduaga Cuéllar, Marco Tulio

2018-01-01

Attaining oral production is a challenge for most English language teachers because most of the strategies implemented in class do not engage students in speaking activities. Tasks are an optimal alternative to engage learners in communicative exchanges. This article presents the results of a qualitative action research study examining the effects…

ViSC Social Competence Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strohmeier, Dagmar; Hoffmann, Christine; Schiller, Eva-Maria; Stefanek, Elisabeth; Spiel, Christiane

2012-01-01

The ViSC Social Competence Program has been implemented in Austrian schools within the scope of a national strategy plan, Together Against Violence. The program is a primary preventive program designed for grades 5 to 8. The prevention of aggression and bullying is defined as a school development task, and the initial implementation of the program…

77 FR 32641 - Meetings of the National Biodefense Science Board

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-01

... a national public health and healthcare situational awareness strategy and implementation plan. In... Counselors, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Federal Advisory Committee, is being tasked with...

Shining a Light on Task-Shifting Policy: Exploring opportunities for adaptability in non-communicable disease management programmes in Uganda.

PubMed

Katende, Godfrey; Donnelly, Mary

2016-05-01

In terms of disease burden, many low- and middle-income countries are currently experiencing a transition from infectious to chronic diseases. In Uganda, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have increased significantly in recent years; this challenge is compounded by the healthcare worker shortage and the underfunded health system administration. Addressing the growing prevalence of NCDs requires evidence-based policies and strategies to reduce morbidity and mortality rates; however, the integration and evaluation of new policies and processes pose many challenges. Task-shifting is the process whereby specific tasks are transferred to health workers with less training and fewer qualifications. Successful implementation of a task-shifting policy requires appropriate skill training, clearly defined roles, adequate evaluation, an enhanced training capacity and sufficient health worker incentives. This article focuses on task-shifting policy as a potentially effective strategy to address the growing burden of NCDs on the Ugandan healthcare system.

Is awareness necessary for true inference?

PubMed

Leo, Peter D; Greene, Anthony J

2008-09-01

In transitive inference, participants learn a set of context-dependent discriminations that can be organized into a hierarchy that supports inference. Several studies show that inference occurs with or without task awareness. However, some studies assert that without awareness, performance is attributable to pseudoinference. By this account, inference-like performance is achieved by differential stimulus weighting according to the stimuli's proximity to the end items of the hierarchy. We implement an inference task that cannot be based on differential stimulus weighting. The design itself rules out pseudoinference strategies. Success on the task without evidence of deliberative strategies would therefore suggest that true inference can be achieved implicitly. We found that accurate performance on the inference task was not dependent on explicit awareness. The finding is consistent with a growing body of evidence that indicates that forms of learning and memory supporting inference and flexibility do not necessarily depend on task awareness.

Success and Failure in Dynamic Decision Environments: Understanding Treatment Strategies for Patients with a Chronic Disease

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramsey, Gregory W.

2010-01-01

This dissertation proposes and tests a theory explaining how people make decisions to achieve a goal in a specific task environment. The theory is represented as a computational model and implemented as a computer program. The task studied was primary care physicians treating patients with type 2 diabetes. Some physicians succeed in achieving…

Comparison of Teachers' and School Psychologists' Accuracy in Assigning Basic Academic Tasks to Underlying CHC-Model Cognitive Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petruccelli, Meredith Lohr; Fiorello, Catherine A.; Thurman, S. Kenneth

2010-01-01

Teacher perceptions of their students' cognitive abilities affect the referrals they make and intervention strategies they implement. In this study, teachers and school psychologists were asked to sort basic academic tasks into categories on the basis of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) broad cognitive abilities, such as fluid reasoning and…

A distributed and intelligent system approach for the automatic inspection of steam-generator tubes in nuclear power plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Soon Ju; Moon, Jae Chul; Choi, Doo-Hyun; Choi, Sung Su; Woo, Hee Gon

1998-06-01

The inspection of steam-generator (SG) tubes in a nuclear power plant (NPP) is a time-consuming, laborious, and hazardous task because of several hard constraints such as a highly radiated working environment, a tight task schedule, and the need for many experienced human inspectors. This paper presents a new distributed intelligent system architecture for automating traditional inspection methods. The proposed architecture adopts three basic technical strategies in order to reduce the complexity of system implementation. The first is the distributed task allocation into four stages: inspection planning (IF), signal acquisition (SA), signal evaluation (SE), and inspection data management (IDM). Consequently, dedicated subsystems for automation of each stage can be designed and implemented separately. The second strategy is the inclusion of several useful artificial intelligence techniques for implementing the subsystems of each stage, such as an expert system for IP and SE and machine vision and remote robot control techniques for SA. The third strategy is the integration of the subsystems using client/server-based distributed computing architecture and a centralized database management concept. Through the use of the proposed architecture, human errors, which can occur during inspection, can be minimized because the element of human intervention has been almost eliminated; however, the productivity of the human inspector can be increased equally. A prototype of the proposed system has been developed and successfully tested over the last six years in domestic NPP's.

Implementing marketing strategy (Part four).

PubMed

Dodson, D C; Dotson, M; McIlwain, T F; Young, D

1993-01-01

Every organization must monitor and evaluate the performance of its marketing strategies. The health care marketer must continually develop effective measures related to outcomes so that marketing efforts can be justified and garnish the support and resources they deserve. A major task for the marketing executive for the next decade is to develop marketing strategies and prove that those strategies are being met and that they help the health care organization carry out its objective to meet its mission.

Improving everyday prospective memory performance in older adults: comparing cognitive process and strategy training.

PubMed

Brom, Sarah Susanne; Kliegel, Matthias

2014-09-01

Considering the importance of prospective memory for independence in old age recently, research has started to examine interventions to reduce prospective memory errors. Two general approaches can be proposed: (a) process training of executive control associated with prospective memory functioning, and/or (b) strategy training to reduce executive task demands. The present study was the first to combine and compare both training methods in a sample of 62 community-dwelling older adults (60-86 years) and to explore their effects on an ecologically valid everyday life prospective memory task (here: regular blood pressure monitoring). Even though the training of executive control was successful in enhancing the trained ability, clear transfer effects on prospective memory performance could only be found for the strategy training. However, participants with low executive abilities benefited particularly from the implementation intention strategy. Conceptually, this supports models suggesting interactions between task demands and individual differences in executive control in explaining individual differences in prospective memory performance. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Teachers Implementing Mathematical Problem Posing in the Classroom: Challenges and Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leung, Shuk-kwan S.

2013-01-01

This paper reports a study about how a teacher educator shared knowledge with teachers when they worked together to implement mathematical problem posing (MPP) in the classroom. It includes feasible methods for getting practitioners to use research-based tasks aligned to the curriculum in order to encourage children to pose mathematical problems.…

Exploring Formative Assessment in Primary School Classrooms: Developing a Framework of Actions and Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Antoniou, Panayiotis; James, Mary

2014-01-01

The importance of formative assessment in facilitating student learning has been well established in the literature. However, defining and implementing formative assessment in classroom settings is a rather complicated task. The aim of this study is to explore formative assessment, as implemented in primary classrooms in Cyprus, and develop a…

What Factors Support or Inhibit Secondary Mathematics Pre-Service Teachers' Implementation of Problem-Solving Tasks during Professional Experience?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Little, Jake; Anderson, Judy

2016-01-01

There is an acknowledged gap between the theory presented in university preparation programmes and the reality of classroom practice that has resulted in many secondary mathematics pre-service teachers failing to implement university-endorsed teaching strategies. Using responses to a questionnaire and interviews, this qualitative study examined…

Selection and Implementation of Skill Acquisition Programs by Special Education Teachers and Staff for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Kodak, Tiffany; Cariveau, Tom; LeBlanc, Brittany A; Mahon, Jacob J; Carroll, Regina A

2018-01-01

The present investigation examined special education teachers' selection and use of teaching strategies for receptive identification training with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in their classrooms. Teachers first responded to a survey in which they provided examples of receptive identification tasks taught in their classrooms, rated the efficacy of teaching strategies, described how they determined whether skills were mastered, listed any assessments they conducted to identify relevant prerequisite skills prior to receptive identification training, described how they selected teaching strategies for use in their classrooms, and listed their years of experience as a teacher and working with children with ASD. Subsequent observations of implementation of teaching strategies during trial-based instruction occurred in a proportion of teachers' classrooms. The results of the observations showed that participants did not consistently implement components of trial-based instruction as described in the literature, and there were differences in implementation depending on the types of skills targeted during instruction.

Framing of task performance strategies: effects on performance in a multiattribute dynamic decision making environment.

PubMed

Nygren, T E

1997-09-01

It is well documented that the way a static choice task is "framed" can dramatically alter choice behavior, often leading to observable preference reversals. This framing effect appears to result from perceived changes in the nature or location of a person's initial reference point, but it is not clear how framing effects might generalize to performance on dynamic decision making tasks that are characterized by high workload, time constraints, risk, or stress. A study was conducted to examine the hypothesis that framing can introduce affective components to the decision making process and can influence, either favorably (positive frame) or adversely (negative frame), the implementation and use of decision making strategies in dynamic high-workload environments. Results indicated that negative frame participants were significantly impaired in developing and employing a simple optimal decision strategy relative to a positive frame group. Discussion focuses on implications of these results for models of dynamic decision making.

Activities of the Oil Implementation Task Force; Contracts for field projects and supporting research on enhanced oil recovery, July--September 1990

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

Tiedemann, H.A.

1991-05-01

The report contains a general introduction and background to DOE's revised National Energy Strategy Advanced Oil Recovery Program and activities of the Oil Implementation Task Force; a detailed synopsis of the symposium, including technical presentations, comments and suggestions; a section of technical information on deltaic reservoirs; and appendices containing a comprehensive listing of references keyed to general deltaic and geological aspects of reservoirs and those relevant to six selected deltaic plays. Enhanced recovery processes include chemical floodings, gas displacement, thermal recovery, geoscience, and microbial recovery.

A systematic review of teamwork in the intensive care unit: what do we know about teamwork, team tasks, and improvement strategies?

PubMed

Dietz, Aaron S; Pronovost, Peter J; Mendez-Tellez, Pedro Alejandro; Wyskiel, Rhonda; Marsteller, Jill A; Thompson, David A; Rosen, Michael A

2014-12-01

Teamwork is essential for ensuring the quality and safety of health care delivery in the intensive care unit (ICU). This article addresses what we know about teamwork, team tasks, and team improvement strategies in the ICU to identify the strengths and limitations of the existing knowledge base to guide future research. A keyword search of the PubMed database was conducted in February 2013. Keyword combinations focused on 3 areas: (1) teamwork, (2) the ICU, and (3) training/quality improvement interventions. All studies that investigated teamwork, team tasks, or team interventions within the ICU (ie, intradepartment) were selected for inclusion. Teamwork has been investigated across an array of research contexts and task types. The terminology used to describe team factors varied considerably across studies. The most common team tasks involved strategy and goal formulation. Team training and structured protocols were the most widely implemented quality improvement strategies. Team research is burgeoning in the ICU, yet low-hanging fruit remains that can further advance the science of teams in the ICU if addressed. Constructs must be defined, and theoretical frameworks should be referenced. The functional characteristics of tasks should also be reported to help determine the extent to which study results might generalize to other contexts of work. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Within and between Individual Variability of Exposure to Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorder Risk Factors.

PubMed

Zare, Mohsen; Sagot, Jean-Claude; Roquelaure, Yves

2018-05-17

Industrial companies indicate a tendency to eliminate variations in operator strategies, particularly following implementation of the lean principle. Companies believe when the operators perform the same prescribed tasks, they have to execute them in the same manner (completing the same gestures and being exposed to the same risk factors). They attempt to achieve better product quality by standardizing and reducing operational leeway. However, operators adjust and modify ways of performing tasks to balance between their abilities and the requirements of the job. This study aims to investigate the variability of exposure to physical risk factors within and between operators when executing the same prescribed tasks. The Ergonomic Standard method was used to evaluate two workstations. Seven operators were observed thirty times between repeated cycle times at those workstations. The results revealed the variability of exposure to risk factors between and within operators in the repeated execution of the same tasks. Individual characteristics and operators' strategies might generate the variability of exposure to risk factors that may be an opportunity to reduce the risks of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WR-MSDs). However, sometimes operators' strategies may cause overexposure to risk factors; operators most often adopt such strategies to undertake their tasks while reducing the workload.

Connected Classroom Technology Facilitates Multiple Components of Formative Assessment Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirley, Melissa L.; Irving, Karen E.

2015-02-01

Formative assessment has been demonstrated to result in increased student achievement across a variety of educational contexts. When using formative assessment strategies, teachers engage students in instructional tasks that allow the teacher to uncover levels of student understanding so that the teacher may change instruction accordingly. Tools that support the implementation of formative assessment strategies are therefore likely to enhance student achievement. Connected classroom technologies (CCTs) include a family of devices that show promise in facilitating formative assessment. By promoting the use of interactive student tasks and providing both teachers and students with rapid and accurate data on student learning, CCT can provide teachers with necessary evidence for making instructional decisions about subsequent lessons. In this study, the experiences of four middle and high school science teachers in their first year of implementing the TI-Navigator™ system, a specific type of CCT, are used to characterize the ways in which CCT supports the goals of effective formative assessment. We present excerpts of participant interviews to demonstrate the alignment of CCT with several main phases of the formative assessment process. CCT was found to support implementation of a variety of instructional tasks that generate evidence of student learning for the teacher. The rapid aggregation and display of student learning evidence provided teachers with robust data on which to base subsequent instructional decisions.

The Benefits of Peer Collaboration: A Replication with a Delayed Posttest.

PubMed

Fleming, Victoria Manion; Alexander, Joyce M.

2001-10-01

The benefits of peer collaboration on strategy use, metacognitive causal attribution, and recall were supported in an earlier study (Manion & Alexander, 1997). Following that study two primary questions remained: Would the observed benefits last beyond an immediate posttest, and would they last regardless of which strategy the children chose to use? The current investigation explores those questions. Thirty-one fourth-grade students from two public schools in Sydney, Australia, experienced either a peer-collaborative treatment condition or an individual task (control condition). A posttest was conducted 5.5 weeks later. As was the case in the original study, children in the treatment condition outperformed children in the control condition in strategy use, metacognitive understanding of strategy chosen, and recall gain. Benefits also sustained regardless of the strategy children chose to implement on the task. Most importantly, the benefits lasted after a period of over a month. Implications for future research are discussed. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Design and Implementation of Cancellation Tasks for Visual Search Strategies and Visual Attention in School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Tsui-Ying; Huang, Ho-Chuan; Huang, Hsiu-Shuang

2006-01-01

We propose a computer-assisted cancellation test system (CACTS) to understand the visual attention performance and visual search strategies in school children. The main aim of this paper is to present our design and development of the CACTS and demonstrate some ways in which computer techniques can allow the educator not only to obtain more…

The WHO-ITU national eHealth strategy toolkit as an effective approach to national strategy development and implementation.

PubMed

Hamilton, Clayton

2013-01-01

With few exceptions, national eHealth strategies are the pivotal tools upon which the launch or refocusing of national eHealth programmes is hinged. The process of their development obviates cross-sector ministerial commitment led by the Ministry of Health. Yet countries often grapple with the task of strategy development and best efforts frequently fail to address strategic components of eHealth key to ensure successful implementation and stakeholder engagement. This can result in strategies that are narrowly focused, with an overemphasis placed on achieving technical outcomes. Without a clear link to a broader vision of health system development and a firm commitment from partners, the ability of a strategy to shape development of a national eHealth framework will be undermined and crucial momentum for implementation will be lost. WHO and ITU have sought to address this issue through the development of the National eHealth Strategy Toolkit that provides a basis for the components and processes to be considered in a strategy development or refocusing exercise. We look at this toolkit and highlight those areas which the countries should consider in formulating their national eHealth strategy.

Neural Architecture of Selective Stopping Strategies: Distinct Brain Activity Patterns Are Associated with Attentional Capture But Not with Outright Stopping.

PubMed

Sebastian, Alexandra; Rössler, Kora; Wibral, Michael; Mobascher, Arian; Lieb, Klaus; Jung, Patrick; Tüscher, Oliver

2017-10-04

In stimulus-selective stop-signal tasks, the salient stop signal needs attentional processing before genuine response inhibition is completed. Differential prefrontal involvement in attentional capture and response inhibition has been linked to the right inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), respectively. Recently, it has been suggested that stimulus-selective stopping may be accomplished by the following different strategies: individuals may selectively inhibit their response only upon detecting a stop signal (independent discriminate then stop strategy) or unselectively whenever detecting a stop or attentional capture signal (stop then discriminate strategy). Alternatively, the discrimination process of the critical signal (stop vs attentional capture signal) may interact with the go process (dependent discriminate then stop strategy). Those different strategies might differentially involve attention- and stopping-related processes that might be implemented by divergent neural networks. This should lead to divergent activation patterns and, if disregarded, interfere with analyses in neuroimaging studies. To clarify this crucial issue, we studied 87 human participants of both sexes during a stimulus-selective stop-signal task and performed strategy-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses. We found that, regardless of the strategy applied, outright stopping displayed indistinguishable brain activation patterns. However, during attentional capture different strategies resulted in divergent neural activation patterns with variable activation of right IFJ and bilateral VLPFC. In conclusion, the neural network involved in outright stopping is ubiquitous and independent of strategy, while different strategies impact on attention-related processes and underlying neural network usage. Strategic differences should therefore be taken into account particularly when studying attention-related processes in stimulus-selective stopping. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Dissociating inhibition from attention has been a major challenge for the cognitive neuroscience of executive functions. Selective stopping tasks have been instrumental in addressing this question. However, recent theoretical, cognitive and behavioral research suggests that different strategies are applied in successful execution of the task. The underlying strategy-dependent neural networks might differ substantially. Here, we show evidence that, regardless of the strategy used, the neural network involved in outright stopping is ubiquitous. However, significant differences can only be found in the attention-related processes underlying those different strategies. Thus, when studying attentional processing of salient stop signals, strategic differences should be considered. In contrast, the neural networks implementing outright stopping seem less or not at all affected by strategic differences. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/379786-10$15.00/0.

Cooperative business management strategies for the U.S. integrated textile complex

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

Washington, K.E.

1995-12-31

The mission of the American Textile (AMTEX{trademark}) Partnership is to engage the unique technical resources of the Department of Energy National Laboratories to work with the US Integrated Textile Complex (US ITC) and research universities to develop and deploy technologies that will increase the competitiveness of the US ITC. The objectives of the Demand Activated Manufacturing Architecture (DAMA) project of AMTEX are: (1) to determine strategic business structure changes for the US ITC; (2) to establish a textile industry electronic marketplace, (3) to provide methods for US ITC education ad implementation of an electronic marketplace. The Enterprise Modeling and Simulationmore » Task of DAMA is focusing on the first DAMA goal as described in another paper of this conference. The Cooperative Business Management (CBM) Task of DAMA is developing computer-based tools that will render system-wide information accessible for improved decision making. Three CBM strategies and the associated computer tools being developed to support their implementation are described in this paper. This effort is addressing the second DAMA goal to establish a textile industry electronic marketplace in concert with the Connectivity and Infrastructure Task of DAMA. As the CBM tools mature, they will be commercialized through the DAMA Education, Outreach and Commercialization Task of DAMA to achieve the third and final DAMA goal.« less

Challenges And Lessons Learned From Communities Using Evidence To Adopt Strategies To Improve Healthy Food Environments.

PubMed

Willems Van Dijk, Julie A; Catlin, Bridget; Cofsky, Abbey; Carroll, Carrie

2015-11-01

Communities across the United States are increasingly tackling the complex task of changing their local environments and cultures to improve access to and consumption of healthy food. Communities that have received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize have deployed numerous evidence-informed strategies to enhance their local food environments. Their experiences can provide lessons for other communities working to improve health. In this article we examine how the prize-winning communities worked in a multidisciplinary collective manner to implement evidence-based strategies, deployed suites of strategies to expand the reach of food-related work, balanced evidence against innovation, and measured their own progress. Most of the communities also faced challenges in using evidence effectively to implement strategies to promote healthy food environments. Policy makers can accelerate the adoption of evidence-informed approaches related to food and health by embedding them in program standards and funding requirements. Establishing opportunities for ongoing training to enhance community practitioners' evaluation skills and collaborative leadership would also improve the effectiveness of community implementation of these strategies. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Implementation of a reimbursed medication review program: Corporate and pharmacy level strategies.

PubMed

MacKeigan, Linda D; Ijaz, Nadine; Bojarski, Elizabeth A; Dolovich, Lisa

In 2006, the Ontario drug plan greatly reduced community pharmacy reimbursement for generic drugs. In exchange, a fee-for-service medication review program was introduced to help patients better understand their medication therapy and ensure that medications were taken as prescribed. A qualitative study of community pharmacy implementation strategies was undertaken to inform a mixed methods evaluation of the program. To describe strategies used by community pharmacies to implement a government-funded medication review service. Key informant interviews were conducted with pharmacy corporate executives and managers, as well as independent pharmacy owners. All pharmacy corporations in the province were approached; owners were purposively sampled from the registry of the pharmacist licensing body to obtain diversity in pharmacy attributes; and pharmacy managers were identified through a mix of snowball and registry sampling. Thematic qualitative coding and analysis were applied to interview transcripts. 42 key informants, including 14 executives, 15 managers/franchisees, and 11 owners, participated. The most common implementation strategy was software adaptation to flag eligible patients and to document the service. Human resource management (task shifting to technicians and increasing the technician complement), staff training, and patient identification and recruitment processes were widely mentioned. Motivational strategies including service targets and financial incentives were less frequent but controversial. Strategies typically unfolded over time, and became multifaceted. Apart from the use of targets in chain pharmacies only, strategies were similar across pharmacy ownership types. Ontario community pharmacies appeared to have done little preplanning of implementation strategies. Strategies focused on service efficiency and quantity, rather than quality. Unlike other jurisdictions, many managers supported the use of targets as motivators, and very few reported feeling pressured. This detailed account of a range of implementation strategies may be of practical value to community pharmacy decision makers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The municipalities of the Northwest region of the Czech Republic adapt to climate change: overview of barriers and challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Emmer, Adam; Krkoška Lorencová, Eliška; Vačkář, David

2017-04-01

The municipalities of the Czech Republic have been facing negative impacts of changing climate in the past decades - especially floods (1997, 2002, 2010, 2013), droughts and heat waves (2013, 2015), claiming lives, material damages and economic losses up to several % of GDP. Reflecting these events, climate change adaptation should represent major issue in strategical planning on all administrative levels, which is actually not fully met nowadays. Sectoral National Adaptation Strategy (NAS) was approved by the Government of the Czech Republic in autumn 2015 and the implementation action plan is currently being approved. Adaptation strategies on lower administrative level (adaptation strategies of individual municipalities) are, however, still quite rare. In this contribution, we analyse barriers and challenges for: (i) the development of climate change adaptation strategies on administrative level of individual municipalities in the Northwest region, Czech Republic; and (ii) implementation of adaptation measures into the decision-making processes. Based on participatory seminars with key stakeholders organised in pilot municipalities, it was shown that municipalities are (at least partly) able to cope with existing risks such as floods, but are not well-prepared for expected regionally "new" risks such as long lasting heat waves, insufficient water retention and flash floods. Linking the goals of adaptation strategy with urban planning seems to be challenging task but also potentially powerfull tool to implement specific adaptation measures. It emerged, that complicated ownership relations often cause obstacles for implementation of adaptation measures, highlighting the potential of stimulation and motivation tools from the side of the municipality. On the other hand, it was also shown that despite experiencing its negative impacts, climate change is often neglected or percepted as a marginal issue by some municipalities and developing adaptation strategy is considered needless, referring to another burning issues such as socioeconomic situation. The role of information campaigns and education of stakeholders as well as public regarding climate change and possible future climate change impacts is, therefore, considered highly important task.

Functional localization of a "Time Keeper" function separate from attentional resources and task strategy.

PubMed

Tracy, J I; Faro, S H; Mohamed, F B; Pinsk, M; Pinus, A

2000-03-01

The functional neuroanatomy of time estimation has not been well-documented. This research investigated the fMRI measured brain response to an explicit, prospective time interval production (TIP) task. The study tested for the presence of brain activity reflecting a primary time keeper function, distinct from the brain systems involved either in conscious strategies to monitor time or attentional resource and other cognitive processes to accomplish the task. In the TIP task participants were given a time interval and asked to indicate when it elapsed. Two control tasks (counting forwards, backwards) were administered, in addition to a dual task format of the TIP task. Whole brain images were collected at 1.5 Tesla. Analyses (n = 6) yielded a statistical parametric map (SPM ¿z¿) reflecting time keeping and not strategy (counting, number manipulation) or attention resource utilization. Additional SPM ¿z¿s involving activation associated with the accuracy and magnitude the of time estimation response are presented. Results revealed lateral cerebellar and inferior temporal lobe activation were associated with primary time keeping. Behavioral data provided evidence that the procedures for the explicit time judgements did not occur automatically and utilized controlled processes. Activation sites associated with accuracy, magnitude, and the dual task provided indications of the other structures involved in time estimation that implemented task components related to controlled processing. The data are consistent with prior proposals that the cerebellum is a repository of codes for time processing, but also implicate temporal lobe structures for this type of time estimation task. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Robotics and neuroscience: a rhythmic interaction.

PubMed

Ronsse, Renaud; Lefèvre, Philippe; Sepulchre, Rodolphe

2008-05-01

At the crossing between motor control neuroscience and robotics system theory, the paper presents a rhythmic experiment that is amenable both to handy laboratory implementation and simple mathematical modeling. The experiment is based on an impact juggling task, requiring the coordination of two upper-limb effectors and some phase-locking with the trajectories of one or several juggled objects. We describe the experiment, its implementation and the mathematical model used for the analysis. Our underlying research focuses on the role of sensory feedback in rhythmic tasks. In a robotic implementation of our experiment, we study the minimum feedback that is required to achieve robust control. A limited source of feedback, measuring only the impact times, is shown to give promising results. A second field of investigation concerns the human behavior in the same impact juggling task. We study how a variation of the tempo induces a transition between two distinct control strategies with different sensory feedback requirements. Analogies and differences between the robotic and human behaviors are obviously of high relevance in such a flexible setup.

Bringing automatic stereotyping under control: implementation intentions as efficient means of thought control.

PubMed

Stewart, Brandon D; Payne, B Keith

2008-10-01

The evidence for whether intentional control strategies can reduce automatic stereotyping is mixed. Therefore, the authors tested the utility of implementation intentions--specific plans linking a behavioral opportunity to a specific response--in reducing automatic bias. In three experiments, automatic stereotyping was reduced when participants made an intention to think specific counterstereotypical thoughts whenever they encountered a Black individual. The authors used two implicit tasks and process dissociation analysis, which allowed them to separate contributions of automatic and controlled thinking to task performance. Of importance, the reduction in stereotyping was driven by a change in automatic stereotyping and not controlled thinking. This benefit was acquired with little practice and generalized to novel faces. Thus, implementation intentions may be an effective and efficient means for controlling automatic aspects of thought.

Computational strategies for three-dimensional flow simulations on distributed computer systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sankar, Lakshmi N.; Weed, Richard A.

1995-01-01

This research effort is directed towards an examination of issues involved in porting large computational fluid dynamics codes in use within the industry to a distributed computing environment. This effort addresses strategies for implementing the distributed computing in a device independent fashion and load balancing. A flow solver called TEAM presently in use at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company was acquired to start this effort. The following tasks were completed: (1) The TEAM code was ported to a number of distributed computing platforms including a cluster of HP workstations located in the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech; a cluster of DEC Alpha Workstations in the Graphics visualization lab located at Georgia Tech; a cluster of SGI workstations located at NASA Ames Research Center; and an IBM SP-2 system located at NASA ARC. (2) A number of communication strategies were implemented. Specifically, the manager-worker strategy and the worker-worker strategy were tested. (3) A variety of load balancing strategies were investigated. Specifically, the static load balancing, task queue balancing and the Crutchfield algorithm were coded and evaluated. (4) The classical explicit Runge-Kutta scheme in the TEAM solver was replaced with an LU implicit scheme. And (5) the implicit TEAM-PVM solver was extensively validated through studies of unsteady transonic flow over an F-5 wing, undergoing combined bending and torsional motion. These investigations are documented in extensive detail in the dissertation, 'Computational Strategies for Three-Dimensional Flow Simulations on Distributed Computing Systems', enclosed as an appendix.

Computational strategies for three-dimensional flow simulations on distributed computer systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sankar, Lakshmi N.; Weed, Richard A.

1995-08-01

This research effort is directed towards an examination of issues involved in porting large computational fluid dynamics codes in use within the industry to a distributed computing environment. This effort addresses strategies for implementing the distributed computing in a device independent fashion and load balancing. A flow solver called TEAM presently in use at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company was acquired to start this effort. The following tasks were completed: (1) The TEAM code was ported to a number of distributed computing platforms including a cluster of HP workstations located in the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech; a cluster of DEC Alpha Workstations in the Graphics visualization lab located at Georgia Tech; a cluster of SGI workstations located at NASA Ames Research Center; and an IBM SP-2 system located at NASA ARC. (2) A number of communication strategies were implemented. Specifically, the manager-worker strategy and the worker-worker strategy were tested. (3) A variety of load balancing strategies were investigated. Specifically, the static load balancing, task queue balancing and the Crutchfield algorithm were coded and evaluated. (4) The classical explicit Runge-Kutta scheme in the TEAM solver was replaced with an LU implicit scheme. And (5) the implicit TEAM-PVM solver was extensively validated through studies of unsteady transonic flow over an F-5 wing, undergoing combined bending and torsional motion. These investigations are documented in extensive detail in the dissertation, 'Computational Strategies for Three-Dimensional Flow Simulations on Distributed Computing Systems', enclosed as an appendix.

Challenges and leadership strategies for managers of nurse practitioners.

PubMed

Reay, Trish; Golden-Biddle, Karen; Germann, Kathy

2003-11-01

The aim of this paper is to report on the findings from our research into the recent introduction of nurse practitioners in Alberta, Canada. Through an organizational research perspective, we identify the critical role of health care managers in developing a sustainable nurse practitioner role. Previous literature has focused on nurse practitioners themselves as the key factor in their integration into the health care system. Although they are qualified and organizationally well placed, managers of nurse practitioners have been overlooked as a critical part of implementation strategies. We interviewed 25 nurse practitioners and seven of their managers. Through our data analysis we identified three major challenges for managers: (1) clarifying the reallocation of tasks; (2) managing altered working relationships within the team; (3) continuing to manage the team in an evolving situation. Associated with these challenges, we propose leadership strategies that managers may find useful as they work through the consequences of introducing the nurse practitioner role. These strategies are: * encourage all team members to sort out 'who does what'; * ensure that task reallocation preserves job motivating properties; * give consideration to how tasks have been allocated when issues identified as 'personal conflict' arise; * pay attention to all perspectives of the working relationships within the team; * facilitate positive relationships between team members; * lead from a 'balcony' perspective; * work with the team to develop goals that are not over focused on the nurse practitioner; * regularly share with other managers the experiences and lessons learned in introducing nurse practitioners. For managers to be most effective, they need to address three challenges that are of a managerial, not clinical, nature. By implementing specific leadership strategies, managers of nurse practitioners can facilitate the introduction of the new role and improve its sustainability in health organizations.

A complex endeavour: an ethnographic study of the implementation of the Sepsis Six clinical care bundle.

PubMed

Tarrant, Carolyn; O'Donnell, Barbara; Martin, Graham; Bion, Julian; Hunter, Alison; Rooney, Kevin D

2016-11-16

Implementation of the 'Sepsis Six' clinical care bundle within an hour of recognition of sepsis is recommended as an approach to reduce mortality in patients with sepsis, but achieving reliable delivery of the bundle has proved challenging. There remains little understanding of the barriers to reliable implementation of bundle components. We examined frontline clinical practice in implementing the Sepsis Six. We conducted an ethnographic study in six hospitals participating in the Scottish Patient Safety Programme Sepsis collaborative. We conducted around 300 h of non-participant observation in emergency departments, acute medical receiving units and medical and surgical wards. We interviewed a purposive sample of 43 members of hospital staff. Data were analysed using a constant comparative approach. Implementation strategies to promote reliable use of the Sepsis Six primarily focused on education, engaging and motivating staff, and providing prompts for behaviour, along with efforts to ensure that equipment required was readily available. Although these strategies were successful in raising staff awareness of sepsis and engagement with implementation, our study identified that completing the bundle within an hour was not straightforward. Our emergent theory suggested that rather than being an apparently simple sequence of six steps, the Sepsis Six actually involved a complex trajectory comprising multiple interdependent tasks that required prioritisation and scheduling, and which was prone to problems of coordination and operational failures. Interventions that involved allocating specific roles and responsibilities for completing the Sepsis Six in ways that reduced the need for coordination and task switching, and the use of process mapping to identify system failures along the trajectory, could help mitigate against some of these problems. Implementation efforts that focus on individual behaviour change to improve uptake of the Sepsis Six should be supplemented by an understanding of the bundle as a complex trajectory of work in which improving reliability requires attention to coordination of workflow, as well as addressing the mundane problems of interruptions and operational failures that obstruct task completion.

Effects-based strategy development through center of gravity and target system analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, Christopher M.; Prendergast, Michael; Pioch, Nicholas; Jones, Eric K.; Graham, Stephen

2003-09-01

This paper describes an approach to effects-based planning in which a strategic-theater-level mission is refined into operational-level and ultimately tactical-level tasks and desired effects, informed by models of the expected enemy response at each level of abstraction. We describe a strategy development system that implements this approach and supports human-in-the-loop development of an effects-based plan. This system consists of plan authoring tools tightly integrated with a suite of center of gravity (COG) and target system analysis tools. A human planner employs the plan authoring tools to develop a hierarchy of tasks and desired effects. Upon invocation, the target system analysis tools use reduced-order models of enemy centers of gravity to select appropriate target set options for the achievement of desired effects, together with associated indicators for each option. The COG analysis tools also provide explicit models of the causal mechanisms linking tasks and desired effects to one another, and suggest appropriate observable indicators to guide ISR planning, execution monitoring, and campaign assessment. We are currently implementing the system described here as part of the AFRL-sponsored Effects Based Operations program.

Ontario's daily physical activity policy for elementary schools: is everything in place for success?

PubMed

Robertson-Wilson, Jennifer E; Lévesque, Lucie

2009-01-01

The development, implementation, and evaluation of policies may play an important role in promoting health behaviours such as physical activity. The Ontario Ministry of Education (OME) recently mandated Memorandum No. 138 requiring daily physical activity (DPA) for Ontario elementary students in grades one through eight. The purpose of this paper is to examine implementation strategies. Hogwood and Gunn's 10 preconditions for "perfect implementation" are used to examine publicly available Ministry DPA policy documents to assess whether these implementation strategies have been considered in the policy documents. Several preconditions (e.g., allocation of resources, task specification) appear to have been considered, however a number of preconditions (e.g., the sustainability of resources, extent to which the policy is valued, and evaluation plans) thought to be important require additional attention to ensure optimal DPA implementation. Additional reflection upon Hogwood and Gunn's implementation preconditions would, in our opinion, assist in facilitating optimal DPA implementation as per Memorandum No. 138.

Mapping evidence of interventions and strategies to bridge the gap in the implementation of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV programme policy in sub-Saharan countries: A scoping review.

PubMed

Ngidi, Wilbroda H; Naidoo, Joanne R; Ncama, Busisiwe P; Luvuno, Zamasomi P B; Mashamba-Thompson, Tivani P

2017-05-29

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV is a life-saving public health intervention. Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have made significant progress in the programme, but little is known about the strategies used by them to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV. To map evidence of strategies and interventions employed by SSA in bridging the implementation gap in the rapidly changing PMTCT of HIV programme policy. Electronic search of the databases MEDLINE, PubMed and SABINET for articles published in English between 2001 and August 2016. Key words included 'Sub-Saharan African countries', 'implementation strategies', 'interventions to bridge implementation gap', 'prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV' and 'closing implementation gap'. Of a total of 743 articles, 25 articles that met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Manual content analysis resulted in the identification of three categories of strategies: (1) health system (referral systems, integration of services, supportive leadership, systematic quality-improvement approaches that vigorously monitors programme performance); (2) health service delivery (task shifting, networking, shared platform for learning, local capacity building, supportive supervision); as well as (3) community-level strategies (community health workers, technology use - mHealth, family-centred approaches, male involvement, culturally appropriate interventions). There are strategies that exist in SSA countries. Future research should examine multifaceted scientific models to prioritise the highest impact and be evaluated for effectiveness and efficiency.

Affirmative Action: A Course for the Future. Affirmative Action Task Force for the Study "New Directions: African Americans in a Diversifying Nation."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Washington, DC.

A primary social dilemma today is that current strategies have led to the perception that affirmative action favors some population groups at the expense of others, that in a sense it uses one form of discrimination to combat another. It is essential to reconsider affirmative action strategies to implement those that are most appropriate for today…

Professional development in statistics, technology, and cognitively demanding tasks: classroom implementation and obstacles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foley, Gregory D.; Bakr Khoshaim, Heba; Alsaeed, Maha; Nihan Er, S.

2012-03-01

Attending professional development programmes can support teachers in applying new strategies for teaching mathematics and statistics. This study investigated (a) the extent to which the participants in a professional development programme subsequently used the techniques they had learned when teaching mathematics and statistics and (b) the obstacles they encountered in enacting cognitively demanding instructional tasks in their classrooms. The programme created an intellectual learning community among the participants and helped them gain confidence as teachers of statistics, and the students of participating teachers became actively engaged in deep mathematical thinking. The participants indicated, however, that time, availability of resources and students' prior achievement critically affected the implementation of cognitively demanding instructional activities.

Integrated corridor management I-15 San Diego, California : analysis plan.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-02-01

This AMS Analysis Plan for the I-15 Corridor outlines the various tasks associated with the application of the ICM AMS tools and strategies to this corridor in order to support benefit-cost assessment for the successful implementation of ICM. The rep...

Planning and Performance in Small Groups: Collective Implementation Intentions Enhance Group Goal Striving.

PubMed

Thürmer, J Lukas; Wieber, Frank; Gollwitzer, Peter M

2017-01-01

There are two key motivators to perform well in a group: making a contribution that (a) is crucial for the group (indispensability) and that (b) the other group members recognize (identifiability). We argue that indispensability promotes setting collective ("We") goals whereas identifiability induces individual ("I") goals. Although both goals may enhance performance, they should align with different strategies. Whereas pursuing collective goals should involve more cooperation, pursuing individual goals should involve less cooperation. Two experiments support this reasoning and show that planning out collective goals with collective implementation intentions (cIIs or "We-plans") relies on cooperation but planning out individual goals with individual implementation intentions (IIs or "I-plans") does not. In Experiment 1, three-member groups first formed a collective or an individual goal and then performed a first round of a physical persistence task. Groups then either formed a respective implementation intention (cII or II) or a control plan and then performed a second round of the task. Although groups with cIIs and IIs performed better on a physical persistence task than respective control groups, only cII groups interacted more cooperatively during task performance. To confirm the causal role of these interaction processes, Experiment 2 used the same persistence task and manipulated whether groups could communicate: When communication was hindered, groups with cIIs but not groups with IIs performed worse. Communication thus qualifies as a process making cIIs effective. The present research offers a psychology of action account to small group performance.

The challenge of transferring an implementation strategy from academia to the field: a process evaluation of local quality improvement collaboratives in Dutch primary care using the normalization process theory.

PubMed

Trietsch, Jasper; van Steenkiste, Ben; Hobma, Sjoerd; Frericks, Arnoud; Grol, Richard; Metsemakers, Job; van der Weijden, Trudy

2014-12-01

A quality improvement strategy consisting of comparative feedback and peer review embedded in available local quality improvement collaboratives proved to be effective in changing the test-ordering behaviour of general practitioners. However, implementing this strategy was problematic. We aimed for large-scale implementation of an adapted strategy covering both test ordering and prescribing performance. Because we failed to achieve large-scale implementation, the aim of this study was to describe and analyse the challenges of the transferring process. In a qualitative study 19 regional health officers, pharmacists, laboratory specialists and general practitioners were interviewed within 6 months after the transfer period. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and independently coded by two of the authors. The codes were matched to the dimensions of the normalization process theory. The general idea of the strategy was widely supported, but generating the feedback was more complex than expected and the need for external support after transfer of the strategy remained high because participants did not assume responsibility for the work and the distribution of resources that came with it. Evidence on effectiveness, a national infrastructure for these collaboratives and a general positive attitude were not sufficient for normalization. Thinking about managing large databases, responsibility for tasks and distribution of resources should start as early as possible when planning complex quality improvement strategies. Merely exploring the barriers and facilitators experienced in a preceding trial is not sufficient. Although multifaceted implementation strategies to change professional behaviour are attractive, their inherent complexity is also a pitfall for large-scale implementation. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

User Perceptions of the Implementation of an Electronic Medication Management System in a Paediatric Setting.

PubMed

Hardie, Rae-Anne; Baysari, Melissa T; Lake, Rebecca; Richardson, Lauren; McCullagh, Cheryl; Westbrook, Johanna I

2017-01-01

The roll-out of a hospital-wide electronic medication management system (eMMS) is a challenging task, requiring planning, coordination, communication and change management. This research aimed to explore the views of doctors and nurses about the strategy used to implement an eMM system in a paediatric hospital. Semi-structured interviews were performed during the first week of the implementation on each ward, and were then followed up three and six weeks post implementation. In total, 90 users (60 nurses and 30 doctors) were asked about their impressions of the implementation, as well as their perceptions of training and IT support. Qualitative thematic analysis was performed by three researchers. Most users perceived the implementation of the eMM to be positive overall. Although perceptions of the implementation process remained largely consistent across the six weeks, users identified several areas where improvements were needed, especially early in implementation, including resources, planning, roll-out strategy and training. These findings are useful for future implementations of eMM systems in paediatric hospitals.

A Study on the Model of Detecting the Variation of Geomagnetic Intensity Based on an Adapted Motion Strategy.

PubMed

Li, Hong; Liu, Mingyong; Liu, Kun; Zhang, Feihu

2017-12-25

By simulating the geomagnetic fields and analyzing thevariation of intensities, this paper presents a model for calculating the objective function ofan Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)geomagnetic navigation task. By investigating the biologically inspired strategies, the AUV successfullyreachesthe destination duringgeomagnetic navigation without using the priori geomagnetic map. Similar to the pattern of a flatworm, the proposed algorithm relies on a motion pattern to trigger a local searching strategy by detecting the real-time geomagnetic intensity. An adapted strategy is then implemented, which is biased on the specific target. The results show thereliabilityandeffectivenessofthe proposed algorithm.

Task shifting and integration of HIV care into primary care in South Africa: The development and content of the streamlining tasks and roles to expand treatment and care for HIV (STRETCH) intervention

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Task shifting and the integration of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care into primary care services have been identified as possible strategies for improving access to antiretroviral treatment (ART). This paper describes the development and content of an intervention involving these two strategies, as part of the Streamlining Tasks and Roles to Expand Treatment and Care for HIV (STRETCH) pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Methods: Developing the intervention The intervention was developed following discussions with senior management, clinicians, and clinic staff. These discussions revealed that the establishment of separate antiretroviral treatment services for HIV had resulted in problems in accessing care due to the large number of patients at ART clinics. The intervention developed therefore combined the shifting from doctors to nurses of prescriptions of antiretrovirals (ARVs) for uncomplicated patients and the stepwise integration of HIV care into primary care services. Results: Components of the intervention The intervention consisted of regulatory changes, training, and guidelines to support nurse ART prescription, local management teams, an implementation toolkit, and a flexible, phased introduction. Nurse supervisors were equipped to train intervention clinic nurses in ART prescription using outreach education and an integrated primary care guideline. Management teams were set up and a STRETCH coordinator was appointed to oversee the implementation process. Discussion Three important processes were used in developing and implementing this intervention: active participation of clinic staff and local and provincial management, educational outreach to train nurses in intervention sites, and an external facilitator to support all stages of the intervention rollout. The STRETCH trial is registered with Current Control Trials ISRCTN46836853. PMID:21810242

Proactive restoration: planning, implementation, and early results of silvicultural strategies for increasing resilience against gypsy moth infestation in upland oak forests on the Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky

Treesearch

Callie Schweitzer; Stacy L. Clark; Kurt W. Gottschalk; Jeff Stringer; Robbie Sitzlar

2014-01-01

Determining targets in forest restoration is a complicated task that can be facilitated by cooperative partnerships. Too often restoration plans are implemented after adverse events that cause widespread tree mortality, such as drought or insect outbreaks, have occurred. Reactive management precludes the use of preemptive management techniques that can result in more...

Safety Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halligan, Tom

2009-01-01

Colleges across the country are rising to the task by implementing safety programs, response strategies, and technologies intended to create a secure environment for teachers and students. Whether it is preparing and responding to a natural disaster, health emergency, or act of violence, more schools are making campus safety a top priority. At…

Assessment of candidate communications systems and technologies for use with intelligent transportation systems (ITS) : task D/E report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1997-11-01

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) require that states submit State Implementation Plans (SIPs) detailing strategies to improve air quality in nonattainment areas. This analysis first reviews the administrative procedures that states and the...

Fiscal year 1980-81 implementation plan in support of technical development and integration of sampling and aggregation procedures. [crop acreage estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The specific objectives of the FY 1980-81 tasks are: (1) further refinements to the weighted aggregation procedure; (2) improved approaches for estimating within-stratum variance; (3) more intensive investigation of alternative sampling strategies such as full-frame sampling strategy, and (4) further developments in regard to a simulated approach for assessing the performance of the overall designed sampling and aggregation system.

Managing implementation: roles of line managers, senior managers, and human resource professionals in an occupational health intervention.

PubMed

Hasson, Henna; Villaume, Karin; von Thiele Schwarz, Ulrica; Palm, Kristina

2014-01-01

To contrast line managers', senior managers', and (human resource) HR professionals' descriptions of their roles, tasks, and possibilities to perform them during the implementation of an occupational health intervention. Interviews with line managers (n = 13), senior managers (n = 7), and HR professionals (n = 9) 6 months after initiation of an occupational health intervention at nine organizations. The groups' roles were described coherently, except for the HR professionals. These roles were seldom performed in practice, and two main reasons appeared: use of individuals' engagement rather than an implementation strategy, and lack of integration of the intervention with other stakeholders and organizational processes. Evaluation of stakeholders' perceptions of each other's and their own roles is important, especially concerning HR professionals. Clear role descriptions and implementation strategies, and aligning an intervention to organizational processes, are crucial for efficient intervention management.

Guam Strategic Energy Plan

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

Conrad, M. D.

2013-07-01

Describes various energy strategies available to Guam to meet the territory's goal of diversifying fuel sources and reducing fossil energy consumption 20% by 2020.The information presented in this strategic energy plan will be used by the Guam Energy Task Force to develop an energy action plan. Available energy strategies include policy changes, education and outreach, reducing energy consumption at federal facilities, and expanding the use of a range of energy technologies, including buildings energy efficiency and conservation, renewable electricity production, and alternative transportation. The strategies are categorized based on the time required to implement them.

AVCS Simulator Test Plan and Design Guide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shelden, Stephen

2001-01-01

Internal document for communication of AVCS direction and documentation of simulator functionality. Discusses methods for AVCS simulation evaluation of pilot functions, implementation strategy of varying functional representation of pilot tasks (by instantiations of a base AVCS to reasonably approximate the interface of various vehicles -- e.g. Altair, GlobalHawk, etc.).

Educating African American Males: A Dream Deferred.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milwaukee Public Schools, WI.

This document presents recommendations of the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) African American Male Task Force (MAAMTF), which reviewed from January through April of 1990 current educational efforts and recommended strategies by which schools could better address African American males' needs. The MAAMTF recommendations are to be implemented in two phases.…

Professional Development in Statistics, Technology, and Cognitively Demanding Tasks: Classroom Implementation and Obstacles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, Gregory D.; Khoshaim, Heba Bakr; Alsaeed, Maha; Er, S. Nihan

2012-01-01

Attending professional development programmes can support teachers in applying new strategies for teaching mathematics and statistics. This study investigated (a) the extent to which the participants in a professional development programme subsequently used the techniques they had learned when teaching mathematics and statistics and (b) the…

Institutional Advancement: A Marketing Perspective. Part I: A Proposal.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moriarty, Daniel F.

Strategies are proposed for the implementation of the marketing concept at Triton College. The report begins by describing the establishment and goals of the Marketing Task Force and goes on to define "institutional advancement," as a positive, progressive response to community educational needs, and "the marketing concept," as suggesting an…

Prince George's Community College Marketing Plan, 1981-1982.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engleberg, Isa N., Ed.; Leach, Ernest R., Ed.

Developed by the Marketing Task Force at Prince George's Community College (PGCC) in 1981, this report presents a plan which identifies educational service needs, recommends strategies for responding to those needs, and suggests a marketing approach. The report begins by providing background on the four-stage marketing process implemented during…

Making strategy: learning by doing.

PubMed

Christensen, C M

1997-01-01

Companies find it difficult to change strategy for many reasons, but one stands out: strategic thinking is not a core managerial competence at most companies. Executives hone their capabilities by tackling problems over and over again. Changing strategy, however, is not usually a task that they face repeatedly. Once companies have found a strategy that works, they want to use it, not change it. Consequently, most managers do not develop a competence in strategic thinking. This Manager's Tool Kit presents a three-stage method executives can use to conceive and implement a creative and coherent strategy themselves. The first stage is to identify and map the driving forces that the company needs to address. The process of mapping provides strategy-making teams with visual representations of team members' assumptions, those pictures, in turn, enable managers to achieve consensus in determining the driving forces. Once a senior management team has formulated a new strategy, it must align the strategy with the company's resource-allocation process to make implementation possible. Senior management teams can translate their strategy into action by using aggregate project planning. And management teams that link strategy and innovation through that planning process will develop a competence in implementing strategic change. The author guides the reader through the three stages of strategy making by examining the case of a manufacturing company that was losing ground to competitors. After mapping the driving forces, the company's senior managers were able to devise a new strategy that allowed the business to maintain a competitive advantage in its industry.

Telerobotic system performance measurement - Motivation and methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kondraske, George V.; Khoury, George J.

1992-01-01

A systems performance-based strategy for modeling and conducting experiments relevant to the design and performance characterization of telerobotic systems is described. A developmental testbed consisting of a distributed telerobotics network and initial efforts to implement the strategy described is presented. Consideration is given to the general systems performance theory (GSPT) to tackle human performance problems as a basis for: measurement of overall telerobotic system (TRS) performance; task decomposition; development of a generic TRS model; and the characterization of performance of subsystems comprising the generic model. GSPT employs a resource construct to model performance and resource economic principles to govern the interface of systems to tasks. It provides a comprehensive modeling/measurement strategy applicable to complex systems including both human and artificial components. Application is presented within the framework of a distributed telerobotics network as a testbed. Insight into the design of test protocols which elicit application-independent data is described.

The R-Shell approach - Using scheduling agents in complex distributed real-time systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Natarajan, Swaminathan; Zhao, Wei; Goforth, Andre

1993-01-01

Large, complex real-time systems such as space and avionics systems are extremely demanding in their scheduling requirements. The current OS design approaches are quite limited in the capabilities they provide for task scheduling. Typically, they simply implement a particular uniprocessor scheduling strategy and do not provide any special support for network scheduling, overload handling, fault tolerance, distributed processing, etc. Our design of the R-Shell real-time environment fcilitates the implementation of a variety of sophisticated but efficient scheduling strategies, including incorporation of all these capabilities. This is accomplished by the use of scheduling agents which reside in the application run-time environment and are responsible for coordinating the scheduling of the application.

Carrier Battle Group (CVBG) Homeporting in the Puget Sound Area, Washington State. Volume 1. Chapters 1-12.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-11-01

Various setting agents have been used to treat industrial wastes and flue gas desulfurization sludges. These include cement, lime, kiln dust, blast furnace...will determine the type of leachate control strategy that can be successfully implemented. Potential leachate control strategies include site selection...AND ADDRESS 10. PROGRAM ELEMENT, PROJECT, TASK same AREA & WORK UNIT NUMBERS 1I. CONTROLLING OFFICE NAME AND ADDRESS 12. REPORT DATE U.S. Army Corps

The strategy for improving water-quality monitoring in the United States; final report of the Intergovernmental Task Force on Monitoring Water Quality; technical appendices

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

1995-01-01

The Intergovernmental Task Force on Monitoring Water Quality (ITFM) prepared this report in collaboration with representatives of all levels of government and the private sector. The report recommends a strategy for nationwide water-quality monitoring and technical monitoring improvements to support sound water-quality decisionmaking. The strategy is intended to achieve a better return on public and private investments in monitoring, environmental protection, and natural resources management. It is also designed to expand the base of information useful to a variety of users at multiple geographic scales. Institutional and technical changes are needed to improve water-quality monitoring and to meet the full range of monitoring requirements. Monitoring must be incorporated as a critical element of program planning, implementation, and evaluation. The strategy includes recommendations in many key elements, such as the development of goal-oriented monitoring and indicators, institutional collaboration, and methods comparability. Initial actions have been taken to implement the strategy. Several Federal agencies have jointly purchased and shared remotely sensed land-cover information needed for water assessment. Major agency data systems are using common data-element names and reference tables that will ensure easy sharing of data. A number of States have held meetings with collectors of water information to initiate statewide monitoring strategies. New monitoring guidance has been developed for Federal water-quality grants to States. Many State offices have changed monitoring programs to place emphasis on priority watersheds and to improve assessment of water quality. As the competition increases for adequate supplies of clean water, concerns about public health and the environment escalate, and more demands are placed on the water information infrastructure. To meet these demands, the collaborative approach has already produced benefits, which will continue to grow as the recommendations are implemented

A Cognitive Modeling Approach to Strategy Formation in Dynamic Decision Making.

PubMed

Prezenski, Sabine; Brechmann, André; Wolff, Susann; Russwinkel, Nele

2017-01-01

Decision-making is a high-level cognitive process based on cognitive processes like perception, attention, and memory. Real-life situations require series of decisions to be made, with each decision depending on previous feedback from a potentially changing environment. To gain a better understanding of the underlying processes of dynamic decision-making, we applied the method of cognitive modeling on a complex rule-based category learning task. Here, participants first needed to identify the conjunction of two rules that defined a target category and later adapt to a reversal of feedback contingencies. We developed an ACT-R model for the core aspects of this dynamic decision-making task. An important aim of our model was that it provides a general account of how such tasks are solved and, with minor changes, is applicable to other stimulus materials. The model was implemented as a mixture of an exemplar-based and a rule-based approach which incorporates perceptual-motor and metacognitive aspects as well. The model solves the categorization task by first trying out one-feature strategies and then, as a result of repeated negative feedback, switching to two-feature strategies. Overall, this model solves the task in a similar way as participants do, including generally successful initial learning as well as reversal learning after the change of feedback contingencies. Moreover, the fact that not all participants were successful in the two learning phases is also reflected in the modeling data. However, we found a larger variance and a lower overall performance of the modeling data as compared to the human data which may relate to perceptual preferences or additional knowledge and rules applied by the participants. In a next step, these aspects could be implemented in the model for a better overall fit. In view of the large interindividual differences in decision performance between participants, additional information about the underlying cognitive processes from behavioral, psychobiological and neurophysiological data may help to optimize future applications of this model such that it can be transferred to other domains of comparable dynamic decision tasks.

A Cognitive Modeling Approach to Strategy Formation in Dynamic Decision Making

PubMed Central

Prezenski, Sabine; Brechmann, André; Wolff, Susann; Russwinkel, Nele

2017-01-01

Decision-making is a high-level cognitive process based on cognitive processes like perception, attention, and memory. Real-life situations require series of decisions to be made, with each decision depending on previous feedback from a potentially changing environment. To gain a better understanding of the underlying processes of dynamic decision-making, we applied the method of cognitive modeling on a complex rule-based category learning task. Here, participants first needed to identify the conjunction of two rules that defined a target category and later adapt to a reversal of feedback contingencies. We developed an ACT-R model for the core aspects of this dynamic decision-making task. An important aim of our model was that it provides a general account of how such tasks are solved and, with minor changes, is applicable to other stimulus materials. The model was implemented as a mixture of an exemplar-based and a rule-based approach which incorporates perceptual-motor and metacognitive aspects as well. The model solves the categorization task by first trying out one-feature strategies and then, as a result of repeated negative feedback, switching to two-feature strategies. Overall, this model solves the task in a similar way as participants do, including generally successful initial learning as well as reversal learning after the change of feedback contingencies. Moreover, the fact that not all participants were successful in the two learning phases is also reflected in the modeling data. However, we found a larger variance and a lower overall performance of the modeling data as compared to the human data which may relate to perceptual preferences or additional knowledge and rules applied by the participants. In a next step, these aspects could be implemented in the model for a better overall fit. In view of the large interindividual differences in decision performance between participants, additional information about the underlying cognitive processes from behavioral, psychobiological and neurophysiological data may help to optimize future applications of this model such that it can be transferred to other domains of comparable dynamic decision tasks. PMID:28824512

An Automated Summarization Assessment Algorithm for Identifying Summarizing Strategies

PubMed Central

Abdi, Asad; Idris, Norisma; Alguliyev, Rasim M.; Aliguliyev, Ramiz M.

2016-01-01

Background Summarization is a process to select important information from a source text. Summarizing strategies are the core cognitive processes in summarization activity. Since summarization can be important as a tool to improve comprehension, it has attracted interest of teachers for teaching summary writing through direct instruction. To do this, they need to review and assess the students' summaries and these tasks are very time-consuming. Thus, a computer-assisted assessment can be used to help teachers to conduct this task more effectively. Design/Results This paper aims to propose an algorithm based on the combination of semantic relations between words and their syntactic composition to identify summarizing strategies employed by students in summary writing. An innovative aspect of our algorithm lies in its ability to identify summarizing strategies at the syntactic and semantic levels. The efficiency of the algorithm is measured in terms of Precision, Recall and F-measure. We then implemented the algorithm for the automated summarization assessment system that can be used to identify the summarizing strategies used by students in summary writing. PMID:26735139

[The Effectiveness of a Strategy for the Flexible Management of Nursing Human Resources: A Pilot Study].

PubMed

Huang, Chung-I; Lu, Meei-Shiow

2017-12-01

The flexibility of a hospital's nursing-related human resource management policies affects the working willingness and retention of nurses. To explore the effectiveness of a flexible nursing-related human resource management strategy. This quasi-experimental research used a one group pretest-posttest design. Supervisors at participating hospitals attended the "Application of Flexible Nursing Human Resources Management Strategies" workshop, which introduced the related measures and assessed nurses' pretest satisfaction. After these measures were implemented at the participating hospitals, implementation-related problems were investigated and appropriate consultation was provided. The posttest was implemented after the end of the project. Data were collected from nurses at the participating hospitals who had served in their present hospital for more than three months. The participating hospitals were all nationally certified healthcare providers, including 13 medical centers, 17 regional hospitals, and 3 district hospitals. A total of nurses 2,810 nurses took the pretest and 2,437 took the posttest. The research instruments included the "Satisfaction with working conditions and system flexibility" scale and the "Flexible nursing human resource management strategies". The effectiveness of the implemented strategy was assessed using independent samples t-test and variance analysis. The result of implementing the flexible strategies shows that the total mean of pretest satisfaction (Likert 5 scores) was 3.47 (SD = 0.65), and the posttest satisfaction was 3.52 (SD = 0.65), with significant statistical differences in task, numerical, divisional, and leading flexibility. Due to the good implementation effectiveness, the authors strongly suggest that all of the participating hospitals continue to apply this strategic model to move toward a more flexible nursing system and work.

The integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Aldridge, Cameron L.; Berg, Ken; Boyd, Chad S.; Boyte, Stephen P.; Bradford, John B.; Brunson, Ed; Cissel, John H.; Conway, Courtney J.; Chalfoun, Anna D.; Chambers, Jeanne C.; Clark, Patrick; Coates, Peter S.; Crist, Michele R.; Davis, Dawn M.; DeCrappeo, Nicole; Deibert, Patricia A.; Doherty, Kevin E.; Evers, Louisa B.; Finch, Deborah M.; Finn, Sean P.; Germino, Matthew J.; Glenn, Nancy F.; Gucker, Corey; Hall, John A.; Hanser, Steven E.; Havlina, Douglas W.; Heinrichs, Julie; Heller, Matt; Homer, Collin G.; Hunter, Molly E.; Jacobs, Ruth W.; Karl, Jason W.; Kearney, Richard; Kemp, Susan K; Kilkenny, Francis F.; Knick, Steven T.; Launchbaugh, Karen; Manier, Daniel J.; Mayer, Kenneth E.; Meyer, Susan E.; Monroe, Adrian; MontBlanc, Eugénie; Newingham, Beth A.; Pellant, Michael L.; Phillips, Susan L.; Pilliod, David S.; Ricca, Mark A.; Richardson, Bryce A.; Rose, Jeffrey A.; Shaw, Nancy; Sheley, Roger L.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Wiechman , Lief A.; Wylie, Bruce K.

2016-01-01

The Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy (hereafter Strategy, DOI 2015) outlined the need for coordinated, science-based adaptive management to achieve long-term protection, conservation, and restoration of the sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem. A key component of this management approach is the identification of knowledge gaps that limit implementation of effective strategies to meet current management challenges. The tasks and actions identified in the Strategy address several broad topics related to management of the sagebrush ecosystem. This science plan is organized around these topics and specifically focuses on fire, invasive plant species and their effects on altering fire regimes, restoration, sagebrush and greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), and climate and weather.

Mapping evidence of interventions and strategies to bridge the gap in the implementation of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV programme policy in sub-Saharan countries: A scoping review

PubMed Central

Naidoo, Joanne R.

2017-01-01

Background Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV is a life-saving public health intervention. Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have made significant progress in the programme, but little is known about the strategies used by them to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Aim To map evidence of strategies and interventions employed by SSA in bridging the implementation gap in the rapidly changing PMTCT of HIV programme policy. Methods Electronic search of the databases MEDLINE, PubMed and SABINET for articles published in English between 2001 and August 2016. Key words included ‘Sub-Saharan African countries’, ‘implementation strategies’, ‘interventions to bridge implementation gap’, ‘prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV’ and ‘closing implementation gap’. Results Of a total of 743 articles, 25 articles that met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Manual content analysis resulted in the identification of three categories of strategies: (1) health system (referral systems, integration of services, supportive leadership, systematic quality-improvement approaches that vigorously monitors programme performance); (2) health service delivery (task shifting, networking, shared platform for learning, local capacity building, supportive supervision); as well as (3) community-level strategies (community health workers, technology use – mHealth, family-centred approaches, male involvement, culturally appropriate interventions). Conclusion There are strategies that exist in SSA countries. Future research should examine multifaceted scientific models to prioritise the highest impact and be evaluated for effectiveness and efficiency. PMID:28582993

Design and Analysis of Self-Adapted Task Scheduling Strategies in Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Guo, Wenzhong; Xiong, Naixue; Chao, Han-Chieh; Hussain, Sajid; Chen, Guolong

2011-01-01

In a wireless sensor network (WSN), the usage of resources is usually highly related to the execution of tasks which consume a certain amount of computing and communication bandwidth. Parallel processing among sensors is a promising solution to provide the demanded computation capacity in WSNs. Task allocation and scheduling is a typical problem in the area of high performance computing. Although task allocation and scheduling in wired processor networks has been well studied in the past, their counterparts for WSNs remain largely unexplored. Existing traditional high performance computing solutions cannot be directly implemented in WSNs due to the limitations of WSNs such as limited resource availability and the shared communication medium. In this paper, a self-adapted task scheduling strategy for WSNs is presented. First, a multi-agent-based architecture for WSNs is proposed and a mathematical model of dynamic alliance is constructed for the task allocation problem. Then an effective discrete particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for the dynamic alliance (DPSO-DA) with a well-designed particle position code and fitness function is proposed. A mutation operator which can effectively improve the algorithm’s ability of global search and population diversity is also introduced in this algorithm. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed solution can achieve significant better performance than other algorithms. PMID:22163971

Testing the Model-Observer Similarity Hypothesis with Text-Based Worked Examples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoogerheide, Vincent; Loyens, Sofie M. M.; Jadi, Fedora; Vrins, Anna; van Gog, Tamara

2017-01-01

Example-based learning is a very effective and efficient instructional strategy for novices. It can be implemented using text-based worked examples that provide a written demonstration of how to perform a task, or (video) modelling examples in which an instructor (the "model") provides a demonstration. The model-observer similarity (MOS)…

Adaptations of School Effectiveness Research to Practice: A Case Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guzzetti, Barbara J.

This case study of a Colorado school district sought to assess the process and outcomes of administrative leadership in implementing school effectiveness research on time-on-task classroom strategies. The study examines the interrelationship of conditions bearing upon the change effort and focuses on those changes affecting the district's…

Lacking Capacity? How to Work Smart in Teacher Evaluation. Ask the Team

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cushing, Ellen

2013-01-01

Capacity is a real and pressing challenge for educators tasked with implementing robust evaluation systems that include multiple measures of performance. In response to questions from the field, the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders has gathered emerging strategies from policymakers and practitioners who are grappling with capacity challenges…

Voluntary medical male circumcision: translating research into the rapid expansion of services in Kenya, 2008-2011.

PubMed

Mwandi, Zebedee; Murphy, Anne; Reed, Jason; Chesang, Kipruto; Njeuhmeli, Emmanuel; Agot, Kawango; Llewellyn, Emma; Kirui, Charles; Serrem, Kennedy; Abuya, Isaac; Loolpapit, Mores; Mbayaki, Regina; Kiriro, Ndungu; Cherutich, Peter; Muraguri, Nicholas; Motoku, John; Kioko, Jack; Knight, Nancy; Bock, Naomi

2011-11-01

Since the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS recommended implementation of medical male circumcision (MC) as part of HIV prevention in areas with low MC and high HIV prevalence rates in 2007, the government of Kenya has developed a strategy to circumcise 80% of uncircumcised men within five years. To facilitate the quick translation of research to practice, a national MC task force was formed in 2007, a medical MC policy was implemented in early 2008, and Nyanza Province, the region with the highest HIV burden and low rates of circumcision, was prioritized for services under the direction of a provincial voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) task force. The government's early and continuous engagement with community leaders/elders, politicians, youth, and women's groups has led to the rapid endorsement and acceptance of VMMC. In addition, several innovative approaches have helped to optimize VMMC scale-up. Since October 2008, the Kenyan VMMC program has circumcised approximately 290,000 men, mainly in Nyanza Province, an accomplishment made possible through a combination of governmental leadership, a documented implementation strategy, and the adoption of appropriate and innovative approaches. Kenya's success provides a model for others planning VMMC scale-up programs.

Information Technology Strategies for Honor Society and Organization Membership Retention in Online Nursing Programs.

PubMed

Hopkins, Emily E; Wasco, Jennifer J

Membership retention in an honor society or organization is of utmost importance for sustainability. However, retaining members in organizations that serve online education nursing students can be a challenging task. Understanding the importance of creating a sense of community to promote retention within an honor society chapter, nursing faculty at a small private university implemented different online approaches. This article highlights successful information technology strategies to promote membership retention in organizations for online nursing students.

A Study of Kofi Annan’s Leadership as the United Nations Secretary General and His Impact on the Implementation and Success of a Sub-Saharan Africa Agenda

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-11

some tasks that involve strict adherence to safety demand directive leadership behavior. When a leader wishes to introduce a new marketing strategy , it...NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR( S ) Major Yoram M. Ngwira, Malawi Defence Force 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK...UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME( S ) AND ADDRESS(ES) U.S. Army Command and General Staff College ATTN: ATZL-SWD-GD Fort Leavenworth

Use of task-shifting to rapidly scale-up HIV treatment services: experiences from Lusaka, Zambia

PubMed Central

Morris, Mary B; Chapula, Bushimbwa Tambatamba; Chi, Benjamin H; Mwango, Albert; Chi, Harmony F; Mwanza, Joyce; Manda, Handson; Bolton, Carolyn; Pankratz, Debra S; Stringer, Jeffrey SA; Reid, Stewart E

2009-01-01

The World Health Organization advocates task-shifting, the process of delegating clinical care functions from more specialized to less specialized health workers, as a strategy to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. However, there is a dearth of literature describing task shifting in sub-Saharan Africa, where services for antiretroviral therapy (ART) have scaled up rapidly in the face of generalized human resource crises. As part of ART services expansion in Lusaka, Zambia, we implemented a comprehensive task-shifting program among existing health providers and community-based workers. Training begins with didactic sessions targeting specialized skill sets. This is followed by an intensive period of practical mentorship, where providers are paired with trainers before working independently. We provide on-going quality assessment using key indicators of clinical care quality at each site. Program performance is reviewed with clinic-based staff quarterly. When problems are identified, clinic staff members design and implement specific interventions to address targeted areas. From 2005 to 2007, we trained 516 health providers in adult HIV treatment; 270 in pediatric HIV treatment; 341 in adherence counseling; 91 in a specialty nurse "triage" course, and 93 in an intensive clinical mentorship program. On-going quality assessment demonstrated improvement across clinical care quality indicators, despite rapidly growing patient volumes. Our task-shifting strategy was designed to address current health care worker needs and to sustain ART scale-up activities. While this approach has been successful, long-term solutions to the human resource crisis are also urgently needed to expand the number of providers and to slow staff migration out of the region. PMID:19134202

Lessons learned from new construction utility demand side management programs and their implications for implementing building energy codes

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

Wise, B.K.; Hughes, K.R.; Danko, S.L.

1994-07-01

This report was prepared for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Codes and Standards by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) through its Building Energy Standards Program (BESP). The purpose of this task was to identify demand-side management (DSM) strategies for new construction that utilities have adopted or developed to promote energy-efficient design and construction. PNL conducted a survey of utilities and used the information gathered to extrapolate lessons learned and to identify evolving trends in utility new-construction DSM programs. The ultimate goal of the task is to identify opportunities where states might work collaboratively with utilities to promotemore » the adoption, implementation, and enforcement of energy-efficient building energy codes.« less

DEVELOPMENT OF AN ANTIFOAM TRACKING SYSTEM AS AN OPTION TO SUPPORT THE MELTER OFF-GAS FLAMMABILITY CONTROL STRATEGY AT THE DWPF

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

Edwards, T.; Lambert, D.

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has been working with the Savannah River Remediation (SRR) Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) in the development and implementation of an additional strategy for confidently satisfying the flammability controls for DWPF’s melter operation. An initial strategy for implementing the operational constraints associated with flammability control in DWPF was based upon an analytically determined carbon concentration from antifoam. Due to the conservative error structure associated with the analytical approach, its implementation has significantly reduced the operating window for processing and has led to recurrent Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) and Melter Feed Tank (MFT) remediation. Tomore » address the adverse operating impact of the current implementation strategy, SRR issued a Technical Task Request (TTR) to SRNL requesting the development and documentation of an alternate strategy for evaluating the carbon contribution from antifoam. The proposed strategy presented in this report was developed under the guidance of a Task Technical and Quality Assurance Plan (TTQAP) and involves calculating the carbon concentration from antifoam based upon the actual mass of antifoam added to the process assuming 100% retention. The mass of antifoam in the Additive Mix Feed Tank (AMFT), in the Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT), and in the SME is tracked by mass balance as part of this strategy. As these quantities are monitored, the random and bias uncertainties affecting their values are also maintained and accounted for. This report documents: 1) the development of an alternate implementation strategy and associated equations describing the carbon concentration from antifoam in each SME batch derived from the actual amount of antifoam introduced into the AMFT, SRAT, and SME during the processing of the batch. 2) the equations and error structure for incorporating the proposed strategy into melter off-gas flammability assessments. Sample calculations of the system are also included in this report. Please note that the system developed and documented in this report is intended as an alternative to the current, analytically-driven system being utilized by DWPF; the proposed system is not intended to eliminate the current system. Also note that the system developed in this report to track antifoam mass in the AMFT, SRAT, and SME will be applicable beyond just Sludge Batch 8. While the model used to determine acceptability of the SME product with respect to melter off-gas flammability controls must be reassessed for each change in sludge batch, the antifoam mass tracking methodology is independent of sludge batch composition and as such will be transferable to future sludge batches.« less

Lack of strategy holding: a new pattern of learning deficit in cortical dementias.

PubMed

Benedet, María J; Lauro-Grotto, Rosapia; Giotti, Chiara

2009-09-01

The aim of this study was to demonstrate, by means of systematic research and qualitative data analysis, the presence, among a group of patients with fronto-temporal lobar degeneration of a subgroup that, at variance with the standard pattern, is able to devise and implement learning strategies, but appear impaired at carrying them on from a trial to the next. In order to provide evidence of the existence of a group of patients showing this type of learning disability, that we refer to as lack of strategy holding, we performed a stepwise hierarchical cluster analysis of a set of variables whose scores were selected from the subject's performance at the Test de Aprendizaje Verbal España-Complutense. Results substantiate the segregation of three groups of subjects characterized by the following patterns of performance: normal elderly individuals, who show a quite preserved ability to discover a semantic strategy along the learning trials and to carry it from a trial to the next, patients presenting with a deficit in implementing semantic learning strategies and possibly use of serial and/or phonological strategies to perform the task, and to patients who, although able to generate and implement appropriate learning strategies, appear unable to carry them over the learning trials. The presence of this new pattern raises a few questions that seem worth trying to address.

Assessing the flexibility of research-based instructional strategies: Implementing tutorials in introductory physics in the lecture environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kryjevskaia, Mila; Boudreaux, Andrew; Heins, Dustin

2014-03-01

Materials from Tutorials in Introductory Physics, originally designed and implemented by the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington, were used in modified form as interactive lectures under conditions significantly different from those suggested by the curriculum developers. Student learning was assessed using tasks drawn from the physics education research literature. Use of tutorials in the interactive lecture format yielded gains in student understanding comparable to those obtained through the canonical tutorial implementation at the University of Washington, suggesting that student engagement with the intellectual steps laid out in the tutorials, rather than the specific strategies used in facilitating such engagement, plays the central role in promoting student learning. We describe the implementation details and assessment of student learning for two different tutorials: one focused on mechanical waves, used at North Dakota State University, and one on Galilean relativity, used at Western Washington University. Also discussed are factors that may limit the generalizability of the results.

Optimal policy for value-based decision-making.

PubMed

Tajima, Satohiro; Drugowitsch, Jan; Pouget, Alexandre

2016-08-18

For decades now, normative theories of perceptual decisions, and their implementation as drift diffusion models, have driven and significantly improved our understanding of human and animal behaviour and the underlying neural processes. While similar processes seem to govern value-based decisions, we still lack the theoretical understanding of why this ought to be the case. Here, we show that, similar to perceptual decisions, drift diffusion models implement the optimal strategy for value-based decisions. Such optimal decisions require the models' decision boundaries to collapse over time, and to depend on the a priori knowledge about reward contingencies. Diffusion models only implement the optimal strategy under specific task assumptions, and cease to be optimal once we start relaxing these assumptions, by, for example, using non-linear utility functions. Our findings thus provide the much-needed theory for value-based decisions, explain the apparent similarity to perceptual decisions, and predict conditions under which this similarity should break down.

Optimal policy for value-based decision-making

PubMed Central

Tajima, Satohiro; Drugowitsch, Jan; Pouget, Alexandre

2016-01-01

For decades now, normative theories of perceptual decisions, and their implementation as drift diffusion models, have driven and significantly improved our understanding of human and animal behaviour and the underlying neural processes. While similar processes seem to govern value-based decisions, we still lack the theoretical understanding of why this ought to be the case. Here, we show that, similar to perceptual decisions, drift diffusion models implement the optimal strategy for value-based decisions. Such optimal decisions require the models' decision boundaries to collapse over time, and to depend on the a priori knowledge about reward contingencies. Diffusion models only implement the optimal strategy under specific task assumptions, and cease to be optimal once we start relaxing these assumptions, by, for example, using non-linear utility functions. Our findings thus provide the much-needed theory for value-based decisions, explain the apparent similarity to perceptual decisions, and predict conditions under which this similarity should break down. PMID:27535638

Development and tuning of an original search engine for patent libraries in medicinal chemistry.

PubMed

Pasche, Emilie; Gobeill, Julien; Kreim, Olivier; Oezdemir-Zaech, Fatma; Vachon, Therese; Lovis, Christian; Ruch, Patrick

2014-01-01

The large increase in the size of patent collections has led to the need of efficient search strategies. But the development of advanced text-mining applications dedicated to patents of the biomedical field remains rare, in particular to address the needs of the pharmaceutical & biotech industry, which intensively uses patent libraries for competitive intelligence and drug development. We describe here the development of an advanced retrieval engine to search information in patent collections in the field of medicinal chemistry. We investigate and combine different strategies and evaluate their respective impact on the performance of the search engine applied to various search tasks, which covers the putatively most frequent search behaviours of intellectual property officers in medical chemistry: 1) a prior art search task; 2) a technical survey task; and 3) a variant of the technical survey task, sometimes called known-item search task, where a single patent is targeted. The optimal tuning of our engine resulted in a top-precision of 6.76% for the prior art search task, 23.28% for the technical survey task and 46.02% for the variant of the technical survey task. We observed that co-citation boosting was an appropriate strategy to improve prior art search tasks, while IPC classification of queries was improving retrieval effectiveness for technical survey tasks. Surprisingly, the use of the full body of the patent was always detrimental for search effectiveness. It was also observed that normalizing biomedical entities using curated dictionaries had simply no impact on the search tasks we evaluate. The search engine was finally implemented as a web-application within Novartis Pharma. The application is briefly described in the report. We have presented the development of a search engine dedicated to patent search, based on state of the art methods applied to patent corpora. We have shown that a proper tuning of the system to adapt to the various search tasks clearly increases the effectiveness of the system. We conclude that different search tasks demand different information retrieval engines' settings in order to yield optimal end-user retrieval.

Development and tuning of an original search engine for patent libraries in medicinal chemistry

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The large increase in the size of patent collections has led to the need of efficient search strategies. But the development of advanced text-mining applications dedicated to patents of the biomedical field remains rare, in particular to address the needs of the pharmaceutical & biotech industry, which intensively uses patent libraries for competitive intelligence and drug development. Methods We describe here the development of an advanced retrieval engine to search information in patent collections in the field of medicinal chemistry. We investigate and combine different strategies and evaluate their respective impact on the performance of the search engine applied to various search tasks, which covers the putatively most frequent search behaviours of intellectual property officers in medical chemistry: 1) a prior art search task; 2) a technical survey task; and 3) a variant of the technical survey task, sometimes called known-item search task, where a single patent is targeted. Results The optimal tuning of our engine resulted in a top-precision of 6.76% for the prior art search task, 23.28% for the technical survey task and 46.02% for the variant of the technical survey task. We observed that co-citation boosting was an appropriate strategy to improve prior art search tasks, while IPC classification of queries was improving retrieval effectiveness for technical survey tasks. Surprisingly, the use of the full body of the patent was always detrimental for search effectiveness. It was also observed that normalizing biomedical entities using curated dictionaries had simply no impact on the search tasks we evaluate. The search engine was finally implemented as a web-application within Novartis Pharma. The application is briefly described in the report. Conclusions We have presented the development of a search engine dedicated to patent search, based on state of the art methods applied to patent corpora. We have shown that a proper tuning of the system to adapt to the various search tasks clearly increases the effectiveness of the system. We conclude that different search tasks demand different information retrieval engines' settings in order to yield optimal end-user retrieval. PMID:24564220

Efficient estimation of the maximum metabolic productivity of batch systems

DOE PAGES

St. John, Peter C.; Crowley, Michael F.; Bomble, Yannick J.

2017-01-31

Production of chemicals from engineered organisms in a batch culture involves an inherent trade-off between productivity, yield, and titer. Existing strategies for strain design typically focus on designing mutations that achieve the highest yield possible while maintaining growth viability. While these methods are computationally tractable, an optimum productivity could be achieved by a dynamic strategy in which the intracellular division of resources is permitted to change with time. New methods for the design and implementation of dynamic microbial processes, both computational and experimental, have therefore been explored to maximize productivity. However, solving for the optimal metabolic behavior under the assumptionmore » that all fluxes in the cell are free to vary is a challenging numerical task. Here, previous studies have therefore typically focused on simpler strategies that are more feasible to implement in practice, such as the time-dependent control of a single flux or control variable.« less

The role of social science in sucessfully implementing watershed management strategies

Treesearch

Kristin Floress; Kofi Akamani; Kathleen E. Halvorsen; Andrew T. Kozich; Mae Davenport

2015-01-01

Successful watershed management and changes in water quality conditions are dependent upon changes in human behaviors. Those tasked with managing watersheds and other natural resources often assume that people are not acting to protect or restore their resources because they lack the necessary knowledge and understanding. However, individual behaviors are impacted by a...

Tasks of Technical and Public Policy Experts in Educational R&D.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Short, Edmund C.

In order to develop and implement new governmental policies in educational research and development (R&D) which meet the needs of R&D specialists and the concerns of the public, it is important to understand the complexity of the research-development-knowledge utilization cycle and to develop a strategy which serves the public interest but…

Analyzing the Correlation between Data Usage and Student Performance on the Missouri Assessment Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Melissa A.

2012-01-01

School districts are charged with the task of improving standardized test scores and closing the gaps between specific groups of students. Numerous programs, school improvement strategies, changes in instruction and leadership have been implemented to close the gap. Data are becoming more abundant at the state, district, and school levels. Many…

Building Character through Community Service: Strategies to Implement the Missing Element in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rizzo, Margaret; Brown, Joyce

2006-01-01

Developing a community service project for middle school students can be a daunting task. The sheer number of contacts necessary for the project to be successful can be overwhelming. This manual will provide materials and guidance to simplify this process and ensure its success. Included in this workbook are sample letters, worksheets, lesson…

Simulation of networks of spiking neurons: A review of tools and strategies

PubMed Central

Brette, Romain; Rudolph, Michelle; Carnevale, Ted; Hines, Michael; Beeman, David; Bower, James M.; Diesmann, Markus; Morrison, Abigail; Goodman, Philip H.; Harris, Frederick C.; Zirpe, Milind; Natschläger, Thomas; Pecevski, Dejan; Ermentrout, Bard; Djurfeldt, Mikael; Lansner, Anders; Rochel, Olivier; Vieville, Thierry; Muller, Eilif; Davison, Andrew P.; El Boustani, Sami

2009-01-01

We review different aspects of the simulation of spiking neural networks. We start by reviewing the different types of simulation strategies and algorithms that are currently implemented. We next review the precision of those simulation strategies, in particular in cases where plasticity depends on the exact timing of the spikes. We overview different simulators and simulation environments presently available (restricted to those freely available, open source and documented). For each simulation tool, its advantages and pitfalls are reviewed, with an aim to allow the reader to identify which simulator is appropriate for a given task. Finally, we provide a series of benchmark simulations of different types of networks of spiking neurons, including Hodgkin–Huxley type, integrate-and-fire models, interacting with current-based or conductance-based synapses, using clock-driven or event-driven integration strategies. The same set of models are implemented on the different simulators, and the codes are made available. The ultimate goal of this review is to provide a resource to facilitate identifying the appropriate integration strategy and simulation tool to use for a given modeling problem related to spiking neural networks. PMID:17629781

Linking Federal, State, and Local Adaptation Strategies in New York (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenzweig, C.

2010-12-01

New York City and New York State are leaders in adaptation in the U.S. In 2008 Mayor Bloomberg convened the NYC Climate Change Adaptation Task Force and the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC). Also in 2008, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) initiated the Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation Strategies (ClimAID), to provide New York State decision-makers with cutting-edge information on its vulnerability to climate change and to facilitate the development of adaptation strategies informed by both local experience and scientific knowledge. The two efforts are working together to develop effective adaptation strategies across multiple jurisdictions. The New York Task Force consists of approximate 40 city, state, and federal agencies, regional public authorities, and private companies that operate, maintain, or regulate critical infrastructure in the region. The NPCC consisted of climate change and impacts scientists, and legal, insurance, and risk-management experts and served as the technical advisory body for the Mayor and the Task Force on issues related to climate change, impacts, and adaptation. In its 2010 report, the NPCC recommended adoption of a risk-based approach to climate change; creation of a monitoring program to track and analyze key climate change factors, impacts, and adaptation indicators; review of relevant standards and codes; inclusion of multiple layers of government and a wide range of public and private stakeholder experts to build buy-in; and formation of crucial partnerships for development of coordinated adaptation strategies. The task now is for these partnerships to create pilot programs that move adaptation from the planning phase to implementation; urban areas can provide critical ‘test-beds’ for such efforts.

Homework setting in cognitive behavioral therapy: A study of discursive strategies.

PubMed

Beckwith, Andrew; Crichton, Jonathan

2014-01-01

In recent years cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a form ofpsychotherapy, has risen to prominence due to a large number of studies attesting to its efficacy. A crucial part of the model of CBT is the use of the therapeutic strategy, homework, in which the client undertakes therapeutic tasks between sessions. The focus of this study is on how homework is implemented in sessions of CBT. This is undertaken through an analysis utilizing theme-orientated discourse analysis of video recorded sessions of CBT of one therapist and a client. Through tracking the focal theme of homework, the analysis focuses on homework as a face-threatening act (Brown and Levinson 1987) and how discursive strategies are employed to manage this issue. Other analytic themes include the use of frames (Goffman 1974) and constructed dialogue (Tannen 2007). It is the expertise of the therapist in putting into practice the therapeutic task of homework that is the subject of this study.

Evaluation of the walkable neighborhoods for seniors project in Sacramento County.

PubMed

Hooker, Steven P; Cirill, Lisa A; Geraghty, Anne

2009-07-01

The Walkable Neighborhoods for Seniors project was implemented to foster the creation and promotion of safe and accessible neighborhood walking routes for seniors. This article describes a case study of the efforts put forth by a local task force jointly managed by the Sacramento County Department of Health Services and WALK Sacramento. To facilitate environmental and policy changes that would enable and encourage walking by older adults, these local lead agencies implemented several strategies including organizing a community task force with broad professional and civic representation, conducting environmental audits of selected walking routes, creating walking groups, and advocating for environmental and policy change. Evaluation processes yield information on successes, challenges, and lessons learned that could be applied to similar efforts undertaken by community organizations to improve the walkability of neighborhoods for older adults.

Nicotine intake and problem solving strategies are modified during a cognitively demanding water maze task in rats.

PubMed

Nesil, Tanseli; Kanit, Lutfiye; Pogun, Sakire

2015-11-01

Nicotine is the major addictive component in tobacco, and despite well-established adverse health effects of tobacco addiction, some smokers have difficulty quitting. The acute cognitive enhancement and/or the amelioration of the cognitive disruption during withdrawal that some smokers experience after smoking are among important factors that hinder quit attempts. The animal model presented in the current study is comparable to the human smoking condition although nicotine intake routes are different. Rats were exposed to a free choice of oral nicotine starting at adolescence, and given a water maze (WM) task as adults. This design allowed us to see if rats alter their nicotine intake during the WM task and if nicotine preference and intake modify abilities and strategies rats use for problem solving. Male and female rats were exposed to a free choice of oral nicotine/water for 24weeks, starting at five weeks of age. After this period, they were selected based on their nicotine intake and, together with control animals that received only water, were subjected to a place-learning task in the WM. Free-choice nicotine exposure continued during WM testing. Following acquisition, the probe trial presented the rats with a choice between using two different strategies for problem solving. Nicotine supported acquisition and rats increased their nicotine intake during WM testing; this effect was more pronounced in male rats with minimum nicotine preference and intake. Furthermore, nicotine modified the "female type" strategy in solving the place-learning task and nicotine treated female rats, unlike control females, behaved like males. The increase in nicotine intake during mental engagement, and the sexually dimorphic effect of nicotine on problem solving strategies that we have observed in rats, may suggest that implementing sex-specific smoking cessation approaches, especially under stressful and cognitively demanding conditions, may be useful in helping smokers quit. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of Dual-Task Management and Resistance Training on Gait Performance in Older Individuals: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

PubMed

Wollesen, Bettina; Mattes, Klaus; Schulz, Sören; Bischoff, Laura L; Seydell, L; Bell, Jeffrey W; von Duvillard, Serge P

2017-01-01

Background: Dual-task (DT) training is a well-accepted modality for fall prevention in older adults. DT training should include task-managing strategies such as task switching or task prioritization to improve gait performance under DT conditions. Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial to evaluate a balance and task managing training (BDT group) in gait performance compared to a single task (ST) strength and resistance training and a control group, which received no training. A total of 78 older individuals (72.0 ± 4.9 years) participated in this study. The DT group performed task managing training incorporating balance and coordination tasks while the ST group performed resistance training only. Training consisted of 12 weekly sessions, 60 min each, for 12 weeks. We assessed the effects of ST and BDT training on walking performance under ST and DT conditions in independent living elderly adults. ST and DT walking (visual verbal Stroop task) were measured utilizing a treadmill at self-selected walking speed (mean for all groups: 4.4 ± 1 km h -1 ). Specific gait variables, cognitive performance, and fear of falling were compared between all groups. > Results: Training improved gait performance for step length ( p < 0.001) and gait-line (ST: p < 0.01; DT p < 0.05) in both training groups. The BDT training group showed greater improvements in step length ( p < 0.001) and gait-line ( p < 0.01) during DT walking but did not have changes in cognitive performance. Both interventions reduced fear of falling ( p < 0.05). Conclusion: Implementation of task management strategies into balance and strength training in our population revealed a promising modality to prevent falls in older individuals. Trial registration: German register of clinical trials DRKS00012382.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Semantic Memory as a Presymptomatic Biomarker of Alzheimer’s Disease Risk

PubMed Central

Sugarman, Michael A.; Woodard, John L.; Nielson, Kristy A.; Seidenberg, Michael; Smith, J. Carson; Durgerian, Sally; Rao, Stephen M.

2011-01-01

Extensive research efforts have been directed toward strategies for predicting risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prior to the appearance of observable symptoms. Existing approaches for early detection of AD vary in terms of their efficacy, invasiveness, and ease of implementation. Several non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging strategies have been developed for predicting decline in cognitively healthy older adults. This review will survey a number of studies, beginning with the development of a famous name discrimination task used to identify neural regions that participate in semantic memory retrieval and to test predictions of several key theories of the role of the hippocampus in memory. This task has revealed medial temporal and neocortical contributions to recent and remote memory retrieval, and it has been used to demonstrate compensatory neural recruitment in older adults, apolipoprotein E ε4 carriers, and amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients. Recently, we have also found that the famous name discrimination task provides predictive value for forecasting episodic memory decline among asymptomatic older adults. Other studies investigating the predictive value of semantic memory tasks will also be presented. We suggest several advantages associated with the use of semantic processing tasks, particularly those based on person identification, in comparison to episodic memory tasks to study AD risk. Future directions for research and potential clinical uses of semantic memory paradigms are also discussed. PMID:21996618

Multi-layer network utilizing rewarded spike time dependent plasticity to learn a foraging task

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Neural networks with a single plastic layer employing reward modulated spike time dependent plasticity (STDP) are capable of learning simple foraging tasks. Here we demonstrate advanced pattern discrimination and continuous learning in a network of spiking neurons with multiple plastic layers. The network utilized both reward modulated and non-reward modulated STDP and implemented multiple mechanisms for homeostatic regulation of synaptic efficacy, including heterosynaptic plasticity, gain control, output balancing, activity normalization of rewarded STDP and hard limits on synaptic strength. We found that addition of a hidden layer of neurons employing non-rewarded STDP created neurons that responded to the specific combinations of inputs and thus performed basic classification of the input patterns. When combined with a following layer of neurons implementing rewarded STDP, the network was able to learn, despite the absence of labeled training data, discrimination between rewarding patterns and the patterns designated as punishing. Synaptic noise allowed for trial-and-error learning that helped to identify the goal-oriented strategies which were effective in task solving. The study predicts a critical set of properties of the spiking neuronal network with STDP that was sufficient to solve a complex foraging task involving pattern classification and decision making. PMID:28961245

Engaging stakeholder communities as body image intervention partners: The Body Project as a case example.

PubMed

Becker, Carolyn Black; Perez, Marisol; Kilpela, Lisa Smith; Diedrichs, Phillippa C; Trujillo, Eva; Stice, Eric

2017-04-01

Despite recent advances in developing evidence-based psychological interventions, substantial changes are needed in the current system of intervention delivery to impact mental health on a global scale (Kazdin & Blase, 2011). Prevention offers one avenue for reaching large populations because prevention interventions often are amenable to scaling-up strategies, such as task-shifting to lay providers, which further facilitate community stakeholder partnerships. This paper discusses the dissemination and implementation of the Body Project, an evidence-based body image prevention program, across 6 diverse stakeholder partnerships that span academic, non-profit and business sectors at national and international levels. The paper details key elements of the Body Project that facilitated partnership development, dissemination and implementation, including use of community-based participatory research methods and a blended train-the-trainer and task-shifting approach. We observed consistent themes across partnerships, including: sharing decision making with community partners, engaging of community leaders as gatekeepers, emphasizing strengths of community partners, working within the community's structure, optimizing non-traditional and/or private financial resources, placing value on cost-effectiveness and sustainability, marketing the program, and supporting flexibility and creativity in developing strategies for evolution within the community and in research. Ideally, lessons learned with the Body Project can be generalized to implementation of other body image and eating disorder prevention programs. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design-for-Six-Sigma To Develop a Bioprocess Knowledge Management Framework.

PubMed

Junker, Beth; Maheshwari, Gargi; Ranheim, Todd; Altaras, Nedim; Stankevicz, Michael; Harmon, Lori; Rios, Sandra; D'anjou, Marc

2011-01-01

Owing to the high costs associated with biopharmaceutical development, considerable pressure has developed for the biopharmaceutical industry to increase productivity by becoming more lean and flexible. The ability to reuse knowledge was identified as one key advantage to streamline productivity, efficiently use resources, and ultimately perform better than the competition. A knowledge management (KM) strategy was assembled for bioprocess-related information using the technique of Design-for-Six-Sigma (DFSS). This strategy supported quality-by-design and process validation efforts for pipeline as well as licensed products. The DFSS technique was selected because it was both streamlined and efficient. These characteristics permitted development of a KM strategy with minimized team leader and team member resources. DFSS also placed a high emphasis on the voice of the customer, information considered crucial to the selection of solutions most appropriate for the current knowledge-based challenges of the organization. The KM strategy developed was comprised of nine workstreams, constructed from related solution buckets which in turn were assembled from the individual solution tasks that were identified. Each workstream's detailed design was evaluated against published and established best practices, as well as the KM strategy project charter and design inputs. Gaps and risks were identified and mitigated as necessary to improve the robustness of the proposed strategy. Aggregated resources (specifically expense/capital funds and staff) and timing were estimated to obtain vital management sponsorship for implementation. Where possible, existing governance and divisional/corporate information technology efforts were leveraged to minimize the additional bioprocess resources required for implementation. Finally, leading and lagging indicator metrics were selected to track the success of pilots and eventual implementation. A knowledge management framework was assembled for bioprocess-related information using a streamlined and efficient technique that minimized team leader and member resources. The technique also highly emphasized input from the staff, who generated and used the knowledge, information considered crucial to selection of solutions most appropriate for the current knowledge-based challenges in the organization. The framework developed was comprised of nine workstreams, constructed from related solution buckets which were assembled from individual solution tasks that were identified. Each workstream's detailed design was evaluated against published and established best practices, as well as the project charter and design inputs. Gaps and risks were identified and mitigated to improve robustness of the proposed framework. Aggregated resources (specifically expense/capital funds and staff) and timing were estimated to obtain vital management sponsorship for implementation. Where possible, existing governance and information technology efforts were leveraged to minimize additional bioprocess resources required for implementation. Finally, metrics were selected to track the success of pilots and eventual implementation.

Social customer relationship management: taking advantage of Web 2.0 and Big Data technologies.

PubMed

Orenga-Roglá, Sergio; Chalmeta, Ricardo

2016-01-01

The emergence of Web 2.0 and Big Data technologies has allowed a new customer relationship strategy based on interactivity and collaboration called Social Customer Relationship Management (Social CRM) to be created. This enhances customer engagement and satisfaction. The implementation of Social CRM is a complex task that involves different organisational, human and technological aspects. However, there is a lack of methodologies to assist companies in these processes. This paper shows a novel methodology that helps companies to implement Social CRM, taking into account different aspects such as social customer strategy, the Social CRM performance measurement system, the Social CRM business processes, or the Social CRM computer system. The methodology was applied to one company in order to validate and refine it.

The Complexities of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A Case Study of Two Secondary Mathematics Teachers and Their ESOL Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonard, Jacqueline; Napp, Carolina; Adeleke, Shade

2009-01-01

Culturally relevant pedagogy is not well understood as an instructional strategy in the mathematics classroom. This study reveals the challenges two teachers faced when they implemented a pilot project with ninth and tenth grade ESOL students. The task they envisioned as culturally relevant did not capture their ESOL student's interests; rather,…

Adaptive Oceanographic Sampling in a Coastal Environment Using Autonomous Gliding Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-08-01

cost autonomous vehicles with near-global range and modular sensor payload. Particular emphasis is placed on the development of adaptive sampling...environment. Secondary objectives include continued development of adaptive sampling strategies suitable for large fleets of slow-moving autonomous ... vehicles , and development and implementation of new oceanographic sensors and sampling methodologies. The main task completed was a complete redesign of

Ensuring Access to Quality Health Care in Vulnerable Communities.

PubMed

Bhatt, Jay; Bathija, Priya

2018-04-24

For millions of Americans living in vulnerable rural and urban communities, their hospital is an important, and often their only, source of health care. As transformation in the hospital and health care field continues, some communities may be at risk of losing access to health care services and the opportunities and resources they need to improve and maintain their health. Integrated, comprehensive strategies to reform health care delivery and payment, within which vulnerable communities can make individual choices based on their needs, support structures, and preferences, are needed.In this Invited Commentary, the authors outline characteristics and parameters of vulnerable communities as well as the essential health care services that hospitals should strive to maintain locally identified by the American Hospital Association Task Force on Ensuring Access in Vulnerable Communities. They also describe four of nine emerging strategies-recommended by the task force-to reform health care delivery and payment and allow hospitals to provide the essential health care services, along with implementation barriers and how to address them. While this Invited Commentary focuses on vulnerable communities, the four highlighted strategies (addressing the social determinants of health, adopting new and innovative virtual care strategies, designing global budgets, and using inpatient/outpatient transformation strategy), as well as the other five strategies, may have broader applicability for all communities.

The turn team: a novel strategy for reducing pressure ulcers in the surgical intensive care unit.

PubMed

Still, Mary D; Cross, Linda C; Dunlap, Martha; Rencher, Rugenia; Larkins, Elizabeth R; Carpenter, David L; Buchman, Timothy G; Coopersmith, Craig M

2013-03-01

Pressure ulcers cause significant morbidity and mortality in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU). The purpose of this study was to determine if a dedicated team tasked with turning and repositioning all hemodynamically stable SICU patients could decrease the formation of pressure ulcers. A total of 507 patients in a 20-bed SICU in a university hospital were assessed for pressure ulcers using a point prevalence strategy, between December 2008 and September 2010, before and after implementation of a team tasked with turning and repositioning all hemodynamically stable patients every 2 hours around the clock. At baseline, when frequent turning was encouraged but not required, a total of 42 pressure ulcers were identified in 278 patients. After implementation of the turn team, a total of 12 pressure ulcers were identified in 229 patients (p < 0.0001). The preintervention group included 34 stage I and II ulcers and 8 higher stage ulcers. After implementation of the turn team, there were 7 stage I and II ulcers and 5 higher stage ulcers. The average Braden score was 16.5 in the preintervention group and 13.4 in the postintervention group (p = 0.04), suggesting that pressure ulcers were occurring in higher risk patients after implementation of the turn team. A team dedicated to turning SICU patients every 2 hours dramatically decreased the incidence of pressure ulcers. The majority of stage I and stage II ulcers appear to be preventable with an aggressive intervention aimed at pressure ulcer prevention. Copyright © 2013 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Employing the FITT framework to explore HIV case managers' perceptions of two electronic clinical data (ECD) summary systems.

PubMed

Schnall, Rebecca; Smith, Ann B; Sikka, Manik; Gordon, Peter; Camhi, Eli; Kanter, Timothy; Bakken, Suzanne

2012-10-01

Case managers facilitate continuity of care for persons living with HIV (PLWH) by coordination of resources and referrals to social services and medical care. The complexity of HIV care and associated comorbidities drives the need for medical and psychosocial care coordination, which may be achieved through health information exchange (HIE) systems. However, the use of HIE has not been well studied in the context of HIV services. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study is to explore factors influencing case managers' adoption of electronic clinical data (ECD) summaries as an HIE strategy in HIV care through application of the "fit between individuals, task and technology" (FITT) framework. Focus group methodology was used to gather perceptions from 48 participants who provided direct case management services for PLWH in New York City. Questions addressed current quality and efficiency challenges to HIE utilization in the context of case management of PLWH as well as barriers and enablers to use of an ECD summary. Analysis of the data was guided by the FITT framework. Major themes by interaction type were: (1) task-technology fit - resources, time and workflow; (2) individual-task fit - training and technical support; and 3) individual-technology fit - ECD summary functionality, technical difficulties and the need of a computer for each end-user. Our findings provide evidence for the applicability of the FITT framework to explore case managers' perceptions of factors influencing the adoption of ECD summary systems for HIV care prior to actual implementation. Assessment of fit among individual, task, and technology and addressing the concerns identified prior to implementation is critical to successful adoption of health information technology as a strategy to improve quality and efficiency in health care. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ergonomic design intervention strategy for work tools development for women agro based workers in Northeast India.

PubMed

Chakrabarti, Debkumar; Bhattachheriya, Nandita

2012-01-01

Strategy for finding the appropriate strategy for work tool development has become a crucial issue in occupational wellness of varied nature of women workforce of Northeast India. This paper deals with ergonomics intervention through sustainable work tool design development process. Workers who frequently shift to different activities quite often in unorganised small-scale fruit processing units where productivity is directly related to the harvesting season require different work tools relevant to specific tasks and mostly workers themselves manage work tools of their own with available local resources. Whereas in contrast the tea-leaf pluckers are engaged in a single task throughout the year, and the work schedule and work equipment is decided and supplied to them based on the corporate decision where the workers do not have any individual control. Observations confirm the need for organising participatory workshops specific to trade based occupational well-being and different work tools for different tasks in mostly private owned unorganised sector. Implementation of single variety work tool development that supports a crucial component in tea-leaf plucking for which they are engaged in full time employment; and through a corporate decision a single design with its number of users makes a good effect.

Parallel Representation of Value-Based and Finite State-Based Strategies in the Ventral and Dorsal Striatum

PubMed Central

Ito, Makoto; Doya, Kenji

2015-01-01

Previous theoretical studies of animal and human behavioral learning have focused on the dichotomy of the value-based strategy using action value functions to predict rewards and the model-based strategy using internal models to predict environmental states. However, animals and humans often take simple procedural behaviors, such as the “win-stay, lose-switch” strategy without explicit prediction of rewards or states. Here we consider another strategy, the finite state-based strategy, in which a subject selects an action depending on its discrete internal state and updates the state depending on the action chosen and the reward outcome. By analyzing choice behavior of rats in a free-choice task, we found that the finite state-based strategy fitted their behavioral choices more accurately than value-based and model-based strategies did. When fitted models were run autonomously with the same task, only the finite state-based strategy could reproduce the key feature of choice sequences. Analyses of neural activity recorded from the dorsolateral striatum (DLS), the dorsomedial striatum (DMS), and the ventral striatum (VS) identified significant fractions of neurons in all three subareas for which activities were correlated with individual states of the finite state-based strategy. The signal of internal states at the time of choice was found in DMS, and for clusters of states was found in VS. In addition, action values and state values of the value-based strategy were encoded in DMS and VS, respectively. These results suggest that both the value-based strategy and the finite state-based strategy are implemented in the striatum. PMID:26529522

Effects of lesions to the left lateral prefrontal cortex on task-specific top-down biases and response strategies in blocked-cyclic naming.

PubMed

Belke, Eva

Anders, Riès, van Maanen and Alario put forward evidence accumulation modelling of object naming times as an alternative to neural network models of lexical retrieval. The authors exemplify their approach using data from the blocked-cyclic naming paradigm, requiring speakers to repeatedly name small sets of related or unrelated objects. The effects observed with this paradigm are understood reasonably well within the tradition of neural network modelling. However, implemented neural network models do not specify interfaces for task-specific top-down influences and response strategies that are likely to play a role in the blocked-cyclic naming paradigm, distinguishing it from continuous, non-cyclic manipulations of the naming context. I argue that the evidence accumulation approach falls short on this account as well, as it does not specify the potential contribution of task-specific top-down processes and strategic facilitation effects to the response time distributions. Future endeavours to model or fit data from blocked-cyclic naming experiments should strive to do so by simultaneously considering data from continuous context manipulations.

Implementation of High-Order Multireference Coupled-Cluster Methods on Intel Many Integrated Core Architecture.

PubMed

Aprà, E; Kowalski, K

2016-03-08

In this paper we discuss the implementation of multireference coupled-cluster formalism with singles, doubles, and noniterative triples (MRCCSD(T)), which is capable of taking advantage of the processing power of the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor. We discuss the integration of two levels of parallelism underlying the MRCCSD(T) implementation with computational kernels designed to offload the computationally intensive parts of the MRCCSD(T) formalism to Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. Special attention is given to the enhancement of the parallel performance by task reordering that has improved load balancing in the noniterative part of the MRCCSD(T) calculations. We also discuss aspects regarding efficient optimization and vectorization strategies.

Strategic Talk in Film.

PubMed

Payr, Sabine; Skowron, Marcin; Dobrosovestnova, Anna; Trapp, Martin; Trappl, Robert

2017-01-01

Conversational robots and agents are being designed for educational and/or persuasive tasks, e.g., health or fitness coaching. To pursue such tasks over a long time, they will need a complex model of the strategic goal, a variety of strategies to implement it in interaction, and the capability of strategic talk. Strategic talk is incipient ongoing conversation in which at least one participant has the objective of changing the other participant's attitudes or goals. The paper is based on the observation that strategic talk can stretch over considerable periods of time and a number of conversational segments. Film dialogues are taken as a source to develop a model of the strategic talk of mentor characters. A corpus of film mentor utterances is annotated on the basis of the model, and the data are interpreted to arrive at insights into mentor behavior, especially into the realization and sequencing of strategies.

The effectiveness of back pain and injury prevention programs in the workplace.

PubMed

Gatty, Carolyn M; Turner, Mynde; Buitendorp, Dinice J; Batman, Heather

2003-01-01

Musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace cause thousands of injuries and cost industry billions of dollars yearly. Work injury prevention programs have been developed and implemented as a means for cost containment. A variety of preventive strategies have been investigated in primary research. The purpose of this review article is to examine the effectiveness of back injury and pain prevention programs in the workplace. Nine studies published between 1995 and 2000 were reviewed and analyzed. Studies used primarily one of three types of preventive strategies: 1) back belts, 2) education and task modification, and 3) education and task modification with workstation redesign. The effectiveness of back belts to prevent back pain and injury remains inconclusive. Positive outcomes were associated with studies reporting high compliance that used job-specific and individualized/small group education and training approaches. Themes that arose following a critical review of primary research studies are discussed.

Safeguards Knowledge Management & Retention at U.S. National Laboratories.

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

Haddal, Risa; Jones, Rebecca; Bersell, Bridget

In 2017, four U.S. National Laboratories collaborated on behalf of DOE/NNSA to explore the safeguards knowledge retention problem, identify possible approaches, and develop a strategy to address it. The one-year effort consisted of four primary tasks. First, the project sought to identify critical safeguards information at risk of loss. Second, a survey and workshop were conducted to assess nine U.S. National Laboratories' efforts to determine current safeguards knowledge retention practices and challenges, and identify best practices. Third, specific tools were developed to identify and predict critical safeguards knowledge gaps and how best to recruit in order to fill those gaps.more » Finally, based on findings from the first three tasks and research on other organizational approaches to address similar issues, a strategy was developed on potential knowledge retention methods, customized HR policies, and best practices that could be implemented across the National Laboratory Complex.« less

Strategic Talk in Film

PubMed Central

Payr, Sabine; Skowron, Marcin; Dobrosovestnova, Anna; Trapp, Martin; Trappl, Robert

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Conversational robots and agents are being designed for educational and/or persuasive tasks, e.g., health or fitness coaching. To pursue such tasks over a long time, they will need a complex model of the strategic goal, a variety of strategies to implement it in interaction, and the capability of strategic talk. Strategic talk is incipient ongoing conversation in which at least one participant has the objective of changing the other participant’s attitudes or goals. The paper is based on the observation that strategic talk can stretch over considerable periods of time and a number of conversational segments. Film dialogues are taken as a source to develop a model of the strategic talk of mentor characters. A corpus of film mentor utterances is annotated on the basis of the model, and the data are interpreted to arrive at insights into mentor behavior, especially into the realization and sequencing of strategies. PMID:29375243

The Global Invasive Species Information Network: contributing to GEO Task BI-07-01b

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graham, J.; Morisette, J. T.; Simpson, A.

2009-12-01

Invasive alien species (IAS) threaten biodiversity and exert a tremendous cost on society for IAS prevention and eradication. They endanger natural ecosystem functioning and seriously impact biodiversity and agricultural production. The task definition for the GEO task BI-07-01b: Invasive Species Monitoring System is to characterize, monitor, and predict changes in the distribution of invasive species. This includes characterizing the current requirements and capacity for invasive species monitoring and developing strategies for implementing cross-search functionality among existing online invasive species information systems from around the globe. The Task is being coordinated by members of the Global Invasive Species Information Network (GISIN) and their partners. Information on GISIN and a prototype of the network is available at www.gisin.org. This talk will report on the current status of GISIN and review how researchers can either contribute to or utilize data from this network.

Task shifting for the delivery of pediatric antiretroviral treatment: a systematic review.

PubMed

Penazzato, Martina; Davies, Mary-Ann; Apollo, Tsitsi; Negussie, Eyerusalem; Ford, Nathan

2014-04-01

Pediatric antiretroviral treatment coverage in resource-limited settings continues to lag behind adults. Task shifting is an effective approach broadly used for adults, which some countries have also adopted for children, but implementation is limited by lack of confidence and skills among nonspecialist staff. A systematic review was conducted by combining key terms for task shifting, antiretroviral therapy (ART), and children. Five databases and two conferences were searched from inception till August 01, 2013. Eight observational studies provided outcome data for 11,828 children who received ART from nonphysician providers across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The cumulative pooled proportion of deaths was 3.2% [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.0 to 4.5] at 6 months, 4.6% (95% CI: 2.1 to 7.1) at 12 months, 6.2% (95% CI: 3.7 to 8.8) at 24 months, and 5.9% (95% CI: 3.5 to 8.3) at 36 months. Mortality and loss to follow-up in task-shifting programs were comparable to those reported by programs providing doctor- or specialist-led care. Our review suggests that task shifting of ART care can result in outcomes comparable to routine physician care, and this approach should be considered as part of a strategy to scale-up pediatric treatment. Specialist care will remain important for management of sick patients and complicated cases. Further qualitative research is needed to inform optimal implementation of task shifting for pediatric patients.

Research in Network Management Techniques for Tactical Data Communications Network.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-09-01

the control period. Research areas include Packet Network modelling, adaptive network routing, network design algorithms, network design techniques...contro!lers are designed to perform their limited tasks optimally. For the dynamic routing problem considered here, the local controllers are node...feedback to finding in optimum stead-o-state routing (static strategies) under non - control which can be easily implemented in real time. congested

Repository-based software engineering program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, James

1992-01-01

The activities performed during September 1992 in support of Tasks 01 and 02 of the Repository-Based Software Engineering Program are outlined. The recommendations and implementation strategy defined at the September 9-10 meeting of the Reuse Acquisition Action Team (RAAT) are attached along with the viewgraphs and reference information presented at the Institute for Defense Analyses brief on legal and patent issues related to software reuse.

Implementation of Online Peer Assessment in a Design for Learning and Portfolio (D4L+P) Program to Help Students Complete Science Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wuttisela, Karntarat; Wuttiprom, Sura; Phonchaiya, Sonthi; Saengsuwan, Sayant

2016-01-01

Peer assessment was one of the most effective strategies to improve students' understanding, metacognitive skills, and social interaction. An online tool, "Designing for Learning and Portfolio (D4L+P)", was developed solely to support the T5 (tasks, tools, tutorials, topicresources, and teamwork) method of teaching and learning. This…

Effects of the Good Behavior Game on the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Problems of Children with Psychiatric Disorders in Special Education Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Breeman, Linda D.; van Lier, Pol A. C.; Wubbels, Theo; Verhulst, Frank C.; van der Ende, Jan; Maras, Athanasios; Struiksma, A. J. Chris; Hopman, Juliette A. B.; Tick, Nouchka T.

2016-01-01

Teaching children with psychiatric disorders can be a challenging task. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Good Behavior Game (GBG) in children with psychiatric disorders, and their teachers, in special education. Teachers were trained by licensed school consultants to implement positive behavior support strategies to…

Parallel Computing Strategies for Irregular Algorithms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Biswas, Rupak; Oliker, Leonid; Shan, Hongzhang; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Parallel computing promises several orders of magnitude increase in our ability to solve realistic computationally-intensive problems, but relies on their efficient mapping and execution on large-scale multiprocessor architectures. Unfortunately, many important applications are irregular and dynamic in nature, making their effective parallel implementation a daunting task. Moreover, with the proliferation of parallel architectures and programming paradigms, the typical scientist is faced with a plethora of questions that must be answered in order to obtain an acceptable parallel implementation of the solution algorithm. In this paper, we consider three representative irregular applications: unstructured remeshing, sparse matrix computations, and N-body problems, and parallelize them using various popular programming paradigms on a wide spectrum of computer platforms ranging from state-of-the-art supercomputers to PC clusters. We present the underlying problems, the solution algorithms, and the parallel implementation strategies. Smart load-balancing, partitioning, and ordering techniques are used to enhance parallel performance. Overall results demonstrate the complexity of efficiently parallelizing irregular algorithms.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of semantic memory as a presymptomatic biomarker of Alzheimer's disease risk.

PubMed

Sugarman, Michael A; Woodard, John L; Nielson, Kristy A; Seidenberg, Michael; Smith, J Carson; Durgerian, Sally; Rao, Stephen M

2012-03-01

Extensive research efforts have been directed toward strategies for predicting risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) prior to the appearance of observable symptoms. Existing approaches for early detection of AD vary in terms of their efficacy, invasiveness, and ease of implementation. Several non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging strategies have been developed for predicting decline in cognitively healthy older adults. This review will survey a number of studies, beginning with the development of a famous name discrimination task used to identify neural regions that participate in semantic memory retrieval and to test predictions of several key theories of the role of the hippocampus in memory. This task has revealed medial temporal and neocortical contributions to recent and remote memory retrieval, and it has been used to demonstrate compensatory neural recruitment in older adults, apolipoprotein E ε4 carriers, and amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients. Recently, we have also found that the famous name discrimination task provides predictive value for forecasting episodic memory decline among asymptomatic older adults. Other studies investigating the predictive value of semantic memory tasks will also be presented. We suggest several advantages associated with the use of semantic processing tasks, particularly those based on person identification, in comparison to episodic memory tasks to study AD risk. Future directions for research and potential clinical uses of semantic memory paradigms are also discussed. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Imaging Brain Aging and Neurodegenerative disease. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perspectives of key stakeholders regarding task shifting of care for HIV patients in Mozambique: a qualitative interview-based study with Ministry of Health leaders, clinicians, and donors.

PubMed

Rustagi, Alison S; Manjate, Rosa Marlene; Gloyd, Stephen; John-Stewart, Grace; Micek, Mark; Gimbel, Sarah; Sherr, Kenneth

2015-04-01

Task shifting is a common strategy to deliver antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-limited settings and is safe and effective if implemented appropriately. Consensus among stakeholders is necessary to formulate clear national policies that maintain high-quality care. We sought to understand key stakeholders' opinions regarding task shifting of HIV care in Mozambique and to characterize which specific tasks stakeholders considered appropriate for specific cadres of health workers. National and provincial Ministry of Health leaders, representatives from donor and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and clinicians providing HIV care were intentionally selected to represent diverse viewpoints. Using open- and closed-ended questions, interviewees were asked about their general support of task shifting, its potential advantages and disadvantages, and whether each of seven cadres of non-physician health workers should perform each of eight tasks related to ART provision. Responses were tallied overall and stratified by current job category. Interviews were conducted between November 2007 and June 2008. Of 62 stakeholders interviewed, 44% held leadership positions in the Ministry of Health, 44% were clinicians providing HIV care, and 13% were donors or employed by NGOs; 89% held a medical degree. Stakeholders were highly supportive of physician assistants performing simple ART-related tasks and unanimous in opposing community health workers providing any ART-related services. The most commonly cited motives to implement task shifting were to increase ART access, decrease physician workload, and decrease patient wait time, whereas chief concerns included reduced quality of care and poor training and supervision. Support for task shifting was higher among clinicians than policy and programme leaders for three specific task/cadre combinations: general mid-level nurses to initiate ART in adults (supported by 75% of clinicians vs. 41% of non-clinicians) and in pregnant women (75% vs. 34%, respectively) and physician assistants to change ART regimens in adults (43% vs. 24%, respectively). Stakeholders agreed on some ART-related task delegation to lower health worker cadres. Clinicians were more likely to support task shifting than policy and programme leaders, perhaps motivated by their front-line experiences. Harmonizing policy and programme managers' views with those of clinicians will be important to formulate and implement clear policy.

Early childhood: breastfeeding, "solving the problem of childhood obesity within a generation," an excerpt from the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity: report to the President, May 2010.

PubMed

2010-10-01

On February 9, 2010, the same day the First Lady launched the Let's Move! campaign, President Obama created a new interagency White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, charged with creating and implementing a comprehensive action plan to end the childhood obesity epidemic. The resulting action plan was developed by experts from across the federal government, with substantial public input, and released on May 11. The first chapter of the task force report discusses strategies for getting children a healthy start on life, including supporting breastfeeding. Here is an excerpt from the discussion of breastfeeding that appears in the report. The full text of the task force report can be found at www.letsmove.gov . —Martha Coven, JD Special Assistant to the President for Mobility and Opportunity White House Domestic Policy Council Lead Staff, White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity.

Six steps to a successful dose-reduction strategy

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

Bennett, M.

1995-03-01

The increased importance of demonstrating achievement of the ALARA principle has helped produce a proliferation of dose-reduction ideas. Across a company there may be many dose-reduction items being pursued in a variety of areas. However, companies have a limited amount of resource and, therefore, to ensure funding is directed to those items which will produce the most benefit and that all areas apply a common policy, requires the presence of a dose-reduction strategy. Six steps were identified in formulating the dose-reduction strategy for Rolls-Royce and Associates (RRA): (1) collating the ideas; (2) quantitatively evaluating them on a common basis; (3)more » prioritizing the ideas in terms of cost benefit, (4) implementation of the highest priority items; (5) monitoring their success; (6) periodically reviewing the strategy. Inherent in producing the dose-reduction strategy has been a comprehensive dose database and the RRA-developed dose management computer code DOMAIN, which allows prediction of dose rates and dose. The database enabled high task dose items to be identified, assisted in evaluating dose benefits, and monitored dose trends once items had been implemented. The DOMAIN code was used both in quantifying some of the project dose benefits and its results, such as dose contours, used in some of the dose-reduction items themselves. In all, over fifty dose-reduction items were evaluated in the strategy process and the items which will give greatest benefit are being implemented. The strategy has been successful in giving renewed impetus and direction to dose-reduction management.« less

Management Information Task Group

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-12-18

Defense Business Practice Implementation Board Management Information Task Group Report...Std Z39-18 Defense Business Practice Implementation Board Management Information Task Group... Business Practice Implementation Board Management Information Task Group Report FY02-2 3

Redundancy checking algorithms based on parallel novel extension rule

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Lei; Yang, Yang; Li, Guangli; Wang, Qi; Lü, Shuai

2017-05-01

Redundancy checking (RC) is a key knowledge reduction technology. Extension rule (ER) is a new reasoning method, first presented in 2003 and well received by experts at home and abroad. Novel extension rule (NER) is an improved ER-based reasoning method, presented in 2009. In this paper, we first analyse the characteristics of the extension rule, and then present a simple algorithm for redundancy checking based on extension rule (RCER). In addition, we introduce MIMF, a type of heuristic strategy. Using the aforementioned rule and strategy, we design and implement RCHER algorithm, which relies on MIMF. Next we design and implement an RCNER (redundancy checking based on NER) algorithm based on NER. Parallel computing greatly accelerates the NER algorithm, which has weak dependence among tasks when executed. Considering this, we present PNER (parallel NER) and apply it to redundancy checking and necessity checking. Furthermore, we design and implement the RCPNER (redundancy checking based on PNER) and NCPPNER (necessary clause partition based on PNER) algorithms as well. The experimental results show that MIMF significantly influences the acceleration of algorithm RCER in formulae on a large scale and high redundancy. Comparing PNER with NER and RCPNER with RCNER, the average speedup can reach up to the number of task decompositions when executed. Comparing NCPNER with the RCNER-based algorithm on separating redundant formulae, speedup increases steadily as the scale of the formulae is incrementing. Finally, we describe the challenges that the extension rule will be faced with and suggest possible solutions.

A Parameter Communication Optimization Strategy for Distributed Machine Learning in Sensors.

PubMed

Zhang, Jilin; Tu, Hangdi; Ren, Yongjian; Wan, Jian; Zhou, Li; Li, Mingwei; Wang, Jue; Yu, Lifeng; Zhao, Chang; Zhang, Lei

2017-09-21

In order to utilize the distributed characteristic of sensors, distributed machine learning has become the mainstream approach, but the different computing capability of sensors and network delays greatly influence the accuracy and the convergence rate of the machine learning model. Our paper describes a reasonable parameter communication optimization strategy to balance the training overhead and the communication overhead. We extend the fault tolerance of iterative-convergent machine learning algorithms and propose the Dynamic Finite Fault Tolerance (DFFT). Based on the DFFT, we implement a parameter communication optimization strategy for distributed machine learning, named Dynamic Synchronous Parallel Strategy (DSP), which uses the performance monitoring model to dynamically adjust the parameter synchronization strategy between worker nodes and the Parameter Server (PS). This strategy makes full use of the computing power of each sensor, ensures the accuracy of the machine learning model, and avoids the situation that the model training is disturbed by any tasks unrelated to the sensors.

Real-time implementations of image segmentation algorithms on shared memory multicore architecture: a survey (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akil, Mohamed

2017-05-01

The real-time processing is getting more and more important in many image processing applications. Image segmentation is one of the most fundamental tasks image analysis. As a consequence, many different approaches for image segmentation have been proposed. The watershed transform is a well-known image segmentation tool. The watershed transform is a very data intensive task. To achieve acceleration and obtain real-time processing of watershed algorithms, parallel architectures and programming models for multicore computing have been developed. This paper focuses on the survey of the approaches for parallel implementation of sequential watershed algorithms on multicore general purpose CPUs: homogeneous multicore processor with shared memory. To achieve an efficient parallel implementation, it's necessary to explore different strategies (parallelization/distribution/distributed scheduling) combined with different acceleration and optimization techniques to enhance parallelism. In this paper, we give a comparison of various parallelization of sequential watershed algorithms on shared memory multicore architecture. We analyze the performance measurements of each parallel implementation and the impact of the different sources of overhead on the performance of the parallel implementations. In this comparison study, we also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the parallel programming models. Thus, we compare the OpenMP (an application programming interface for multi-Processing) with Ptheads (POSIX Threads) to illustrate the impact of each parallel programming model on the performance of the parallel implementations.

Functions of behavior change interventions when implementing multi-professional teamwork at an emergency department: a comparative case study

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background While there is strong support for the benefits of working in multi-professional teams in health care, the implementation of multi-professional teamwork is reported to be complex and challenging. Implementation strategies combining multiple behavior change interventions are recommended, but the understanding of how and why the behavior change interventions influence staff behavior is limited. There is a lack of studies focusing on the functions of different behavior change interventions and the mechanisms driving behavior change. In this study, applied behavior analysis is used to analyze the function and impact of different behavior change interventions when implementing multi-professional teamwork. Methods A comparative case study design was applied. Two sections of an emergency department implemented multi-professional teamwork involving changes in work processes, aimed at increasing inter-professional collaboration. Behavior change interventions and staff behavior change were studied using observations, interviews and document analysis. Using a hybrid thematic analysis, the behavior change interventions were categorized according to the DCOM® model. The functions of the behavior change interventions were then analyzed using applied behavior analysis. Results The two sections used different behavior change interventions, resulting in a large difference in the degree of staff behavior change. The successful section enabled staff performance of teamwork behaviors with a strategy based on ongoing problem-solving and frequent clarification of directions. Managerial feedback initially played an important role in motivating teamwork behaviors. Gradually, as staff started to experience positive outcomes of the intervention, motivation for teamwork behaviors was replaced by positive task-generated feedback. Conclusions The functional perspective of applied behavior analysis offers insight into the behavioral mechanisms that describe how and why behavior change interventions influence staff behavior. The analysis demonstrates how enabling behavior change interventions, managerial feedback and task-related feedback interact in their influence on behavior and have complementary functions during different stages of implementation. PMID:24885212

Reward favours the prepared: incentive and task-informative cues interact to enhance attentional control

PubMed Central

Chiew, Kimberly S.; Braver, Todd S.

2015-01-01

The dual mechanisms of control account suggests that cognitive control may be implemented through relatively proactive mechanisms in anticipation of stimulus onset, or through reactive mechanisms, triggered in response to changing stimulus demands. Reward incentives and task-informative cues (signaling the presence/absence of upcoming cognitive demand) have both been found to influence cognitive control in a proactive or preparatory fashion; yet, it is currently unclear whether and how such cue effects interact. We investigated this in two experiments using an adapted flanker paradigm, where task-informative and reward incentive cues were orthogonally manipulated on a trial-by-trial basis. In Experiment 1, results indicated that incentives not only speed RTs, but specifically reduce both interference and facilitation effects when combined with task-informative cues, suggesting enhanced proactive attentional control. Experiment 2 manipulated the timing of incentive cue information, demonstrating that such proactive control effects were only replicated with sufficient time to process the incentive cue (Early Incentive); when incentive signals were presented close to target onset (Late Incentive) the primary effect was a speed-accuracy tradeoff. Together, results suggest that advance cueing may trigger differing control strategies, and that these strategies may critically depend on both the timing – and the motivational incentive – to use such cues. PMID:26322689

Does Task Affordance Moderate Age-related Deficits in Strategy Production?

PubMed Central

Bottiroli, Sara; Dunlosky, John; Guerini, Kate; Cavallini, Elena; Hertzog, Christopher

2011-01-01

According to the task-affordance hypothesis, people will be more likely to use a specific strategy as tasks more readily afford its use. To evaluate this hypothesis, we examined the degree to which older and younger adults used a self-testing strategy to learn items, because previous studies suggest that age-related differences in the use of this powerful strategy vary across tasks. These tasks (words affixed to a board vs. pairs on flashcards) differentially afford the use of the self-testing strategy and may moderate the age-related effects on strategy use. Participants performed a recall-readiness task in which they continued to study items until they were ready for the criterion test. As predicted, self testing was used less often on tasks that least afforded its use. Namely, participants used self testing less when they studied single words affixed to a board than when they studied pairs on flashcards. Most important, age-related deficits in strategy use were greater for the former task and nonexistent for the latter one, suggesting that task affordance moderates age differences in strategy use. PMID:20552461

Does task affordance moderate age-related deficits in strategy production?

PubMed

Bottiroli, Sara; Dunlosky, John; Guerini, Kate; Cavallini, Elena; Hertzog, Christopher

2010-09-01

According to the task-affordance hypothesis, people will be more likely to use a specific strategy as tasks more readily afford its use. To evaluate this hypothesis, we examined the degree to which older and younger adults used a self-testing strategy to learn items, because previous studies suggest that age-related differences in the use of this powerful strategy vary across tasks. These tasks (words affixed to a board vs. pairs on flashcards) differentially afford the use of the self-testing strategy and may moderate the age-related effects on strategy use. Participants performed a recall-readiness task in which they continued to study items until they were ready for the criterion test. As predicted, self testing was used less often on tasks that least afforded its use. Namely, participants used self testing less when they studied single words affixed to a board than when they studied pairs on flashcards. Most important, age-related deficits in strategy use were greater for the former task and nonexistent for the latter one, suggesting that task affordance moderates age differences in strategy use.

Space Station crew safety alternatives study. Volume 5: Space Station safety plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mead, G. H.; Peercy, R. L., Jr.; Raasch, R. F.

1985-01-01

The Space Station Safety Plan has been prepared as an adjunct to the subject contract final report, suggesting the tasks and implementation procedures to ensure that threats are addressed and resolution strategy options identified and incorporated into the space station program. The safety program's approach is to realize minimum risk exposure without levying undue design and operational constraints. Safety objectives and risk acceptances are discussed.

Improving posture-motor dual-task with a supraposture-focus strategy in young and elderly adults

PubMed Central

Yu, Shu-Han

2017-01-01

In a postural-suprapostural task, appropriate prioritization is necessary to achieve task goals and maintain postural stability. A “posture-first” principle is typically favored by elderly people in order to secure stance stability, but this comes at the cost of reduced suprapostural performance. Using a postural-suprapostural task with a motor suprapostural goal, this study investigated differences between young and older adults in dual-task cost across varying task prioritization paradigms. Eighteen healthy young (mean age: 24.8 ± 5.2 years) and 18 older (mean age: 68.8 ± 3.7 years) adults executed a designated force-matching task from a stabilometer board using either a stabilometer stance (posture-focus strategy) or force-matching (supraposture-focus strategy) as the primary task. The dual-task effect (DTE: % change in dual-task condition; positive value: dual-task benefit, negative value: dual-task cost) of force-matching error and reaction time (RT), posture error, and approximate entropy (ApEn) of stabilometer movement were measured. When using the supraposture-focus strategy, young adults exhibited larger DTE values in each behavioral parameter than when using the posture-focus strategy. The older adults using the supraposture-focus strategy also attained larger DTE values for posture error, stabilometer movement ApEn, and force-matching error than when using the posture-focus strategy. These results suggest that the supraposture-focus strategy exerted an increased dual-task benefit for posture-motor dual-tasking in both healthy young and elderly adults. The present findings imply that the older adults should make use of the supraposture-focus strategy for fall prevention during dual-task execution. PMID:28151943

Improving posture-motor dual-task with a supraposture-focus strategy in young and elderly adults.

PubMed

Yu, Shu-Han; Huang, Cheng-Ya

2017-01-01

In a postural-suprapostural task, appropriate prioritization is necessary to achieve task goals and maintain postural stability. A "posture-first" principle is typically favored by elderly people in order to secure stance stability, but this comes at the cost of reduced suprapostural performance. Using a postural-suprapostural task with a motor suprapostural goal, this study investigated differences between young and older adults in dual-task cost across varying task prioritization paradigms. Eighteen healthy young (mean age: 24.8 ± 5.2 years) and 18 older (mean age: 68.8 ± 3.7 years) adults executed a designated force-matching task from a stabilometer board using either a stabilometer stance (posture-focus strategy) or force-matching (supraposture-focus strategy) as the primary task. The dual-task effect (DTE: % change in dual-task condition; positive value: dual-task benefit, negative value: dual-task cost) of force-matching error and reaction time (RT), posture error, and approximate entropy (ApEn) of stabilometer movement were measured. When using the supraposture-focus strategy, young adults exhibited larger DTE values in each behavioral parameter than when using the posture-focus strategy. The older adults using the supraposture-focus strategy also attained larger DTE values for posture error, stabilometer movement ApEn, and force-matching error than when using the posture-focus strategy. These results suggest that the supraposture-focus strategy exerted an increased dual-task benefit for posture-motor dual-tasking in both healthy young and elderly adults. The present findings imply that the older adults should make use of the supraposture-focus strategy for fall prevention during dual-task execution.

Variation in Strategy Use Across Measures of Verbal Working Memory

PubMed Central

Morrison, Alexandra B; Rosenbaum, Gail M.; Fair, Damien; Chein, Jason M.

2016-01-01

The working memory (WM) literature contains a number of tasks that vary on dimensions such as when or how memory items are reported. In addition to the ways in which WM tasks are designed to differ, tasks may also diverge according to the strategies participants use during task performance. The present study included seven tasks from the WM literature, each requiring short-term retention of verbal items. Following completion of a small number of trials from each task, individuals completed a self-report questionnaire to identify their primary strategy. Results indicated substantial variation across individuals for a given task, and within the same individual across tasks. Moreover, while direct comparisons between tasks showed that some tasks evinced similar patterns of strategy use despite differing task demands, others showed markedly different patterns of self-reported strategy use. A community detection algorithm aimed at identifying groups of individuals based on their profile of strategic choices revealed unique communities of individuals who are dependent on specific strategies under varying demands. Together, the findings suggest that researchers using common working memory paradigms should very carefully consider the implications of variation in strategy use when interpreting their findings. PMID:27038310

Understanding facilitators and barriers to reengineering the clinical research enterprise in community-based practice settings.

PubMed

Kukafka, Rita; Allegrante, John P; Khan, Sharib; Bigger, J Thomas; Johnson, Stephen B

2013-09-01

Solutions are employed to support clinical research trial tasks in community-based practice settings. Using the IT Implementation Framework (ITIF), an integrative framework intended to guide the synthesis of theoretical perspectives for planning multi-level interventions to enhance IT use, we sought to understand the barriers and facilitators to clinical research in community-based practice settings preliminary to implementing new informatics solutions for improving clinical research infrastructure. The studies were conducted in practices within the Columbia University Clinical Trials Network. A mixed-method approach, including surveys, interviews, time-motion studies, and observations was used. The data collected, which incorporates predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors in IT use, were analyzed according to each phase of ITIF. Themes identified in the first phase of ITIF were 1) processes and tools to support clinical trial research and 2) clinical research peripheral to patient care processes. Not all of the problems under these themes were found to be amenable to IT solutions. Using the multi-level orientation of the ITIF, we set forth strategies beyond IT solutions that can have an impact on reengineering clinical research tasks in practice-based settings. Developing strategies to target enabling and reinforcing factors, which focus on organizational factors, and the motivation of the practice at large to use IT solutions to integrate clinical research tasks with patient care processes, is most challenging. The ITIF should be used to consider both IT and non-IT solutions concurrently for reengineering of clinical research in community-based practice settings. © 2013.

Kinematics fingerprints of leader and follower role-taking during cooperative joint actions.

PubMed

Sacheli, Lucia Maria; Tidoni, Emmanuele; Pavone, Enea Francesco; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria; Candidi, Matteo

2013-05-01

Performing online complementary motor adjustments is quintessential to joint actions since it allows interacting people to coordinate efficiently and achieve a common goal. We sought to determine whether, during dyadic interactions, signaling strategies and simulative processes are differentially implemented on the basis of the interactional role played by each partner. To this aim, we recorded the kinematics of the right hand of pairs of individuals who were asked to grasp as synchronously as possible a bottle-shaped object according to an imitative or complementary action schedule. Task requirements implied an asymmetric role assignment so that participants performed the task acting either as (1) Leader (i.e., receiving auditory information regarding the goal of the task with indications about where to grasp the object) or (2) Follower (i.e., receiving instructions to coordinate their movements with their partner's by performing imitative or complementary actions). Results showed that, when acting as Leader, participants used signaling strategies to enhance the predictability of their movements. In particular, they selectively emphasized kinematic parameters and reduced movement variability to provide the partner with implicit cues regarding the action to be jointly performed. Thus, Leaders make their movements more "communicative" even when not explicitly instructed to do so. Moreover, only when acting in the role of Follower did participants tend to imitate the Leader, even in complementary actions where imitation is detrimental to joint performance. Our results show that mimicking and signaling are implemented in joint actions according to the interactional role of the agent, which in turn is reflected in the kinematics of each partner.

Improving Dual-Task Control With a Posture-Second Strategy in Early-Stage Parkinson Disease.

PubMed

Huang, Cheng-Ya; Chen, Yu-An; Hwang, Ing-Shiou; Wu, Ruey-Meei

2018-03-31

To examine the task prioritization effects on postural-suprapostural dual-task performance in patients with early-stage Parkinson disease (PD) without clinically observed postural symptoms. Cross-sectional study. Participants performed a force-matching task while standing on a mobile platform, and were instructed to focus their attention on either the postural task (posture-first strategy) or the force-matching task (posture-second strategy). University research laboratory. Individuals (N=16) with early-stage PD who had no clinically observed postural symptoms. Not applicable. Dual-task change (DTC; percent change between single-task and dual-task performance) of posture error, posture approximate entropy (ApEn), force error, and reaction time (RT). Positive DTC values indicate higher postural error, posture ApEn, force error, and force RT during dual-task conditions compared with single-task conditions. Compared with the posture-first strategy, the posture-second strategy was associated with smaller DTC of posture error and force error, and greater DTC of posture ApEn. In contrast, greater DTC of force RT was observed under the posture-second strategy. Contrary to typical recommendations, our results suggest that the posture-second strategy may be an effective dual-task strategy in patients with early-stage PD who have no clinically observed postural symptoms in order to reduce the negative effect of dual tasking on performance and facilitate postural automaticity. Copyright © 2018 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emergency Physician Task Switching Increases With the Introduction of a Commercial Electronic Health Record.

PubMed

Benda, Natalie C; Meadors, Margaret L; Hettinger, A Zachary; Ratwani, Raj M

2016-06-01

We evaluate how the transition from a homegrown electronic health record to a commercial one affects emergency physician work activities from initial introduction to long-term use. We completed a quasi-experimental study across 3 periods during the transition from a homegrown system to a commercially available electronic health record with computerized provider order entry. Observation periods consisted of pre-implementation, 1 month before the implementation of the commercial electronic health record; "go-live" 1 week after implementation; and post-implementation, 3 to 4 months after use began. Fourteen physicians were observed in each period (N=42) with a minute-by-minute observation template to record emergency physician time allocation across 5 task-based categories (computer, verbal communication, patient room, paper [chart/laboratory results], and other). The average number of tasks physicians engaged in per minute was also analyzed as an indicator of task switching. From pre- to post-implementation, there were no significant differences in the amount of time spent on the various task categories. There were changes in time allocation from pre-implementation to go-live and go-live to pre-implementation, characterized by a significant increase in time spent on computer tasks during go-live relative to the other periods. Critically, the number of tasks physicians engaged in per minute increased from 1.7 during pre-implementation to 1.9 during post-implementation (difference 0.19 tasks per minute; 95% confidence interval 0.039 to 0.35). The increase in the number of tasks physicians engaged in per minute post-implementation indicates that physicians switched tasks more frequently. Frequent task switching behavior raises patient safety concerns. Copyright © 2015 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ontario's emergency department process improvement program: the experience of implementation.

PubMed

Rotteau, Leahora; Webster, Fiona; Salkeld, Erin; Hellings, Chelsea; Guttmann, Astrid; Vermeulen, Marian J; Bell, Robert S; Zwarenstein, Merrick; Rowe, Brian H; Nigam, Amit; Schull, Michael J

2015-06-01

In recent years, Lean manufacturing principles have been applied to health care quality improvement efforts to improve wait times. In Ontario, an emergency department (ED) process improvement program based on Lean principles was introduced by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care as part of a strategy to reduce ED length of stay (LOS) and to improve patient flow. This article aims to describe the hospital-based teams' experiences during the ED process improvement program implementation and the teams' perceptions of the key factors that influenced the program's success or failure. A qualitative evaluation was conducted based on semistructured interviews with hospital implementation team members, such as team leads, medical leads, and executive sponsors, at 10 purposively selected hospitals in Ontario, Canada. Sites were selected based, in part, on their changes in median ED LOS following the implementation period. A thematic framework approach as used for interviews, and a standard thematic coding framework was developed. Twenty-four interviews were coded and analyzed. The results are organized according to participants' experience and are grouped into four themes that were identified as significantly affecting the implementation experience: local contextual factors, relationship between improvement team and support players, staff engagement, and success and sustainability. The results demonstrate the importance of the context of implementation, establishing strong relationships and communication strategies, and preparing for implementation and sustainability prior to the start of the project. Several key factors were identified as important to the success of the program, such as preparing for implementation, ensuring strong executive support, creation of implementation teams based on the tasks and outcomes of the initiative, and using multiple communication strategies throughout the implementation process. Explicit incorporation of these factors into the development and implementation of future similar interventions in health care settings could be useful. © 2015 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Low-level processing for real-time image analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eskenazi, R.; Wilf, J. M.

1979-01-01

A system that detects object outlines in television images in real time is described. A high-speed pipeline processor transforms the raw image into an edge map and a microprocessor, which is integrated into the system, clusters the edges, and represents them as chain codes. Image statistics, useful for higher level tasks such as pattern recognition, are computed by the microprocessor. Peak intensity and peak gradient values are extracted within a programmable window and are used for iris and focus control. The algorithms implemented in hardware and the pipeline processor architecture are described. The strategy for partitioning functions in the pipeline was chosen to make the implementation modular. The microprocessor interface allows flexible and adaptive control of the feature extraction process. The software algorithms for clustering edge segments, creating chain codes, and computing image statistics are also discussed. A strategy for real time image analysis that uses this system is given.

Attaining minimally disruptive medicine: context, challenges and a roadmap for implementation.

PubMed

Shippee, N D; Allen, S V; Leppin, A L; May, C R; Montori, V M

2015-01-01

In this second of two papers on minimally disruptive medicine, we use the language of patient workload and patient capacity from the Cumulative Complexity Model to accomplish three tasks. First, we outline the current context in healthcare, comprised of contrasting problems: some people lack access to care and others receive too much care in an overmedicalised system, both of which reflect imbalances between patients' workloads and their capacity. Second, we identify and address five tensions and challenges between minimally disruptive medicine, the existing context, and other approaches to accessible and patient-centred care such as evidence-based medicine and greater patient engagement. Third, we outline a roadmap of three strategies toward implementing minimally disruptive medicine in practice, including large-scale paradigm shifts, mid-level add-ons to existing reform efforts, and a modular strategy using an existing 'toolkit' that is more limited in scope, but can fit into existing healthcare systems.

regioneR: an R/Bioconductor package for the association analysis of genomic regions based on permutation tests.

PubMed

Gel, Bernat; Díez-Villanueva, Anna; Serra, Eduard; Buschbeck, Marcus; Peinado, Miguel A; Malinverni, Roberto

2016-01-15

Statistically assessing the relation between a set of genomic regions and other genomic features is a common challenging task in genomic and epigenomic analyses. Randomization based approaches implicitly take into account the complexity of the genome without the need of assuming an underlying statistical model. regioneR is an R package that implements a permutation test framework specifically designed to work with genomic regions. In addition to the predefined randomization and evaluation strategies, regioneR is fully customizable allowing the use of custom strategies to adapt it to specific questions. Finally, it also implements a novel function to evaluate the local specificity of the detected association. regioneR is an R package released under Artistic-2.0 License. The source code and documents are freely available through Bioconductor (http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/regioneR). rmalinverni@carrerasresearch.org. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

Interval timing in children: effects of auditory and visual pacing stimuli and relationships with reading and attention variables.

PubMed

Birkett, Emma E; Talcott, Joel B

2012-01-01

Motor timing tasks have been employed in studies of neurodevelopmental disorders such as developmental dyslexia and ADHD, where they provide an index of temporal processing ability. Investigations of these disorders have used different stimulus parameters within the motor timing tasks that are likely to affect performance measures. Here we assessed the effect of auditory and visual pacing stimuli on synchronised motor timing performance and its relationship with cognitive and behavioural predictors that are commonly used in the diagnosis of these highly prevalent developmental disorders. Twenty-one children (mean age 9.6 years) completed a finger tapping task in two stimulus conditions, together with additional psychometric measures. As anticipated, synchronisation to the beat (ISI 329 ms) was less accurate in the visually paced condition. Decomposition of timing variance indicated that this effect resulted from differences in the way that visual and auditory paced tasks are processed by central timekeeping and associated peripheral implementation systems. The ability to utilise an efficient processing strategy on the visual task correlated with both reading and sustained attention skills. Dissociations between these patterns of relationship across task modality suggest that not all timing tasks are equivalent.

The importance of training strategy adaptation: a learner-oriented approach for improving older adults' memory and transfer.

PubMed

Bottiroli, Sara; Cavallini, Elena; Dunlosky, John; Vecchi, Tomaso; Hertzog, Christopher

2013-09-01

We investigated the benefits of strategy-adaptation training for promoting transfer effects. This learner-oriented approach--which directly encourages the learner to generalize strategic behavior to new tasks--helps older adults appraise new tasks and adapt trained strategies to them. In Experiment 1, older adults in a strategy-adaptation training group used 2 strategies (imagery and sentence generation) while practicing 2 tasks (list and associative learning); they were then instructed on how to do a simple task analysis to help them adapt the trained strategies for 2 different unpracticed tasks (place learning and text learning) that were discussed during training. Two additional criterion tasks (name-face associative learning and grocery-list learning) were never mentioned during training. Two other groups were included: A strategy training group (who received strategy training and transfer instructions but not strategy-adaptation training) and a waiting-list control group. Both training procedures enhanced older adults' performance on the trained tasks and those tasks that were discussed during training, but transfer was greatest after strategy-adaptation training. Experiment 2 found that strategy-adaptation training conducted via a manual that older adults used at home also promoted transfer. These findings demonstrate the importance of adopting a learner-oriented approach to promote transfer of strategy training. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

High quality diabetes care: testing the effectiveness of strategies of regional implementation teams.

PubMed

Drach-Zahavy, Anat; Shadmi, Efrat; Freund, Anat; Goldfracht, Margalit

2009-01-01

The purpose of this article is to identify and test the effectiveness of work strategies employed by regional implementation teams to attain high quality care for diabetes patients. The study was conducted in a major health maintenance organization (HMO) that provides care for 70 per cent of Israel's diabetes patients. A sequential mixed model design, combining qualitative and quantitative methods was employed. In-depth interviews were conducted with members of six regional implementation teams, each responsible for the care of 25,000-34,000 diabetic patients. Content analysis of the interviews revealed that teams employed four key strategies: task-interdependence, goal-interdependence, reliance on top-down standardised processes and team-learning. These strategies were used to predict the mean percentage performance of eight evidence-based indicators of diabetes care: percentage of patients with HbA1c < 7 per cent, blood pressure < or = 130/80 and cholesterol < or = 100; and performance of: HbA1c tests, LDL cholesterol tests, blood pressure measurements, urine protein tests, and ophthalmic examinations. Teams were found to vary in their use of the four strategies. Mixed linear models analysis indicated that type of indicator (simple process, compound process, and outcome) and goal interdependence were significantly linked to team effectiveness. For simple-process indicators, reliance on top-down standardised processes led to team effectiveness, but for outcome measures this strategy was ineffective, and even counter-effective. For outcome measures, team-learning was more beneficial. The findings have implications for the management of chronic diseases. The advantage of allowing team members flexibility in the choice of the best work strategy to attain high quality diabetes care is attested.

Autonomous path-planning navigation system for site characterization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rankin, Arturo L.; Crane, Carl D., III; Armstrong, David G., II; Nease, Allen D.; Brown, H. Edward

1996-05-01

The location and removal of buried munitions is an important yet hazardous task. Current development is aimed at performing both the ordnance location and removal tasks autonomously. An autonomous survey vehicle (ASV) named the Gator has been developed at the Center for Intelligent Machines and Robotics, under the direction of Wright Laboratory, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, and the Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division, Indian Head, Maryland. The primary task of the survey vehicle is to autonomously traverse an off-road site, towing behind it a trailer containing a sensor package capable of characterizing the sub-surface contents. Achieving 00 percent coverage of the site is critical to fully characterizing the site. This paper presents a strategy for planning efficient paths for the survey vehicle that guarantees near-complete coverage of a site. A small library of three in-house developed path planners are reviewed. A strategy is also presented to keep the trailer on-path and to calculate the percent of coverage of a site with a resolution of 0.01 m2. All of the algorithms discussed in this paper were initially developed in simulation on a Silicon Graphics computer and subsequently implemented on the survey vehicle.

Sustaining Nurse-Led Task-Shifting Strategies for Hypertension Control: A Concept Mapping Study to Inform Evidence-Based Practice.

PubMed

Blackstone, Sarah; Iwelunmor, Juliet; Plange-Rhule, Jacob; Gyamfi, Joyce; Quakyi, Nana Kofi; Ntim, Micheal; Ogedegbe, Gbenga

2017-10-01

The use of task-shifting is an increasingly widespread delivery approach for health interventions targeting prevention, treatment, and control of hypertension in adults living in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Addressing a gap in the literature, this research examined the sustainability of an ongoing task-shifting strategy for hypertension (TASSH) from the perspectives of community health nurses (CHNs) implementing the program. We used concept-mapping, a mixed-methods participatory approach to understand CHNs' perceptions of barriers and enablers to sustaining a task-shifting program. Participants responded to focal prompts, eliciting statements regarding perceived barriers and enablers to sustaining TASSH, and then rated these ideas based on importance to the research questions and feasibility to address. Twenty-eight community health nurses (21 women, 7 men) from the Ashanti region of Ghana completed the concept-mapping process. Factors influencing sustainability were grouped into five categories: Limited Drug Supply, Financial Support, Provision of Primary Health Care, Personnel Training, and Patient-Provider Communication. The limited supply of antihypertensive medication was considered by CHNs as the most important item to address, while providing training for intervention personnel was considered most feasible to address. This study's findings highlight the importance of examining nurses' perceptions of factors likely to influence the sustainability of evidence-based, task-shifting interventions. Nurses' perceptions can guide the widespread uptake and dissemination of these interventions in resource-limited settings. © 2017 Sigma Theta Tau International.

An integrative, experience-based theory of attentional control.

PubMed

Wilder, Matthew H; Mozer, Michael C; Wickens, Christopher D

2011-02-09

Although diverse, theories of visual attention generally share the notion that attention is controlled by some combination of three distinct strategies: (1) exogenous cuing from locally contrasting primitive visual features, such as abrupt onsets or color singletons (e.g., L. Itti, C. Koch, & E. Neiber, 1998), (2) endogenous gain modulation of exogenous activations, used to guide attention to task-relevant features (e.g., V. Navalpakkam & L. Itti, 2007; J. Wolfe, 1994, 2007), and (3) endogenous prediction of likely locations of interest, based on task and scene gist (e.g., A. Torralba, A. Oliva, M. Castelhano, & J. Henderson, 2006). However, little work has been done to synthesize these disparate theories. In this work, we propose a unifying conceptualization in which attention is controlled along two dimensions: the degree of task focus and the contextual scale of operation. Previously proposed strategies-and their combinations-can be viewed as instances of this one mechanism. Thus, this theory serves not as a replacement for existing models but as a means of bringing them into a coherent framework. We present an implementation of this theory and demonstrate its applicability to a wide range of attentional phenomena. The model accounts for key results in visual search with synthetic images and makes reasonable predictions for human eye movements in search tasks involving real-world images. In addition, the theory offers an unusual perspective on attention that places a fundamental emphasis on the role of experience and task-related knowledge.

The impact of electronic health record use on physician productivity.

PubMed

Adler-Milstein, Julia; Huckman, Robert S

2013-11-01

To examine the impact of the degree of electronic health record (EHR) use and delegation of EHR tasks on clinician productivity in ambulatory settings. We examined EHR use in primary care practices that implemented a web-based EHR from athenahealth (n = 42) over 3 years (695 practice-month observations). Practices were predominantly small and spread throughout the country. Data came from athenahealth practice management system and EHR task logs. We developed monthly measures of EHR use and delegation to support staff from task logs. Productivity was measured using work relative value units (RVUs). Using fixed effects models, we assessed the independent impacts on productivity of EHR use and delegation. We then explored the interaction between these 2 strategies and the role of practice size. Greater EHR use and greater delegation were independently associated with higher levels of productivity. An increase in EHR use of 1 standard deviation resulted in a 5.3% increase in RVUs per clinician workday; an increase in delegation of EHR tasks of 1 standard deviation resulted in an 11.0% increase in RVUs per clinician workday (P <.05 for both). Further, EHR use and delegation had a positive joint impact on productivity in large practices (coefficient, 0.058; P <.05), but a negative joint impact on productivity in small practices (coefficient, -0.142; P <.01). Clinicians in practices that increased EHR use and delegated EHR tasks were more productive, but practice size determined whether the 2 strategies were complements or substitutes.

A compressive sensing-based computational method for the inversion of wide-band ground penetrating radar data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gelmini, A.; Gottardi, G.; Moriyama, T.

2017-10-01

This work presents an innovative computational approach for the inversion of wideband ground penetrating radar (GPR) data. The retrieval of the dielectric characteristics of sparse scatterers buried in a lossy soil is performed by combining a multi-task Bayesian compressive sensing (MT-BCS) solver and a frequency hopping (FH) strategy. The developed methodology is able to benefit from the regularization capabilities of the MT-BCS as well as to exploit the multi-chromatic informative content of GPR measurements. A set of numerical results is reported in order to assess the effectiveness of the proposed GPR inverse scattering technique, as well as to compare it to a simpler single-task implementation.

Radiation Shielding for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caffrey, Jarvis A.

2016-01-01

Design and analysis of radiation shielding for nuclear thermal propulsion has continued at Marshall Space Flight Center. A set of optimization tools are in development, and strategies for shielding optimization will be discussed. Considerations for the concurrent design of internal and external shielding are likely required for a mass optimal shield design. The task of reducing radiation dose to crew from a nuclear engine is considered to be less challenging than the task of thermal mitigation for cryogenic propellant, especially considering the likely implementation of additional crew shielding for protection from solar particles and cosmic rays. Further consideration is thus made for the thermal effects of radiation absorption in cryogenic propellant. Materials challenges and possible methods of manufacturing are also discussed.

The development of tool use: Planning for end-state comfort

PubMed Central

Comalli, David M.; Keen, Rachel; Abraham, Evelyn S.; Foo, Victoria J.; Lee, Mei-Hua; Adolph, Karen E.

2016-01-01

Some grips on the handle of a tool can be planned based on information directly available in the scene. Other grips, however, must be planned based on the final position of the hand. “End-state comfort” grips require an awkward or uncomfortable initial grip so as to later implement the action comfortably and efficiently. From a cognitive perspective, planning for end-state comfort requires a consistent representation of the entire action sequence, including the latter part, which is not based on information directly available in the scene. Many investigators have found that young children fail to demonstrate planning for end-state comfort and that adult-like performance does not appear until about 12 years of age. In two experiments, we used a hammering task that engaged children in a goal-directed action with multiple steps. We assessed end-state-comfort planning in novel ways by measuring children’s hand choice, grip choice, and tool implementation over multiple trials. The hammering task also uniquely allowed us to assess the efficiency of implementation. We replicated the previous developmental trend in 4-, 8-, and 12-year-old children with our novel task. Most important, our data revealed that 4-year-olds are in a transitional stage with several competing strategies exhibited during a single session. Preschoolers changed their grip within trials and across trials, indicating awareness of errors and a willingness to sacrifice speed for more efficient implementation. The end-state-comfort grip initially competes as one grip type among many, but gradually displaces all others. Children’s sensitivity to and drive for efficiency may motivate this change. PMID:27786531

The implementation and use of Ada on distributed systems with high reliability requirements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Knight, J. C.

1984-01-01

The use and implementation of Ada in distributed environments in which reliability is the primary concern is investigated. Emphasis is placed on the possibility that a distributed system may be programmed entirely in ADA so that the individual tasks of the system are unconcerned with which processors they are executing on, and that failures may occur in the software or underlying hardware. The primary activities are: (1) Continued development and testing of our fault-tolerant Ada testbed; (2) consideration of desirable language changes to allow Ada to provide useful semantics for failure; (3) analysis of the inadequacies of existing software fault tolerance strategies.

The Value of Lung Cancer CT Screening: It Is All about Implementation.

PubMed

Goulart, Bernardo H L

2015-01-01

Hospitals have been gradually implementing new lung cancer CT screening programs following the release of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force grade B recommendation to screen individuals at high risk for lung cancer. Policy makers have legitimately questioned whether adoption of CT screening in the community will reproduce the mortality benefits seen in the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) and whether the benefits of screening will justify the potentially high costs. Although three annual CT screening exams proved cost-effective for the patient population enrolled in the NLST, uncertainty still exists about whether CT screening will be cost-effective in practice. The value of CT screening will depend largely on the strategies used to implement it. This manuscript reviews the current reimbursement policies for CT screening and explains the relationship between implementation strategies and screening value on the basis of the NLST cost-effectiveness analysis and other published data. A subsequent discussion ensues about the potential implementation inefficiencies that can negatively affect the value of CT screening (e.g., selection of low-risk individuals for screening, inappropriate follow-up visits for screening-detected lung nodules, failure to offer smoking cessation interventions, and overuse of medical resources for clinically irrelevant incidental findings) and the actions that can be taken to mitigate these inefficiencies and increase the value of screening.

Twelve tips for implementing whole-task curricula: how to make it work.

PubMed

Dolmans, Diana H J M; Wolfhagen, Ineke H A P; Van Merriënboer, Jeroen J G

2013-10-01

Whole-task models of learning and instructional design, such as problem-based learning, are nowadays very popular. Schools regularly encounter large problems when they implement whole-task curricula. The main aim of this article is to provide 12 tips that may help to make the implementation of a whole-task curriculum successful. Implementing whole-task curricula fails when the implementation is not well prepared. Requirements that must be met to make the implementation of whole task models into a success are described as twelve tips. The tips are organized in four clusters and refer to (1) the infrastructure, (2) the teachers, (3) the students, and (4) the management of the educational organization. Finally, the presented framework will be critically discussed and the importance of shared values and a change of culture is emphasized.

Hospital electronic medical record enterprise application strategies: do they matter?

PubMed

Fareed, Naleef; Ozcan, Yasar A; DeShazo, Jonathan P

2012-01-01

Successful implementations and the ability to reap the benefits of electronic medical record (EMR) systems may be correlated with the type of enterprise application strategy that an administrator chooses when acquiring an EMR system. Moreover, identifying the most optimal enterprise application strategy is a task that may have important linkages with hospital performance. This study explored whether hospitals that have adopted differential EMR enterprise application strategies concomitantly differ in their overall efficiency. Specifically, the study examined whether hospitals with a single-vendor strategy had a higher likelihood of being efficient than those with a best-of-breed strategy and whether hospitals with a best-of-suite strategy had a higher probability of being efficient than those with best-of-breed or single-vendor strategies. A conceptual framework was used to formulate testable hypotheses. A retrospective cross-sectional approach using data envelopment analysis was used to obtain efficiency scores of hospitals by EMR enterprise application strategy. A Tobit regression analysis was then used to determine the probability of a hospital being inefficient as related to its EMR enterprise application strategy, while moderating for the hospital's EMR "implementation status" and controlling for hospital and market characteristics. The data envelopment analysis of hospitals suggested that only 32 hospitals were efficient in the study's sample of 2,171 hospitals. The results from the post hoc analysis showed partial support for the hypothesis that hospitals with a best-of-suite strategy were more likely to be efficient than those with a single-vendor strategy. This study underscores the importance of understanding the differences between the three strategies discussed in this article. On the basis of the findings, hospital administrators should consider the efficiency associations that a specific strategy may have compared with another prior to moving toward an enterprise application strategy.

A developmental roadmap for learning by imitation in robots.

PubMed

Lopes, Manuel; Santos-Victor, José

2007-04-01

In this paper, we present a strategy whereby a robot acquires the capability to learn by imitation following a developmental pathway consisting on three levels: 1) sensory-motor coordination; 2) world interaction; and 3) imitation. With these stages, the system is able to learn tasks by imitating human demonstrators. We describe results of the different developmental stages, involving perceptual and motor skills, implemented in our humanoid robot, Baltazar. At each stage, the system's attention is drawn toward different entities: its own body and, later on, objects and people. Our main contributions are the general architecture and the implementation of all the necessary modules until imitation capabilities are eventually acquired by the robot. Also, several other contributions are made at each level: learning of sensory-motor maps for redundant robots, a novel method for learning how to grasp objects, and a framework for learning task description from observation for program-level imitation. Finally, vision is used extensively as the sole sensing modality (sometimes in a simplified setting) avoiding the need for special data-acquisition hardware.

Effective algorithm for solving complex problems of production control and of material flows control of industrial enterprise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mezentsev, Yu A.; Baranova, N. V.

2018-05-01

A universal economical and mathematical model designed for determination of optimal strategies for managing subsystems (components of subsystems) of production and logistics of enterprises is considered. Declared universality allows taking into account on the system level both production components, including limitations on the ways of converting raw materials and components into sold goods, as well as resource and logical restrictions on input and output material flows. The presented model and generated control problems are developed within the framework of the unified approach that allows one to implement logical conditions of any complexity and to define corresponding formal optimization tasks. Conceptual meaning of used criteria and limitations are explained. The belonging of the generated tasks of the mixed programming with the class of NP is shown. An approximate polynomial algorithm for solving the posed optimization tasks for mixed programming of real dimension with high computational complexity is proposed. Results of testing the algorithm on the tasks in a wide range of dimensions are presented.

Task partitioning in a robot swarm: object retrieval as a sequence of subtasks with direct object transfer.

PubMed

Pini, Giovanni; Brutschy, Arne; Scheidler, Alexander; Dorigo, Marco; Birattari, Mauro

2014-01-01

We study task partitioning in the context of swarm robotics. Task partitioning is the decomposition of a task into subtasks that can be tackled by different workers. We focus on the case in which a task is partitioned into a sequence of subtasks that must be executed in a certain order. This implies that the subtasks must interface with each other, and that the output of a subtask is used as input for the subtask that follows. A distinction can be made between task partitioning with direct transfer and with indirect transfer. We focus our study on the first case: The output of a subtask is directly transferred from an individual working on that subtask to an individual working on the subtask that follows. As a test bed for our study, we use a swarm of robots performing foraging. The robots have to harvest objects from a source, situated in an unknown location, and transport them to a home location. When a robot finds the source, it memorizes its position and uses dead reckoning to return there. Dead reckoning is appealing in robotics, since it is a cheap localization method and it does not require any additional external infrastructure. However, dead reckoning leads to errors that grow in time if not corrected periodically. We compare a foraging strategy that does not make use of task partitioning with one that does. We show that cooperation through task partitioning can be used to limit the effect of dead reckoning errors. This results in improved capability of locating the object source and in increased performance of the swarm. We use the implemented system as a test bed to study benefits and costs of task partitioning with direct transfer. We implement the system with real robots, demonstrating the feasibility of our approach in a foraging scenario.

Using Hybrid Change Strategies to Improve the Patient Experience in Outpatient Specialty Care.

PubMed

Miranda, Rafael; Glenn, Sean W; Leighton, Jonathan A; Pasha, Shabana E; Gurudu, Suryakanth R; Teaford, Harry G; Mertz, Lester E; Lee, Howard R; Mamby, Sylvia A; Johnson, Margaret F; Raghu, T S

2015-01-01

The emerging changes in healthcare impose significant burdens on integrated outpatient specialty services with respect to setting patient expectations, handling outside medical records; and coordinating specialty appointments scheduling. Moreover, because of the evolution of the electronic health record and its widespread use, it is critical that patient and physician interaction is maintained and clerical tasks are minimized. In the context of increased government regulation, declining reimbursement, and the rise of new payment models, outpatient practices need to be reimagined so that they are more efficient for the patient and the provider. The redesign of integrated outpatient specialty services can be accomplished only through teamwork, innovation, and efficient use of technology. To address these challenges, the Department of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, implemented an ideal practice design initiative that leveraged a hybrid set of change strategies. The change strategy, which was initiated after examination of current practices and design options, engaged key stakeholders and patients. A number of enablers and barriers to adoption were identified as a result of the implementation experience.

A novel electronic assessment strategy to support applied Drosophila genetics training in university courses.

PubMed

Fostier, Maggy; Patel, Sanjai; Clarke, Samantha; Prokop, Andreas

2015-02-25

The advent of "omic" technologies has revolutionized genetics and created a demand to focus classical genetics on its present-day applications (Redfield, 2012, PLoS Biol 10: e1001356). This demand can be met by training students in Drosophila mating scheme design, which is an important problem-solving skill routinely applied in many modern research laboratories. It promotes a thorough understanding and application of classical genetics rules and introduces to transgenic technologies and the use of model organisms. As we show here, such training can be implemented as a flexible and concise module (~1-day home study, ~8-hour course time) on university courses by using our previously published training package designed for fly researchers (Roote and Prokop, 2013, G3 (Bethesda) 3: 353-358). However, assessing this training to make it an accredited course element is difficult, especially in large courses. Here, we present a powerful assessment strategy based on a novel hybrid concept in which students solve crossing tasks initially on paper and then answer automatically marked questions on the computer (1.5 hours total). This procedure can be used to examine student performance on more complex tasks than conventional e-assessments and is more versatile, time-saving, and fairer than standard paper-based assignments. Our evaluation shows that the hybrid assessment is effective and reliably detects varying degrees of understanding among students. It also may be applicable in other disciplines requiring complex problem solving, such as mathematics, chemistry, physics, or informatics. Here, we describe our strategies in detail and provide all resources needed for their implementation. Copyright © 2015 Fostier et al.

Visuospatial anatomy comprehension: the role of spatial visualization ability and problem-solving strategies.

PubMed

Nguyen, Ngan; Mulla, Ali; Nelson, Andrew J; Wilson, Timothy D

2014-01-01

The present study explored the problem-solving strategies of high- and low-spatial visualization ability learners on a novel spatial anatomy task to determine whether differences in strategies contribute to differences in task performance. The results of this study provide further insights into the processing commonalities and differences among learners beyond the classification of spatial visualization ability alone, and help elucidate what, if anything, high- and low-spatial visualization ability learners do differently while solving spatial anatomy task problems. Forty-two students completed a standardized measure of spatial visualization ability, a novel spatial anatomy task, and a questionnaire involving personal self-analysis of the processes and strategies used while performing the spatial anatomy task. Strategy reports revealed that there were different ways students approached answering the spatial anatomy task problems. However, chi-square test analyses established that differences in problem-solving strategies did not contribute to differences in task performance. Therefore, underlying spatial visualization ability is the main source of variation in spatial anatomy task performance, irrespective of strategy. In addition to scoring higher and spending less time on the anatomy task, participants with high spatial visualization ability were also more accurate when solving the task problems. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.

Does Strategy Training Reduce Age-Related Deficits in Working Memory?

PubMed Central

Bailey, Heather R.; Dunlosky, John; Hertzog, Christopher

2014-01-01

Background Older adults typically perform worse on measures of working memory (WM) than do young adults; however, age-related differences in WM performance might be reduced if older adults use effective encoding strategies (Bailey, Dunlosky, & Hertzog, 2009). Objective The purpose of the current experiment was to evaluate WM performance after training individuals to use effective encoding strategies. Methods Participants in the training group (older adults: n = 39; young adults: n = 41) were taught about various verbal encoding strategies and their differential effectiveness and were trained to use interactive imagery and sentence generation on a list-learning task. Participants in the control group (older: n=37; young: n=38) completed an equally engaging filler task. All participants completed a pre-training and post-training reading span task, which included self-reported strategy use, as well as two transfer tasks that differed in the affordance to use the trained strategies – a paired-associate recall task and the self-ordered pointing task. Results Both young and older adults were able to use the target strategies on the WM task and showed gains in WM performance after training. The age-related WM deficit was not greatly affected, however, and the training gains did not transfer to the other cognitive tasks. In fact, participants attempted to adapt the trained strategies for a paired-associate recall task, but the increased strategy use did not benefit their performance. Conclusions Strategy training can boost WM performance, and its benefits appear to arise from strategy-specific effects and not from domain-general gains in cognitive ability. PMID:24577079

Change in hippocampal theta activity with transfer from simple discrimination tasks to a simultaneous feature-negative task

PubMed Central

Sakimoto, Yuya; Sakata, Shogo

2014-01-01

It was showed that solving a simple discrimination task (A+, B−) and a simultaneous feature-negative (FN) task (A+, AB−) used the hippocampal-independent strategy. Recently, we showed that the number of sessions required for a rat to completely learn a task differed between the FN and simple discrimination tasks, and there was a difference in hippocampal theta activity between these tasks. These results suggested that solving the FN task relied on a different strategy than the simple discrimination task. In this study, we provided supportive evidence that solving the FN and simple discrimination tasks involved different strategies by examining changes in performance and hippocampal theta activity in the FN task after transfer from the simple discrimination task (A+, B− → A+, AB−). The results of this study showed that performance on the FN task was impaired and there was a difference in hippocampal theta activity between the simple discrimination task and FN task. Thus, we concluded that solving the FN task uses a different strategy than the simple discrimination task. PMID:24917797

Increased reaction times and reduced response preparation already starts at middle age

PubMed Central

Wolkorte, Ria; Kamphuis, Janine; Zijdewind, Inge

2014-01-01

Generalized slowing characterizes aging and there is some evidence to suggest that this slowing already starts at midlife. This study aims to assess reaction time changes while performing a concurrent low-force and high-force motor task in young and middle-aged subjects. The high-force motor task is designed to induce muscle fatigue and thereby progressively increase the attentional demands. Twenty-five young (20–30 years, 12 males) and 16 middle-aged (35–55 years, 9 males) adults performed an auditory two-choice reaction time task (CRT) with and without a concurrent low- or high-force motor task. The CRT required subjects to respond to two different stimuli that occurred with a probability of 70 or 30%. The motor task consisted of index finger abduction, at either 10% (10%-dual-task) or 30% (30%-dual-task) of maximal voluntary force. Cognitive task performance was measured as percentage of correct responses and reaction times. Middle-aged subjects responded slower on the frequent but more accurately on the infrequent stimuli of CRT than young subjects. Both young and middle-aged subjects showed increased errors and reaction times while performing under dual-task conditions and both outcome measures increased further under fatiguing conditions. Only under 30%-dual-task demands, an age-effect on dual-task performance was present. Both single- and dual-task conditions showed that already at mid-life response preparation is seriously declined and that subjects implement different strategies to perform a CRT task. PMID:24808862

Processing of probabilistic information in weight perception and motor prediction.

PubMed

Trampenau, Leif; van Eimeren, Thilo; Kuhtz-Buschbeck, Johann

2017-02-01

We studied the effects of probabilistic cues, i.e., of information of limited certainty, in the context of an action task (GL: grip-lift) and of a perceptual task (WP: weight perception). Normal subjects (n = 22) saw four different probabilistic visual cues, each of which announced the likely weight of an object. In the GL task, the object was grasped and lifted with a pinch grip, and the peak force rates indicated that the grip and load forces were scaled predictively according to the probabilistic information. The WP task provided the expected heaviness related to each probabilistic cue; the participants gradually adjusted the object's weight until its heaviness matched the expected weight for a given cue. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups: one started with the GL task and the other one with the WP task. The four different probabilistic cues influenced weight adjustments in the WP task and peak force rates in the GL task in a similar manner. The interpretation and utilization of the probabilistic information was critically influenced by the initial task. Participants who started with the WP task classified the four probabilistic cues into four distinct categories and applied these categories to the subsequent GL task. On the other side, participants who started with the GL task applied three distinct categories to the four cues and retained this classification in the following WP task. The initial strategy, once established, determined the way how the probabilistic information was interpreted and implemented.

Task Force on Defense Strategies for Ensuring the Resilience of National Space Capabilities. Executive Summary

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-21

March 2017 Task Force on Defense Strategies for Ensuring the Resilience of National Space Capabilities OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY OF...the Department of Defense. The DSB Task Force on Defense Strategies for Ensuring the Resilience of National Space Capabilities completed its formal...Ensuring the Resilience of National Space Capabilities | i DSB Task Force on Defense Strategies for Ensuring the

The Shift from a Response Strategy to Object-in-Place Strategy during Learning Is Accompanied by a Matching Shift in Neural Firing Correlates in the Hippocampus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Inah; Kim, Jangjin

2010-01-01

Hippocampal-dependent tasks often involve specific associations among stimuli (including egocentric information), and such tasks are therefore prone to interference from irrelevant task strategies before a correct strategy is found. Using an object-place paired-associate task, we investigated changes in neural firing patterns in the hippocampus in…

Thin EFG octagons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalejs, J. P.

1994-03-01

This report describes work to advance the manufacturing line capabilities in crystal growth and laser cutting of Mobil Solar's unique edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) octagon technology and to reduce the manufacturing costs of 10 cm x 10 cm polycrystalline silicon EFG wafers. The report summarizes the significant technical improvements in EFG technology achieved in the first 6 months of the PVMaT Phase 2 and the success in meeting program milestones. Technical results are reported for each of the three main pregrain areas: Task 5 -- Thin octagon growth (crystal growth) to reduce the thickness of the octagon to 200 microns; Task 6 -- Laser cutting-to improve the laser cutting process so as to produce wafers with decreased laser cutting damage at increased wafer throughput rates; and Task 7 -- Process control and product specification to implement advanced strategies in crystal growth process control and productivity designed to increase wafer yields.

Implications of ICD-10 for Sarcopenia Clinical Practice and Clinical Trials: Report by the International Conference on Frailty and Sarcopenia Research Task Force.

PubMed

Vellas, B; Fielding, R A; Bens, C; Bernabei, R; Cawthon, P M; Cederholm, T; Cruz-Jentoft, A J; Del Signore, S; Donahue, S; Morley, J; Pahor, M; Reginster, J-Y; Rodriguez Mañas, L; Rolland, Y; Roubenoff, R; Sinclair, A; Cesari, M

2018-01-01

Establishment of an ICD-10-CM code for sarcopenia in 2016 was an important step towards reaching international consensus on the need for a nosological framework of age-related skeletal muscle decline. The International Conference on Frailty and Sarcopenia Research Task Force met in April 2017 to discuss the meaning, significance, and barriers to the implementation of the new code as well as strategies to accelerate development of new therapies. Analyses by the Sarcopenia Definitions and Outcomes Consortium are underway to develop quantitative definitions of sarcopenia. A consensus conference is planned to evaluate this analysis. The Task Force also discussed lessons learned from sarcopenia trials that could be applied to future trials, as well as lessons from the osteoporosis field, a clinical condition with many constructs similar to sarcopenia and for which ad hoc treatments have been developed and approved by regulatory agencies.

Exercising Your Brain: A Review of Human Brain Plasticity and Training-Induced Learning

PubMed Central

Green, C. S.; Bavelier, D.

2010-01-01

Human beings have an amazing capacity to learn new skills and adapt to new environments. However, several obstacles remain to be overcome in designing paradigms to broadly improve quality of life. Arguably, the most notable impediment to this goal is that learning tends to be quite specific to the trained regimen and does not transfer to even qualitatively similar tasks. This severely limits the potential benefits of learning to daily life. This review discusses training regimens that lead to the acquisition of new knowledge and strategies that can be used flexibly across a range of tasks and contexts. Possible characteristics of training regimens are proposed that may be responsible for augmented learning, including the manner in which task difficulty is progressed, the motivational state of the learner, and the type of feedback the training provides. When maximally implemented in rehabilitative paradigms, these characteristics may greatly increase the efficacy of training. PMID:19140641

The Immuno-Dynamics of Conflict Intervention in Social Systems

PubMed Central

Krakauer, David C.; Page, Karen; Flack, Jessica

2011-01-01

We present statistical evidence and dynamical models for the management of conflict and a division of labor (task specialization) in a primate society. Two broad intervention strategy classes are observed– a dyadic strategy – pacifying interventions, and a triadic strategy –policing interventions. These strategies, their respective degrees of specialization, and their consequences for conflict dynamics can be captured through empirically-grounded mathematical models inspired by immuno-dynamics. The spread of aggression, analogous to the proliferation of pathogens, is an epidemiological problem. We show analytically and computationally that policing is an efficient strategy as it requires only a small proportion of a population to police to reduce conflict contagion. Policing, but not pacifying, is capable of effectively eliminating conflict. These results suggest that despite implementation differences there might be universal features of conflict management mechanisms for reducing contagion-like dynamics that apply across biological and social levels. Our analyses further suggest that it can be profitable to conceive of conflict management strategies at the behavioral level as mechanisms of social immunity. PMID:21887221

The immuno-dynamics of conflict intervention in social systems.

PubMed

Krakauer, David C; Page, Karen; Flack, Jessica

2011-01-01

We present statistical evidence and dynamical models for the management of conflict and a division of labor (task specialization) in a primate society. Two broad intervention strategy classes are observed--a dyadic strategy--pacifying interventions, and a triadic strategy--policing interventions. These strategies, their respective degrees of specialization, and their consequences for conflict dynamics can be captured through empirically-grounded mathematical models inspired by immuno-dynamics. The spread of aggression, analogous to the proliferation of pathogens, is an epidemiological problem. We show analytically and computationally that policing is an efficient strategy as it requires only a small proportion of a population to police to reduce conflict contagion. Policing, but not pacifying, is capable of effectively eliminating conflict. These results suggest that despite implementation differences there might be universal features of conflict management mechanisms for reducing contagion-like dynamics that apply across biological and social levels. Our analyses further suggest that it can be profitable to conceive of conflict management strategies at the behavioral level as mechanisms of social immunity.

A Parameter Communication Optimization Strategy for Distributed Machine Learning in Sensors

PubMed Central

Zhang, Jilin; Tu, Hangdi; Ren, Yongjian; Wan, Jian; Zhou, Li; Li, Mingwei; Wang, Jue; Yu, Lifeng; Zhao, Chang; Zhang, Lei

2017-01-01

In order to utilize the distributed characteristic of sensors, distributed machine learning has become the mainstream approach, but the different computing capability of sensors and network delays greatly influence the accuracy and the convergence rate of the machine learning model. Our paper describes a reasonable parameter communication optimization strategy to balance the training overhead and the communication overhead. We extend the fault tolerance of iterative-convergent machine learning algorithms and propose the Dynamic Finite Fault Tolerance (DFFT). Based on the DFFT, we implement a parameter communication optimization strategy for distributed machine learning, named Dynamic Synchronous Parallel Strategy (DSP), which uses the performance monitoring model to dynamically adjust the parameter synchronization strategy between worker nodes and the Parameter Server (PS). This strategy makes full use of the computing power of each sensor, ensures the accuracy of the machine learning model, and avoids the situation that the model training is disturbed by any tasks unrelated to the sensors. PMID:28934163

The shift from a response strategy to object-in-place strategy during learning is accompanied by a matching shift in neural firing correlates in the hippocampus.

PubMed

Lee, Inah; Kim, Jangjin

2010-08-01

Hippocampal-dependent tasks often involve specific associations among stimuli (including egocentric information), and such tasks are therefore prone to interference from irrelevant task strategies before a correct strategy is found. Using an object-place paired-associate task, we investigated changes in neural firing patterns in the hippocampus in association with a shift in strategy during learning. We used an object-place paired-associate task in which a pair of objects was presented in two different arms of a radial maze. Each object was associated with reward only in one of the arms, thus requiring the rats to consider both object identity and its location in the maze. Hippocampal neurons recorded in CA1 displayed a dynamic transition in their firing patterns during the acquisition of the task across days, and this corresponded to a shift in strategy manifested in behavioral data. Specifically, before the rats learned the task, they chose an object that maintained a particular egocentric relationship with their body (response strategy) irrespective of the object identity. However, as the animal acquired the task, it chose an object according to both its identity and the associated location in the maze (object-in-place strategy). We report that CA1 neurons in the hippocampus changed their prospective firing correlates according to the dominant strategy (i.e., response versus object-in-place strategy) employed at a given stage of learning. The results suggest that neural firing pattern in the hippocampus is heavily influenced by the task demand hypothesized by the animal and the firing pattern changes flexibly as the perceived task demand changes.

Improving Reports Turnaround Time: An Essential Healthcare Quality Dimension.

PubMed

Khan, Mustafa; Khalid, Parwaiz; Al-Said, Youssef; Cupler, Edward; Almorsy, Lamia; Khalifa, Mohamed

2016-01-01

Turnaround time is one of the most important healthcare performance indicators. King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia worked on reducing the reports turnaround time of the neurophysiology lab from more than two weeks to only five working days for 90% of cases. The main quality improvement methodology used was the FOCUS PDCA. Using root cause analysis, Pareto analysis and qualitative survey methods, the main factors contributing to the delay of turnaround time and the suggested improvement strategies were identified and implemented, through restructuring transcriptionists daily tasks, rescheduling physicians time and alerting for new reports, engaging consultants, consistent coordination and prioritizing critical reports. After implementation; 92% of reports are verified within 5 days compared to only 6% before implementation. 7% of reports were verified in 5 days to 2 weeks and only 1% of reports needed more than 2 weeks compared to 76% before implementation.

Exploring the barriers to and facilitators of implementing research into practice.

PubMed

Johnston, Bridget; Coole, Carol; Narayanasamy, Melanie; Feakes, Ruth; Whitworth, Gillian; Tyrell, Tracy; Hardy, Beth

2016-08-02

District and community nursing roles have changed rapidly in recent years. Community nurses are increasingly being tasked with carrying out multiple roles, which require them to put research into practice and use evidence-based tools and interventions. The implementation of interventions and tools needs to be developed from empirical research, requiring evidence, to be translated into practice. However, this process may be compromised or enhanced by a number of factors. This exploratory, descriptive qualitative study sought to identify barriers and facilitators to community nurses implementing research into practice. Four focus groups were conducted with registered community nurses and district nurses (n=22). Analysis identified four main themes: keeping up to date with evidence; using a clinical tool; education/training and implementation. Findings suggest that there are barriers at a personal, professional and organisational level. Strategies are suggested to overcome these obstacles.

Persuasive Dialogue Based on a Narrative Theory: An ECA Implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cavazza, Marc; Smith, Cameron; Charlton, Daniel; Crook, Nigel; Boye, Johan; Pulman, Stephen; Moilanen, Karo; Pizzi, David; de La Camara, Raul Santos; Turunen, Markku

Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA) are poised to constitute a specific category within persuasive systems, in particular through their ability to support affective dialogue. One possible approach consists in using ECA as virtual coaches or personal assistants and to make persuasion part of a dialogue game implementing specific argumentation or negotiation features. In this paper, we explore an alternative framework, which emerges from the long-term development of ECA as "Companions" supporting free conversation with the user, rather than task-oriented dialogue. Our system aims at influencing user attitudes as part of free conversation, albeit on a limited set of topics. We describe the implementation of a Companion ECA to which the user reports on his working day, and which can assess the user's emotional attitude towards daily events in the office, trying to influence such attitude using affective strategies derived from a narrative model. This discussion is illustrated through examples from a first fully-implemented prototype.

A strategy for the implementation of a quality indicator system in German primary care.

PubMed

van den Heuvel, Henricus

2011-01-01

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) has had a major impact on the quality of care in British general practice. It is seen as a major innovation amongst quality indicator systems and as a result various countries are looking at whether such initiatives could be used in their primary care. In Germany also the development of similar schemes has started. To propose a strategy indicating key issues for the implementation of a quality indicator scheme in German primary care. Literature review with a focus on the QOF and German quality indicator literature. There are major differences between the German and British healthcare and primary care systems. The development of quality indicator systems for German general practice is in progress and there is a net force for the implementation of such systems. The following ten key factors are suggested for the successful implementation of such a system in German primary care: involvement of general practitioners (GPs) at all levels of the development, a clear implementation process, investment in practice information technology (IT) systems, an accepted quality indicator set, a quality indicator setting institution and data collection organisation, clear financial and non-financial incentives, a 'practice registration' structure, an exception reporting mechanism, delegation of routine clinical data collection tasks to practice assistants, a stepped implementation approach and adequate evaluation processes. For the successful implementation of a quality indicator system in German primary care a number of key issues, as presented in this article, need to be taken into account.

Predictors of FIFA 11+ Implementation Intention in Female Adolescent Soccer: An Application of the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) Model

PubMed Central

McKay, Carly D.; Merrett, Charlotte K.; Emery, Carolyn A.

2016-01-01

The Fédération Internationale de Football (FIFA) 11+ warm-up program is efficacious at preventing lower limb injury in youth soccer; however, there has been poor adoption of the program in the community. The purpose of this study was to determine the utility of the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) behavior change model in predicting intention to use the FIFA 11+ in a sample of 12 youth soccer teams (coaches n = 10; 12–16 year old female players n = 200). A bespoke cross-sectional questionnaire measured pre-season risk perceptions, outcome expectancies, task self-efficacy, facilitators, barriers, and FIFA 11+ implementation intention. Most coaches (90.0%) and players (80.0%) expected the program to reduce injury risk but reported limited intention to use it. Player data demonstrated an acceptable fit to the hypothesized model (standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.08; root mean square of error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.06 (0.047–0.080); comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.93; Tucker Lewis index (TLI) = 0.91) Task self-efficacy (β = 0.53, p ≤ 0.01) and outcome expectancies (β = 0.13 p ≤ 0.05) were positively associated with intention, but risk perceptions were not (β = −0.02). The findings suggest that the HAPA model is appropriate for use in this context, and highlight the need to target task self-efficacy and outcome expectancies in FIFA 11+ implementation strategies. PMID:27399746

Testing New Drugs for Treatment of Melanoma Patients Applying Connectivity Map Database Analysis with Melanoma Gene Signatures

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-01

use of R packages implemented in Bioconductor. Each dataset was normalized from raw data using the Frozen RMA (fRMA) algorithm . We applied the same...because development of the specific algorithms and fine tuning of the analytic strategy to accomplish this task was not immediately straightforward. We...express firefly luciferase using a retrovirus that encodes a fusion of luciferase and neomycin phosphotransferase (LucNeo), will be implanted and followed

Modelling machine ensembles with discrete event dynamical system theory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hunter, Dan

1990-01-01

Discrete Event Dynamical System (DEDS) theory can be utilized as a control strategy for future complex machine ensembles that will be required for in-space construction. The control strategy involves orchestrating a set of interactive submachines to perform a set of tasks for a given set of constraints such as minimum time, minimum energy, or maximum machine utilization. Machine ensembles can be hierarchically modeled as a global model that combines the operations of the individual submachines. These submachines are represented in the global model as local models. Local models, from the perspective of DEDS theory , are described by the following: a set of system and transition states, an event alphabet that portrays actions that takes a submachine from one state to another, an initial system state, a partial function that maps the current state and event alphabet to the next state, and the time required for the event to occur. Each submachine in the machine ensemble is presented by a unique local model. The global model combines the local models such that the local models can operate in parallel under the additional logistic and physical constraints due to submachine interactions. The global model is constructed from the states, events, event functions, and timing requirements of the local models. Supervisory control can be implemented in the global model by various methods such as task scheduling (open-loop control) or implementing a feedback DEDS controller (closed-loop control).

Feasibility study for early removal of HEU from CPP-651-Phase II

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

Smith, C.V.; Henry, R.; Milligan, C.

1997-09-01

A two-phase feasibility study was initiated in late 1996 to identify a way to expedite the removal of SNM from the CPP-651 vault. The first phase of this study provided preliminary information that appeared promising, but needed additional detailed planning and evaluate to validate the concepts and conclusions. The focus of Phase 2 was to provide the validation via resource-loaded schedules and more detailed cost estimates. Section 1 describes the purpose and objectives of the Phase 2 tasks and the programmatic drivers that influence related CPP-651 high-enriched uranium (HEU) management issues. Section 2 identifies the evaluation criteria and methodology andmore » the transfer issues and barriers preventing shipment. Section 3 provides site-specific background information for the CPP-651 facility and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and describes the development of the basic material removal schedule, the proposed base case plan for removal of SNM, and the proposed HEU material management/shipping issues and strategies. Section 4 identifies the proposed options for accelerated removal of SNM and how they were evaluated via detailed scheduling, resource histograms, and cost analysis. Section 5 summarizes principal tasks for implementing this plan and other related HEU CPP-651 management issues that require continued planning efforts to assure successful implementation of this proposed early removal strategy.« less

Task shifting from physicians to nurses in primary care in 39 countries: a cross-country comparative study.

PubMed

Maier, Claudia B; Aiken, Linda H

2016-12-01

Primary care is in short supply in many countries. Task shifting from physicians to nurses is one strategy to improve access, but international research is scarce. We analysed the extent of task shifting in primary care and policy reforms in 39 countries. Cross-country comparative research, based on an international expert survey, plus literature scoping review. A total of 93 country experts participated, covering Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (response rate: 85.3%). Experts were selected according to pre-defined criteria. Survey responses were triangulated with the literature and analysed using policy, thematic and descriptive methods to assess developments in country-specific contexts. Task shifting, where nurses take up advanced roles from physicians, was implemented in two-thirds of countries (N = 27, 69%), yet its extent varied. Three clusters emerged: 11 countries with extensive (Australia, Canada, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand and USA), 16 countries with limited and 12 countries with no task shifting. The high number of policy, regulatory and educational reforms, such as on nurse prescribing, demonstrate an evolving trend internationally toward expanding nurses' scope-of-practice in primary care. Many countries have implemented task-shifting reforms to maximise workforce capacity. Reforms have focused on removing regulatory and to a lower extent, financial barriers, yet were often lengthy and controversial. Countries early on in the process are primarily reforming their education. From an international and particularly European Union perspective, developing standardised definitions, minimum educational and practice requirements would facilitate recognition procedures in increasingly connected labour markets. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

The Effect of a Novel Movement Strategy in Decreasing ACL Risk Factors in Female Adolescent Soccer Players: A Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Celebrini, Richard G.; Eng, Janice J.; Miller, William C.; Ekegren, Christina L.; Johnston, James D.; Depew, Thomas A.; MacIntyre, Donna L.

2015-01-01

Objective To determine the effect of a novel movement strategy incorporated within a soccer warm-up on biomechanical risk factors for ACL injury during three sport-specific movement tasks. Design Single-blind, randomized controlled clinical trial. Setting Laboratory setting. Participants 20 top-tier female teenage soccer players. Interventions Subjects were randomized to the Core Position and Control movement strategy (Core-PAC) warm-up or standard warm-up which took place prior to their regular soccer practice over a 6-week period. The Core-PAC focuses on getting the centre of mass closer to the plant foot or base of support. Main Outcome Measures Peak knee flexion angle and abduction moments during a side-hop (SH), side-cut (SC) and unanticipated side-cut (USC) task after the 6-weeks with (intervention group only) and without a reminder to use the Core-PAC strategy. Results The Core-PAC group increased peak flexion angles during the SH task (Mean difference = 6.2°, 95% CI: 1.9–10.5°, effect size = 1.01, P = 0.034) after the 6-week warm-up program without a reminder. In addition, the Core-PAC group demonstrated increased knee flexion angles for the side-cut (Mean difference = 8.5°, 95% CI: 4.8–12.2°, ES = 2.02, P = 0.001) and side-hop (Mean difference = 10.0°, 95% CI: 5.7–14.3°, ES = 1.66, P = 0.001) task after a reminder. No changes in abduction moments were found. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that the Core-PAC may be one method of modifying high-risk soccer-specific movements and can be implemented within a practical, team-based soccer warm-up. The results should be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size. PMID:24184850

Saving Money Using Proportional Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de la Cruz, Jessica A.; Garney, Sandra

2016-01-01

It is beneficial for students to discover intuitive strategies, as opposed to the teacher presenting strategies to them. Certain proportional reasoning tasks are more likely to elicit intuitive strategies than other tasks. The strategies that students are apt to use when approaching a task, as well as the likelihood of a student's success or…

A Conceptual framework of Strategy, Structure and Innovative Behaviour for the Development of a Dynamic Simulation Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konstantopoulos, Nikolaos; Trivellas, Panagiotis; Reklitis, Panagiotis

2007-12-01

According to many researchers of organizational theory, a great number of problems encountered by the manufacturing firms are due to their failure to foster innovative behaviour by aligning business strategy and structure. From this point of view, the fit between strategy and structure is essential in order to facilitate firms' innovative behaviour. In the present paper, we adopt Porter's typology to operationalise business strategy (cost leadership, innovative and marketing differentiation, and focus). Organizational structure is built on four dimensions (centralization, formalization, complexity and employees' initiatives to implement new ideas). Innovativeness is measured as product innovation, process and technological innovation. This study provides the necessary theoretical framework for the development of a dynamic simulation method, although the simulation of social events is a quite difficult task, considering that there are so many alternatives (not all well understood).

A methodology for the assessment of manned flight simulator fidelity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hess, Ronald A.; Malsbury, Terry N.

1989-01-01

A relatively simple analytical methodology for assessing the fidelity of manned flight simulators for specific vehicles and tasks is offered. The methodology is based upon an application of a structural model of the human pilot, including motion cue effects. In particular, predicted pilot/vehicle dynamic characteristics are obtained with and without simulator limitations. A procedure for selecting model parameters can be implemented, given a probable pilot control strategy. In analyzing a pair of piloting tasks for which flight and simulation data are available, the methodology correctly predicted the existence of simulator fidelity problems. The methodology permitted the analytical evaluation of a change in simulator characteristics and indicated that a major source of the fidelity problems was a visual time delay in the simulation.

Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace vehicle Design (IPAD). Volume 6: IPAD system development and operation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Redhed, D. D.; Tripp, L. L.; Kawaguchi, A. S.; Miller, R. E., Jr.

1973-01-01

The strategy of the IPAD implementation plan presented, proposes a three phase development of the IPAD system and technical modules, and the transfer of this capability from the development environment to the aerospace vehicle design environment. The system and technical module capabilities for each phase of development are described. The system and technical module programming languages are recommended as well as the initial host computer system hardware and operating system. The cost of developing the IPAD technology is estimated. A schedule displaying the flowtime required for each development task is given. A PERT chart gives the developmental relationships of each of the tasks and an estimate of the operational cost of the IPAD system is offered.

Teaching astronomy with case studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slater, Timothy F.

2015-11-01

Breaking the students into small, collaborative learning groups to solve a meaningful task together is one of the most successful and fully evaluated teaching techniques implemented over the last century. Although there are many ways to accomplish small group learning, a long-standing and consistently successful collaborative class activity is to use the case study teaching strategy. The use of case studies is common in medical schools and law schools, but not so common in the teaching of astronomy. Case studies create meaningful conversations among students and with the professor by focusing on life-like dilemmas to be solved. Case study tasks ask audience members to synthesize several ideas or evaluate scenarios that have not been explicitly presented to them in the lecture or in available readings.

Flight Deck Data Link Displays: An Evaluation of Textual and Graphical Implementations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGann, Alison; Lozito, Sandy; Corker, Kevin; Ashford, Rose (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

In Experiment 1, 16 pilots participated in a part-task simulation study that evaluated pilot data link communication for short and long message types and for two textual formats. No differences were found between the two textual formats when evaluating data link transaction times and pilot performance on a secondary task. Pilots initiated flight changes more quickly with the T-Scan format, where location of clearance information roughly corresponded to the cockpit instrument layout. Longer messages were less problematic than two short messages sent in close succession as pilots required more verbal clarification for closely spaced messages. 24 pilots participated in a second experiment that evaluated pilot communication performance for textual data link, two implementations of graphical data link, and a combined graphical and textual information modality. The two modalities incorporating text resulted in significantly faster transaction times and better performance on the secondary task than the two graphical-only implementations. The interval between messages was also more systematically varied in Experiment 2, and a short interval between messages significantly increased the access time for the second message. This delay in access was long enough to increase significantly the total transaction time of the second message, and this effect was exaggerated for the graphical-only implementations. Time to view the message before acknowledgement and time to initiate flight changes were not affected by the interval manipulation, This suggests that pilots adopt a sequential message handling strategy, and presenting messages closely in succession may present operational problems in a data link Air Traffic Control (ATC) environment. The results of this study also indicate that the perceived importance of message content is currently a crucial element in pilot data link communication.

Design and implementation of a robot control system with traded and shared control capability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayati, S.; Venkataraman, S. T.

1989-01-01

Preliminary results are reported from efforts to design and develop a robotic system that will accept and execute commands from either a six-axis teleoperator device or an autonomous planner, or combine the two. Such a system should have both traded as well as shared control capability. A sharing strategy is presented whereby the overall system, while retaining positive features of teleoperated and autonomous operation, loses its individual negative features. A two-tiered shared control architecture is considered here, consisting of a task level and a servo level. Also presented is a computer architecture for the implementation of this system, including a description of the hardware and software.

Divided attention interferes with fulfilling activity-based intentions.

PubMed

Brewer, Gene A; Ball, B Hunter; Knight, Justin B; Dewitt, Michael R; Marsh, Richard L

2011-09-01

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of divided attention on activity-based prospective memory. After establishing a goal to fulfill an intention upon completion of an ongoing activity, successful completion of the intention generally suffered when attention was being devoted to an additional task (Experiment 1). Forming an implementation intention at encoding ameliorated the negative effects of divided attention (Experiment 2). The results from the present experiments demonstrate that activity-based prospective memory is susceptible to distraction and that implementing encoding strategies that enhance prospective memory performance can reduce this interference. The current work raises interesting questions about the similarities and differences between event- and activity-based prospective memories. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Information access in a dual-task context: testing a model of optimal strategy selection.

PubMed

Wickens, C D; Seidler, K S

1997-09-01

Pilots were required to access information from a hierarchical aviation database by navigating under single-task conditions (Experiment 1) and when this task was time-shared with an altitude-monitoring task of varying bandwidth and priority (Experiment 2). In dual-task conditions, pilots had 2 viewports available, 1 always used for the information task and the other to be allocated to either task. Dual-task strategy, inferred from the decision of which task to allocate to the 2nd viewport, revealed that allocation was generally biased in favor of the monitoring task and was only partly sensitive to the difficulty of the 2 tasks and their relative priorities. Some dominant sources of navigational difficulties failed to adaptively influence selection strategy. The implications of the results are to provide tools for jumping to the top of the database, to provide 2 viewports into the common database, and to provide training as to the optimum viewport management strategy in a multitask environment.

Information access in a dual-task context: testing a model of optimal strategy selection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wickens, C. D.; Seidler, K. S.

1997-01-01

Pilots were required to access information from a hierarchical aviation database by navigating under single-task conditions (Experiment 1) and when this task was time-shared with an altitude-monitoring task of varying bandwidth and priority (Experiment 2). In dual-task conditions, pilots had 2 viewports available, 1 always used for the information task and the other to be allocated to either task. Dual-task strategy, inferred from the decision of which task to allocate to the 2nd viewport, revealed that allocation was generally biased in favor of the monitoring task and was only partly sensitive to the difficulty of the 2 tasks and their relative priorities. Some dominant sources of navigational difficulties failed to adaptively influence selection strategy. The implications of the results are to provide tools for jumping to the top of the database, to provide 2 viewports into the common database, and to provide training as to the optimum viewport management strategy in a multitask environment.

Increased alertness, better than posture prioritization, explains dual-task performance in prosthesis users and controls under increasing postural and cognitive challenge.

PubMed

Howard, Charla L; Perry, Bonnie; Chow, John W; Wallace, Chris; Stokic, Dobrivoje S

2017-11-01

Sensorimotor impairments after limb amputation impose a threat to stability. Commonly described strategies for maintaining stability are the posture first strategy (prioritization of balance) and posture second strategy (prioritization of concurrent tasks). The existence of these strategies was examined in 13 below-knee prosthesis users and 15 controls during dual-task standing under increasing postural and cognitive challenge by evaluating path length, 95% sway area, and anterior-posterior and medial-lateral amplitudes of the center of pressure. The subjects stood on two force platforms under usual (hard surface/eyes open) and difficult (soft surface/eyes closed) conditions, first alone and while performing a cognitive task without and then with instruction on cognitive prioritization. During standing alone, sway was not significantly different between groups. After adding the cognitive task without prioritization instruction, prosthesis users increased sway more under the dual-task than single-task standing (p ≤ 0.028) during both usual and difficult conditions, favoring the posture second strategy. Controls, however, reduced dual-task sway under a greater postural challenge (p ≤ 0.017), suggesting the posture first strategy. With prioritization of the cognitive task, sway was unchanged or reduced in prosthesis users, suggesting departure from the posture second strategy, whereas controls maintained the posture first strategy. Individual analysis of dual tasking revealed that greater postural demand in controls and greater cognitive challenge in prosthesis users led to both reduced sway and improved cognitive performance, suggesting cognitive-motor facilitation. Thus, activation of additional resources through increased alertness, rather than posture prioritization, may explain dual-task performance in both prosthesis users and controls under increasing postural and cognitive challenge.

Powered wheelchair simulator development: implementing combined navigation-reaching tasks with a 3D hand motion controller.

PubMed

Tao, Gordon; Archambault, Philippe S

2016-01-19

Powered wheelchair (PW) training involving combined navigation and reaching is often limited or unfeasible. Virtual reality (VR) simulators offer a feasible alternative for rehabilitation training either at home or in a clinical setting. This study evaluated a low-cost magnetic-based hand motion controller as an interface for reaching tasks within the McGill Immersive Wheelchair (miWe) simulator. Twelve experienced PW users performed three navigation-reaching tasks in the real world (RW) and in VR: working at a desk, using an elevator, and opening a door. The sense of presence in VR was assessed using the iGroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ). We determined concordance of task performance in VR with that in the RW. A video task analysis was performed to analyse task behaviours. Compared to previous miWe data, IPQ scores were greater in the involvement domain (p < 0.05). Task analysis showed most of navigation and reaching behaviours as having moderate to excellent (K > 0.4, Cohen's Kappa) agreement between the two environments, but greater (p < 0.05) risk of collisions and reaching errors in VR. VR performance demonstrated longer (p < 0.05) task times and more discreet movements for the elevator and desk tasks but not the door task. Task performance showed poorer kinematic performance in VR than RW but similar strategies. Therefore, the reaching component represents a promising addition to the miWe training simulator, though some limitations must be addressed in future development.

Rethinking volitional control over task choice in multitask environments: use of a stimulus set selection strategy in voluntary task switching.

PubMed

Arrington, Catherine M; Weaver, Starla M

2015-01-01

Under conditions of volitional control in multitask environments, subjects may engage in a variety of strategies to guide task selection. The current research examines whether subjects may sometimes use a top-down control strategy of selecting a task-irrelevant stimulus dimension, such as location, to guide task selection. We term this approach a stimulus set selection strategy. Using a voluntary task switching procedure, subjects voluntarily switched between categorizing letter and number stimuli that appeared in two, four, or eight possible target locations. Effects of stimulus availability, manipulated by varying the stimulus onset asynchrony between the two target stimuli, and location repetition were analysed to assess the use of a stimulus set selection strategy. Considered across position condition, Experiment 1 showed effects of both stimulus availability and location repetition on task choice suggesting that only in the 2-position condition, where selection based on location always results in a target at the selected location, subjects may have been using a stimulus set selection strategy on some trials. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings in a visually more cluttered environment. These results indicate that, contrary to current models of task selection in voluntary task switching, the top-down control of task selection may occur in the absence of the formation of an intention to perform a particular task.

Developing Metacognitive Behaviour in Physical Education Classes: The Use of Task-Pertinent Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lidor, Ronnie

2004-01-01

Research in motor learning and sport pedagogy has shown that task-pertinent learning strategies enhance the learning and performance of self-paced motor tasks. Strategy research has typically been conducted under laboratory conditions in which artificial self-paced tasks were executed under well-controlled conditions. The purpose of this study was…

Successful Transfer of a Motor Learning Strategy to a Novel Sport.

PubMed

Kearney, Philip E; Judge, Phil

2017-10-01

This study investigated whether secondary school students who were taught a motor learning strategy could transfer their knowledge of the strategy to learning a novel task. Twenty adolescents were randomly allocated to a strategy or control group. The strategy group was taught Singer's five-step learning strategy, while the control group received information on the evolution and biomechanics of the basketball free throw. Both groups received three 1-hour practice sessions on a modified basketball shooting task. After one month, participants were introduced to the transfer task, golf putting. Performance accuracy was recorded for all tasks, and participants completed questionnaires regarding strategy use during practice. Participants taught the five-step learning strategy successfully recalled and applied it after a 1-month interval, and they demonstrated superior performance on both acquisition and transfer tasks, relative to the control group. Physical education teachers and coaches should consider using this learning strategy to enhance the learning of closed motor skills.

Self-guided strategy-adaption training for older adults: Transfer effects to everyday tasks.

PubMed

Bottiroli, Sara; Cavallini, Elena; Dunlosky, John; Vecchi, Tomaso; Hertzog, Christopher

2017-09-01

The goal of the present research was to examine the potential of a learner-oriented approach to improving older adults' performance in tasks that are similar to real-life situations that require strategic deployment of cognitive resources. A crucial element of this approach involves encouraging older adults to explicitly analyze tasks to consider how to adapt trained skills to a new task context. In an earlier study, a specialist-directed intervention produced training gains and transfer to some untrained memory tasks. In the present study, older adults received a manual instructing them about principles of task analysis, two memory strategies, and strategy adaptation. Self-guided strategy-adaption training involved practicing some memory tasks as well as instructions on how the trained skills could be applied to new tasks that were not practiced. The criterion tasks involved practice tasks, non-practiced tasks that were discussed in the manual, and transfer tasks that were never mentioned in the manual. Two of the tests were from the Everyday Cognition Battery (inductive reasoning and working memory). As compared to a waiting-list control group, older adults assigned to self-guided strategy-adaption training showed memory improvements on tasks that were practiced or discussed during training. Most important, the learner-oriented approach produced transfer to the everyday tasks. Our findings show the potential of instructing task appraisal processes as a basis for fostering transfer, including improving older adults' performance in simulated everyday tasks. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of Direct Instruction and Strategy Modeling on Upper-Primary Students’ Writing Development

PubMed Central

López, Paula; Torrance, Mark; Rijlaarsdam, Gert; Fidalgo, Raquel

2017-01-01

Strategy-focused instruction is one of the most effective approaches to improve writing skills. It aims to teach developing writers strategies that give them executive control over their writing processes. Programs under this kind of instruction tend to have multiple components that include direct instruction, modeling and scaffolded practice. This multi-component nature has two drawbacks: it makes implementation challenging due to the amount of time and training required to perform each stage, and it is difficult to determine the underlying mechanisms that contribute to its effectiveness. To unpack why strategy-focused instruction is effective, we explored the specific effects of two key components: direct teaching of writing strategies and modeling of strategy use. Six classes (133 students) of upper-primary education were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions, in which students received instruction aimed at developing effective strategies for planning and drafting, or control group with no strategy instruction: Direct Instruction (N = 46), Modeling (N = 45), and Control (N = 42). Writing performance was assessed before the intervention and immediately after the intervention with two tasks, one collaborative and the other one individual to explore whether differential effects resulted from students writing alone or in pairs. Writing performance was assessed through reader-based and text-based measures of text quality. Results at post-test showed similar improvement in both intervention conditions, relatively to controls, in all measures and in both the collaborative and the individual task. No statistically significant differences were observed between experimental conditions. These findings suggest that both components, direct teaching and modeling, are equally effective in improving writing skills in upper primary students, and these effects are present even after a short training. PMID:28713299

The central role of national programme management for the achievement of malaria elimination: a cross case-study analysis of nine malaria programmes.

PubMed

Smith Gueye, Cara; Newby, Gretchen; Tulloch, Jim; Slutsker, Laurence; Tanner, Marcel; Gosling, Roland D

2016-09-22

A malaria eradication goal has been proposed, at the same time as a new global strategy and implementation framework. Countries are considering the strategies and tools that will enable progress towards malaria goals. The eliminating malaria case-study series reports were reviewed to identify successful programme management components using a cross-case study analytic approach. Nine out of ten case-study reports were included in the analysis (Bhutan, Cape Verde, Malaysia, Mauritius, Namibia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Turkmenistan). A conceptual framework for malaria elimination programme management was developed and data were extracted and synthesized. Findings were reviewed at a consultative workshop, which led to a revision of the framework and further data extraction and synthesis. Success factors of implementation, programme choices and changes, and enabling factors were distilled. Decentralized programmes enhanced engagement in malaria elimination by sub-national units and communities. Integration of the malaria programme into other health services was also common. Decentralization and integration were often challenging due to the skill and experience levels of newly tasked staff. Accountability for programme impact was not clarified for most programmes. Motivation of work force was a key factor in maintaining programme quality but there were few clear, detailed strategies provided. Different incentive schemes targeted various stakeholders. Training and supervision, although not well described, were prioritized by most programmes. Multi-sectoral collaboration helped some programmes share information, build strategies and interventions and achieve a higher quality of implementation. In most cases programme action was spurred by malaria outbreaks or a new elimination goal with strong leadership. Some programmes showed high capacity for flexibility through introduction of new strategies and tools. Several case-studies described methods for monitoring implementation quality and coverage; however analysis and feedback to those implementing malaria elimination in the periphery was not well described. Political commitment and sustained financing contributed to malaria programme success. Consistency of malaria programmes depends on political commitment, human and financial resources, and leadership. Operational capacity of the programme and the overall health system structure and strength are also important aspects. Malaria eradication will require adaptive, well-managed malaria programmes that are able to tailor implementation of evidence-based strategies, founded upon strong sub-national surveillance and response, with adequate funding and human resources.

Essential Resources for Implementation and Sustainability of Evidence-Based Health Promotion Programs: A Mixed Methods Multi-Site Case Study.

PubMed

Dattalo, M; Wise, M; Ford Ii, J H; Abramson, B; Mahoney, J

2017-04-01

As of October 2016, use of federal Older Americans Act funds for health promotion and disease prevention will be restricted to the Administration on Aging's criteria for high-level evidence-based health promotion programs. Dissemination of these programs to rural communities remains limited. Therefore a strong need exists to identify strategies that facilitate program implementation and sustainability. The objective of this study was to compare organizational readiness and implementation strategies used by rural communities that achieved varying levels of success in sustaining evidence-based health promotion programs for older adults. We utilized a qualitative multi-site case study design to analyze the longitudinal experiences of eight rural sites working to implement evidence-based health promotion program over 3 years (8/2012-7/2015). Multiple sources of data (interviews, documents, reports, surveys) from each site informed the analysis. We used conventional content analysis to conduct a cross-case comparison to identify common features of rural counties that successfully implemented and sustained their target evidence-based health promotion program. Readiness to implement evidence-based programs as low at baseline as all site leaders described needing to secure additional resources for program implementation. Sites that successfully utilized six essential resources implemented and sustained greater numbers of workshops: (1) External Partnerships, (2) Agency Leadership Commitment, (3) Ongoing Source of Workshop Leaders, (4) Health Promotion Coordination Tasks Assigned to Specific Staff, (5) Organizational Stability, and (6) Change Team Engagement. The six essential resources described in this study can help rural communities assess their readiness to implement health promotion programs and work secure the resources necessary for successful implementation.

Age differences in perceptions of memory strategy effectiveness for recent and remote memory.

PubMed

Lineweaver, Tara T; Horhota, Michelle; Crumley, Jessica; Geanon, Catherine T; Juett, Jacqueline J

2018-03-01

We examined whether young and older adults hold different beliefs about the effectiveness of memory strategies for specific types of memory tasks and whether memory strategies are perceived to be differentially effective for young, middle-aged, and older targets. Participants rated the effectiveness of five memory strategies for 10 memory tasks at three target ages (20, 50, and 80 years old). Older adults did not strongly differentiate strategy effectiveness, viewing most strategies as similarly effective across memory tasks. Young adults held strategy-specific beliefs, endorsing external aids and physical health as more effective than a positive attitude or internal strategies, without substantial differentiation based on task. We also found differences in anticipated strategy effectiveness for targets of different ages. Older adults described cognitive and physical health strategies as more effective for older than middle-aged targets, whereas young adults expected these strategies to be equally effective for middle-aged and older target adults.

Separate neural mechanisms underlie choices and strategic preferences in risky decision making.

PubMed

Venkatraman, Vinod; Payne, John W; Bettman, James R; Luce, Mary Frances; Huettel, Scott A

2009-05-28

Adaptive decision making in real-world contexts often relies on strategic simplifications of decision problems. Yet, the neural mechanisms that shape these strategies and their implementation remain largely unknown. Using an economic decision-making task, we dissociate brain regions that predict specific choices from those predicting an individual's preferred strategy. Choices that maximized gains or minimized losses were predicted by functional magnetic resonance imaging activation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex or anterior insula, respectively. However, choices that followed a simplifying strategy (i.e., attending to overall probability of winning) were associated with activation in parietal and lateral prefrontal cortices. Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, through differential functional connectivity with parietal and insular cortex, predicted individual variability in strategic preferences. Finally, we demonstrate that robust decision strategies follow from neural sensitivity to rewards. We conclude that decision making reflects more than compensatory interaction of choice-related regions; in addition, specific brain systems potentiate choices depending on strategies, traits, and context.

Separate neural mechanisms underlie choices and strategic preferences in risky decision making

PubMed Central

Venkatraman, Vinod; Payne, John W.; Bettman, James R.; Luce, Mary Frances; Huettel, Scott A.

2011-01-01

Adaptive decision making in real-world contexts often relies on strategic simplifications of decision problems. Yet, the neural mechanisms that shape these strategies and their implementation remain largely unknown. Using a novel economic decision-making task, we dissociate brain regions that predict specific choices from those predicting an individual’s preferred strategy. Choices that maximized gains or minimized losses were predicted by fMRI activation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex or anterior insula, respectively. However, choices that followed a simplifying strategy (i.e., attending to overall probability of winning) were associated with activation in parietal and lateral prefrontal cortices. Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, through differential functional connectivity with parietal and insular cortex, predicted individual variability in strategic preferences. Finally, we demonstrate that robust decision strategies follow from neural sensitivity to rewards. We conclude that decision making reflects more than compensatory interaction of choice-related regions; in addition, specific brain systems potentiate choices depending upon strategies, traits, and context. PMID:19477159

Gait Recognition Based on Convolutional Neural Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sokolova, A.; Konushin, A.

2017-05-01

In this work we investigate the problem of people recognition by their gait. For this task, we implement deep learning approach using the optical flow as the main source of motion information and combine neural feature extraction with the additional embedding of descriptors for representation improvement. In order to find the best heuristics, we compare several deep neural network architectures, learning and classification strategies. The experiments were made on two popular datasets for gait recognition, so we investigate their advantages and disadvantages and the transferability of considered methods.

Local Gov`t assistance in commercial waste reduction & recycling

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

Hannah, C.W.

This paper outlines programs and strategies for reducing the waste stream by targeting the commercial, industrial and institutional sectors. The programs described are implemented by the Wake County Solid Waste Management Division, North Carolina. Findings and recommendations of a task force focusing on the role of the private sector in meeting state waste reduction mandates are summarized. Commercial initiatives, educational initiatives, and a grant program are described. Several case studies are provided which overview the variety of businesses and waste materials addressed.

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

Yoshii, Kazutomo; Llopis, Pablo; Zhang, Kaicheng

As CMOS scaling nears its end, parameter variations (process, temperature and voltage) are becoming a major concern. To overcome parameter variations and provide stability, modern processors are becoming dynamic, opportunistically adjusting voltage and frequency based on thermal and energy constraints, which negatively impacts traditional bulk-synchronous parallelism-minded hardware and software designs. As node-level architecture is growing in complexity, implementing variation control mechanisms only with hardware can be a challenging task. In this paper we investigate a software strategy to manage hardwareinduced variations, leveraging low-level monitoring/controlling mechanisms.

Surveying perceptions of the progress of national mental health reform.

PubMed

Hickie, Ian; Groom, Grace

2004-06-01

To provide comment on the latest Australian government commitment to a 5 year plan under the National Mental Health Strategy. In the absence of a credible system of accountability for the implementation of mental health reform, the Mental Health Council of Australia, in association with the Brain and Mind Research Institute, has taken up the task of auditing. A national, government-supported system needs to be developed in order to monitor progress of genuine mental health reform in Australia.

Effects of Strategy Instruction on the Learning, Use, and Vertical Transfer of Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finley, Fred N.; Smith, Edward L.

1980-01-01

Compares group differences in strategy learning, use, and transfer to a more complex task for two groups of elementary students (N=48). Asked to perform three tasks in classifying igneous rocks, the groups differed in whether they received advice on the use of a specific strategy for performing each task. (CS)

Metaheuristic Algorithms for Convolution Neural Network

PubMed Central

Fanany, Mohamad Ivan; Arymurthy, Aniati Murni

2016-01-01

A typical modern optimization technique is usually either heuristic or metaheuristic. This technique has managed to solve some optimization problems in the research area of science, engineering, and industry. However, implementation strategy of metaheuristic for accuracy improvement on convolution neural networks (CNN), a famous deep learning method, is still rarely investigated. Deep learning relates to a type of machine learning technique, where its aim is to move closer to the goal of artificial intelligence of creating a machine that could successfully perform any intellectual tasks that can be carried out by a human. In this paper, we propose the implementation strategy of three popular metaheuristic approaches, that is, simulated annealing, differential evolution, and harmony search, to optimize CNN. The performances of these metaheuristic methods in optimizing CNN on classifying MNIST and CIFAR dataset were evaluated and compared. Furthermore, the proposed methods are also compared with the original CNN. Although the proposed methods show an increase in the computation time, their accuracy has also been improved (up to 7.14 percent). PMID:27375738

Metaheuristic Algorithms for Convolution Neural Network.

PubMed

Rere, L M Rasdi; Fanany, Mohamad Ivan; Arymurthy, Aniati Murni

2016-01-01

A typical modern optimization technique is usually either heuristic or metaheuristic. This technique has managed to solve some optimization problems in the research area of science, engineering, and industry. However, implementation strategy of metaheuristic for accuracy improvement on convolution neural networks (CNN), a famous deep learning method, is still rarely investigated. Deep learning relates to a type of machine learning technique, where its aim is to move closer to the goal of artificial intelligence of creating a machine that could successfully perform any intellectual tasks that can be carried out by a human. In this paper, we propose the implementation strategy of three popular metaheuristic approaches, that is, simulated annealing, differential evolution, and harmony search, to optimize CNN. The performances of these metaheuristic methods in optimizing CNN on classifying MNIST and CIFAR dataset were evaluated and compared. Furthermore, the proposed methods are also compared with the original CNN. Although the proposed methods show an increase in the computation time, their accuracy has also been improved (up to 7.14 percent).

Middle School Teachers' Views and Approaches to Implement Mathematical Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yesildere-Imre, Sibel; Basturk-Sahin, Burcu Nur

2016-01-01

This research examines middle school mathematics teachers' views regarding implementation of mathematical tasks and their enactments. We compare their views on tasks and their implementation, and determine the causes of difference between the two using qualitative research methods. We interview sixteen middle school mathematics teachers based on…

Interactive Multiple Object Tracking (iMOT)

PubMed Central

Thornton, Ian M.; Bülthoff, Heinrich H.; Horowitz, Todd S.; Rynning, Aksel; Lee, Seong-Whan

2014-01-01

We introduce a new task for exploring the relationship between action and attention. In this interactive multiple object tracking (iMOT) task, implemented as an iPad app, participants were presented with a display of multiple, visually identical disks which moved independently. The task was to prevent any collisions during a fixed duration. Participants could perturb object trajectories via the touchscreen. In Experiment 1, we used a staircase procedure to measure the ability to control moving objects. Object speed was set to 1°/s. On average participants could control 8.4 items without collision. Individual control strategies were quite variable, but did not predict overall performance. In Experiment 2, we compared iMOT with standard MOT performance using identical displays. Object speed was set to 2°/s. Participants could reliably control more objects (M = 6.6) than they could track (M = 4.0), but performance in the two tasks was positively correlated. In Experiment 3, we used a dual-task design. Compared to single-task baseline, iMOT performance decreased and MOT performance increased when the two tasks had to be completed together. Overall, these findings suggest: 1) There is a clear limit to the number of items that can be simultaneously controlled, for a given speed and display density; 2) participants can control more items than they can track; 3) task-relevant action appears not to disrupt MOT performance in the current experimental context. PMID:24498288

Relationships between undergraduates' argumentation skills, conceptual quality of problem solutions, and problem solving strategies in introductory physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebello, Carina M.

This study explored the effects of alternative forms of argumentation on undergraduates' physics solutions in introductory calculus-based physics. A two-phase concurrent mixed methods design was employed to investigate relationships between undergraduates' written argumentation abilities, conceptual quality of problem solutions, as well as approaches and strategies for solving argumentative physics problems across multiple physics topics. Participants were assigned via stratified sampling to one of three conditions (control, guided construct, or guided evaluate) based on gender and pre-test scores on a conceptual instrument. The guided construct and guided evaluate groups received tasks and prompts drawn from literature to facilitate argument construction or evaluation. Using a multiple case study design, with each condition serving as a case, interviews were conducted consisting of a think-aloud problem solving session paired with a semi-structured interview. The analysis of problem solving strategies was guided by the theoretical framework on epistemic games adapted by Tuminaro and Redish (2007). This study provides empirical evidence that integration of written argumentation into physics problems can potentially improve the conceptual quality of solutions, expand their repertoire of problem solving strategies and show promise for addressing the gender gap in physics. The study suggests further avenues for research in this area and implications for designing and implementing argumentation tasks in introductory college physics.

Strategies to facilitate implementation and sustainability of large system transformations: a case study of a national program for improving quality of care for elderly people.

PubMed

Nyström, Monica Elisabeth; Strehlenert, Helena; Hansson, Johan; Hasson, Henna

2014-09-18

Large-scale change initiatives stimulating change in several organizational systems in the health and social care sector are challenging both to lead and evaluate. There is a lack of systematic research that can enrich our understanding of strategies to facilitate large system transformations in this sector. The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of core activities and strategies to facilitate implementation and change of a national program aimed at improving life for the most ill elderly people in Sweden. The program outcomes were also addressed to assess the impact of these strategies. A longitudinal case study design with multiple data collection methods was applied. Archival data (n = 795), interviews with key stakeholders (n = 11) and non-participant observations (n = 23) were analysed using content analysis. Outcome data was obtained from national quality registries. This study presents an approach for implementing a large national change program that is characterized by initial flexibility and dynamism regarding content and facilitation strategies and a growing complexity over time requiring more structure and coordination. The description of activities and strategies show that the program management team engaged a variety of stakeholders and actor groups and accordingly used a palate of different strategies. The main strategies used to influence change in the target organisations were to use regional improvement coaches, regional strategic management teams, national quality registries, financial incentives and annually revised agreements. Interactive learning sessions, intense communication, monitor and measurements, and active involvement of different experts and stakeholders, including elderly people, complemented these strategies. Program outcomes showed steady progress in most of the five target areas, less so for the target of achieving coordinated care. There is no blue-print on how to approach the challenging task of leading large scale change programs in complex contexts, but our conclusion is that more attention has to be given to the multidimensional strategies that program management need to consider. This multidimensionality comprises different strategies depending on types of actors, system levels, contextual factors, program progress over time, program content, types of learning and change processes, and the conditions for sustainability.

Cellular and circuit properties supporting different sensory coding strategies in electric fish and other systems.

PubMed

Marsat, Gary; Longtin, André; Maler, Leonard

2012-08-01

Neural codes often seem tailored to the type of information they must carry. Here we contrast the encoding strategies for two different communication signals in electric fish and describe the underlying cellular and network properties that implement them. We compare an aggressive signal that needs to be quickly detected, to a courtship signal whose quality needs to be evaluated. The aggressive signal is encoded by synchronized bursts and a predictive feedback input is crucial in separating background noise from the communication signal. The courtship signal is accurately encoded through a heterogenous population response allowing the discrimination of signal differences. Most importantly we show that the same strategies are used in other systems arguing that they evolved similar solutions because they faced similar tasks. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Features of the marketing strategy of oil and gas companies in exploration drilling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharf, I.; Malanina, V.; Kamynina, L.

2014-08-01

The implementation of national and regional programs for the development of new oil and gas provinces of Eastern Siberia poses the challenge of increasing geological exploration. The current drilling service companies' market structure, as well as the strategic task of search and exploration effectiveness requires qualitatively new approaches for choosing a contractor. The proposed strategy to select a contractor based on comprehensive analysis of certain groups of industrial, financial, infrastructural criteria allows not only to optimize the costs of exploration activities, but also to minimize preventively the risks of a poor geological exploration. The authors' SWOT- analysis of the marketing strategy of "Gazprom neft" for choosing a contractor outlined the problem of imperfection of the Russian legislation in the sphere of activities of service companies in the oil and gas sector.

Perceptions of health stakeholders on task shifting and motivation of community health workers in different socio demographic contexts in Kenya (nomadic, peri-urban and rural agrarian).

PubMed

Ochieng, Beverly; Akunja, Edith; Edwards, Nancy; Mombo, Diana; Marende, Leah; Kaseje, Dan C O

2014-01-01

The shortage of health professionals in low income countries is recognized as a crisis. Community health workers are part of a "task-shift" strategy to address this crisis. Task shifting in this paper refers to the delegation of tasks from health professionals to lay, trained volunteers. In Kenya, there is a debate as to whether these volunteers should be compensated, and what motivation strategies would be effective in different socio-demographic contexts, based type of tasks shifted. The purpose of this study was to find out, from stakeholders' perspectives, the type of tasks to be shifted to community health workers and the appropriate strategies to motivate and retain them. This was an analytical comparative study employing qualitative methods: key informant interviews with health policy makers, managers, and service providers, and focus group discussions with community health workers and service consumers, to explore their perspectives on tasks to be shifted and appropriate motivation strategies. The study found that there were tasks to be shifted and motivation strategies that were common to all three contexts. Common tasks were promotive, preventive, and simple curative services. Common motivation strategies were supportive supervision, means of identification, equitable allocation of resources, training, compensation, recognition, and evidence based community dialogue. The study concluded that inclusion of curative tasks for community health workers, particularly in nomadic contexts, is inevitable but raises the need for accreditation of their training and regulation of their tasks.

Leadership and governance of community health worker programmes at scale: a cross case analysis of provincial implementation in South Africa.

PubMed

Schneider, Helen; Nxumalo, Nonhlanhla

2017-09-15

National community health worker (CHW) programmes are returning to favour as an integral part of primary health care systems, often on the back of pre-existing community based initiatives. There are significant challenges to the integration and support of such programmes, and they require coordination and stewardship at all levels of the health system. This paper explores the leadership and governance tasks of large-scale CHW programmes at sub-national level, through the case of national reforms to South Africa's community based sector, referred to as the Ward Based Outreach Team (WBOT) strategy. A cross case analysis of leadership and governance roles, drawing on three case studies of adoption and implementation of the WBOTs strategy at provincial level (Western Cape, North West and Gauteng) was conducted. The primary case studies mapped system components and assessed implementation processes and contexts. They involved teams of researchers and over 200 interviews with stakeholders from senior to frontline, document reviews and analyses of routine data. The secondary, cross case analysis specifically focused on the issues and challenges facing, and strategies adopted by provincial and district policy makers and managers, as they engaged with the new national mandate. From this key sub-national leadership and governance roles were formulated. Four key roles are identified and discussed: 1. Negotiating a fit between national mandates and provincial and district histories and strategies of community based services 2. Defining new organisational and accountability relationships between CHWs, local health services, communities and NGOs 3. Revising and developing new aligned and integrated planning, human resource, financing and information systems 4. Leading change by building new collective visions, mobilising political, including budgetary, support and designing implementation strategies. This analysis, from real-life systems, adds to understanding of the processes involved in developing CHW programmes at scale, and specifically the negotiated and multilevel nature of leadership and governance in such programmes, spanning analytic, managerial, technical and political roles.

Abrupt strategy change underlies gradual performance change: Bayesian hierarchical models of component and aggregate strategy use.

PubMed

Wynton, Sarah K A; Anglim, Jeromy

2017-10-01

While researchers have often sought to understand the learning curve in terms of multiple component processes, few studies have measured and mathematically modeled these processes on a complex task. In particular, there remains a need to reconcile how abrupt changes in strategy use can co-occur with gradual changes in task completion time. Thus, the current study aimed to assess the degree to which strategy change was abrupt or gradual, and whether strategy aggregation could partially explain gradual performance change. It also aimed to show how Bayesian methods could be used to model the effect of practice on strategy use. To achieve these aims, 162 participants completed 15 blocks of practice on a complex computer-based task-the Wynton-Anglim booking (WAB) task. The task allowed for multiple component strategies (i.e., memory retrieval, information reduction, and insight) that could also be aggregated to a global measure of strategy use. Bayesian hierarchical models were used to compare abrupt and gradual functions of component and aggregate strategy use. Task completion time was well-modeled by a power function, and global strategy use explained substantial variance in performance. Change in component strategy use tended to be abrupt, whereas change in global strategy use was gradual and well-modeled by a power function. Thus, differential timing of component strategy shifts leads to gradual changes in overall strategy efficiency, and this provides one reason for why smooth learning curves can co-occur with abrupt changes in strategy use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Same task, different strategies: How brain networks can be influenced by memory strategy

PubMed Central

Sanfratello, Lori; Caprihan, Arvind; Stephen, Julia M.; Knoefel, Janice E.; Adair, John C.; Qualls, Clifford; Lundy, S. Laura; Aine, Cheryl J.

2015-01-01

Previous functional neuroimaging studies demonstrated that different neural networks underlie different types of cognitive processing by engaging participants in particular tasks, such as verbal or spatial working memory (WM) tasks. However, we report here that even when a working memory task is defined as verbal or spatial, different types of memory strategies may be employed to complete it, with concomitant variations in brain activity. We developed a questionnaire to characterize the type of strategy used by individual members in a group of 28 young healthy participants (18–25 years) during a spatial WM task. A cluster analysis was performed to differentiate groups. We acquired functional magnetoencephalography (MEG) and structural diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures to characterize the brain networks associated with the use of different strategies. We found two types of strategies were utilized during the spatial WM task, a visuospatial and a verbal strategy, and brain regions and timecourses of activation differed between participants who used each. Task performance also varied by type of strategy used, with verbal strategies showing an advantage. In addition, performance on neuropsychological tests (indices from WAIS-IV, REY-D Complex Figure) correlated significantly with fractional anisotropy (FA) measures for the visuospatial strategy group in white matter tracts implicated in other WM/attention studies. We conclude that differences in memory strategy can have a pronounced effect on the locations and timing of brain activation, and that these differences need further investigation as a possible confounding factor for studies using group averaging as a means for summarizing results. PMID:24931401

Same task, different strategies: how brain networks can be influenced by memory strategy.

PubMed

Sanfratello, Lori; Caprihan, Arvind; Stephen, Julia M; Knoefel, Janice E; Adair, John C; Qualls, Clifford; Lundy, S Laura; Aine, Cheryl J

2014-10-01

Previous functional neuroimaging studies demonstrated that different neural networks underlie different types of cognitive processing by engaging participants in particular tasks, such as verbal or spatial working memory (WM) tasks. However, we report here that even when a WM task is defined as verbal or spatial, different types of memory strategies may be used to complete it, with concomitant variations in brain activity. We developed a questionnaire to characterize the type of strategy used by individual members in a group of 28 young healthy participants (18-25 years) during a spatial WM task. A cluster analysis was performed to differentiate groups. We acquired functional magnetoencephalography and structural diffusion tensor imaging measures to characterize the brain networks associated with the use of different strategies. We found two types of strategies were used during the spatial WM task, a visuospatial and a verbal strategy, and brain regions and time courses of activation differed between participants who used each. Task performance also varied by type of strategy used with verbal strategies showing an advantage. In addition, performance on neuropsychological tests (indices from Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV, Rey Complex Figure Test) correlated significantly with fractional anisotropy measures for the visuospatial strategy group in white matter tracts implicated in other WM and attention studies. We conclude that differences in memory strategy can have a pronounced effect on the locations and timing of brain activation and that these differences need further investigation as a possible confounding factor for studies using group averaging as a means for summarizing results. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Implementation literacy strategies on health technology theme Learning to enhance Indonesian Junior High School Student's Physics Literacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feranie, Selly; Efendi, Ridwan; Karim, Saeful; Sasmita, Dedi

2016-08-01

The PISA results for Indonesian Students are lowest among Asian countries in the past two successive results. Therefore various Innovations in science learning process and its effectiveness enhancing student's science literacy is needed to enrich middle school science teachers. Literacy strategies have been implemented on health technologies theme learning to enhance Indonesian Junior high school Student's Physics literacy in three different health technologies e.g. Lasik surgery that associated with application of Light and Optics concepts, Ultra Sonographer (USG) associated with application of Sound wave concepts and Work out with stationary bike and walking associated with application of motion concepts. Science learning process involves at least teacher instruction, student learning and a science curriculum. We design two main part of literacy strategies in each theme based learning. First part is Integrated Reading Writing Task (IRWT) is given to the students before learning process, the second part is scientific investigation learning process design packed in Problem Based Learning. The first part is to enhance student's science knowledge and reading comprehension and the second part is to enhance student's science competencies. We design a transformation from complexity of physics language to Middle school physics language and from an expensive and complex science investigation to a local material and simply hands on activities. In this paper, we provide briefly how literacy strategies proposed by previous works is redesigned and applied in classroom science learning. Data were analysed using t- test. The increasing value of mean scores in each learning design (with a significance level of p = 0.01) shows that the implementation of this literacy strategy revealed a significant increase in students’ physics literacy achievement. Addition analysis of Avarage normalized gain show that each learning design is in medium-g courses effectiveness category according to Hake's classification.

Identifying optimum performance trade-offs using a cognitively bounded rational analysis model of discretionary task interleaving.

PubMed

Janssen, Christian P; Brumby, Duncan P; Dowell, John; Chater, Nick; Howes, Andrew

2011-01-01

We report the results of a dual-task study in which participants performed a tracking and typing task under various experimental conditions. An objective payoff function was used to provide explicit feedback on how participants should trade off performance between the tasks. Results show that participants' dual-task interleaving strategy was sensitive to changes in the difficulty of the tracking task and resulted in differences in overall task performance. To test the hypothesis that people select strategies that maximize payoff, a Cognitively Bounded Rational Analysis model was developed. This analysis evaluated a variety of dual-task interleaving strategies to identify the optimal strategy for maximizing payoff in each condition. The model predicts that the region of optimum performance is different between experimental conditions. The correspondence between human data and the prediction of the optimal strategy is found to be remarkably high across a number of performance measures. This suggests that participants were honing their behavior to maximize payoff. Limitations are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Binding oneself to the mast: stimulating frontopolar cortex enhances precommitment

PubMed Central

Ugazio, Giuseppe; Crockett, Molly J.; Ruff, Christian C.; Kalenscher, Tobias; Tobler, Philippe N.

2017-01-01

Abstract Humans often give in to temptations that are in conflict with valuable long-term goals like health or saving for the future. Such willpower failures represent a prevalent problem in everyday life and in many psychiatric disorders. Strategies that increase resistance to temptations could therefore improve overall societal well-being. One important strategy is to voluntarily precommit, i.e. to restrict one’s future action space by removing the tempting short-term option from the choice set, thereby leaving only the long-term option for implementation. The neural mechanisms necessary to implement precommitment have remained unknown. Here, we test whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the frontopolar cortex (FPC) can improve precommitment. Participants performed a self-control task in which they could precommit to obtain a delayed larger reward by removing an immediately available smaller reward from the future choice options. We found that anodal stimulation over FPC selectively increased the propensity to precommit. In contrast, tDCS had no effects on non-binding decisions, impulse control or reward preference. Our data establish a causal role for the FPC in the implementation of precommitment, revealing a novel route to improving resistance against temptations. PMID:28170049

The effects of task difficulty and resource requirements on attention strategies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

King, Teresa

1991-01-01

The patterns of attention strategies for task difficulty/resource tasks for which experimental results are presented and analyzed support the hypothesis that subjects may adopt an alternating (rather than concurrent one) when compelled to do so by either the size or the complexity of a visual display. According to the multiple resource model, if subjects had been performing the two tasks concurrently, the cost of this strategy would have been shown by a decrement in the spatial format, rather than the verbal format, due to competition for the same resource. Subjects may apply different strategies as a function of task difficulty and/or resource demand.

Human Resources Task Group Report Task 3

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-12-18

AND ADDRESS(ES) Defense Business Board,1155 Defense Pentagon,Washington,DC,20301-1155 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING...2002 DEFENSE BUSINESS PRACTICE IMPLEMENTATION BOARD Defense Business Practice Implementation Board Human Resources Task Group...their hiring success and reduced attrition through use of aptitude and motivational testing. Defense Business Practice Implementation Board Human

Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning Instructional Tools With Predict-Observe-Explain Strategy on the Topic of Cuboid and Cube Volume

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nurhuda; Lukito, A.; Masriyah

2018-01-01

This study aims to develop instructional tools and implement it to see the effectiveness. The method used in this research referred to Designing Effective Instruction. Experimental research with two-group pretest-posttest design method was conducted. The instructional tools have been developed is cooperative learning model with predict-observe-explain strategy on the topic of cuboid and cube volume which consist of lesson plans, POE tasks, and Tests. Instructional tools were of good quality by criteria of validity, practicality, and effectiveness. These instructional tools was very effective for teaching the volume of cuboid and cube. Cooperative instructional tool with predict-observe-explain (POE) strategy was good of quality because the teacher was easy to implement the steps of learning, students easy to understand the material and students’ learning outcomes completed classically. Learning by using this instructional tool was effective because learning activities were appropriate and students were very active. Students’ learning outcomes were completed classically and better than conventional learning. This study produced a good instructional tool and effectively used in learning. Therefore, these instructional tools can be used as an alternative to teach volume of cuboid and cube topics.

Effects of training strategies implemented in a complex videogame on functional connectivity of attentional networks.

PubMed

Voss, Michelle W; Prakash, Ruchika Shaurya; Erickson, Kirk I; Boot, Walter R; Basak, Chandramallika; Neider, Mark B; Simons, Daniel J; Fabiani, Monica; Gratton, Gabriele; Kramer, Arthur F

2012-01-02

We used the Space Fortress videogame, originally developed by cognitive psychologists to study skill acquisition, as a platform to examine learning-induced plasticity of interacting brain networks. Novice videogame players learned Space Fortress using one of two training strategies: (a) focus on all aspects of the game during learning (fixed priority), or (b) focus on improving separate game components in the context of the whole game (variable priority). Participants were scanned during game play using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), both before and after 20 h of training. As expected, variable priority training enhanced learning, particularly for individuals who initially performed poorly. Functional connectivity analysis revealed changes in brain network interaction reflective of more flexible skill learning and retrieval with variable priority training, compared to procedural learning and skill implementation with fixed priority training. These results provide the first evidence for differences in the interaction of large-scale brain networks when learning with different training strategies. Our approach and findings also provide a foundation for exploring the brain plasticity involved in transfer of trained abilities to novel real-world tasks such as driving, sport, or neurorehabilitation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neural changes in control implementation of a continuous task.

PubMed

Lungu, Ovidiu V; Binenstock, Meagan M; Pline, Megan A; Yeaton, Jennifer R; Carey, James R

2007-03-14

It is commonly agreed that control implementation, being a resource-consuming endeavor, is not exerted continuously or in simple tasks. However, most research in the field was done using tasks that varied the need for control on a trial-by-trial basis (e.g., Stroop, flanker) in a discrete manner. In this case, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was found to monitor the need for control, whereas regions in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were found to be involved in control implementation. Whether or not the same control mechanism would be used in continuous tasks was an open question. In our study, we found that in a continuous task, the same neural substrate subserves control monitoring (ACC) but that the neural substrate of control implementation changes over time. Early in the task, regions in the PFC were involved in control implementation, whereas later the control was taken over by subcortical structures, specifically the caudate. Our results suggest that humans possess a flexible control mechanism, with a specific structure dedicated to monitoring the need for control and with multiple structures involved in control implementation.

Staff perceptions of leadership during implementation of task-shifting in three surgical units.

PubMed

Henderson, Amanda; Paterson, Karyn; Burmeister, Liz; Thomson, Bernadette; Young, Louise

2013-03-01

Registered nurses are difficult to recruit and retain. Task shifting, which involves reallocation of delegation, can reduce demand for registered nurses. Effective leadership is needed for successful task shifting. This study explored leadership styles of three surgical nurse unit managers. Staff completed surveys before and after the implementation of task shifting. Task shifting involved the introduction of endorsed enrolled nurses (licensed nurses who must practise under registered nurse supervision) to better utilize registered nurses. Implementation of task shifting occurred over 4 months in a 700-bed tertiary hospital, in southeast Queensland, Australia. A facilitator assisted nurse unit managers during implementation. The impact was assessed by comparison of data before (n = 49) and after (n = 72) task shifting from registered nurses and endorsed enrolled nurses (n = 121) who completed the Ward Organization Features Survey. Significant differences in leadership and staff organization subscales across the settings suggest that how change involving task shifting is implemented influences nurses' opinions of leadership. Leadership behaviours of nurse unit managers is a key consideration in managing change such as task shifting. Consistent and clear messages from leaders about practice change are viewed positively by nursing staff. In the short term, incremental change possibly results in staff maintaining confidence in leadership. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Examining the validity of self-reports on scales measuring students' strategic processing.

PubMed

Samuelstuen, Marit S; Bråten, Ivar

2007-06-01

Self-report inventories trying to measure strategic processing at a global level have been much used in both basic and applied research. However, the validity of global strategy scores is open to question because such inventories assess strategy perceptions outside the context of specific task performance. The primary aim was to examine the criterion-related and construct validity of the global strategy data obtained with the Cross-Curricular Competencies (CCC) scale. Additionally, we wanted to compare the validity of these data with the validity of data obtained with a task-specific self-report inventory focusing on the same types of strategies. The sample included 269 10th-grade students from 12 different junior high schools. Global strategy use as assessed with the CCC was compared with task-specific strategy use reported in three different reading situations. Moreover, relationships between scores on the CCC and scores on measures of text comprehension were examined and compared with relationships between scores on the task-specific strategy measure and the same comprehension measures. The comparison between the CCC strategy scores and the task-specific strategy scores suggested only modest criterion-related validity for the data obtained with the global strategy inventory. The CCC strategy scores were also not related to the text comprehension measures, indicating poor construct validity. In contrast, the task-specific strategy scores were positively related to the comprehension measures, indicating good construct validity. Attempts to measure strategic processing at a global level seem to have limited validity and utility.

A six-degree-of-freedom passive arm with dynamic constraints (PADyC) for cardiac surgery application: preliminary experiments.

PubMed

Schneider, O; Troccaz, J

2001-01-01

The purpose of Computer-Assisted Surgery (CAS) is to help physicians and surgeons plan and execute optimal strategies from multimodal image data. The execution of such planned strategies may be assisted by guidance systems. Some of these systems, called synergistic systems, are based on the cooperation of a robotic device with a human operator. We have developed such a synergistic device: PADyC (Passive Arm with Dynamic Constraints). The basic principle of PADyC is to have a manually actuated arm that dynamically constrains the authorized motions of the surgical tool held by the human operator during a planned task. Dynamic constraints are computed from the task definition, and are implemented by a patented mechanical system. In this paper, we first introduce synergistic systems and then focus on modeling and algorithmic issues related to the dynamic constraints. Finally, we describe a 6-degree-of-freedom prototype robot designed for a clinical application (cardiac surgery) and report on preliminary experiments to date. The experimental results are then discussed, and future work is proposed. Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The mere exposure effect and recognition depend on the way you look!

PubMed

Willems, Sylvie; Dedonder, Jonathan; Van der Linden, Martial

2010-01-01

In line with Whittlesea and Price (2001), we investigated whether the memory effect measured with an implicit memory paradigm (mere exposure effect) and an explicit recognition task depended on perceptual processing strategies, regardless of whether the task required intentional retrieval. We found that manipulation intended to prompt functional implicit-explicit dissociation no longer had a differential effect when we induced similar perceptual strategies in both tasks. Indeed, the results showed that prompting a nonanalytic strategy ensured performance above chance on both tasks. Conversely, inducing an analytic strategy drastically decreased both explicit and implicit performance. Furthermore, we noted that the nonanalytic strategy involved less extensive gaze scanning than the analytic strategy and that memory effects under this processing strategy were largely independent of gaze movement.

Listening Strategies of L2 Learners with Varied Test Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Anna Ching-Shyang

2008-01-01

This article investigates the strategies that EFL students used and how they adjusted these strategies in response to various listening test tasks. The test tasks involved four forms of listening support: previewing questions, repeated input, background information preparation, and vocabulary instruction. Twenty-two participants were enlisted and…

A Scheduling Algorithm for Cloud Computing System Based on the Driver of Dynamic Essential Path.

PubMed

Xie, Zhiqiang; Shao, Xia; Xin, Yu

2016-01-01

To solve the problem of task scheduling in the cloud computing system, this paper proposes a scheduling algorithm for cloud computing based on the driver of dynamic essential path (DDEP). This algorithm applies a predecessor-task layer priority strategy to solve the problem of constraint relations among task nodes. The strategy assigns different priority values to every task node based on the scheduling order of task node as affected by the constraint relations among task nodes, and the task node list is generated by the different priority value. To address the scheduling order problem in which task nodes have the same priority value, the dynamic essential long path strategy is proposed. This strategy computes the dynamic essential path of the pre-scheduling task nodes based on the actual computation cost and communication cost of task node in the scheduling process. The task node that has the longest dynamic essential path is scheduled first as the completion time of task graph is indirectly influenced by the finishing time of task nodes in the longest dynamic essential path. Finally, we demonstrate the proposed algorithm via simulation experiments using Matlab tools. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the task Makespan in most cases and meet a high quality performance objective.

A Scheduling Algorithm for Cloud Computing System Based on the Driver of Dynamic Essential Path

PubMed Central

Xie, Zhiqiang; Shao, Xia; Xin, Yu

2016-01-01

To solve the problem of task scheduling in the cloud computing system, this paper proposes a scheduling algorithm for cloud computing based on the driver of dynamic essential path (DDEP). This algorithm applies a predecessor-task layer priority strategy to solve the problem of constraint relations among task nodes. The strategy assigns different priority values to every task node based on the scheduling order of task node as affected by the constraint relations among task nodes, and the task node list is generated by the different priority value. To address the scheduling order problem in which task nodes have the same priority value, the dynamic essential long path strategy is proposed. This strategy computes the dynamic essential path of the pre-scheduling task nodes based on the actual computation cost and communication cost of task node in the scheduling process. The task node that has the longest dynamic essential path is scheduled first as the completion time of task graph is indirectly influenced by the finishing time of task nodes in the longest dynamic essential path. Finally, we demonstrate the proposed algorithm via simulation experiments using Matlab tools. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the task Makespan in most cases and meet a high quality performance objective. PMID:27490901

A cognitive task analysis of information management strategies in a computerized provider order entry environment.

PubMed

Weir, Charlene R; Nebeker, Jonathan J R; Hicken, Bret L; Campo, Rebecca; Drews, Frank; Lebar, Beth

2007-01-01

Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) with electronic documentation, and computerized decision support dramatically changes the information environment of the practicing clinician. Prior work patterns based on paper, verbal exchange, and manual methods are replaced with automated, computerized, and potentially less flexible systems. The objective of this study is to explore the information management strategies that clinicians use in the process of adapting to a CPOE system using cognitive task analysis techniques. Observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 88 primary-care clinicians at 10 Veterans Administration Medical Centers. Interviews were taped, transcribed, and extensively analyzed to identify key information management goals, strategies, and tasks. Tasks were aggregated into groups, common components across tasks were clarified, and underlying goals and strategies identified. Nearly half of the identified tasks were not fully supported by the available technology. Six core components of tasks were identified. Four meta-cognitive information management goals emerged: 1) Relevance Screening; 2) Ensuring Accuracy; 3) Minimizing memory load; and 4) Negotiating Responsibility. Strategies used to support these goals are presented. Users develop a wide array of information management strategies that allow them to successfully adapt to new technology. Supporting the ability of users to develop adaptive strategies to support meta-cognitive goals is a key component of a successful system.

Manual-control Analysis Applied to the Money-supply Control Task

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wingrove, R. C.

1984-01-01

The recent procedure implemented by the Federal Reserve Board to control the money supply is formulated in the form of a tracking model as used in the study of manual-control tasks. Using this model, an analysis is made to determine the effect of monetary control on the fluctuations in economic output. The results indicate that monetary control can reduce the amplitude of fluctuations at frequencies near the region of historic business cycles. However, with significant time lags in the control loop, monetary control tends to increase the amplitude of the fluctuations at the higher frequencies. How the investigator or student can use the tools developed in the field of manual-control analysis to study the nature of economic fluctuations and to examine different strategies for stabilization is examined.

Equine-Assisted Occupational Therapy: Increasing Engagement for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Llambias, Cecilia; Magill-Evans, Joyce; Smith, Veronica; Warren, Sharon

Engagement in meaningful activities is essential to development and is often reduced in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have limited engagement in activities or relationships. A multiple-baseline design was used with 7 children with ASD ages 4-8 yr to assess the effect of including a horse in occupational therapy intervention on task engagement. The children showed improvements in engagement. Including horses in occupational therapy sessions may be a valuable addition to conventional treatments to increase task engagement of children with ASD. Factors related to the environment, therapeutic strategies, and individual participation need to be considered in understanding why this intervention may be effective and developing a theoretical basis for implementation. Copyright © 2016 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Strategies Used by Families to Simplify Tasks for Individuals with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders: Psychometric Analysis of the Task Management Strategy Index (TMSI)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gitlin, Laura N.; Winter, Laraine; Dennis, Marie P.; Corcoran, Mary; Schinfeld, Sandy; Hauck, Walter W.

2002-01-01

Purpose: Little is known about the specific behavioral strategies used by families to manage the physical dependency of persons with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD). This study reports the psychometric properties of the Task Management Strategy Index (TMSI), a measure designed to identify actions taken by caregivers to simplify…

Implementing exertional heat illness prevention strategies in US high school football.

PubMed

Kerr, Zachary Y; Marshall, Stephen W; Comstock, R Dawn; Casa, Douglas J

2014-01-01

Approximately 6500 high school football athletes are treated annually for exertional heat illness (EHI). In 2009, the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA)-led Inter-Association Task Force (NATA-IATF) released preseason heat acclimatization guidelines to help athletes become accustomed to environmental factors contributing to EHI. This study examines compliance with NATA-IATF guidelines and related EHI prevention strategies. The study used a cross-sectional survey completed by 1142 certified athletic trainers (AT), which captured compliance with 17 NATA-IATF guidelines and EHI prevention strategies in high school football during the 2011 preseason. On average, AT reported football programs complying with 10.4 NATA-IATF guidelines (SD = 3.2); 29 AT (2.5%) reported compliance with all 17. Guidelines with the lowest compliance were as follows: "Single-practice days consisted of practice no more than three hours in length" (39.7%); and "During days 3-5 of acclimatization, only helmets and shoulder pads should be worn" (39.0%). An average of 7.6 EHI prevention strategies (SD = 2.5) were used. Common EHI prevention strategies were as follows: having ice bags/cooler available (98.5%) and having a policy with written instructions for initiating emergency medical service response (87.8%). Programs in states with mandated guidelines had higher levels of compliance with guidelines and greater prevalence of EHI prevention strategies. A low proportion of surveyed high school football programs fully complied with all 17 NATA-IATF guidelines. However, many EHI prevention strategies were voluntarily implemented. State-level mandated EHI prevention guidelines may increase compliance with recognized best practices recommendations. Ongoing longitudinal monitoring of compliance is also recommended.

Training-of-trainers: A strategy to build country capacity for SLMTA expansion and sustainability

PubMed Central

Yao, Katy; Ndlovu, Nqobile; Moyo, Sikhulile

2014-01-01

Background The Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA) programme uses a training-of-trainers (TOT) model to build capacity for programme scale-up. The TOT strategy is designed to maximise utilisation of its graduates whilst minimising inconsistencies and ensuring high programme quality during global expansion. Objectives To describe the SLMTA TOT programme approach. Methods The two-week training, led by carefully selected and trained master trainers, enables effective and authentic implementation of the curriculum by its graduates. The teachback methodology used allows participants to practise teaching the curriculum whilst learning its content. A trainer’s toolkit provides all the materials necessary for teaching and must be followed faithfully during training. Two surveys were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the TOT strategy: one sent to 316 TOT graduates in 25 countries and the other sent to the programme leaders in 10 countries. Results By the end of 2013, 433 SLMTA trainers had been trained who, in turn, taught more than 1900 people to implement SLMTA in 617 laboratories in 47 countries. Ninety-seven percent of the 433 TOT graduates and 87% of the 38 master trainers are based in developing countries. Ninety-two per cent of the graduates have been utilised at least once in programme implementation and, as of August 2013, 87% of them were still actively involved in programme activities. Ninety-seven per cent of the graduates stated that the TOT workshop prepared them well for training or other programme tasks. Conclusion The SLMTA TOT strategy is effective in building local capacity for global programme expansion whilst maintaining programme quality. PMID:26753131

Hold it! The influence of lingering rewards on choice diversification and persistence.

PubMed

Schulze, Christin; van Ravenzwaaij, Don; Newell, Ben R

2017-11-01

Learning to choose adaptively when faced with uncertain and variable outcomes is a central challenge for decision makers. This study examines repeated choice in dynamic probability learning tasks in which outcome probabilities changed either as a function of the choices participants made or independently of those choices. This presence/absence of sequential choice-outcome dependencies was implemented by manipulating a single task aspect between conditions: the retention/withdrawal of reward across individual choice trials. The study addresses how people adapt to these learning environments and to what extent they engage in 2 choice strategies often contrasted as paradigmatic examples of striking violation of versus nominal adherence to rational choice: diversification and persistent probability maximizing, respectively. Results show that decisions approached adaptive choice diversification and persistence when sufficient feedback was provided on the dynamic rules of the probabilistic environments. The findings of divergent behavior in the 2 environments indicate that diversified choices represented a response to the reward retention manipulation rather than to the mere variability of outcome probabilities. Choice in both environments was well accounted for by the generalized matching law, and computational modeling-based strategy analyses indicated that adaptive choice arose mainly from reliance on reinforcement learning strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Improving teaching strategies in an undergraduate community health nursing (CHN) program: implementation of a service-learning preceptor program.

PubMed

Kazemi, Donna; Behan, Jennifer; Boniauto, Maria

2011-08-01

A service-learning component was added to the existing preceptor practicum program at the University of North Carolina Charlotte's School of Nursing (UNCC SON) in the fall of 2007 for nursing students in the community health nursing (CHN) practicum course. The preceptorship model is commonly used in undergraduate nursing education. The aim of this study was to improve teaching strategies in the existing school health nursing (SHN) preceptor program by the addition of a service-learning community partnership. Adding the service-learning component was based on the Polvika model. A total of 27 nursing students and 33 preceptors participated in the study. Percentages, means, standard deviations, and rankings were used to analyze the data. The participants completed a multiple-choice survey and ranked a list of tasks. The students were able to fulfill their task responsibilities, and the service-learning preceptor program was cost effective for the SHN preceptors through hours saved by the nursing students. The preceptor role is associated with many factors, including perceived burden, which affects their willingness to work with students. The findings demonstrated that service learning is an effective teaching strategy in the CHN nursing students' learning by fostering the preceptors' benefits, rewards, support, and commitment to the role. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Community quarantine to interrupt Ebola virus transmission - Mawah Village, Bong County, Liberia, August-October, 2014.

PubMed

Nyenswah, Tolbert; Blackley, David J; Freeman, Tabeh; Lindblade, Kim A; Arzoaquoi, Samson K; Mott, Joshua A; Williams, Justin N; Halldin, Cara N; Kollie, Francis; Laney, A Scott

2015-02-27

On September 30, 2014, the Bong County health officer notified the county Ebola task force of a growing outbreak of Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in Mawah, a village of approximately 800 residents. During September 9-16, household quarantine had been used by the community in response to a new Ebola infection. Because the infection led to a local outbreak that grew during September 17-20, county authorities suggested community quarantine be considered, and beginning on approximately September 20, the Fuamah District Ebola Task Force (Task Force) engaged Mawah leaders to provide education about Ebola and to secure cooperation for the proposed measures. On September 30, Bong County requested technical assistance to develop strategies to limit transmission in the village and to prevent spread to other areas. The county health team, with support from the Task Force and CDC, traveled to Mawah on October 1 and identified approximately two dozen residents reporting symptoms consistent with Ebola. Because of an ambulance shortage, 2 days were required, beginning October 1, to transport the patients to an Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia. Community quarantine measures, consisting of restrictions on entering or leaving Mawah, regulated river crossings, and market closures, were implemented on October 1. Local leaders raised concerns about availability of medical care and food. The local clinic was reopened on October 11, and food was distributed on October 12. The Task Force reported a total of 22 cases of Ebola in Mawah during September 9-October 2, of which 19 were fatal. During October 3-November 21, no new cases were reported in the village. Involving community members during planning and implementation helped support a safe and effective community quarantine in Mawah.

Implementing Sustainable Data Collection for a Cardiac Outcomes Registry in an Australian Public Hospital.

PubMed

Cox, Nicholas; Brennan, Angela; Dinh, Diem; Brien, Rita; Cowie, Kath; Stub, Dion; Reid, Christopher M; Lefkovits, Jeffrey

2018-04-01

Clinical outcome registries are an increasingly vital component of ensuring quality and safety of patient care. However, Australian hospitals rarely have additional resources or the capacity to fund the additional staff time to complete the task of data collection and entry. At the same time, registry funding models do not support staff for the collection of data at the site but are directed towards the central registry tasks of data reporting, managing and quality monitoring. The sustainability of a registry is contingent on building efficiencies into data management and collection. We describe the methods used in a large Victorian public hospital to develop a sustainable data collection system for the Victorian Cardiac Outcomes Registry (VCOR), using existing staff and resources common to many public hospitals. We describe the features of the registry and the hospital specific strategies that allowed us to do this as part of our routine business of providing good quality cardiac care. All clinical staff involved in patient care were given some data collection task with the entry of these data embedded into the staff's daily workflow. A senior cardiology registrar was empowered to allocate data entry tasks to colleagues when data were found to be incomplete. The task of 30-day follow-up proved the most onerous part of data collection. Cath-lab nursing staff were allocated this role. With hospital accreditation and funding models moving towards performance based quality indicators, collection of accurate and reliable information is crucial. Our experience demonstrates the successful implementation of clinical outcome registry data collection in a financially constrained public hospital environment utilising existing resources. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Task-Specific Response Strategy Selection on the Basis of Recent Training Experience

PubMed Central

Fulvio, Jacqueline M.; Green, C. Shawn; Schrater, Paul R.

2014-01-01

The goal of training is to produce learning for a range of activities that are typically more general than the training task itself. Despite a century of research, predicting the scope of learning from the content of training has proven extremely difficult, with the same task producing narrowly focused learning strategies in some cases and broadly scoped learning strategies in others. Here we test the hypothesis that human subjects will prefer a decision strategy that maximizes performance and reduces uncertainty given the demands of the training task and that the strategy chosen will then predict the extent to which learning is transferable. To test this hypothesis, we trained subjects on a moving dot extrapolation task that makes distinct predictions for two types of learning strategy: a narrow model-free strategy that learns an input-output mapping for training stimuli, and a general model-based strategy that utilizes humans' default predictive model for a class of trajectories. When the number of distinct training trajectories is low, we predict better performance for the mapping strategy, but as the number increases, a predictive model is increasingly favored. Consonant with predictions, subject extrapolations for test trajectories were consistent with using a mapping strategy when trained on a small number of training trajectories and a predictive model when trained on a larger number. The general framework developed here can thus be useful both in interpreting previous patterns of task-specific versus task-general learning, as well as in building future training paradigms with certain desired outcomes. PMID:24391490

Trunk, pelvis and hip biomechanics in individuals with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome: Strategies for step ascent.

PubMed

Diamond, Laura E; Bennell, Kim L; Wrigley, Tim V; Hinman, Rana S; Hall, Michelle; O'Donnell, John; Hodges, Paul W

2018-03-01

Femoroacetabular impingment (FAI) syndrome is common among young active adults and a proposed risk factor for the future development of hip osteoarthritis. Pain is dominant and drives clinical decision-making. Evidence for altered hip joint function in this patient population is inconsistent, making the identification of treatment targets challenging. A broader assessment, considering adjacent body segments (i.e. pelvis, trunk) and individual movement strategies, may better inform treatment programs. This exploratory study aimed to compare trunk, pelvis, and hip biomechanics during step ascent between individuals with and without FAI syndrome. Fifteen participants diagnosed with symptomatic cam-type or combined (cam plus pincer) FAI who were scheduled for arthroscopic surgery, and 11 age-, and sex-comparable pain- and disease-free individuals, underwent three-dimensional motion analysis during a step ascent task. Trunk, pelvis and hip biomechanics were compared between groups. Participants with FAI syndrome exhibited altered ipsilateral trunk lean and pelvic rise towards the symptomatic side during single-leg support compared to controls. Alterations were not uniformly adopted across all individuals with FAI syndrome; those who exhibited more pronounced alterations to frontal plane pelvis control tended to report pain during the task. There were minimal between-group differences for hip biomechanics. Exploratory data suggest biomechanics at the trunk and pelvis during step ascent differ between individuals with and without FAI syndrome. Those with FAI syndrome implement a range of proximal strategies for task completion, some of which may have relevance for rehabilitation. Longitudinal investigations of larger cohorts are required to evaluate hypothesized clinical and structural consequences. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Allen Newell's Program of Research: The Video-Game Test.

PubMed

Gobet, Fernand

2017-04-01

Newell (1973) argued that progress in psychology was slow because research focused on experiments trying to answer binary questions, such as serial versus parallel processing. In addition, not enough attention was paid to the strategies used by participants, and there was a lack of theories implemented as computer models offering sufficient precision for being tested rigorously. He proposed a three-headed research program: to develop computational models able to carry out the task they aimed to explain; to study one complex task in detail, such as chess; and to build computational models that can account for multiple tasks. This article assesses the extent to which the papers in this issue advance Newell's program. While half of the papers devote much attention to strategies, several papers still average across them, a capital sin according to Newell. The three courses of action he proposed were not popular in these papers: Only two papers used computational models, with no model being both able to carry out the task and to account for human data; there was no systematic analysis of a specific video game; and no paper proposed a computational model accounting for human data in several tasks. It is concluded that, while they use sophisticated methods of analysis and discuss interesting results, overall these papers contribute only little to Newell's program of research. In this respect, they reflect the current state of psychology and cognitive science. This is a shame, as Newell's ideas might help address the current crisis of lack of replication and fraud in psychology. Copyright © 2017 The Author. Topics in Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Cognitive Science Society.

Decentralized Estimation and Control for Preserving the Strong Connectivity of Directed Graphs.

PubMed

Sabattini, Lorenzo; Secchi, Cristian; Chopra, Nikhil

2015-10-01

In order to accomplish cooperative tasks, decentralized systems are required to communicate among each other. Thus, maintaining the connectivity of the communication graph is a fundamental issue. Connectivity maintenance has been extensively studied in the last few years, but generally considering undirected communication graphs. In this paper, we introduce a decentralized control and estimation strategy to maintain the strong connectivity property of directed communication graphs. In particular, we introduce a hierarchical estimation procedure that implements power iteration in a decentralized manner, exploiting an algorithm for balancing strongly connected directed graphs. The output of the estimation system is then utilized for guaranteeing preservation of the strong connectivity property. The control strategy is validated by means of analytical proofs and simulation results.

Children's theories of motivation.

PubMed

Gurland, Suzanne T; Glowacky, Victoria C

2011-09-01

To investigate children's theories of motivation, we asked 166 children (8-12 years of age) to rate the effect of various motivational strategies on task interest, over the short and long terms, in activities described as appealing or unappealing. Children viewed the rewards strategy as resulting in greatest interest except when implemented over the long term for appealing activities. Individual difference analyses revealed that some children held operant theories of motivation, in which rewards were central, and others held hybrid theories, in which rewards were key, but some allowance was made for interest to be self-sustaining in the absence of inducements. Children's theories predicted their academic self-regulation. Their theories are discussed relative to an expert theory of motivation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The hard fall effect: high working memory capacity leads to a higher, but less robust short-term memory performance.

PubMed

Thomassin, Noémylle; Gonthier, Corentin; Guerraz, Michel; Roulin, Jean-Luc

2015-01-01

Participants with a high working memory span tend to perform better than low spans in a variety of tasks. However, their performance is paradoxically more impaired when they have to perform two tasks at once, a phenomenon that could be labeled the "hard fall effect." The present study tested whether this effect exists in a short-term memory task, and investigated the proposal that the effect is due to high spans using efficient facilitative strategies under simple task conditions. Ninety-eight participants performed a spatial short-term memory task under simple and dual task conditions; stimuli presentation times either allowed for the use of complex facilitative strategies or not. High spans outperformed low spans only under simple task conditions when presentation times allowed for the use of facilitative strategies. These results indicate that the hard fall effect exists on a short-term memory task and may be caused by individual differences in strategy use.

Theory-based development of an implementation intervention to increase HPV vaccination in pediatric primary care practices.

PubMed

Garbutt, Jane M; Dodd, Sherry; Walling, Emily; Lee, Amanda A; Kulka, Katharine; Lobb, Rebecca

2018-03-13

The national guideline for use of the vaccine targeting oncogenic strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) is an evidence-based practice that is poorly implemented in primary care. Recommendations include completion of the vaccine series before the 13th birthday for girls and boys, giving the first dose at the 11- to 12-year-old check-up visit, concurrent with other recommended vaccines. Interventions to increase implementation of this guideline have had little impact, and opportunities to prevent cancer continue to be missed. We used a theory-informed approach to develop a pragmatic intervention for use in primary care settings to increase implementation of the HPV vaccine guideline recommendation. Using a concurrent mixed methods design in 10 primary care practices, we applied the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to systematically investigate and characterize factors strongly influencing vaccine use. We then used the Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) and the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to analyze provider behavior and identify behaviors to target for change and behavioral change strategies to include in the intervention. We identified facilitators and barriers to guideline use across the five CFIR domains: most distinguishing factors related to provider characteristics, their perception of the intervention, and their process to deliver the vaccine. Targeted behaviors were for the provider to recommend the HPV vaccine the same way and at the same time as the other adolescent vaccines, to answer parents' questions with confidence, and to implement a vaccine delivery system. To this end, the intervention targeted improving provider's capability (knowledge, communication skills) and motivation (action planning, belief about consequences, social influences) regarding implementing guideline recommendations, and increasing their opportunity to do so (vaccine delivery system). Behavior change strategies included providing information and communication skill training with graded tasks and modeling, feedback of coverage rates, goal setting, and social support. These strategies were combined in an implementation intervention to be delivered using practice facilitation, educational outreach visits, and cyclical small tests of change. Using CFIR, the BCW and the TDF facilitated the development of a pragmatic, multi-component implementation intervention to increase use of the HPV vaccine in the primary care setting.

Individual differences in intrinsic brain connectivity predict decision strategy.

PubMed

Barnes, Kelly Anne; Anderson, Kevin M; Plitt, Mark; Martin, Alex

2014-10-15

When humans are provided with ample time to make a decision, individual differences in strategy emerge. Using an adaptation of a well-studied decision making paradigm, motion direction discrimination, we probed the neural basis of individual differences in strategy. We tested whether strategies emerged from moment-to-moment reconfiguration of functional brain networks involved in decision making with task-evoked functional MRI (fMRI) and whether intrinsic properties of functional brain networks, measured at rest with functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI), were associated with strategy use. We found that human participants reliably selected one of two strategies across 2 days of task performance, either continuously accumulating evidence or waiting for task difficulty to decrease. Individual differences in decision strategy were predicted both by the degree of task-evoked activation of decision-related brain regions and by the strength of pretask correlated spontaneous brain activity. These results suggest that spontaneous brain activity constrains strategy selection on perceptual decisions.

Exercising your brain: a review of human brain plasticity and training-induced learning.

PubMed

Green, C S; Bavelier, D

2008-12-01

Human beings have an amazing capacity to learn new skills and adapt to new environments. However, several obstacles remain to be overcome in designing paradigms to broadly improve quality of life. Arguably, the most notable impediment to this goal is that learning tends to be quite specific to the trained regimen and does not transfer to even qualitatively similar tasks. This severely limits the potential benefits of learning to daily life. This review discusses training regimens that lead to the acquisition of new knowledge and strategies that can be used flexibly across a range of tasks and contexts. Possible characteristics of training regimens are proposed that may be responsible for augmented learning, including the manner in which task difficulty is progressed, the motivational state of the learner, and the type of feedback the training provides. When maximally implemented in rehabilitative paradigms, these characteristics may greatly increase the efficacy of training. Copyright (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Influence of Psychosocial Classroom Environment on Students' Motivation and Self-Regulation in Science Learning: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velayutham, Sunitadevi; Aldridge, Jill M.

2013-04-01

The primary aim of this study was two-fold: 1) to identify salient psychosocial features of the classroom environment that influence students' motivation and self-regulation in science learning; and 2) to examine the effect of the motivational constructs of learning goal orientation, science task value and self-efficacy in science learning on students' self-regulation in science classrooms. Data collected from 1360 science students in grades 8, 9 and 10 in five public schools in Perth, Western Australia were utilized to validate the questionnaires and to investigate the hypothesized relationships. Structural Equation Modeling analysis suggested that student cohesiveness, investigation and task orientation were the most influential predictors of student motivation and self-regulation in science learning. In addition, learning goal orientation, task value and self-efficacy significantly influenced students' self-regulation in science. The findings offer potential opportunities for educators to plan and implement effective pedagogical strategies aimed at increasing students' motivation and self-regulation in science learning.

Utilization Deficiencies and Transfer of Strategies in Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clerc, Jerome; Miller, Patricia H.

2013-01-01

Three studies examined whether strategy utilization deficiencies emerge during transfer to two tasks that differ superficially from the main task but have the same underlying structural logic. In Experiment 1, children aged 4, 4 1/2, and 5 spontaneously produced selective attention strategies (or were prompted to do so) on a selective memory task.…

Different strategies in solving series completion inductive reasoning problems: an fMRI and computational study.

PubMed

Liang, Peipeng; Jia, Xiuqin; Taatgen, Niels A; Zhong, Ning; Li, Kuncheng

2014-08-01

Neural correlate of human inductive reasoning process is still unclear. Number series and letter series completion are two typical inductive reasoning tasks, and with a common core component of rule induction. Previous studies have demonstrated that different strategies are adopted in number series and letter series completion tasks; even the underlying rules are identical. In the present study, we examined cortical activation as a function of two different reasoning strategies for solving series completion tasks. The retrieval strategy, used in number series completion tasks, involves direct retrieving of arithmetic knowledge to get the relations between items. The procedural strategy, used in letter series completion tasks, requires counting a certain number of times to detect the relations linking two items. The two strategies require essentially the equivalent cognitive processes, but have different working memory demands (the procedural strategy incurs greater demands). The procedural strategy produced significant greater activity in areas involved in memory retrieval (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, DLPFC) and mental representation/maintenance (posterior parietal cortex, PPC). An ACT-R model of the tasks successfully predicted behavioral performance and BOLD responses. The present findings support a general-purpose dual-process theory of inductive reasoning regarding the cognitive architecture. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A biologically inspired meta-control navigation system for the Psikharpax rat robot.

PubMed

Caluwaerts, K; Staffa, M; N'Guyen, S; Grand, C; Dollé, L; Favre-Félix, A; Girard, B; Khamassi, M

2012-06-01

A biologically inspired navigation system for the mobile rat-like robot named Psikharpax is presented, allowing for self-localization and autonomous navigation in an initially unknown environment. The ability of parts of the model (e.g. the strategy selection mechanism) to reproduce rat behavioral data in various maze tasks has been validated before in simulations. But the capacity of the model to work on a real robot platform had not been tested. This paper presents our work on the implementation on the Psikharpax robot of two independent navigation strategies (a place-based planning strategy and a cue-guided taxon strategy) and a strategy selection meta-controller. We show how our robot can memorize which was the optimal strategy in each situation, by means of a reinforcement learning algorithm. Moreover, a context detector enables the controller to quickly adapt to changes in the environment-recognized as new contexts-and to restore previously acquired strategy preferences when a previously experienced context is recognized. This produces adaptivity closer to rat behavioral performance and constitutes a computational proposition of the role of the rat prefrontal cortex in strategy shifting. Moreover, such a brain-inspired meta-controller may provide an advancement for learning architectures in robotics.

What Is a Value Management Office? An Implementation Experience in Latin America.

PubMed

Makdisse, Marcia; Katz, Marcelo; Ramos, Pedro; Pereira, Adriano; Shiramizo, Sandra; Neto, Miguel Cendoroglo; Klajner, Sidney

2018-05-02

Value-based health care has been touted as the "strategy that will fix healthcare," yet putting this value agenda to work in the real world is not an easy task. Robert Kaplan and colleagues first introduced the concept of a value management office (VMO) that may help to accelerate the dissemination and adoption of this value agenda. In this article, we describe the first known experience of the implementation of a VMO in a Latin American hospital and the main steps we have already taken to accelerate this value agenda at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. We faced a number of challenges in implementing the VMO at Einstein, including integration with existing clinical and financial information areas, transition to a standardized outcomes model, adaptation to our "open medical staff" model by connecting the VMO with the Medical Practice Division, and involvement with our physician-led multidisciplinary groups. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Task complexity, student perceptions of vocabulary learning in EFL, and task performance.

PubMed

Wu, Xiaoli; Lowyck, Joost; Sercu, Lies; Elen, Jan

2013-03-01

The study deepened our understanding of how students' self-efficacy beliefs contribute to the context of teaching English as a foreign language in the framework of cognitive mediational paradigm at a fine-tuned task-specific level. The aim was to examine the relationship among task complexity, self-efficacy beliefs, domain-related prior knowledge, learning strategy use, and task performance as they were applied to English vocabulary learning from reading tasks. Participants were 120 second-year university students (mean age 21) from a Chinese university. This experiment had two conditions (simple/complex). A vocabulary level test was first conducted to measure participants' prior knowledge of English vocabulary. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of the learning tasks. Participants were administered task booklets together with the self-efficacy scales, measures of learning strategy use, and post-tests. Data obtained were submitted to multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and path analysis. Results from the MANOVA model showed a significant effect of vocabulary level on self-efficacy beliefs, learning strategy use, and task performance. Task complexity showed no significant effect; however, an interaction effect between vocabulary level and task complexity emerged. Results from the path analysis showed self-efficacy beliefs had an indirect effect on performance. Our results highlighted the mediating role of self-efficacy beliefs and learning strategy use. Our findings indicate that students' prior knowledge plays a crucial role on both self-efficacy beliefs and task performance, and the predictive power of self-efficacy on task performance may lie in its association with learning strategy use. © 2011 The British Psychological Society.

Motivation to comply with task rules and multitasking performance: The role of need for cognitive closure and goal importance.

PubMed

Szumowska, Ewa; Kossowska, Małgorzata; Roets, Arne

2018-01-01

In three studies, we examined the role task rules play in multitasking performance. We postulated that rules should be especially important for individuals highly motivated to have structure and clear answers, i.e., those high on need for cognitive closure (NFC). High NFC should thus be related to greater compliance with task rules. Specifically, given high goal importance, NFC should be more strongly related to a multitasking strategy when multitasking is imposed by the rules, and to a mono-tasking strategy when monotasking is imposed by the rules. This should translate into better multitasking or mono-tasking performance, depending on condition. Overall, the results were supportive as NFC was related to a more mono-tasking strategy in the mono-tasking condition (Studies 1 and 2 only) and more dual-tasking strategy in the dual-tasking condition (Studies 1-3). This translated into respective differences in performance. The effects were significant only when goal importance was high (Study 1) and held when cognitive ability was controlled for (Study 2).

Electronic medication complete communication strategy for opioid prescriptions in the emergency department: Rationale and design for a three-arm provider randomized trial.

PubMed

McCarthy, Danielle M; Courtney, D Mark; Lank, Patrick M; Cameron, Kenzie A; Russell, Andrea M; Curtis, Laura M; Kim, Kwang-Youn A; Walton, Surrey M; Montague, Enid; Lyden, Abbie L; Gravenor, Stephanie J; Wolf, Michael S

2017-08-01

Thousands of people die annually from prescription opioid overdoses; however there are few strategies to ensure patients receive medication risk information at the time of prescribing. To compare the effectiveness of the Emergency Department (ED) Electronic Medication Complete Communication (EMC 2 ) Opioid Strategy (with and without text messaging) to promote safe medication use and improved patient knowledge as compared to usual care. The ED EMC 2 Opioid Strategy consists of 5 automated components to promote safe medication use: 1) physician reminder to counsel, 2) inbox message sent on to the patient's primary care physician, 3) pharmacist message on the prescription to counsel, 4) MedSheet supporting prescription information, and 5) patient-centered Take-Wait-Stop wording of prescription instructions. This strategy will be assessed both with and without the addition of text messages via a three-arm randomized trial. The study will take place at an urban academic ED (annual volume>85,000) in Chicago, IL. Patients being discharged with a new prescription for hydrocodone-acetaminophen will be enrolled and randomized (based on their prescribing physician). The primary outcome of the study is medication safe use as measured by a demonstrated dosing task. Additionally actual safe use, patient knowledge and provider counseling will be measured. Implementation fidelity as well as costs will be reported. The ED EMC 2 Opioid Strategy embeds a risk communication strategy into the electronic health record and promotes medication counseling with minimal workflow disruption. This trial will evaluate the strategy's effectiveness and implementation fidelity as compared to usual care. This trial is registered on clinicaltrials.gov with identifier NCT02431793. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On scheduling task systems with variable service times

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maset, Richard G.; Banawan, Sayed A.

1993-08-01

Several strategies have been proposed for developing optimal and near-optimal schedules for task systems (jobs consisting of multiple tasks that can be executed in parallel). Most such strategies, however, implicitly assume deterministic task service times. We show that these strategies are much less effective when service times are highly variable. We then evaluate two strategies—one adaptive, one static—that have been proposed for retaining high performance despite such variability. Both strategies are extensions of critical path scheduling, which has been found to be efficient at producing near-optimal schedules. We found the adaptive approach to be quite effective.

Pure visual imagery as a potential approach to achieve three classes of control for implementation of BCI in non-motor disorders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sousa, Teresa; Amaral, Carlos; Andrade, João; Pires, Gabriel; Nunes, Urbano J.; Castelo-Branco, Miguel

2017-08-01

Objective. The achievement of multiple instances of control with the same type of mental strategy represents a way to improve flexibility of brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. Here we test the hypothesis that pure visual motion imagery of an external actuator can be used as a tool to achieve three classes of electroencephalographic (EEG) based control, which might be useful in attention disorders. Approach. We hypothesize that different numbers of imagined motion alternations lead to distinctive signals, as predicted by distinct motion patterns. Accordingly, a distinct number of alternating sensory/perceptual signals would lead to distinct neural responses as previously demonstrated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We anticipate that differential modulations should also be observed in the EEG domain. EEG recordings were obtained from twelve participants using three imagery tasks: imagery of a static dot, imagery of a dot with two opposing motions in the vertical axis (two motion directions) and imagery of a dot with four opposing motions in vertical or horizontal axes (four directions). The data were analysed offline. Main results. An increase of alpha-band power was found in frontal and central channels as a result of visual motion imagery tasks when compared with static dot imagery, in contrast with the expected posterior alpha decreases found during simple visual stimulation. The successful classification and discrimination between the three imagery tasks confirmed that three different classes of control based on visual motion imagery can be achieved. The classification approach was based on a support vector machine (SVM) and on the alpha-band relative spectral power of a small group of six frontal and central channels. Patterns of alpha activity, as captured by single-trial SVM closely reflected imagery properties, in particular the number of imagined motion alternations. Significance. We found a new mental task based on visual motion imagery with potential for the implementation of multiclass (3) BCIs. Our results are consistent with the notion that frontal alpha synchronization is related with high internal processing demands, changing with the number of alternation levels during imagery. Together, these findings suggest the feasibility of pure visual motion imagery tasks as a strategy to achieve multiclass control systems with potential for BCI and in particular, neurofeedback applications in non-motor (attentional) disorders.

Mastering social and organization goals: strategy use by two children with Asperger syndrome during cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance.

PubMed

Rodger, Sylvia; Vishram, Alysha

2010-11-01

Preliminary data supports the effectiveness of Cognitive Orientation to (daily) Occupational Performance (CO-OP) for children with Asperger syndrome (AS). Children with AS often experience social and organizational difficulties spanning daily occupations. This case study explored the pattern of Global Strategies and Domain-Specific Strategies (DSS) use, the type of guidance, and dimensions of time on task used by two children with AS (aged 10 and 12 years) in addressing social and organizational goals during the CO-OP intervention. Coding of the videotaped CO-OP sessions suggested that both children (a) utilized all the Global strategies, particularly "understanding the context” and "plan"; (b) used six common DSS, namely transitional supports, affective supports, attending, task-specification, task modification, and supplementing task knowledge, with task-specification being most prominent; (c) required minimal guidance while "doing"; and (d) engaged in considerable time "talking about the task.” The results provide initial insights into strategies that may enable children with AS to achieve social and organizational goals.

Predictive models to determine imagery strategies employed by children to judge hand laterality.

PubMed

Spruijt, Steffie; Jongsma, Marijtje L A; van der Kamp, John; Steenbergen, Bert

2015-01-01

A commonly used paradigm to study motor imagery is the hand laterality judgment task. The present study aimed to determine which strategies young children employ to successfully perform this task. Children of 5 to 8 years old (N = 92) judged laterality of back and palm view hand pictures in different rotation angles. Response accuracy and response duration were registered. Response durations of the trials with a correct judgment were fitted to a-priori defined predictive sinusoid models, representing different strategies to successfully perform the hand laterality judgment task. The first model predicted systematic changes in response duration as a function of rotation angle of the displayed hand. The second model predicted that response durations are affected by biomechanical constraints of hand rotation. If observed data could be best described by the first model, this would argue for a mental imagery strategy that does not involve motor processes to solve the task. The second model reflects a motor imagery strategy to solve the task. In line with previous research, we showed an age-related increase in response accuracy and decrease in response duration in children. Observed data for both back and palm view showed that motor imagery strategies were used to perform hand laterality judgments, but that not all the children use these strategies (appropriately) at all times. A direct comparison of response duration patterns across age sheds new light on age-related differences in the strategies employed to solve the task. Importantly, the employment of the motor imagery strategy for successful task performance did not change with age.

Neuronal activity during a cued strategy task: Comparison of dorsolateral, orbital and polar prefrontal cortex

PubMed Central

Tsujimoto, Satoshi; Genovesio, Aldo; Wise, Steven P.

2012-01-01

We compared neuronal activity in the dorsolateral (PFdl), orbital (PFo) and polar (PFp) prefrontal cortex as monkeys performed three tasks. In two tasks, a cue instructed one of two strategies: stay with the previous response or shift to the alternative. Visual stimuli served as cues in one of these tasks; in the other, fluid rewards did so. In the third task, visuospatial cues instructed each response. A delay period followed each cue. As reported previously, PFdl encoded strategies (stay or shift) and responses (left or right) during the cue and delay periods, while PFo encoded strategies and PFp encoded neither strategies nor responses; during the feedback period, all three areas encoded responses, not strategies. Four novel findings emerged from the present analysis. (1) The strategy encoded by PFdl and PFo cells during the cue and delay periods was modality specific. (2) The response encoded by PFdl cells was task- and modality specific during the cue period, but during the delay and feedback periods it became task- and modality general. (3) Although some PFdl and PFo cells responded to or anticipated rewards, we could rule out reward effects for most strategy-and response-related activity. (4) Immediately before feedback, only PFp signaled responses that were correct according to the cued strategy; after feedback, only PFo signaled the response that had been made, whether correct or incorrect. These signals support a role in generating responses by PFdl, assigning outcomes to choices by PFo, and assigning outcomes to cognitive processes by PFp. PMID:22875935

The Role of Task Understanding on Younger and Older Adults' Performance.

PubMed

Frank, David J; Touron, Dayna R

2016-12-16

Age-related performance decrements have been linked to inferior strategic choices. Strategy selection models argue that accurate task representations are necessary for choosing appropriate strategies. But no studies to date have compared task representations in younger and older adults. Metacognition research suggests age-related deficits in updating and utilizing strategy knowledge, but other research suggests age-related sparing when information can be consolidated into a coherent mental model. Study 1 validated the use of concept mapping as a tool for measuring task representation accuracy. Study 2 measured task representations before and after a complex strategic task to test for age-related decrements in task representation formation and updating. Task representation accuracy and task performance were equivalent across age groups. Better task representations were related to better performance. However, task representation scores remained fairly stable over the task with minimal evidence of updating. Our findings mirror those in the mental model literature suggesting age-related sparing of strategy use when information can be integrated into a coherent mental model. Future research should manipulate the presence of a unifying context to better evaluate this hypothesis. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A Cognitive Task Analysis of Information Management Strategies in a Computerized Provider Order Entry Environment

PubMed Central

Weir, Charlene R.; Nebeker, Jonathan J.R.; Hicken, Bret L.; Campo, Rebecca; Drews, Frank; LeBar, Beth

2007-01-01

Objective Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) with electronic documentation, and computerized decision support dramatically changes the information environment of the practicing clinician. Prior work patterns based on paper, verbal exchange, and manual methods are replaced with automated, computerized, and potentially less flexible systems. The objective of this study is to explore the information management strategies that clinicians use in the process of adapting to a CPOE system using cognitive task analysis techniques. Design Observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 88 primary-care clinicians at 10 Veterans Administration Medical Centers. Measurements Interviews were taped, transcribed, and extensively analyzed to identify key information management goals, strategies, and tasks. Tasks were aggregated into groups, common components across tasks were clarified, and underlying goals and strategies identified. Results Nearly half of the identified tasks were not fully supported by the available technology. Six core components of tasks were identified. Four meta-cognitive information management goals emerged: 1) Relevance Screening; 2) Ensuring Accuracy; 3) Minimizing memory load; and 4) Negotiating Responsibility. Strategies used to support these goals are presented. Conclusion Users develop a wide array of information management strategies that allow them to successfully adapt to new technology. Supporting the ability of users to develop adaptive strategies to support meta-cognitive goals is a key component of a successful system. PMID:17068345

Approaches to the Successful Design and Implementation of VR Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryson, Steve; Cooper, D. M. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

The successful design of virtual reality applications involves both "top-down" and "bottom-up" strategies. This talk will broadly outline these strategies: how bottom-up strategies are driven primarily by performance considerations; and how top-down strategies are driven primarily by the application task, the interaction metaphors, and the integration of the virtual environment. How to ensure these two approaches "meet in the middle" through Iterative design processes will be stressed. The discussion will be motivated by examples of both success and failure. The talk contains information bryson presented at SIGGRAPH '93 and Visualization '93, and is a high-level discussion of design principles for virtual reality. There will be essentially no discussion of virtual wind tunnel specific issues or any other matters relating to aerospace, the tutorial is a repeat of the tutorial Bryson and Steve Feiner presented at Visualization '93 In October 1993 in San Jose, CA, and will cite the virtual windtunnel only as an example.

A comparison of mental strategies during athletic skills performance.

PubMed

Peluso, Eugenio A; Ross, Michael J; Gfeller, Jeffrey D; Lavoie, Donna J

2005-12-01

The current study examined the effects of performance enhancement techniques (PET's) on motor skill performance. Specifically, one hundred fifty college student volunteers (Men = 41; 27.3% and Women = 109; 72.6%) were randomly assigned to one of the nine conditions (Cond): Cond 1 and 2, simultaneous, externally verbalized self-talk or imagery (e.g., participants were instructed to say "aim, back, birdie "or engaged in imagery out loud while putting); Cond 3 and 4, delayed externally verbalized self-talk or imagery (e.g., participants were instructed to say "aim, back, birdie "or engaged in imagery out loud before putting); Cond 5 and 6, simultaneous, internally verbalized self-talk or imagery (e.g., participants were instructed to say "aim, back, birdie "or engaged in imagery silently to oneself while putting); Cond 7 and 8, delayed internally verbalized (e.g., participant were instructed to say "aim, back, birdie "or engaged in imagery silently to oneself before putting); and Cond 9, no instruction control group. All participants were asked to perform a golf-putting task. Results indicated that participants who implemented several (PET's) increased their putting accuracy across overall difference score evaluations F (8, 141) = 4.01, p < 0.05 when compared to a no instruction control condition. Follow-up analyses indicated that participants who reportedly engaged in ten hours or less of athletic activities per week preferred self-talk strategies F (2, 119) = 4.38, p < 0.05 whereas participants who endorsed ten hours or more of athletic activity per week preferred imagery strategies F (2, 25) = 5.27, p < 0.05. Key PointsMental imagery and self-talk strategies are implemented by athletes in order to regulate arousal, reduce maladaptive behaviors, reconstruct negative thoughts, and to increase one's concentration and focus.Results of the current study suggest that participants who engaged in several performance enhancement techniques exhibited enhanced performance on a golf putting task when compared to participants in a control condition.Participants who endorsed limited athletic familiarity and activity (e.g., ten hours or less) preferred self-talk practice whereas participants who endorsed higher ratings scores of athletic familiarity and activity (e.g., ten hours or more) preferred imagery strategies.The results of this study demonstrate the flexibility of Performance Enhancement Techniques (e.g., imagery v. self-talk, internal v. external, simultaneous v. delayed) and how they can be implemented to help an athlete reach his or her full potential.

A minimum attention control law for ball catching.

PubMed

Jang, Cheongjae; Lee, Jee-eun; Lee, Sohee; Park, F C

2015-10-06

Digital implementations of control laws typically involve discretization with respect to both time and space, and a control law that can achieve a task at coarser levels of discretization can be said to require less control attention, and also reduced implementation costs. One means of quantitatively capturing the attention of a control law is to measure the rate of change of the control with respect to changes in state and time. In this paper we present an attention-minimizing control law for ball catching and other target tracking tasks based on Brockett's attention criterion. We first highlight the connections between this attention criterion and some well-known principles from human motor control. Under the assumption that the optimal control law is the sum of a linear time-varying feedback term and a time-varying feedforward term, we derive an LQR-based minimum attention tracking control law that is stable, and obtained efficiently via a finite-dimensional optimization over the symmetric positive-definite matrices. Taking ball catching as our primary task, we perform numerical experiments comparing the performance of the various control strategies examined in the paper. Consistent with prevailing theories about human ball catching, our results exhibit several familiar features, e.g., the transition from open-loop to closed-loop control during the catching movement, and improved robustness to spatiotemporal discretization. The presented control laws are applicable to more general tracking problems that are subject to limited communication resources.

Perceived vs. Actual Strategy Use across Three Oral Communication Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khan, Sarah; Victori, Mia

2011-01-01

This study sought to explore differences in strategy use across three oral communication tasks. Twenty-two intermediate level university students carried out three tasks in pairs at three different time periods. After each task, which varied in terms of cognitive, interactional and learner factors (Robinson, "International Review of Applied…

Managing competing demands through task-switching and multitasking: a multi-setting observational study of 200 clinicians over 1000 hours.

PubMed

Walter, Scott R; Li, Ling; Dunsmuir, William T M; Westbrook, Johanna I

2014-03-01

To provide a detailed characterisation of clinicians' work management strategies. 1002.3 h of observational data were derived from three previous studies conducted in a teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia, among emergency department (ED) doctors (n=40), ward doctors (n=57) and ward nurses (n=104). The rates of task-switching (pausing a task to handle an incoming task) and multitasking (adding a task in parallel to an existing task) were compared in each group. Random intercepts logistic regression was used to determine factors significantly associated with clinicians' use of task-switching over multitasking and to quantify variation between individual clinicians. Task-switching rates were higher among ED doctors (6.0 per hour) than ward staff (2.2 and 1.8 per hour for doctors and nurses, respectively) and vice versa for multitasking rates (9.2 vs 17.3 and 14.1 per hour). Clinicians' strategy use was significantly related to the nature and complexity of work and to the person they were working with. In some settings, time of day, day of the week or previous chosen strategy affected a clinician's strategy. Independent of these factors, there was significant variation between individual clinicians in their use of strategies in a given situation (ED doctors p=0.04, ward staff p=0.03). Despite differences in factors associated with work management strategy use among ED doctors, ward doctors and ward nurses, clinicians in all settings appeared to prioritise certain types of tasks over others. Documentation was generally given low priority in all groups, while the arrival of direct care tasks tended to be treated with high priority. These findings suggest that considerations of safety may be implicit in task-switching and multitasking decisions. Although these strategies have been cast in a negative light, future research should consider their role in optimising competing quality and efficiency demands.

The Role of Strategy Knowledge for the Application of Strategies in Complex Problem Solving Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wüstenberg, Sascha; Stadler, Matthias; Hautamäki, Jarkko; Greiff, Samuel

2014-01-01

Education in the twenty-first century must prepare students to meet the challenges of a dynamic and interconnected world. However, assessment of students' skills tends to focus primarily on static tasks. Therefore, it is not known whether knowledge about successful strategies displayed on static tasks can be transferred to interactive and dynamic…

The Minimal Control Principle Predicts Strategy Shifts in the Abstract Decision Making Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taatgen, Niels A.

2011-01-01

The minimal control principle (Taatgen, 2007) predicts that people strive for problem-solving strategies that require as few internal control states as possible. In an experiment with the Abstract Decision Making task (ADM task; Joslyn & Hunt, 1998) the reward structure was manipulated to make either a low-control strategy or a high-strategy…

The Effect of Question Format and Task Difficulty on Reasoning Strategies and Diagnostic Performance in Internal Medicine Residents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heemskerk, Laura; Norman, Geoff; Chou, Sophia; Mintz, Marcy; Mandin, Henry; McLaughlin, Kevin

2008-01-01

Background: Previous studies have suggested an association between reasoning strategies and diagnostic success, but the influence on this relationship of variables such as question format and task difficulty, has not been studied. Our objective was to study the association between question format, task difficulty, reasoning strategies and…

Experimental model of a wind energy conversion system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vasar, C.; Rat, C. L.; Prostean, O.

2018-01-01

The renewable energy domain represents an important issue for the sustainable development of the mankind in the actual context of increasing demand for energy along with the increasing pollution that affect the environment. A significant quota of the clean energy is represented by the wind energy. As a consequence, the developing of wind energy conversion systems (WECS) in order to achieve high energetic performances (efficiency, stability, availability, competitive cost etc) represents a topic of permanent actuality. Testing and developing of an optimized control strategy for a WECS direct implemented on a real energetic site is quite difficult and not cost efficient. Thus a more convenient solution consists in a flexible laboratory setup which requires an experimental model of a WECS. Such approach would allow the simulation of various real conditions very similar with existing energetic sites. This paper presents a grid-connected wind turbine emulator. The wind turbine is implemented through a real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) emulator, which will be analyzed extensively in the paper. The HIL system uses software implemented in the LabVIEW programming environment to control an ABB ACS800 electric drive. ACS800 has the task of driving an induction machine coupled to a permanent magnet synchronous generator. The power obtained from the synchronous generator is rectified, filtered and sent to the main grid through a controlled inverter. The control strategy is implemented on a NI CompactRIO (cRIO) platform.

Variable strategy model of the human operator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, John Michael

Human operators often employ discontinuous or "bang-bang" control strategies when performing large-amplitude acquisition tasks. The current study applies Variable Structure Control (VSC) techniques to model human operator behavior during acquisition tasks. The result is a coupled, multi-input model replicating the discontinuous control strategy. In the VSC formulation, a switching surface is the mathematical representation of the operator's control strategy. The performance of the Variable Strategy Model (VSM) is evaluated by considering several examples, including the longitudinal control of an aircraft during the visual landing task. The aircraft landing task becomes an acquisition maneuver whenever large initial offsets occur. Several different strategies are explored in the VSM formulation for the aircraft landing task. First, a switching surface is constructed from literal interpretations of pilot training literature. This approach yields a mathematical representation of how a pilot is trained to fly a generic aircraft. This switching surface is shown to bound the trajectory response of a group of pilots performing an offset landing task in an aircraft simulator study. Next, front-side and back-side landing strategies are compared. A back-side landing strategy is found to be capable of landing an aircraft flying on either the front side or back side of the power curve. However, the front-side landing strategy is found to be insufficient for landing an aircraft flying on the back side. Finally, a more refined landing strategy is developed that takes into the account the specific aircraft's dynamic characteristics. The refined strategy is translated back into terminology similar to the existing pilot training literature.

Providing Decision-Relevant Information for a State Climate Change Action Plan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wake, C.; Frades, M.; Hurtt, G. C.; Magnusson, M.; Gittell, R.; Skoglund, C.; Morin, J.

2008-12-01

Carbon Solutions New England (CSNE), a public-private partnership formed to promote collective action to achieve a low carbon society, has been working with the Governor appointed New Hampshire Climate Change Policy Task Force (NHCCTF) to support the development of a state Climate Change Action Plan. CSNE's role has been to quantify the potential carbon emissions reduction, implementation costs, and cost savings at three distinct time periods (2012, 2025, 2050) for a range of strategies identified by the Task Force. These strategies were developed for several sectors (transportation and land use, electricity generation and use, building energy use, and agriculture, forestry, and waste).New Hampshire's existing and projected economic and population growth are well above the regional average, creating additional challenges for the state to meet regional emission reduction targets. However, by pursuing an ambitious suite of renewable energy and energy efficiency strategies, New Hampshire may be able to continue growing while reducing emissions at a rate close to 3% per year up to 2025. This suite includes efficiency improvements in new and existing buildings, a renewable portfolio standard for electricity generation, avoiding forested land conversion, fuel economy gains in new vehicles, and a reduction in vehicle miles traveled. Most (over 80%) of these emission reduction strategies are projected to provide net economic savings in 2025.A collaborative and iterative process was developed among the key partners in the project. The foundation for the project's success included: a diverse analysis team with leadership that was committed to the project, an open source analysis approach, weekly meetings and frequent communication among the partners, interim reporting of analysis, and an established and trusting relationship among the partners, in part due to collaboration on previous projects.To develop decision-relevant information for the Task Force, CSNE addressed several challenges, including: allocating the emission reduction and economic impacts of local- to state-scale mitigation strategies that are in reality integrated on regional and/or national scales; incorporating changes to the details of the strategies over time; identifying and quantifying key variables; choosing appropriate levels of detail for over 100 strategies within the limited analysis timeframe; integrating individual strategies into a coherent whole; and structuring data presentation to maximize transparency of analysis without confusing or overwhelming decision makers.

Predictors of adherence to a skill-building intervention in dementia caregivers.

PubMed

Chee, Yeon Kyung; Gitlin, Laura N; Dennis, Marie P; Hauck, Walter W

2007-06-01

Treatment adherence is a widely recognized problem in health services but understudied in caregiver intervention research. This study examines caregiver sociodemographic and psychological characteristics, patient illness severity, and treatment implementation factors as predictors of caregiver adherence to a skills training intervention to help families manage dementia care problems at home. The sample consisted of 105 caregivers randomized to the Home Environmental Skill-Building Program at the Philadelphia site of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH I). The intervention, implemented by occupational therapists, consisted of education, problem solving, communication, environmental and task simplification techniques, and home modifications. Adherence was measured by a proportion score representing the percentage of strategies used by participants compared to the total number of strategies prescribed during intervention (Strategy Use). Regression analysis with intraclass correlation adjustment for interventionist effects revealed that caregivers with better physical health (p <.001), greater treatment exposure (p <.001), more problem areas addressed (p =.012), and for whom more active therapeutic techniques (role play) were used (p =.004) demonstrated greater adherence. Other caregiver characteristics, patient cognitive impairment, and troublesome behaviors were not significantly related to caregiver adherence. Modifiable caregiver and treatment implementation factors, including active engagement of caregivers, were associated with adherence, whereas patient characteristics were not. Caregivers with poor health may be at risk for not benefiting from intervention, suggesting that efforts, including instruction in preventive care and allocating time to attend to their own health care needs, be directed towards improving their health.

Multistep-Ahead Air Passengers Traffic Prediction with Hybrid ARIMA-SVMs Models

PubMed Central

Ming, Wei; Xiong, Tao

2014-01-01

The hybrid ARIMA-SVMs prediction models have been established recently, which take advantage of the unique strength of ARIMA and SVMs models in linear and nonlinear modeling, respectively. Built upon this hybrid ARIMA-SVMs models alike, this study goes further to extend them into the case of multistep-ahead prediction for air passengers traffic with the two most commonly used multistep-ahead prediction strategies, that is, iterated strategy and direct strategy. Additionally, the effectiveness of data preprocessing approaches, such as deseasonalization and detrending, is investigated and proofed along with the two strategies. Real data sets including four selected airlines' monthly series were collected to justify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Empirical results demonstrate that the direct strategy performs better than iterative one in long term prediction case while iterative one performs better in the case of short term prediction. Furthermore, both deseasonalization and detrending can significantly improve the prediction accuracy for both strategies, indicating the necessity of data preprocessing. As such, this study contributes as a full reference to the planners from air transportation industries on how to tackle multistep-ahead prediction tasks in the implementation of either prediction strategy. PMID:24723814

Individual strategy ratings improve the control for task difficulty effects in arithmetic problem solving paradigms.

PubMed

Tschentscher, Nadja; Hauk, Olaf

2015-01-01

Mental arithmetic is a powerful paradigm to study problem solving using neuroimaging methods. However, the evaluation of task complexity varies significantly across neuroimaging studies. Most studies have parameterized task complexity by objective features such as the number size. Only a few studies used subjective rating procedures. In fMRI, we provided evidence that strategy self-reports control better for task complexity across arithmetic conditions than objective features (Tschentscher and Hauk, 2014). Here, we analyzed the relative predictive value of self-reported strategies and objective features for performance in addition and multiplication tasks, by using a paradigm designed for neuroimaging research. We found a superiority of strategy ratings as predictor of performance above objective features. In a Principal Component Analysis on reaction times, the first component explained over 90 percent of variance and factor loadings reflected percentages of self-reported strategies well. In multiple regression analyses on reaction times, self-reported strategies performed equally well or better than objective features, depending on the operation type. A Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis confirmed this result. Reaction times classified task complexity better when defined by individual ratings. This suggests that participants' strategy ratings are reliable predictors of arithmetic complexity and should be taken into account in neuroimaging research.

Individual strategy ratings improve the control for task difficulty effects in arithmetic problem solving paradigms

PubMed Central

Tschentscher, Nadja; Hauk, Olaf

2015-01-01

Mental arithmetic is a powerful paradigm to study problem solving using neuroimaging methods. However, the evaluation of task complexity varies significantly across neuroimaging studies. Most studies have parameterized task complexity by objective features such as the number size. Only a few studies used subjective rating procedures. In fMRI, we provided evidence that strategy self-reports control better for task complexity across arithmetic conditions than objective features (Tschentscher and Hauk, 2014). Here, we analyzed the relative predictive value of self-reported strategies and objective features for performance in addition and multiplication tasks, by using a paradigm designed for neuroimaging research. We found a superiority of strategy ratings as predictor of performance above objective features. In a Principal Component Analysis on reaction times, the first component explained over 90 percent of variance and factor loadings reflected percentages of self-reported strategies well. In multiple regression analyses on reaction times, self-reported strategies performed equally well or better than objective features, depending on the operation type. A Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis confirmed this result. Reaction times classified task complexity better when defined by individual ratings. This suggests that participants’ strategy ratings are reliable predictors of arithmetic complexity and should be taken into account in neuroimaging research. PMID:26321997

A Hybrid Task Graph Scheduler for High Performance Image Processing Workflows.

PubMed

Blattner, Timothy; Keyrouz, Walid; Bhattacharyya, Shuvra S; Halem, Milton; Brady, Mary

2017-12-01

Designing applications for scalability is key to improving their performance in hybrid and cluster computing. Scheduling code to utilize parallelism is difficult, particularly when dealing with data dependencies, memory management, data motion, and processor occupancy. The Hybrid Task Graph Scheduler (HTGS) improves programmer productivity when implementing hybrid workflows for multi-core and multi-GPU systems. The Hybrid Task Graph Scheduler (HTGS) is an abstract execution model, framework, and API that increases programmer productivity when implementing hybrid workflows for such systems. HTGS manages dependencies between tasks, represents CPU and GPU memories independently, overlaps computations with disk I/O and memory transfers, keeps multiple GPUs occupied, and uses all available compute resources. Through these abstractions, data motion and memory are explicit; this makes data locality decisions more accessible. To demonstrate the HTGS application program interface (API), we present implementations of two example algorithms: (1) a matrix multiplication that shows how easily task graphs can be used; and (2) a hybrid implementation of microscopy image stitching that reduces code size by ≈ 43% compared to a manually coded hybrid workflow implementation and showcases the minimal overhead of task graphs in HTGS. Both of the HTGS-based implementations show good performance. In image stitching the HTGS implementation achieves similar performance to the hybrid workflow implementation. Matrix multiplication with HTGS achieves 1.3× and 1.8× speedup over the multi-threaded OpenBLAS library for 16k × 16k and 32k × 32k size matrices, respectively.

Exploring the Connection between Age and Strategies for Learning New Technology Related Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meiselwitz, Gabriele; Chakraborty, Suranjan

2011-01-01

This paper discusses the connection between age and strategies for learning new technology related tasks. Many users have to learn about new devices and applications on a frequent basis and use a variety of strategies to accomplish this learning process. Approaches to learning new technology related tasks vary and can contribute to a user's…

A Task-Based Language Teaching Approach to Developing Metacognitive Strategies for Listening Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Mu-Hsuan

2017-01-01

In second (L2) or foreign language (FL) learning, learning strategies help learners perform tasks, solve specific problems, and compensate for learning deficits. Of the strategy types, metacognitive strategies manage and regulate the construction of L2 or FL knowledge. Although learning strategies are frequently taught via teacher demonstration,…

PAQ: Persistent Adaptive Query Middleware for Dynamic Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rajamani, Vasanth; Julien, Christine; Payton, Jamie; Roman, Gruia-Catalin

Pervasive computing applications often entail continuous monitoring tasks, issuing persistent queries that return continuously updated views of the operational environment. We present PAQ, a middleware that supports applications' needs by approximating a persistent query as a sequence of one-time queries. PAQ introduces an integration strategy abstraction that allows composition of one-time query responses into streams representing sophisticated spatio-temporal phenomena of interest. A distinguishing feature of our middleware is the realization that the suitability of a persistent query's result is a function of the application's tolerance for accuracy weighed against the associated overhead costs. In PAQ, programmers can specify an inquiry strategy that dictates how information is gathered. Since network dynamics impact the suitability of a particular inquiry strategy, PAQ associates an introspection strategy with a persistent query, that evaluates the quality of the query's results. The result of introspection can trigger application-defined adaptation strategies that alter the nature of the query. PAQ's simple API makes developing adaptive querying systems easily realizable. We present the key abstractions, describe their implementations, and demonstrate the middleware's usefulness through application examples and evaluation.

Rapid storage and retrieval of genomic intervals from a relational database system using nested containment lists

PubMed Central

Wiley, Laura K.; Sivley, R. Michael; Bush, William S.

2013-01-01

Efficient storage and retrieval of genomic annotations based on range intervals is necessary, given the amount of data produced by next-generation sequencing studies. The indexing strategies of relational database systems (such as MySQL) greatly inhibit their use in genomic annotation tasks. This has led to the development of stand-alone applications that are dependent on flat-file libraries. In this work, we introduce MyNCList, an implementation of the NCList data structure within a MySQL database. MyNCList enables the storage, update and rapid retrieval of genomic annotations from the convenience of a relational database system. Range-based annotations of 1 million variants are retrieved in under a minute, making this approach feasible for whole-genome annotation tasks. Database URL: https://github.com/bushlab/mynclist PMID:23894185

Rapid storage and retrieval of genomic intervals from a relational database system using nested containment lists.

PubMed

Wiley, Laura K; Sivley, R Michael; Bush, William S

2013-01-01

Efficient storage and retrieval of genomic annotations based on range intervals is necessary, given the amount of data produced by next-generation sequencing studies. The indexing strategies of relational database systems (such as MySQL) greatly inhibit their use in genomic annotation tasks. This has led to the development of stand-alone applications that are dependent on flat-file libraries. In this work, we introduce MyNCList, an implementation of the NCList data structure within a MySQL database. MyNCList enables the storage, update and rapid retrieval of genomic annotations from the convenience of a relational database system. Range-based annotations of 1 million variants are retrieved in under a minute, making this approach feasible for whole-genome annotation tasks. Database URL: https://github.com/bushlab/mynclist.

Sensor fusion IV: Control paradigms and data structures; Proceedings of the Meeting, Boston, MA, Nov. 12-15, 1991

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schenker, Paul S. (Editor)

1992-01-01

Various papers on control paradigms and data structures in sensor fusion are presented. The general topics addressed include: decision models and computational methods, sensor modeling and data representation, active sensing strategies, geometric planning and visualization, task-driven sensing, motion analysis, models motivated biology and psychology, decentralized detection and distributed decision, data fusion architectures, robust estimation of shapes and features, application and implementation. Some of the individual subjects considered are: the Firefly experiment on neural networks for distributed sensor data fusion, manifold traversing as a model for learning control of autonomous robots, choice of coordinate systems for multiple sensor fusion, continuous motion using task-directed stereo vision, interactive and cooperative sensing and control for advanced teleoperation, knowledge-based imaging for terrain analysis, physical and digital simulations for IVA robotics.

Evolutionary dynamics of division of labor games with selfish agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jianlei; Li, Qiaoyu; Zhang, Chunyan

2017-11-01

The division of labor is one of the most basic and widely studied aspects of collective behavior in natural systems. Studies of division of labor are concerned with the integration of the individual worker behavior into a colony level task organization and with the question of how the regulation of the division of labor may contribute to the colony efficiency. This paper investigates the evolution of the division of labor with three strategies by employing the evolutionary game theory. Thus, these available strategies are, respectively, strategy A (performing task A), strategy B (performing task B), and strategy D (not performing any task but only free riding others' contributions). And, two typical networks (i.e., BA scale-free network and lattice network) are employed here for describing the interaction structure among agents. The theoretical analysis together with simulation results reveal that the division of labor can evolve and leads to players that differ in their tendency to take on a given task. The conditions under which the division of labor evolves depend on the costs for performing the task, the benefits led by performing the task, and the interaction structures among the players who are involved with division of labor games.

The coordination of problem solving strategies: when low competence sources exert more influence on task processing than high competence sources.

PubMed

Quiamzade, Alain; Mugny, Gabriel; Darnon, Céline

2009-03-01

Previous research has shown that low competence sources, compared to highly competent sources, can exert influence in aptitudes tasks in as much as they induce people to focus on the task and to solve it more deeply. Two experiments aimed at testing the coordination between self and source's problem solving strategies as a main explanation of such a difference in influence. The influence of a low versus high competence source has been examined in an anagram task that allows for distinguishing between three response strategies, including one that corresponds to the coordination between the source's strategy and participants' own strategy. In Study 1 the strategy suggested by the source was either relevant and useful or irrelevant and useless for solving the task. Results indicated that participants used the coordination strategy in a larger extend when they had been confronted to a low competence rather than a highly competent source but only when the source displayed a strategy that was useful to solve the task. In Study 2 the source's strategy was always relevant and useful, but a decentring procedure was introduced for half of the participants. This procedure induced participants to consider other points of view than their own. Results replicated the difference observed in Study 1 when no decentring was introduced. The difference however disappeared when decentring was induced, because of an increase of the high competence source's influence. These results highlight coordination of strategies as one mechanism underlying influence from low competence sources.

Strategic Adaptation to Task Characteristics, Incentives, and Individual Differences in Dual-Tasking

PubMed Central

Janssen, Christian P.; Brumby, Duncan P.

2015-01-01

We investigate how good people are at multitasking by comparing behavior to a prediction of the optimal strategy for dividing attention between two concurrent tasks. In our experiment, 24 participants had to interleave entering digits on a keyboard with controlling a randomly moving cursor with a joystick. The difficulty of the tracking task was systematically varied as a within-subjects factor. Participants were also exposed to different explicit reward functions that varied the relative importance of the tracking task relative to the typing task (between-subjects). Results demonstrate that these changes in task characteristics and monetary incentives, together with individual differences in typing ability, influenced how participants choose to interleave tasks. This change in strategy then affected their performance on each task. A computational cognitive model was used to predict performance for a wide set of alternative strategies for how participants might have possibly interleaved tasks. This allowed for predictions of optimal performance to be derived, given the constraints placed on performance by the task and cognition. A comparison of human behavior with the predicted optimal strategy shows that participants behaved near optimally. Our findings have implications for the design and evaluation of technology for multitasking situations, as consideration should be given to the characteristics of the task, but also to how different users might use technology depending on their individual characteristics and their priorities. PMID:26161851

Implementation-intention encoding in a prospective memory task enhances spontaneous retrieval of intentions.

PubMed

Rummel, Jan; Einstein, Gilles O; Rampey, Hilary

2012-01-01

Although forming implementation intentions (Gollwitzer, 1999) has been demonstrated to generally improve prospective memory, the underlying cognitive mechanisms are not completely understood. It has been proposed that implementation-intention encoding encourages spontaneous retrieval (McDaniel & Scullin, 2010). Alternatively one could assume the positive effect of implementation-intention encoding is caused by increased or more efficient monitoring for target cues. To test these alternative explanations and to further investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying implementation-intention benefits, in two experiments participants formed the intention to respond to specific target cues in a lexical decision task with a special key, but then had to suspend this intention during an intervening word-categorisation task. Response times on trials directly following the occurrence of target cues in the intervening task were significantly slower with implementation-intention encoding than with standard encoding, indicating that spontaneous retrieval was increased (Experiment 1). However, when activation of the target cues was controlled for, similar slowing was found with both standard and implementation-intention encoding (Experiment 2). The results imply that implementation-intention encoding as well as increased target-cue activation foster spontaneous retrieval processes.

Pain Management for Persons Living With HIV Disease: Experience With Interprofessional Education in Nigeria.

PubMed

Alexander, Carla S; Pappas, Gregory; Henley, Yvonne; Kangalawe, Angela Kaiza; Oyebola, Folaju Olusegun; Obiefune, Michael; Nwene, Ejike; Stanis-Ezeobi, Winifred; Enejoh, Victor; Nwizu, Chidi; Nwandu, Anthea Nwandu; Memiah, Peter; Etienne-Mesubi, Martine; Oni, Babatunji; Amoroso, Anthony; Redfield, Robert R

2015-08-01

Pain management (PM) has not been routinely incorporated into HIV/AIDS care and treatment in resource-constrained settings. We describe training for multidisciplinary teams tasked with integrating care management into HIV clinics to address pain for persons living with HIV in Nigeria. Education on PM was provided to mixed-disciplinary teams including didactic and iterative sessions following home and hospital visits. Participants identified challenges and performed group problem solving. HIV trainers identified barriers to introducing PM reflecting views of the patient, providers, culture, and the health environment. Implementation strategies included (1) building upon existing relationships; (2) preliminary advocacy; (3) attention to staff needs; and (4) structured data review. Implementing PM in Nigerian HIV clinics requires recognition of cultural beliefs. © The Author(s) 2014.

The process of changing national malaria treatment policy: lessons from country-level studies.

PubMed

Williams, Holly Ann; Durrheim, David; Shretta, Rima

2004-11-01

Widespread resistance of Plasmodium falciparum parasites to commonly used antimalarials, such as chloroquine, has resulted in many endemic countries considering changing their malaria treatment policy. Identifying and understanding the key influences that affect decision-making, and factors that facilitate or undermine policy implementation, is critical for improving the policy process and guiding resource allocation during this process. A historical review of archival documents from Malaŵi and data obtained from in-depth policy studies in four countries (Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya and Peru) that have changed malaria treatment policy provides important lessons about decision-making, the policy cycle and complex policy environment, while specifically identifying strategies successfully employed to facilitate policy-making and implementation. Findings from these country-level studies indicate that the process of malaria drug policy review should be institutionalized in endemic countries and based on systematically collected data. Key stakeholders need to be identified early and engaged in the process, while improved communication is needed on all levels. Although malaria drug policy change is often perceived to be a daunting task, using these and other proven strategies should assist endemic countries to tackle this challenge in a systematic fashion that ensures the development and implementation of the rational malaria drug policy.

Relationships among Individual Task Self-Efficacy, Self-Regulated Learning Strategy Use and Academic Performance in a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Kimberly; Narayan, Anupama

2016-01-01

This study investigates relationships between self-efficacy, self-regulated learning strategy use and academic performance. Participants were 96 undergraduate students working on projects with three subtasks (idea generation task, methodical task and data collection) in a blended learning environment. Task self-efficacy was measured with…

A Pragmatic Approach to Guide Implementation Evaluation Research: Strategy Mapping for Complex Interventions.

PubMed

Huynh, Alexis K; Hamilton, Alison B; Farmer, Melissa M; Bean-Mayberry, Bevanne; Stirman, Shannon Wiltsey; Moin, Tannaz; Finley, Erin P

2018-01-01

Greater specification of implementation strategies is a challenge for implementation science, but there is little guidance for delineating the use of multiple strategies involved in complex interventions. The Cardiovascular (CV) Toolkit project entails implementation of a toolkit designed to reduce CV risk by increasing women's engagement in appropriate services. The CV Toolkit project follows an enhanced version of Replicating Effective Programs (REP), an evidence-based implementation strategy, to implement the CV Toolkit across four phases: pre-conditions, pre-implementation, implementation, and maintenance and evolution. Our current objective is to describe a method for mapping implementation strategies used in real time as part of the CV Toolkit project. This method supports description of the timing and content of bundled strategies and provides a structured process for developing a plan for implementation evaluation. We conducted a process of strategy mapping to apply Proctor and colleagues' rubric for specification of implementation strategies, constructing a matrix in which we identified each implementation strategy, its conceptual group, and the corresponding REP phase(s) in which it occurs. For each strategy, we also specified the actors involved, actions undertaken, action targets, dose of the implementation strategy, and anticipated outcome addressed. We iteratively refined the matrix with the implementation team, including use of simulation to provide initial validation. Mapping revealed patterns in the timing of implementation strategies within REP phases. Most implementation strategies involving the development of stakeholder interrelationships and training and educating stakeholders were introduced during the pre-conditions or pre-implementation phases. Strategies introduced in the maintenance and evolution phase emphasized communication, re-examination, and audit and feedback. In addition to its value for producing valid and reliable process evaluation data, mapping implementation strategies has informed development of a pragmatic blueprint for implementation and longitudinal analyses and evaluation activities. We update recent recommendations on specification of implementation strategies by considering the implications for multi-strategy frameworks and propose an approach for mapping the use of implementation strategies within complex, multi-level interventions, in support of rigorous evaluation. Developing pragmatic tools to aid in operationalizing the conduct of implementation and evaluation activities is essential to enacting sound implementation research.

The Relation between Metastrategic Knowledge, Strategy Use and Task Performance: Findings and Reflections from a Numerosity Judgement Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luwel, Koen; Torbeyns, Joke; Verschaffel, Lieven

2003-01-01

In the research literature several positions concerning the role played by metacognition in adaptive strategy choice can be distinguished. While many authors adhere so-called metacognitive models of strategy choice and strategy change, others have questioned the extent to which metacognitive factors are associated with strategy choice and task…

Towards a Mars base - Critical steps for life support on the moon and beyond

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rummel, John D.

1992-01-01

In providing crew life support for future exploration missions, overall exploration objectives will drive the life support solutions selected. Crew size, mission tasking, and exploration strategy will determine the performance required from life support systems. Human performance requirements, for example, may be offset by the availability of robotic assistance. Once established, exploration requirements for life support will be weighed against the financial and technical risks of developing new technologies and systems. Other considerations will include the demands that a particular life support strategy will make on planetary surface site selection, and the availability of precursor mission data to support EVA and in situ resource recovery planning. As space exploration progresses, the diversity of life support solutions that are implemented is bound to increase.

Tracking implementation strategies: a description of a practical approach and early findings.

PubMed

Bunger, Alicia C; Powell, Byron J; Robertson, Hillary A; MacDowell, Hannah; Birken, Sarah A; Shea, Christopher

2017-02-23

Published descriptions of implementation strategies often lack precision and consistency, limiting replicability and slowing accumulation of knowledge. Recent publication guidelines for implementation strategies call for improved description of the activities, dose, rationale and expected outcome(s) of strategies. However, capturing implementation strategies with this level of detail can be challenging, as responsibility for implementation is often diffuse and strategies may be flexibly applied as barriers and challenges emerge. We describe and demonstrate the development and application of a practical approach to identifying implementation strategies used in research and practice that could be used to guide their description and specification. An approach to tracking implementation strategies using activity logs completed by project personnel was developed to facilitate identification of discrete strategies. This approach was piloted in the context of a multi-component project to improve children's access to behavioural health services in a county-based child welfare agency. Key project personnel completed monthly activity logs that gathered data on strategies used over 17 months. Logs collected information about implementation activities, intent, duration and individuals involved. Using a consensus approach, two sets of coders categorised each activity based upon Powell et al.'s (Med Care Res Rev 69:123-57, 2012) taxonomy of implementation strategies. Participants reported on 473 activities, which represent 45 unique strategies. Initial implementation was characterised by planning strategies followed by educational strategies. After project launch, quality management strategies predominated, suggesting a progression of implementation over time. Together, these strategies accounted for 1594 person-hours, many of which were reported by the leadership team that was responsible for project design, implementation and oversight. This approach allows for identifying discrete implementation strategies used over time, estimating dose, describing temporal ordering of implementation strategies, and pinpointing the major implementation actors. This detail could facilitate clear reporting of a full range of implementation strategies, including those that may be less observable. This approach could lead to a more nuanced understanding of what it takes to implement different innovations, the types of strategies that are most useful during specific phases of implementation, and how implementation strategies need to be adaptively applied throughout the course of a given initiative.

Perceptions of health stakeholders on task shifting and motivation of community health workers in different socio demographic contexts in Kenya (nomadic, peri-urban and rural agrarian)

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The shortage of health professionals in low income countries is recognized as a crisis. Community health workers are part of a “task-shift” strategy to address this crisis. Task shifting in this paper refers to the delegation of tasks from health professionals to lay, trained volunteers. In Kenya, there is a debate as to whether these volunteers should be compensated, and what motivation strategies would be effective in different socio-demographic contexts, based type of tasks shifted. The purpose of this study was to find out, from stakeholders’ perspectives, the type of tasks to be shifted to community health workers and the appropriate strategies to motivate and retain them. Methods This was an analytical comparative study employing qualitative methods: key informant interviews with health policy makers, managers, and service providers, and focus group discussions with community health workers and service consumers, to explore their perspectives on tasks to be shifted and appropriate motivation strategies. Results The study found that there were tasks to be shifted and motivation strategies that were common to all three contexts. Common tasks were promotive, preventive, and simple curative services. Common motivation strategies were supportive supervision, means of identification, equitable allocation of resources, training, compensation, recognition, and evidence based community dialogue. Further, in the nomadic and peri-urban sites, community health workers had assumed curative services beyond the range provided for in the Kenyan task shifting policy. This was explained to be influenced by lack of access to care due to distance to health facilities, population movement, and scarcity of health providers in the nomadic setting and the harsh economic realities in peri-urban set up. Therefore, their motivation strategies included training on curative skills, technical support, and resources for curative care. Data collection was viewed as an important task in the rural site, but was not recognized as priority in nomadic and peri-urban sites, where they sought monetary compensation for data collection. Conclusions The study concluded that inclusion of curative tasks for community health workers, particularly in nomadic contexts, is inevitable but raises the need for accreditation of their training and regulation of their tasks. PMID:25079588

Future-oriented maintenance strategy based on automated processes is finding its way into large astronomical facilities at remote observing sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silber, Armin; Gonzalez, Christian; Pino, Francisco; Escarate, Patricio; Gairing, Stefan

2014-08-01

With expanding sizes and increasing complexity of large astronomical observatories on remote observing sites, the call for an efficient and recourses saving maintenance concept becomes louder. The increasing number of subsystems on telescopes and instruments forces large observatories, like in industries, to rethink conventional maintenance strategies for reaching this demanding goal. The implementation of full-, or semi-automatic processes for standard service activities can help to keep the number of operating staff on an efficient level and to reduce significantly the consumption of valuable consumables or equipment. In this contribution we will demonstrate on the example of the 80 Cryogenic subsystems of the ALMA Front End instrument, how an implemented automatic service process increases the availability of spare parts and Line Replaceable Units. Furthermore how valuable staff recourses can be freed from continuous repetitive maintenance activities, to allow focusing more on system diagnostic tasks, troubleshooting and the interchanging of line replaceable units. The required service activities are decoupled from the day-to-day work, eliminating dependencies on workload peaks or logistic constrains. The automatic refurbishing processes running in parallel to the operational tasks with constant quality and without compromising the performance of the serviced system components. Consequentially that results in an efficiency increase, less down time and keeps the observing schedule on track. Automatic service processes in combination with proactive maintenance concepts are providing the necessary flexibility for the complex operational work structures of large observatories. The gained planning flexibility is allowing an optimization of operational procedures and sequences by considering the required cost efficiency.

Fast polyenergetic forward projection for image formation using OpenCL on a heterogeneous parallel computing platform.

PubMed

Zhou, Lili; Clifford Chao, K S; Chang, Jenghwa

2012-11-01

Simulated projection images of digital phantoms constructed from CT scans have been widely used for clinical and research applications but their quality and computation speed are not optimal for real-time comparison with the radiography acquired with an x-ray source of different energies. In this paper, the authors performed polyenergetic forward projections using open computing language (OpenCL) in a parallel computing ecosystem consisting of CPU and general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) for fast and realistic image formation. The proposed polyenergetic forward projection uses a lookup table containing the NIST published mass attenuation coefficients (μ∕ρ) for different tissue types and photon energies ranging from 1 keV to 20 MeV. The CT images of interested sites are first segmented into different tissue types based on the CT numbers and converted to a three-dimensional attenuation phantom by linking each voxel to the corresponding tissue type in the lookup table. The x-ray source can be a radioisotope or an x-ray generator with a known spectrum described as weight w(n) for energy bin E(n). The Siddon method is used to compute the x-ray transmission line integral for E(n) and the x-ray fluence is the weighted sum of the exponential of line integral for all energy bins with added Poisson noise. To validate this method, a digital head and neck phantom constructed from the CT scan of a Rando head phantom was segmented into three (air, gray∕white matter, and bone) regions for calculating the polyenergetic projection images for the Mohan 4 MV energy spectrum. To accelerate the calculation, the authors partitioned the workloads using the task parallelism and data parallelism and scheduled them in a parallel computing ecosystem consisting of CPU and GPGPU (NVIDIA Tesla C2050) using OpenCL only. The authors explored the task overlapping strategy and the sequential method for generating the first and subsequent DRRs. A dispatcher was designed to drive the high-degree parallelism of the task overlapping strategy. Numerical experiments were conducted to compare the performance of the OpenCL∕GPGPU-based implementation with the CPU-based implementation. The projection images were similar to typical portal images obtained with a 4 or 6 MV x-ray source. For a phantom size of 512 × 512 × 223, the time for calculating the line integrals for a 512 × 512 image panel was 16.2 ms on GPGPU for one energy bin in comparison to 8.83 s on CPU. The total computation time for generating one polyenergetic projection image of 512 × 512 was 0.3 s (141 s for CPU). The relative difference between the projection images obtained with the CPU-based and OpenCL∕GPGPU-based implementations was on the order of 10(-6) and was virtually indistinguishable. The task overlapping strategy was 5.84 and 1.16 times faster than the sequential method for the first and the subsequent digitally reconstruction radiographies, respectively. The authors have successfully built digital phantoms using anatomic CT images and NIST μ∕ρ tables for simulating realistic polyenergetic projection images and optimized the processing speed with parallel computing using GPGPU∕OpenCL-based implementation. The computation time was fast (0.3 s per projection image) enough for real-time IGRT (image-guided radiotherapy) applications.

Strategy selection in cue-based decision making.

PubMed

Bryant, David J

2014-06-01

People can make use of a range of heuristic and rational, compensatory strategies to perform a multiple-cue judgment task. It has been proposed that people are sensitive to the amount of cognitive effort required to employ decision strategies. Experiment 1 employed a dual-task methodology to investigate whether participants' preference for heuristic versus compensatory decision strategies can be altered by increasing the cognitive demands of the task. As indicated by participants' decision times, a secondary task interfered more with the performance of a heuristic than compensatory decision strategy but did not affect the proportions of participants using either type of strategy. A stimulus set effect suggested that the conjunction of cue salience and cue validity might play a determining role in strategy selection. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that when a perceptually salient cue was also the most valid, the majority of participants preferred a single-cue heuristic strategy. Overall, the results contradict the view that heuristics are more likely to be adopted when a task is made more cognitively demanding. It is argued that people employ 2 learning processes during training, one an associative learning process in which cue-outcome associations are developed by sampling multiple cues, and another that involves the sequential examination of single cues to serve as a basis for a single-cue heuristic.

Task-Driven Optimization of Fluence Field and Regularization for Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction in Computed Tomography.

PubMed

Gang, Grace J; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H; Stayman, J Webster

2017-12-01

This paper presents a joint optimization of dynamic fluence field modulation (FFM) and regularization in quadratic penalized-likelihood reconstruction that maximizes a task-based imaging performance metric. We adopted a task-driven imaging framework for prospective designs of the imaging parameters. A maxi-min objective function was adopted to maximize the minimum detectability index ( ) throughout the image. The optimization algorithm alternates between FFM (represented by low-dimensional basis functions) and local regularization (including the regularization strength and directional penalty weights). The task-driven approach was compared with three FFM strategies commonly proposed for FBP reconstruction (as well as a task-driven TCM strategy) for a discrimination task in an abdomen phantom. The task-driven FFM assigned more fluence to less attenuating anteroposterior views and yielded approximately constant fluence behind the object. The optimal regularization was almost uniform throughout image. Furthermore, the task-driven FFM strategy redistribute fluence across detector elements in order to prescribe more fluence to the more attenuating central region of the phantom. Compared with all strategies, the task-driven FFM strategy not only improved minimum by at least 17.8%, but yielded higher over a large area inside the object. The optimal FFM was highly dependent on the amount of regularization, indicating the importance of a joint optimization. Sample reconstructions of simulated data generally support the performance estimates based on computed . The improvements in detectability show the potential of the task-driven imaging framework to improve imaging performance at a fixed dose, or, equivalently, to provide a similar level of performance at reduced dose.

Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching: An Action-Research Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calvert, Megan; Sheen, Younghee

2015-01-01

The creation, implementation, and evaluation of language learning tasks remain a challenge for many teachers, especially those with limited experience with using tasks in their teaching. This action-research study reports on one teacher's experience of developing, implementing, critically reflecting on, and modifying a language learning task…

Literacy Strategies in the Science Classroom The Influence of Teacher Cognitive Resources on Implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mawyer, Kirsten Kamaile Noelani

Scientific literacy is at the heart of science reform (AAAS, 1989; 1993: NRC, 1996). These initiatives advocate inquiry-based science education reform that promotes scientific literacy as the prerequisite ability to both understand and apply fundamental scientific ideas to real-world problems and issues involving science, technology, society and the environment. It has been argued that literacy, the very ability to read and write, is foundational to western science and is essential for the attainment of scientific literacy and the reform of science education in this country (Norris & Phillips, 2004). With this wave of reform comes the need to study initiatives that seek to support science teachers, as they take on the task of becoming teachers of literacy in the secondary science classroom. This qualitative research examines one such initiative that supports and guides teachers implementing literacy strategies designed to help students develop reading skills that will allow them to read closely, effectively, and with greater comprehension of texts in the context of science. The goal of this study is to gather data as teachers learn about literacy strategies through supports built into curricular materials, professional development, and implementation in the classroom. In particular, this research follows four secondary science teachers implementing literacy strategies as they enact a yearlong earth and environmental science course comprised of two different reform science curricula. The findings of this research suggest teacher's development of teacher cognitive resources bearing on Teaching & Design can be dynamic or static. They also suggest that the development of pedagogical design capacity (PDC) can be either underdeveloped or emergent. This study contributes to current understandings of the participatory relationship between curricular resources and teacher cognitive resources that reflects the design decision of teachers. In particular, it introduces a Cognitive Resources Framework, a tool researchers can use to identify the cognitive resources of teachers, and adds to the characterization of PDC. The data emerging from this study will inform the future design and refinement of curricular and professional development materials to better support teachers as they learn, use and adapt literacy strategies in the science classroom.

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

Not Available

This Remedial Investigation (RI) Work Plan has been developed as part of the US Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) investigation of the Groundwater Operable Unit (GWOU) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) located near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The first iteration of the GWOU RI Work Plan is intended to serve as a strategy document to guide the ORNL GWOU RI. The Work Plan provides a rationale and organization for groundwater data acquisition, monitoring, and remedial actions to be performed during implementation of environmental restoration activities associated with the ORNL GWOU. It Is important to note that the RI Work Plan formore » the ORNL GWOU is not a prototypical work plan. The RI will be conducted using annual work plans to manage the work activities, and task reports will be used to document the results of the investigations. Sampling and analysis results will be compiled and reported annually with a review of data relative to risk (screening level risk assessment review) for groundwater. This Work Plan outlines the overall strategy for the RI and defines tasks which are to be conducted during the initial phase of investigation. This plan is presented with the understanding that more specific addenda to the plan will follow.« less

Electrophysiological correlates of preparation and implementation for different types of task shifts.

PubMed

Hsieh, Shulan; Wu, Mengyao

2011-11-14

The ability to flexibly shift between tasks is central to cognitive control, but whether the same brain mechanisms mediate shifting across different tasks is unknown. In this study, we investigated whether variations in stimulus-dimensions or response-mapping might influence task switching in terms of its preparatory processes, as reflected in cue-locked event-related potentials (ERPs), and its implementation processes, as reflected in stimulus-locked ERPs. Participants judged pairs of digits as same or different in one of two conditions. In one condition, the task-relevant stimulus-dimension was either repeated or switched across trials while the response-mapping rule was kept constant. In the other condition, the task-relevant stimulus-dimension was kept constant while the response-mapping rule was repeated or switched across trials. The length of the preparatory interval was manipulated. Data revealed switch-related preparatory ERP components (including N2 and a late slow positivity) that were associated with both types of task shifting and an N400-like negativity that distinguished between the two types. Several switch-related implementation ERP components associated with both types of task shifting were found at posterior sites. Distinct frontal modulations of the N1, P2, and N2 were found to associate with the implementation of the response-mapping shift, whereas a slow positivity was associated with the implementation of the stimulus-dimension shift. Therefore, this study demonstrates that there are shared and distinct processes across different types of task shifting. Finally, because the same transition-cue was used for different task shifts, the distinct processes cannot be explained simply by differences in cue processing. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Training working memory in older adults: Is there an advantage of using strategies?

PubMed

Borella, Erika; Carretti, Barbara; Sciore, Roberta; Capotosto, Emanuela; Taconnat, Laurence; Cornoldi, Cesare; De Beni, Rossana

2017-03-01

The purpose of the present study was to test the efficacy of a working memory (WM) training in elderly people, and to compare the effects of a WM training based on an adaptive procedure with one combining the same procedure with the use of a strategy, based on the construction of visual mental images. Eighteen older adults received training with a WM task (the WM group), another 18 received the same WM training and were also taught to use a visual imagery strategy (the WM + Strategy group), and another 18 served as active controls. Training-related gains in the WM (criterion) task and transfer effects on measures of verbal and visuospatial WM, short-term memory (STM), processing speed, and reasoning were considered. Training gains and transfer effects were also assessed after 6 months. After the training, both the trained groups performed better than the control group in the WM criterion task, and maintained these gains 6 months later; they also showed immediate transfer effects on processing speed. The two trained groups also outperformed the control group in the long term in the WM tasks, in one of the STM tasks (backward span task), and in the processing speed measure. Long-term large effect sizes were found for all the tasks involving memory processes in the WM + Strategy group, but only for the processing speed task in the WM group. Findings are discussed in terms of the benefits and limits of teaching older people a strategy in combination with an adaptive WM training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Solution strategies as possible explanations of individual and sex differences in a dynamic spatial task.

PubMed

Peña, Daniel; Contreras, María José; Shih, Pei Chun; Santacreu, José

2008-05-01

When individuals perform spatial tasks, individual differences emerge in accuracy and speed as well as in the response patterns used to cope with the task. The purpose of this study is to identify, through empirical criteria, the different response patterns or strategies used by individuals when performing the dynamic spatial task presented in the Spatial Orientation Dynamic Test-Revised (SODT-R). Results show that participants can be classified according to their response patterns. Three different ways of solving a task are described, and their relation to (a) performance factors (response latency, response frequency, and invested time) and (b) ability tests (analytical reasoning, verbal reasoning, and spatial estimation) are investigated. Sex differences in response patterns and performance are also analyzed. It is found that the frequency with which men and women employ each one of the strategies described here, is different and statistically significant. Thus, employed strategy plays an important role when interpreting sex differences on dynamic spatial tasks.

Targeting impulsive processes of eating behavior via the internet. Effects on body weight.

PubMed

Veling, Harm; van Koningsbruggen, Guido M; Aarts, Henk; Stroebe, Wolfgang

2014-07-01

Because eating behavior can take on an impulsive nature many people experience difficulty with dieting to lose weight. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of two interventions targeting impulsive processes of eating behavior to facilitate weight loss: Implementation intentions to remind people about dieting versus a go/no-go task to change impulses toward palatable foods. Dieters performed an online training program (four times in 4 weeks) in which they were randomly assigned to a 2 (implementation intention condition: dieting versus control) × 2 (go/no-go task condition: food versus control) design. They formed either dieting implementation intentions (e.g., If I open the fridge I will think of dieting!) or control implementation intentions. Furthermore, they received either a go/no-go task in which behavioral stop signals were presented upon presentation of palatable foods (food go/no-go task), or upon control stimuli. Participants' weight was measured in the laboratory before and after the intervention. Strength of participants' dieting goal and their Body Mass Index (BMI; as a proxy for impulsiveness toward food) were examined as moderators. Results showed that both dieting implementation intentions and the food go/no-go task facilitated weight loss. Moreover, dieting implementation intentions facilitated weight loss particularly among people with a strong current dieting goal, whereas the food go/no-go task facilitated weight loss independent of this factor. Instead, the food go/no-go task, but not formation of dieting implementation intentions, was primarily effective among dieters with a relatively high BMI. These results provide the first preliminary evidence that interventions aimed at targeting impulsive eating-related processes via the internet can facilitate weight loss. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

When global rule reversal meets local task switching: The neural mechanisms of coordinated behavioral adaptation to instructed multi-level demand changes.

PubMed

Shi, Yiquan; Wolfensteller, Uta; Schubert, Torsten; Ruge, Hannes

2018-02-01

Cognitive flexibility is essential to cope with changing task demands and often it is necessary to adapt to combined changes in a coordinated manner. The present fMRI study examined how the brain implements such multi-level adaptation processes. Specifically, on a "local," hierarchically lower level, switching between two tasks was required across trials while the rules of each task remained unchanged for blocks of trials. On a "global" level regarding blocks of twelve trials, the task rules could reverse or remain the same. The current task was cued at the start of each trial while the current task rules were instructed before the start of a new block. We found that partly overlapping and partly segregated neural networks play different roles when coping with the combination of global rule reversal and local task switching. The fronto-parietal control network (FPN) supported the encoding of reversed rules at the time of explicit rule instruction. The same regions subsequently supported local task switching processes during actual implementation trials, irrespective of rule reversal condition. By contrast, a cortico-striatal network (CSN) including supplementary motor area and putamen was increasingly engaged across implementation trials and more so for rule reversal than for nonreversal blocks, irrespective of task switching condition. Together, these findings suggest that the brain accomplishes the coordinated adaptation to multi-level demand changes by distributing processing resources either across time (FPN for reversed rule encoding and later for task switching) or across regions (CSN for reversed rule implementation and FPN for concurrent task switching). © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

40 CFR 52.2059 - Control strategy: Particulate matter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 5 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Control strategy: Particulate matter... Control strategy: Particulate matter. (a) Pennsylvania has committed to undertake a comprehensive program... Investigating and Controlling Nontraditional Particulate Matter Emissions Task Completion date Scheduled tasks...

40 CFR 52.2059 - Control strategy: Particulate matter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 5 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Control strategy: Particulate matter... Control strategy: Particulate matter. (a) Pennsylvania has committed to undertake a comprehensive program... Investigating and Controlling Nontraditional Particulate Matter Emissions Task Completion date Scheduled tasks...

40 CFR 52.2059 - Control strategy: Particulate matter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Control strategy: Particulate matter... Control strategy: Particulate matter. (a) Pennsylvania has committed to undertake a comprehensive program... Investigating and Controlling Nontraditional Particulate Matter Emissions Task Completion date Scheduled tasks...

40 CFR 52.2059 - Control strategy: Particulate matter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 4 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Control strategy: Particulate matter... Control strategy: Particulate matter. (a) Pennsylvania has committed to undertake a comprehensive program... Investigating and Controlling Nontraditional Particulate Matter Emissions Task Completion date Scheduled tasks...

Strategic Priorities for Increasing Physical Activity Among Adults Age 50 and Older: The National Blueprint Consensus Conference Summary Report

PubMed Central

Sheppard, Lisa; Senior, Jane; Park, Chae Hee; Mockenhaupt, Robin; Bazzarre, Terry; Chodzko-Zajko, Wojtek

2003-01-01

On May 1, 2001, a coalition of national organizations released a major planning document designed to develop a national strategy for the promotion of physically active lifestyles among the mid-life and older adult population. The National Blueprint: Increasing Physical Activity Among Adults Age 50 and Older was developed with input from 46 organizations with expertise in health, medicine, social and behavioral sciences, epidemiology, gerontology/geriatrics, clinical science, public policy, marketing, medical systems, community organization, and environmental issues. The Blueprint notes that, despite a wealth of evidence about the benefits of physical activity for mid-life and older persons, there has been little success in convincing age 50+ Americans to adopt physically active lifestyles. The Blueprint identifies barriers in the areas of research, home and community programs, medical systems, public policy and advocacy, and marketing and communications. In addition to identifying barriers, the Blueprint proposes a number of concrete strategies that could be employed in order to overcome the barriers to physical activity in society at large. This report summarizes the outcome of the National Blueprint Consensus Conference that was held in October 2002. In this conference, representatives of more than 50 national organizations convened in Washington, D.C. with the goal of identifying high priority and high feasibility strategies which would advance the National Blueprint and which could be initiated within the next 12 to 24 months. Participants in the consensus conference were assigned to one of five breakout groups: home and community, marketing, medical systems, public policy, and research. Each breakout group was charged with identifying the three highest priority strategies within their area for effectively increasing physical activity levels in the mid-life and older adult population. In addition to the 15 strategies identified by the breakout groups, three "cross-cutting" strategies were added which were considered to be broad-based in scope and which applied to more than one of the breakout themes. A national organization was identified to take the lead in planning and implementing each strategy. A summary of the 18 strategies and lead organizations is presented. The National Blueprint Consensus Conference has identified an ambitious agenda of strategies and tactics that will need to be implemented in order to overcome societal barriers to physical activity among the mid-life and older adult population. More than 50 national organizations have expressed a commitment to work towards the implementation of the Blueprint agenda. Eighteen priority strategies have been identified in the areas of home and community, marketing, medical systems, public policy, and research. The organizations charged with the task of implementing the high priority strategies will use professional networks and established delivery channels and communication systems to translate this plan into action. PMID:24688279

Strategic priorities for increasing physical activity among adults age 50 and older: the national blueprint consensus conference summary report.

PubMed

Sheppard, Lisa; Senior, Jane; Park, Chae Hee; Mockenhaupt, Robin; Bazzarre, Terry; Chodzko-Zajko, Wojtek

2003-12-01

On May 1, 2001, a coalition of national organizations released a major planning document designed to develop a national strategy for the promotion of physically active lifestyles among the mid-life and older adult population. The National Blueprint: Increasing Physical Activity Among Adults Age 50 and Older was developed with input from 46 organizations with expertise in health, medicine, social and behavioral sciences, epidemiology, gerontology/geriatrics, clinical science, public policy, marketing, medical systems, community organization, and environmental issues. The Blueprint notes that, despite a wealth of evidence about the benefits of physical activity for mid-life and older persons, there has been little success in convincing age 50+ Americans to adopt physically active lifestyles. The Blueprint identifies barriers in the areas of research, home and community programs, medical systems, public policy and advocacy, and marketing and communications. In addition to identifying barriers, the Blueprint proposes a number of concrete strategies that could be employed in order to overcome the barriers to physical activity in society at large. This report summarizes the outcome of the National Blueprint Consensus Conference that was held in October 2002. In this conference, representatives of more than 50 national organizations convened in Washington, D.C. with the goal of identifying high priority and high feasibility strategies which would advance the National Blueprint and which could be initiated within the next 12 to 24 months. Participants in the consensus conference were assigned to one of five breakout groups: home and community, marketing, medical systems, public policy, and research. Each breakout group was charged with identifying the three highest priority strategies within their area for effectively increasing physical activity levels in the mid-life and older adult population. In addition to the 15 strategies identified by the breakout groups, three "cross-cutting" strategies were added which were considered to be broad-based in scope and which applied to more than one of the breakout themes. A national organization was identified to take the lead in planning and implementing each strategy. A summary of the 18 strategies and lead organizations is presented. The National Blueprint Consensus Conference has identified an ambitious agenda of strategies and tactics that will need to be implemented in order to overcome societal barriers to physical activity among the mid-life and older adult population. More than 50 national organizations have expressed a commitment to work towards the implementation of the Blueprint agenda. Eighteen priority strategies have been identified in the areas of home and community, marketing, medical systems, public policy, and research. The organizations charged with the task of implementing the high priority strategies will use professional networks and established delivery channels and communication systems to translate this plan into action.

A before-after study of multidisciplinary Out-of-Hours handover: combining management and frontline efforts to create sustainable improvement.

PubMed

Pennell, Christopher; Flynn, Lorna; Boulton, Belinda; Hughes, Tracey; Walker, Graham; McCulloch, Peter

2017-04-01

The importance of implementation strategy in systems improvement is increasingly recognized and both 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' approaches have significant barriers. A trial of a combined approach involving frontline and managerial staff therefore seems merited. We attempted to improve handover using a Human Factors-based approach integrated with a combined 'top and bottom' implementation strategy. A before-after study was conducted across 9 months. The study was set in a 236 bed district general hospital. Participants included any member of staff involved in Out of Hours handover. Existing processes were analysed using Human Factors methods. Changes made were based on this analysis and developed via facilitation between management and frontline staff. These included creating a single multidisciplinary handover, changing the venue, standardizing the meeting structure, developing an standard operating procedure for identifying unwell patients for handover and creating a clinical coordinator role. Meeting attendance, duration, start time efficiency, the type of patients handed over and the transfer of important information were measured pre- and post-intervention. We found improvement in handover start time (P = 0.002, r = 0) and multidisciplinary participation (P = 0.002, r = -0.534). Handover of unwell patients improved, but not significantly. Communication of plan (P < 0.001, r = 0.14) and pending tasks (P < 0.001, r = 0.30) improved, but diagnosis (P = 0.233, r = -0.05), history (P = 0.482, r = -0.03) and comorbidities (P = 0.19, r = -0.05) did not. The changes produced greater multidisciplinary participation, a broader focus and improved communication of plans and tasks outstanding. The 'top and bottom' implementation approach appeared valuable. Management involvement was essential for significant changes, while frontline staff involvement facilitated the design of context-specific practical solutions with staff buy-in. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

SU-F-E-15: Initial Experience Implementing a Case Method Teaching Approach to Radiation Oncology Physics Residents, Graduate Students and Doctorate of Medical Physics Students

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

Gutierrez, A

Purpose: Case Method Teaching approach is a teaching tool used commonly in business school to challenge students with real-world situations—i.e. cases. The students are placed in the role of the decision maker and have to provide a solution based on the multitude of information provided. Specifically, students must develop an ability to quickly make sense of a complex problem, provide a solution incorporating all of the objectives (at time conflicting) and constraints, and communicate that solution in a succinct, professional and effective manner. The validity of the solution is highly dependent on the auxiliary information provided in the case andmore » the basic didactic knowledge of the student. A Case Method Teaching approach was developed and implemented into an on-going course focused on AAPM Task Group reports at UTHSCSA. Methods: A current course at UTHSCSA reviews and discusses 15 AAPM Task Group reports per semester. The course is structured into three topic modules: Imaging QA, Stereotactic Radiotherapy, and Special Patient Measurements—i.e. pacemakers, fetal dose. After a topic module is complete, the students are divided into groups (2–3 people) and are asked to review a case study related to the module topic. Students then provide a solution presented in an executive summary and class presentation. Results: Case studies were created to address each module topic. Through team work and whole-class discussion, a collaborative learning environment was established. Students additionally learned concepts such vendor relations, financial negotiations, capital project management, and competitive strategy. Conclusion: Case Method Teaching approach is an effective teaching tool to further enhance the learning experience of radiation oncology physics students by presenting them with though-provoking dilemmas that require students to distinguish pertinent from peripheral information, formulate strategies and recommendations for action, and confront obstacles to implementation.« less

A qualitative study of the anticipated barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a lifestyle intervention in the Dutch construction industry.

PubMed

Tonnon, S C; Proper, K I; van der Ploeg, H P; Westerman, M J; Sijbesma, E; van der Beek, A J

2014-12-23

Lifestyle interventions have proven effective for lowering a cardiovascular risk profile by improving lifestyle behaviors, blood glucose and blood cholesterol levels. However, implementation of lifestyle interventions is often met with barriers. This qualitative study sought to determine anticipated barriers and facilitators to the nationwide implementation of an effective lifestyle intervention in the construction industry in the Netherlands. Prior to implementation, focus groups were held with 8 lifestyle counselors and semi-structured interviews with 20 employees of the construction industry, 4 occupational physicians, 4 medical assistants, and 1 manager of an occupational health service. The transcripts were coded by two coders and analyzed by constant comparison. Hypothetical employee willingness to sign up for the intervention was facilitated by a high level of perceived risk, perceived added value of the intervention, and perceived social support. It was hampered by a preference for independence and perceived interference with their work. All professionals named a lack of time as an anticipated barrier to implementation. Lifestyle counselors suggested several strategies to improve the proficiency of their counseling technique, such as training in small groups and a continuous stream of employee referrals. Occupational physicians thought they would be hampered in screening employees and referring them to a lifestyle counselor by the perception that addressing employee lifestyles was not their task, and by a counter-productive relationship with other stakeholders. The manager addressed financial incentives and a good intervention fit with the current approach of the OHS. The findings suggest that employees can be motivated to sign up for a lifestyle intervention by tailoring the implementation strategy to various subgroups within the target group. Occupational physicians can be motivated to refer employees for the intervention by making a referral personally and professionally rewarding.

Risk Management Implementation Tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wright, Shayla L.

2004-01-01

Continuous Risk Management (CM) is a software engineering practice with processes, methods, and tools for managing risk in a project. It provides a controlled environment for practical decision making, in order to assess continually what could go wrong, determine which risk are important to deal with, implement strategies to deal with those risk and assure the measure effectiveness of the implemented strategies. Continuous Risk Management provides many training workshops and courses to teach the staff how to implement risk management to their various experiments and projects. The steps of the CRM process are identification, analysis, planning, tracking, and control. These steps and the various methods and tools that go along with them, identification, and dealing with risk is clear-cut. The office that I worked in was the Risk Management Office (RMO). The RMO at NASA works hard to uphold NASA s mission of exploration and advancement of scientific knowledge and technology by defining and reducing program risk. The RMO is one of the divisions that fall under the Safety and Assurance Directorate (SAAD). I worked under Cynthia Calhoun, Flight Software Systems Engineer. My task was to develop a help screen for the Continuous Risk Management Implementation Tool (RMIT). The Risk Management Implementation Tool will be used by many NASA managers to identify, analyze, track, control, and communicate risks in their programs and projects. The RMIT will provide a means for NASA to continuously assess risks. The goals and purposes for this tool is to provide a simple means to manage risks, be used by program and project managers throughout NASA for managing risk, and to take an aggressive approach to advertise and advocate the use of RMIT at each NASA center.

Guidelines for Guidelines: Are They Up to the Task? A Comparative Assessment of Clinical Practice Guideline Development Handbooks

PubMed Central

Ansari, Shabnam; Rashidian, Arash

2012-01-01

Objectives We conducted a comparative review of clinical practice guideline development handbooks. We aimed to identify the main guideline development tasks, assign weights to the importance of each task using expert opinions and identify the handbooks that provided a comprehensive coverage of the tasks. Methods We systematically searched and included handbooks published (in English language) by national, international or professional bodies responsible for evidenced-based guideline development. We reviewed the handbooks to identify the main guideline development tasks and scored each handbook for each task from 0 (the handbook did not mention the task) to 2 (the task suitably addressed and explained), and calculated a weighted score for each handbook. The tasks included in over 75% of the handbooks were considered as ‘necessary’ tasks. Result Nineteen guideline development handbooks and twenty seven main tasks were identified. The guideline handbooks’ weighted scores ranged from 100 to 220. Four handbooks scored over 80% of the maximum possible score, developed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, Swiss Centre for International Health, Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network and World Health Organization. Necessary tasks were: selecting the guideline topic, determining the guideline scope, identifying relevant existing guidelines, involving the consumers, forming guideline development group,, developing clinical questions, systematic search for evidence, selecting relevant evidence, appraising identifies research evidence, making group decision, grading available evidence, creating recommendations, final stakeholder consultation, guideline implementation strategies, updating recommendations and correcting potential errors. Discussion Adequate details for evidence based development of guidelines were still lacking from many handbooks. The tasks relevant to ethical issues and piloting were missing in most handbooks. The findings help decision makers in identifying the necessary tasks for guideline development, provide an updated comparative list of guideline development handbooks, and provide a checklist to assess the comprehensiveness of guideline development processes. PMID:23189167

Ontology-Driven Search and Triage: Design of a Web-Based Visual Interface for MEDLINE.

PubMed

Demelo, Jonathan; Parsons, Paul; Sedig, Kamran

2017-02-02

Diverse users need to search health and medical literature to satisfy open-ended goals such as making evidence-based decisions and updating their knowledge. However, doing so is challenging due to at least two major difficulties: (1) articulating information needs using accurate vocabulary and (2) dealing with large document sets returned from searches. Common search interfaces such as PubMed do not provide adequate support for exploratory search tasks. Our objective was to improve support for exploratory search tasks by combining two strategies in the design of an interactive visual interface by (1) using a formal ontology to help users build domain-specific knowledge and vocabulary and (2) providing multi-stage triaging support to help mitigate the information overload problem. We developed a Web-based tool, Ontology-Driven Visual Search and Triage Interface for MEDLINE (OVERT-MED), to test our design ideas. We implemented a custom searchable index of MEDLINE, which comprises approximately 25 million document citations. We chose a popular biomedical ontology, the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO), to test our solution to the vocabulary problem. We implemented multistage triaging support in OVERT-MED, with the aid of interactive visualization techniques, to help users deal with large document sets returned from searches. Formative evaluation suggests that the design features in OVERT-MED are helpful in addressing the two major difficulties described above. Using a formal ontology seems to help users articulate their information needs with more accurate vocabulary. In addition, multistage triaging combined with interactive visualizations shows promise in mitigating the information overload problem. Our strategies appear to be valuable in addressing the two major problems in exploratory search. Although we tested OVERT-MED with a particular ontology and document collection, we anticipate that our strategies can be transferred successfully to other contexts. ©Jonathan Demelo, Paul Parsons, Kamran Sedig. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 02.02.2017.

Ontology-Driven Search and Triage: Design of a Web-Based Visual Interface for MEDLINE

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Background Diverse users need to search health and medical literature to satisfy open-ended goals such as making evidence-based decisions and updating their knowledge. However, doing so is challenging due to at least two major difficulties: (1) articulating information needs using accurate vocabulary and (2) dealing with large document sets returned from searches. Common search interfaces such as PubMed do not provide adequate support for exploratory search tasks. Objective Our objective was to improve support for exploratory search tasks by combining two strategies in the design of an interactive visual interface by (1) using a formal ontology to help users build domain-specific knowledge and vocabulary and (2) providing multi-stage triaging support to help mitigate the information overload problem. Methods We developed a Web-based tool, Ontology-Driven Visual Search and Triage Interface for MEDLINE (OVERT-MED), to test our design ideas. We implemented a custom searchable index of MEDLINE, which comprises approximately 25 million document citations. We chose a popular biomedical ontology, the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO), to test our solution to the vocabulary problem. We implemented multistage triaging support in OVERT-MED, with the aid of interactive visualization techniques, to help users deal with large document sets returned from searches. Results Formative evaluation suggests that the design features in OVERT-MED are helpful in addressing the two major difficulties described above. Using a formal ontology seems to help users articulate their information needs with more accurate vocabulary. In addition, multistage triaging combined with interactive visualizations shows promise in mitigating the information overload problem. Conclusions Our strategies appear to be valuable in addressing the two major problems in exploratory search. Although we tested OVERT-MED with a particular ontology and document collection, we anticipate that our strategies can be transferred successfully to other contexts. PMID:28153818

The Value of Indirect Teaching Strategies in Enhancing Student-Coaches’ Learning Engagement

PubMed Central

Mesquita, Isabel; Coutinho, Patrícia; De Martin-Silva, Luciana; Parente, Bruno; Faria, Mário; Afonso, José

2015-01-01

This study aimed to examine the indirect teaching strategies adopted by a coach educator in terms of promoting student-coaches’ engagement in a positive and active learning environment. The participants were an expert coach educator and seven student-coaches from an academic coaching setting. A mix method approach was used to collect data. Whilst video-recording and participant observations were used to collect data from the lessons, focus groups were adopted to recall the perceptions of student-coaches. The results showed that indirect teaching strategies (i.e., asking questions, showing signs of autonomy by monitoring the pace at which they completed tasks and actively engaging in the search for solutions to tasks) implemented by the coach educator promoted a supportive and challenging learning environment which, in turn, encouraged student-coaches to be more actively involved in the lessons. Additionally, the affective aspects of the relationship established with student-coaches (tone of voice, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, physical contact and humor) led them to feel confident in exposing their doubts and opinions, and in learning in a more autonomous manner. Moreover, the practical lessons proved to be crucial in helping student-coaches to reach broader and deeper forms of understanding by allowing the application of theory to coaching practice. In conclusion, this study reinforces the value of indirect teaching strategies to stimulate an active learning environment. It further highlights the value of practical learning environments to better prepare neophyte coaches for dealing with the complex and dynamic nature of their professional reality. Key points Both instructional and affective teaching indirect strategies used by the coach educator promoted a positive and challenging learning environment to student-coaches. The directness profile used by this coach educator (questioning, giving autonomy for problem solving and responsibility to regulate the learning tasks development) promoted the awareness and the ability of student-coaches to explore alternative solutions and self-regulate their own learning. Using humor, touch, gestures and tone of voice, the coach educator showed great care for student-coaches, which impacted positively on their enthusiasm, confidence and desire to be actively engaged in their own learning. PMID:26336354

The feasibility of a role for community health workers in integrated mental health care for perinatal depression: a qualitative study from Surabaya, Indonesia.

PubMed

Surjaningrum, Endang R; Minas, Harry; Jorm, Anthony F; Kakuma, Ritsuko

2018-01-01

Indonesian maternal health policies state that community health workers (CHWs) are responsible for detection and referral of pregnant women and postpartum mothers who might suffer from mental health problems (task-sharing). The documents have been published for a while, however reports on the implementation are hardly found which possibly resulted from feasibility issue within the health system. To examine the feasibility of task-sharing in integrated mental health care to identify perinatal depression in Surabaya, Indonesia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 62 participants representing four stakeholder groups in primary health care: program managers from the health office and the community, health workers and CHWs, mental health specialists, and service users. Questions on the feasibility were supported by vignettes about perinatal depression. WHO's health systems framework was applied to analyse the data using framework analysis. Findings indicated the policy initiative is feasible to the district health system. A strong basis within the health system for task-sharing in maternal mental health rests on health leadership and governance that open an opportunity for training and supervision, financing, and intersectoral collaboration. The infrastructure and resources in the city provide potential for a continuity of care. Nevertheless, feasibility is challenged by gaps between policy and practices, inadequate support system in technologies and information system, assigning the workforce and strategies to be applied, and the lack of practical guidelines to guide the implementation. The health system and resources in Surabaya provide opportunities for task-sharing to detect and refer cases of perinatal depression in an integrated mental health care system. Participation of informal workforce might facilitate in closing the gap in the provision of information on perinatal mental health.

Patterns of problem-solving in children's literacy and arithmetic.

PubMed

Farrington-Flint, Lee; Vanuxem-Cotterill, Sophie; Stiller, James

2009-11-01

Patterns of problem-solving among 5-to-7 year-olds' were examined on a range of literacy (reading and spelling) and arithmetic-based (addition and subtraction) problem-solving tasks using verbal self-reports to monitor strategy choice. The results showed higher levels of variability in the children's strategy choice across Years I and 2 on the arithmetic (addition and subtraction) than literacy-based tasks (reading and spelling). However, across all four tasks, the children showed a tendency to move from less sophisticated procedural-based strategies, which included phonological strategies for reading and spelling and counting-all and finger modellingfor addition and subtraction, to more efficient retrieval methods from Years I to 2. Distinct patterns in children's problem-solving skill were identified on the literacy and arithmetic tasks using two separate cluster analyses. There was a strong association between these two profiles showing that those children with more advanced problem-solving skills on the arithmetic tasks also showed more advanced profiles on the literacy tasks. The results highlight how different-aged children show flexibility in their use of problem-solving strategies across literacy and arithmetical contexts and reinforce the importance of studying variations in children's problem-solving skill across different educational contexts.

The Relationships among Students' Future-Oriented Goals and Subgoals, Perceived Task Instrumentality, and Task-Oriented Self-Regulation Strategies in an Academic Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tabachnick, Sharon E.; Miller, Raymond B.; Relyea, George E.

2008-01-01

The authors performed path analysis, followed by a bootstrap procedure, to test the predictions of a model explaining the relationships among students' distal future goals (both extrinsic and intrinsic), their adoption of a middle-range subgoal, their perceptions of task instrumentality, and their proximal task-oriented self-regulation strategies.…

Analytical modeling and feasibility study of a multi-GPU cloud-based server (MGCS) framework for non-voxel-based dose calculations.

PubMed

Neylon, J; Min, Y; Kupelian, P; Low, D A; Santhanam, A

2017-04-01

In this paper, a multi-GPU cloud-based server (MGCS) framework is presented for dose calculations, exploring the feasibility of remote computing power for parallelization and acceleration of computationally and time intensive radiotherapy tasks in moving toward online adaptive therapies. An analytical model was developed to estimate theoretical MGCS performance acceleration and intelligently determine workload distribution. Numerical studies were performed with a computing setup of 14 GPUs distributed over 4 servers interconnected by a 1 Gigabits per second (Gbps) network. Inter-process communication methods were optimized to facilitate resource distribution and minimize data transfers over the server interconnect. The analytically predicted computation time predicted matched experimentally observations within 1-5 %. MGCS performance approached a theoretical limit of acceleration proportional to the number of GPUs utilized when computational tasks far outweighed memory operations. The MGCS implementation reproduced ground-truth dose computations with negligible differences, by distributing the work among several processes and implemented optimization strategies. The results showed that a cloud-based computation engine was a feasible solution for enabling clinics to make use of fast dose calculations for advanced treatment planning and adaptive radiotherapy. The cloud-based system was able to exceed the performance of a local machine even for optimized calculations, and provided significant acceleration for computationally intensive tasks. Such a framework can provide access to advanced technology and computational methods to many clinics, providing an avenue for standardization across institutions without the requirements of purchasing, maintaining, and continually updating hardware.

Enablers and barriers for implementing high-quality hypertension care in a rural primary care setting in Nigeria: perspectives of primary care staff and health insurance managers.

PubMed

Odusola, Aina O; Stronks, Karien; Hendriks, Marleen E; Schultsz, Constance; Akande, Tanimola; Osibogun, Akin; van Weert, Henk; Haafkens, Joke A

2016-01-01

Hypertension is a highly prevalent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that can be modified through timely and long-term treatment in primary care. We explored perspectives of primary care staff and health insurance managers on enablers and barriers for implementing high-quality hypertension care, in the context of a community-based health insurance programme in rural Nigeria. Qualitative study using semi-structured individual interviews with primary care staff (n = 11) and health insurance managers (n=4). Data were analysed using standard qualitative techniques. Both stakeholder groups perceived health insurance as an important facilitator for implementing high-quality hypertension care because it covered costs of care for patients and provided essential resources and incentives to clinics: guidelines, staff training, medications, and diagnostic equipment. Perceived inhibitors included the following: high staff workload; administrative challenges at facilities; discordance between healthcare provider and insurer on how health insurance and provider payment methods work; and insufficient fit between some guideline recommendations and tools for patient education and characteristics/needs of the local patient population. Perceived strategies to address inhibitors included the following: task-shifting; adequate provider payment benchmarking; good provider-insurer relationships; automated administration systems; and tailoring guidelines/patient education. By providing insights into perspectives of primary care providers and health insurance managers, this study offers information on potential strategies for implementing high-quality hypertension care for insured patients in SSA.

Cognitive remediation for adolescents with 22q11 deletion syndrome (22q11DS): a preliminary study examining effectiveness, feasibility, and fidelity of a hybrid strategy, remote and computer-based intervention.

PubMed

Mariano, Margaret A; Tang, Kerri; Kurtz, Matthew; Kates, Wendy R

2015-08-01

22q11DS is a multiple anomaly syndrome involving intellectual and behavioral deficits, and increased risk for schizophrenia. As cognitive remediation (CR) has recently been found to improve cognition in younger patients with schizophrenia, we investigated the efficacy, feasibility, and fidelity of a remote, hybrid strategy, computerized CR program in youth with 22q11DS. A longitudinal design was implemented in which 21 participants served as their own controls. Following an eight month baseline period in which no interventions were provided, cognitive coaches met with participants remotely for CR via video conferencing three times a week over a targeted 8month timeframe and facilitated their progress through the intervention, offering task-specific strategies. A subset of strategies were examined for fidelity. Outcomes were evaluated using a neurocognitive test battery at baseline, pre-treatment and post-treatment. All participants adhered to the intervention. The mean length of the treatment phase was 7.96months. A moderately high correlation (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.73) was found for amount and type of strategies offered by coaches. Participants exhibited significant improvements (ES=.36-.55, p≤.009) in working memory, shifting attention and cognitive flexibility. All significant models were driven by improvements in pre to post-treatment scores. Based on our preliminary investigation, a remote, hybrid strategy, computerized CR program can be implemented with 22q11DS youth despite geographic location, health, and cognitive deficits. It appears effective in enhancing cognitive skills during the developmental period of adolescence, making this type of CR delivery useful for youth with 22q11DS transitioning into post-school environments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Attention in a multi-task environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Andre, Anthony D.; Heers, Susan T.

1993-01-01

Two experiments used a low fidelity multi-task simulation to investigate the effects of cue specificity on task preparation and performance. Subjects performed a continuous compensatory tracking task and were periodically prompted to perform one of several concurrent secondary tasks. The results provide strong evidence that subjects enacted a strategy to actively divert resources towards secondary task preparation only when they had specific information about an upcoming task to be performed. However, this strategy was not as much affected by the type of task cued (Experiment 1) or its difficulty level (Experiment 2). Overall, subjects seemed aware of both the costs (degraded primary task tracking) and benefits (improved secondary task performance) of cue information. Implications of the present results for computational human performance/workload models are discussed.

Efficient Ada multitasking on a RISC register window architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kearns, J. P.; Quammen, D.

1987-01-01

This work addresses the problem of reducing context switch overhead on a processor which supports a large register file - a register file much like that which is part of the Berkeley RISC processors and several other emerging architectures (which are not necessarily reduced instruction set machines in the purest sense). Such a reduction in overhead is particularly desirable in a real-time embedded application, in which task-to-task context switch overhead may result in failure to meet crucial deadlines. A storage management technique by which a context switch may be implemented as cheaply as a procedure call is presented. The essence of this technique is the avoidance of the save/restore of registers on the context switch. This is achieved through analysis of the static source text of an Ada tasking program. Information gained during that analysis directs the optimized storage management strategy for that program at run time. A formal verification of the technique in terms of an operational control model and an evaluation of the technique's performance via simulations driven by synthetic Ada program traces are presented.

Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings

PubMed Central

Attari, Shahzeen Z.; DeKay, Michael L.; Davidson, Cliff I.; Bruine de Bruin, Wändi

2010-01-01

In a national online survey, 505 participants reported their perceptions of energy consumption and savings for a variety of household, transportation, and recycling activities. When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., turning off lights, driving less) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g., installing more efficient light bulbs and appliances), in contrast to experts’ recommendations. For a sample of 15 activities, participants underestimated energy use and savings by a factor of 2.8 on average, with small overestimates for low-energy activities and large underestimates for high-energy activities. Additional estimation and ranking tasks also yielded relatively flat functions for perceived energy use and savings. Across several tasks, participants with higher numeracy scores and stronger proenvironmental attitudes had more accurate perceptions. The serious deficiencies highlighted by these results suggest that well-designed efforts to improve the public's understanding of energy use and savings could pay large dividends. PMID:20713724

WORDGRAPH: Keyword-in-Context Visualization for NETSPEAK's Wildcard Search.

PubMed

Riehmann, Patrick; Gruendl, Henning; Potthast, Martin; Trenkmann, Martin; Stein, Benno; Froehlich, Benno

2012-09-01

The WORDGRAPH helps writers in visually choosing phrases while writing a text. It checks for the commonness of phrases and allows for the retrieval of alternatives by means of wildcard queries. To support such queries, we implement a scalable retrieval engine, which returns high-quality results within milliseconds using a probabilistic retrieval strategy. The results are displayed as WORDGRAPH visualization or as a textual list. The graphical interface provides an effective means for interactive exploration of search results using filter techniques, query expansion, and navigation. Our observations indicate that, of three investigated retrieval tasks, the textual interface is sufficient for the phrase verification task, wherein both interfaces support context-sensitive word choice, and the WORDGRAPH best supports the exploration of a phrase's context or the underlying corpus. Our user study confirms these observations and shows that WORDGRAPH is generally the preferred interface over the textual result list for queries containing multiple wildcards.

Self-reported strategies in decisions under risk: role of feedback, reasoning abilities, executive functions, short-term-memory, and working memory.

PubMed

Schiebener, Johannes; Brand, Matthias

2015-11-01

In decisions under objective risk conditions information about the decision options' possible outcomes and the rules for outcomes' occurrence are provided. Thus, deciders can base decision-making strategies on probabilistic laws. In many laboratory decision-making tasks, choosing the option with the highest winning probability in all trials (=maximization strategy) is probabilistically regarded the most rational behavior. However, individuals often behave less optimal, especially in case the individuals have lower cognitive functions or in case no feedback about consequences is provided in the situation. It is still unclear which cognitive functions particularly predispose individuals for using successful strategies and which strategies profit from feedback. We investigated 195 individuals with two decision-making paradigms, the Game of Dice Task (GDT) (with and without feedback), and the Card Guessing Game. Thereafter, participants reported which strategies they had applied. Interaction effects (feedback × strategy), effect sizes, and uncorrected single group comparisons suggest that feedback in the GDT tended to be more beneficial to individuals reporting exploratory strategies (e.g., use intuition). In both tasks, the self-reported use of more principled and more rational strategies was accompanied by better decision-making performance and better performances in reasoning and executive functioning tasks. The strategy groups did not significantly differ in most short-term and working-memory tasks. Thus, particularly individual differences in reasoning and executive functions seem to predispose individuals toward particular decision-making strategies. Feedback seems to be useful for individuals who rather explore the decision-making situation instead of following a certain plan.

[Effects of planning and executive functions on young children's script change strategy: A developmental perspective].

PubMed

Yanaoka, Kaichi

2016-02-01

This research examined the effects of planning and executive functions on young children's (ages 3-to 5-years) strategies in changing scripts. Young children (N = 77) performed a script task (doll task), three executive function tasks (DCCS, red/blue task, and nine box task), a planning task, and a receptive vocabulary task. In the doll task, young children first enacted a "changing clothes" script, and then faced a situation in which some elements of the script were inappropriate. They needed to enact a script by compensating inappropriate items for the other-script items or by changing to the other script in advance. The results showed that shifting, a factor of executive function, had a positive influence on whether young children could compensate inappropriate items. In addition, planning was also an important factor that helped children to change to the other script in advance. These findings suggest that shifting and planning play different roles in using the two strategies appropriately when young children enact scripts in unexpected situations.

Modeling Cognitive Strategies during Complex Task Performing Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazman, Sacide Guzin; Altun, Arif

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine individuals' computer based complex task performing processes and strategies in order to determine the reasons of failure by cognitive task analysis method and cued retrospective think aloud with eye movement data. Study group was five senior students from Computer Education and Instructional Technologies…

Representational Task Formats and Problem Solving Strategies in Kinematics and Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ibrahim, Bashirah; Rebello, N. Sanjay

2012-01-01

Previous studies have reported that students employed different problem solving approaches when presented with the same task structured with different representations. In this study, we explored and compared students' strategies as they attempted tasks from two topical areas, kinematics and work. Our participants were 19 engineering students…

Efficient Execution of Microscopy Image Analysis on CPU, GPU, and MIC Equipped Cluster Systems.

PubMed

Andrade, G; Ferreira, R; Teodoro, George; Rocha, Leonardo; Saltz, Joel H; Kurc, Tahsin

2014-10-01

High performance computing is experiencing a major paradigm shift with the introduction of accelerators, such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and Intel Xeon Phi (MIC). These processors have made available a tremendous computing power at low cost, and are transforming machines into hybrid systems equipped with CPUs and accelerators. Although these systems can deliver a very high peak performance, making full use of its resources in real-world applications is a complex problem. Most current applications deployed to these machines are still being executed in a single processor, leaving other devices underutilized. In this paper we explore a scenario in which applications are composed of hierarchical data flow tasks which are allocated to nodes of a distributed memory machine in coarse-grain, but each of them may be composed of several finer-grain tasks which can be allocated to different devices within the node. We propose and implement novel performance aware scheduling techniques that can be used to allocate tasks to devices. We evaluate our techniques using a pathology image analysis application used to investigate brain cancer morphology, and our experimental evaluation shows that the proposed scheduling strategies significantly outperforms other efficient scheduling techniques, such as Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time - HEFT, in cooperative executions using CPUs, GPUs, and MICs. We also experimentally show that our strategies are less sensitive to inaccuracy in the scheduling input data and that the performance gains are maintained as the application scales.

Efficient Execution of Microscopy Image Analysis on CPU, GPU, and MIC Equipped Cluster Systems

PubMed Central

Andrade, G.; Ferreira, R.; Teodoro, George; Rocha, Leonardo; Saltz, Joel H.; Kurc, Tahsin

2015-01-01

High performance computing is experiencing a major paradigm shift with the introduction of accelerators, such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and Intel Xeon Phi (MIC). These processors have made available a tremendous computing power at low cost, and are transforming machines into hybrid systems equipped with CPUs and accelerators. Although these systems can deliver a very high peak performance, making full use of its resources in real-world applications is a complex problem. Most current applications deployed to these machines are still being executed in a single processor, leaving other devices underutilized. In this paper we explore a scenario in which applications are composed of hierarchical data flow tasks which are allocated to nodes of a distributed memory machine in coarse-grain, but each of them may be composed of several finer-grain tasks which can be allocated to different devices within the node. We propose and implement novel performance aware scheduling techniques that can be used to allocate tasks to devices. We evaluate our techniques using a pathology image analysis application used to investigate brain cancer morphology, and our experimental evaluation shows that the proposed scheduling strategies significantly outperforms other efficient scheduling techniques, such as Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time - HEFT, in cooperative executions using CPUs, GPUs, and MICs. We also experimentally show that our strategies are less sensitive to inaccuracy in the scheduling input data and that the performance gains are maintained as the application scales. PMID:26640423

The Neural Mechanism Exploration of Adaptive Motor Control: Dynamical Economic Cell Allocation in the Primary Motor Cortex.

PubMed

Li, Wei; Guo, Yangyang; Fan, Jing; Ma, Chaolin; Ma, Xuan; Chen, Xi; He, Jiping

2017-05-01

Adaptive flexibility is of significance for the smooth and efficient movements in goal attainment. However, the underlying work mechanism of the cerebral cortex in adaptive motor control still remains unclear. How does the cerebral cortex organize and coordinate the activity of a large population of cells in the implementation of various motor strategies? To explore this issue, single-unit activities from the M1 region and kinematic data were recorded simultaneously in monkeys performing 3D reach-to-grasp tasks with different perturbations. Varying motor control strategies were employed and achieved in different perturbed tasks, via the dynamic allocation of cells to modulate specific movement parameters. An economic principle was proposed for the first time to describe a basic rule for cell allocation in the primary motor cortex. This principle, defined as the Dynamic Economic Cell Allocation Mechanism (DECAM), guarantees benefit maximization in cell allocation under limited neuronal resources, and avoids committing resources to uneconomic investments for unreliable factors with no or little revenue. That is to say, the cells recruited are always preferentially allocated to those factors with reliable return; otherwise, the cells are dispatched to respond to other factors about task. The findings of this study might partially reveal the working mechanisms underlying the role of the cerebral cortex in adaptive motor control, wherein is also of significance for the design of future intelligent brain-machine interfaces and rehabilitation device.

Synthetic Proxy Infrastructure for Task Evaluation

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

Junghans, Christoph; Pavel, Robert

The Synthetic Proxy Infrastructure for Task Evaluation is a proxy application designed to support application developers in gauging the performance of various task granularities when determining how best to utilize task based programming models.The infrastructure is designed to provide examples of common communication patterns with a synthetic workload intended to provide performance data to evaluate programming model and platform overheads for the purpose of determining task granularity for task decomposition purposes. This is presented as a reference implementation of a proxy application with run-time configurable input and output task dependencies ranging from an embarrassingly parallel scenario to patterns with stencil-likemore » dependencies upon their nearest neighbors. Once all, if any, inputs are satisfied each task will execute a synthetic workload (a simple DGEMM of in this case) of varying size and output all, if any, outputs to the next tasks.The intent is for this reference implementation to be implemented as a proxy app in different programming models so as to provide the same infrastructure and to allow for application developers to simulate their own communication needs to assist in task decomposition under various models on a given platform.« less

Interrupted monitoring of a stochastic process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Palmer, E.

1977-01-01

Normative strategies are developed for tasks where the pilot must interrupt his monitoring of a stochastic process in order to attend to other duties. Results are given as to how characteristics of the stochastic process and the other tasks affect the optimal strategies. The optimum strategy is also compared to the strategies used by subjects in a pilot experiment.

Impact of a Simulated Clinical Day With Peer Coaching and Deliberate Practice: Promoting a Culture of Safety.

PubMed

Badowski, Donna M; Oosterhouse, Kimberly J

Nursing education is challenged to shift from task-based proficiencies to higher level competencies with patient safety as a priority. Using a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design, a simulation-based, peer-coached, deliberate practice clinical substitution was implemented to compare nursing students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes for promoting safety. Our findings demonstrated improved knowledge and skill acquisition in the intervention and control groups. The former trended toward improved team communication attitudes and enteral medication skill performance. Additional research with larger samples is needed to further investigate this innovative strategy.

Scheduling of an aircraft fleet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paltrinieri, Massimo; Momigliano, Alberto; Torquati, Franco

1992-01-01

Scheduling is the task of assigning resources to operations. When the resources are mobile vehicles, they describe routes through the served stations. To emphasize such aspect, this problem is usually referred to as the routing problem. In particular, if vehicles are aircraft and stations are airports, the problem is known as aircraft routing. This paper describes the solution to such a problem developed in OMAR (Operative Management of Aircraft Routing), a system implemented by Bull HN for Alitalia. In our approach, aircraft routing is viewed as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem. The solving strategy combines network consistency and tree search techniques.

Compliance control with embedded neural elements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Venkataraman, S. T.; Gulati, S.

1992-01-01

The authors discuss a control approach that embeds the neural elements within a model-based compliant control architecture for robotic tasks that involve contact with unstructured environments. Compliance control experiments have been performed on actual robotics hardware to demonstrate the performance of contact control schemes with neural elements. System parameters were identified under the assumption that environment dynamics have a fixed nonlinear structure. A robotics research arm, placed in contact with a single degree-of-freedom electromechanical environment dynamics emulator, was commanded to move through a desired trajectory. The command was implemented by using a compliant control strategy.

Measurement of SIFT operating system overhead

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Palumbo, D. L.; Butler, R. W.

1985-01-01

The overhead of the software implemented fault tolerance (SIFT) operating system was measured. Several versions of the operating system evolved. Each version represents different strategies employed to improve the measured performance. Three of these versions are analyzed. The internal data structures of the operating systems are discussed. The overhead of the SIFT operating system was found to be of two types: vote overhead and executive task overhead. Both types of overhead were found to be significant in all versions of the system. Improvements substantially reduced this overhead; even with these improvements, the operating system consumed well over 50% of the available processing time.

Compassion fatigue in pediatric palliative care providers.

PubMed

Rourke, Mary T

2007-10-01

The experience of compassion fatigue is an expected and common response to the professional task of routinely caring for children at the end of life. Symptoms of compassion fatigue often mimic trauma reactions. Implementing strategies that span personal, professional, and organizational domains can help protect health care providers from the damaging effects of compassion fatigue. Providing pediatric palliative care within a constructive and supportive team can help caregivers deal with the relational challenges of compassion fatigue. Finally, any consideration of the toll of providing pediatric palliative care must be balanced with a consideration of the parallel experience of compassion satisfaction.

Implementation strategies: recommendations for specifying and reporting

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Implementation strategies have unparalleled importance in implementation science, as they constitute the ‘how to’ component of changing healthcare practice. Yet, implementation researchers and other stakeholders are not able to fully utilize the findings of studies focusing on implementation strategies because they are often inconsistently labelled and poorly described, are rarely justified theoretically, lack operational definitions or manuals to guide their use, and are part of ‘packaged’ approaches whose specific elements are poorly understood. We address the challenges of specifying and reporting implementation strategies encountered by researchers who design, conduct, and report research on implementation strategies. Specifically, we propose guidelines for naming, defining, and operationalizing implementation strategies in terms of seven dimensions: actor, the action, action targets, temporality, dose, implementation outcomes addressed, and theoretical justification. Ultimately, implementation strategies cannot be used in practice or tested in research without a full description of their components and how they should be used. As with all intervention research, their descriptions must be precise enough to enable measurement and ‘reproducibility.’ We propose these recommendations to improve the reporting of implementation strategies in research studies and to stimulate further identification of elements pertinent to implementation strategies that should be included in reporting guidelines for implementation strategies. PMID:24289295

Implementation strategies: recommendations for specifying and reporting.

PubMed

Proctor, Enola K; Powell, Byron J; McMillen, J Curtis

2013-12-01

Implementation strategies have unparalleled importance in implementation science, as they constitute the 'how to' component of changing healthcare practice. Yet, implementation researchers and other stakeholders are not able to fully utilize the findings of studies focusing on implementation strategies because they are often inconsistently labelled and poorly described, are rarely justified theoretically, lack operational definitions or manuals to guide their use, and are part of 'packaged' approaches whose specific elements are poorly understood. We address the challenges of specifying and reporting implementation strategies encountered by researchers who design, conduct, and report research on implementation strategies. Specifically, we propose guidelines for naming, defining, and operationalizing implementation strategies in terms of seven dimensions: actor, the action, action targets, temporality, dose, implementation outcomes addressed, and theoretical justification. Ultimately, implementation strategies cannot be used in practice or tested in research without a full description of their components and how they should be used. As with all intervention research, their descriptions must be precise enough to enable measurement and 'reproducibility.' We propose these recommendations to improve the reporting of implementation strategies in research studies and to stimulate further identification of elements pertinent to implementation strategies that should be included in reporting guidelines for implementation strategies.

Self-generated strategic behavior in an ecological shopping task.

PubMed

Bottari, Carolina; Wai Shun, Priscilla Lam; Dorze, Guylaine Le; Gosselin, Nadia; Dawson, Deirdre

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVES. The use of cognitive strategies optimizes performance in complex everyday tasks such as shopping. This exploratory study examined the cognitive strategies people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) effectively use in an unstructured, real-world situation. METHOD. A behavioral analysis of the self-generated strategic behaviors of 5 people with severe TBI using videotaped sessions of an ecological shopping task (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Profile) was performed. RESULTS. All participants used some form of cognitive strategy in an unstructured real-world shopping task, although the number, type, and degree of effectiveness of the strategies in leading to goal attainment varied. The most independent person used the largest number and a broader repertoire of self-generated strategies. CONCLUSION. These results provide initial evidence that occupational therapists should examine the use of self-generated cognitive strategies in real-world contexts as a potential means of guiding therapy aimed at improving independence in everyday activities for people with TBI. Copyright © 2014 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Pillars of judgment: how memory abilities affect performance in rule-based and exemplar-based judgments.

PubMed

Hoffmann, Janina A; von Helversen, Bettina; Rieskamp, Jörg

2014-12-01

Making accurate judgments is an essential skill in everyday life. Although how different memory abilities relate to categorization and judgment processes has been hotly debated, the question is far from resolved. We contribute to the solution by investigating how individual differences in memory abilities affect judgment performance in 2 tasks that induced rule-based or exemplar-based judgment strategies. In a study with 279 participants, we investigated how working memory and episodic memory affect judgment accuracy and strategy use. As predicted, participants switched strategies between tasks. Furthermore, structural equation modeling showed that the ability to solve rule-based tasks was predicted by working memory, whereas episodic memory predicted judgment accuracy in the exemplar-based task. Last, the probability of choosing an exemplar-based strategy was related to better episodic memory, but strategy selection was unrelated to working memory capacity. In sum, our results suggest that different memory abilities are essential for successfully adopting different judgment strategies. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Psychophysical Models for Signal Detection with Time Varying Uncertainty. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gai, E.

1975-01-01

Psychophysical models for the behavior of the human operator in detection tasks which include change in detectability, correlation between observations and deferred decisions are developed. Classical Signal Detection Theory (SDT) is discussed and its emphasis on the sensory processes is contrasted to decision strategies. The analysis of decision strategies utilizes detection tasks with time varying signal strength. The classical theory is modified to include such tasks and several optimal decision strategies are explored. Two methods of classifying strategies are suggested. The first method is similar to the analysis of ROC curves, while the second is based on the relation between the criterion level (CL) and the detectability. Experiments to verify the analysis of tasks with changes of signal strength are designed. The results show that subjects are aware of changes in detectability and tend to use strategies that involve changes in the CL's.

Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force---Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Science Assessment and Needs

USGS Publications Warehouse

Walker, Shelby; Dausman, Alyssa M.; Lavoie, Dawn L.

2012-01-01

The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (GCERTF) was established by Executive Order 13554 as a result of recommendations from “America’s Gulf Coast: A Long-term Recovery Plan after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill” by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus (Mabus Report). The GCERTF consists of members from 11 Federal agencies and representatives from each State bordering the Gulf of Mexico. The GCERTF was charged to develop a holistic, long-term, science-based Regional Ecosystem Restoration Strategy for the Gulf of Mexico. Federal and State agencies staffed the GCERTF with experts in fields such as policy, budgeting, and science to help develop the Strategy. The Strategy was built on existing authorities and resources and represents enhanced collaboration and a recognition of the shared responsibility among Federal and State governments to restore the Gulf Coast ecosystem. In this time of severe fiscal constraints, Task Force member agencies and States are committed to establishing shared priorities and working together to achieve them.As part of this effort, three staffers, one National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist and two U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists, created and led a Science Coordination Team (SCT) to guide scientific input into the development of the Gulf of Mexico Regional Ecosystem Restoration Strategy. The SCT leads from the GCERTF coordinated more than 70 scientists from the Federal and State Task Force member agencies to participate in development of a restoration-oriented science document focused on the entire Gulf of Mexico, from inland watersheds to the deep blue waters. The SCT leads and scientists were organized into six different working groups based on expanded goals from the Mabus Report: Coastal habitats are healthy and resilient.Living coastal and marine resources are healthy, diverse, and sustainable.Coastal communities are adaptive and resilient.Storm buffers are sustainable.Inland habitats and watersheds are managed to help support healthy and sustainable Gulf of Mexico ecosystems.Offshore environments are healthy and well managedEach working group was charged with defining their specific goal, describing the current conditions related to that goal (for example, the status of coastal habitats in the Gulf of Mexico), providing highlevel activities needed to further define and achieve the goal, with associated outcome-based performance indicators, and identifying the scientific gaps in understanding to accomplish the goal and implement the recommended activities. The overall scientific assessment reveals that the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem continues to suffer from extensive degradation, and action is necessary to develop a healthy, resilient, and sustainable Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. The six groups also were tasked with outlining the necessary monitoring, modeling, and research needs to aid in achieving the goals. Recognizing that (1) the scientific needs (monitoring, modeling, and research) overlap among many of the goals, and (2) an overarching scientific framework could be developed to implement the necessary science in support of the Strategy, a seventh group was created with several members from each of the original six working groups. This seventh group compiled all of the cross-cutting monitoring, modeling, and research needs previously identified by the individual groups. These scientific requirements are found in Chapter 5 of this document. The seventh group also has developed a Science Plan, outlined in Chapter 6. The Science Plan provides the basic science infrastructure to support the overall Gulf restoration program and Strategy. The Science Plan allows for the development of an iterative and flexible approach to adaptive management and decision-making related to restoration projects based on sound science that includes monitoring, modeling, and research. Taken in its entirety, this document helps to articulate the current state of the system and the critical science needs to support effective restoration of the Gulf of Mexico resources that have been trending towards decline for decades.

Differential Arc expression in the hippocampus and striatum during the transition from attentive to automatic navigation on a plus maze

PubMed Central

Gardner, Robert S.; Suarez, Daniel F.; Robinson-Burton, Nadira K.; Rudnicky, Christopher J.; Gulati, Asish; Ascoli, Giorgio A.; Dumas, Theodore C.

2016-01-01

The strategies utilized to effectively perform a given task change with practice and experience. During a spatial navigation task, with relatively little training, performance is typically attentive enabling an individual to locate the position of a goal by relying on spatial landmarks. These (place) strategies require an intact hippocampus. With task repetition, performance becomes automatic; the same goal is reached using a fixed response or sequence of actions. These (response) strategies require an intact striatum. The current work aims to understand the activation patterns across these neural structures during this experience-dependent strategy transition. This was accomplished by region-specific measurement of activity-dependent immediate early gene expression among rats trained to different degrees on a dual-solution task (i.e., a task that can be solved using either place or response navigation). As expected, rats increased their reliance on response navigation with extended task experience. In addition, dorsal hippocampal expression of the immediate early gene Arc was considerably reduced in rats that used a response strategy late in training (as compared with hippocampal expression in rats that used a place strategy early in training). In line with these data, vicarious trial and error, a behavior linked to hippocampal function, also decreased with task repetition. Although Arc mRNA expression in dorsal medial or lateral striatum alone did not correlate with training stage, the ratio of expression in the medial striatum to that in the lateral striatum was relatively high among rats that used a place strategy early in training as compared with the ratio among over-trained response rats. Altogether, these results identify specific changes in the activation of dissociated neural systems that may underlie the experience-dependent emergence of response-based automatic navigation. PMID:26976088

Workplace assessments and functional capacity evaluations: current beliefs of therapists in Australia.

PubMed

Innes, Ev; Straker, Leon

2003-01-01

The purpose of this study was to understand the current beliefs of therapists in Australia, and the strategies they use to address the issues of credibility, reliability, consistency, trustworthiness, validity, generalisability and quality in conducting work-related assessments. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 occupational therapists and physiotherapists from around Australia. Participants expressed the belief that the therapist was the assessment instrument and was central to the credibility of an assessment. Conflict was reported when participants modified standardised assessments in an attempt to focus on context relevant activities and tasks. Participants were aware of the issues of reliability and validity but believed it was not practical to establish these aspects formally in most work-related assessments. The strategies used to achieve credibility, reliability, consistency, trustworthiness, validity, generalisability and quality were similar to those recommended for use in qualitative research. The strategies identified in this study can provide the basis for therapists to examine how they conduct work-related assessments and consider whether they currently use these strategies or have the opportunity to implement others.

Simultaneous Deployment and Tracking Multi-Robot Strategies with Connectivity Maintenance

PubMed Central

Tardós, Javier; Aragues, Rosario; Sagüés, Carlos; Rubio, Carlos

2018-01-01

Multi-robot teams composed of ground and aerial vehicles have gained attention during the last few years. We present a scenario where both types of robots must monitor the same area from different view points. In this paper, we propose two Lloyd-based tracking strategies to allow the ground robots (agents) to follow the aerial ones (targets), keeping the connectivity between the agents. The first strategy establishes density functions on the environment so that the targets acquire more importance than other zones, while the second one iteratively modifies the virtual limits of the working area depending on the positions of the targets. We consider the connectivity maintenance due to the fact that coverage tasks tend to spread the agents as much as possible, which is addressed by restricting their motions so that they keep the links of a minimum spanning tree of the communication graph. We provide a thorough parametric study of the performance of the proposed strategies under several simulated scenarios. In addition, the methods are implemented and tested using realistic robotic simulation environments and real experiments. PMID:29558446

[Quality Management for Surgeons: The Knowledge of Basic Contexts and Innovative Strategies Promotes the Competitiveness of Clinical Department].

PubMed

Hellmann, Wolfgang

2017-12-01

Efficient quality management aiming to achieve high quality in patient care is crucial to the success of a surgery department. This requires the knowledge of relevant terms und contexts of quality management. Implementation remains difficult in the light of demographic change and skills shortage. If a hospital has an efficient internal quality management in place, this should be used as a supplementary instrument. Otherwise it is the (sole) task of a specialist department to ensure quality for patients, employees, and cooperative partners. This paper provides basic knowledge on quality management, risk management, and quality assurance in the context of relevant medical terms. It demonstrates new ways for implementation on the level of a surgery department, and introduces a new model of quality. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Cognitive impact of social stress and coping strategy throughout development.

PubMed

Snyder, Kevin P; Barry, Mark; Valentino, Rita J

2015-01-01

Stress experience during adolescence has been linked to the development of psychiatric disorders in adulthood, many of which are associated with impairments in prefrontal cortex function. The current study was designed to determine the immediate and enduring effects of repeated social stress on a prefrontal cortex-dependent cognitive task. Early adolescent (P28), mid-adolescent (P42), and adult (P70) rats were exposed to resident-intruder stress for 5 days and tested in an operant strategy-shifting task (OSST) during the following week or several weeks later during adulthood. Engagement of prefrontal cortical neurons during the task was assessed by expression of the immediate early gene, c-fos. Social stress during adolescence had no immediate effects on task performance, but impaired strategy-shifting in adulthood, whereas social stress that occurred during adulthood had no effect. The cognitive impairment produced by adolescent social stress was most pronounced in rats with a passive coping strategy. Notably, strategy-shifting performance was positively correlated with medial prefrontal cortical c-fos in adulthood but not in adolescence, suggesting that the task engages different brain regions in adolescents compared to adults. Adolescent social stress produces a protracted impairment in prefrontal cortex-mediated cognition that is related to coping strategy. This impairment may be selectively expressed in adulthood because prefrontal cortical activity is integral to task performance at this age but not during adolescence.

Integration and demonstration of the STAR-1 radar system with a real time soft copy display

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lumley, P.; Wolters, W.; Buchholz, B.; McKenney, H.; Motyka, R.

1986-07-01

This report describes three basic tasks. The first task is the definition and implementation of a real-time softcopy display to be used with STAR-1 real-time synthetic aperture radar system. The second task was the all-up system demonstration of the STAR-1, together with the real-time softcopy display. The third task is a data collection for targets of Army interest using the STAR-1 in conjunction with the softcopy display defined and implemented in the first task.

Technical basis, supporting information, and strategy for development and implementation of DOE policy for natural phenomena hazards

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

Murray, R.C.

1991-09-01

Policy for addressing natural phenomenon comprises a hierarchy of interrelated documents. The top level of policy is contained in the code of Federal Regulations which establishes the framework and intent to ensure overall safety of DOE facilities when subjected to the effects of natural phenomena. The natural phenomena to be considered include earthquakes and tsunami, winds, hurricanes and tornadoes, floods, volcano effects and seiches. Natural phenomena criteria have been established for design of new facilities; evaluation of existing facilities; additions, modifications, and upgrades to existing facilities; and evaluation criteria for new or existing sites. Steps needed to implement these fourmore » general criteria are described. The intent of these criteria is to identify WHAT needs to be done to ensure adequate protection from natural phenomena. The commentary provides discussion of WHY this is needed for DOE facilities within the complex. Implementing procedures identifying HOW to carry out these criteria are next identified. Finally, short and long term tasks needed to identify the implementing procedure are tabulated. There is an overall need for consistency throughout the DOE complex related to natural phenomena including consistent terminology, policy, and implementation. 1 fig, 6 tabs.« less

Strategy generalization across orientation tasks: testing a computational cognitive model.

PubMed

Gunzelmann, Glenn

2008-07-08

Humans use their spatial information processing abilities flexibly to facilitate problem solving and decision making in a variety of tasks. This article explores the question of whether a general strategy can be adapted for performing two different spatial orientation tasks by testing the predictions of a computational cognitive model. Human performance was measured on an orientation task requiring participants to identify the location of a target either on a map (find-on-map) or within an egocentric view of a space (find-in-scene). A general strategy instantiated in a computational cognitive model of the find-on-map task, based on the results from Gunzelmann and Anderson (2006), was adapted to perform both tasks and used to generate performance predictions for a new study. The qualitative fit of the model to the human data supports the view that participants were able to tailor a general strategy to the requirements of particular spatial tasks. The quantitative differences between the predictions of the model and the performance of human participants in the new experiment expose individual differences in sample populations. The model provides a means of accounting for those differences and a framework for understanding how human spatial abilities are applied to naturalistic spatial tasks that involve reasoning with maps. 2008 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Alzheimer's aggression: influences on caregiver coping and resilience.

PubMed

Wilks, Scott E; Little, Kristina G; Gough, Heather R; Spurlock, Wanda J

2011-04-01

This study assessed impact of Alzheimer's patients' aggressive behavior (AD aggression) on caregiver coping strategies (task-, emotion-, and avoidance-focused) and caregiver resilience, and examined whether coping strategy moderated the AD aggression-caregiver resilience relationship. Informal caregivers across Louisiana (N = 419) completed surveys with measures of demographics, AD aggression, caregiver coping strategies, and caregiver resilience. Task-focused coping positively related to resilience. Aggression negatively predicted caregiver resilience. Emotion- and avoidance-focused coping strategies separately interacted with aggression and increased its negative relationship to caregiver resilience. Task-focused coping showed no moderation. Implications for social work professionals are discussed.

How do People Solve the “Weather Prediction” Task?: Individual Variability in Strategies for Probabilistic Category Learning

PubMed Central

Gluck, Mark A.; Shohamy, Daphna; Myers, Catherine

2002-01-01

Probabilistic category learning is often assumed to be an incrementally learned cognitive skill, dependent on nondeclarative memory systems. One paradigm in particular, the weather prediction task, has been used in over half a dozen neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies to date. Because of the growing interest in using this task and others like it as behavioral tools for studying the cognitive neuroscience of cognitive skill learning, it becomes especially important to understand how subjects solve this kind of task and whether all subjects learn it in the same way. We present here new experimental and theoretical analyses of the weather prediction task that indicate that there are at least three different strategies that describe how subjects learn this task. (1) An optimal multi-cue strategy, in which they respond to each pattern on the basis of associations of all four cues with each outcome; (2) a one-cue strategy, in which they respond on the basis of presence or absence of a single cue, disregarding all other cues; or (3) a singleton strategy, in which they learn only about the four patterns that have only one cue present and all others absent. This variability in how subjects approach this task may have important implications for interpreting how different brain regions are involved in probabilistic category learning. PMID:12464701

The effects of task difficulty on visual search strategy in virtual 3D displays.

PubMed

Pomplun, Marc; Garaas, Tyler W; Carrasco, Marisa

2013-08-28

Analyzing the factors that determine our choice of visual search strategy may shed light on visual behavior in everyday situations. Previous results suggest that increasing task difficulty leads to more systematic search paths. Here we analyze observers' eye movements in an "easy" conjunction search task and a "difficult" shape search task to study visual search strategies in stereoscopic search displays with virtual depth induced by binocular disparity. Standard eye-movement variables, such as fixation duration and initial saccade latency, as well as new measures proposed here, such as saccadic step size, relative saccadic selectivity, and x-y target distance, revealed systematic effects on search dynamics in the horizontal-vertical plane throughout the search process. We found that in the "easy" task, observers start with the processing of display items in the display center immediately after stimulus onset and subsequently move their gaze outwards, guided by extrafoveally perceived stimulus color. In contrast, the "difficult" task induced an initial gaze shift to the upper-left display corner, followed by a systematic left-right and top-down search process. The only consistent depth effect was a trend of initial saccades in the easy task with smallest displays to the items closest to the observer. The results demonstrate the utility of eye-movement analysis for understanding search strategies and provide a first step toward studying search strategies in actual 3D scenarios.

Contribution of strategy use to performance on complex and simple span tasks.

PubMed

Bailey, Heather; Dunlosky, John; Kane, Michael J

2011-04-01

Simple and complex span tasks are widely thought to measure related but separable memory constructs. Recently, however, research has demonstrated that simple and complex span tasks may tap, in part, the same construct because both similarly predict performance on measures of fluid intelligence (Gf) when the number of items retrieved from secondary memory (SM) is equated (Unsworth & Engle, Journal of Memory and Language 54:68-80 2006). Two studies (n = 105 and n = 152) evaluated whether retrieval from SM is influenced by individual differences in the use of encoding strategies during span tasks. Results demonstrated that, after equating the number of items retrieved from SM, simple and complex span performance similarly predicted Gf performance, but rates of effective strategy use did not mediate the span-Gf relationships. Moreover, at the level of individual differences, effective strategy use was more highly related to complex span performance than to simple span performance. Thus, even though individual differences in effective strategy use influenced span performance on trials that required retrieval from SM, strategic behavior at encoding cannot account for the similarities between simple and complex span tasks.

Exploration of task performance tests in a physics laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Dan; El Turkey, Houssein

2017-11-01

In this article, we investigate the implementation of task performance tests in an undergraduate physics laboratory. Two performance tests were carried out over two semesters using the task of building a DC circuit. The first implementation in Spring 2014 had certain concerns such as the privacy of students’ testing and their ‘trial and error’ attempts. These concerns were addressed in Fall 2015 through implementing a second performance test. The second implementation was administered differently but the content of the two tests was the same. We discuss the validity of both implementations and present the correlation (or lack of) between the time that students needed to complete the tests and their grades from a paper-based laboratory assessment method.

An instrumented glove for grasp specification in virtual-reality-based point-and-direct telerobotics.

PubMed

Yun, M H; Cannon, D; Freivalds, A; Thomas, G

1997-10-01

Hand posture and force, which define aspects of the way an object is grasped, are features of robotic manipulation. A means for specifying these grasping "flavors" has been developed that uses an instrumented glove equipped with joint and force sensors. The new grasp specification system will be used at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in a Virtual Reality based Point-and-Direct (VR-PAD) robotics implementation. Here, an operator gives directives to a robot in the same natural way that human may direct another. Phrases such as "put that there" cause the robot to define a grasping strategy and motion strategy to complete the task on its own. In the VR-PAD concept, pointing is done using virtual tools such that an operator can appear to graphically grasp real items in live video. Rather than requiring full duplication of forces and kinesthetic movement throughout a task as is required in manual telemanipulation, hand posture and force are now specified only once. The grasp parameters then become object flavors. The robot maintains the specified force and hand posture flavors for an object throughout the task in handling the real workpiece or item of interest. In the Computer integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Laboratory at Penn State, hand posture and force data were collected for manipulating bricks and other items that require varying amounts of force at multiple pressure points. The feasibility of measuring desired grasp characteristics was demonstrated for a modified Cyberglove impregnated with Force-Sensitive Resistor (FSR) (pressure sensors in the fingertips. A joint/force model relating the parameters of finger articulation and pressure to various lifting tasks was validated for the instrumented "wired" glove. Operators using such a modified glove may ultimately be able to configure robot grasping tasks in environments involving hazardous waste remediation, flexible manufacturing, space operations and other flexible robotics applications. In each case, the VR-PAD approach will finesse the computational and delay problems of real-time multiple-degree-of-freedom force feedback telemanipulation.

Informed peg-in-hole insertion using optical sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paulos, Eric; Canny, John F.

1993-08-01

Peg-in-hole insertion is not only a longstanding problem in robotics but the most common automated mechanical assembly task. In this paper we present a high precision, self-calibrating peg-in-hole insertion strategy using several very simple, inexpensive, and accurate optical sensors. The self-calibrating feature allows us to achieve successful dead-reckoning insertions with tolerances of 25 microns without any accurate initial position information for the robot, pegs, or holes. The program we implemented works for any cylindrical peg, and the sensing steps do not depend on the peg diameter, which the program does not know. The key to the strategy is the use of a fixed sensor to localize both a mobile sensor and the peg, while the mobile sensor localizes the hole. Our strategy is extremely fast, localizing pegs as they are in route to their insertion location without pausing. The result is that insertion times are dominated by the transport time between pick and place operations.

Load Balancing Strategies for Multiphase Flows on Structured Grids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olshefski, Kristopher; Owkes, Mark

2017-11-01

The computation time required to perform large simulations of complex systems is currently one of the leading bottlenecks of computational research. Parallelization allows multiple processing cores to perform calculations simultaneously and reduces computational times. However, load imbalances between processors waste computing resources as processors wait for others to complete imbalanced tasks. In multiphase flows, these imbalances arise due to the additional computational effort required at the gas-liquid interface. However, many current load balancing schemes are only designed for unstructured grid applications. The purpose of this research is to develop a load balancing strategy while maintaining the simplicity of a structured grid. Several approaches are investigated including brute force oversubscription, node oversubscription through Message Passing Interface (MPI) commands, and shared memory load balancing using OpenMP. Each of these strategies are tested with a simple one-dimensional model prior to implementation into the three-dimensional NGA code. Current results show load balancing will reduce computational time by at least 30%.

Quorum Sensing and the Use of Quorum Quenchers as Natural Biocides to Inhibit Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria.

PubMed

Scarascia, Giantommaso; Wang, Tiannyu; Hong, Pei-Ying

2016-12-15

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are one of the main protagonist groups of biocorrosion in the seawater environment. Given their principal role in biocorrosion, it remains a crucial task to develop strategies to reduce the abundance of SRBs. Conventional approaches include the use of biocides and antibiotics, which can impose health, safety, and environmental concerns. This review examines an alternative approach to this problem. This is achieved by reviewing the role of quorum sensing (QS) in SRB populations and its impact on the biofilm formation process. Genome databases of SRBs are mined to look for putative QS systems and homologous protein sequences representative of autoinducer receptors or synthases. Subsequently, this review puts forward the potential use of quorum quenchers as natural biocides against SRBs and outlines the potential strategies for the implementation of this approach.

Practical experience with graphical user interfaces and object-oriented design in the clinical laboratory.

PubMed

Wells, I G; Cartwright, R Y; Farnan, L P

1993-12-15

The computing strategy in our laboratories evolved from research in Artificial Intelligence, and is based on powerful software tools running on high performance desktop computers with a graphical user interface. This allows most tasks to be regarded as design problems rather than implementation projects, and both rapid prototyping and an object-oriented approach to be employed during the in-house development and enhancement of the laboratory information systems. The practical application of this strategy is discussed, with particular reference to the system designer, the laboratory user and the laboratory customer. Routine operation covers five departments, and the systems are stable, flexible and well accepted by the users. Client-server computing, currently undergoing final trials, is seen as the key to further development, and this approach to Pathology computing has considerable potential for the future.

Maternal mortality in developing countries: challenges in scaling-up priority interventions.

PubMed

Prata, Ndola; Passano, Paige; Sreenivas, Amita; Gerdts, Caitlin Elisabeth

2010-03-01

Although maternal mortality is a significant global health issue, achievements in mortality decline to date have been inadequate. A review of the interventions targeted at maternal mortality reduction demonstrates that most developing countries face tremendous challenges in the implementation of these interventions, including the availability of unreliable data and the shortage in human and financial resources, as well as limited political commitment. Examples from developing countries, such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Honduras, demonstrate that maternal mortality will decline when appropriate strategies are in place. Such achievable strategies need to include redoubled commitments on the part of local, national and global political bodies, concrete investments in high-yield and cost-effective interventions and the delegation of some clinical tasks from higher-level healthcare providers to mid- or lower-level healthcare providers, as well as improved health-management information systems.

Reading as Active Sensing: A Computational Model of Gaze Planning in Word Recognition

PubMed Central

Ferro, Marcello; Ognibene, Dimitri; Pezzulo, Giovanni; Pirrelli, Vito

2010-01-01

We offer a computational model of gaze planning during reading that consists of two main components: a lexical representation network, acquiring lexical representations from input texts (a subset of the Italian CHILDES database), and a gaze planner, designed to recognize written words by mapping strings of characters onto lexical representations. The model implements an active sensing strategy that selects which characters of the input string are to be fixated, depending on the predictions dynamically made by the lexical representation network. We analyze the developmental trajectory of the system in performing the word recognition task as a function of both increasing lexical competence, and correspondingly increasing lexical prediction ability. We conclude by discussing how our approach can be scaled up in the context of an active sensing strategy applied to a robotic setting. PMID:20577589

Reading as active sensing: a computational model of gaze planning in word recognition.

PubMed

Ferro, Marcello; Ognibene, Dimitri; Pezzulo, Giovanni; Pirrelli, Vito

2010-01-01

WE OFFER A COMPUTATIONAL MODEL OF GAZE PLANNING DURING READING THAT CONSISTS OF TWO MAIN COMPONENTS: a lexical representation network, acquiring lexical representations from input texts (a subset of the Italian CHILDES database), and a gaze planner, designed to recognize written words by mapping strings of characters onto lexical representations. The model implements an active sensing strategy that selects which characters of the input string are to be fixated, depending on the predictions dynamically made by the lexical representation network. We analyze the developmental trajectory of the system in performing the word recognition task as a function of both increasing lexical competence, and correspondingly increasing lexical prediction ability. We conclude by discussing how our approach can be scaled up in the context of an active sensing strategy applied to a robotic setting.

Similar Task Features Shape Judgment and Categorization Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffmann, Janina A.; von Helversen, Bettina; Rieskamp, Jörg

2016-01-01

The distinction between similarity-based and rule-based strategies has instigated a large body of research in categorization and judgment. Within both domains, the task characteristics guiding strategy shifts are increasingly well documented. Across domains, past research has observed shifts from rule-based strategies in judgment to…

HIV policy and implementation: a national policy review and an implementation case study of a rural area of northern Malawi.

PubMed

Dasgupta, Aisha N Z; Wringe, Alison; Crampin, Amelia C; Chisambo, Christina; Koole, Olivier; Makombe, Simon; Sungani, Charles; Todd, Jim; Church, Kathryn

2016-09-01

Malawi is a global leader in the design and implementation of progressive HIV policies. However, there continues to be substantial attrition of people living with HIV across the "cascade" of HIV services from diagnosis to treatment, and program outcomes could improve further. Ability to successfully implement national HIV policy, especially in rural areas, may have an impact on consistency of service uptake. We reviewed Malawian policies and guidelines published between 2003 and 2013 relating to accessibility of adult HIV testing, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and HIV care and treatment services using a policy extraction tool, with gaps completed through key informant interviews. A health facility survey was conducted in six facilities serving the population of a demographic surveillance site in rural northern Malawi to investigate service-level policy implementation. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Policy implementation was assessed by comparing policy content and facility practice using pre-defined indicators covering service access: quality of care, service coordination and patient tracking, patient support, and medical management. ART was rolled out in Malawi in 2004 and became available in the study area in 2005. In most areas, practices in the surveyed health facilities complied with or exceeded national policy, including those designed to promote rapid initiation onto treatment, such as free services and task-shifting for treatment initiation. However, policy and/or practice were/was lacking in certain areas, in particular those strategies to promote retention in HIV care (e.g., adherence monitoring and home-based care). In some instances, though, facilities implemented alternative progressive practices aimed at improving quality of care and encouraging adherence. While Malawi has formulated a range of progressive policies aiming to promote rapid initiation onto ART, increased investment in policy implementation strategies and quality service delivery, in particular to promote long-term retention on treatment may improve outcomes further.

Design requirements for SRB production control system. Volume 4: Implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The implementation plan which is presented was developed to provide the means for the successful implementation of the automated production control system. There are three factors which the implementation plan encompasses: detailed planning; phased implementation; and user involvement. The plan is detailed to the task level in terms of necessary activities as the system is developed, refined, installed, and tested. These tasks are scheduled, on a preliminary basis, over a two-and-one-half-year time frame.

Performance as a function of ability, resources invested, and strategy used.

PubMed

Botella, Juan; Peña, Daniel; Contreras, María José; Shih, Pei-Chun; Santacreu, José

2009-01-01

Computerized tasks allow a more fine-grained analysis of the strategy deployed in a task designed to map a specific ability than the usual assessment on the basis of only the level of performance. Manipulations expected to impair performance sometimes do not have that effect, probably because the level of performance alone can confound the assessment of the ability level if researchers ignore the strategy used. In a study with 1,872 participants, the authors applied the Spatial Orientation Dynamic Test-Revised (J. Santacreu, 1999) in single and dual task settings, identifying 3 different strategies. Strategy shifts were associated with the level of performance, as more apt individuals were more likely to shift to better strategies. Ignoring the strategies yields counterintuitive results that cannot be explained by simple, direct relations among the constructs involved.

Toward a Learning Science for Complex Crowdsourcing Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doroudi, Shayan; Kamar, Ece; Brunskill, Emma; Horvitz, Eric

2016-01-01

We explore how crowdworkers can be trained to tackle complex crowdsourcing tasks. We are particularly interested in training novice workers to perform well on solving tasks in situations where the space of strategies is large and workers need to discover and try different strategies to be successful. In a first experiment, we perform a comparison…

Classes in the Balance: Latent Class Analysis and the Balance Scale Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boom, Jan; ter Laak, Jan

2007-01-01

Latent class analysis (LCA) has been successfully applied to tasks measuring higher cognitive functioning, suggesting the existence of distinct strategies used in such tasks. With LCA it became possible to classify post hoc. This important step forward in modeling and analyzing cognitive strategies is relevant to the overlapping waves model for…

Strategy Generalization across Orientation Tasks: Testing a Computational Cognitive Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunzelmann, Glenn

2008-01-01

Humans use their spatial information processing abilities flexibly to facilitate problem solving and decision making in a variety of tasks. This article explores the question of whether a general strategy can be adapted for performing two different spatial orientation tasks by testing the predictions of a computational cognitive model. Human…

Design of Computer-aided Instruction for Radiology Interpretation: The Role of Cognitive Task Analysis

PubMed Central

Pusic, Martin V.; LeBlanc, Vicki; Patel, Vimla L.

2001-01-01

Traditional task analysis for instructional design has emphasized the importance of precisely defining behavioral educational objectives and working back to select objective-appropriate instructional strategies. However, this approach may miss effective strategies. Cognitive task analysis, on the other hand, breaks a process down into its component knowledge representations. Selection of instructional strategies based on all such representations in a domain is likely to lead to optimal instructional design. In this demonstration, using the interpretation of cervical spine x-rays as an educational example, we show how a detailed cognitive task analysis can guide the development of computer-aided instruction.

Global models: Robot sensing, control, and sensory-motor skills

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schenker, Paul S.

1989-01-01

Robotics research has begun to address the modeling and implementation of a wide variety of unstructured tasks. Examples include automated navigation, platform servicing, custom fabrication and repair, deployment and recovery, and science exploration. Such tasks are poorly described at onset; the workspace layout is partially unfamiliar, and the task control sequence is only qualitatively characterized. The robot must model the workspace, plan detailed physical actions from qualitative goals, and adapt its instantaneous control regimes to unpredicted events. Developing robust representations and computational approaches for these sensing, planning, and control functions is a major challenge. The underlying domain constraints are very general, and seem to offer little guidance for well-bounded approximation of object shape and motion, manipulation postures and trajectories, and the like. This generalized modeling problem is discussed, with an emphasis on the role of sensing. It is also discussed that unstructured tasks often have, in fact, a high degree of underlying physical symmetry, and such implicit knowledge should be drawn on to model task performance strategies in a methodological fashion. A group-theoretic decomposition of the workspace organization, task goals, and their admissible interactions are proposed. This group-mechanical approach to task representation helps to clarify the functional interplay of perception and control, in essence, describing what perception is specifically for, versus how it is generically modeled. One also gains insight how perception might logically evolve in response to needs of more complex motor skills. It is discussed why, of the many solutions that are often mathematically admissible to a given sensory motor-coordination problem, one may be preferred over others.

Critical features of peer assessment of clinical performance to enhance adherence to a low back pain guideline for physical therapists: a mixed methods design.

PubMed

Maas, Marjo J M; van Dulmen, Simone A; Sagasser, Margaretha H; Heerkens, Yvonne F; van der Vleuten, Cees P M; Nijhuis-van der Sanden, Maria W G; van der Wees, Philip J

2015-11-12

Clinical practice guidelines are intended to improve the process and outcomes of patient care. However, their implementation remains a challenge. We designed an implementation strategy, based on peer assessment (PA) focusing on barriers to change in physical therapy care. A previously published randomized controlled trial showed that PA was more effective than the usual strategy "case discussion" in improving adherence to a low back pain guideline. Peer assessment aims to enhance knowledge, communication, and hands-on clinical skills consistent with guideline recommendations. Participants observed and evaluated clinical performance on the spot in a role-play simulating clinical practice. Participants performed three roles: physical therapist, assessor, and patient. This study explored the critical features of the PA program that contributed to improved guideline adherence in the perception of participants. Dutch physical therapists working in primary care (n = 49) organized in communities of practice (n = 6) participated in the PA program. By unpacking the program we identified three main tasks and eleven subtasks. After the program was finished, a questionnaire was administered in which participants were asked to rank the program tasks from high to low learning value and to describe their impact on performance improvement. Overall ranking results were calculated. Additional semi-structured interviews were conducted to elaborate on the questionnaires results and were transcribed verbatim. Questionnaires comments and interview transcripts were analyzed using template analysis. Program tasks related to performance in the therapist role were perceived to have the highest impact on learning, although task perceptions varied from challenging to threatening. Perceptions were affected by the role-play format and the time schedule. Learning outcomes were awareness of performance, improved attitudes towards the guideline, and increased self-efficacy beliefs in managing patients with low back pain. Learning was facilitated by psychological safety and the quality of feedback. The effectiveness of PA can be attributed to the structured and performance-based design of the program. Participants showed a strong cognitive and emotional commitment to performing the physical therapist role. That might have contributed to an increased awareness of strength and weakness in clinical performance and a motivation to change routine practice.

Imaging Tasks Scheduling for High-Altitude Airship in Emergency Condition Based on Energy-Aware Strategy

PubMed Central

Zhimeng, Li; Chuan, He; Dishan, Qiu; Jin, Liu; Manhao, Ma

2013-01-01

Aiming to the imaging tasks scheduling problem on high-altitude airship in emergency condition, the programming models are constructed by analyzing the main constraints, which take the maximum task benefit and the minimum energy consumption as two optimization objectives. Firstly, the hierarchy architecture is adopted to convert this scheduling problem into three subproblems, that is, the task ranking, value task detecting, and energy conservation optimization. Then, the algorithms are designed for the sub-problems, and the solving results are corresponding to feasible solution, efficient solution, and optimization solution of original problem, respectively. This paper makes detailed introduction to the energy-aware optimization strategy, which can rationally adjust airship's cruising speed based on the distribution of task's deadline, so as to decrease the total energy consumption caused by cruising activities. Finally, the application results and comparison analysis show that the proposed strategy and algorithm are effective and feasible. PMID:23864822

Beyond "implementation strategies": classifying the full range of strategies used in implementation science and practice.

PubMed

Leeman, Jennifer; Birken, Sarah A; Powell, Byron J; Rohweder, Catherine; Shea, Christopher M

2017-11-03

Strategies are central to the National Institutes of Health's definition of implementation research as "the study of strategies to integrate evidence-based interventions into specific settings." Multiple scholars have proposed lists of the strategies used in implementation research and practice, which they increasingly are classifying under the single term "implementation strategies." We contend that classifying all strategies under a single term leads to confusion, impedes synthesis across studies, and limits advancement of the full range of strategies of importance to implementation. To address this concern, we offer a system for classifying implementation strategies that builds on Proctor and colleagues' (2013) reporting guidelines, which recommend that authors not only name and define their implementation strategies but also specify who enacted the strategy (i.e., the actor) and the level and determinants that were targeted (i.e., the action targets). We build on Wandersman and colleagues' Interactive Systems Framework to distinguish strategies based on whether they are enacted by actors functioning as part of a Delivery, Support, or Synthesis and Translation System. We build on Damschroder and colleague's Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to distinguish the levels that strategies target (intervention, inner setting, outer setting, individual, and process). We then draw on numerous resources to identify determinants, which are conceptualized as modifiable factors that prevent or enable the adoption and implementation of evidence-based interventions. Identifying actors and targets resulted in five conceptually distinct classes of implementation strategies: dissemination, implementation process, integration, capacity-building, and scale-up. In our descriptions of each class, we identify the level of the Interactive System Framework at which the strategy is enacted (actors), level and determinants targeted (action targets), and outcomes used to assess strategy effectiveness. We illustrate how each class would apply to efforts to improve colorectal cancer screening rates in Federally Qualified Health Centers. Structuring strategies into classes will aid reporting of implementation research findings, alignment of strategies with relevant theories, synthesis of findings across studies, and identification of potential gaps in current strategy listings. Organizing strategies into classes also will assist users in locating the strategies that best match their needs.

Good governance for nutrition in the Philippines: elements, experiences, and lessons learned.

PubMed

Solon, Florentino S

2006-12-01

Malnutrition is a multifactorial problem that needs a multisectoral solution. This article reviews the role of good governance in nutrition programs, citing the Philippines as an example. In the Philippines, these efforts are reflected in the partnership between the public and private sectors in the establishment of the country's capability in research, policy-making, and program implementation. The establishment of the different public institutions engaged in research and policy-making is discussed, highlighting the role of political will through legislation. The evolving tasks of the nutrition program are discussed by citing the tasks in two eras. In the 1970s, the challenges were limited national nutrition data, man-power, tools, and health infrastructure. The public and private institutions were able to respond by legislating national nutrition surveys and dedicated nutrition workers in each village. The challenges in the current era are improved implementation of health programs, given the devolution of health services, and the gathering of an evidence base to further strengthen and refine the strategies of supplementation, fortification, breastfeeding, and food security. In responding to these challenges, multisectoral solutions and collaboration are critical in providing an evidence base to formulate policy. The role of the private sector, with the Nutrition Center of the Philippines used as an example, is that of a supportive and collaborative partner in good governance. Finally, the lessons learned from the past decades of implementing a national nutrition program, given changes in political and economic circumstances, are summarized.

The effect of question format and task difficulty on reasoning strategies and diagnostic performance in Internal Medicine residents.

PubMed

Heemskerk, Laura; Norman, Geoff; Chou, Sophia; Mintz, Marcy; Mandin, Henry; McLaughlin, Kevin

2008-11-01

Previous studies have suggested an association between reasoning strategies and diagnostic success, but the influence on this relationship of variables such as question format and task difficulty, has not been studied. Our objective was to study the association between question format, task difficulty, reasoning strategies and diagnostic success. Study participants were 13 Internal Medicine residents at the University of Calgary. Each was given eight problem-solving questions in four clinical presentations and were randomized to groups that differed only in the question format, such that a question presented as short answer (SA) to the first group was presented as extended matching (EM) to the second group. There were equal numbers of SA/EM questions and straightforward/difficult tasks. Participants performed think-aloud during diagnostic reasoning. Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Question format was associated with reasoning strategies; hypothetico-deductive reasoning being used more frequently on EM questions and scheme-inductive reasoning on SA questions. For SA question, non-analytic reasoning alone was used more frequently to answer straightforward cases than difficult cases, whereas for EM questions no such association was observed. EM format and straightforward task increased the odds of diagnostic success, whereas hypothetico-deductive reasoning was associated with reduced odds of success. Question format and task difficulty both influence diagnostic reasoning strategies and studies that examine the effect of reasoning strategies on diagnostic success should control for these effects. Further studies are needed to investigate the effect of reasoning strategies on performance of different groups of learners.

Strategies to promote infection prevention and control in acute care hospitals with the help of infection control link nurses: A systematic literature review.

PubMed

Peter, Daniel; Meng, Michael; Kugler, Christiane; Mattner, Frauke

2018-02-01

Infection control link nurses (ICLNs) are important backup personnel for the prevention and control of infections in hospitals. To identify facilitators and barriers for the implementation of and long-term collaboration with ICLNs. We conducted a systematic literature review, following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. Inclusion criteria were defined as description of de novo implementation of an ICLN system, strengthening of an existing ICLN system, or analysis of an ICLN system. In 10 publications, facilitators and barriers were identified for mode of selection of ICLN candidates, characteristics and responsibilities of ICLNs, composition of a training curriculum, educational strategies, and external influencing factors. Experienced nurses with an interest in infection control seemed appropriate candidates. The importance of psychological skills in addition to technical knowledge was emphasized. A clear definition of responsibilities was important. Viable tasks for ICLNs included surveillance and teaching activities and the implementation of prevention measures. Ongoing teaching was superior to a single course. Management support was pivotal for success. Research on ICLNs is scarce. The potential to decrease health care-associated infections with the help of ICLNs has been demonstrated. The training in psychological skills in addition to technical knowledge deserves more attention. Copyright © 2018 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hippocampal activation and memory performance in schizophrenia depend on strategy use in a virtual maze.

PubMed

Wilkins, Leanne K; Girard, Todd A; Herdman, Katherine A; Christensen, Bruce K; King, Jelena; Kiang, Michael; Bohbot, Veronique D

2017-10-30

Different strategies may be spontaneously adopted to solve most navigation tasks. These strategies are associated with dissociable brain systems. Here, we use brain-imaging and cognitive tasks to test the hypothesis that individuals living with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD) have selective impairment using a hippocampal-dependent spatial navigation strategy. Brain activation and memory performance were examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during the 4-on-8 virtual maze (4/8VM) task, a human analog of the rodent radial-arm maze that is amenable to both response-based (egocentric or landmark-based) and spatial (allocentric, cognitive mapping) strategies to remember and navigate to target objects. SSD (schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder) participants who adopted a spatial strategy performed more poorly on the 4/8VM task and had less hippocampal activation than healthy comparison participants using either strategy as well as SSD participants using a response strategy. This study highlights the importance of strategy use in relation to spatial cognitive functioning in SSD. Consistent with a selective-hippocampal dependent deficit in SSD, these results support the further development of protocols to train impaired hippocampal-dependent abilities or harness non-hippocampal dependent intact abilities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Influence of Working Memory Load on Expectancy-Based Strategic Processes in the Stroop-Priming Task.

PubMed

Ortells, Juan J; Álvarez, Dolores; Noguera, Carmen; Carmona, Encarna; de Fockert, Jan W

2017-01-01

The present study investigated whether a differential availability of cognitive control resources as a result of varying working memory (WM) load could affect the capacity for expectancy-based strategic actions. Participants performed a Stroop-priming task in which a prime word (GREEN or RED) was followed by a colored target (red vs. green) that participants had to identify. The prime was incongruent or congruent with the target color on 80 and 20% of the trials, respectively, and participants were informed about the differential proportion of congruent vs. incongruent trials. This task was interleaved with a WM task, such that the prime word was preceded by a sequence of either a same digit repeated five times (low load) or five different random digits (high load), which should be retained by participants. After two, three, or four Stroop trials, they had to decide whether or not a probe digit was a part of the memory set. The key finding was a significant interaction between prime-target congruency and WM load: Whereas a strategy-dependent (reversed Stroop) effect was found under low WM load, a standard Stroop interference effect was observed under high WM load. These findings demonstrate that the availability of WM is crucial for implementing expectancy-based strategic actions.

Laboratory and Self-Report Methods to Assess Reappraisal and Distraction in Youth.

PubMed

Bettis, Alexandra H; Henry, Lauren; Prussien, Kemar V; Vreeland, Allison; Smith, Michele; Adery, Laura H; Compas, Bruce E

2018-06-07

Coping and emotion regulation are central features of risk and resilience in childhood and adolescence, but research on these constructs has relied on different methods of assessment. The current study aimed to bridge the gap between questionnaire and experimental methods of measuring secondary control coping strategies, specifically distraction and cognitive reappraisal, and examine associations with symptoms of anxiety and depression in youth. A community sample of 70 youth (ages 9-15) completed a novel experimental coping and emotion regulation paradigm and self-report measures of coping and emotion regulation and symptoms. Findings indicate that use of distraction and reappraisal during the laboratory paradigm was associated with lower levels of negative emotion during the task. Youth emotion ratings while implementing distraction, but not reappraisal, during the laboratory task were associated with youth self-reported use of secondary control coping in response to family stress. Youth symptoms of anxiety and depression were also significantly positively associated with negative emotion ratings during the laboratory task, and both laboratory task and self-reported coping and emotion regulation accounted for significant variance in symptoms in youth. Both questionnaire and laboratory methods to assess coping and emotion regulation in youth are important for understanding these processes as possible mechanisms of risk and resilience and continued integration of these methods is a priority for future research.

"Conversing" in French: The Effect of High-Stakes Environments on Oral Task Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Saint Léger, Diane; Storch, Neomy

2012-01-01

Tasks can vary in terms of difficulty and implementation conditions, and these in turn may affect the nature of the language produced by the learner. There have been a large number of studies which have investigated the effects of these task properties and implementation conditions on the language the learner produces. To date, results have been…

The Relationship between Working Memory Capacity and L2 Oral Performance under Task-Based Careful Online Planning Condition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmadian, Mohammad Javad

2012-01-01

The study reported in this article aimed to investigate the way working memory capacity (WMC) interacts with careful online planning--a task-based implementation variable--to affect second language (L2) speech production. This issue is important to teachers, because it delves into one of the possible task-based implementation variables and thus…

Resource Effective Strategies to Prevent and Treat Cardiovascular Disease

PubMed Central

Schwalm, Jon-David; McKee, Martin; Huffman, Mark D.; Yusuf, Salim

2016-01-01

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of global deaths, with the majority occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The primary and secondary prevention of CVD is suboptimal throughout the world, but the evidence-practice gaps are much more pronounced in LMIC. Barriers at the patient, health-care provider, and health system level prevent the implementation of optimal primary and secondary prevention. Identification of the particular barriers that exist in resource-constrained settings is necessary to inform effective strategies to reduce the identified evidence-practice gaps. Furthermore, targeting modifiable factors that contribute most significantly to the global burden of CVD, including tobacco use, hypertension, and secondary prevention for CVD will lead to the biggest gains in mortality reduction. We review a select number of novel, resource-efficient strategies to reduce premature mortality from CVD, including: (1) effective measures for tobacco control; (2) implementation of simplified screening and management algorithms for those with or at risk of CVD, (3) increasing the availability and affordability of simplified and cost-effective treatment regimens including combination CVD preventive drug therapy, and (4) simplified delivery of health care through task-sharing (non-physician health workers) and optimizing self-management (treatment supporters). Developing and deploying systems of care that address barriers related to the above, will lead to substantial reductions in CVD and related mortality. PMID:26903017

Implementing Elementary School Next Generation Science Standards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kennedy, Katheryn B.

Implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards requires developing elementary teacher content and pedagogical content knowledge of science and engineering concepts. Teacher preparation for this undertaking appears inadequate with little known about how in-service Mid-Atlantic urban elementary science teachers approach this task. The purpose of this basic qualitative interview study was to explore the research questions related to perceived learning needs of 8 elementary science teachers and 5 of their administrators serving as instructional leaders. Strategies needed for professional growth to support learning and barriers that hamper it at both building and district levels were included. These questions were considered through the lens of Schon's reflective learning and Weick's sensemaking theories. Analysis with provisional and open coding strategies identified informal and formal supports and barriers to teachers' learning. Results indicated that informal supports, primarily internet usage, emerged as most valuable to the teachers' learning. Formal structures, including professional learning communities and grade level meetings, arose as both supportive and restrictive at the building and district levels. Existing formal supports emerged as the least useful because of the dominance of other priorities competing for time and resources. Addressing weaknesses within formal supports through more effective planning in professional development can promote positive change. Improvement to professional development approaches using the internet and increased hands on activities can be integrated into formal supports. Explicit attention to these strategies can strengthen teacher effectiveness bringing positive social change.

Encoding Strategies in Primary School Children: Insights from an Eye-Tracking Approach and the Role of Individual Differences in Attentional Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roebers, Claudia M.; Schmid, Corinne; Roderer, Thomas

2010-01-01

The authors explored different aspects of encoding strategy use in primary school children by including (a) an encoding strategy task in which children's encoding strategy use was recorded through a remote eye-tracking device and, later, free recall and recognition for target items was assessed; and (b) tasks measuring resistance to interference…

Designing and Implementing an "Intelligent" Multimedia Tutoring System for Repair Tasks: Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baggett, Patricia

1989-01-01

The first part of this document is the final report of a research project (1984-1989) on designing and implementing an intelligent multimedia tutoring system for repair tasks. The problem/goal and approach, equipment and implementation, experimental work, and results are discussed for three phases of research: (1) developing and testing an…

Heuristic-based information acquisition and decision making among pilots.

PubMed

Wiggins, Mark W; Bollwerk, Sandra

2006-01-01

This research was designed to examine the impact of heuristic-based approaches to the acquisition of task-related information on the selection of an optimal alternative during simulated in-flight decision making. The work integrated features of naturalistic and normative decision making and strategies of information acquisition within a computer-based, decision support framework. The study comprised two phases, the first of which involved familiarizing pilots with three different heuristic-based strategies of information acquisition: frequency, elimination by aspects, and majority of confirming decisions. The second stage enabled participants to choose one of the three strategies of information acquisition to resolve a fourth (choice) scenario. The results indicated that task-oriented experience, rather than the information acquisition strategies, predicted the selection of the optimal alternative. It was also evident that of the three strategies available, the elimination by aspects information acquisition strategy was preferred by most participants. It was concluded that task-oriented experience, rather than the process of information acquisition, predicted task accuracy during the decision-making task. It was also concluded that pilots have a preference for one particular approach to information acquisition. Applications of outcomes of this research include the development of decision support systems that adapt to the information-processing capabilities and preferences of users.

Web-Based Undergraduate Chemistry Problem-Solving: The Interplay of Task Performance, Domain Knowledge and Web-Searching Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

She, Hsiao-Ching; Cheng, Meng-Tzu; Li, Ta-Wei; Wang, Chia-Yu; Chiu, Hsin-Tien; Lee, Pei-Zon; Chou, Wen-Chi; Chuang, Ming-Hua

2012-01-01

This study investigates the effect of Web-based Chemistry Problem-Solving, with the attributes of Web-searching and problem-solving scaffolds, on undergraduate students' problem-solving task performance. In addition, the nature and extent of Web-searching strategies students used and its correlation with task performance and domain knowledge also…

A Task-Content Analysis of an Introductory Entomology Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandenburg, R.

Described is an analysis of the content, tasks, and strategies needed by students to enable them to identify insects to order by sight and to family by use of a standard dichotomous taxonomic key. Tasks and strategies are broken down and arranged progressively in the approximate order in which students should progress. Included are listings of…

Comprehensive Metabolite Identification Strategy Using Multiple Two-Dimensional NMR Spectra of a Complex Mixture Implemented in the COLMARm Web Server

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

Bingol, Kerem; Li, Da-Wei; Zhang, Bo

Identification of metabolites in complex mixtures represents a key step in metabolomics. A new strategy is introduced, which is implemented in a new public web server, COLMARm, that permits the co-analysis of up to three 2D NMR spectra, namely 13C-1H HSQC, 1H-1H TOCSY, and 13C-1H HSQC-TOCSY for the comprehensive, accurate, and efficient performance of this task. The highly versatile and interactive nature of COLMARm permits its application to a wide range of metabolomics samples independent of the magnetic field. Database query is performed using the HSQC spectrum and the top metabolite hits are then validated against the TOCSY-type experiment(s) bymore » superimposing the expected cross-peaks on the mixture spectrum. In this way the user can directly accept or reject candidate metabolites by taking advantage of the complementary spectral information offered by these experiments and their different sensitivities. The power of COLMARm is demonstrated for a human serum sample uncovering the existence of 14 metabolites that hitherto were not identified by NMR.« less

[Social and organizational innovation to tackle the challenge of integrated care of the chronically ill].

PubMed

Nuño-Solinís, Roberto

2014-01-01

The increase in life expectancy, coupled with other factors, has led to an increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases and multiple morbidity. This has led to the need to develop new health and social care models, which will allow managing these efficiently and in a sustainable manner. In particular, there seems to be consensus on the need to move towards integrated, patient-centered, and more proactive care. Thus, in recent years, chronic care models have been developed at international, national and regional level, as well as introducing strategies to tackle the challenge of chronic illness. However, the implementation of actions facilitating the change towards this new model of care does not seem to be an easy task. This paper presents some of the strategic lines and initiatives carried out by the Department of Health of the Basque Government. These actions can be described within a social and organizational innovation framework, as a means for effective implementation of interventions and strategies that shape the model required for the improved care of chronic illnesses within a universal and tax-funded health system. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Task-Driven Orbit Design and Implementation on a Robotic C-Arm System for Cone-Beam CT.

PubMed

Ouadah, S; Jacobson, M; Stayman, J W; Ehtiati, T; Weiss, C; Siewerdsen, J H

2017-03-01

This work applies task-driven optimization to the design of non-circular orbits that maximize imaging performance for a particular imaging task. First implementation of task-driven imaging on a clinical robotic C-arm system is demonstrated, and a framework for orbit calculation is described and evaluated. We implemented a task-driven imaging framework to optimize orbit parameters that maximize detectability index d '. This framework utilizes a specified Fourier domain task function and an analytical model for system spatial resolution and noise. Two experiments were conducted to test the framework. First, a simple task was considered consisting of frequencies lying entirely on the f z -axis (e.g., discrimination of structures oriented parallel to the central axial plane), and a "circle + arc" orbit was incorporated into the framework as a means to improve sampling of these frequencies, and thereby increase task-based detectability. The orbit was implemented on a robotic C-arm (Artis Zeego, Siemens Healthcare). A second task considered visualization of a cochlear implant simulated within a head phantom, with spatial frequency response emphasizing high-frequency content in the ( f y , f z ) plane of the cochlea. An optimal orbit was computed using the task-driven framework, and the resulting image was compared to that for a circular orbit. For the f z -axis task, the circle + arc orbit was shown to increase d ' by a factor of 1.20, with an improvement of 0.71 mm in a 3D edge-spread measurement for edges located far from the central plane and a decrease in streak artifacts compared to a circular orbit. For the cochlear implant task, the resulting orbit favored complementary views of high tilt angles in a 360° orbit, and d ' was increased by a factor of 1.83. This work shows that a prospective definition of imaging task can be used to optimize source-detector orbit and improve imaging performance. The method was implemented for execution of non-circular, task-driven orbits on a clinical robotic C-arm system. The framework is sufficiently general to include both acquisition parameters (e.g., orbit, kV, and mA selection) and reconstruction parameters (e.g., a spatially varying regularizer).

Task-driven orbit design and implementation on a robotic C-arm system for cone-beam CT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ouadah, S.; Jacobson, M.; Stayman, J. W.; Ehtiati, T.; Weiss, C.; Siewerdsen, J. H.

2017-03-01

Purpose: This work applies task-driven optimization to the design of non-circular orbits that maximize imaging performance for a particular imaging task. First implementation of task-driven imaging on a clinical robotic C-arm system is demonstrated, and a framework for orbit calculation is described and evaluated. Methods: We implemented a task-driven imaging framework to optimize orbit parameters that maximize detectability index d'. This framework utilizes a specified Fourier domain task function and an analytical model for system spatial resolution and noise. Two experiments were conducted to test the framework. First, a simple task was considered consisting of frequencies lying entirely on the fz-axis (e.g., discrimination of structures oriented parallel to the central axial plane), and a "circle + arc" orbit was incorporated into the framework as a means to improve sampling of these frequencies, and thereby increase task-based detectability. The orbit was implemented on a robotic C-arm (Artis Zeego, Siemens Healthcare). A second task considered visualization of a cochlear implant simulated within a head phantom, with spatial frequency response emphasizing high-frequency content in the (fy, fz) plane of the cochlea. An optimal orbit was computed using the task-driven framework, and the resulting image was compared to that for a circular orbit. Results: For the fz-axis task, the circle + arc orbit was shown to increase d' by a factor of 1.20, with an improvement of 0.71 mm in a 3D edge-spread measurement for edges located far from the central plane and a decrease in streak artifacts compared to a circular orbit. For the cochlear implant task, the resulting orbit favored complementary views of high tilt angles in a 360° orbit, and d' was increased by a factor of 1.83. Conclusions: This work shows that a prospective definition of imaging task can be used to optimize source-detector orbit and improve imaging performance. The method was implemented for execution of non-circular, task-driven orbits on a clinical robotic C-arm system. The framework is sufficiently general to include both acquisition parameters (e.g., orbit, kV, and mA selection) and reconstruction parameters (e.g., a spatially varying regularizer).

The effects of task difficulty on visual search strategy in virtual 3D displays

PubMed Central

Pomplun, Marc; Garaas, Tyler W.; Carrasco, Marisa

2013-01-01

Analyzing the factors that determine our choice of visual search strategy may shed light on visual behavior in everyday situations. Previous results suggest that increasing task difficulty leads to more systematic search paths. Here we analyze observers' eye movements in an “easy” conjunction search task and a “difficult” shape search task to study visual search strategies in stereoscopic search displays with virtual depth induced by binocular disparity. Standard eye-movement variables, such as fixation duration and initial saccade latency, as well as new measures proposed here, such as saccadic step size, relative saccadic selectivity, and x−y target distance, revealed systematic effects on search dynamics in the horizontal-vertical plane throughout the search process. We found that in the “easy” task, observers start with the processing of display items in the display center immediately after stimulus onset and subsequently move their gaze outwards, guided by extrafoveally perceived stimulus color. In contrast, the “difficult” task induced an initial gaze shift to the upper-left display corner, followed by a systematic left-right and top-down search process. The only consistent depth effect was a trend of initial saccades in the easy task with smallest displays to the items closest to the observer. The results demonstrate the utility of eye-movement analysis for understanding search strategies and provide a first step toward studying search strategies in actual 3D scenarios. PMID:23986539

Acceleration of Semiempirical QM/MM Methods through Message Passage Interface (MPI), Hybrid MPI/Open Multiprocessing, and Self-Consistent Field Accelerator Implementations.

PubMed

Ojeda-May, Pedro; Nam, Kwangho

2017-08-08

The strategy and implementation of scalable and efficient semiempirical (SE) QM/MM methods in CHARMM are described. The serial version of the code was first profiled to identify routines that required parallelization. Afterward, the code was parallelized and accelerated with three approaches. The first approach was the parallelization of the entire QM/MM routines, including the Fock matrix diagonalization routines, using the CHARMM message passage interface (MPI) machinery. In the second approach, two different self-consistent field (SCF) energy convergence accelerators were implemented using density and Fock matrices as targets for their extrapolations in the SCF procedure. In the third approach, the entire QM/MM and MM energy routines were accelerated by implementing the hybrid MPI/open multiprocessing (OpenMP) model in which both the task- and loop-level parallelization strategies were adopted to balance loads between different OpenMP threads. The present implementation was tested on two solvated enzyme systems (including <100 QM atoms) and an S N 2 symmetric reaction in water. The MPI version exceeded existing SE QM methods in CHARMM, which include the SCC-DFTB and SQUANTUM methods, by at least 4-fold. The use of SCF convergence accelerators further accelerated the code by ∼12-35% depending on the size of the QM region and the number of CPU cores used. Although the MPI version displayed good scalability, the performance was diminished for large numbers of MPI processes due to the overhead associated with MPI communications between nodes. This issue was partially overcome by the hybrid MPI/OpenMP approach which displayed a better scalability for a larger number of CPU cores (up to 64 CPUs in the tested systems).

Numerical bias in bounded and unbounded number line tasks.

PubMed

Cohen, Dale J; Blanc-Goldhammer, Daryn

2011-04-01

The number line task is often used to assess children's and adults' underlying representations of integers. Traditional bounded number line tasks, however, have limitations that can lead to misinterpretation. Here we present a new task, an unbounded number line task, that overcomes these limitations. In Experiment 1, we show that adults use a biased proportion estimation strategy to complete the traditional bounded number line task. In Experiment 2, we show that adults use a dead-reckoning integer estimation strategy in our unbounded number line task. Participants revealed a positively accelerating numerical bias in both tasks, but showed scalar variance only in the unbounded number line task. We conclude that the unbounded number line task is a more pure measure of integer representation than the bounded number line task, and using these results, we present a preliminary description of adults' underlying representation of integers.

The relationships between trait anxiety, place recognition memory, and learning strategy.

PubMed

Hawley, Wayne R; Grissom, Elin M; Dohanich, Gary P

2011-01-20

Rodents learn to navigate mazes using various strategies that are governed by specific regions of the brain. The type of strategy used when learning to navigate a spatial environment is moderated by a number of factors including emotional states. Heightened anxiety states, induced by exposure to stressors or administration of anxiogenic agents, have been found to bias male rats toward the use of a striatum-based stimulus-response strategy rather than a hippocampus-based place strategy. However, no study has yet examined the relationship between natural anxiety levels, or trait anxiety, and the type of learning strategy used by rats on a dual-solution task. In the current experiment, levels of inherent anxiety were measured in an open field and compared to performance on two separate cognitive tasks, a Y-maze task that assessed place recognition memory, and a visible platform water maze task that assessed learning strategy. Results indicated that place recognition memory on the Y-maze correlated with the use of place learning strategy on the water maze. Furthermore, lower levels of trait anxiety correlated positively with better place recognition memory and with the preferred use of place learning strategy. Therefore, competency in place memory and bias in place strategy are linked to the levels of inherent anxiety in male rats. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Re-thinking the role of the dorsal striatum in egocentric/response strategy.

PubMed

Botreau, Fanny; Gisquet-Verrier, Pascale

2010-01-01

Rats trained in a dual-solution cross-maze task, which can be solved by place and response strategies, predominantly used a response strategy after extensive training. This paper examines the involvement of the medial and lateral dorsal striatum (mDS and lDS) in the choice of these strategies after partial and extensive training. Our results show that rats with lDS and mDS lesions used mainly a response strategy from the early phase of training. We replicated these unexpected data in rats with lDS lesions and confirmed their tendency to use the response strategy in a modified cross-maze task. When trained in a dual-solution water-maze task, however, control and lesioned rats consistently used a place strategy, demonstrating that lDS and mDS lesioned rats can use a place strategy and that the shift towards a response strategy did not systematically result from extensive training. The present data did not show any clear dissociation between the mDS and lDS in dual solution tasks. They further indicate that the dorsal striatum seems to determine the strategies adopted in a particular context but cannot be considered as a neural support for the response memory system. Accordingly, the role of the lateral and medial part of the dorsal striatum in egocentric/response memory should be reconsidered.

Quantitative analysis of formal caregivers' use of communication strategies while assisting individuals with moderate and severe Alzheimer's disease during oral care.

PubMed

Wilson, Rozanne; Rochon, Elizabeth; Mihailidis, Alex; Leonard, Carol

2013-01-01

This cross-sectional observational study examined formal caregivers' use of task-focused and social communication strategies while assisting individuals with moderate and severe Alzheimer's disease residing in a long-term care facility during a basic activity of daily living: toothbrushing. Thirteen formal caregiver-resident dyads were observed during a total of 78 separate toothbrushing sessions. All caregiver utterances occurring during the task were transcribed and coded for type of communication strategy utilizing a multidimensional observational coding scheme, which was developed a priori. Overall, the majority of residents, irrespective of disease severity, successfully completed toothbrushing with the support of caregiver assistance. Caregivers assisting residents with moderate and severe AD were found to use a variety of communication strategies, with task-focused strategies accounting for the majority of use. For the most part, the communicative strategies employed did not differ across disease severity. However, some differences were identified including the use of one proposition, paraphrased repetition, using the resident's name, and provision of full assistance, with these strategies being used more often when assisting individuals with severe AD. This study adds to the emerging literature supporting the use of specific communication strategies while assisting residents with AD during the completion of daily tasks. From reviewing this study, readers will be able to identify a variety of communication strategies, both task-focused and relational, that formal caregivers utilize while assisting residents with moderate and severe Alzheimer's disease (AD) during a basic activity of daily living. Furthermore, the reader will be able to distinguish between communication strategies that are optimal when assisting individuals with moderate AD as compared to assisting individuals with severe AD. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Children's Strategies for Gathering Information in Three Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Patricia H.; And Others

1986-01-01

A developmental progression in 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children's use of strategies for gathering information was revealed in a study involving partial recall, total recall, and similarity/difference judgments. When subjects chose stimuli for exposure from an array, older children showed more ability to match strategy to task demands. Strategy…

Roles of Working Memory Performance and Instructional Strategy in Complex Cognitive Task Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cevik, V.; Altun, A.

2016-01-01

This study aims to investigate how working memory (WM) performances and instructional strategy choices affect learners' complex cognitive task performance in online environments. Three different e-learning environments were designed based on Merrill's (2006a) model of instructional strategies. The lack of experimental research on his framework is…

Visuospatial Anatomy Comprehension: The Role of Spatial Visualization Ability and Problem-Solving Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Ngan; Mulla, Ali; Nelson, Andrew J.; Wilson, Timothy D.

2014-01-01

The present study explored the problem-solving strategies of high- and low-spatial visualization ability learners on a novel spatial anatomy task to determine whether differences in strategies contribute to differences in task performance. The results of this study provide further insights into the processing commonalities and differences among…

Differential Effects of General Metacognition and Task-Specific Beliefs on Strategy Use and Recall.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weed, Keri; And Others

A self-paced free recall task was employed to assess the effects of motivational and metacognitive influences on active processing and recall. A total of 81 fourth-graders were randomly assigned to one of four instructional conditions: strategy instructions plus process monitoring instructions; strategy instructions only; process monitoring…

International Space Station Medical Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Starkey, Blythe A.

2008-01-01

The goals and objectives of the ISS Medical Project (ISSMP) are to: 1) Maximize the utilization the ISS and other spaceflight platforms to assess the effects of longduration spaceflight on human systems; 2) Devise and verify strategies to ensure optimal crew performance; 3) Enable development and validation of a suite of integrated physical (e.g., exercise), pharmacologic and/or nutritional countermeasures against deleterious effects of space flight that may impact mission success or crew health. The ISSMP provides planning, integration, and implementation services for Human Research Program research tasks and evaluation activities requiring access to space or related flight resources on the ISS, Shuttle, Soyuz, Progress, or other spaceflight vehicles and platforms. This includes pre- and postflight activities; 2) ISSMP services include operations and sustaining engineering for HRP flight hardware; experiment integration and operation, including individual research tasks and on-orbit validation of next generation on-orbit equipment; medical operations; procedures development and validation; and crew training tools and processes, as well as operation and sustaining engineering for the Telescience Support Center; and 3) The ISSMP integrates the HRP approved flight activity complement and interfaces with external implementing organizations, such as the ISS Payloads Office and International Partners, to accomplish the HRP's objectives. This effort is led by JSC with Baseline Data Collection support from KSC.

University students' cognitive performance under temperature cycles induced by direct load control events.

PubMed

Zhang, F; de Dear, R

2017-01-01

As one of the most common strategies for managing peak electricity demand, direct load control (DLC) of air-conditioners involves cycling the compressors on and off at predetermined intervals. In university lecture theaters, the implementation of DLC induces temperature cycles which might compromise university students' learning performance. In these experiments, university students' learning performance, represented by four cognitive skills of memory, concentration, reasoning, and planning, was closely monitored under DLC-induced temperature cycles and control conditions simulated in a climate chamber. In Experiment 1 with a cooling set point temperature of 22°C, subjects' cognitive performance was relatively stable or even slightly promoted by the mild heat intensity and short heat exposure resulting from temperature cycles; in Experiment 2 with a cooling set point of 24°C, subjects' reasoning and planning performance observed a trend of decline at the higher heat intensity and longer heat exposure. Results confirm that simpler cognitive tasks are less susceptible to temperature effects than more complex tasks; the effect of thermal variations on cognitive performance follows an extended-U relationship with performance being relatively stable across a range of temperatures. DLC appears to be feasible in university lecture theaters if DLC algorithms are implemented judiciously. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Access management implementation in Kentucky technical support document and status report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-05-01

This report describes the efforts of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Access Management implementation Task Force. The task force was established in May 2004 and was charged with the responsibility of reviewing and refining the recommendations i...

How lead consultants approach educational change in postgraduate medical education.

PubMed

Fokkema, Joanne P I; Westerman, Michiel; Teunissen, Pim W; van der Lee, Nadine; Scherpbier, Albert J J A; van der Vleuten, Cees P M; Dörr, P Joep; Scheele, Fedde

2012-04-01

  Consultants in charge of postgraduate medical education (PGME) in hospital departments ('lead consultants') are responsible for the implementation of educational change. Although difficulties in innovating in medical education are described in the literature, little is known about how lead consultants approach educational change.   This study was conducted to explore lead consultants' approaches to educational change in specialty training and factors influencing these approaches.   From an interpretative constructivist perspective, we conducted a qualitative exploratory study using semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 16 lead consultants in the Netherlands between August 2010 and February 2011. The study design was based on the research questions and notions from corporate business and social psychology about the roles of change managers. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically using template analysis.   The lead consultants described change processes with different stages, including cause, development of content, and the execution and evaluation of change, and used individual change strategies consisting of elements such as ideas, intentions and behaviour. Communication is necessary to the forming of a strategy and the implementation of change, but the nature of communication is influenced by the strategy in use. Lead consultants differed in their degree of awareness of the strategies they used. Factors influencing approaches to change were: knowledge, ideas and beliefs about change; level of reflection; task interpretation; personal style, and department culture.   Most lead consultants showed limited awareness of their own approaches to change. This can lead them to adopt a rigid approach, whereas the ability to adapt strategies to circumstances is considered important to effective change management. Interventions and research should be aimed at enhancing the awareness of lead consultants of approaches to change in PGME. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012.

Parallel workflow manager for non-parallel bioinformatic applications to solve large-scale biological problems on a supercomputer.

PubMed

Suplatov, Dmitry; Popova, Nina; Zhumatiy, Sergey; Voevodin, Vladimir; Švedas, Vytas

2016-04-01

Rapid expansion of online resources providing access to genomic, structural, and functional information associated with biological macromolecules opens an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of biological processes due to systematic analysis of large datasets. This, however, requires novel strategies to optimally utilize computer processing power. Some methods in bioinformatics and molecular modeling require extensive computational resources. Other algorithms have fast implementations which take at most several hours to analyze a common input on a modern desktop station, however, due to multiple invocations for a large number of subtasks the full task requires a significant computing power. Therefore, an efficient computational solution to large-scale biological problems requires both a wise parallel implementation of resource-hungry methods as well as a smart workflow to manage multiple invocations of relatively fast algorithms. In this work, a new computer software mpiWrapper has been developed to accommodate non-parallel implementations of scientific algorithms within the parallel supercomputing environment. The Message Passing Interface has been implemented to exchange information between nodes. Two specialized threads - one for task management and communication, and another for subtask execution - are invoked on each processing unit to avoid deadlock while using blocking calls to MPI. The mpiWrapper can be used to launch all conventional Linux applications without the need to modify their original source codes and supports resubmission of subtasks on node failure. We show that this approach can be used to process huge amounts of biological data efficiently by running non-parallel programs in parallel mode on a supercomputer. The C++ source code and documentation are available from http://biokinet.belozersky.msu.ru/mpiWrapper .

Refocusing from a plenoptic camera within seconds on a mobile phone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gómez-Cárdenes, Ã.`scar; Marichal-Hernández, José G.; Rosa, Fernando L.; Lüke, Jonas P.; Fernández-Valdivia, Juan José; Rodríguez-Ramos, José M.

2014-05-01

Refocusing a plenoptic image by digital means and after the exposure has been thoroughly studied in the last years, but few efforts have been made in the direction of real time implementation in a constrained environment such as that provided by current mobile phones and tablets. In this work we address the aforementioned challenge demonstrating that a complete focal stack, comprising 31 refocused planes from a (256ff16)2 plenoptic image, can be achieved within seconds by a current SoC mobile phone platform. The election of an appropriate algorithm is the key to success. In a previous work we developed an algorithm, the fast approximate 4D:3D discrete Radon transform, that performs this task with linear time complexity where others obtain quadratic or linearithmic time complexity. Moreover, that algorithm does not requires complex number transforms, trigonometric calculus nor even multiplications nor oat numbers. Our algorithm has been ported to a multi core ARM chip on an off-the-shelf tablet running Android. A careful implementation exploiting parallelism at several levels has been necessary. The final implementation takes advantage of multi-threading in native code and NEON SIMD instructions. As a result our current implementation completes the refocusing task within seconds for a 16 megapixels image, much faster than previous attempts running on powerful PC platforms or dedicated hardware. The times consumed by the different stages of the digital refocusing are given and the strategies to achieve this result are discussed. Time results are given for a variety of environments within Android ecosystem, from the weaker/cheaper SoCs to the top of the line for 2013.

A comparison of visuomotor cue integration strategies for object placement and prehension.

PubMed

Greenwald, Hal S; Knill, David C

2009-01-01

Visual cue integration strategies are known to depend on cue reliability and how rapidly the visual system processes incoming information. We investigated whether these strategies also depend on differences in the information demands for different natural tasks. Using two common goal-oriented tasks, prehension and object placement, we determined whether monocular and binocular information influence estimates of three-dimensional (3D) orientation differently depending on task demands. Both tasks rely on accurate 3D orientation estimates, but 3D position is potentially more important for grasping. Subjects placed an object on or picked up a disc in a virtual environment. On some trials, the monocular cues (aspect ratio and texture compression) and binocular cues (e.g., binocular disparity) suggested slightly different 3D orientations for the disc; these conflicts either were present upon initial stimulus presentation or were introduced after movement initiation, which allowed us to quantify how information from the cues accumulated over time. We analyzed the time-varying orientations of subjects' fingers in the grasping task and those of the object in the object placement task to quantify how different visual cues influenced motor control. In the first experiment, different subjects performed each task, and those performing the grasping task relied on binocular information more when orienting their hands than those performing the object placement task. When subjects in the second experiment performed both tasks in interleaved sessions, binocular cues were still more influential during grasping than object placement, and the different cue integration strategies observed for each task in isolation were maintained. In both experiments, the temporal analyses showed that subjects processed binocular information faster than monocular information, but task demands did not affect the time course of cue processing. How one uses visual cues for motor control depends on the task being performed, although how quickly the information is processed appears to be task invariant.

Assessment Engineering Task Model Maps, Task Models and Templates as a New Way to Develop and Implement Test Specifications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luecht, Richard M.

2013-01-01

Assessment engineering is a new way to design and implement scalable, sustainable and ideally lower-cost solutions to the complexities of designing and developing tests. It represents a merger of sorts between cognitive task modeling and engineering design principles--a merger that requires some new thinking about the nature of score scales, item…

Making sense of health information technology implementation: A qualitative study protocol.

PubMed

Kitzmiller, Rebecca R; Anderson, Ruth A; McDaniel, Reuben R

2010-11-29

Implementing new practices, such as health information technology (HIT), is often difficult due to the disruption of the highly coordinated, interdependent processes (e.g., information exchange, communication, relationships) of providing care in hospitals. Thus, HIT implementation may occur slowly as staff members observe and make sense of unexpected disruptions in care. As a critical organizational function, sensemaking, defined as the social process of searching for answers and meaning which drive action, leads to unified understanding, learning, and effective problem solving -- strategies that studies have linked to successful change. Project teamwork is a change strategy increasingly used by hospitals that facilitates sensemaking by providing a formal mechanism for team members to share ideas, construct the meaning of events, and take next actions. In this longitudinal case study, we aim to examine project teams' sensemaking and action as the team prepares to implement new information technology in a tiertiary care hospital. Based on management and healthcare literature on HIT implementation and project teamwork, we chose sensemaking as an alternative to traditional models for understanding organizational change and teamwork. Our methods choices are derived from this conceptual framework. Data on project team interactions will be prospectively collected through direct observation and organizational document review. Through qualitative methods, we will identify sensemaking patterns and explore variation in sensemaking across teams. Participant demographics will be used to explore variation in sensemaking patterns. Outcomes of this research will be new knowledge about sensemaking patterns of project teams, such as: the antecedents and consequences of the ongoing, evolutionary, social process of implementing HIT; the internal and external factors that influence the project team, including team composition, team member interaction, and interaction between the project team and the larger organization; the ways in which internal and external factors influence project team processes; and the ways in which project team processes facilitate team task accomplishment. These findings will lead to new methods of implementing HIT in hospitals.

Making sense of health information technology implementation: A qualitative study protocol

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Implementing new practices, such as health information technology (HIT), is often difficult due to the disruption of the highly coordinated, interdependent processes (e.g., information exchange, communication, relationships) of providing care in hospitals. Thus, HIT implementation may occur slowly as staff members observe and make sense of unexpected disruptions in care. As a critical organizational function, sensemaking, defined as the social process of searching for answers and meaning which drive action, leads to unified understanding, learning, and effective problem solving -- strategies that studies have linked to successful change. Project teamwork is a change strategy increasingly used by hospitals that facilitates sensemaking by providing a formal mechanism for team members to share ideas, construct the meaning of events, and take next actions. Methods In this longitudinal case study, we aim to examine project teams' sensemaking and action as the team prepares to implement new information technology in a tiertiary care hospital. Based on management and healthcare literature on HIT implementation and project teamwork, we chose sensemaking as an alternative to traditional models for understanding organizational change and teamwork. Our methods choices are derived from this conceptual framework. Data on project team interactions will be prospectively collected through direct observation and organizational document review. Through qualitative methods, we will identify sensemaking patterns and explore variation in sensemaking across teams. Participant demographics will be used to explore variation in sensemaking patterns. Discussion Outcomes of this research will be new knowledge about sensemaking patterns of project teams, such as: the antecedents and consequences of the ongoing, evolutionary, social process of implementing HIT; the internal and external factors that influence the project team, including team composition, team member interaction, and interaction between the project team and the larger organization; the ways in which internal and external factors influence project team processes; and the ways in which project team processes facilitate team task accomplishment. These findings will lead to new methods of implementing HIT in hospitals. PMID:21114860

Effect of a checklist on advanced trauma life support task performance during pediatric trauma resuscitation.

PubMed

Kelleher, Deirdre C; Carter, Elizabeth A; Waterhouse, Lauren J; Parsons, Samantha E; Fritzeen, Jennifer L; Burd, Randall S

2014-10-01

Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) has been shown to improve outcomes related to trauma resuscitation; however, omissions from this protocol persist. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a trauma resuscitation checklist on performance of ATLS tasks. Video recordings of resuscitations of children sustaining blunt or penetrating injuries at a Level I pediatric trauma center were reviewed for completion and timeliness of ATLS primary and secondary survey tasks, with and without checklist use. Patient and resuscitation characteristics were obtained from the trauma registry. Data were collected during two 4-month periods before (n = 222) and after (n = 213) checklist implementation. The checklist contained 50 items and included four sections: prearrival, primary survey, secondary survey, and departure plan. Five primary survey ATLS tasks (cervical spine immobilization, oxygen administration, palpating pulses, assessing neurologic status, and exposing the patient) and nine secondary survey ATLS tasks were performed more frequently (p ≤ 0.01 for all) and vital sign measurements were obtained faster (p ≤ 0.01 for all) after the checklist was implemented. When controlling for patient and event-specific characteristics, primary and secondary survey tasks overall were more likely to be completed (odds ratio [OR] = 2.66, primary survey; OR = 2.47, secondary survey; p < 0.001 for both) and primary survey tasks were performed faster (p < 0.001) after the checklist was implemented. Implementation of a trauma checklist was associated with greater ATLS task performance and with increased frequency and speed of primary and secondary survey task completion. © 2014 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Acquisition and production of skilled behavior in dynamic decision-making tasks: Modeling strategic behavior in human-automation interaction: Why and aid can (and should) go unused

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirlik, Alex

1991-01-01

Advances in computer and control technology offer the opportunity for task-offload aiding in human-machine systems. A task-offload aid (e.g., an autopilot, an intelligent assistant) can be selectively engaged by the human operator to dynamically delegate tasks to an automated system. Successful design and performance prediction in such systems requires knowledge of the factors influencing the strategy the operator develops and uses for managing interaction with the task-offload aid. A model is presented that shows how such strategies can be predicted as a function of three task context properties (frequency and duration of secondary tasks and costs of delaying secondary tasks) and three aid design properties (aid engagement and disengagement times, aid performance relative to human performance). Sensitivity analysis indicates how each of these contextual and design factors affect the optimal aid aid usage strategy and attainable system performance. The model is applied to understanding human-automation interaction in laboratory experiments on human supervisory control behavior. The laboratory task allowed subjects freedom to determine strategies for using an autopilot in a dynamic, multi-task environment. Modeling results suggested that many subjects may indeed have been acting appropriately by not using the autopilot in the way its designers intended. Although autopilot function was technically sound, this aid was not designed with due regard to the overall task context in which it was placed. These results demonstrate the need for additional research on how people may strategically manage their own resources, as well as those provided by automation, in an effort to keep workload and performance at acceptable levels.

Task Demands in OSCEs Influence Learning Strategies.

PubMed

Lafleur, Alexandre; Laflamme, Jonathan; Leppink, Jimmie; Côté, Luc

2017-01-01

Models on pre-assessment learning effects confirmed that task demands stand out among the factors assessors can modify in an assessment to influence learning. However, little is known about which tasks in objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) improve students' cognitive and metacognitive processes. Research is needed to support OSCE designs that benefit students' metacognitive strategies when they are studying, reinforcing a hypothesis-driven approach. With that intent, hypothesis-driven physical examination (HDPE) assessments ask students to elicit and interpret findings of the physical exam to reach a diagnosis ("Examine this patient with a painful shoulder to reach a diagnosis"). When studying for HDPE, students will dedicate more time to hypothesis-driven discussions and practice than when studying for a part-task OSCE ("Perform the shoulder exam"). It is expected that the whole-task nature of HDPE will lead to a hypothesis-oriented use of the learning resources, a frequent use of adjustment strategies, and persistence with learning. In a mixed-methods study, 40 medical students were randomly paired and filmed while studying together for two hypothetical OSCE stations. Each 25-min study period began with video cues asking to study for either a part-task OSCE or an HDPE. In a crossover design, sequences were randomized for OSCEs and contents (shoulder or spine). Time-on-task for discussions or practice were categorized as "hypothesis-driven" or "sequence of signs and maneuvers." Content analysis of focus group interviews summarized students' perception of learning resources, adjustment strategies, and persistence with learning. When studying for HDPE, students allocate significantly more time for hypothesis-driven discussions and practice. Students use resources contrasting diagnoses and report persistence with learning. When studying for part-task OSCEs, time-on-task is reversed, spent on rehearsing a sequence of signs and maneuvers. OSCEs with similar contents but different task demands lead to opposite learning strategies regarding how students manage their study time. Measuring pre-assessment effects from a metacognitive perspective provides empirical evidence to redesign assessments for learning.

Exploring cognitive support use and preference by college students with TBI: A mixed-methods study.

PubMed

Brown, Jessica; Hux, Karen; Hey, Morgan; Murphy, Madeline

2017-01-01

Many college students with TBI rely on external strategies and supports to compensate for persistent memory, organization, and planning deficits that interfere with recalling and executing daily tasks. Practitioners know little, however, about the supports students with TBI choose for this purpose, the reasoning behind their choice, or preferred features of selected supports. The purpose of this study was to explore these issues. We collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from eight college students with TBI for completion of a concurrent triangulation mixed-methods design. Data analysis included evaluation and triangulation of participant demographic information, survey responses about persistent post-injury symptoms, transcripts from semi-structured interviews about cognitive support devices and strategies, and ranking results about specific compensatory tools. Results suggest that college students with TBI prefer high-tech external supports-sometimes with the addition of low-tech, paper supports-to assist them in managing daily tasks. This preference related to features of portability, accessibility, and automatic reminders. An electronic calendar was the most-preferred high-tech support, and a paper checklist was the most-preferred low-tech support. Rehabilitation professionals should consider implementing high-tech supports with preferred characteristics during treatment given the preferences of students with TBI and the consequent likelihood of their continued long-term use following reintegration to community settings.

A Teacher-Report Measure of Children's Task-Avoidant Behavior: A Validation Study of the Behavioral Strategy Rating Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Xiao; Nurmi, Jari-Erik; Kiuru, Noona; Lerkkanen, Marja-Kristiina; Aunola, Kaisa

2011-01-01

This study aims to validate a teacher-report measure of children's task-avoidant behavior, namely the Behavioral Strategy Rating Scale (BSRS), in a sample of 352 Finnish children. In each of the four waves from Kindergarten to Grade 2, teachers rated children's task-avoidant behavior using the BSRS, children completed reading and mathematics…

Why is quality estimation judgment fast? Comparison of gaze control strategies in quality and difference estimation tasks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radun, Jenni; Leisti, Tuomas; Virtanen, Toni; Nyman, Göte; Häkkinen, Jukka

2014-11-01

To understand the viewing strategies employed in a quality estimation task, we compared two visual tasks-quality estimation and difference estimation. The estimation was done for a pair of natural images having small global changes in quality. Two groups of observers estimated the same set of images, but with different instructions. One group estimated the difference in quality and the other the difference between image pairs. The results demonstrated the use of different visual strategies in the tasks. The quality estimation was found to include more visual planning during the first fixation than the difference estimation, but afterward needed only a few long fixations on the semantically important areas of the image. The difference estimation used many short fixations. Salient image areas were mainly attended to when these areas were also semantically important. The results support the hypothesis that these tasks' general characteristics (evaluation time, number of fixations, area fixated on) show differences in processing, but also suggest that examining only single fixations when comparing tasks is too narrow a view. When planning a subjective experiment, one must remember that a small change in the instructions might lead to a noticeable change in viewing strategy.

Enablers and barriers for implementing high-quality hypertension care in a rural primary care setting in Nigeria: perspectives of primary care staff and health insurance managers

PubMed Central

Odusola, Aina O.; Stronks, Karien; Hendriks, Marleen E.; Schultsz, Constance; Akande, Tanimola; Osibogun, Akin; van Weert, Henk; Haafkens, Joke A.

2016-01-01

Background Hypertension is a highly prevalent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that can be modified through timely and long-term treatment in primary care. Objective We explored perspectives of primary care staff and health insurance managers on enablers and barriers for implementing high-quality hypertension care, in the context of a community-based health insurance programme in rural Nigeria. Design Qualitative study using semi-structured individual interviews with primary care staff (n = 11) and health insurance managers (n=4). Data were analysed using standard qualitative techniques. Results Both stakeholder groups perceived health insurance as an important facilitator for implementing high-quality hypertension care because it covered costs of care for patients and provided essential resources and incentives to clinics: guidelines, staff training, medications, and diagnostic equipment. Perceived inhibitors included the following: high staff workload; administrative challenges at facilities; discordance between healthcare provider and insurer on how health insurance and provider payment methods work; and insufficient fit between some guideline recommendations and tools for patient education and characteristics/needs of the local patient population. Perceived strategies to address inhibitors included the following: task-shifting; adequate provider payment benchmarking; good provider–insurer relationships; automated administration systems; and tailoring guidelines/patient education. Conclusions By providing insights into perspectives of primary care providers and health insurance managers, this study offers information on potential strategies for implementing high-quality hypertension care for insured patients in SSA. PMID:26880152

Implementation of Task-Tracking Software for Clinical IT Management.

PubMed

Purohit, Anne-Maria; Brutscheck, Clemens; Prokosch, Hans-Ulrich; Ganslandt, Thomas; Schneider, Martin

2017-01-01

Often in clinical IT departments, many different methods and IT systems are used for task-tracking and project organization. Based on managers' personal preferences and knowledge about project management methods, tools differ from team to team and even from employee to employee. This causes communication problems, especially when tasks need to be done in cooperation with different teams. Monitoring tasks and resources becomes impossible: there are no defined deliverables, which prevents reliable deadlines. Because of these problems, we implemented task-tracking software which is now in use across all seven teams at the University Hospital Erlangen. Over a period of seven months, a working group defined types of tasks (project, routine task, etc.), workflows, and views to monitor the tasks of the 7 divisions, 20 teams and 340 different IT services. The software has been in use since December 2016.

Evidence-based practice guideline: increasing physical activity in schools--kindergarten through 8th grade.

PubMed

Bagby, Karen; Adams, Susan

2007-06-01

Because of the growing obesity epidemic across all age groups in the United States, interventions to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviors have become a priority. Evidence is growing that interventions to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviors have positive results and are generally inexpensive to implement. National and international health organizations are calling for a comprehensive approach for reducing obesity in children that includes increasing physical activity in the school setting. Although the call to increase activity levels in schools is clear, little guidance has been given to schools on specific methods to accomplish this task. This article provides an overview of an evidence-based guideline developed by a physical education teacher and a school nurse to provide inexpensive, easy-to-implement, effective strategies to increase physical activity in students. Tools are also included in the guideline to measure the effectiveness of the intervention.

Robust Learning Control Design for Quantum Unitary Transformations.

PubMed

Wu, Chengzhi; Qi, Bo; Chen, Chunlin; Dong, Daoyi

2017-12-01

Robust control design for quantum unitary transformations has been recognized as a fundamental and challenging task in the development of quantum information processing due to unavoidable decoherence or operational errors in the experimental implementation of quantum operations. In this paper, we extend the systematic methodology of sampling-based learning control (SLC) approach with a gradient flow algorithm for the design of robust quantum unitary transformations. The SLC approach first uses a "training" process to find an optimal control strategy robust against certain ranges of uncertainties. Then a number of randomly selected samples are tested and the performance is evaluated according to their average fidelity. The approach is applied to three typical examples of robust quantum transformation problems including robust quantum transformations in a three-level quantum system, in a superconducting quantum circuit, and in a spin chain system. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the SLC approach and show its potential applications in various implementation of quantum unitary transformations.

Classification of factors of development of transport infrastructure in the region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karpovich, Oleg; Shlafman, Alexander

2017-10-01

The formation of a unified strategy for the development of the transport infrastructure of the region is considered to be the basic direction of the developing the whole territory The article is devoted to determining priorities in the implementation of programs of redevelopment of the regional plants. The submission suggested authors the characteristics of a grouping of theoretical and practical approaches to spatial reorganization of production. The result of this research, the specific recommendations on the application of redevelopment for the development of industrial areas. The organization of economic relations within the eastern regions of the Russian Federation, as well as the implementation of economic activities involving the transit and processing of a multitude of material and intangible flows on their territory, is a priority task of the state policy of smoothing the development of the regions of the country. To solve these macroeconomic problems, the transport infrastructure of the region has a priority.

Radiological Threat Reduction (RTR) program : implementing physical security to protect large radioactive sources worldwide.

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

Lowe, Daniel L.

2004-11-01

The U.S. Department of Energy's Radiological Threat Reduction (RTR) Program strives to reduce the threat of a Radiological Dispersion Device (RDD) incident that could affect U.S. interests worldwide. Sandia National Laboratories supports the RTR program on many different levels. Sandia works directly with DOE to develop strategies, including the selection of countries to receive support and the identification of radioactive materials to be protected. Sandia also works with DOE in the development of guidelines and in training DOE project managers in physical protection principles. Other support to DOE includes performing rapid assessments and providing guidance for establishing foreign regulatory andmore » knowledge infrastructure. Sandia works directly with foreign governments to establish cooperative agreements necessary to implement the RTR Program efforts to protect radioactive sources. Once necessary agreements are in place, Sandia works with in-country organizations to implement various security related initiatives, such as installing security systems and searching for (and securing) orphaned radioactive sources. The radioactive materials of interest to the RTR program include Cobalt 60, Cesium 137, Strontium 90, Iridium 192, Radium 226, Plutonium 238, Americium 241, Californium 252, and Others. Security systems are implemented using a standardized approach that provides consistency through out the RTR program efforts at Sandia. The approach incorporates a series of major tasks that overlap in order to provide continuity. The major task sequence is to: Establish in-country contacts - integrators, Obtain material characterizations, Perform site assessments and vulnerability assessments, Develop upgrade plans, Procure and install equipment, Conduct acceptance testing and performance testing, Develop procedures, and Conduct training. Other tasks are incorporated as appropriate and commonly include such as support of reconfiguring infrastructure, and developing security plans, etc. This standardized approach is applied to specific country and regional needs. Recent examples (FY 2003-2004) include foreign missions to Lithuania, Russian Federation Navy, Russia - PNPI, Greece (joint mission with IAEA), Tanzania, Iraq, Chile, Ecuador, and Egypt. Some of the ambitions and results of the RTR program may be characterized by the successes in Lithuania, Greece, and Russia.« less

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

Gang, G; Siewerdsen, J; Stayman, J

Purpose: There has been increasing interest in integrating fluence field modulation (FFM) devices with diagnostic CT scanners for dose reduction purposes. Conventional FFM strategies, however, are often either based on heuristics or the analysis of filtered-backprojection (FBP) performance. This work investigates a prospective task-driven optimization of FFM for model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) in order to improve imaging performance at the same total dose as conventional strategies. Methods: The task-driven optimization framework utilizes an ultra-low dose 3D scout as a patient-specific anatomical model and a mathematical formation of the imaging task. The MBIR method investigated is quadratically penalized-likelihood reconstruction. The FFMmore » objective function uses detectability index, d’, computed as a function of the predicted spatial resolution and noise in the image. To optimize performance throughout the object, a maxi-min objective was adopted where the minimum d’ over multiple locations is maximized. To reduce the dimensionality of the problem, FFM is parameterized as a linear combination of 2D Gaussian basis functions over horizontal detector pixels and projection angles. The coefficients of these bases are found using the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES) algorithm. The task-driven design was compared with three other strategies proposed for FBP reconstruction for a calcification cluster discrimination task in an abdomen phantom. Results: The task-driven optimization yielded FFM that was significantly different from those designed for FBP. Comparing all four strategies, the task-based design achieved the highest minimum d’ with an 8–48% improvement, consistent with the maxi-min objective. In addition, d’ was improved to a greater extent over a larger area within the entire phantom. Conclusion: Results from this investigation suggests the need to re-evaluate conventional FFM strategies for MBIR. The task-based optimization framework provides a promising approach that maximizes imaging performance under the same total dose constraint.« less