Research on pre-scientific concept of light in children's cognitive activity

Science.gov (United States)

Lan, Zhigao; Yu, Yang; Yan, Dan; Yang, Shulin

2017-08-01

Based on the theory of Ausubel's meaningful learning and cognitive characteristic of childens pre-scientific concept, two students of Huang Gang Middle School have been interviewed continuously about cognition of interaction between light and matter. Comprehension degree of childens pre-scientific concept about interaction between light and matter has been deeply understood, formation of strategy of childens pre-scientific concept has been discussed. Several influence factors related to formation of childens pre-scientific concept have been analyzed, such as sex, family environment, and learning experience of kindergarten and primary school.

Student Scientific Conference 2001. Abstracts of papers of students and post-graduate students

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stankovicova, H.

2001-04-01

The aim of the Student Scientific Conference was to review the works of students and post-graduate students from universities of the Slovak Republic and Czech Republic as well as from Slovak Academy of Sciences and Czech Academy of Sciences. The proceedings of the conference contain 63 abstracts of Biological Section, 16 abstracts of Didactic Section, 39 abstracts of Environmental Section, 15 abstracts of Geography Section, 12 abstracts of Geology Section, and 42 abstracts of Chemical Section

Scientists' conceptions of scientific inquiry: Revealing a private side of science

Science.gov (United States)

Reiff, Rebecca R.

Science educators, philosophers, and pre-service teachers have contributed to conceptualizing inquiry but missing from the inquiry forum is an in-depth research study concerning science faculty conceptions of scientific inquiry. The science education literature has tended to focus on certain aspects of doing, teaching, and understanding scientific inquiry without linking these concepts. As a result, conceptions of scientific inquiry have been disjointed and are seemingly unrelated. Furthermore, confusion surrounding the meaning of inquiry has been identified as a reason teachers are not using inquiry in instruction (Welch et al., 1981). Part of the confusion surrounding scientific inquiry is it has been defined differently depending on the context (Colburn, 2000; Lederman, 1998; Shymansky & Yore, 1980; Wilson & Koran, 1976). This lack of a common conception of scientific inquiry is the reason for the timely nature of this research. The result of scientific journeys is not to arrive at a stopping point or the final destination, but to refuel with questions to drive the pursuit of knowledge. A three-member research team conducted Interviews with science faculty members using a semi-structured interview protocol designed to probe the subject's conceptions of scientific inquiry. The participants represented a total of 52 science faculty members from nine science departments (anthropology, biology, chemistry, geology, geography, school of health, physical education and recreation (HPER), medical sciences, physics, and school of environmental science) at a large mid-western research university. The method of analysis used by the team was grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; Glaser & Strauss, 1967), in which case the frequency of concepts, patterns, and themes were coded to categorize scientists' conceptions of scientific inquiry. The results from this study address the following components: understanding and doing scientific inquiry, attributes of scientists engaged

Naming a Lego world. The role of language in the acquisition of abstract concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Granito, Carmen; Scorolli, Claudia; Borghi, Anna Maria

2015-01-01

While embodied approaches of cognition have proved to be successful in explaining concrete concepts and words, they have more difficulties in accounting for abstract concepts and words, and several proposals have been put forward. This work aims to test the Words As Tools proposal, according to which both abstract and concrete concepts are grounded in perception, action and emotional systems, but linguistic information is more important for abstract than for concrete concept representation, due to the different ways they are acquired: while for the acquisition of the latter linguistic information might play a role, for the acquisition of the former it is instead crucial. We investigated the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts and words, and verified its impact on conceptual representation. In Experiment 1, participants explored and categorized novel concrete and abstract entities, and were taught a novel label for each category. Later they performed a categorical recognition task and an image-word matching task to verify a) whether and how the introduction of language changed the previously formed categories, b) whether language had a major weight for abstract than for concrete words representation, and c) whether this difference had consequences on bodily responses. The results confirm that, even though both concrete and abstract concepts are grounded, language facilitates the acquisition of the latter and plays a major role in their representation, resulting in faster responses with the mouth, typically associated with language production. Experiment 2 was a rating test aiming to verify whether the findings of Experiment 1 were simply due to heterogeneity, i.e. to the fact that the members of abstract categories were more heterogeneous than those of concrete categories. The results confirmed the effectiveness of our operationalization, showing that abstract concepts are more associated with the mouth and concrete ones with the hand, independently from

Naming a Lego world. The role of language in the acquisition of abstract concepts.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carmen Granito

Full Text Available While embodied approaches of cognition have proved to be successful in explaining concrete concepts and words, they have more difficulties in accounting for abstract concepts and words, and several proposals have been put forward. This work aims to test the Words As Tools proposal, according to which both abstract and concrete concepts are grounded in perception, action and emotional systems, but linguistic information is more important for abstract than for concrete concept representation, due to the different ways they are acquired: while for the acquisition of the latter linguistic information might play a role, for the acquisition of the former it is instead crucial. We investigated the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts and words, and verified its impact on conceptual representation. In Experiment 1, participants explored and categorized novel concrete and abstract entities, and were taught a novel label for each category. Later they performed a categorical recognition task and an image-word matching task to verify a whether and how the introduction of language changed the previously formed categories, b whether language had a major weight for abstract than for concrete words representation, and c whether this difference had consequences on bodily responses. The results confirm that, even though both concrete and abstract concepts are grounded, language facilitates the acquisition of the latter and plays a major role in their representation, resulting in faster responses with the mouth, typically associated with language production. Experiment 2 was a rating test aiming to verify whether the findings of Experiment 1 were simply due to heterogeneity, i.e. to the fact that the members of abstract categories were more heterogeneous than those of concrete categories. The results confirmed the effectiveness of our operationalization, showing that abstract concepts are more associated with the mouth and concrete ones with the hand

Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and the benefits of new technology for implicit body manipulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijkstra, K.; Eerland, A.; Zijlmans, J.; Post, L.S.

2014-01-01

Current approaches on cognition hold that concrete concepts are grounded in concrete experiences. There is no consensus, however, as to whether this is equally true for abstract concepts. In this review we discuss how the body might be involved in understanding abstract concepts through metaphor

Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and the benefits of new technology for implicit body manipulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

K. Dijkstra (Katinka); A. Eerland (Anita); J. Zijlmans (Josjan); L.S. Post (Lysanne)

2014-01-01

textabstractCurrent approaches on cognition hold that concrete concepts are grounded in concrete experiences. There is no consensus, however, as to whether this is equally true for abstract concepts. In this review we discuss how the body might be involved in understanding abstract concepts through

Designing an image retrieval interface for abstract concepts within the domain of journalism

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R. Besseling (Ron)

2011-01-01

htmlabstractResearch has shown that users have difficulties finding images which illustrate abstract concepts. We carried out a user study that confirms the finding that the selection of search terms is perceived difficult and that users find the subjectivity of abstract concepts problematic. In

Are Abstract and Concrete Concepts Organized Differently? Evidence from the Blocked Translation Paradigm

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Zhang, Xiaohong; Han, Zaizhu; Bi, Yanchao

2013-01-01

Using the blocked-translation paradigm with healthy participants, we examined Crutch and Warrington's hypothesis that concrete and abstract concepts are organized by distinct principles: concrete concepts by semantic similarities and abstract ones by associations. In three experiments we constructed two types of experimental blocking (similar…

Quantum language and the migration of scientific concepts

CERN Document Server

Burwell, Jennifer

2018-01-01

How highly abstract quantum concepts were represented in language, and how these concepts were later taken up by philosophers, literary critics, and new-age gurus. The principles of quantum physics -- and the strange phenomena they describe -- are represented most precisely in highly abstract algebraic equations. Why, then, did these mathematically driven concepts compel founders of the field, particularly Erwin Schrödinger, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg, to spend so much time reflecting on ontological, epistemological, and linguistic concerns? What is it about quantum concepts that appeals to latter-day Eastern mystics, poststructuralist critics, and get-rich-quick schemers? How did their interpretations and misinterpretations of quantum phenomena reveal their own priorities? In this book, Jennifer Burwell examines these questions and considers what quantum phenomena -- in the context of the founders' debates over how to describe them -- reveal about the relationship between everyday experience, percep...

MISCONCEPTIONS AND NON-SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS ON FREE RADICALS

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Rosiris Sindeaux de Alencar Pires de Oliveira

2016-11-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Misconceptions or alternative conceptions are defined as conceptions that are somewhat different from the scientifically accepted ones and are known to be highly resistant to changes. Free radicals are a widely publicized subject in the media due to their putative importance in human aging and health. Free radicals are a subject susceptible to misconceptions widely spread by the media supporting prejudicial advertising inducing antioxidant consumption. OBJECTIVES: Identify and categorized different free radicals misconceptions published in printed media. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Revista Veja (Digital Archive, the weekly magazine with the largest circulation in Brazil, was selected for this investigation. Period analyzed: from 01/01/2000 to 31/07/2014 with search terms Free radicals and antioxidants. Passages selected were classified as: Right Concept (RC, Wrong Concept (WC, Misconception (MC, Inadequate generalization (IG, Inductive [to misconceptions] Concept (IC, Inductive [to misconceptions] Information (II, and Not fit the inclusion criteria (NFIC. Each one of these categories were further subdivided. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS: 79 magazine articles, advertisements and information materials were found which led to 293 text passages. 56.3% were MC, 21.4% II, 8.8% IC, 5.4% IG, 3.4% RC, 2.7% WR, 2.0% NFIC. The most frequently subcategory in each category was: MC: x [something] combats free radicals (22.6%; II: x [substance] is antioxidant (54.0%; IC: x [something] increases free radicals production (34.6%; IG: antioxidant x [substance] combats cancer (56.3%; RC: too much vitamins and minerals is harmful to health (30.0%; WR: free radicals are formed during oxygen conversion to energy process (25.0%. CONCLUSION: Magazine analysis reveal non-scientific concepts (MC, II, IC and IG to be highly frequent, notably misconceptions. Moreover, non-scientific concepts together reach 91.8% of all concepts while right concepts respond for only 2

Abstract memory representations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus support concept generalization.

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Bowman, Caitlin R; Zeithamova, Dagmar

2018-02-07

Memory function involves both the ability to remember details of individual experiences and the ability to link information across events to create new knowledge. Prior research has identified the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and the hippocampus as important for integrating across events in service of generalization in episodic memory. The degree to which these memory integration mechanisms contribute to other forms of generalization, such as concept learning, is unclear. The present study used a concept-learning task in humans (both sexes) coupled with model-based fMRI to test whether VMPFC and hippocampus contribute to concept generalization, and whether they do so by maintaining specific category exemplars or abstract category representations. Two formal categorization models were fit to individual subject data: a prototype model that posits abstract category representations and an exemplar model that posits category representations based on individual category members. Latent variables from each of these models were entered into neuroimaging analyses to determine whether VMPFC and the hippocampus track prototype or exemplar information during concept generalization. Behavioral model fits indicated that almost three quarters of the subjects relied on prototype information when making judgments about new category members. Paralleling prototype dominance in behavior, correlates of the prototype model were identified in VMPFC and the anterior hippocampus with no significant exemplar correlates. These results indicate that the VMPFC and portions of the hippocampus play a broad role in memory generalization and that they do so by representing abstract information integrated from multiple events. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Whether people represent concepts as a set of individual category members or by deriving generalized concept representations abstracted across exemplars has been debated. In episodic memory, generalized memory representations have been shown

Concept of Triangle: Examples of Mathematical Abstraction in Two Different Contexts

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Farida Nurhasanah

2017-02-01

Full Text Available In attempt to explain how students learning geometry in concept of triangle, this study explore the learning process of students and the process of solving geometry problems in the topic of triangle.  As known as one of the domain in school of mathematics, geometry has abstract notions to be learnt so that all those notions cannot be just transferred into students’ mind like a bunch of information that should be memorized. Students need to construct those concepts during their learning process. This process of knowledge construction can be considered as an abstraction process. This study aimed to qualitatively compare students’ abstraction process who learn topic of triangle in conventional method of teaching and in van Hiele model of teaching aided by Geometers’ sketchpad. Subjects of this study were junir high school students in grade 7. Based on the aims of this study, this is a qualitative study with grounded theory design. Data were collected through classroom observation, test, and task-based interview. Results of the study show that theoretical abstraction processes tend to dominate classrom with conventional method of teaching while classroom with van Hiele model of teaching aided by Geometers’ sketchpad accommodated empirical abstraction process of the students

Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and the benefits of new technology for implicit body manipulation

Science.gov (United States)

Dijkstra, Katinka; Eerland, Anita; Zijlmans, Josjan; Post, Lysanne S.

2014-01-01

Current approaches on cognition hold that concrete concepts are grounded in concrete experiences. There is no consensus, however, as to whether this is equally true for abstract concepts. In this review we discuss how the body might be involved in understanding abstract concepts through metaphor activation. Substantial research has been conducted on the activation of common orientational metaphors with bodily manipulations, such as “power is up” and “more is up” representations. We will focus on the political metaphor that has a more complex association between the concept and the concrete domain. However, the outcomes of studies on this political metaphor have not always been consistent, possibly because the experimental manipulation was not implicit enough. The inclusion of new technological devices in this area of research, such as the Wii Balance Board, seems promising in order to assess the groundedness of abstract conceptual spatial metaphors in an implicit manner. This may aid further research to effectively demonstrate the interrelatedness between the body and more abstract representations. PMID:25191282

Non-Determinism: An Abstract Concept in Computer Science Studies

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Armoni, Michal; Gal-Ezer, Judith

2007-01-01

Non-determinism is one of the most important, yet abstract, recurring concepts of Computer Science. It plays an important role in Computer Science areas such as formal language theory, computability theory, distributed computing, and operating systems. We conducted a series of studies on the perception of non-determinism. In the current research,…

A matter of font type: The effect of serifs on the evaluation of scientific abstracts.

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Kaspar, Kai; Wehlitz, Thea; von Knobelsdorff, Sara; Wulf, Tim; von Saldern, Marie Antoinette Oktavie

2015-10-01

Text-based communication is one of the substantial ways of spreading scientific information. While the content and contextual aspects of written words have been widely researched, the impact of font characteristics on text perception is an almost blank page. The following study deals with the influence of serifs on the evaluation of online-presented scientific abstracts. Yet there is only evidence for faster reading times when texts are presented in sans-serif fonts, although the opposite is stated in parts of the literature. The present work examines if the presence or absence of serifs also have an impact on the appraisal of scientific texts when all other important font characteristics do not change. For this purpose, 188 university students participated in an online experiment and rated different aspects of scientific abstracts as well as of the research outlined in the abstracts. The results show that missing serifs led to increased reading speed. However, and in contrast to the perceptual fluency hypothesis, the presence of serifs had a positive effect on all evaluation dimensions. The results of a second study with 187 participants also indicated that reading fluency counteracted the liking of texts. Implications for future studies and media production are discussed. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

'Who Thinks Abstractly?': Quantum Theory and the Architecture of Physical Concepts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plotnitsky, Arkady

2011-01-01

Beginning with its introduction by W. Heisenberg, quantum mechanics was often seen as an overly abstract theory, mathematically and physically, vis-a-vis classical physics or relativity. This perception was amplified by the fact that, while the quantum-mechanical formalism provided effective predictive algorithms for the probabilistic predictions concerning quantum experiments, it appeared unable to describe, even by way idealization, quantum processes themselves in space and time, in the way classical mechanics or relativity did. The aim of the present paper is to reconsider the nature of mathematical and physical abstraction in modern physics by offering an analysis of the concept of ''physical fact'' and of the concept of 'physical concept', in part by following G. W. F. Hegel's and G. Deleuze's arguments concerning the nature of conceptual thinking. In classical physics, relativity, and quantum physics alike, I argue, physical concepts are defined by the following main features - 1) their multi-component multiplicity; 2) their essential relations to problems; 3) and the interactions between physical, mathematical, and philosophical components within each concept. It is the particular character of these interactions in quantum mechanics, as defined by its essentially predictive (rather than descriptive) nature, that distinguishes it from classical physics and relativity.

Methods to extract information on the atomic and molecular states from scientific abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sasaki, Akira; Ueshima, Yutaka; Yamagiwa, Mitsuru; Murata, Masaki; Kanamaru, Toshiyuki; Shirado, Tamotsu; Isahara, Hitoshi

2005-01-01

We propose a new application of information technology to recognize and extract expressions of atomic and molecular states from electrical forms of scientific abstracts. Present results will help scientists to understand atomic states as well as the physics discussed in the articles. Combining with the internet search engines, it will make one possible to collect not only atomic and molecular data but broader scientific information over a wide range of research fields. (author)

Abstracting Concepts and Methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Borko, Harold; Bernier, Charles L.

This text provides a complete discussion of abstracts--their history, production, organization, publication--and of indexing. Instructions for abstracting are outlined, and standards and criteria for abstracting are stated. Management, automation, and personnel are discussed in terms of possible economies that can be derived from the introduction…

Abstraction of complex concepts with a refined partial-area taxonomy of SNOMED

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yue; Halper, Michael; Wei, Duo; Perl, Yehoshua; Geller, James

2012-01-01

An algorithmically-derived abstraction network, called the partial-area taxonomy, for a SNOMED hierarchy has led to the identification of concepts considered complex. The designation “complex” is arrived at automatically on the basis of structural analyses of overlap among the constituent concept groups of the partial-area taxonomy. Such complex concepts, called overlapping concepts, constitute a tangled portion of a hierarchy and can be obstacles to users trying to gain an understanding of the hierarchy’s content. A new methodology for partitioning the entire collection of overlapping concepts into singly-rooted groups, that are more manageable to work with and comprehend, is presented. Different kinds of overlapping concepts with varying degrees of complexity are identified. This leads to an abstract model of the overlapping concepts called the disjoint partial-area taxonomy, which serves as a vehicle for enhanced, high-level display. The methodology is demonstrated with an application to SNOMED’s Specimen hierarchy. Overall, the resulting disjoint partial-area taxonomy offers a refined view of the hierarchy’s structural organization and conceptual content that can aid users, such as maintenance personnel, working with SNOMED. The utility of the disjoint partial-area taxonomy as the basis for a SNOMED auditing regimen is presented in a companion paper. PMID:21878396

Secondary school physics teachers' conceptions of scientific evidence: A collective case study

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Joseph A.

Engaging secondary school students in inquiry-oriented tasks that more closely simulate the scholarly activities of scientists has been recommended as a way to improve scientific literacy. Two tasks that are frequently recommended include students' design of original experiments, and students' evaluation of scientific evidence and conclusions. Yet, little is known about teachers' conceptions of experimentation. The principal aim of this study, therefore, was to describe the nature of prospective and practicing physics teachers' conceptions of scientific evidence. More specifically, the following research questions guided this study: (1) What types of issues related to the measurement reliability and experimental validity of scientific evidence do practicing and prospective physics teachers think about when designing experiments? (2) When presented with hypothetical scenarios that describe unsound experimental procedures or poorly supported conclusions (or both), what concerns will prospective and practicing physics teachers raise? And (3) When the participants' responses to parallel research prompts are compared across protocols, what similarities and differences exist? The nature of the teacher-participants' conceptions was described from an analysis of data collected from research prompts such as interviews and hand written artifacts. In these research prompts, the teachers "thought aloud" while designing experiments and critically evaluated student-collected evidence presented in hypothetical classroom scenarios. The data from this study suggested that the three teachers, while contemplating the reliability and validity of scientific evidence, frequently used their conceptions of evidence in conjunction with specific subject matter conceptions. The data also indicated that the relationship between subject matter knowledge and conceptions of evidence was more pronounced for some conceptions of evidence than for others. Suggestions for future research included

DOCUMENT REPRESENTATION FOR CLUSTERING OF SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACTS

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S. V. Popova

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The key issue of the present paper is clustering of narrow-domain short texts, such as scientific abstracts. The work is based on the observations made when improving the performance of key phrase extraction algorithm. An extended stop-words list was used that was built automatically for the purposes of key phrase extraction and gave the possibility for a considerable quality enhancement of the phrases extracted from scientific publications. A description of the stop- words list creation procedure is given. The main objective is to investigate the possibilities to increase the performance and/or speed of clustering by the above-mentioned list of stop-words as well as information about lexeme parts of speech. In the latter case a vocabulary is applied for the document representation, which contains not all the words that occurred in the collection, but only nouns and adjectives or their sequences encountered in the documents. Two base clustering algorithms are applied: k-means and hierarchical clustering (average agglomerative method. The results show that the use of an extended stop-words list and adjective-noun document representation makes it possible to improve the performance and speed of k-means clustering. In a similar case for average agglomerative method a decline in performance quality may be observed. It is shown that the use of adjective-noun sequences for document representation lowers the clustering quality for both algorithms and can be justified only when a considerable reduction of feature space dimensionality is necessary.

Scientific Thinking in Islamic Thought: Concept and its Importance

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Alias Azhar

2017-02-01

Full Text Available God’s revelations, as the main source of knowledge, do not deny, in any way our brain’s functional capabilities. The Quran acknowledges the necessity and importance of the brain. Islamic epistemology regards the brain as the second source of knowledge after the revelations. The holistic perspective on knowledge that is gained by mankind is that it is constructed by man in the context of their thinking culture, education and social concepts. Therefore, in this regard, thinking method directly relates to the objectives of Islam and its Sharia, and gives a significant implication towards understanding and developing Sharia as a dynamic knowledge area. This study combines three (3 methods, content analysis; historical method and comparison of the review of the history of the construction of Islamic thought and the review of screening methods Sociology Society background. The discussion this article covers the definition and concept of scientific thinking skills and scientific Islamic thought and the approaches of critical thinking in Islamic scientific thought. In reality, Muslims are not prohibited by their religion to think scientifically through scientific thinking methods, provided that it does not contradict with Islam. Some knowledge which is built through scientific thinking can be used to understand the Quranic texts more profoundly. Also, undeniably, the eminence of God’s revelations has been made evident and exploited to proof the existence of Allah.

People’s Republic of China Scientific Abstracts No. 164.

Science.gov (United States)

1977-02-23

of these articles. CONTENTS PAGE K’ O-HSUEH SHIH-YEN /SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT/ No 8, Äug 76 1 CHIH-WU HSUEH-PAO /ÄCTA BOTANICA SINICA/ Vol 18, No...AUTHOR: None ORG: Digital Control Teaching Group, Shanghai Sparetime Industrial University TITLE: "On the Principles of Digital Machine Tool Control...8217 College" SOURCE: Peking CHIH-WU HSUEH-PAO [AGTA BOTANICA SINICA] Vol 18 No 3, Sep 76 pp 198-201 EXCERPT OF ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The May-7 Agricultural

United European Gastroenterology Week scientific abstracts and their progression to full publication.

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Raju, Suneil A; Sanders, David S; Akram, Rahim; Glover, Rebecca; Al-Rifaie, Ammar; Peever, Elise; Purves, Josh; Scanu, Emily; Kurien, Matthew

2017-10-01

Abstracts presentations at scientific meetings enable rapid dissemination of novel research. The percentage of abstracts that proceed to full publication from differing medical specialties is highly variable. This study aims to evaluate the outcomes of abstracts presented at the United European Gastroenterology Week (UEGW). All abstracts presented at UEGW between 2009 and 2011 were assessed. Cross-referencing of the first author, senior author and at least one keyword of the abstract was performed using PubMed and EMBASE databases. Abstracts and possible resultant full publications were then examined in tandem to ensure that they represented the same study. Data were also collected on lag time to publication, journal impact factors, country of the author and factors influencing subsequent publication. A total of 6785 abstracts (1438 oral and 5347 poster presentations) were presented during the period assessed. Of these, 2099 (30.9%) proceeded to full publication in indexed journals. Oral abstract presentations were most likely to proceed to full publication compared with poster presentations (odds ratio: 1.38, 95% confidence interval: 1.22-1.56) and were more likely to achieve publication in higher impact journals (median impact factor 4.78 vs. 2.89, PEuropean Gastroenterology abstract conversion rate to full publication (46.8%). This is the first study to assess the publication rates of UEGW. Findings are favourable with similar studies from other societies.

Abstracts from the 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Canadian Geriatrics Society Quebec City, April 2012

OpenAIRE

Auais, M.; Morin, S.; Finch, L.; Sara, A.; Mayo, N.; Charise, A.; Islam, A.; Muir, Susan; Montero-Odasso, Manuel; Kennedy, C.C.; Papaioannou, A.; Ioannidis, G.; Giangregorio, L.M.; Adachi, J.D.; Thabane, L.

2012-01-01

The opinions expressed in the abstracts are those of the authors and are not to be construed as the opinion of the publisher (Canadian Geriatrics Society) or the organizers of the 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Canadian Geriatrics Society. Although the publisher (Canadian Geriatrics Society) has made every effort to accurately reproduce the abstracts, the Canadian Geriatrics Society and the 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Canadian Geriatrics Society assumes no responsibility and/...

Temporal Dynamics of Task Switching and Abstract-Concept Learning in Pigeons

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Thomas Alexander Daniel

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The current study examined whether pigeons could learn to use abstract concepts as the basis for conditionally switching behavior as a function of time. Using a mid-session reversal task, experienced pigeons were trained to switch from matching-to-sample (MTS to non-matching-to-sample (NMTS conditional discriminations within a session. One group had prior training with MTS, while the other had prior training with NMTS. Over training, stimulus set size was progressively doubled from 3 to 6 to 12 stimuli to promote abstract concept development. Prior experience had an effect on the initial learning at each of the set sizes but by the end of training there were no group differences, as both groups showed similar within-session linear matching functions. After acquiring the 12-item set, abstract-concept learning was tested by placing novel stimuli at the beginning and end of a test session. Prior matching and non-matching experience affected transfer behavior. The matching experienced group transferred to novel stimuli in both the matching and non-matching portion of the sessions using a matching rule. The non-matching experienced group transferred to novel stimuli in both portions of the session using a non-matching rule. The representations used as the basis for mid-session reversal of the conditional discrimination behaviors and subsequent transfer behavior appears to have different temporal sources. The implications for the flexibility and organization of complex behaviors are considered.

The concept of cooking skills: A review with contributions to the scientific debate

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Manuela Mika JOMORI

Full Text Available ABSTRACT This paper aimed to conduct a literature review about the concept of cooking skills to contribute to the scientific debate about the subject. A systematic search was performed in the Scopus, PubMed/MedLine and Web of Science databases as well as the periodicals of the Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education in Brazil Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior website, using the following Portuguese and English keywords: cooking skills, cooking and food/meal preparation. We also consulted references cited by these papers, electronic dictionaries (in Portuguese, English and French, technical documents found on public and private institutional websites, as well as books. Basic, etymological/vernacular and systematic definitions for cooking were identified, including historical global and national contexts. To conceptualize cooking skills, categories related to food and individuals were established, purposing a conceptual model. The category related to food referred to the use of unprocessed/minimal processed foods (which require procedures prior to their preparation, and/or processed/ultra-processed foods (which need a little or no preparation, such as re-heating. The category related to individuals involved dimensions such as confidence, attitudes, behavior, and individual knowledge used to prepare foods. The historical definitions of cooking allowed us to clarify the concept of cooking skills. Considering the global context of valuing and recovering cooking for the promotion of healthy eating, this review can contribute to the scientific discussion about the concept of cooking skills. The purposed conceptual model enables parameters to be established for further investigations, allowing cooking interventions to be directed toward promoting healthy eating.

Analysis of subsequent publication of scientific orally presented abstracts of the French National Congress of Radiology. Part II: Focus on the French abstracts.

Science.gov (United States)

Dangouloff-Ros, V; Ronot, M; Lagadec, M; Vilgrain, V

2015-05-01

To evaluate the publication rate of scientific abstracts that were presented orally at the 2008, 2009, and 2010 annual meetings of the French Society of Radiology by French radiologists, and to perform a French regional analysis. Orally presented abstracts were identified by examining online abstract books of the 2008, 2009, and 2010 annual meetings of the French Society of Radiology, and cross-checked by reviewing the paper version of abstracts for the same period. Only abstracts from French teams were selected. The administrative region of submission was noted for each abstract and for each region the total population, the number of active radiologists, the number of active members of the French Society of Radiology and the number of academic radiologists were noted. Imaging subspecialties were also noted. 625 abstracts were identified resulting in 268 publications (publication rate: 43%). The median number of presentations and publications per region was 18 (range: 1-255) and 7 (range: 0-101), respectively. The ratio per million inhabitants was 7.5 and 3 respectively. The median number of presentations and publications per 100 active radiologists (respectively members of the FSR) was 7 and 3 (respectively 10 and 4). The median number of presentations and publications per academic radiologist were 2.6, and 1.2, respectively. The regional variations for each indicator were high (40-180%). Three subspecialties had a publication rate of more than 50%: thoracic imaging (58%), abdominal imaging (52%), and genitourinary imaging (51%). The publication rate of orally presented French scientific abstracts was high, with important variations according to the regions of origin and imaging subspecialties. Copyright © 2015 Éditions françaises de radiologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Use of positive and negative words in scientific PubMed abstracts between 1974 and 2014 : retrospective analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vinkers, Christiaan H|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/304824755; Tijdink, Joeri K; Otte, Willem M

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether language used in science abstracts can skew towards the use of strikingly positive and negative words over time. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of all scientific abstracts in PubMed between 1974 and 2014. METHODS: The yearly frequencies of positive, negative, and

Learning and Processing Abstract Words and Concepts: Insights From Typical and Atypical Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Vigliocco, Gabriella; Ponari, Marta; Norbury, Courtenay

2018-05-21

The paper describes two plausible hypotheses concerning the learning of abstract words and concepts. According to a first hypothesis, children would learn abstract words by extracting co-occurrences among words in linguistic input, using, for example, mechanisms as described by models of Distributional Semantics. According to a second hypothesis, children would exploit the fact that abstract words tend to have more emotional associations than concrete words to infer that they refer to internal/mental states. Each hypothesis makes specific predictions with regards to when and which abstract words are more likely to be learned; also they make different predictions concerning the impact of developmental disorders. We start by providing a review of work characterizing how abstract words and concepts are learned in development, especially between the ages of 6 and 12. Second, we review some work from our group that tests the two hypotheses above. This work investigates typically developing (TD) children and children with atypical development (developmental language disorders [DLD] and autism spectrum disorder [ASD] with and without language deficits). We conclude that the use of strategies based on emotional information, or on co-occurrences in language, may play a role at different developmental stages. © 2018 Cognitive Science Society Inc.

Validity of a structured method of selecting abstracts for a plastic surgical scientific meeting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Steen, LPE; Hage, JJ; Kon, M; Monstrey, SJ

In 1999, the European Association of Plastic Surgeons accepted a structured method to assess and select the abstracts that are submitted for its yearly scientific meeting. The two criteria used to evaluate whether such a selection method is accurate were reliability and validity. The authors

Mastery of Scientific Argumentation on the Concept of Neutralization in Chemistry: A Malaysian Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Heng, Lee Ling; Surif, Johari; Seng, Cher Hau; Ibrahim, Nor Hasniza

2015-01-01

Purpose: Argumentative practices are central to science education, and have recently been emphasised to promote students' reasoning skills and to develop student's understanding of scientific concepts. This study examines the mastery of scientific argumentation, based on the concept of neutralisation, among secondary level science students, when…

Actual problems of physics and technology. III International youth scientific school-conference. Book of abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-01-01

The third International youth scientific school-conference took place 10-13 April 2014 year in Moscow on the basis National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and RAS Lebedev P.N. Physical Institute. The actual scientific problems of current fundamental and applied physics as well as nuclear and physical technologies were discussed. This book of abstracts contains many interesting items devoted problems of theoretical physics and astrophysics, nuclear physics, nanotecnology, laser physics and plasma physics [ru

Handedness shapes children's abstract concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Casasanto, Daniel; Henetz, Tania

2012-03-01

Can children's handedness influence how they represent abstract concepts like kindness and intelligence? Here we show that from an early age, right-handers associate rightward space more strongly with positive ideas and leftward space with negative ideas, but the opposite is true for left-handers. In one experiment, children indicated where on a diagram a preferred toy and a dispreferred toy should go. Right-handers tended to assign the preferred toy to a box on the right and the dispreferred toy to a box on the left. Left-handers showed the opposite pattern. In a second experiment, children judged which of two cartoon animals looked smarter (or dumber) or nicer (or meaner). Right-handers attributed more positive qualities to animals on the right, but left-handers to animals on the left. These contrasting associations between space and valence cannot be explained by exposure to language or cultural conventions, which consistently link right with good. Rather, right- and left-handers implicitly associated positive valence more strongly with the side of space on which they can act more fluently with their dominant hands. Results support the body-specificity hypothesis (Casasanto, 2009), showing that children with different kinds of bodies think differently in corresponding ways. Copyright © 2011 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Use of positive and negative words in scientific PubMed abstracts between 1974 and 2014 : retrospective analysis

OpenAIRE

Vinkers, Christiaan H; Tijdink, Joeri K; Otte, Willem M

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether language used in science abstracts can skew towards the use of strikingly positive and negative words over time. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of all scientific abstracts in PubMed between 1974 and 2014. METHODS: The yearly frequencies of positive, negative, and neutral words (25 preselected words in each category), plus 100 randomly selected words were normalised for the total number of abstracts. Subanalyses included pattern quantification of individual wo...

Semantic size of abstract concepts: it gets emotional when you can't see it.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Bo; Vasiljevic, Milica; Weick, Mario; Sereno, Margaret E; O'Donnell, Patrick J; Sereno, Sara C

2013-01-01

Size is an important visuo-spatial characteristic of the physical world. In language processing, previous research has demonstrated a processing advantage for words denoting semantically "big" (e.g., jungle) versus "small" (e.g., needle) concrete objects. We investigated whether semantic size plays a role in the recognition of words expressing abstract concepts (e.g., truth). Semantically "big" and "small" concrete and abstract words were presented in a lexical decision task. Responses to "big" words, regardless of their concreteness, were faster than those to "small" words. Critically, we explored the relationship between semantic size and affective characteristics of words as well as their influence on lexical access. Although a word's semantic size was correlated with its emotional arousal, the temporal locus of arousal effects may depend on the level of concreteness. That is, arousal seemed to have an earlier (lexical) effect on abstract words, but a later (post-lexical) effect on concrete words. Our findings provide novel insights into the semantic representations of size in abstract concepts and highlight that affective attributes of words may not always index lexical access.

Rate and Predictors of the Conversion of Abstracts Presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress Scientific Meetings to Full Peer-Reviewed Publications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abuzeid, Wael; Fosbøl, Emil Loldrup; Fosbøl, Philip Loldrup

2013-01-01

The rate of conversion of abstracts presented at scientific meetings into peer-reviewed published manuscripts is an important metric for medical societies, because it facilitates translation of scientific knowledge into practice. We determined the rate and predictors of conversion of scientific...... abstracts presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress (CCC) from 2006 to 2010 into peer-reviewed article publications within 2 years of their initial presentation. Using a previously validated computer algorithm, we searched the International Statistical Institute Web of Science to identify peer...

Conceptual development as rising from the abstract to the concrete: from thought energy to experienced energy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo dos Santos Crepalde

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The development of scientific concepts is usually described as a pathway from the realm of concrete life to the abstract principles of science, in a higher level of generalisation. In this paper, we argue that the appropriation of scientific concepts occurs in the return to concrete in a higher level of conceptual development, which means a transition from the given concrete to a thoughtful and recreated concrete. In the first part of the paper we ground this point of view based on the intellectual routes of Lev Vigotski and on the Philosophy of Language of Michail Bakhtin. From Vigotski, we discuss the dialectic method of research, the concept of semiotic mediation and its implications to conceptual development, the relationship between everyday and scientific concepts and the role of concrete and abstract realms in conceptual development. From Bakhtin, we understand conceptual development as sense making in the dialogue between voices in different spheres of social life. In the second part of this paper we present empirical evidence to support this thesis. This will be done by analysing the meanings evoked by rural teacher students to the concept of energy in narratives produced by them at the end of a module of study on this subject. We seek to examine how the subjects of this experience populate with new meanings, dialectically and dialogically, the concept of energy. The main result of this study is the presence of a hybridisation of scientific and everyday life discourses in the efforts of subjects to confer relevant meanings (in both personal and social aspects to the abstract statements of science. We conclude with some implications of this thesis to science education research and practice.

Are scientific abstracts written in poetic verse an effective representation of the underlying research? [version 3; referees: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sam Illingworth

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The central purpose of science is to explain (Purtill, 1970. However, who is that explanation for, and how is this explanation communicated once it has been deduced? Scientific research is typically communicated via papers in journals, with an abstract presented as a summary of that explanation. However, in many instances they may be written in a manner which is non-communicatory to a lay reader (Halliday & Martin, 2003. This study begins to investigate if poetry could be used as an alternative form of communication, by first assessing if poetic verse is an effective form of communication to other scientists. In order to assess this suitability, a survey was conducted in which two different groups of participants were asked questions based on a scientific abstract. One group of participants was given the original scientific abstract, whilst the second group was instead given a poem written about the scientific study. Quantitative analysis found that whilst a scientific audience found a poetic interpretation of a scientific abstract to be no less interesting or inspiring than the original prose, they did find it to be less accessible. However, further qualitative analysis suggested that the poem did a good job in conveying a similar meaning to that presented in the original abstract. The results of this study indicate that whilst for a scientific audience poetry should not replace the prose abstract, it could be used alongside the original format to inspire the reader to find out more about the topic. Further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of this approach for a non-expert audience. Alternative version:   Are scientific papers understood, By anyone from outside of the field; And is an abstract really any good, If jargon means its secrets aren’t revealed? Could poetry present a different way, Of summing up research in a nutshell;  Presented in a language for the lay, Yet still useful for scientists as well? This study

Sound iconicity of abstract concepts: Place of articulation is implicitly associated with abstract concepts of size and social dominance.

Science.gov (United States)

Auracher, Jan

2017-01-01

The concept of sound iconicity implies that phonemes are intrinsically associated with non-acoustic phenomena, such as emotional expression, object size or shape, or other perceptual features. In this respect, sound iconicity is related to other forms of cross-modal associations in which stimuli from different sensory modalities are associated with each other due to the implicitly perceived correspondence of their primal features. One prominent example is the association between vowels, categorized according to their place of articulation, and size, with back vowels being associated with bigness and front vowels with smallness. However, to date the relative influence of perceptual and conceptual cognitive processing on this association is not clear. To bridge this gap, three experiments were conducted in which associations between nonsense words and pictures of animals or emotional body postures were tested. In these experiments participants had to infer the relation between visual stimuli and the notion of size from the content of the pictures, while directly perceivable features did not support-or even contradicted-the predicted association. Results show that implicit associations between articulatory-acoustic characteristics of phonemes and pictures are mainly influenced by semantic features, i.e., the content of a picture, whereas the influence of perceivable features, i.e., size or shape, is overridden. This suggests that abstract semantic concepts can function as an interface between different sensory modalities, facilitating cross-modal associations.

From Perceptual Categories to Concepts: What Develops?

Science.gov (United States)

Sloutsky, Vladimir M.

2010-01-01

People are remarkably smart: they use language, possess complex motor skills, make non-trivial inferences, develop and use scientific theories, make laws, and adapt to complex dynamic environments. Much of this knowledge requires concepts and this paper focuses on how people acquire concepts. It is argued that conceptual development progresses from simple perceptual grouping to highly abstract scientific concepts. This proposal of conceptual development has four parts. First, it is argued that categories in the world have different structure. Second, there might be different learning systems (sub-served by different brain mechanisms) that evolved to learn categories of differing structures. Third, these systems exhibit differential maturational course, which affects how categories of different structures are learned in the course of development. And finally, an interaction of these components may result in the developmental transition from perceptual groupings to more abstract concepts. This paper reviews a large body of empirical evidence supporting this proposal. PMID:21116483

Semantic Size of Abstract Concepts: It Gets Emotional When You Can’t See It

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Bo; Vasiljevic, Milica; Weick, Mario; Sereno, Margaret E.; O’Donnell, Patrick J.; Sereno, Sara C.

2013-01-01

Size is an important visuo-spatial characteristic of the physical world. In language processing, previous research has demonstrated a processing advantage for words denoting semantically “big” (e.g., jungle) versus “small” (e.g., needle) concrete objects. We investigated whether semantic size plays a role in the recognition of words expressing abstract concepts (e.g., truth). Semantically “big” and “small” concrete and abstract words were presented in a lexical decision task. Responses to “big” words, regardless of their concreteness, were faster than those to “small” words. Critically, we explored the relationship between semantic size and affective characteristics of words as well as their influence on lexical access. Although a word’s semantic size was correlated with its emotional arousal, the temporal locus of arousal effects may depend on the level of concreteness. That is, arousal seemed to have an earlier (lexical) effect on abstract words, but a later (post-lexical) effect on concrete words. Our findings provide novel insights into the semantic representations of size in abstract concepts and highlight that affective attributes of words may not always index lexical access. PMID:24086421

Instructional games: Scientific language use, concept understanding, and attitudinal development of middle school learners

Science.gov (United States)

Mongillo, Geraldine

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the influence of instructional games on middle school learners' use of scientific language, concept understanding, and attitude toward learning science. The rationale for this study stemmed from the lack of research concerning the value of play as an instructional strategy for older learners. Specifically, the study focused on the ways in which 6 average ability 7th grade students demonstrated scientific language and concept use during gameplay. The data were collected for this 6-week study in a southern New Jersey suburban middle school and included audio recordings of the 5 games observed in class, written documents (e.g., student created game questions, self-evaluation forms, pre- and post-assessments, and the final quiz) interviews, and researcher field notes. Data were coded and interpreted borrowing from the framework for scientific literacy developed by Bybee (1997). Based on the findings, the framework was modified to reflect the level of scientific understanding demonstrated by the participants and categorized as: Unacquainted, Nominal, Functional, and Conceptual. Major findings suggested that the participants predominantly achieved the Functional level of scientific literacy (i.e., the ability to adequately and appropriately use scientific language in both written and oral discourse) during games. Further, it was discovered that the participants achieved the Conceptual level of scientific literacy during gameplay. Through games participants were afforded the opportunity to use common, everyday language to explore concepts, promoted through peer collaboration. In games the participants used common language to build understandings that exceeded Nominal or token use of the technical vocabulary and concepts. Additionally, the participants reported through interviews and self-evaluation forms that their attitude (patterns included: Motivation, Interest, Fun, Relief from Boredom, and an Alternate Learning

Auditing complex concepts of SNOMED using a refined hierarchical abstraction network.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yue; Halper, Michael; Wei, Duo; Gu, Huanying; Perl, Yehoshua; Xu, Junchuan; Elhanan, Gai; Chen, Yan; Spackman, Kent A; Case, James T; Hripcsak, George

2012-02-01

Auditors of a large terminology, such as SNOMED CT, face a daunting challenge. To aid them in their efforts, it is essential to devise techniques that can automatically identify concepts warranting special attention. "Complex" concepts, which by their very nature are more difficult to model, fall neatly into this category. A special kind of grouping, called a partial-area, is utilized in the characterization of complex concepts. In particular, the complex concepts that are the focus of this work are those appearing in intersections of multiple partial-areas and are thus referred to as overlapping concepts. In a companion paper, an automatic methodology for identifying and partitioning the entire collection of overlapping concepts into disjoint, singly-rooted groups, that are more manageable to work with and comprehend, has been presented. The partitioning methodology formed the foundation for the development of an abstraction network for the overlapping concepts called a disjoint partial-area taxonomy. This new disjoint partial-area taxonomy offers a collection of semantically uniform partial-areas and is exploited herein as the basis for a novel auditing methodology. The review of the overlapping concepts is done in a top-down order within semantically uniform groups. These groups are themselves reviewed in a top-down order, which proceeds from the less complex to the more complex overlapping concepts. The results of applying the methodology to SNOMED's Specimen hierarchy are presented. Hypotheses regarding error ratios for overlapping concepts and between different kinds of overlapping concepts are formulated. Two phases of auditing the Specimen hierarchy for two releases of SNOMED are reported on. With the use of the double bootstrap and Fisher's exact test (two-tailed), the auditing of concepts and especially roots of overlapping partial-areas is shown to yield a statistically significant higher proportion of errors. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights

Auditing Complex Concepts of SNOMED using a Refined Hierarchical Abstraction Network

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yue; Halper, Michael; Wei, Duo; Gu, Huanying; Perl, Yehoshua; Xu, Junchuan; Elhanan, Gai; Chen, Yan; Spackman, Kent A.; Case, James T.; Hripcsak, George

2012-01-01

Auditors of a large terminology, such as SNOMED CT, face a daunting challenge. To aid them in their efforts, it is essential to devise techniques that can automatically identify concepts warranting special attention. “Complex” concepts, which by their very nature are more difficult to model, fall neatly into this category. A special kind of grouping, called a partial-area, is utilized in the characterization of complex concepts. In particular, the complex concepts that are the focus of this work are those appearing in intersections of multiple partial-areas and are thus referred to as overlapping concepts. In a companion paper, an automatic methodology for identifying and partitioning the entire collection of overlapping concepts into disjoint, singly-rooted groups, that are more manageable to work with and comprehend, has been presented. The partitioning methodology formed the foundation for the development of an abstraction network for the overlapping concepts called a disjoint partial-area taxonomy. This new disjoint partial-area taxonomy offers a collection of semantically uniform partial-areas and is exploited herein as the basis for a novel auditing methodology. The review of the overlapping concepts is done in a top-down order within semantically uniform groups. These groups are themselves reviewed in a top-down order, which proceeds from the less complex to the more complex overlapping concepts. The results of applying the methodology to SNOMED’s Specimen hierarchy are presented. Hypotheses regarding error ratios for overlapping concepts and between different kinds of overlapping concepts are formulated. Two phases of auditing the Specimen hierarchy for two releases of SNOMED are reported on. With the use of the double bootstrap and Fisher’s exact test (two-tailed), the auditing of concepts and especially roots of overlapping partial-areas is shown to yield a statistically significant higher proportion of errors. PMID:21907827

Neural reuse leads to associative connections between concrete (physical) and abstract (social) concepts and motives.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yimeng; Bargh, John A

2016-01-01

Consistent with neural reuse theory, empirical tests of the related "scaffolding" principle of abstract concept development show that higher-level concepts "reuse" and are built upon fundamental motives such as survival, safety, and consumption. This produces mutual influence between the two levels, with far-ranging impacts from consumer behavior to political attitudes.

Formal Methods for Abstract Specifications – A Comparison of Concepts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Instenberg, Martin; Schneider, Axel; Schnetter, Sabine

2006-01-01

In industry formal methods are becoming increasingly important for the verification of hardware and software designs. However current practice for specification of system and protocol functionality on high level of abstraction is textual description. For verification of the system behavior manual...... inspections and tests are usual means. To facilitate the introduction of formal methods in the development process of complex systems and protocols, two different tools evolved from research activities – UPPAAL and SpecEdit – have been investigated and compared regarding their concepts and functionality...

Small Business Innovation Research. Abstracts of Phase I awards, 1999

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1999-12-01

This booklet presents technical abstracts of Phase I awards made in Fiscal Year (FY) 1999 under the DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. SBIR research explores innovative concepts in important technological and scientific areas that can lead to valuable new technology and products. The work described in the abstracts is novel, high-risk research, but the benefits will also be potentially high if the objectives are met. Brief comments on the potential applications, as described by the awardee, are given after each abstract. Individuals and organizations, including venture capital and larger industrial firms, with an interest in the research described in any of the abstracts are encouraged to contact the appropriate small business directly.

[Seed geography: its concept and basic scientific issues].

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Shun-Li; Wang, Zong-Shuai; Zeren, Wangmu

2010-01-01

In this paper, a new concept 'seed geography' was provided, and its definition, research contents, and scientific issues were put forward. Seed geography is a newly developed interdisciplinary science from plant geography, seed ecology, and phytosociology, which studies the geographic variation patterns of seed biological traits as well as their relationships with environmental factors from macroscopic to microscopic, and the seed formation, development, and change trends. The main research contents would include geography of seed mass, geography of seed chemical components, geography of seed morphology, geography of seed cell biological characteristics, geography of seed physiological characteristics, geography of seed genetic characteristics, and geography of flower and fruit. To explore the scientific issues in seed geography would help us to better understand the long-term adaptation and evolution of seed characteristics to natural environments.

The Concept of Blood Purification in the Context of Scientific Racism in the 18th Century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Federico Campos Rivas

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article aims to analyze the presence of the concept of blood cleansing in scientific racism, by drawing equivalences and analogies with the caste discourse that prevailed in 18th century Spanish America. With the study of this conjuncture it is intended to demonstrate the existence of a taxonomical dialogue and mutual influence between the fronts of the scientific racism and the traditional conception of caste in the colonial society. Through the study of the main authors and printed works of the scientific racism paradigm, it is intended to discover the genealogical conception of the posterity of mixed lineages, reviewing its compatibility with the main theories of monogenism and polygenism, and demonstrating the survival of traditional concepts about blood and temperament. This work contributes to explain how Spanish America was taken as a sort of social laboratory for the cause of scientific racism, providing its long-lived experience in the theme of miscegenation.

Teaching scientific concepts through simple models and social communication techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tilakaratne, K.

2011-01-01

For science education, it is important to demonstrate to students the relevance of scientific concepts in every-day life experiences. Although there are methods available for achieving this goal, it is more effective if cultural flavor is also added to the teaching techniques and thereby the teacher and students can easily relate the subject matter to their surroundings. Furthermore, this would bridge the gap between science and day-to-day experiences in an effective manner. It could also help students to use science as a tool to solve problems faced by them and consequently they would feel science is a part of their lives. In this paper, it has been described how simple models and cultural communication techniques can be used effectively in demonstrating important scientific concepts to the students of secondary and higher secondary levels by using two consecutive activities carried out at the Institute of Fundamental Studies (IFS), Sri Lanka. (author)

Exploring South African high school teachers' conceptions of the nature of scientific inquiry: a case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Washington T Dudu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The paper explores conceptions of the nature ofscientific inquiry (NOSI held by five teachers who were purposively and conveniently sampled. Teachers' conceptions of the NOSI were determined using a Probes questionnaire. To confirm teachers' responses, a semi-structured interview was conducted with each teacher. The Probes questionnaire was based on six tenets of the nature of scientific inquiry but only three tenets are presented in this paper, namely: (1 scientists use a variety of methods to conduct scientific investigations; (2 scientific knowledge is socially and culturally embedded; and (3 scientific knowledge is partly the product of human creativity and imagination. The study found that the teachers held mixed NOSI conceptions. These conceptions werefluid and lacked coherence, ranging from static, empiricist-aligned to dynamic, constructivist-oriented conceptions. Although all participants expressed some views that were consistent with current, acceptable conceptions of NOSI, some held inadequate (naïve views on the crucial three NOSI tenets. The significance of this study rests in recommending explicit teaching of NOSI duringpre-service and in-service training which enables teachers to possess informed conceptions about NOSI. With these informed conceptions, teachers may internalise the instructional importance of the NOSI which, in turn, may help avoid the lack of attention to NOSI currently evidenced in teachers' instructional decisions. This might result in teachers' orientations shifting towards an explicit inquiry-based approach from that of an implicit science process and discovery approach.

Learning Abstract Physical Concepts from Experience: Design and Use of an RC Circuit

Science.gov (United States)

Parra, Alfredo; Ordenes, Jorge; de la Fuente, Milton

2018-05-01

Science learning for undergraduate students requires grasping a great number of theoretical concepts in a rather short time. In our experience, this is especially difficult when students are required to simultaneously use abstract concepts, mathematical reasoning, and graphical analysis, such as occurs when learning about RC circuits. We present a simple experimental model in this work that allows students to easily design, build, and analyze RC circuits, thus providing an opportunity to test personal ideas, build graphical descriptions, and explore the meaning of the respective mathematical models, ultimately gaining a better grasp of the concepts involved. The result suggests that the simple setup indeed helps untrained students to visualize the essential points of this kind of circuit.

Soft Power: Political Use of A Scientific Concept

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maksim Vladimirovich Kharkevich

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article discusses the use and transformation of the American scientific concept "soft power" in official Russian and US foreign policy rhetoric with the methodological help of Habermas' communicative action theory and its adoption to IR by T. Risse. In mainstream IR the proliferation of the "soft power" concept is viewed in terms of ideological competition among states. The author argues that it is better to view this process as a form of international political deliberations on new forms of power in world politics. The article shows that there's no communicative action of US and Russia based on their tentative discussion of the "soft power" concept. On of reasons might be the lack of interest of both states for the concept as an ideological basis for cooperative actions. For Russia soft power in its classical form might be used towards its near abroad and probably BIC states. In dealings with western states Russian soft power turns into lobbyism and propaganda which is strictly not soft power. US under Obama have basically refuted the concept, having changed it for analytically meaningless "smart power". The conclusion is that communicative action requires prior existence of commutative rationality. This type of rationality is evident among postmodern states - the EU member states - and apparently absent among modern states such as Russia and US.

Use of positive and negative words in scientific PubMed abstracts between 1974 and 2014: retrospective analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Vinkers, Christiaan H; Tijdink, Joeri K; Otte, Willem M

2015-12-14

To investigate whether language used in science abstracts can skew towards the use of strikingly positive and negative words over time. Retrospective analysis of all scientific abstracts in PubMed between 1974 and 2014. The yearly frequencies of positive, negative, and neutral words (25 preselected words in each category), plus 100 randomly selected words were normalised for the total number of abstracts. Subanalyses included pattern quantification of individual words, specificity for selected high impact journals, and comparison between author affiliations within or outside countries with English as the official majority language. Frequency patterns were compared with 4% of all books ever printed and digitised by use of Google Books Ngram Viewer. Frequencies of positive and negative words in abstracts compared with frequencies of words with a neutral and random connotation, expressed as relative change since 1980. The absolute frequency of positive words increased from 2.0% (1974-80) to 17.5% (2014), a relative increase of 880% over four decades. All 25 individual positive words contributed to the increase, particularly the words "robust," "novel," "innovative," and "unprecedented," which increased in relative frequency up to 15,000%. Comparable but less pronounced results were obtained when restricting the analysis to selected journals with high impact factors. Authors affiliated to an institute in a non-English speaking country used significantly more positive words. Negative word frequencies increased from 1.3% (1974-80) to 3.2% (2014), a relative increase of 257%. Over the same time period, no apparent increase was found in neutral or random word use, or in the frequency of positive word use in published books. Our lexicographic analysis indicates that scientific abstracts are currently written with more positive and negative words, and provides an insight into the evolution of scientific writing. Apparently scientists look on the bright side of research

Practical Realism: Against Standard Scientific Realism and Anti-Realism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rein Vihalemm

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the elaboration of the concept of practical realist philosophy of science which began in the author's previous papers is continued. It is argued that practical realism is opposed to standard scientific realism, on the one hand, and antirealism, on the other. Standard scientific realism is challengeable due to its abstract character, as being isolated from practice. It is based on a metaphysical-ontological presupposition which raises the problem of the God's Eye point of view (as it was called by Hilary Putnam. Joseph Rouse's conception of science as practice, Sami Pihlström's pragmatic realism, and even Ilkka Niiniluoto's critical scientific realism are interpreted as practical realist conceptions. Pihlström suggests that the contemporary scientific realist should be prepared to accept the pragmatically naturalized Kantian transcendental perspective on realism. It is argued, however, that this realistically naturalized Kantianism can be nothing more than practical realism, as originated by Karl Marx.

Small Business Innovation Research. Abstracts of Phase I awards, 1999; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

This booklet presents technical abstracts of Phase I awards made in Fiscal Year (FY) 1999 under the DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. SBIR research explores innovative concepts in important technological and scientific areas that can lead to valuable new technology and products. The work described in the abstracts is novel, high-risk research, but the benefits will also be potentially high if the objectives are met. Brief comments on the potential applications, as described by the awardee, are given after each abstract. Individuals and organizations, including venture capital and larger industrial firms, with an interest in the research described in any of the abstracts are encouraged to contact the appropriate small business directly

SCEE 2008 book of abstracts. The 7. international conference on scientific computing in electrical engineering (SCEE 2008)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roos, J.; Costa, L.R.J. (ed.)

2008-09-15

SCEE is an international conference series dedicated to Scientific Computing in Electrical Engineering. The 7th International Conference on Scientific Computing in Electrical Engineering (SCEE 2008) in Espoo, Finland, is organized by the Helsinki University of Technology (TKK); Faculty of Electronics, Communications and Automation (ECA); Department of Radio Science and Engineering (RAD); Circuit Theory Group. (SCEE 2008 web site: http://www.ct.tkk.fi/scee2008/). The aim of the SCEE 2008 conference is to bring together scientists from academia and industry with the goal of intensive discussions on modeling and numerical simulation of electronic circuits and of electromagnetic fields. The conference is mainly directed towards mathematicians and electrical engineers. The SCEE 2008 conference has the following four main topics: 1. Computational Electromagnetics (CE), 2. Circuit Simulation (CS), 3. Coupled Problems (CP), 4. Mathematical and Computational Methods (CM). The selection of abstracts in this book was carried out by the Program Committee; each abstract was reviewed by two or three reviewers. The authors of all accepted abstracts were invited to submit an extended full paper, which will be reviewed as well. The accepted full papers will later on be published in a separate post-conference book

Young Children's Self-Concepts Include Representations of Abstract Traits and the Global Self.

Science.gov (United States)

Cimpian, Andrei; Hammond, Matthew D; Mazza, Giulia; Corry, Grace

2017-11-01

There is debate about the abstractness of young children's self-concepts-specifically, whether they include representations of (a) general traits and abilities and (b) the global self. Four studies (N = 176 children aged 4-7) suggested these representations are indeed part of early self-concepts. Studies 1 and 2 reexamined prior evidence that young children cannot represent traits and abilities. The results suggested that children's seemingly immature judgments in previous studies were due to peculiarities of the task context not the inadequacy of children's self-concepts. Similarly, Studies 3 and 4 revealed that, contrary to claims of immaturity in reasoning about the global self, young children update their global self-evaluations in flexible, context-sensitive ways. This evidence suggests continuity in the structure of self-concepts across childhood. © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

2005 Annual Scientific Conference. Program and Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barborica, Andrei; Bulinski, Mircea; Stefan, Sabina

2005-01-01

Every year the Physics Department of the University of Bucharest organizes the 'Annual Scientific Conference' to present the most interesting scientific results, obtained within the department. This scientific session is opened also to the interested physics researchers from other institutes and universities in the country. This scientific event represents a recognition and a continuation of the prestigious tradition of physics research performed within University. The scientific research in the Physics Department is performed in groups and research centers, the terminal year undergraduate students and graduate students being involved in a high extent in the research works. There are 5 research centers with the status of Center of excellence in research. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing the scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics, as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of the environment, physics - computer science. Following this strategy, the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to perform modern and competitive research projects. The Faculty of Physics is a partner in many common research programs with prestigious foreign universities and institutes. The 2005 session covered the following 8 topics: 1. Atmosphere and Earth Science; Environment Protection (21 papers); 2. Atomic and Molecular Physics; Astrophysics (12 papers); 3. Electricity and Biophysics (19 papers); 4. Nuclear and Elementary Particles Physics (17 papers); 5. Optics, Spectroscopy, Plasma and Lasers (19 papers); 6. Polymer Physics (10 papers); 7. Solid State Physics and Materials Science (10 papers); 8. Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics Seminar (12 papers)

Levels of abstraction in students' understanding of the concept of algorithm : the qualitative perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Perrenet, J.C.; Kaasenbrood, E.J.S.

2006-01-01

In a former, mainly quantitative, study we defined four levels of abstraction in Computer Science students' thinking about the concept of algorithm. We constructed a list of questions about algorithms to measure the answering level as an indication for the thinking level. The answering level

Curriculum adaptation and the role of scientific concepts on the development of people with special educational needs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriane Cenci

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This work is based on cultural-historical theory from Vygotsky and on the National Curricular Parameters - Curricular Adaptations (1998 - aiming to discuss the importance of learning scientific concepts (the concepts learned through formal/ academic education to the development of students with special educational needs. It is characterized as a theoretical essay based on bibliographical research. The discussion axis is the idea of curricular adaptation/flexibility, since there is no real inclusion without considering the individualized education to meet the specific needs of students. The importance attached to school curriculum and scientific concepts referred to it is based on the Vygotskian premise stating that the learning promotes development; according to Vygotsky, knowledge systematization and awareness enter into the child mind through the learning of scientific concepts. Due to the importance of these concepts, it is needed to be careful to think about the curricular adaptations; under the justification of adapting the teaching and curriculum to the specificities of students with special needs. The formal contents are often disregarded, assuming that they would not be within the capacity scope of students, especially those ones with more pronounced difficulties. It is concluded that learning - learning scientific concepts - promotes cognitive development; then, schooling should invest at this point. It is imperative to fight for an inclusive school in which the children, in fact, can learn, learn contents.

Metaphor: Bridging embodiment to abstraction.

Science.gov (United States)

Jamrozik, Anja; McQuire, Marguerite; Cardillo, Eileen R; Chatterjee, Anjan

2016-08-01

Embodied cognition accounts posit that concepts are grounded in our sensory and motor systems. An important challenge for these accounts is explaining how abstract concepts, which do not directly call upon sensory or motor information, can be informed by experience. We propose that metaphor is one important vehicle guiding the development and use of abstract concepts. Metaphors allow us to draw on concrete, familiar domains to acquire and reason about abstract concepts. Additionally, repeated metaphoric use drawing on particular aspects of concrete experience can result in the development of new abstract representations. These abstractions, which are derived from embodied experience but lack much of the sensorimotor information associated with it, can then be flexibly applied to understand new situations.

2004 Annual Scientific Conference. Program and Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barborica, Andrei; Bulinski, Mircea; Stefan, Sabina

2005-01-01

As consequence of a long experience in educational as well as research field the Physics Department of the Bucharest University is offering high-standard undergraduate and graduate programs of higher education in physical sciences. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of environment, physics-computer science. Following this strategy the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to approach modern and competitive research projects. Every year the Physics Department of the University of Bucharest organizes the 'Annual Scientific Conference' to present the most interesting scientific results, obtained within the department. This 2004 scientific session is opened also to the interested physics researchers from other institutes and universities in the country. This scientific event represents a recognition and a continuation of the prestigious tradition of physics research performed within University. The scientific research in the Physics Department is performed in groups and research centers, the terminal year undergraduate students and graduate students being involved in a high extent in the research works. There are 5 research centers with the status of Center of excellence in research. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing the scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics, as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of the environment, physics - computer science. Following this strategy, the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to perform modern

2003 Annual Scientific Conference. Program and Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barborica, Andrei; Bulinski, Mircea

2003-01-01

As consequence of a long experience in educational as well as research field the Physics Department of the Bucharest University is offering high-standard undergraduate and graduate programs of higher education in physical sciences. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of environment, physics-computer science. Following this strategy the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to approach modern and competitive research projects. Every year the Physics Department of the University of Bucharest organizes the 'Annual Scientific Conference' to present the most interesting scientific results, obtained within the department. This scientific session is opened also to the interested physics researchers from other institutes and universities in the country. This scientific event represents a recognition and a continuation of the prestigious tradition of physics research performed within University. The scientific research in the Physics Department is performed in groups and research centers, the terminal year undergraduate students and graduate students being involved in a high extent in the research works. There are 5 research centers with the status of Center of excellence in research. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing the scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics, as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of the environment, physics - computer science. Following this strategy, the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to perform modern and

2002 Annual Scientific Conference. Program and Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barborica, Andrei; Bulinski, Mircea; Dinca, Mihai P.

2002-01-01

As consequence of a long experience in educational as well as research field the Physics Department of the Bucharest University is offering high-standard undergraduate and graduate programs of higher education in physical sciences. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of environment, physics-computer science. Following this strategy the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to approach modern and competitive research projects. Every year the Physics Department of the University of Bucharest organizes the 'Annual Scientific Conference' to present the most interesting scientific results, obtained within the department. This scientific session is opened also to the interested physics researchers from other institutes and universities in the country. This scientific event represents a recognition and a continuation of the prestigious tradition of physics research performed within University. The scientific research in the Physics Department is performed in groups and research centers, the terminal year undergraduate students and graduate students being involved in a high extent in the research works. There are 5 research centers with the status of Center of excellence in research. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing the scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics, as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of the environment, physics - computer science. Following this strategy, the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to perform modern and

What's Natural about Nature? Deceptive Concepts in Socio-Scientific Decision-Making

Science.gov (United States)

Lindahl, Mats Gunnar; Linder, Cedric

2015-01-01

The conflicts between nature and nurture are brought to the fore and challenges socio-scientific decision-making in science education. The multitude of meanings of these concepts and their roles in societal discourses can impede students' development of understanding for different perspectives, e.g. on gene technology. This study problematizes…

Encoding of physics concepts: concreteness and presentation modality reflected by human brain dynamics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kevin Lai

Full Text Available Previous research into working memory has focused on activations in different brain areas accompanying either different presentation modalities (verbal vs. non-verbal or concreteness (abstract vs. concrete of non-science concepts. Less research has been conducted investigating how scientific concepts are learned and further processed in working memory. To bridge this gap, the present study investigated human brain dynamics associated with encoding of physics concepts, taking both presentation modality and concreteness into account. Results of this study revealed greater theta and low-beta synchronization in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC during encoding of concrete pictures as compared to the encoding of both high and low imageable words. In visual brain areas, greater theta activity accompanying stimulus onsets was observed for words as compared to pictures while stronger alpha suppression was observed in responses to pictures as compared to words. In general, the EEG oscillation patterns for encoding words of different levels of abstractness were comparable but differed significantly from encoding of pictures. These results provide insights into the effects of modality of presentation on human encoding of scientific concepts and thus might help in developing new ways to better teach scientific concepts in class.

Encoding of physics concepts: concreteness and presentation modality reflected by human brain dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Kevin; She, Hsiao-Ching; Chen, Sheng-Chang; Chou, Wen-Chi; Huang, Li-Yu; Jung, Tzyy-Ping; Gramann, Klaus

2012-01-01

Previous research into working memory has focused on activations in different brain areas accompanying either different presentation modalities (verbal vs. non-verbal) or concreteness (abstract vs. concrete) of non-science concepts. Less research has been conducted investigating how scientific concepts are learned and further processed in working memory. To bridge this gap, the present study investigated human brain dynamics associated with encoding of physics concepts, taking both presentation modality and concreteness into account. Results of this study revealed greater theta and low-beta synchronization in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during encoding of concrete pictures as compared to the encoding of both high and low imageable words. In visual brain areas, greater theta activity accompanying stimulus onsets was observed for words as compared to pictures while stronger alpha suppression was observed in responses to pictures as compared to words. In general, the EEG oscillation patterns for encoding words of different levels of abstractness were comparable but differed significantly from encoding of pictures. These results provide insights into the effects of modality of presentation on human encoding of scientific concepts and thus might help in developing new ways to better teach scientific concepts in class.

CHRISTMAS 2015 : THE PUBLICATION GAME Use of positive and negative words in scientific PubMed abstracts between 1974 and 2014: retrospective analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vinkers, Christiaan H.; Tijdink, Joeri K.; Otte, Wim

2015-01-01

Objective To investigate whether language used in science abstracts can skew towards the use of strikingly positive and negative words over time. Design Retrospective analysis of all scientific abstracts in PubMed between 1974 and 2014. Methods The yearly frequencies of positive, negative, and

Scientific reasoning profile of junior secondary school students on the concept of static fluid

Science.gov (United States)

Mariana, N.; Siahaan, P.; Utari, S.

2018-05-01

Scientific reasoning is one of the most important ability. This study aims to determine the profile of scientific reasoning of junior high school students about the concept of static fluid. This research uses a descriptive method with a quantitative approach to get an idea about the scientific reasoning of One Roof Junior Secondary School Student Kotabaru Reteh in Riau. The technique of collecting data is done by test of scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning capability refers to Furtak’s EBR (Evidence Based Reasoning) scientific reasoning indicator that contains the components of claims, data, evidence, and rules. The result obtained on each element of scientific reasoning is 35% claim, 23% data, 21% evidence and 17% rule. The conclusions of this research that scientific reasoning of Satu Atap Junior Secondary School student Kotabaru Reteh, Riau Province still in the low category.

The deleuzian abstract machines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Werner Petersen, Erik

2005-01-01

To most people the concept of abstract machines is connected to the name of Alan Turing and the development of the modern computer. The Turing machine is universal, axiomatic and symbolic (E.g. operating on symbols). Inspired by Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari extended the concept of abstract...

The 24th National Session of Scientific Communications. Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

The 24th National Session of Scientific Communications was held on 7-9 October, 1998 in Caciulata-Valcea, Romania. The Session covered the following research fields: 1. organic and technological chemistry; 2. inorganic and technological chemistry; 3. polymer chemistry and technology; 4. chemical engineering; 5. environment protection. The section 2 contains two communications referring to 99m Tc-ROMTEC generator and the Romanian production of radioactive labelled products. The section 3 contains a study on polymer radiolysis investigated by computational methods. The following section referring to chemical engineering contains a study of surface science in heavy water facilities, an investigation of corrosion process in CANDU steam generator components and of oxidation in zircaloy-4 tubes, a report referring to o-xylene deuteration technology and a report on 15 N separation by isotopic exchange. Finally, the environment protection section contains a paper reporting on retaining process of UO 3 3+ from uranium in exhausted reactor waters. Proceedings of a poster section are also included. Abstracts of papers on the following items are given: radioluminescent composite materials, radiochemical compatibility of polymers, gamma irradiation effects on elution polymers used in the production of 99m Tc generator, obtaining tritium and deuterium labelled polyacrylic acid and radioinduced grafting of acrylic acid

Learning Gains for Core Concepts in a Serious Game on Scientific Reasoning

Science.gov (United States)

Forsyth, Carol; Pavlik, Philip, Jr.; Graesser, Arthur C.; Cai, Zhiqiang; Germany, Mae-lynn; Millis, Keith; Dolan, Robert P.; Butler, Heather; Halpern, Diane

2012-01-01

"OperationARIES!" is an Intelligent Tutoring System that teaches scientific inquiry skills in a game-like atmosphere. Students complete three different training modules, each with natural language conversations, in order to acquire deep-level knowledge of 21 core concepts of research methodology (e.g., correlation does not mean…

Conversion rates of abstracts presented at the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (USANZ) Annual Scientific Meeting into full-text journal articles.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoon, Peter D; Chalasani, Venu; Woo, Henry H

2012-08-01

What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? It is well known that the transition of a presented abstract in a scientific meeting to a journal article improves the quality of the meeting and prevents an abstract being incorporated into meta-analyses or practice guidelines without proper appraisal. This is the first analysis of USANZ Annual Scientific Meeting abstracts' conversion to full publication. With relatively low publication rates compared to other international meetings, this review identifies the need for mechanisms to encourage USANZ researchers to convert their abstracts into published articles. The numbers and characteristics of the abstracts presented at the Annual Scientific Meetings (ASM) of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (USANZ) that are converted to peer-reviewed publications have not previously been analysed and published. We undertook a review of all abstracts presented at the USANZ ASM from 2005 to 2009. A PubMed search was performed between 15 June and 15 July 2012, using a search algorithm to identify the full-text publications of the presented abstracts. Correlation between abstract characteristics and publication rate was then examined to distinguish the predictors for publications. Of 614 abstracts that were presented at USANZ ASM between 2005 and 2009, 183 papers were published, giving a publication rate of 29.80%. The papers were predominantly published in urological journals and were more likely to be published if they were presented by an international author or were retrospective studies or if basic science research. The mean (SD) time to publication was 14.46 (13.89) months and the mean Impact Factor of journals where papers were published was 2.90. The overall publication rate was relatively low compared with other urological meetings held in America and Europe. USANZ has a challenge of encouraging higher-quality research from the authors to further enhance its publication rate and consequently the

Neural Representations of Physics Concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Robert A; Just, Marcel Adam

2016-06-01

We used functional MRI (fMRI) to assess neural representations of physics concepts (momentum, energy, etc.) in juniors, seniors, and graduate students majoring in physics or engineering. Our goal was to identify the underlying neural dimensions of these representations. Using factor analysis to reduce the number of dimensions of activation, we obtained four physics-related factors that were mapped to sets of voxels. The four factors were interpretable as causal motion visualization, periodicity, algebraic form, and energy flow. The individual concepts were identifiable from their fMRI signatures with a mean rank accuracy of .75 using a machine-learning (multivoxel) classifier. Furthermore, there was commonality in participants' neural representation of physics; a classifier trained on data from all but one participant identified the concepts in the left-out participant (mean accuracy = .71 across all nine participant samples). The findings indicate that abstract scientific concepts acquired in an educational setting evoke activation patterns that are identifiable and common, indicating that science education builds abstract knowledge using inherent, repurposed brain systems. © The Author(s) 2016.

Concept Acquisition in Children with Mild Intellectual Disability: Factors Affecting the Abstraction of Prototypical Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayes, Brett K.; Conway, Robert N.

2000-01-01

A study investigated effects of variations in the number of instances comprising a category on concept acquisition by 31 children (ages 9-14) with mild intellectual disability and 19 controls. Intellectual disability had little effect on ability to abstract a category prototype but did reduce use of exemplar-specific information for recognition.…

Text mining scientific papers: a survey on FCA-based information retrieval research

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poelmans, J.; Ignatov, D.I.; Viaene, S.; Dedene, G.; Kuznetsov, S.O.

2012-01-01

Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) is an unsupervised clustering technique and many scientific papers are devoted to applying FCA in Information Retrieval (IR) research. We collected 103 papers published between 2003-2009 which mention FCA and information retrieval in the abstract, title or keywords.

The Effectiveness of Scientific Inquiry With/Without Integration of Scientific Reasoning

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chun-Ting; She, Hsiao-Ching

2015-01-01

This study examines the difference in effectiveness between two scientific inquiry programs-one with an emphasis on scientific reasoning and one without a scientific reasoning component-on students' scientific concepts, scientific concept-dependent reasoning, and scientific inquiry. A mixed-method approach was used in which 115 grade 5…

Relations between representational consistency, conceptual understanding of the force concept, and scientific reasoning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pasi Nieminen

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Previous physics education research has raised the question of “hidden variables” behind students’ success in learning certain concepts. In the context of the force concept, it has been suggested that students’ reasoning ability is one such variable. Strong positive correlations between students’ preinstruction scores for reasoning ability (measured by Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning and their learning of forces [measured by the Force Concept Inventory (FCI] have been reported in high school and university introductory courses. However, there is no published research concerning the relation between students’ ability to interpret multiple representations consistently (i.e., representational consistency and their learning of forces. To investigate this, we collected 131 high school students’ pre- and post-test data of the Representational Variant of the Force Concept Inventory (for representational consistency and the FCI. The students’ Lawson pretest data were also collected. We found that the preinstruction level of students’ representational consistency correlated strongly with student learning gain of forces. The correlation (0.51 was almost equal to the correlation between Lawson prescore and learning gain of forces (0.52. Our results support earlier findings which suggest that scientific reasoning ability is a hidden variable behind the learning of forces. In addition, we suggest that students’ representational consistency may also be such a factor, and that this should be recognized in physics teaching.

Completion publication of abstracts presented at the scientific meetings of the pan-African pediatric surgical association

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdulrasheed A Nasir

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background: The expected knowledge translation from discovery into practice occurs when presentations from major scientific meetings are published in peer-reviewed literature. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of complete publication of peer-reviewed articles arising from presentations at the biennial meetings of the Pan-African Pediatric Surgical Association (PAPSA. Materials and Methods: All the abstracts accepted for presentation at the biennial meeting of PAPSA between 2006 and 2010 were identified from the conference abstract booklets and published abstracts in the African Journal of Paediatric Surgery. The presentations were searched for publication in Medline/PubMed, Google Scholar, and African Journal OnLine through October 2012, using key words from the abstract title and names of authors listed in the abstracts. Results: A total of 164 abstracts were accepted for presentation, consisting of 118 (72% oral/podium presentations and 46 (28% poster presentations. One hundred and thirty-three abstracts (81.1% came from African countries and 31 (18.9% from outside Africa. Overall, 49 (29.9% abstracts resulted in full-text publications in 20 peer-reviewed journals. Thirty-eight of the publications were from Africa (representing 28.6% of abstracts from Africa and 11 from outside Africa (33.3% of abstracts from outside Africa. The median time to publication was 15 months [interquartile range (IQR 5-26 months]. The publication rate was statistically significantly correlated to the year of publication (P = 0.016 and the use of comparative statistics in the study (P = 0.005, but not to the study design, study subjects, or institution. The majority of the studies were published in the African Journal of Paediatric Surgery and Pediatric Surgery International (14 and 11 of the 49 reports, respectively. The H-index for international abstracts (median 35, IQR 35-76 was significantly higher than that of African abstracts (14, 3-35 (P

On problems in defining abstract and metaphysical concepts--emergence of a new model.

Science.gov (United States)

Nahod, Bruno; Nahod, Perina Vukša

2014-12-01

Basic anthropological terminology is the first project covering terms from the domain of the social sciences under the Croatian Special Field Terminology program (Struna). Problems that have been sporadically noticed or whose existence could have been presumed during the processing of terms mainly from technical fields and sciences have finally emerged in "anthropology". The principles of the General Theory of Terminology (GTT), which are followed in Struna, were put to a truly exacting test, and sometimes stretched beyond their limits when applied to concepts that do not necessarily have references in the physical world; namely, abstract and metaphysical concepts. We are currently developing a new terminographical model based on Idealized Cognitive Models (ICM), which will hopefully ensure a better cross-filed implementation of various types of concepts and their relations. The goal of this paper is to introduce the theoretical bases of our model. Additionally, we will present a pilot study of the series of experiments in which we are trying to investigate the nature of conceptual categorization in special languages and its proposed difference form categorization in general language.

Relationship between mathematical abstraction in learning parallel coordinates concept and performance in learning analytic geometry of pre-service mathematics teachers: an investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Nurhasanah, F.; Kusumah, Y. S.; Sabandar, J.; Suryadi, D.

2018-05-01

As one of the non-conventional mathematics concepts, Parallel Coordinates is potential to be learned by pre-service mathematics teachers in order to give them experiences in constructing richer schemes and doing abstraction process. Unfortunately, the study related to this issue is still limited. This study wants to answer a research question “to what extent the abstraction process of pre-service mathematics teachers in learning concept of Parallel Coordinates could indicate their performance in learning Analytic Geometry”. This is a case study that part of a larger study in examining mathematical abstraction of pre-service mathematics teachers in learning non-conventional mathematics concept. Descriptive statistics method is used in this study to analyze the scores from three different tests: Cartesian Coordinate, Parallel Coordinates, and Analytic Geometry. The participants in this study consist of 45 pre-service mathematics teachers. The result shows that there is a linear association between the score on Cartesian Coordinate and Parallel Coordinates. There also found that the higher levels of the abstraction process in learning Parallel Coordinates are linearly associated with higher student achievement in Analytic Geometry. The result of this study shows that the concept of Parallel Coordinates has a significant role for pre-service mathematics teachers in learning Analytic Geometry.

Beyond genes, proteins, and abstracts: Identifying scientific claims from full-text biomedical articles.

Science.gov (United States)

Blake, Catherine

2010-04-01

Massive increases in electronically available text have spurred a variety of natural language processing methods to automatically identify relationships from text; however, existing annotated collections comprise only bioinformatics (gene-protein) or clinical informatics (treatment-disease) relationships. This paper introduces the Claim Framework that reflects how authors across biomedical spectrum communicate findings in empirical studies. The Framework captures different levels of evidence by differentiating between explicit and implicit claims, and by capturing under-specified claims such as correlations, comparisons, and observations. The results from 29 full-text articles show that authors report fewer than 7.84% of scientific claims in an abstract, thus revealing the urgent need for text mining systems to consider the full-text of an article rather than just the abstract. The results also show that authors typically report explicit claims (77.12%) rather than an observations (9.23%), correlations (5.39%), comparisons (5.11%) or implicit claims (2.7%). Informed by the initial manual annotations, we introduce an automated approach that uses syntax and semantics to identify explicit claims automatically and measure the degree to which each feature contributes to the overall precision and recall. Results show that a combination of semantics and syntax is required to achieve the best system performance. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Influence of Scientific Concepts on the Music and thought of Edgard Varese

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, John Davis

The work of Edgard Varese is generally acknowledged to have played a significant role in the development of electronic media in contemporary composition, and it has been widely suspected that Varese approached music from a fundamentally scientific perspective. It was found that the literature in this area was not extensive, and hence the purpose of this study was to determine the extent and significance of influences from the physical sciences on the aesthetic philosophy and music of Edgard Varese. The method of the study was first to examine writings by and about Varese in an effort to define and clarify his unique aesthetic conceptions. Second, Octandre, one of Varese's compositions, was analyzed. Both standard analytical procedures and Varese's own unique conceptions and terminology were applied to Octandre in order to discover and illustrate the compositional techniques which he created. Finally, Varese's attitudes about and references to the relationship of science and art were examined, and various discoveries and lines of conceptual inquiry from the "new physics," at the beginning of this century, were investigated in order to discover areas of philosophical and practical similarity with Varese's aesthetics and music. This study yielded three areas of conclusions. First, it was shown that Varese regarded all sound, music included, as a primarily physical, acoustic phenomenon. He desired, in his own compositions, to create the illusion of sound operating in an inherently intelligent manner within a three-dimensional, spacial context. Analysis of Octandre disclosed that the underlying compositional procedure was continuous variation on a basic cell of pitch and rhythmic materials and that Varese's unique compositional devices were superimposed on the structure thus derived. In the last section of the study it was shown that Varese possessed a scientific background and that he believed that art should reflect cultural, particularly scientific change. Several of

Scientific Conceptions of Photosynthesis among Primary School Pupils and Student Teachers of Biology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Darja Skribe Dimec

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Photosynthesis is the most important biochemical process on Earth. Most living beings depend on it directly or indirectly. Knowledge about photosynthesis enables us to understand how the world functions as an ecosystem and how photosynthesis acts as a bridge between the non-living and living worlds. It is, therefore, understandable that photosynthesis is included in national curricula around the world. The practice unfortunately shows that students at all school levels mostly learn about photosynthesis by rote. Consequently, they have difficulties understanding this vital process. Research also shows many misconceptions in relation to photosynthesis among students of different ages. Based on these, the main aim of our study was to explore the scientific conceptions about photosynthesis held by primary school pupils and student teachers of biology. Data were collected using a questionnaire containing seven biology content questions. The sample consisted of 634 participants, 427 primary school pupils (aged 11–14, and 207 student teachers of biology (aged 20–23. We found that the populations of primary school pupils and student teachers of biology differ greatly concerning scientific conceptions of photosynthesis. The student teachers showed good and complex understanding of photosynthesis, while pupils showed some misconceptions (location of chlorophyll and photosynthesis in a plant, transformation of energy in photosynthesis. Analysis of the development of scientific conceptions about photosynthesis with age showed that there is very little progress among primary school pupils and none among biology student teachers. More involvement of student teachers of biology in practical work at primary schools during their study was suggested to make student teachers aware of, and better understand pupils’ misconceptions.

The Learning of Science Basic Concept by Using Scientifiq Inquiry to Improve Student’s Thinking, Working, and Scientific Attitude Abilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wachidatul Linda Yuhanna

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This research was a classroom action research which was conducted intwo cycles, each cycle consists of planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. The data used was quantitative data on student observation sheet instruments. The Results of the study which were obtained from the first cycle showed about the students’ thinking skills and scientific works. They were categorized as excellent 18.18%, good 22.73%, enough 52.27%, and sufficiently less 6.82%. As for the scientific attitude with a very active category of 11.36%, 43.18% and less active 45.45%. It has not reached indicators of success, so it was necessary to cycle II. Cycle II demonstrated the excellent category 38.63%, 36.36% good, good enough18.18% and less 6.81%. While the scientific attitude in the cycle II was an active attitude 29.54%, active 54.54%, inactive 15.91%. These results show an increase from the cycle I to cycle II. The conclusion of this study were: 1 learning the basic concepts of science with scientific inquiry in students can be conducible applied.2 Learning the basic concepts of science with scientific inquiry can improve thinking ability and scientific work and students’ scientific attitude. 3 Learning the basic concepts of science with scientific inquiry be able to explore and develop student creativity in designing simple experiments which can be applied in primary schools.

Implement scientific development concept and promote harmonious development of uranium geology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma Fei

2006-01-01

The paper expounds the tasks of uranium geology research and prospecting during the period of '11th Five-Year Plan' from four aspects and the facing situation of uranium geology by using scientific development concept, as well as puts forward the measures how to achieve the middle-long-term development goal for nuclear industry, meanwhile the author has pointed out the direction and focuses for the development of uranium geology research in current and coming future. (authors)

Encoding of Physics Concepts: Concreteness and Presentation Modality Reflected by Human Brain Dynamics

OpenAIRE

Lai, Kevin; She, Hsiao-Ching; Chen, Sheng-Chang; Chou, Wen-Chi; Huang, Li-Yu; Jung, Tzyy-Ping; Gramann, Klaus

2012-01-01

Previous research into working memory has focused on activations in different brain areas accompanying either different presentation modalities (verbal vs. non-verbal) or concreteness (abstract vs. concrete) of non-science concepts. Less research has been conducted investigating how scientific concepts are learned and further processed in working memory. To bridge this gap, the present study investigated human brain dynamics associated with encoding of physics concepts, taking both presentati...

The impact of negative emotions on self-concept abstraction depends on accessible information processing styles.

Science.gov (United States)

Isbell, Linda M; Rovenpor, Daniel R; Lair, Elicia C

2016-10-01

Research suggests that anger promotes global, abstract processing whereas sadness and fear promote local, concrete processing (see Schwarz & Clore, 2007 for a review). Contrary to a large and influential body of work suggesting that specific affective experiences are tethered to specific cognitive outcomes, the affect-as-cognitive-feedback account maintains that affective experiences confer positive or negative value on currently dominant processing styles, and thus can lead to either global or local processing (Huntsinger, Isbell, & Clore, 2014). The current work extends this theoretical perspective by investigating the impact of discrete negative emotions on the self-concept. By experimentally manipulating information processing styles and discrete negative emotions that vary in appraisals of certainty, we demonstrate that the impact of discrete negative emotions on the spontaneous self-concept depends on accessible processing styles. When global processing was accessible, individuals in angry (negative, high certainty) states generated more abstract statements about themselves than individuals in either sad (Experiment 1) or fearful (Experiment 2; negative, low certainty) states. When local processing was made accessible, however, the opposite pattern emerged, whereby individuals in angry states generated fewer abstract statements than individuals in sad or fearful states. Together these studies provide new insights into the mechanisms through which discrete emotions influence cognition. In contrast to theories assuming a dedicated link between emotions and processing styles, these results suggest that discrete emotions provide feedback about accessible ways of thinking, and are consistent with recent evidence suggesting that the impact of affect on cognition is highly context-dependent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

HEALTH GeoJunction: place-time-concept browsing of health publications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Turton Ian J

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The volume of health science publications is escalating rapidly. Thus, keeping up with developments is becoming harder as is the task of finding important cross-domain connections. When geographic location is a relevant component of research reported in publications, these tasks are more difficult because standard search and indexing facilities have limited or no ability to identify geographic foci in documents. This paper introduces HEALTH GeoJunction, a web application that supports researchers in the task of quickly finding scientific publications that are relevant geographically and temporally as well as thematically. Results HEALTH GeoJunction is a geovisual analytics-enabled web application providing: (a web services using computational reasoning methods to extract place-time-concept information from bibliographic data for documents and (b visually-enabled place-time-concept query, filtering, and contextualizing tools that apply to both the documents and their extracted content. This paper focuses specifically on strategies for visually-enabled, iterative, facet-like, place-time-concept filtering that allows analysts to quickly drill down to scientific findings of interest in PubMed abstracts and to explore relations among abstracts and extracted concepts in place and time. The approach enables analysts to: find publications without knowing all relevant query parameters, recognize unanticipated geographic relations within and among documents in multiple health domains, identify the thematic emphasis of research targeting particular places, notice changes in concepts over time, and notice changes in places where concepts are emphasized. Conclusions PubMed is a database of over 19 million biomedical abstracts and citations maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information; achieving quick filtering is an important contribution due to the database size. Including geography in filters is important due to

Abstracts

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2011-01-01

The Western Theories of War Ethics and Contemporary Controversies Li Xiaodong U Ruijing （4） [ Abstract] In the field of international relations, war ethics is a concept with distinct westem ideological color. Due to factors of history and reality, the in

Intertextual learning strategy with guided inquiry on solubility equilibrium concept to improve the student’s scientific processing skills

Science.gov (United States)

Wardani, K. U.; Mulyani, S.; Wiji

2018-04-01

The aim of this study was to develop intertextual learning strategy with guided inquiry on solubility equilibrium concept to enhance student’s scientific processing skills. This study was conducted with consideration of some various studies which found that lack of student’s process skills in learning chemistry was caused by learning chemistry is just a concept. The method used in this study is a Research and Development to generate the intertextual learning strategy with guided inquiry. The instruments used in the form of sheets validation are used to determine the congruence of learning activities by step guided inquiry learning and scientific processing skills with aspects of learning activities. Validation results obtained that the learning activities conducted in line with aspects of indicators of the scientific processing skills.

On Understanding: Maxwell on the Methods of Illustration and Scientific Metaphor

Science.gov (United States)

Cat, Jordi

In this paper I examine the notion and role of metaphors and illustrations in Maxwell's works in exact science as a pathway into a broader and richer philosophical conception of a scientist and scientific practice. While some of these notions and methods are still at work in current scientific research-from economics and biology to quantum computation and quantum field theory-, here I have chosen to attest to their entrenchment and complexity in actual science by attempting to make some conceptual sense of Maxwell's own usage; this endeavour includes situating Maxwell's conceptions and applications in his own culture of Victorian science and philosophy. I trace Maxwell's notions to the formulation of the problem of understanding, or interpreting, abstract representations such as potential functions and Lagrangian equations. I articulate the solution in terms of abstract-concrete relations, where the concrete, in tune with Victorian British psychology and engineering, includes the muscular as well as the pictorial. This sets the basis for a conception of understanding in terms of unification and concrete modelling, or representation. I examine the relation of illustration to analogies and metaphors on which this account rests. Lastly, I stress and explain the importance of context-dependence, its consequences for realism-instrumentalism debates, and Maxwell's own emphasis on method.

Mining Concept Maps from News Stories for Measuring Civic Scientific Literacy in Media

Science.gov (United States)

Tseng, Yuen-Hsien; Chang, Chun-Yen; Rundgren, Shu-Nu Chang; Rundgren, Carl-Johan

2010-01-01

Motivated by a long-term goal in education for measuring Taiwanese civic scientific literacy in media (SLiM), this work reports the detailed techniques to efficiently mine a concept map from 2 years of Chinese news articles (901,446 in total) for SLiM instrument development. From the Chinese news stories, key terms (important words or phrases),…

From abstract to peer-reviewed publication: country matters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Østergaard, Lauge; Fosbøl, Philip L.; Harrington, Robert A.

2014-01-01

Medical conferences are key in the sharing of new scientific findings. However, results reported as conference-abstracts are generally not considered final before publication in a peer-reviewed journal. It is known that approximately 1/3 of the scientific results presented as abstracts at large...

A Systemic View of the Learning and Differentiation of Scientific Concepts: The Case of Electric Current and Voltage Revisited

Science.gov (United States)

Koponen, Ismo T.; Kokkonen, Tommi

2014-01-01

In learning conceptual knowledge in physics, a common problem is the incompleteness of a learning process, where students' personal, often undifferentiated concepts take on more scientific and differentiated form. With regard to such concept learning and differentiation, this study proposes a systemic view in which concepts are considered as…

Interrelation of the concepts «legal influence» and «administrative-legal influence»

OpenAIRE

Голуб, Віктор Олександрович

2014-01-01

The author analyzes the concept of «legal influence» and «administrative-legal influence» and examines their interrelation. Also the scientific positions related to understanding the essence of these concepts are analyzed. The author gives characteristic of the features, structural elements and forms of the administrative-legal influence. English abstract V. Golub Interrelation of the concepts «legal influence» and «administrative-legal influence» The author analyzes the concept of «legal inf...

A methodology for semiautomatic taxonomy of concepts extraction from nuclear scientific documents using text mining techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Braga, Fabiane dos Reis

2013-01-01

This thesis presents a text mining method for semi-automatic extraction of taxonomy of concepts, from a textual corpus composed of scientific papers related to nuclear area. The text classification is a natural human practice and a crucial task for work with large repositories. The document clustering technique provides a logical and understandable framework that facilitates the organization, browsing and searching. Most clustering algorithms using the bag of words model to represent the content of a document. This model generates a high dimensionality of the data, ignores the fact that different words can have the same meaning and does not consider the relationship between them, assuming that words are independent of each other. The methodology presents a combination of a model for document representation by concepts with a hierarchical document clustering method using frequency of co-occurrence concepts and a technique for clusters labeling more representatives, with the objective of producing a taxonomy of concepts which may reflect a structure of the knowledge domain. It is hoped that this work will contribute to the conceptual mapping of scientific production of nuclear area and thus support the management of research activities in this area. (author)

Assessment of Students' Scientific and Alternative Conceptions of Energy and Momentum Using Concentration Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Dega, Bekele Gashe; Govender, Nadaraj

2016-01-01

This study compares the scientific and alternative conceptions of energy and momentum of university first-year science students in Ethiopia and the US. Written data were collected using the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey developed by Singh and Rosengrant. The Concentration Analysis statistical method was used for analysing the Ethiopian…

Conceptual Teaching Based on Scientific Storyline Method and Conceptual Change Texts: Latitude-Parallel Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Uzunöz, Abdulkadir

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study is to identify the conceptual mistakes frequently encountered in teaching geography such as latitude-parallel concepts, and to prepare conceptual change text based on the Scientific Storyline Method, in order to resolve the identified misconceptions. In this study, the special case method, which is one of the qualitative…

Concept Formation in Scientific Knowledge Discovery from a Constructivist View

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Wei; Gero, John S.

The central goal of scientific knowledge discovery is to learn cause-effect relationships among natural phenomena presented as variables and the consequences their interactions. Scientific knowledge is normally expressed as scientific taxonomies and qualitative and quantitative laws [1]. This type of knowledge represents intrinsic regularities of the observed phenomena that can be used to explain and predict behaviors of the phenomena. It is a generalization that is abstracted and externalized from a set of contexts and applicable to a broader scope. Scientific knowledge is a type of third-person knowledge, i.e., knowledge that independent of a specific enquirer. Artificial intelligence approaches, particularly data mining algorithms that are used to identify meaningful patterns from large data sets, are approaches that aim to facilitate the knowledge discovery process [2]. A broad spectrum of algorithms has been developed in addressing classification, associative learning, and clustering problems. However, their linkages to people who use them have not been adequately explored. Issues in relation to supporting the interpretation of the patterns, the application of prior knowledge to the data mining process and addressing user interactions remain challenges for building knowledge discovery tools [3]. As a consequence, scientists rely on their experience to formulate problems, evaluate hypotheses, reason about untraceable factors and derive new problems. This type of knowledge which they have developed during their career is called "first-person" knowledge. The formation of scientific knowledge (third-person knowledge) is highly influenced by the enquirer's first-person knowledge construct, which is a result of his or her interactions with the environment. There have been attempts to craft automatic knowledge discovery tools but these systems are limited in their capabilities to handle the dynamics of personal experience. There are now trends in developing

The Ninth International scientific and technical conference Safety, efficiency and economy of atomic energy. Book of abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-01-01

The abstracts of the Ninth International scientific and technical conference Safety, efficiency and economy of atomic energy are present. The conference took place in Moscow, 21-23 May, 2014. The problems of WWER, RBMK, BN and EhGP-6 NPPs operation, maintenance and repair; materials testing and metallic structures control; radioactive wastes and spent fuel management; NPP decommissioning; radiation safety, NPP ecology, emergency preparedness were discussed on the conference. The great attention was paid to the problems of atomic energy economy and its developing, international cooperation for NPP safety and young NPP specialists training [ru

USSR and Eastern Europe Scientific Abstracts Chemistry No. 53

Science.gov (United States)

1977-03-23

16. Abstracts The report contains abstracts and news items on adsorption phenomena, aerosols, alkaloids, analytica, electro- and biochemistry, coal...purification, a desorption- adsorption method of extracting aromatic hydrocarbons from industrial sewage is presented. For removing toxic nitrogen...124-5; Br, H, H, C6H3ClBrN03, 78, 74-5. USSR UDC 661:632.952 NEW MEANS FOR CHEMICAL PROCESSING OF FURFURAL Riga ISPOL’Z PENTOZANSODERZH SYR’YA [USE

Joseph Henry's Conception of Scientific Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Theerman, Paul

1997-04-01

Joseph Henry, America's premier physicist and physics teacher in the mid-nineteenth century, had decided views of scientific knowledge. These were expressed in two ways. First of all, scientific knowledge led to moral betterment. Thus the study of science was a morally good thing. This was not only because it led to the contemplation of God's creation, which was a standard reason justifying the study of science dating from the Scientific Revolution and even earlier. More importantly, the study of science itself was a moral discipline, imparting to scientists the habits and virtues of truthfulness, respect for others, care and diligence, and the discernment of meaningful patterns from experience. The moral ideals of science were expressed most strongly in Henry's upholding the international "Republic of Science"; conversely, cheapening science was a sign of moral failure. Second, for Henry and his generation, science provided a path to sure truth, separate from falsehood of both the politics and the quackery that characterized mid-century public life. Henry promoted this in his championing of the Smithsonian Institution a scientific establishment, against the ideas of others who wanted to make it a literary establishment or a training school for teachers. For Henry, the Smithsonian's scientific reputation would be established by relying on careful peer review in its publications, and supporting established scientists to write authoritative popular works. The purpose of both these activities was to raise the profile of science in the United States and further establish science and the scientific method as a guide to public life.

What Does the Future Hold for Scientific Journals? Visual Abstracts and Other Tools for Communicating Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolian, Vahagn C; Ibrahim, Andrew M

2017-09-01

Journals fill several important roles within academic medicine, including building knowledge, validating quality of methods, and communicating research. This section provides an overview of these roles and highlights innovative approaches journals have taken to enhance dissemination of research. As journals move away from print formats and embrace web-based content, design-centered thinking will allow for engagement of a larger audience. Examples of recent efforts in this realm are provided, as well as simplified strategies for developing visual abstracts to improve dissemination via social media. Finally, we hone in on principles of learning and education which have driven these advances in multimedia-based communication in scientific research.

[The impact of the annual scientific meetings of the Israel Society of Rheumatology as measured by publication rates of the abstracts in peer-reviewed journals].

Science.gov (United States)

Perez, Shira; Hashkes, Philip J; Uziel, Yosef

2004-04-01

We aimed to examine the impact and quality of the research presented in the Israel Society of Rheumatology (ISR) annual scientific meetings by measuring publication rates of the abstracts in peer-reviewed journals and investigating the factors that influenced publication. We examined the outcome of all 79 abstracts submitted to the ISR for the 1998-2000 annual meetings. A MEDLINE search of all abstracts, by authors, topics and keywords was performed. Senior authors of abstracts not found to be published in this search were interviewed regarding publication and factors influencing submission. We described the effect of variable factors on the rate of publication. As of September 2002, 63 (80%) abstracts were published in peer-reviewed journals or are currently in-press. Most abstracts were published in prominent journals (with a high impact factor). The majority of the abstracts (61%) were published in rheumatologic journals, 65% of the studies originated from tertiary centers and 19% of the studies were multicenter. The most common diseases studied were antiphospholipid syndrome (20%), systemic lupus erythematosus (19%) and inflammatory arthritis (18%). Most of the studies were of disease pathogenesis (35%) and clinical manifestations (33%). The most common study designs were basic science (34%). An overall 57% of the studies reported "positive" results and 9% reported "negative" results. None of the factors studied were associated with publication or non-publication. The main cause cited by authors for not publishing their abstract was lack of time to prepare a full paper or a desire to further expand the study. Within this group of 16 authors of abstracts, 11 authors still plan to submit a paper. The ISR annual meetings have an important clinical scientific impact as measured by the high rate of abstracts published as full length articles in leading peer-reviewed journals.

The Role of Games and Simulations to Teach Abstract Concepts of Anarchy, Cooperation, and Conflict in World Politics

Science.gov (United States)

McCarthy, Mary M.

2014-01-01

Games and simulations are increasingly used in courses on international politics. This study explores the hypothesis that games are better than simulations (as well as only reading and lectures) in introducing students to abstract concepts integral to an understanding of world politics. The study compares a two-level Prisoner's Dilemma game…

Scientific Conference Younger generation SNUS 2007. 3. Proceedings of the Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

Scientific conference Younger generation SNUS 2007 was carried out on April 27, 2006 as a part of the 18 th Annual General Meeting of the Slovak Nuclear Society (SNUS). Totally, 11 persons took part in Scientific conference Younger generation SNUS 2007. Eleven scientific lectures were presented.

Teaching abstraction in introductory courses

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koppelman, Herman; van Dijk, Betsy

Abstraction is viewed as a key concept in computer science. It is not only an important concept but also one that is difficult to master. This paper focuses on the problems that novices experience when they first encounter this concept. Three assignments from introductory courses are analyzed, to

Optimize scientific communication skills on work and energy concept with implementation of interactive conceptual instruction and multi representation approach

Science.gov (United States)

Patriot, E. A.; Suhandi, A.; Chandra, D. T.

2018-05-01

The ultimate goal of learning in the curriculum 2013 is that learning must improve and balance between soft skills and hard skills of learners. In addition to the knowledge aspect, one of the other skills to be trained in the learning process using a scientific approach is communication skills. This study aims to get an overview of the implementation of interactive conceptual instruction with multi representation to optimize the achievement of students’ scientific communication skills on work and energy concept. The scientific communication skills contains the sub-skills were searching the information, scientific writing, group discussion and knowledge presentation. This study was descriptive research with observation method. Subjects in this study were 35 students of class X in Senior High School at Sumedang. The results indicate an achievement of optimal scientific communication skills. The greatest achievement of KKI based on observation is at fourth meeting of KKI-3, which is a sub-skill of resume writing of 89%. Allmost students responded positively to the implication of interactive conceptual instruction with multi representation approach. It can be concluded that the implication of interactive conceptual instruction with multi representation approach can optimize the achievement of students’ scientific communication skill on work and energy concept.

HEALTH GeoJunction: place-time-concept browsing of health publications.

Science.gov (United States)

MacEachren, Alan M; Stryker, Michael S; Turton, Ian J; Pezanowski, Scott

2010-05-18

The volume of health science publications is escalating rapidly. Thus, keeping up with developments is becoming harder as is the task of finding important cross-domain connections. When geographic location is a relevant component of research reported in publications, these tasks are more difficult because standard search and indexing facilities have limited or no ability to identify geographic foci in documents. This paper introduces HEALTH GeoJunction, a web application that supports researchers in the task of quickly finding scientific publications that are relevant geographically and temporally as well as thematically. HEALTH GeoJunction is a geovisual analytics-enabled web application providing: (a) web services using computational reasoning methods to extract place-time-concept information from bibliographic data for documents and (b) visually-enabled place-time-concept query, filtering, and contextualizing tools that apply to both the documents and their extracted content. This paper focuses specifically on strategies for visually-enabled, iterative, facet-like, place-time-concept filtering that allows analysts to quickly drill down to scientific findings of interest in PubMed abstracts and to explore relations among abstracts and extracted concepts in place and time. The approach enables analysts to: find publications without knowing all relevant query parameters, recognize unanticipated geographic relations within and among documents in multiple health domains, identify the thematic emphasis of research targeting particular places, notice changes in concepts over time, and notice changes in places where concepts are emphasized. PubMed is a database of over 19 million biomedical abstracts and citations maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information; achieving quick filtering is an important contribution due to the database size. Including geography in filters is important due to rapidly escalating attention to geographic factors in public

The Transition and Adoption to Modern Programming Concepts for Scientific Computing in Fortran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles D. Norton

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This paper describes our experiences in the early exploration of modern concepts introduced in Fortran90 for large-scale scientific programming. We review our early work in expressing object-oriented concepts based on the new Fortran90 constructs – foreign to most programmers at the time – our experimental work in applying them to various applications, the impact on the WG5/J3 standards committees to consider formalizing object-oriented constructs for later versions of Fortran, and work in exploring how other modern programming techniques such as Design Patterns can and have impacted our software development. Applications will be drawn from plasma particle simulation and finite element adaptive mesh refinement for solid earth crustal deformation modeling.

The method of abstraction in the design of databases and the interoperability

Science.gov (United States)

Yakovlev, Nikolay

2018-03-01

When designing the database structure oriented to the contents of indicators presented in the documents and communications subject area. First, the method of abstraction is applied by expansion of the indices of new, artificially constructed abstract concepts. The use of abstract concepts allows to avoid registration of relations many-to-many. For this reason, when built using abstract concepts, demonstrate greater stability in the processes. The example abstract concepts to address structure - a unique house number. Second, the method of abstraction can be used in the transformation of concepts by omitting some attributes that are unnecessary for solving certain classes of problems. Data processing associated with the amended concepts is more simple without losing the possibility of solving the considered classes of problems. For example, the concept "street" loses the binding to the land. The content of the modified concept of "street" are only the relations of the houses to the declared name. For most accounting tasks and ensure communication is enough.

Book of abstracts. Thirty ninth annual scientific meeting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-04-01

The 39 th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine was held in Sydney, Australia. The Meeting was held from Thursday, 23 April to Monday, 27 April at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour and the theme was Multimodality - Here and Now.

Preparing and presenting effective abstracts and posters in psychiatry.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Manpreet K

2014-12-01

Presenting an abstract and a poster gives scientists from all fields, including psychiatry, an important opportunity to introduce their research to others. Researchers and mental health professionals at all levels of career development can use several media resources to assist them with the technical aspects of preparing an abstract or a poster. This article will focus on major principles associated with preparing and presenting an abstract and a poster at a scientific meeting. A literature search using NIH PubMed was conducted to identify peer and nonpeer-reviewed articles that provide methods for effective abstract and poster presentation for the period of 1966 to June 2014. First, the author reviews the purpose and relative importance of abstracts and posters in academic settings. Next, the author describes the qualities of an effective abstract and poster and common pitfalls that may occur. Finally, the author presents a systematic approach to preparing and presenting an abstract and a poster in a scientific setting. Several sources consistently suggest that readability, organization, and succinctness are qualities that make an effective and successful abstract and poster. Mental health professionals in all stages of their career development may benefit from following these guidelines in presenting their scientific work.

Preparing and presenting effective abstracts and posters in psychiatry

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Manpreet K.

2014-01-01

Presenting an abstract and a poster gives scientists from all fields, including psychiatry, an important opportunity to introduce their research to others. Researchers and mental health professionals at all levels of career development can use several media resources to assist them with the technical aspects of preparing an abstract or a poster. This article will focus on major principles associated with preparing and presenting an abstract and a poster at a scientific meeting. A literature search using NIH PubMed was conducted to identify peer and non-peer-reviewed articles that provide methods for effective abstract and poster presentation for the period of 1966 to June 2014. First, we review the purpose and relative importance of abstracts and posters in academic settings. Next, we describe the qualities of an effective abstract and poster and common pitfalls that may occur. Finally, we present a systematic approach to preparing and presenting an abstract and a poster in a scientific setting. Several sources consistently suggest that readability, organization, and succinctness are qualities that make an effective and successful abstract and poster. Mental health professionals in all stages of their career development may benefit from following these guidelines in presenting their scientific work. PMID:25085499

Towards Analysis-Driven Scientific Software Architecture: The Case for Abstract Data Type Calculus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Damian W.I. Rouson

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This article approaches scientific software architecture from three analytical paths. Each path examines discrete time advancement of multiphysics phenomena governed by coupled differential equations. The new object-oriented Fortran 2003 constructs provide a formal syntax for an abstract data type (ADT calculus. The first analysis uses traditional object-oriented software design metrics to demonstrate the high cohesion and low coupling associated with the calculus. A second analysis from the viewpoint of computational complexity theory demonstrates that a more representative bug search strategy than that considered by Rouson et al. (ACM Trans. Math. Soft. 34(1 (2008 reduces the number of lines searched in a code with λ total lines from O(λ2 to O(λ log2 λ , which in turn becomes nearly independent of the overall code size in the context of ADT calculus. The third analysis derives from information theory an argument that ADT calculus simplifies developer communications in part by minimizing the growth in interface information content as developers add new physics to a multiphysics package.

Clinical, developmental and molecular update on Cornelia de Lange syndrome and the cohesin complex: abstracts from the 2014 Scientific and Educational Symposium.

Science.gov (United States)

Kline, Antonie D; Calof, Anne L; Lander, Arthur D; Gerton, Jennifer L; Krantz, Ian D; Dorsett, Dale; Deardorff, Matthew A; Blagowidow, Natalie; Yokomori, Kyoko; Shirahige, Katsuhiko; Santos, Rosaysela; Woodman, Julie; Megee, Paul C; O'Connor, Julia T; Egense, Alena; Noon, Sarah; Belote, Maurice; Goodban, Marjorie T; Hansen, Blake D; Timmons, Jenni Glad; Musio, Antonio; Ishman, Stacey L; Bryan, Yvon; Wu, Yaning; Bettini, Laura R; Mehta, Devanshi; Zakari, Musinu; Mills, Jason A; Srivastava, Siddharth; Haaland, Richard E

2015-06-01

Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) is the most common example of disorders of the cohesin complex, or cohesinopathies. There are a myriad of clinical issues facing individuals with CdLS, particularly in the neurodevelopmental system, which also have implications for the parents and caretakers, involved professionals, therapists, and schools. Basic research in developmental and cell biology on cohesin is showing significant progress, with improved understanding of the mechanisms and the possibility of potential therapeutics. The following abstracts are presentations from the 6th Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Scientific and Educational Symposium, which took place on June 25-26, 2014, in conjunction with the Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Foundation National Meeting in Costa Mesa, CA. The Research Committee of the CdLS Foundation organizes the meeting, reviews and accepts abstracts, and subsequently disseminates the information to the families through members of the Clinical Advisory Board. In addition to the scientific and clinical discussions, there were educationally focused talks related to practical aspects of behavior and development. AMA CME credits were provided by Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, MD. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Early Science Education: Exploring Familiar Contexts To Improve the Understanding of Some Basic Scientific Concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Martins, Isabel P.; Veiga, Luisa

2001-01-01

Argues that science education is a fundamental tool for global education and that it must be introduced in early years as a first step to a scientific culture for all. Describes testing validity of a didactic strategy for developing the learning of concepts, which was based upon an experimental work approach using everyday life contexts. (Author)

Scientific Utopia: An agenda for improving scientific communication (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Nosek, B.

2013-12-01

The scientist's primary incentive is publication. In the present culture, open practices do not increase chances of publication, and they often require additional work. Practicing the abstract scientific values of openness and reproducibility thus requires behaviors in addition to those relevant for the primary, concrete rewards. When in conflict, concrete rewards are likely to dominate over abstract ones. As a consequence, the reward structure for scientists does not encourage openness and reproducibility. This can be changed by nudging incentives to align scientific practices with scientific values. Science will benefit by creating and connecting technologies that nudge incentives while supporting and improving the scientific workflow. For example, it should be as easy to search the research literature for my topic as it is to search the Internet to find hilarious videos of cats falling off of furniture. I will introduce the Center for Open Science (http://centerforopenscience.org/) and efforts to improve openness and reproducibility such as http://openscienceframework.org/. There will be no cats.

Bulgarian ethnos according to A.Kh. Khalikov’ works: scientific concept and its theoretical bases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Izmaylov Iskander L.

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the problems of Bulgar and Tatar ethnogenesis studied in the works of the prominent Kazan archaeologist A.Kh. Khalikov. His concept was based on the fact that a number of ethnic groups (Turkic, Finno-Ugric, and East Slavic participated in the formation of these peoples and that the key role in these processes was played by their mutual cultural influence. The concept of ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the Tatar people offered by A.Kh. Khalikov was a serious theoretical breakthrough against the background of both ideology-biased historical schemes of the Soviet era and the various nationalist ideas, differing from them by a comprehensive, integral scientific analysis of predominantly archaeological data. At present, however, when theoretical and factual bases of historical and ethnological research have considerably expanded, a number of conflicting issues have arisen in the framework of this concept, which, therefore, require new approaches to their solution.

Scientific knowledge and modern prospecting

Science.gov (United States)

Neuerburg, G.J.

1985-01-01

Modern prospecting is the systematic search for specified and generally ill-exposed components of the Earth's crust known as ore. This prospecting depends entirely on reliable, or scientific knowledge for guidance and for recognition of the search objects. Improvement in prospecting results from additions and refinements to scientific knowledge. Scientific knowledge is an ordered distillation of observations too numerous and too complex in themselves for easy understanding and for effective management. The ordering of these observations is accomplished by an evolutionary hierarchy of abstractions. These abstractions employ simplified descriptions consisting of characterization by selected properties, sampling to represent much larger parts of a phenomenon, generalized mappings of patterns of geometrical and numerical relations among properties, and explanation (theory) of these patterns as functional relations among the selected properties. Each abstraction is predicated on the mode of abstraction anticipated for the next higher level, so that research is a deductive process in which the highest level, theory, is indispensible for the growth and refinement of scientific knowledge, and therefore of prospecting methodology. ?? 1985 Springer-Verlag.

[The scientific revolution in medicine of second half of XX - early XXI centuries: occurrence of new conceptions about human organism and essence of diseases].

Science.gov (United States)

Stepin, V S; Zatravkin, S N

2016-01-01

The article presents the results of analysis of works of supreme Russian physiologists and pathologists of XX-XXI centuries. The analysis was applied on the basis concept of structure and dynamics of scientific cognition developed by one o the authors of the present article. The applied analysis permits affirming that during second half of XX-early XXI centuries in medicine occurred and continues to occurring transformations whose character and scope totally corresponds to scientific revolution and occurring and establishing in medicine new conceptions have all signs permitting referring them to post-neoclassic type of scientific rationality.

Exploiting abstract possibilities: a critique of the concept and practice of product patenting.

Science.gov (United States)

Radder, Hans

2004-01-01

Developments in biotechnology and genomics have moved the issue of patenting scientific and technological inventions toward the center of interest. In particular, the patentability of genes of plants, animals, or humans and of genetically modified (parts of) living organisms has been discussed, and questioned, from various normative perspectives. This paper aims to contribute to this debate. For this purpose, it first explains a number of relevant aspects of the theory and practice of patenting. The focus is on a special and increasingly significant type of patents, namely product patents. The paper provides three general arguments against the concept and practice of product patenting. The first argument briefly considers the claim that patents are legitimate because they promote socially useful innovation. Against this claim, it is argued that product patents may hamper rather than promote such innovation. The second and main argument concludes that product patents are not adequately based on actual technological inventions, as they should be according to the usual criteria of patentability. The principal moral issue is that product patents tend to reward patentees for inventions they have not really made available. The final argument proposes a method for patenting the heat of the sun. Assuming that granting this patent will be generally considered absurd, the argument exposes a further, fundamental problem of the concept and practice of product patenting.

[Scientific concepts in clinical medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Rogler, G

2003-11-28

The understanding of the scientific basis and the theory of knowledge are surprisingly heterogeneous in practical and clinical medicine. It is frequently influenced or based on the philosophical theory of critical rationalism founded by Sir Karl Popper. Because the theory of knowledge and the understanding of scientific truth is the central basis for cautious and good clinical practise it is necessary to discuss both points to avoid unscientific auto-immunisation against critique in a type of medicine that regards herself as science-based. Evidence-based medicine would not be possible without interpretation and explanation of existing data into the individual treatment context. Besides an inductive or deductive logic the historical and situative side-conditions of the gathering of knowledge and of experiments are of central importance for their interpretation and their relevance in clinical practice. This historical and situative context warrants reflection but must also be paid attention to in the reflections on medical ethics.

The neural representation of abstract words: the role of emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Vigliocco, Gabriella; Kousta, Stavroula-Thaleia; Della Rosa, Pasquale Anthony; Vinson, David P; Tettamanti, Marco; Devlin, Joseph T; Cappa, Stefano F

2014-07-01

It is generally assumed that abstract concepts are linguistically coded, in line with imaging evidence of greater engagement of the left perisylvian language network for abstract than concrete words (Binder JR, Desai RH, Graves WW, Conant LL. 2009. Where is the semantic system? A critical review and meta-analysis of 120 functional neuroimaging studies. Cerebral Cortex. 19:2767-2796; Wang J, Conder JA, Blitzer DN, Shinkareva SV. 2010. Neural representation of abstract and concrete concepts: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Hum Brain Map. 31:1459-1468). Recent behavioral work, which used tighter matching of items than previous studies, however, suggests that abstract concepts also entail affective processing to a greater extent than concrete concepts (Kousta S-T, Vigliocco G, Vinson DP, Andrews M, Del Campo E. The representation of abstract words: Why emotion matters. J Exp Psychol Gen. 140:14-34). Here we report a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment that shows greater engagement of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, an area associated with emotion processing (e.g., Etkin A, Egner T, Peraza DM, Kandel ER, Hirsch J. 2006. Resolving emotional conflict: A role for the rostral anterior cingulate cortex in modulating activity in the amygdala. Neuron. 52:871), in abstract processing. For abstract words, activation in this area was modulated by the hedonic valence (degree of positive or negative affective association) of our items. A correlation analysis of more than 1,400 English words further showed that abstract words, in general, receive higher ratings for affective associations (both valence and arousal) than concrete words, supporting the view that engagement of emotional processing is generally required for processing abstract words. We argue that these results support embodiment views of semantic representation, according to which, whereas concrete concepts are grounded in our sensory-motor experience, affective experience is crucial in the

Didactical-Scientific Modeling: integrating experimental activities and the process of scientific modeling in the teaching of Physics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leonardo Albuquerque Heidemann

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The dissociated way with which the theory and practice are often treated in Physics teaching contributes to students' difficulties in using scientific knowledge to represent real events, which are not idealized situations as the events presented in most textbook problems. Considering that the process of scientific modeling is of fundamental importance for students to learn Science, about Science and how to do Science, Brandão, Araujo and Veit, supported by Vergnaud's Theory of Conceptual Fields and by Bunge's concept of scientific modeling, propose a theoretical-methodological framework for modeling in Physics Education named Didactical-Scientific Modeling (DSM. The authors defend the thesis that it is possible to consider the process of scientific modeling as a conceptual field underlying the specific conceptual fields of Physics. They elucidate knowledge associated to the facing of problems that involve the use, exploration and validation of didactical versions of scientific models. However, the goal of this framework is not to explain how the concepts related to empirical testability are connected to scientific modeling concepts. In order to fill this gap, we present in this article an expansion of this theoretical-methodological framework based on Bunge's concepts on contrasting scientific ideas. In this regard, we insert experimental work concepts in the conceptual field associated to the process of didactical-scientific modeling. Lastly, we exemplify its use in order to support the design and execution of experimental activities focused on the scientific-didactical process, and we also discuss some implications for future research in Physics Education.

Elementary pre-service teachers' conceptual understanding of dissolving: a Vygotskian concept development perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Harrell, Pamela; Subramaniam, Karthigeyan

2015-09-01

Background and purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify the nature and the interrelatedness of pre-service teachers' misconceptions and scientific concepts for explaining dissolving before, during, and after a 5E learning cycle lesson on dissolving, the intervention. Sample, design, and methods: Guided by Vygotsky's theory of concept development, the study focused specifically on the spontaneous, and spontaneous pseudo-concepts held by the 61 elementary pre-service teachers during a 15-week science methods course. Data included concept maps, interview transcripts, written artifacts, drawings, and narratives, and were thematically analyzed to classify concepts and interrelatedness. Results: Results of the study showed that spontaneous pseudo-concepts (1) dominated pre-service teachers' understandings about dissolving throughout the study, and (2) were simply associated with scientific concepts during and after the intervention. Conclusion: Collectively, the results indicated that the pre-service teachers' did not acquire a unified system of knowledge about dissolving that could be characterized as abstract, generalizable, and hierarchical. Implications include the need for (1) familiarity with pre-service teachers' prior knowledge about science content; (2) a variety of formative assessments to assess their misconceptions; (3) emphasizing the importance of dialectical method for concept development during instruction; and (4) skillful content instructors.

Abstract of technical and scientific papers for oral and poster presentations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

The National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) organized the holding of the 4th national social science congress that coincide with the 20th annual scientific meeting on the 'The Philippine social sciences in the life of the nation' as the overall theme. It highlights the significant developments and technical and scientific researches on social, agricultural, mathematical, physical, and engineering, biological and health sciences that contributes to the nation building

Comprehension of concrete and abstract words in semantic dementia

Science.gov (United States)

Jefferies, Elizabeth; Patterson, Karalyn; Jones, Roy W.; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A.

2009-01-01

The vast majority of brain-injured patients with semantic impairment have better comprehension of concrete than abstract words. In contrast, several patients with semantic dementia (SD), who show circumscribed atrophy of the anterior temporal lobes bilaterally, have been reported to show reverse imageability effects, i.e., relative preservation of abstract knowledge. Although these reports largely concern individual patients, some researchers have recently proposed that superior comprehension of abstract concepts is a characteristic feature of SD. This would imply that the anterior temporal lobes are particularly crucial for processing sensory aspects of semantic knowledge, which are associated with concrete not abstract concepts. However, functional neuroimaging studies of healthy participants do not unequivocally predict reverse imageability effects in SD because the temporal poles sometimes show greater activation for more abstract concepts. We examined a case-series of eleven SD patients on a synonym judgement test that orthogonally varied the frequency and imageability of the items. All patients had higher success rates for more imageable as well as more frequent words, suggesting that (a) the anterior temporal lobes underpin semantic knowledge for both concrete and abstract concepts, (b) more imageable items – perhaps due to their richer multimodal representations – are typically more robust in the face of global semantic degradation and (c) reverse imageability effects are not a characteristic feature of SD. PMID:19586212

Learning abstract visual concepts via probabilistic program induction in a Language of Thought.

Science.gov (United States)

Overlan, Matthew C; Jacobs, Robert A; Piantadosi, Steven T

2017-11-01

The ability to learn abstract concepts is a powerful component of human cognition. It has been argued that variable binding is the key element enabling this ability, but the computational aspects of variable binding remain poorly understood. Here, we address this shortcoming by formalizing the Hierarchical Language of Thought (HLOT) model of rule learning. Given a set of data items, the model uses Bayesian inference to infer a probability distribution over stochastic programs that implement variable binding. Because the model makes use of symbolic variables as well as Bayesian inference and programs with stochastic primitives, it combines many of the advantages of both symbolic and statistical approaches to cognitive modeling. To evaluate the model, we conducted an experiment in which human subjects viewed training items and then judged which test items belong to the same concept as the training items. We found that the HLOT model provides a close match to human generalization patterns, significantly outperforming two variants of the Generalized Context Model, one variant based on string similarity and the other based on visual similarity using features from a deep convolutional neural network. Additional results suggest that variable binding happens automatically, implying that binding operations do not add complexity to peoples' hypothesized rules. Overall, this work demonstrates that a cognitive model combining symbolic variables with Bayesian inference and stochastic program primitives provides a new perspective for understanding people's patterns of generalization. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Relationship between Students' Perception of the Scientific Models and Their Alternative Conceptions of the Lunar Phases

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Su-Kyeong

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to reveal whether there were differences in the understanding of scientific models according to their conceptions of lunar phases. The participants were 252 10th grader in South Korea. They were asked to respond SUMS (Students Understanding of Models in Science) instrument and to draw and explain why the different lunar…

4th Annual DOE-ERSP PI Meeting: Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hazen, Terry C.

2009-01-01

This contains abstracts from the 2009 Annual Environmental Remediation Sciences Program (ERSP) Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting. The ERSP seeks to advance fundamental science to understand, predict, and mitigate the impacts of environmental contamination from past nuclear weapons production and provide a scientific basis for the long-term stewardship of nuclear waste disposal. These ambitious goals cannot be achieved by any one project alone. Therefore, ERSP funds a combination of research programs at the DOE national laboratories, individual projects at universities and federal agencies, and large long(er)-term field site research. Integration of these activities to advance the ERSP goals is a constant challenge, but made significantly simpler by bringing together all funded ERSP researchers once a year to discuss the very latest research results. It is at these meetings where new ideas and/or scientific advancements in support of ERSP goals can be discussed and openly debated among all PIs in the program. The ERSP thrives, in part, on the new ideas, concepts, scientific connections, and collaborations generated as a result of these meetings. The annual PI Meeting is very much a working meeting with three major goals: (1) to provide opportunities for scientific interaction among the ERSP scientists, a critical element for the program; (2) to provide the ERSP program staff with an opportunity to evaluate the progress of each program and project; and (3) to showcase the ERSP to interested parties within DOE and within other federal agencies In addition to program managers from within OBER, there will be representatives from other offices within DOE and other federal agencies in attandance at the meeting.

4th Annual DOE-ERSP PI Meeting: Abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hazen, Terry C.

2009-03-01

This contains abstracts from the 2009 Annual Environmental Remediation Sciences Program (ERSP) Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting. The ERSP seeks to advance fundamental science to understand, predict, and mitigate the impacts of environmental contamination from past nuclear weapons production and provide a scientific basis for the long-term stewardship of nuclear waste disposal. These ambitious goals cannot be achieved by any one project alone. Therefore, ERSP funds a combination of research programs at the DOE national laboratories, individual projects at universities and federal agencies, and large long(er)-term field site research. Integration of these activities to advance the ERSP goals is a constant challenge, but made significantly simpler by bringing together all funded ERSP researchers once a year to discuss the very latest research results. It is at these meetings where new ideas and/or scientific advancements in support of ERSP goals can be discussed and openly debated among all PIs in the program. The ERSP thrives, in part, on the new ideas, concepts, scientific connections, and collaborations generated as a result of these meetings. The annual PI Meeting is very much a working meeting with three major goals: (1) to provide opportunities for scientific interaction among the ERSP scientists, a critical element for the program; (2) to provide the ERSP program staff with an opportunity to evaluate the progress of each program and project; and (3) to showcase the ERSP to interested parties within DOE and within other federal agencies In addition to program managers from within OBER, there will be representatives from other offices within DOE and other federal agencies in attandance at the meeting.

European Association of Nuclear Medicine Congress, 14-18 September 1996, Copenhagen, Denmark. Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1996-01-01

The European Association of Nuclear Medicine Congress, held from 14-18 September 1996 in Copenhagen, Denmark, was devoted to all aspects of applications of nuclear medicine for diagnostic evaluation and therapy. The scientific programme and all in all 943 abstracts are presented in this issue, 474 abstracts of scientific lectures and 469 abstracts of poster presentations. There also is an author affiliations index. (VHE) [de

Title TBA: Revising the Abstract Submission Process.

Science.gov (United States)

Tibon, Roni; Open Science Committee, Cbu; Henson, Richard

2018-04-01

Academic conferences are among the most prolific scientific activities, yet the current abstract submission and review process has serious limitations. We propose a revised process that would address these limitations, achieve some of the aims of Open Science, and stimulate discussion throughout the entire lifecycle of the scientific work. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Sounding Relationships. Conference programme & Book of abstracts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2009-01-01

Content: Welcome to Aalborg.  Inge Nygaard Pedersen: Welcome from the chair of the organizing committee Tony Wigram Wlcome from the chair of the scientific committee Rita Cancino: Welcome from the head of faculty Hanne Mette Ridder: Welcome from the Danish Association of Music Therapists (MTL......) Sounding Relationships General Information Daily Program Social Program List of Participants Scientific Program Book of Abstracts...

Abstract Datatypes in PVS

Science.gov (United States)

Owre, Sam; Shankar, Natarajan

1997-01-01

PVS (Prototype Verification System) is a general-purpose environment for developing specifications and proofs. This document deals primarily with the abstract datatype mechanism in PVS which generates theories containing axioms and definitions for a class of recursive datatypes. The concepts underlying the abstract datatype mechanism are illustrated using ordered binary trees as an example. Binary trees are described by a PVS abstract datatype that is parametric in its value type. The type of ordered binary trees is then presented as a subtype of binary trees where the ordering relation is also taken as a parameter. We define the operations of inserting an element into, and searching for an element in an ordered binary tree; the bulk of the report is devoted to PVS proofs of some useful properties of these operations. These proofs illustrate various approaches to proving properties of abstract datatype operations. They also describe the built-in capabilities of the PVS proof checker for simplifying abstract datatype expressions.

A Brief Introduction to Chinese Biological Abstracts

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2005-01-01

Chinese Biological Abstracts (CBA), a state-level indexing and abstracting journal published monthly, is jointly sponsored by the Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences as well as the Biological Information Network of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published and distributed by the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, and approved by the State Scientific and Technological Commission.

Modal abstractions of concurrent behavior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielson, Flemming; Nanz, Sebastian; Nielson, Hanne Riis

2011-01-01

We present an effective algorithm for the automatic construction of finite modal transition systems as abstractions of potentially infinite concurrent processes. Modal transition systems are recognized as valuable abstractions for model checking because they allow for the validation as well...... as refutation of safety and liveness properties. However, the algorithmic construction of finite abstractions from potentially infinite concurrent processes is a missing link that prevents their more widespread usage for model checking of concurrent systems. Our algorithm is a worklist algorithm using concepts...... from abstract interpretation and operating upon mappings from sets to intervals in order to express simultaneous over- and underapprox-imations of the multisets of process actions available in a particular state. We obtain a finite abstraction that is 3-valued in both states and transitions...

Enhancing Eight Grade Students' Scientific Conceptual Change and Scientific Reasoning through a Web-Based Learning Program

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Ya-Wen; She, Hsiao-Ching

2009-01-01

This study reports the impacts of the Scientific Concept Construction and Reconstruction (SCCR) digital learning system on eighth grade students' concept construction, conceptual change, and scientific reasoning involving the topic of "atoms". A two-factorial experimental design was carried out to investigate the effects of the approach…

The scientific status of fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crandall, D.H.

1989-01-01

The development of fusion energy has been a large-scale scientific undertaking of broad interest. The magnetic plasma containment in tokamaks and the laser-drive ignition of microfusion capsules appear to be scientifically feasible sources of energy. These concepts are bounded by questions of required intensity in magnetid field and plasma currents or in drive energy and, for both concepts, by issues of plasma stability and energy transport. The basic concept and the current scientific issues are described for magnetic fusion and for the interesting, but likely infeasible, muon-catalyzed fusion concept. Inertial fusion is mentioned, qualitatively, to complete the context. For magnetic fusion, the required net energy production within the plasma may be accomplished soon, but the more useful goal of self-sustained plasma ignition requires a new device of somewhat uncertain (factor of 2) cost and size. (orig.)

Categorization of alternative astronomical and scientifical conceptions of the teachers from the north coast of São Paulo

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzaga, E. P.

2016-05-01

This work deals with the analysis of scientific and alternative astronomical concepts found in the responses of teachers who teach classes Science, Geography and Physic in Basic Education (BE) of the state of the North Coast of São Paulo and how to address the alternative astronomical concepts with students from students Fundamental Education (FE) and Medium Education (ME). Bringing the legal documents regarding the Astronomy in BE, within the national and the São Paulo regions curriculum level, also with rationed researches to the teacher's formation, conceptual errors in books, knowledge non-formal spaces, alternative concepts, Astronomical studies and content analysis for fundamental theoretical. The task executed with the teachers was done via Technical Orientations (TO), promoted by the Director of Education (DE) from Caraguatatuba and region, with the premise to threat the continuous formation giving moments of discussion, practical activities and using the Digital Mobile Planetarium (DMP) with non-formal spaces of knowledge to the Astronomical studies gathering data via questions. Within the analysis of the answers analysis by the teachers, tables were created with the categories that highlight actual situations on the astronomical studies in the North Coast of São Paulo, and demarked the possible paths where the continuous formation will be followed in the future. Aspects checked in the survey were highlighted; such as teachers understand that they need continuing education; teachers have scientific astronomical views on various aspects know to teach concepts of Astronomy at BE; TO is a viable option as continued training and the use of DMP as no formal teaching and learning.

Content-rich biological network constructed by mining PubMed abstracts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sharp Burt M

2004-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The integration of the rapidly expanding corpus of information about the genome, transcriptome, and proteome, engendered by powerful technological advances, such as microarrays, and the availability of genomic sequence from multiple species, challenges the grasp and comprehension of the scientific community. Despite the existence of text-mining methods that identify biological relationships based on the textual co-occurrence of gene/protein terms or similarities in abstract texts, knowledge of the underlying molecular connections on a large scale, which is prerequisite to understanding novel biological processes, lags far behind the accumulation of data. While computationally efficient, the co-occurrence-based approaches fail to characterize (e.g., inhibition or stimulation, directionality biological interactions. Programs with natural language processing (NLP capability have been created to address these limitations, however, they are in general not readily accessible to the public. Results We present a NLP-based text-mining approach, Chilibot, which constructs content-rich relationship networks among biological concepts, genes, proteins, or drugs. Amongst its features, suggestions for new hypotheses can be generated. Lastly, we provide evidence that the connectivity of molecular networks extracted from the biological literature follows the power-law distribution, indicating scale-free topologies consistent with the results of previous experimental analyses. Conclusions Chilibot distills scientific relationships from knowledge available throughout a wide range of biological domains and presents these in a content-rich graphical format, thus integrating general biomedical knowledge with the specialized knowledge and interests of the user. Chilibot http://www.chilibot.net can be accessed free of charge to academic users.

Constructed vs. received graphical representations for learning about scientific controversy: Implications for learning and coaching

Science.gov (United States)

Cavalli-Sforza, Violetta Laura Maria

Students in science classes hardly ever study scientific controversy, especially in terms of the different types of arguments used to support and criticize theories and hypotheses. Yet, learning the reasons for scientific debate and scientific change is an important part of appreciating the nature of the scientific enterprise and communicating it to the non-scientific world. This dissertation explores the usefulness of graphical representations in teaching students about scientific arguments. Subjects participating in an extended experiment studied instructional materials and used the Belvedere graphical interface to analyze texts drawn from an actual scientific debate. In one experimental condition, subjects used a box-and-arrow representation whose primitive graphical elements had preassigned meanings tailored to the domain of instruction. In the other experimental condition, subjects could use the graphical elements as they wished, thereby creating their own representation. The development of a representation, by forcing a deeper analysis, can potentially yield a greater understanding of the domain under study. The results of the research suggest two conclusions. From the perspective of learning target concepts, asking subjects to develop their own representation may not hurt those subjects who gain a sufficient understanding of the possibilities of abstract representation. The risks are much greater for less able subjects because, if they develop a representation that is inadequate for expressing the target concepts, they will use those concepts less or not at all. From the perspective of coaching subjects as they diagram their analysis of texts, a predefined representation has significant advantages. If it is appropriately expressive for the task, it provides a common language and clearer shared meaning between the subject and the coach. It also enables the coach to understand subjects' analysis more easily, and to evaluate it more effectively against the

CUBE (Computer Use By Engineers) symposium abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruminer, J.J.

1978-07-01

This report presents the abstracts for the CUBE (Computer Use by Engineers) Symposium, October 4, through 6, 1978. Contributors are from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, and Sandia Laboratories

Book of Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-06-01

ANIMMA 2013 is the third of a series of conferences devoted to endorsing and promoting scientific and technical activities based on nuclear instrumentation and measurements. The main objective of ANIMMA conference is to unite the various scientific communities not only involved in nuclear instrumentation and measurements, but also in nuclear medicine and radiation. The conference is all about getting scientists, engineers and the industry to meet, exchange cultures and identify new scientific and technical prospects to help overcome both current and future unresolved issues. The conference provides scientists and engineers with a veritable opportunity to compare their latest research and development in different areas: physics, nuclear energy, nuclear fuel cycle, safety, security, future energies (GEN III+, GENIV, ITER, ...). The conference topics include instrumentation and measurement methods for: Fundamental physics; Fusion diagnostics and technology; Nuclear power reactors; Research reactors; Nuclear fuel cycle; Decommissioning, dismantling and remote handling; Safeguards, homeland security; Severe accident monitoring; Environmental and medical sciences; Education, training and outreach. This document brings together the abstracts of the presentations. Each presentation (full paper) is analysed separately and entered in INIS

Openness versus Secrecy in Scientific Research Abstract.

Science.gov (United States)

Resnik, David B

2006-02-01

Openness is one of the most important principles in scientific inquiry, but there are many good reasons for maintaining secrecy in research, ranging from the desire to protect priority, credit, and intellectual property, to the need to safeguard the privacy of research participants or minimize threats to national or international security. This article examines the clash between openness and secrecy in science in light of some recent developments in information technology, business, and politics, and makes some practical suggestions for resolving conflicts between openness and secrecy."By academic freedom I understand the right to search for the truth and to publish and teach what one holds to be true. This right also implies a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true. It is evident that any restriction of academic freedom serves to restrain the dissemination of knowledge, thereby impeding rational judgment and action."Albert Einstein, quotation inscribed on his statute in front of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.

Toward best practice framing of uncertainty in scientific publications: A review of Water Resources Research abstracts

Science.gov (United States)

Guillaume, Joseph H. A.; Helgeson, Casey; Elsawah, Sondoss; Jakeman, Anthony J.; Kummu, Matti

2017-08-01

Uncertainty is recognized as a key issue in water resources research, among other sciences. Discussions of uncertainty typically focus on tools and techniques applied within an analysis, e.g., uncertainty quantification and model validation. But uncertainty is also addressed outside the analysis, in writing scientific publications. The language that authors use conveys their perspective of the role of uncertainty when interpreting a claim—what we call here "framing" the uncertainty. This article promotes awareness of uncertainty framing in four ways. (1) It proposes a typology of eighteen uncertainty frames, addressing five questions about uncertainty. (2) It describes the context in which uncertainty framing occurs. This is an interdisciplinary topic, involving philosophy of science, science studies, linguistics, rhetoric, and argumentation. (3) We analyze the use of uncertainty frames in a sample of 177 abstracts from the Water Resources Research journal in 2015. This helped develop and tentatively verify the typology, and provides a snapshot of current practice. (4) We make provocative recommendations to achieve a more influential, dynamic science. Current practice in uncertainty framing might be described as carefully considered incremental science. In addition to uncertainty quantification and degree of belief (present in ˜5% of abstracts), uncertainty is addressed by a combination of limiting scope, deferring to further work (˜25%) and indicating evidence is sufficient (˜40%)—or uncertainty is completely ignored (˜8%). There is a need for public debate within our discipline to decide in what context different uncertainty frames are appropriate. Uncertainty framing cannot remain a hidden practice evaluated only by lone reviewers.

GOClonto: an ontological clustering approach for conceptualizing PubMed abstracts.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Hai-Tao; Borchert, Charles; Kim, Hong-Gee

2010-02-01

Concurrent with progress in biomedical sciences, an overwhelming of textual knowledge is accumulating in the biomedical literature. PubMed is the most comprehensive database collecting and managing biomedical literature. To help researchers easily understand collections of PubMed abstracts, numerous clustering methods have been proposed to group similar abstracts based on their shared features. However, most of these methods do not explore the semantic relationships among groupings of documents, which could help better illuminate the groupings of PubMed abstracts. To address this issue, we proposed an ontological clustering method called GOClonto for conceptualizing PubMed abstracts. GOClonto uses latent semantic analysis (LSA) and gene ontology (GO) to identify key gene-related concepts and their relationships as well as allocate PubMed abstracts based on these key gene-related concepts. Based on two PubMed abstract collections, the experimental results show that GOClonto is able to identify key gene-related concepts and outperforms the STC (suffix tree clustering) algorithm, the Lingo algorithm, the Fuzzy Ants algorithm, and the clustering based TRS (tolerance rough set) algorithm. Moreover, the two ontologies generated by GOClonto show significant informative conceptual structures.

IRAP 2006, Book of Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-01-01

This publications related with Hacettepe University, Turkish Atomic Energy Authority, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, International Atomic Energy Agency, CEA-Saclay, CEA-Saclay Drecam, ANKAmall Shopping Center and Ion Beam Applications Industrial that was held in Antalya, Turkey, 23-28 September 2006. A separate abstract was prepared for each paper

IRAP 2006, Book of Abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2006-07-01

This publications related with Hacettepe University, Turkish Atomic Energy Authority, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, International Atomic Energy Agency, CEA-Saclay, CEA-Saclay Drecam, ANKAmall Shopping Center and Ion Beam Applications Industrial that was held in Antalya, Turkey, 23-28 September 2006. A separate abstract was prepared for each paper.

BALWOIS: Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morell, Morell; Todorovik, Olivija; Dimitrov, Dobri

2004-01-01

BALWOIS 2004 is supported by the European Commission, Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Macedonia, French Embassy in Macedonia and the International Association of Hydrological Sciences. BALWOIS Conference is prepared by l'Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD - Montpellier - France) and the Meteorological Association of the Republic of Macedonia (METEO MAK) with the kind support of the Hydro meteorological Services of Macedonia, Hydro biological Institute of Ohrid, National Hydro meteorological Institutes of Albania and Bulgaria, and the Municipality of Ohrid as well. Its international shared waters (rivers, lakes and groundwater tables) make this area an earth of challenges to apply the well known concept of Integrated Water Resources Management in a context of regional climate changes and anthropogenic pressures on environment. The role of a water observation and information system for decision support is to enhance the links between research institutions and operational centres, to help the decision makers and all water actors as well as to disseminate to large public useful information on related water issues. The main objectives of BALWOIS are to encourage scientific exchanges between researchers coming from Balkan institutions and to offer them opportunities to improve their networking at European and global level. Ohrid is one of the most welcoming towns of Republic of Macedonia with a very significant cultural heritage. Nobody would contest that Ohrid Lake - 358 km 2 , several millions years old and surrounded by splendid Macedonian and Albanian mountains - is among the most beautiful lakes of Europe. Together Ohrid and Prespa lakes and their environments offer a large biodiversity with endemic species. The location of the conference on the shore of Ohrid lake is particularly well chosen to work on topics linked with climate change which already affects the balance of the lakes, protection of the biodiversity against increasing

Conference ECORAD 2004 - the scientific basis for environment protection against radioactivity. Abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-07-01

Under strong social pressure driven by current environmental concerns, all environmentalists are called to construct scientific knowledge, concepts and principles suitable to ensure acceptable mastering of ecological risk. Environment Protection against radioactivity is certainly the new challenge for radioecology. Originally, radioecology has evolved with the primary goal of assessing the impact of radioactivity on man, and as such, was focused on transfer to man through the environment. Now, following a trend that is already underway for other toxicants, the environment itself is also considered as a target requiring protection. As compared to the past, this new focus of radioecology is even more 'science demanding' particularly for basic understanding in biology and ecology. In addition to the knowledge on acute effects of high doses of radioactivity on small human critical groups, it is needed to know what happens to large ecosystems when loaded with small, but long-lasting, amounts of radio-toxicants. In addition to simple direct transfer, it is needed to take into account complex interaction processes and cycling that may lead to the redistribution of radionuclides, and eventually to their bioconcentration. In addition to classical situations like external irradiation, inhalation and wounding, it is necessary to study more thoroughly the effects of internal contamination following trophic chains. In addition to the most studied physical transfer and dispersion phenomena, it is mandatory to clarify how the many differentiating processes at work in the biosphere are acting on bioavailability, a feature that is overlooked in the current homogeneous approach of simplistic models. For all these reasons, today radioecology has to deepen its roots in the main stream of environment protection and the most advanced, or actively evolving, associated set of sciences. Practical implications of radioecology are huge. International organisations are already thinking of

Conference ECORAD 2004 - the scientific basis for environment protection against radioactivity. Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

Under strong social pressure driven by current environmental concerns, all environmentalists are called to construct scientific knowledge, concepts and principles suitable to ensure acceptable mastering of ecological risk. Environment Protection against radioactivity is certainly the new challenge for radioecology. Originally, radioecology has evolved with the primary goal of assessing the impact of radioactivity on man, and as such, was focused on transfer to man through the environment. Now, following a trend that is already underway for other toxicants, the environment itself is also considered as a target requiring protection. As compared to the past, this new focus of radioecology is even more 'science demanding' particularly for basic understanding in biology and ecology. In addition to the knowledge on acute effects of high doses of radioactivity on small human critical groups, it is needed to know what happens to large ecosystems when loaded with small, but long-lasting, amounts of radio-toxicants. In addition to simple direct transfer, it is needed to take into account complex interaction processes and cycling that may lead to the redistribution of radionuclides, and eventually to their bioconcentration. In addition to classical situations like external irradiation, inhalation and wounding, it is necessary to study more thoroughly the effects of internal contamination following trophic chains. In addition to the most studied physical transfer and dispersion phenomena, it is mandatory to clarify how the many differentiating processes at work in the biosphere are acting on bioavailability, a feature that is overlooked in the current homogeneous approach of simplistic models. For all these reasons, today radioecology has to deepen its roots in the main stream of environment protection and the most advanced, or actively evolving, associated set of sciences. Practical implications of radioecology are huge. International organisations are already thinking of

Conference ECORAD 2004 - the scientific basis for environment protection against radioactivity. Abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-07-01

Under strong social pressure driven by current environmental concerns, all environmentalists are called to construct scientific knowledge, concepts and principles suitable to ensure acceptable mastering of ecological risk. Environment Protection against radioactivity is certainly the new challenge for radioecology. Originally, radioecology has evolved with the primary goal of assessing the impact of radioactivity on man, and as such, was focused on transfer to man through the environment. Now, following a trend that is already underway for other toxicants, the environment itself is also considered as a target requiring protection. As compared to the past, this new focus of radioecology is even more 'science demanding' particularly for basic understanding in biology and ecology. In addition to the knowledge on acute effects of high doses of radioactivity on small human critical groups, it is needed to know what happens to large ecosystems when loaded with small, but long-lasting, amounts of radio-toxicants. In addition to simple direct transfer, it is needed to take into account complex interaction processes and cycling that may lead to the redistribution of radionuclides, and eventually to their bioconcentration. In addition to classical situations like external irradiation, inhalation and wounding, it is necessary to study more thoroughly the effects of internal contamination following trophic chains. In addition to the most studied physical transfer and dispersion phenomena, it is mandatory to clarify how the many differentiating processes at work in the biosphere are acting on bioavailability, a feature that is overlooked in the current homogeneous approach of simplistic models. For all these reasons, today radioecology has to deepen its roots in the main stream of environment protection and the most advanced, or actively evolving, associated set of sciences. Practical implications of radioecology are huge. International organisations are already

Abstract concepts: sensory-motor grounding, metaphors, and beyond

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pecher, D.; Boot, I.; van Dantzig, S.

2011-01-01

In the last decade many researchers have obtained evidence for the idea that cognition shares processing mechanisms with perception and action. Most of the evidence supporting the grounded cognition framework focused on representations of concrete concepts, which leaves open the question how

Abstract algebra for physicists

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeman, J.

1975-06-01

Certain recent models of composite hadrons involve concepts and theorems from abstract algebra which are unfamiliar to most theoretical physicists. The algebraic apparatus needed for an understanding of these models is summarized here. Particular emphasis is given to algebraic structures which are not assumed to be associative. (2 figures) (auth)

Science teacher candidates' perceptions about roles and nature of scientific models

Science.gov (United States)

Yenilmez Turkoglu, Ayse; Oztekin, Ceren

2016-05-01

Background: Scientific models have important roles in science and science education. For scientists, they provide a means for generating new knowledge or function as an accessible summary of scientific studies. In science education, on the other hand, they are accessible representations of abstract concepts, and are also organizational frameworks to teach and learn inaccessible facts. As being indispensable parts of learning and doing science, use of scientific models in science classes should be reinforced. At this point, uncovering pre-service science teachers' (PSTs) understandings of scientific models are of great importance since they will design and conduct teaching situations for their students. Purpose: The study aimed to provide an answer to the research question: What understandings do PSTs possess about scientific models? Sample: The sample of the study consisted of 14 PSTs enrolled in an Elementary Science Education program in a public university in Ankara, Turkey. Design and methods: Data were collected by using an open-item instrument and semi-structured interviews, and were analyzed by using qualitative data analysis methods. Results: Findings showed that PSTs held fragmented views of models by having informed views in some aspects while having naïve views on others. That is, although they displayed a constructivist orientation by acknowledging the presence of multiple models for the same phenomenon depending on scientists' perspectives or creativity involved in the production of scientific knowledge, PSTs also expressed logical positivist views by believing that models should be close to the real phenomena that they represent. Findings further revealed that PSTs generally conceptualized models' materialistic uses, yet they did not think much about their theoretical and conceptual uses. It was observed that roles like reifying and visualizing were overestimated and models were dominantly characterized as three-dimensional representations

The left inferior frontal gyrus: A neural crossroads between abstract and concrete knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Della Rosa, Pasquale Anthony; Catricalà, Eleonora; Canini, Matteo; Vigliocco, Gabriella; Cappa, Stefano F

2018-07-15

Evidence from both neuropsychology and neuroimaging suggests that different types of information are necessary for representing and processing concrete and abstract word meanings. Both abstract and concrete concepts, however, conjointly rely on perceptual, verbal and contextual knowledge, with abstract concepts characterized by low values of imageability (IMG) (low sensory-motor grounding) and low context availability (CA) (more difficult to contextualize). Imaging studies supporting differences between abstract and concrete concepts show a greater recruitment of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) for abstract concepts, which has been attributed either to the representation of abstract-specific semantic knowledge or to the request for more executive control than in the case of concrete concepts. We conducted an fMRI study on 27 participants, using a lexical decision task involving both abstract and concrete words, whose IMG and CA values were explicitly modelled in separate parametric analyses. The LIFG was significantly more activated for abstract than for concrete words, and a conjunction analysis showed a common activation for words with low IMG or low CA only in the LIFG, in the same area reported for abstract words. A regional template map of brain activations was then traced for words with low IMG or low CA, and BOLD regional time-series were extracted and correlated with the specific LIFG neural activity elicited for abstract words. The regions associated to low IMG, which were functionally correlated with LIFG, were mainly in the left hemisphere, while those associated with low CA were in the right hemisphere. Finally, in order to reveal which LIFG-related network increased its connectivity with decreases of IMG or CA, we conducted generalized psychophysiological interaction analyses. The connectivity strength values extracted from each region connected with the LIFG were correlated with specific LIFG neural activity for abstract words, and a regression

A semantic-based method for extracting concept definitions from scientific publications: evaluation in the autism phenotype domain

OpenAIRE

Hassanpour, Saeed; O?Connor, Martin J; Das, Amar K

2013-01-01

Background A variety of informatics approaches have been developed that use information retrieval, NLP and text-mining techniques to identify biomedical concepts and relations within scientific publications or their sentences. These approaches have not typically addressed the challenge of extracting more complex knowledge such as biomedical definitions. In our efforts to facilitate knowledge acquisition of rule-based definitions of autism phenotypes, we have developed a novel semantic-based t...

The use of Pierre Bourdieu's distinction concepts in scientific articles studying food and eating: A narrative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Sato, Priscila de Morais; Gittelsohn, Joel; Unsain, Ramiro Fernandez; Roble, Odilon José; Scagliusi, Fernanda Baeza

2016-01-01

This article reviews and discusses scientific papers on eating practices that have used Pierre Bourdieu's concepts presented in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. It aims to synthesize and analyze theoretical and empirical studies on the theme in order to present Bourdieu's contributions to the field, advances in his theories, and directions for future research. Exclusion criteria were: not written in Portuguese, English, Spanish, or French; not published in a peer-reviewed journal; not analyzing food or eating; and not using Bourdieu's concepts as presented in Distinction as the main theoretical framework. In this narrative review, we found 38 articles, which were categorized main themes: food choice and provisioning, taste, social class, food symbolism, the body, and the scientific field of food and eating. The taste of luxury and the taste of necessity were broadly applied on the works found in this review and were observed among the lower and upper classes, manifesting differently in each class. These studies show that while Bourdieu's theories are still highly relevant to understanding contemporary social groups, they may be improved when combined with other frameworks and theorists. We highlight as directions for future research manners in which gender and the environment interact with the habitus and food choices. Finally, this review points to new areas of investigation that may help improve the use of Bourdieu's concepts in exploring health inequalities, such as differences in eating practices and habitus within populations with low socioeconomic status. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Designing Scientific Software for Heterogeneous Computing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glimberg, Stefan Lemvig

, algorithms and data structures must be designed to utilize the underlying parallel architecture. The architectural changes in hardware design within the last decade, from single to multi and many-core architectures, require software developers to identify and properly implement methods that both exploit...... makes parallel software design applicable, but also a challenge for scientific software developers at all levels. We have developed a generic C++ library for fast prototyping of large-scale PDEs solvers based on flexible-order finite difference approximations on structured regular grids. The library...... is designed with a high abstraction interface to improve developer productivity. The library is based on modern template-based design concepts as described in Glimberg, Engsig-Karup, Nielsen & Dammann (2013). The library utilizes heterogeneous CPU/GPU environments in order to maximize computational throughput...

Abstracting event-based control models for high autonomy systems

Science.gov (United States)

Luh, Cheng-Jye; Zeigler, Bernard P.

1993-01-01

A high autonomy system needs many models on which to base control, management, design, and other interventions. These models differ in level of abstraction and in formalism. Concepts and tools are needed to organize the models into a coherent whole. The paper deals with the abstraction processes for systematic derivation of related models for use in event-based control. The multifaceted modeling methodology is briefly reviewed. The morphism concepts needed for application to model abstraction are described. A theory for supporting the construction of DEVS models needed for event-based control is then presented. An implemented morphism on the basis of this theory is also described.

The epistemic integrity of scientific research.

Science.gov (United States)

De Winter, Jan; Kosolosky, Laszlo

2013-09-01

We live in a world in which scientific expertise and its epistemic authority become more important. On the other hand, the financial interests in research, which could potentially corrupt science, are increasing. Due to these two tendencies, a concern for the integrity of scientific research becomes increasingly vital. This concern is, however, hollow if we do not have a clear account of research integrity. Therefore, it is important that we explicate this concept. Following Rudolf Carnap's characterization of the task of explication, this means that we should develop a concept that is (1) similar to our common sense notion of research integrity, (2) exact, (3) fruitful, and (4) as simple as possible. Since existing concepts do not meet these four requirements, we develop a new concept in this article. We describe a concept of epistemic integrity that is based on the property of deceptiveness, and argue that this concept does meet Carnap's four requirements of explication. To illustrate and support our claims we use several examples from scientific practice, mainly from biomedical research.

Drama-Based Science Teaching and Its Effect on Students' Understanding of Scientific Concepts and Their Attitudes towards Science Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Abed, Osama H.

2016-01-01

This study investigated the effect of drama-based science teaching on students' understanding of scientific concepts and their attitudes towards science learning. The study also aimed to examine if there is an interaction between students' achievement level in science and drama-based instruction. The sample consisted of (87) of 7th grade students…

Abstracted Workow Framework with a Structure from Motion Application

Science.gov (United States)

Rossi, Adam J.

point cloud through patch based techniques or densification algorithms such as Semi-Global Matching (SGM). The point cloud can be visualized or exploited by both humans and automated techniques. In some cases the point cloud is "draped" with original imagery in order to enhance the 3D model for a human viewer. The SfM workflow can be implemented in the abstracted framework, making it easily leverageable and extensible by multiple users. Like many processes in scientific and engineering domains, the workflow described for SfM is complex and requires many disparate components to form a functional system, often utilizing algorithms implemented by many users in different languages / environments and without knowledge of how the component fits into the larger system. In practice, this generally leads to issues interfacing the components, building the software for desired platforms, understanding its concept of operations, and how it can be manipulated in order to fit the desired function for a particular application. In addition, other scientists and engineers instinctively wish to analyze the performance of the system, establish new algorithms, optimize existing processes, and establish new functionality based on current research. This requires a framework whereby new components can be easily plugged in without affecting the current implemented functionality. The need for a universal programming environment establishes the motivation for the development of the abstracted workflow framework. This software implementation, named Catena, provides base classes from which new components must derive in order to operate within the framework. The derivation mandates requirements be satisfied in order to provide a complete implementation. Additionally, the developer must provide documentation of the component in terms of its overall function and inputs. The interface input and output values corresponding to the component must be defined in terms of their respective data types, and

Scientific Letter: High-intent suicide and the Beck's Suicide Intent ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Scientific Letter: High-intent suicide and the Beck's Suicide Intent scale: a case report. ... African Journal of Psychiatry. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current ... Abstract. Scientific Letter - No Abstract Available ...

Reconstruction of abstract quantum theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drieschner, M.; Goernitz, T.; von Weizsaecker, C.F.

1988-01-01

Understanding quantum theory as a general theory of prediction, we reconstruct abstract quantum theory. Abstract means the general frame of quantum theory, without reference to a three-dimensional position space, to concepts like particle or field, or to special laws of dynamics. Reconstruction is the attempt to do this by formulating simple and plausible postulates on prediction in order to derive the basic concepts of quantum theory from them. Thereby no law of classical physics is presupposed which would then have to be quantized. We briefly discuss the relationship of theory and interpretation in physics and the fundamental role of time as a basic concept for physics. Then a number of assertions are given, formulated as succinctly as possible in order to make them easily quotable and comparable. The assertations are arranged in four groups: heuristic principles, verbal definitions of some terms, three basic postulates, and consequences. The three postulates of separable alternatives, indeterminism, and kinematics are the central points of this work. These brief assertions are commented upon, and their relationship with the interpretation of quantum theory is discussed. Also given are an outlook on the further development into concrete quantum theory and some philosophical reflections

Using Group Explorer in Teaching Abstract Algebra

Science.gov (United States)

Schubert, Claus; Gfeller, Mary; Donohue, Christopher

2013-01-01

This study explores the use of Group Explorer in an undergraduate mathematics course in abstract algebra. The visual nature of Group Explorer in representing concepts in group theory is an attractive incentive to use this software in the classroom. However, little is known about students' perceptions on this technology in learning concepts in…

Converging modalities ground abstract categories: the case of politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Farias, Ana Rita; Garrido, Margarida V; Semin, Gün R

2013-01-01

Three studies are reported examining the grounding of abstract concepts across two modalities (visual and auditory) and their symbolic representation. A comparison of the outcomes across these studies reveals that the symbolic representation of political concepts and their visual and auditory modalities is convergent. In other words, the spatial relationships between specific instances of the political categories are highly overlapping across the symbolic, visual and auditory modalities. These findings suggest that abstract categories display redundancy across modal and amodal representations, and are multimodal.

Cornelia de Lange syndrome: further delineation of phenotype, cohesin biology and educational focus, 5th Biennial Scientific and Educational Symposium abstracts.

Science.gov (United States)

Kline, Antonie D; Calof, Anne L; Schaaf, Cheri A; Krantz, Ian D; Jyonouchi, Soma; Yokomori, Kyoko; Gauze, Maria; Carrico, Cheri S; Woodman, Julie; Gerton, Jennifer L; Vega, Hugo; Levin, Alex V; Shirahige, Katsuhiko; Champion, Michele; Goodban, Marjorie T; O'Connor, Julia T; Pipan, Mary; Horsfield, Julia; Deardorff, Matthew A; Ishman, Stacey L; Dorsett, Dale

2014-06-01

Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) is the prototype for the cohesinopathy disorders that have mutations in genes associated with the cohesin subunit in all cells. Roberts syndrome is the next most common cohesinopathy. In addition to the developmental implications of cohesin biology, there is much translational and basic research, with progress towards potential treatment for these conditions. Clinically, there are many issues in CdLS faced by the individual, parents and caretakers, professionals, and schools. The following abstracts are presentations from the 5th Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Scientific and Educational Symposium on June 20-21, 2012, in conjunction with the Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Foundation National Meeting, Lincolnshire, IL. The research committee of the CdLS Foundation organizes the meeting, reviews and accepts abstracts and subsequently disseminates the information to the families. In addition to the basic science and clinical discussions, there were educationally-focused talks related to practical aspects of management at home and in school. AMA CME credits were provided by Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, MD. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Adaptation and extension of the framework of reducing abstraction in the case of differential equations

Science.gov (United States)

Raychaudhuri, Debasree

2014-01-01

Although there is no consensus in regard to a unique meaning for abstraction, there is a recognition of the existence of several theories of abstraction, and that the ability to abstract is imperative to learning and doing meaningful mathematics. The theory of reducing abstraction maps the abstract nature of mathematics to the nature of knowledge construction by offering three interpretations of how students reduce abstraction while learning mathematical concepts. We apply this framework to explain students' cognition processes as they construct the concept of solution to differential equations and related concepts during a semester long study. Additionally, we refine and extend the framework to elucidate various nuances of the interplay between mathematical structures and human thoughts.

Elements of abstract harmonic analysis

CERN Document Server

Bachman, George

2013-01-01

Elements of Abstract Harmonic Analysis provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts and basic theorems of abstract harmonic analysis. In order to give a reasonably complete and self-contained introduction to the subject, most of the proofs have been presented in great detail thereby making the development understandable to a very wide audience. Exercises have been supplied at the end of each chapter. Some of these are meant to extend the theory slightly while others should serve to test the reader's understanding of the material presented. The first chapter and part of the second give

Landscape practise and key concepts for landscape sustainability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandt, Jesper; Christensen, Andreas Aagaard; Svenningsen, Stig Roar

2013-01-01

Conceptual frameworks which have seen man and nature as being an integrated whole were widespread before they became suppressed by developments within both capitalism and socialism. Therefore an idealistic use of such concepts in scientific work has often had limited practical value. At the same...... and relate it to an empirical study of sustainable tourism in eight protected areas and their regions in the Baltic. They are subject to large differences in human pressure. The political commitment to the related EU Natura 2000 networks has been taken as our point of departure for a more detailed analysis...... of accessibility and its related conflicts, and opportunities for a sustainable development of tourism in and around the protected areas. It is concluded that the concept of carrying capacity cannot meaningfully be used for sustainability studies at an abstract conceptual level, but proves its relevance through...

Cornelia de Lange syndrome and molecular implications of the cohesin complex: Abstracts from the 7th biennial scientific and educational symposium 2016

Science.gov (United States)

Kline, Antonie D.; Krantz, Ian D.; Deardorff, Matthew A.; Shirahige, Katsuhiko; Dorsett, Dale; Gerton, Jennifer L.; Wu, Meng; Mehta, Devanshi; Mills, Jason A.; Carrico, Cheri S.; Noon, Sarah; Herrera, Pamela S.; Horsfield, Julia A.; Bettale, Chiara; Morgan, Jeremy; Huisman, Sylvia A.; Moss, Jo; McCleery, Joseph; Grados, Marco; Hansen, Blake D.; Srivastava, Siddharth; Taylor-Snell, Emily; Kerr, Lynne M.; Katz, Olivia; Calof, Anne L.; Musio, Antonio; Egense, Alena; Haaland, Richard E.

2017-01-01

Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) is due to mutations in the genes for the structural and regulatory proteins that make up the cohesin complex, and is considered a cohesinopathy disorder or, more recently, a transcriptomopathy. New phenotypes have been recognized in this expanding field. There are multiple clinical issues facing individuals with all forms of CdLS, particularly in the neurodevelopmental system, but also gastrointestinal, cardiac, and musculoskeletal. Aspects of developmental and cell biology have found common endpoints in the biology of the cohesin complex, with improved understanding of the mechanisms, easier diagnostic tests, and the possibility of potential therapeutics, all major clinical implications for the individual with CdLS. The following abstracts are the presentations from the 7th Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Scientific and Educational Symposium, June 22–23, 2016, in Orlando, FL, in conjunction with the Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Foundation National Meeting. In addition to the scientific and clinical discussions, there were talks related to practical aspects of behavior including autism, transitions, communication, access to medical care, and databases. At the end of the symposium, a panel was held, which included several parents, affected individuals and genetic counselors, and discussed the greatest challenges in life and how this information can assist in guiding future research. The Research Committee of the CdLS Foundation organizes this meeting, reviews, and accepts abstracts, and subsequently disseminates the information to the families through members of the Clinical Advisory Board and publications. AMA CME credits were provided by Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, MD. PMID:28190301

Cornelia de Lange syndrome and molecular implications of the cohesin complex: Abstracts from the 7th biennial scientific and educational symposium 2016.

Science.gov (United States)

Kline, Antonie D; Krantz, Ian D; Deardorff, Matthew A; Shirahige, Katsuhiko; Dorsett, Dale; Gerton, Jennifer L; Wu, Meng; Mehta, Devanshi; Mills, Jason A; Carrico, Cheri S; Noon, Sarah; Herrera, Pamela S; Horsfield, Julia A; Bettale, Chiara; Morgan, Jeremy; Huisman, Sylvia A; Moss, Jo; McCleery, Joseph; Grados, Marco; Hansen, Blake D; Srivastava, Siddharth; Taylor-Snell, Emily; Kerr, Lynne M; Katz, Olivia; Calof, Anne L; Musio, Antonio; Egense, Alena; Haaland, Richard E

2017-05-01

Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) is due to mutations in the genes for the structural and regulatory proteins that make up the cohesin complex, and is considered a cohesinopathy disorder or, more recently, a transcriptomopathy. New phenotypes have been recognized in this expanding field. There are multiple clinical issues facing individuals with all forms of CdLS, particularly in the neurodevelopmental system, but also gastrointestinal, cardiac, and musculoskeletal. Aspects of developmental and cell biology have found common endpoints in the biology of the cohesin complex, with improved understanding of the mechanisms, easier diagnostic tests, and the possibility of potential therapeutics, all major clinical implications for the individual with CdLS. The following abstracts are the presentations from the 7th Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Scientific and Educational Symposium, June 22-23, 2016, in Orlando, FL, in conjunction with the Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Foundation National Meeting. In addition to the scientific and clinical discussions, there were talks related to practical aspects of behavior including autism, transitions, communication, access to medical care, and databases. At the end of the symposium, a panel was held, which included several parents, affected individuals and genetic counselors, and discussed the greatest challenges in life and how this information can assist in guiding future research. The Research Committee of the CdLS Foundation organizes this meeting, reviews, and accepts abstracts, and subsequently disseminates the information to the families through members of the Clinical Advisory Board and publications. AMA CME credits were provided by Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, MD. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

ESPR 2015. Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

The volume includes the abstracts of the ESPR 2015 covering the following topics: PCG (post graduate courses): Radiography; fluoroscopy and general issue; nuclear medicine, interventional radiology and hybrid imaging, pediatric CT, pediatric ultrasound; MRI in childhood. Scientific sessions and task force sessions: International aspects; neuroradiology, neonatal imaging, engineering techniques to simulate injury in child abuse, CT - dose and quality, challenges in the chest, cardiovascular and chest, muscoskeletal, oncology, pediatric uroradiology and abdominal imaging, fetal and postmortem imaging, education and global challenges, neuroradiology - head and neck, gastrointestinal and genitourinary.

ESPR 2015. Abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2015-05-10

The volume includes the abstracts of the ESPR 2015 covering the following topics: PCG (post graduate courses): Radiography; fluoroscopy and general issue; nuclear medicine, interventional radiology and hybrid imaging, pediatric CT, pediatric ultrasound; MRI in childhood. Scientific sessions and task force sessions: International aspects; neuroradiology, neonatal imaging, engineering techniques to simulate injury in child abuse, CT - dose and quality, challenges in the chest, cardiovascular and chest, muscoskeletal, oncology, pediatric uroradiology and abdominal imaging, fetal and postmortem imaging, education and global challenges, neuroradiology - head and neck, gastrointestinal and genitourinary.

Scientific Letter: Stabbing nails into the neck: an unusual self ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Scientific Letter: Stabbing nails into the neck: an unusual self-damaging behavior mandating neurosurgery. A Aghabiklooei, R Aghabiklooei, N Zamani. Abstract. Scientific Letter - No Abstract Available. Full Text: EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT.

Converging modalities ground abstract categories: the case of politics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Rita Farias

Full Text Available Three studies are reported examining the grounding of abstract concepts across two modalities (visual and auditory and their symbolic representation. A comparison of the outcomes across these studies reveals that the symbolic representation of political concepts and their visual and auditory modalities is convergent. In other words, the spatial relationships between specific instances of the political categories are highly overlapping across the symbolic, visual and auditory modalities. These findings suggest that abstract categories display redundancy across modal and amodal representations, and are multimodal.

Engaging Pre-Service Teachers to Teach Science Contextually with Scientific Approach Instructional Video

Science.gov (United States)

Susantini, E.; Kurniasari, I.; Fauziah, A. N. M.; Prastowo, T.; Kholiq, A.; Rosdiana, L.

2018-01-01

Contextual teaching and learning/CTL presents new concepts in real-life experiences and situations where students can find out the meaningful relationship between abstract ideas and practical applications. Implementing contextual teaching by using scientific approach will foster teachers to find the constructive ways of delivering and organizing science content. This research developed an instructional video that represented a modeling of using a scientific approach in CTL. The aim of this research are to engage pre-service teachers in learning how to teach CTL and to show how pre-service teachers’ responses about learning how to teach CTL using an instructional video. The subjects of this research were ten pre-service teachers in Department of Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia. All subjects observed the instructional video which demonstrated contextual teaching and learning combined with the scientific approach as they completed a worksheet to analyze the video content. The results showed that pre-service teachers could learn to teach contextually as well as applying the scientific approach in science classroom through a modeling in the instructional video. They also responded that the instructional video could help them to learn to teach each component contextual teaching as well as scientific approach.

Nomadic concepts in the history of biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Surman, Jan; Stráner, Katalin; Haslinger, Peter

2014-12-01

The history of scientific concepts has firmly settled among the instruments of historical inquiry. In our section we approach concepts from the perspective of nomadic concepts (Isabelle Stengers). Instead of following the evolution of concepts within one disciplinary network, we see them as subject to constant reification and change while crossing and turning across disciplines and non-scientific domains. This introduction argues that understanding modern biology is not possible without taking into account the constant transfers and translations that affected concepts. We argue that this approach does not only engage with nomadism between disciplines and non-scientific domains, but reflects on and involves the metaphoric value of concepts as well. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Kindergarten students’ levels of understanding some science concepts and scientific inquiry processes according to demographic variables (the sampling of Kilis Province in Turkey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nail İlhan

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to identify the kindergarten students’ levels of understanding some science concepts (LUSSC and scientific inquiry processes (SIP and compare their LUSSC and SIP in terms of some demographic variables. Also, another purpose of this study is to identify the predictive power of those demographic variables over the kindergarten students’ LUSSC and SIP. This study was conducted according to quantitative research design. The study group consisted of 335 kindergarten students from 20 different rural and urban schools. In the study, the scale for “Turkish Kindergarten Students’ Understandings of Scientific Concepts and Scientific Inquiry Processes” was used. According to some variables (such as mother’s education level and family structure, there was a statistically significant difference between students’ mean scores for LUSSC and between students’ mean scores for SIP. Within the scope of this study, it was found that among the predictor variables (age, family’s income level, and number of brother/sister were significant predictors for LUSSC, and number of brother/sister was a significant predictor for SIP.

An automatic method to generate domain-specific investigator networks using PubMed abstracts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gwinn Marta

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Collaboration among investigators has become critical to scientific research. This includes ad hoc collaboration established through personal contacts as well as formal consortia established by funding agencies. Continued growth in online resources for scientific research and communication has promoted the development of highly networked research communities. Extending these networks globally requires identifying additional investigators in a given domain, profiling their research interests, and collecting current contact information. We present a novel strategy for building investigator networks dynamically and producing detailed investigator profiles using data available in PubMed abstracts. Results We developed a novel strategy to obtain detailed investigator information by automatically parsing the affiliation string in PubMed records. We illustrated the results by using a published literature database in human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit as a test case. Our parsing strategy extracted country information from 92.1% of the affiliation strings in a random sample of PubMed records and in 97.0% of HuGE records, with accuracies of 94.0% and 91.0%, respectively. Institution information was parsed from 91.3% of the general PubMed records (accuracy 86.8% and from 94.2% of HuGE PubMed records (accuracy 87.0. We demonstrated the application of our approach to dynamic creation of investigator networks by creating a prototype information system containing a large database of PubMed abstracts relevant to human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit, indexed using PubMed medical subject headings converted to Unified Medical Language System concepts. Our method was able to identify 70–90% of the investigators/collaborators in three different human genetics fields; it also successfully identified 9 of 10 genetics investigators within the PREBIC network, an existing preterm birth research network. Conclusion We successfully created a

ESGAR 2007. Book of abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2007-06-15

The book includes the abstracts of all contributions presented during ESGAR (European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology) 2007. The contributions of the symposium and the scientific sessions cover the following topics: abdominal MRI; interactive liver diagnosis; rectal cancer; liver metastases; pancreas: technical advances, lesion characterisation and staging; hepatic interventions; upper GI tract: multimodality evaluation; Crohn's disease evaluation; focal liver lesions: multimodality evaluation; CTC-computer aided diagnosis; bile ducts: imaging and intervention; GI tract: imaging and intervention; small bowel and appendix: cross-sectional imaging; CT and MR colonography; trauma and acute abdominal conditions: imaging and intervention; vascular and diffuse liver disease; liver contrast enhanced US. The second part covers the abstract of 248 presentations.

The early emergence and puzzling decline of relational reasoning: Effects of knowledge and search on inferring abstract concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Caren M; Bridgers, Sophie; Gopnik, Alison

2016-11-01

We explore the developmental trajectory and underlying mechanisms of abstract relational reasoning. We describe a surprising developmental pattern: Younger learners are better than older ones at inferring abstract causal relations. Walker and Gopnik (2014) demonstrated that toddlers are able to infer that an effect was caused by a relation between two objects (whether they are the same or different), rather than by individual kinds of objects. While these findings are consistent with evidence that infants recognize same-different relations, they contrast with a large literature suggesting that older children tend to have difficulty inferring these relations. Why might this be? In Experiment 1a, we demonstrate that while younger children (18-30-month-olds) have no difficulty learning these relational concepts, older children (36-48-month-olds) fail to draw this abstract inference. Experiment 1b replicates the finding with 18-30-month-olds using a more demanding intervention task. Experiment 2 tests whether this difference in performance might be because older children have developed the general hypothesis that individual kinds of objects are causal - the high initial probability of this alternative hypothesis might override the data that favors the relational hypothesis. Providing additional information falsifying the alternative hypothesis improves older children's performance. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrates that prompting for explanations during learning also improves performance, even without any additional information. These findings are discussed in light of recent computational and algorithmic theories of learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The hue of concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Albertazzi, Liliana; Canal, Luisa; Malfatti, Michela; Micciolo, Rocco

2013-01-01

The study shows a systematic naturally biased association between percepts and concepts. Specifically, it shows that a series of terms pertaining to an abstract semantic field (related to the frame of ethics in social behaviour) has a nonrandom, highly significant, association with colours (hues). This is the first time that consistent associations between abstract terms and colours have been reported in the general population. The main hypothesis, ie that there appear to be 'hues of concepts', was borne out by the results: the abstract terms considered were coloured with blue/green (ie cool) colours as well as their synonyms, while their antonyms were coloured with red/yellow (ie warm) colours. The association provides information about the nature of abstract concepts and their relationship with perception. It also sheds light on the interrelations among words in semantic domains that, to date, have been studied from only a computational viewpoint.

French Society of Medical Physics. 55. Scientific Days, Abstract collection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-06-01

This publication gathers abstracts of oral contributions and papers presented during a conference. Oral contributions were presented in different sessions: Proton/hadron therapy, Adaptive radiotherapy, Imagery in radiotherapy (preprocessing, IGRT...), Research in medical physics, Equipment quality insurance, Treatment planning, Use of MRI in radiotherapy, Advanced techniques in radiotherapy, PET/MRI based nuclear medicine, Optimisation in nuclear medicine, Radiology/MRI/ultrasound. Posters addressed the following themes: Radiotherapy, Nuclear medicine, Radiology/MRI/Ultrasound

Factors Impacting the Conversion of Abstracts Presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress Meetings to Full Publications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abuzeid, W.; Fosbøl, E.; Fosbøl, Philip Loldrup

2013-01-01

associated with transition of abstracts to full publications.BackgroundThe rate of conversion of abstracts presented at scientific meetings into peer reviewed published manuscripts, has been a topic of interest for various medical specialties. Rapid translation of abstracts into manuscripts allows...... for reliable and rapid communication of scientific knowledge into practice. Methods;Using a previously validated automated computer algorithm, we searched the ISI Web of Science to identify peer-reviewed full manuscript publications of abstracts presented at the CCC. We manually entered information about...

The Conversion of Cardiovascular Conference Abstracts to Publications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fosbøl, Emil L.; Fosbøl, Philip Loldrup; Harrington, Robert A.

2012-01-01

a systematic and automated evaluation of rates, timing, and correlates of publication from scientific abstracts presented at 3 major cardiovascular conferences. Methods and Results—Using an automated computer algorithm, we searched the ISI Web of Science to identify peer-reviewed publications of abstracts......–3, 2.5–5.8) for ESC (P for difference between groups 0.01). Clinical science and population science were less likely to be published compared with basic science. Conclusions—One third of abstracts were translated into publications by 2 years after presentation and less than one half by 5 years after...

Scientific conception on mechanisms of calcium homeostasis disorders under low dose effect of ionizing radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abylaev, Zh.A.; Dospolova, Zh.G.

1997-01-01

Scientific conception of probable consequences of calcium homeostasis disorders in personals, exposed to low dose effect of ionizing radiation has been developed. Principle positions of the conception is that pathologic processes development have different ways of conducting. During predominance of low doses of external gamma-radiation there is leading pathologic mechanism (mechanism 1) of disorder neuroendocrine regulation of both the calcium and the phosphor. In this case sicks have disorders of both the vegetative tonus and the endocrine status. Under internal irradiation (mechanism 2) there is disfunction of organs and systems (bore changes and disorders of hormone status). These changes are considered as consequence of negative action on organism of incorporated long-living radionuclides. Radio-toxic factors action (mechanism 3) provokes the excess of hormones, which acting on bone tissue and could be cause of steroid osteoporosis. Influence of chronic stress factor (mechanism 4) enlarges and burden action on organism of low radiation doses. It is emphasized, that decisive role in development of pathologic processes has mechanism of disturbance of neuroendocrine regulation of calcium exchange

The self-concept of chiropractic students as science students

Science.gov (United States)

Shields, Robert F.

2005-01-01

Abstract Purpose To determine the self-concepts of chiropractic students as science students and if any personal variable affect their self-concepts. Participants Students in their first trimester and eighth trimester at the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic during the 1993 academic year (n=158). Methods Peterson-Yaakobi Q-Sort, National Assessment of Educational Progress, two-tailed T-test, one way analysis of variance and Spearman-rho correlation. Results The majority of students have positive self- concepts as science students and although there was a difference between the 2 trimesters, it was not significant. As a group they generally had less exposure to science compared to undergraduates from a selected science program. Variables of socio-economic status, undergraduate major, and highest completed level of education did not statistically affect their self-concept. Conclusion Chiropractic students had the self-concept that enables them to subscribe to the philosophical foundations of science and better engage in basic sciences and, later, science-based clinical research. Knowledge of this self- concept can be used in the development of a more rigorous basic science curricula and clinical research programs at chiropractic colleges with the ultimate goal of providing a more firm scientifically based foundation for the profession. PMID:19674649

Functional Abstraction of Stochastic Hybrid Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bujorianu, L.M.; Blom, Henk A.P.; Hermanns, H.

2006-01-01

The verification problem for stochastic hybrid systems is quite difficult. One method to verify these systems is stochastic reachability analysis. Concepts of abstractions for stochastic hybrid systems are needed to ease the stochastic reachability analysis. In this paper, we set up different ways

Program and Abstracts, Boron Americas IX Final Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Feakes, Debra A.

2006-08-09

The Scientific and Technical Information (STI) submitted includes the final report and a collection of abstracts for the Ninth Boron in the Americas Conference which was held May 19-22, 2004, in San Marcos, Texas. The topics covered in the abstracts include: Application in Medicine, Application in Organic Synthesis and Catalysis, Boranes and Carboranes, Materials and Polymers, Metallaboranes and Metallacarboranes, Organoboron Compounds, Synthesis and Catalysis, and Theoretical Studies. Attendees represented researchers from government, industry, and academia.

People’s Republic of China Scientific Abstracts, Number 185

Science.gov (United States)

1978-02-14

CONTENTS PAGE HANG-K’UNG CHIH-SHIH [AERONAUTICAL KNOWLEDGE] No 10, October 1977 .... 1 CHIH-WU HSUEH-PAO [ACTA BOTANICA SINICA] No 3, September 1977 8...launch units; 3) Chairman Hua visiting an earthquake damaged region; 4) a group of female pilots of a minority race. 3012 CSO: 4009 ACTA BOTANICA ...CHIH-WU HSUEH-PAO [ACTA BOTANICA SINICä] in Chinese Vol 19 No 3, Sep 77 pp 167-171 TEXT OF ENGLISH ABSTRACT: 1. The process of microsporogenesis

Student Scientific Conference, 2003. Collection of abstracts of works of diplomates and post-doctoral students

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Danekova, E.; Vavrova, K.; Takacova, V.; Slezak, J.

2003-04-01

Collection of abstracts contains 267 abstracts of which 90 are from the Czech Republic (34%), 2 abstracts are from Poland, 73 works come from universities and 17 from the Czech Academy of Sciences. There are 177 contributions from Slovakia. 112 (42%) of them are from universities and 65 (24%) from Slovak Academy of Sciences. The conference included the following sections: (i) Biology (101 presentations); (ii) Didactics (11 presentations); (iii) Environment (40 presentations); (iv) Geography (20 presentations); (v) Geology (12 presentations); (vi) Chemistry (83 presentations). Relevant abstracts to INIS interest have been inputted to INIS

USSR and Eastern Europe Scientific Abstracts, Engineering and Equipment, Number 38

Science.gov (United States)

1977-12-27

Institute for the Construction of Trunk Pipelines; KAPLAN , A. S., Latvian Scientific Research Institute of Construction and YAMBOR, YA. YA., Institute of...numbers a-, and a2 is studied. The appearance of harmonics such as na± + ma2 is considered, when n and m are integers. Particular attention is given to

An introduction to abstract algebra

CERN Document Server

Robinson, Derek JS

2003-01-01

This is a high level introduction to abstract algebra which is aimed at readers whose interests lie in mathematics and in the information and physical sciences. In addition to introducing the main concepts of modern algebra, the book contains numerous applications, which are intended to illustrate the concepts and to convince the reader of the utility and relevance of algebra today. In particular applications to Polya coloring theory, latin squares, Steiner systems and error correcting codes are described. Another feature of the book is that group theory and ring theory are carried further than is often done at this level. There is ample material here for a two semester course in abstract algebra. The importance of proof is stressed and rigorous proofs of almost all results are given. But care has been taken to lead the reader through the proofs by gentle stages. There are nearly 400 problems, of varying degrees of difficulty, to test the reader''s skill and progress. The book should be suitable for students ...

People’s Republic of China Scientific Abstracts, Number 200.

Science.gov (United States)

1978-09-25

all of whom were suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, portal vein hypertension , 56 [continuation of CHUNG-HUA WAI-K’O TSA-CHIH No 2, 20 Apr 78...temperature is one of the many important phases of the studies concerning earthquake forecasting . In order to be able to catch up with the world’s...HSIAN [EARTHQUAKE FRONT] in Chinese No 3, 6 Jun 78 pp 28-31 ABSTRACT: In order to effectively forecast (especially short range forecast ) an

People’s Republic of China Scientific Abstracts No. 180

Science.gov (United States)

1977-11-25

translations of these articles. CONTENTS PAGE CHIH-WU HSUEH-PAO [ACTA BOTANICA SINICA] No 1, March 1977 1 K’UN-CH’UNG HSUEH-PAO [ACTA ENTOMOLOGICA...March 1977. 28 TUNG-WU HSUEH-PAO [ACTA ZOOLOGICA SINICA] No 2, June.1977 41 a - [III - CC - 70 S § T] ACTA BOTANICA SINICA AUTHOR...HSUEH-PAO [ACTA BOTANICA SINICA] in Chinese Vol 19 No 1, Mar 77 pp 7-10 TEXT OF ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In 1964, we some young teachers and students in

The Relationships among Scientific Epistemic Beliefs, Conceptions of Learning Science, and Motivation of Learning Science: A Study of Taiwan High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Hsin-Ning Jessie; Liang, Jyh-Chong

2015-01-01

This study explores the relationships among Taiwanese high school students' scientific epistemic beliefs (SEBs), conceptions of learning science (COLS), and motivation of learning science. The questionnaire responses from 470 high school students in Taiwan were gathered for analysis to explain these relationships. The structural equation modeling…

[Eleven thesis on the archive of scientific research, for a new patrimonial and scientific policy].

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, Bertrand

2015-12-01

Abstracting the main content of a recent report on the bad state of the archives of scientific research, this paper puts forward eleven thesis likely to feed, in this time of numeric transition to a new documentary regime and to a new patrimonial policy. The recent numeric conditions impose to set new archival pratices, more proactive, anticipative and prospective. Archives of scientific research must be thought in a double memorial and scientific dimension, and not only as a patrimonial or historical one.

Abstraction the public from scientific - applied meteorological-climatologic data

Science.gov (United States)

Trajanoska, L.

2010-09-01

Mathematical and meteorological statistic processing of meteorological-climatologic data, which includes assessment of the exactness, level of confidence of the average and extreme values, frequencies (probabilities) of the occurrence of each meteorological phenomenon and element e.t.c. helps to describe the impacts climate may have on different social and economic activities (transportation, heat& power generation), as well as on human health. Having in mind the new technology and the commercial world, during the work with meteorological-climatologic data we have meet many different challenges. Priority in all of this is the quality of the meteorological-climatologic set of data. First, we need compatible modern, sophisticated measurement and informatics solution for data. Results of this measurement through applied processing and analyze is the second branch which is very important also. Should we all (country) need that? Today we have many unpleasant events connected with meteorology, many questions which are not answered and all of this has too long lasting. We must give the answers and solve the real and basic issue. In this paper the data issue will be presented. We have too much of data but so little of real and quality applied of them, Why? There is a data for: -public applied -for jurisdiction needs -for getting fast decision-solutions (meteorological-dangerous phenomenon's) -for getting decisions for long-lasting plans -for explore in different sphere of human living So, it is very important for what kind of data we are talking. Does the data we are talking are with public or scientific-applied character? So,we have two groups. The first group which work with the data direct from the measurement place and instrument. They are store a quality data base and are on extra help to the journalists, medical workers, human civil engineers, electromechanical engineers, agro meteorological and forestry engineer e.g. The second group do work with all scientific

Full-text publication of abstracts presented at meetings of a Latin American scientific society.

Science.gov (United States)

Dicembrino, Manuela; Anderson, Mariana; Vely, Ana Gabriela; Ossorio, María Fabiana; Ferrero, Fernando

2014-12-01

To estimate the proportion of abstracts presented at meetings of the Latin American Society for Pediatric Research that are fully-published, to describe the reasons for not publishing papers, and to assess the impact of funding on the publication rate. Abstracts presented at meetings held between 2005 and 2009 were included. Authors were contacted and invited to take a survey on the publication of their work or the reasons not to do it. Information was collected on 232 (71.4%) of the 325 abstracts presented. Of these, 58.6% were fully-published (136/232). Funded studies (40.0%) had more chances of publication (OR: 2.2; 95% CI: 1.2-3.9). "Lack of time" was the most common reason for failure to publish (35/96). 58.6% of abstracts presented at meetings of the Latin American Society for Pediatric Research, were published as full-text articles; lack of time was the most common reason for failure to publish. Funded research had more chances of being published.

People’s Republic of China Scientific Abstracts, Number 195.

Science.gov (United States)

1978-08-01

76 15 CHIH-WU HSUEH-PAO [ACTA BOTANICA SINICA] No 1, March 1978 16 TI-CHEN CHAN-HSIEN [EARTHQUAKE FRONT] No 2, April 1978 26 K𔃺-HSUEH...steril^UMs! and Consolidate the contradiction between the hsien and 6168 CSO: 8111/1528 15 ACTA BOTANICA SINICA AUTHOR: CHANG Te-i [l72B 1795...of Cultured Tobacco Cells" SOURCE: Peking CHIH-WU H5UEH-PA0 [_ACTA BOTANICA SINICÄ] in Chinese No 1, Mar 78 pp 1-5 TEXT OF ENGLISH ABSTRACT

Sentence retrieval for abstracts of randomized controlled trials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chung Grace Y

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM requires clinicians to integrate their expertise with the latest scientific research. But this is becoming increasingly difficult with the growing numbers of published articles. There is a clear need for better tools to improve clinician's ability to search the primary literature. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs are the most reliable source of evidence documenting the efficacy of treatment options. This paper describes the retrieval of key sentences from abstracts of RCTs as a step towards helping users find relevant facts about the experimental design of clinical studies. Method Using Conditional Random Fields (CRFs, a popular and successful method for natural language processing problems, sentences referring to Intervention, Participants and Outcome Measures are automatically categorized. This is done by extending a previous approach for labeling sentences in an abstract for general categories associated with scientific argumentation or rhetorical roles: Aim, Method, Results and Conclusion. Methods are tested on several corpora of RCT abstracts. First structured abstracts with headings specifically indicating Intervention, Participant and Outcome Measures are used. Also a manually annotated corpus of structured and unstructured abstracts is prepared for testing a classifier that identifies sentences belonging to each category. Results Using CRFs, sentences can be labeled for the four rhetorical roles with F-scores from 0.93–0.98. This outperforms the use of Support Vector Machines. Furthermore, sentences can be automatically labeled for Intervention, Participant and Outcome Measures, in unstructured and structured abstracts where the section headings do not specifically indicate these three topics. F-scores of up to 0.83 and 0.84 are obtained for Intervention and Outcome Measure sentences. Conclusion Results indicate that some of the methodological elements of RCTs are

Contextual analysis of Biology and Chemistry academic graphical abstracts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristiane Salete Florek

2016-10-01

Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1984-8412.2016v13n3p1363 The Graphical Abstract (GA is a non-regular discursive practice held in the academic context, and that, when occurs, coexists with the academic abstract (AA in the table of contents of scientific journals, and in HTML versions of academic articles, materializing by the combination of the verbal and visual semiotics. In this paper, in the light of the Critical Analysis genres (MEURER, 2002; BHATIA, 2004; MOTTA-ROTH, 2006, 2008, which allow us to study a text based on the investigation of its context’s critical research, we present the results of the contextual analysis of GAs in the areas of Biology and Chemistry. This analysis was done by: i interviews with researchers of the investigated areas; and ii documentary analysis. Results show that, in general, GA: i is highlighted by presenting an advertising nature, which seeks to attract the reader’s attention; ii: summarizes the topic and the main findings of scientific research; and iii does not replace the academia abstract (AA.

6th international conference on biophysics and synchrotron radiation. Program/Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pittroff, Connie; Strasser, Susan Barr

1999-01-01

This STI product consists of the Program/Abstracts book that was prepared for the participants in the Sixth International Conference on Biophysics and Synchrotron Radiation that was held August 4-8, 1998, at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. This book contains the full conference program and abstracts of the scientific presentations

6th international conference on biophysics and synchrotron radiation. Program/Abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pittroff, Connie; Strasser, Susan Barr [lead editors

1999-08-03

This STI product consists of the Program/Abstracts book that was prepared for the participants in the Sixth International Conference on Biophysics and Synchrotron Radiation that was held August 4-8, 1998, at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. This book contains the full conference program and abstracts of the scientific presentations.

Do Skilled Elementary Teachers Hold Scientific Conceptions and Can They Accurately Predict the Type and Source of Students' Preconceptions of Electric Circuits?

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jing-Wen

2016-01-01

Holding scientific conceptions and having the ability to accurately predict students' preconceptions are a prerequisite for science teachers to design appropriate constructivist-oriented learning experiences. This study explored the types and sources of students' preconceptions of electric circuits. First, 438 grade 3 (9 years old) students were…

Scientific and technical conference Thermophysical experimental and calculating and theoretical studies to justify characteristics and safety of fast reactors. Thermophysics-2012. Book of abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalyakin, S.G.; Kukharchuk, O.F.; Sorokin, A.P.

2012-01-01

The collection includes abstracts of reports of scientific and technical conference Thermophysics-2012 which has taken place on October 24-26, 2012 in Obninsk. In abstracts the following questions are considered: experimental and calculating and theoretical studies of thermal hydraulics of liquid-metal cooled fast reactors to justify their characteristics and safety; physico-chemical processes in the systems with liquid-metal coolants (LMC); physico-chemical characteristics and thermophysical properties of LMC; development of models, computational methods and calculational codes for simulating processes of of hydrodynamics, heat and mass transfer, including impurities mass transfer in the systems with LMC; methods and means for control of composition and condition of LMC in fast reactor circuits on impurities and purification from them; apparatuses, equipment and technological processes at the work with LMC taking into account the ecology, including fast reactors decommissioning; measuring techniques, sensors and devices for experimental studies of heat and mass transfer in the systems with LMC [ru

Mastering scientific computing with R

CERN Document Server

Gerrard, Paul

2015-01-01

If you want to learn how to quantitatively answer scientific questions for practical purposes using the powerful R language and the open source R tool ecosystem, this book is ideal for you. It is ideally suited for scientists who understand scientific concepts, know a little R, and want to be able to start applying R to be able to answer empirical scientific questions. Some R exposure is helpful, but not compulsory.

Rhetorical Variation across Research Article Abstracts in Environmental Science and Applied Linguistics

Science.gov (United States)

Saeeaw, Supachai; Tangkiengsirisin, Supong

2014-01-01

Abstract is of a pivotal genre in scientific communication, assisting not only highly selective readers with judgment of the pertinent articles but also researchers in disseminating new knowledge and intellectual discoveries. Difficult yet challenging, however, is the task of writing effective abstracts particularly among non-English speaking…

Constructing a Scientific Explanation—A Narrative Account

Science.gov (United States)

Yeo, Jennifer; Gilbert, John K.

2014-07-01

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

USSR and Eastern Europe Scientific Abstracts, Physics and Mathematics, Number 34

Science.gov (United States)

1977-04-27

USSR UDC 621.315.592 ANOMALOUS PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY AND DARK CONDUCTIVITY OF SEMI-INSULATING CADMIUM TELLURIDE Leningrad FIZIKA I TEKHNIKA...conductivity activation energy of CdTe. The temperature characteristic of the dark conductivity, measured within the ohmic range of the current...A. V., Joint Institute for Nuclear Research [Abstract] The purpose of this theoretical paper is to show that the quark -parton modification offers

Abstract to publication ratio for papers presented at scientific meetings: how does emergency medicine compare?

Science.gov (United States)

Walby, A; Kelly, A M; Georgakas, C

2001-12-01

The aims of the present study were to determine the publication rate of abstracts presented by Australasian emergency physicians at major emergency medicine meetings and to identify the site of publication of papers. All free paper abstracts presented (oral and poster) by Australasian emergency physicians and trainees at five Australasian College for Emergency Medicine/Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine and International Conference on Emergency Medicine meetings between 1995 and 1998 were identified retrospectively from conference programmes. In order to determine whether or not the abstract had been published, the PubMed database (http://www4.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/) was searched using the presenter's name and key words from the abstract. In addition, a hand search of the non-abstracted journal Emergency Medicine was conducted. Of the 207 free paper abstracts identified, 73 (35%) had been published as full articles. Papers were published in a variety of journals; however, Emergency Medicine accounted for almost half the published papers. The mean time between presentation and publication was 12.6 months (median 11 months). The abstract to publication rate for papers presented by Australasian emergency physicians and trainees at Australasian College for Emergency Medicine/Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine and International Conference on Emergency Medicine meetings is 35%, which is lower than that reported by some other established specialities, but comparable to rates reported for US-based national and international emergency medicine meetings. Future research should look at barriers to the publication of findings and ways to assist the publication process.

INNER DIALOGICITY OF MEDICAL SCIENTIFIC TEXTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Efremova Nataliya Vladimirovna

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The author studies inner dialogicity as an integral property of a scientist's thinking activity, a way of a scientific idea development, one of the cognitive and discursive mechanisms of new knowledge formation, its crystallization and dementalisation in a text, as a way of search for truth. Such approach to dialogicity in the study of a scientific text makes it possible to analyze the cogitative processes proceeding in human consciousness and cognitive activity, allows to fully understand the stated scientific concept, to define pragmatic strategies of the author, to plunge into his reflexive world. On the material of medical scientific texts of N.M. Amosov and F. G. Uglov, famous scientists in the field of cardio surgery, it is established that traces of internal dialogicity manifestation in the textual space of scientists actualize the origin of new knowledge, the change of author's semantic positions, his ability to reflect, compare, analyze his own thoughts and actions, to estimate oneself and the features of thinking process which are realized in logic of a statement of the scientific concept, an explanation of concepts, terms at judgment of the points of view of contemporaries and predecessors, adherents and scientist's opponents, and also orientation to the addressee's presupposition, activization of his cogitative activity. Linguistic, discursive, verbal analysis singles out the impact on the addressee, his mental activity.

Dyslexia: The evolution of a scientific concept

OpenAIRE

FLETCHER, JACK M.

2009-01-01

In the past 25 years, scientific understanding of dyslexia and other learning disabilities has seen rapid progress in domains involving definition and classification, neuropsychological correlates, neurobiological factors, and intervention. I discuss this progress, emphasizing the central organizing influence of research and theory on basic academic skills on identification and sampling issues. I also emphasize how neuropsychological approaches to dyslexia have evolved and the importance of a...

6th Annual Scientific Meeting on Challenges of Quality Assurance in Radiation Medicine. Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2012-01-01

Thai Medical Physicist Society was officially founded in the year 2001 with the purpose of the promotion of the cooperation and communication between medical physicists in Thailand. The main purpose is to organize the Scientific Conferences, Meetings or Courses with other scientific organizations. There are currently about 150 members of Society. This meeting was prepared in cooperation with Naresuan University, to bring a meeting of the highest scientific and educational quality. 9 Invited lectures, 2 workshops and 3 Proffered paper sessions of 25 presentations are arranged. While attending the meeting, the participants will have the best opportunity to learn and share new information and recent advance of medical physics, radiology and other relevant fields through lectures, symposium, workshop from distinguished invited speakers, oral presentations and commercial exhibition of advanced products.

A Contribution to Transparency of Scientific and Engineering Concepts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abhary, K; Adriansen, Hanne Kirstine; Begovac, F

2009-01-01

Knowledge management is of outmost importance in organisations. This treatise aims to contribute in improving the transferability and transparency of some basic concepts relevant to science, education and engineering. Knowledge sharing can be adversely affected by concepts and specific terms which...... are in common use but can vary in meaning. Since contemporary technological issues typically involve several disciplines it would be useful to analyse areas where effective communication and transfer of knowledge between academic and engineering disciplines might benefit from clarification. Examples of concepts...

Proceedings of the symposium on advanced measurement techniques and instrumentation: abstract book

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kale, Y.B.; Kushwaha, M.; Somkuwar, S.P.; Ajayakumar, S.; Sampathkumar, R.

2011-01-01

In order to consolidate the existing knowledge base and further to focus on the future directions of the field of advanced measurement techniques and instrumentation, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has organized a three-day symposium on 'Advanced Measurement Techniques and Instrumentation' at Multi Purpose Hall, Training School Hostel, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai during February 02-04, 2011. The symposium is aimed at providing a forum to discuss the emerging trends and challenges ahead in the important area of measurement science and technology. This is a unique symposium, which brings together scientists and engineers from all disciplines and provides them a platform for close interaction to exchange ideas, methodologies and expertise, which is extremely important for synergic growth of this field. The symposium consists of 27 talks, which include keynote address, plenary and invited talks, and 63 contributory papers. The abstracts of these papers are brought to you in this volume. Readers may observe that the scientific programme of the symposium covers a wide ranging issues including advanced scientific concepts in measurements, instrumentation strategies, mathematical techniques and development of devices for applications in fundamental physics, astrophysics, fusion plasmas, nuclear reactors, accelerators, environment, chemical and biological sciences, and national security. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately

The Emotions of Abstract Words: A Distributional Semantic Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Lenci, Alessandro; Lebani, Gianluca E; Passaro, Lucia C

2018-04-06

Recent psycholinguistic and neuroscientific research has emphasized the crucial role of emotions for abstract words, which would be grounded by affective experience, instead of a sensorimotor one. The hypothesis of affective embodiment has been proposed as an alternative to the idea that abstract words are linguistically coded and that linguistic processing plays a key role in their acquisition and processing. In this paper, we use distributional semantic models to explore the complex interplay between linguistic and affective information in the representation of abstract words. Distributional analyses on Italian norming data show that abstract words have more affective content and tend to co-occur with contexts with higher emotive values, according to affective statistical indices estimated in terms of distributional similarity with a restricted number of seed words strongly associated with a set of basic emotions. Therefore, the strong affective content of abstract words might just be an indirect byproduct of co-occurrence statistics. This is consistent with a version of representational pluralism in which concepts that are fully embodied either at the sensorimotor or at the affective level live side-by-side with concepts only indirectly embodied via their linguistic associations with other embodied words. Copyright © 2018 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Medical physics 2013. Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Treuer, Harald

2013-01-01

The proceedings of the medical physics conference 2013 include abstract of lectures and poster sessions concerning the following issues: Tele-therapy - application systems, nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, neuromodulation, hearing and technical support, basic dosimetry, NMR imaging -CEST (chemical exchange saturation transfer), medical robotics, magnetic particle imaging, audiology, radiation protection, phase contrast - innovative concepts, particle therapy, brachytherapy, computerized tomography, quantity assurance, hybrid imaging techniques, diffusion and lung NMR imaging, image processing - visualization, cardiac and abdominal NMR imaging.

USSR and Eastern Europe Scientific Abstracts, Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences, Number 59

Science.gov (United States)

1976-12-14

VESTNIK SEL•SKOKHOZYAYSTVENNOY NAUKI in Russian No 8, Aug 76 pp 17-26 [Abstract] Despite wide use of mineral fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides and...muta- tions of Trichoderma lignorum fungus 91 R. SH. LATFULLINA. Selection of active yeast races for breadbaking

Abstraction networks for terminologies: Supporting management of "big knowledge".

Science.gov (United States)

Halper, Michael; Gu, Huanying; Perl, Yehoshua; Ochs, Christopher

2015-05-01

Terminologies and terminological systems have assumed important roles in many medical information processing environments, giving rise to the "big knowledge" challenge when terminological content comprises tens of thousands to millions of concepts arranged in a tangled web of relationships. Use and maintenance of knowledge structures on that scale can be daunting. The notion of abstraction network is presented as a means of facilitating the usability, comprehensibility, visualization, and quality assurance of terminologies. An abstraction network overlays a terminology's underlying network structure at a higher level of abstraction. In particular, it provides a more compact view of the terminology's content, avoiding the display of minutiae. General abstraction network characteristics are discussed. Moreover, the notion of meta-abstraction network, existing at an even higher level of abstraction than a typical abstraction network, is described for cases where even the abstraction network itself represents a case of "big knowledge." Various features in the design of abstraction networks are demonstrated in a methodological survey of some existing abstraction networks previously developed and deployed for a variety of terminologies. The applicability of the general abstraction-network framework is shown through use-cases of various terminologies, including the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT), the Medical Entities Dictionary (MED), and the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). Important characteristics of the surveyed abstraction networks are provided, e.g., the magnitude of the respective size reduction referred to as the abstraction ratio. Specific benefits of these alternative terminology-network views, particularly their use in terminology quality assurance, are discussed. Examples of meta-abstraction networks are presented. The "big knowledge" challenge constitutes the use and maintenance of terminological structures that

Objectivity, abstraction, and the individual: the influence of Søren Kierkegaard on Paul Feyerabend.

Science.gov (United States)

Kidd, Ian James

2011-03-01

This paper explores the influence of Søren Kierkegaard upon Paul Feyerabend by examining their common criticisms of totalising accounts of human nature. Both complained that philosophical and scientific theories of human nature which were methodologically committed to objectivity and abstraction failed to capture the richness of human experience. Kierkegaard and Feyerabend argued that philosophy and the science were threatening to become obstacles to human development by imposing abstract theories of human nature and reality which denied the complexities of both. In both cases, this took the form of asserting an 'existential' criterion for the assessment of philosophical and scientific theories. Kierkegaard also made remarks upon the inappropriateness of applying natural scientific methods to human beings which Feyerabend later expanded and developed in his criticisms of the inability of the 'scientific world-view' to accommodate the values necessary to a flourishing human life. I conclude by noting some differences between Kierkegaard and Feyerabend's positions and by affirming the value of existential criticisms of scientific knowledge.

Analyzing the concept of disruptive behavior in healthcare work: an integrative review*

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberta Meneses Oliveira

Full Text Available Abstract OBJECTIVE To analyze the concept of disruptive behavior in healthcare work. METHOD An integrative review carried out in the theoretical phase of a qualitative research substantiated by the theoretical framework of the Hybrid Model of Concept Development. The search for articles was conducted in the CINAHL, LILACS, PsycINFO, PubMed and SciVerse Scopus databases in 2013. RESULTS 70 scientific articles answered the guiding question and lead to attributes of disruptive behavior, being: incivility, psychological violence and physical/sexual violence; with their main antecedents (intrapersonal, interpersonal and organizational being: personality characteristics, stress and work overload; and consequences of: workers' moral/mental distress, compromised patient safety, labor loss, and disruption of communication, collaboration and teamwork. CONCLUSION Analysis of the disruptive behavior concept in healthcare work showed a construct in its theoretical stage that encompasses different disrespectful conduct adopted by health workers in the hospital context, which deserve the attention of leadership for better recognition and proper handling of cases and their consequences.

Towards a scientific interpretation of the terroir concept: plasticity of the grape berry metabolome.

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Anesi, Andrea; Stocchero, Matteo; Dal Santo, Silvia; Commisso, Mauro; Zenoni, Sara; Ceoldo, Stefania; Tornielli, Giovanni Battista; Siebert, Tracey E; Herderich, Markus; Pezzotti, Mario; Guzzo, Flavia

2015-08-07

The definition of the terroir concept is one of the most debated issues in oenology and viticulture. The dynamic interaction among diverse factors including the environment, the grapevine plant and the imposed viticultural techniques means that the wine produced in a given terroir is unique. However, there is an increasing interest to define and quantify the contribution of individual factors to a specific terroir objectively. Here, we characterized the metabolome and transcriptome of berries from a single clone of the Corvina variety cultivated in seven different vineyards, located in three macrozones, over a 3-year trial period. To overcome the anticipated strong vintage effect, we developed statistical tools that allowed us to identify distinct terroir signatures in the metabolic composition of berries from each macrozone, and from different vineyards within each macrozone. We also identified non-volatile and volatile components of the metabolome which are more plastic and therefore respond differently to terroir diversity. We observed some relationships between the plasticity of the metabolome and transcriptome, allowing a multifaceted scientific interpretation of the terroir concept. Our experiments with a single Corvina clone in different vineyards have revealed the existence of a clear terroir-specific effect on the transcriptome and metabolome which persists over several vintages and allows each vineyard to be characterized by the unique profile of specific metabolites.

Socio-scientific controversies and beginning teachers’ pedagogical practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro Reis

2005-08-01

Full Text Available The current investigation aimed to study the impact of recent socio-scientific controversies, made public through the media, on the concepts and practices of a group of Natural Science teachers at the start of their careers. This study is particularly relevant at a time that is heavily marked by much debate regarding the social and environmental impact of several scientific and technological innovations and by the implementation of new science curricula, that stress the importance of discussing socio-scientific controversies in the context of students’ scientific alphabetisation (namely in their understanding of the nature of science and its relation to society and culture (McComas, 2000. This investigation followed an interpretative approach of a qualitative nature. Through the construction of case studies, it sought to analyse the possible impact of socio-scientific controversies on the teachers’ concepts (about the nature, teaching and learning of science and pedagogic practice. For data collection semi-structured interviews were conducted and classes observed.The controversial issues raised by certain recent technological innovations – namely the environmental, social and cultural impact they may have – did have an impact on the teachers’ concepts about the nature, teaching and learning of science. Besides reinforcing the duality of feelings as regards science and technology, as a source of both progress and concern, they triggered in these teachers the idea of the need for a widespread scientific alphabetisation that empowers the population for understanding and deciding and acting upon these issues. However, the concept of scientific alphabetisation and the best way to achieve it vary among the teachers participating in this study.

Study of the comprehension of the scientific method by members of a university health research laboratory.

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Burlamaque-Neto, A C; Santos, G R; Lisbôa, L M; Goldim, J R; Machado, C L B; Matte, U; Giugliani, R

2012-02-01

In Brazil, scientific research is carried out mainly at universities, where professors coordinate research projects with the active participation of undergraduate and graduate students. However, there is no formal program for the teaching/learning of the scientific method. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the comprehension of the scientific method by students of health sciences who participate in scientific projects in an academic research laboratory. An observational descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using Edgar Morin complexity as theoretical reference. In a semi-structured interview, students were asked to solve an abstract logical puzzle - TanGram. The collected data were analyzed using the hermeneutic-dialectic analysis method proposed by Minayo and discussed in terms of the theoretical reference of complexity. The students' concept of the scientific method is limited to participation in projects, stressing the execution of practical procedures as opposed to scientific thinking. The solving of the TanGram puzzle revealed that the students had difficulties in understanding questions and activities focused on subjects and their processes. Objective answers, even when dealing with personal issues, were also reflected on the students' opinions about the characteristics of a successful researcher. Students' difficulties concerning these issues may affect their scientific performance and result in poorly designed experiments. This is a preliminary study that should be extended to other centers of scientific research.

Tools for Observation: Art and the Scientific Process

Science.gov (United States)

Pettit, E. C.; Coryell-Martin, M.; Maisch, K.

2015-12-01

Art can support the scientific process during different phases of a scientific discovery. Art can help explain and extend the scientific concepts for the general public; in this way art is a powerful tool for communication. Art can aid the scientist in processing and interpreting the data towards an understanding of the concepts and processes; in this way art is powerful - if often subconscious - tool to inform the process of discovery. Less often acknowledged, art can help engage students and inspire scientists during the initial development of ideas, observations, and questions; in this way art is a powerful tool to develop scientific questions and hypotheses. When we use art as a tool for communication of scientific discoveries, it helps break down barriers and makes science concepts less intimidating and more accessible and understandable for the learner. Scientists themselves use artistic concepts and processes - directly or indirectly - to help deepen their understanding. Teachers are following suit by using art more to stimulate students' creative thinking and problem solving. We show the value of teaching students to use the artistic "way of seeing" to develop their skills in observation, questioning, and critical thinking. In this way, art can be a powerful tool to engage students (from elementary to graduate) in the beginning phase of a scientific discovery, which is catalyzed by inquiry and curiosity. Through qualitative assessment of the Girls on Ice program, we show that many of the specific techniques taught by art teachers are valuable for science students to develop their observation skills. In particular, the concepts of contour drawing, squinting, gesture drawing, inverted drawing, and others can provide valuable training for student scientists. These art techniques encourage students to let go of preconceptions and "see" the world (the "data") in new ways they help students focus on both large-scale patterns and small-scale details.

An automatic method to generate domain-specific investigator networks using PubMed abstracts

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Yu, Wei; Yesupriya, Ajay; Wulf, Anja; Qu, Junfeng; Gwinn, Marta; Khoury, Muin J

2007-01-01

Background Collaboration among investigators has become critical to scientific research. This includes ad hoc collaboration established through personal contacts as well as formal consortia established by funding agencies. Continued growth in online resources for scientific research and communication has promoted the development of highly networked research communities. Extending these networks globally requires identifying additional investigators in a given domain, profiling their research interests, and collecting current contact information. We present a novel strategy for building investigator networks dynamically and producing detailed investigator profiles using data available in PubMed abstracts. Results We developed a novel strategy to obtain detailed investigator information by automatically parsing the affiliation string in PubMed records. We illustrated the results by using a published literature database in human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit) as a test case. Our parsing strategy extracted country information from 92.1% of the affiliation strings in a random sample of PubMed records and in 97.0% of HuGE records, with accuracies of 94.0% and 91.0%, respectively. Institution information was parsed from 91.3% of the general PubMed records (accuracy 86.8%) and from 94.2% of HuGE PubMed records (accuracy 87.0). We demonstrated the application of our approach to dynamic creation of investigator networks by creating a prototype information system containing a large database of PubMed abstracts relevant to human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit), indexed using PubMed medical subject headings converted to Unified Medical Language System concepts. Our method was able to identify 70–90% of the investigators/collaborators in three different human genetics fields; it also successfully identified 9 of 10 genetics investigators within the PREBIC network, an existing preterm birth research network. Conclusion We successfully created a web-based prototype

The correlation between concept mastery and stage of moral reasoning student using socio-scientific issues on reproductive system material

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Lestari, T. A.; Saefudin; Priyandoko, D.

2018-05-01

This research aims to analyze the correlation between concept mastery and moral stages of students. The research method using a correlational study with stratified random sampling technique. The population in this research is all of eleventh grade students in Senior High School Bandung. Data were collected from 297 eleventh grade students of three Senior High School in Bandung with use the instrument in the form of examination and stage of moral reasoning questionnaire. The stage of moral reasoning in this research consists of two student’s moral reasoning categories based on 16 questionnaire as the indicators from Jones et al. (2007). The results of this research shows that the average of eleventh grade student’s moral reasoning stage is the advanced stage. The results of this research shows that the concept mastery and the stage of moral reasoning indicates that there are 0.370 0f a positive correlation. This research provides an overview of eleventh grade student about concept mastery and stage of moral reasoning using socio-scientific issues.

THE PHILOSOPHY - TOOL CONTINUUM: PROVIDING STRUCTURE TO INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING CONCEPTS

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L. Van Dyk

2012-01-01

Full Text Available

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Industrial Engineering concepts are often referred to as either a tool, technique, method, approach or philosophy. These terminologies can be positioned on a continuum according to their meaning as defined by the Oxford English dictionary (tools B techniques Bmethods B approaches B philosophies. The philosophy of Total Quality Management is used as example to show how the appropriate naming of Industrial Engineering concepts can enhance the understanding and application thereof. This continuum is used to show that although the philosophies of TQM and Scientific Management may differ, the same pool of tools and techniques are used by both of these philosophies.

AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Bedryfsingenieurs verwys dikwels na filosofiee, benaderings, metodes, tegnieke en gereedskap. Hierdie terminologiee kan kan op 'n kontinuum geposisioneer word na aanleiding van hulle woordeboekbetekenis (gereedskap f-t tegniek f-t metode f-t benadering f-t filosofie. Die filosofie .van Totale Kwaliteitsbeheer (TQM word as voorbeeld gebruik om te wys dat die gepaste benaming van Bedryfsingenieurskonsepte die begrip en toepassing daarvan verhoog . Hierdie kontinuum word gebruik om te wys dat, alhoewel die filosofie van TQM en Wetenskaplike Bestuur ("Scientific Management" verskil, dieselfde versameling vail gereedskap en tegnieke deur beide gebruik word.

Abstracts of Presentations--Seventh Annual 4S Meeting.

Science.gov (United States)

4S - Society for Social Studies of Science, 1982

1982-01-01

Presents abstracts of papers for the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science. Topics include, among others, rhetoric of a scientific controversy; recombinant DNA; science and social justice; patent citation analysis; national need and peer-review process; and scientism, romanticism, and social realist images of…

Abstracts and research accomplishments of university coal research projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1991-06-01

The Principal Investigators of the grants supported by the University Coal Research Program were requested to submit abstracts and highlight accomplishments of their projects in time for distribution at a grantees conference. This book is a compilation of the material received in response to the request. Abstracts discuss the following area: coal science, coal surface science, reaction chemistry, advanced process concepts, engineering fundamentals and thermodynamics, environmental science.

Abstracts and research accomplishments of university coal research projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-06-01

The Principal Investigators of the grants supported by the University Coal Research Program were requested to submit abstracts and highlight accomplishments of their projects in time for distribution at a grantees conference. This book is a compilation of the material received in response to the request. Abstracts discuss the following area: coal science, coal surface science, reaction chemistry, advanced process concepts, engineering fundamentals and thermodynamics, environmental science

Looking for the Forest and the Trees: Exercises to Provoke Abstract Thinking

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Boriana Marintcheva

2013-02-01

Full Text Available It is probably hard to find an educator who would hesitate to agree that abstract thinking and comfort in asking questions are pivotal to scientific inquiry and advancement of knowledge. Yet, most of the time the mechanics of fostering these skills is as challenging as photographing dense fog.  As biologists we constantly reevaluate what we know, how we think about what we know, and how we communicate our knowledge about the living world. These short engaging exercises challenge students to appreciate the central role of abstract thinking and question asking in scientific inquiry.  In the first exercise the classroom is presented with an optical illusion image and challenged to evaluate it using concrete and abstract thinking tools. In a follow up exercise, students are prompted to evaluate the process of making assumptions, asking questions and coming to conclusions using the example of a small popular culture article. Both exercises are used as primers to stimulate discussion emphasizing that abstract thinking and question asking are critical tools in the tool set of 21st century budding biologists.

An Abstract Interaction Concept for Designing Interaction Behaviour of Service Compositions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dirgahayu, T.; Quartel, Dick; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Mertins, Kai; Ruggaber, Rainer; Popplewell, Keith; Xu, Xiaofei

2008-01-01

In a service composition, interaction behaviour specifies an information exchange protocol that must be complied with in order to guarantee interoperability between services. Interaction behaviour can be designed using a top-down design approach utilising high abstraction levels to control its

USSR and Eastern Scientific Abstracts, Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences, Number 62

Science.gov (United States)

1977-01-18

broilers ). They tested their bacterial preparation on 200 male White Plymouth Rock chickens . The animals, at the age of 3 days, 61-62 g, were...institute, employed a Soviet helium-neon laser apparatus LG-75, 10 mew power, which corresponded to a power flux density of about 0.2 w /cm. The course...A HIGH NUTRITIONAL VALUE PRODUCT Moscow RYBNOYE KHOZYAYSTVO (Fish Economy) in Russian No 4, Apr 76 pp 73-74 [Abstract] Nutritional and biological

Cross-brain neurofeedback: scientific concept and experimental platform.

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Lian Duan

Full Text Available The present study described a new type of multi-person neurofeedback with the neural synchronization between two participants as the direct regulating target, termed as "cross-brain neurofeedback." As a first step to implement this concept, an experimental platform was built on the basis of functional near-infrared spectroscopy, and was validated with a two-person neurofeedback experiment. This novel concept as well as the experimental platform established a framework for investigation of the relationship between multiple participants' cross-brain neural synchronization and their social behaviors, which could provide new insight into the neural substrate of human social interactions.

Scientific Literacy: Resurrecting the Phoenix with Thinking Skills

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Deming, John C.; O'Donnell, Jacqueline R.; Malone, Christopher J.

2012-01-01

Prior research suggests that students' understanding of scientific concepts is pre-determined by their reasoning ability. Other efforts suggest that American students' scientific literacy is in decline. One difficulty Bybee (2009) acknowledges is that there are two divergent philosophical models of scientific literacy. The first describes the…

Kindergarten Students' Levels of Understanding Some Science Concepts and Scientific Inquiry Processes According to Demographic Variables (The Sampling of Kilis Province in Turkey)

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Ilhan, Nail; Tosun, Cemal

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to identify the kindergarten students' levels of understanding some science concepts (LUSSC) and scientific inquiry processes (SIP) and compare their LUSSC and SIP in terms of some demographic variables. Also, another purpose of this study is to identify the predictive power of those demographic variables over the…

A Phenomenological Examination of Perceived Skills and Concepts Necessary for Teaching Scientific Thinking

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Kapetanis, Ana Cristina

The use of high stakes testing to improve educational outcomes falls short in many settings. Proposals for improvement include providing more opportunities for students to extend their thinking, gaining experience in the social nature of science, and learning how to interpret, explain, and justify results. This phenomenological qualitative project study took place in a small independent school in the southeastern United States that lacked a cohesive elementary science program and was looking to create a vertically aligned science curriculum based on constructivism. The research question asked what skills and concepts teachers believed should be included in an elementary science program in order for students to learn scientific inquiry to be better prepared for middle and upper school science subjects. Using focus groups, observations, and interviews of a small sample of 4 teachers, data were collected, transcribed, and categorized through open coding. Inductive analysis was employed to look for patterns and emerging themes that painted a picture of how teachers viewed the current science program and what attributes they felt were important in the creation of a new curriculum. The findings revealed that teachers felt there was lack of a vertically aligned science curriculum, availability of resources throughout the school, and consistent support to provide an effective science program. The recommendations called for developing an elementary science program that includes all strands proposed by the National Science Education Standards and would provide students with opportunities to engage in scientific inquiry, conduct detailed observations, and learn to support conclusions using data. The implications for positive social change include development of programs that result in integrated science learning.

Studying Scientific Discovery by Computer Simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

1983-03-30

Mendel’s laws of inheritance, the law of Gay- Lussac for gaseous reactions, tile law of Dulong and Petit, the derivation of atomic weights by Avogadro...neceseary mid identify by block number) scientific discovery -ittri sic properties physical laws extensive terms data-driven heuristics intensive...terms theory-driven heuristics conservation laws 20. ABSTRACT (Continue on revere. side It necessary and identify by block number) Scientific discovery

Concrete and abstract visualizations in history learning tasks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Prangsma, M.E.; van Boxtel, C.A.M.; Kanselaar, G.; Kirschner, P.A.

2009-01-01

Background: History learning requires that students understand historical phenomena, abstract concepts and the relations between them. Students have problems grasping, using and relating complex historical developments and structures. Aims: A study was conducted to determine the effects of tasks

The Representation of Concrete and Abstract Concepts: Categorical versus Associative Relationships

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Geng, Jingyi; Schnur, Tatiana T.

2015-01-01

In 4 word-translation experiments, we examined the different representational frameworks theory (Crutch & Warrington, 2005; 2010) that concrete words are represented primarily by category, whereas abstract words are represented by association. In our experiments, Chinese-English bilingual speakers were presented with an auditory Chinese word…

5th International scientific-research conference Radioactive waste management. Collection of abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

Materials of the 5-th International scientific-research conference Radioactive waste management are represented. Reports illustrate such problems as experience of nuclear power plant exploitation connected with radioactive waste management, technologies and actions on decrease of radioactive waste volumes, decontamination of equipment and nuclear power plant units, management with radioactive wastes during nuclear power plant decommission [ru

ICENES 2007 Abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sahin, S [Gazi University, Technical Education Faculty, Ankara (Turkey)

2007-07-01

In this book Conference Program and Abstracts were included 13th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems which held between 03-08 June 2007 in Istanbul, Turkey. The main objective of International Conference series on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems (ICENES) is to provide an international scientific and technical forum for scientists, engineers, industry leaders, policy makers, decision makers and young professionals who will shape future energy supply and technology , for a broad review and discussion of various advanced, innovative and non-conventional nuclear energy production systems. The main topics of 159 accepted papers from 35 countries are fusion science and technology, fission reactors, accelerator driven systems, transmutation, laser in nuclear technology, radiation shielding, nuclear reactions, hydrogen energy, solar energy, low energy physics and societal issues.

ICENES 2007 Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sahin, S.

2007-01-01

In this book Conference Program and Abstracts were included 13th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems which held between 03-08 June 2007 in Istanbul, Turkey. The main objective of International Conference series on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems (ICENES) is to provide an international scientific and technical forum for scientists, engineers, industry leaders, policy makers, decision makers and young professionals who will shape future energy supply and technology , for a broad review and discussion of various advanced, innovative and non-conventional nuclear energy production systems. The main topics of 159 accepted papers from 35 countries are fusion science and technology, fission reactors, accelerator driven systems, transmutation, laser in nuclear technology, radiation shielding, nuclear reactions, hydrogen energy, solar energy, low energy physics and societal issues

Eastern and Central Europe Decommissioning, ECED 2015 - Book of Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

Scientific conference deals with problems of reactor decommissioning and radioactive waste management in the Central Europe. The Conference included the following sessions: (1): Characterisation and Radioactive Waste Management; (2) Managerial Aspects of Decommissioning; (3) JAVYS Experience with Back-End of Nuclear Power Engineering - Progress in Last 2 Years; (4) Decommissioning Planning and Costing and Education; (5) Technical Aspects of Decommissioning; (6) Radioactive Waste Management; (4) Poster Session. The Book of Abstracts contains two invitation speeches and 30 abstracts.

[The fate of scientific articles when errors and scientific misconduct are detected].

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Vinther, Siri; Rosenberg, Jacob

2014-01-20

When a minor error is noted in a scientific article, the publishing journal should issue a correction. Issuing an expression of concern is relevant when scientific misconduct is suspected. If the suspicion proves to be well founded, the journal should retract the article. The number of retractions is increasing, and this emphasizes the need for unequivocal concepts and guidelines. The reason a given article is corrected or retracted should be unambiguous and articles as well as notices should be indexed properly.

The influence of authentic scientific research experiences on teachers' conceptions of the nature of science (NOS) and their NOS teaching practices

Science.gov (United States)

Moriarty, Meghan A.

This study explored the influence of teachers' authentic scientific research experiences (ASREs) on teachers' conceptions of the nature of science (NOS) and teachers' NOS instruction. Twelve high school biology teachers participated in this study. Six of the participants had authentic scientific research experience (ASRE) and six had not participated in authentic scientific research. Data included background surveys, modified Views of the Nature of Science (VNOS) questionnaires, interviews, and teaching observations. Data was coded based on the eight NOS understandings outlined in 2013 in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Evidence from this study indicates participating in authentic scientific research as a member of a scientific community has dual benefits of enabling high school science teachers with informed understandings of the NOS and positioning them to teach with the NOS. However, these benefits do not always result from an ASRE. If the nature of the ASRE is limited, then it may limit teachers' NOS understandings and their NOS teaching practices. The results of this study suggest that participation in ASREs may be one way to improve teachers' NOS understandings and teaching practices if the experiences themselves offer a comprehensive view of the NOS. Because ASREs and other science learning experiences do not always offer such experiences, pre-service teacher education and professional development opportunities may engage science teachers in two ways: (1) becoming part of a scientific community may enable them to teach with NOS and (2) being reflective about what being a scientist means may improve teachers' NOS understandings and better position them to teach about NOS.. Keywords: nature of science, authentic scientific research experiences, Next Generation Science Standards, teaching about NOS, teaching with NOS.

Concepts of Chinese Folk Happiness

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Ip, Po Keung

2011-01-01

Discourses on Chinese folk happiness are often based on anecdotal narratives or qualitative analysis. Two traditional concepts of happiness popular in Chinese culture are introduced. The paper constructs a concept of Chinese folk happiness on basis of the findings of a scientific survey on the Taiwanese people regarding their concepts of…

Abstracts of the 2. survey of research symposium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1994-12-31

The abstracts presented in this issue show scientific accomplishments of scientists working in the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Interest of research teams gradually moved from classic biochemistry and physiological chemistry toward molecular biology. One line of research is focused on repair of DNA damages caused by X-rays and UV.

Abstracts of the 2. survey of research symposium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

The abstracts presented in this issue show scientific accomplishments of scientists working in the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Interest of research teams gradually moved from classic biochemistry and physiological chemistry toward molecular biology. One line of research is focused on repair of DNA damages caused by X-rays and UV

Scientific literacy and the social constructivist perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antić Slobodanka

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The term scientific literacy is already common in our educational rhetoric. Although the term is widely used, there are no papers that analyse the definition of the term and the rangeitencompasses in Serbia. If scientific literacy is a necessary outcome of education, this analysis is an important base for designing the teaching/learning process which is intended to develop such an outcome. Therefore, this paper provides an analysis of the concept of scientific literacy (SL, the different viewpoints on SL and the nature of the concept. Furthermore, five key lines as courses of action in the teaching/learning process, necessary for the development of these competencies, are defined: appreciation ofstudents' previous knowledge, encouragement of students' basic functional literacy and reading comprehension skills, the development of students' understanding of the socio-cultural perspective on the origin and use of scientific knowledge and technological products, and practicing of scientific research, either through school science or science applied in the context of cooperation between school and the local community, i.e. in the socio-cultural background where students live.

What is Proof of Concept Research and how does it Generate Epistemic and Ethical Categories for Future Scientific Practice?

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Kendig, Catherine Elizabeth

2016-06-01

"Proof of concept" is a phrase frequently used in descriptions of research sought in program announcements, in experimental studies, and in the marketing of new technologies. It is often coupled with either a short definition or none at all, its meaning assumed to be fully understood. This is problematic. As a phrase with potential implications for research and technology, its assumed meaning requires some analysis to avoid it becoming a descriptive category that refers to all things scientifically exciting. I provide a short analysis of proof of concept research and offer an example of it within synthetic biology. I suggest that not only are there activities that circumscribe new epistemological categories but there are also associated normative ethical categories or principles linked to the research. I examine these and provide an outline for an alternative ethical account to describe these activities that I refer to as "extended agency ethics". This view is used to explain how the type of research described as proof of concept also provides an attendant proof of principle that is the result of decision-making that extends across practitioners, their tools, techniques, and the problem solving activities of other research groups.

A semantic-based method for extracting concept definitions from scientific publications: evaluation in the autism phenotype domain.

Science.gov (United States)

Hassanpour, Saeed; O'Connor, Martin J; Das, Amar K

2013-08-12

A variety of informatics approaches have been developed that use information retrieval, NLP and text-mining techniques to identify biomedical concepts and relations within scientific publications or their sentences. These approaches have not typically addressed the challenge of extracting more complex knowledge such as biomedical definitions. In our efforts to facilitate knowledge acquisition of rule-based definitions of autism phenotypes, we have developed a novel semantic-based text-mining approach that can automatically identify such definitions within text. Using an existing knowledge base of 156 autism phenotype definitions and an annotated corpus of 26 source articles containing such definitions, we evaluated and compared the average rank of correctly identified rule definition or corresponding rule template using both our semantic-based approach and a standard term-based approach. We examined three separate scenarios: (1) the snippet of text contained a definition already in the knowledge base; (2) the snippet contained an alternative definition for a concept in the knowledge base; and (3) the snippet contained a definition not in the knowledge base. Our semantic-based approach had a higher average rank than the term-based approach for each of the three scenarios (scenario 1: 3.8 vs. 5.0; scenario 2: 2.8 vs. 4.9; and scenario 3: 4.5 vs. 6.2), with each comparison significant at the p-value of 0.05 using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Our work shows that leveraging existing domain knowledge in the information extraction of biomedical definitions significantly improves the correct identification of such knowledge within sentences. Our method can thus help researchers rapidly acquire knowledge about biomedical definitions that are specified and evolving within an ever-growing corpus of scientific publications.

Facilitating Stewardship of scientific data through standards based workflows

Science.gov (United States)

Bastrakova, I.; Kemp, C.; Potter, A. K.

2013-12-01

There are main suites of standards that can be used to define the fundamental scientific methodology of data, methods and results. These are firstly Metadata standards to enable discovery of the data (ISO 19115), secondly the Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite of standards that include the O&M and SensorML standards and thirdly Ontology that provide vocabularies to define the scientific concepts and relationships between these concepts. All three types of standards have to be utilised by the practicing scientist to ensure that those who ultimately have to steward the data stewards to ensure that the data can be preserved curated and reused and repurposed. Additional benefits of this approach include transparency of scientific processes from the data acquisition to creation of scientific concepts and models, and provision of context to inform data use. Collecting and recording metadata is the first step in scientific data flow. The primary role of metadata is to provide details of geographic extent, availability and high-level description of data suitable for its initial discovery through common search engines. The SWE suite provides standardised patterns to describe observations and measurements taken for these data, capture detailed information about observation or analytical methods, used instruments and define quality determinations. This information standardises browsing capability over discrete data types. The standardised patterns of the SWE standards simplify aggregation of observation and measurement data enabling scientists to transfer disintegrated data to scientific concepts. The first two steps provide a necessary basis for the reasoning about concepts of ';pure' science, building relationship between concepts of different domains (linked-data), and identifying domain classification and vocabularies. Geoscience Australia is re-examining its marine data flows, including metadata requirements and business processes, to achieve a clearer link between

Rhetorical and Communication Theory: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984, (Vol. 44 Nos. 7 through 12).

Science.gov (United States)

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a series providing continuing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 23 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the rhetoric of scientific controversy; (2) Erving Goffman's interactional theory of communication conduct; (3) a phenomenology of feminism; (4) a…

Contributions of Lateral and Orbital Frontal Regions to Abstract Rule Acquisition and Reversal in Monkeys

Science.gov (United States)

La Camera, Giancarlo; Bouret, Sebastien; Richmond, Barry J.

2018-01-01

The ability to learn and follow abstract rules relies on intact prefrontal regions including the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Here, we investigate the specific roles of these brain regions in learning rules that depend critically on the formation of abstract concepts as opposed to simpler input-output associations. To this aim, we tested monkeys with bilateral removals of either LPFC or OFC on a rapidly learned task requiring the formation of the abstract concept of same vs. different. While monkeys with OFC removals were significantly slower than controls at both acquiring and reversing the concept-based rule, monkeys with LPFC removals were not impaired in acquiring the task, but were significantly slower at rule reversal. Neither group was impaired in the acquisition or reversal of a delayed visual cue-outcome association task without a concept-based rule. These results suggest that OFC is essential for the implementation of a concept-based rule, whereas LPFC seems essential for its modification once established. PMID:29615854

Proportional Reasoning: An Essential Component of Scientific Understanding

Science.gov (United States)

Hilton, Annette; Hilton, Geoff

2016-01-01

In many scientific contexts, students need to be able to use mathematical knowledge in order to engage in scientific reasoning and problem-solving, and their understanding of scientific concepts relies heavily on their ability to understand and use mathematics in often new or unfamiliar contexts. Not only do science students need high levels of…

Performative Intra-Action of a Paper Plane and a Child: Exploring Scientific Concepts as Agentic Playmates

Science.gov (United States)

Haus, Jana Maria

2018-05-01

This work uses new materialist perspectives (Barad 2007; Lenz Taguchi 2014; Rautio in Children's Geographies, 11(4), 394-408, 2013) to examine an exploration of concepts as agents and the question how intra-action of human and non-human bodies lead to the investigation of scientific concepts, relying on an article by de Freitas and Palmer (Cultural Studies of Science Education, 11(4), 1201-1222, 2016). Through an analysis of video stills of a case study, a focus on classroom assemblages shows how the intra-actions of human and non-human bodies (one 5-year-old boy, a piece of paper that becomes a paper plane and the concepts of force and flight) lead to an intertwining and intersecting of play, learning, and becoming. Video recordings were used to qualitatively analyze three questions, which emerged through and resulted from the intra-action of researcher and data. This paper aims at addressing a prevalent gap in the research literature on science learning from a materialist view. Findings of the analysis show that human and non-human bodies together become through and for another to jointly and agentically intra-act in exploring and learning about science. Implications for learning and teaching science are that teachers could attempt to focus on setting up the learning environment differently, so that children have time and access to materials that matter to them and that, as "Hultman (2011) claims […] `whisper, answer, demand and offer'" (Areljung forthcoming, p. 77) themselves to children in the learning and teaching environment.

Is Parental Alienation Disorder a Valid Concept? Not According to Scientific Evidence. A Review of "Parental Alienation, DSM-5 and ICD-11" by William Bernet

Science.gov (United States)

Pepiton, M. Brianna; Alvis, Lindsey J.; Allen, Kenneth; Logid, Gregory

2012-01-01

This article reviews a recent book arguing how a concept known as parental alienation syndrome--now parental alienation disorder--should be included in official psychiatric/psychological and medical classification diagnostic manuals. Anecdotal cases and opinion are presented as research and scientific evidence, and stories are presented as…

Systems in Science: Modeling Using Three Artificial Intelligence Concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Sunal, Cynthia Szymanski; Karr, Charles L.; Smith, Coralee; Sunal, Dennis W.

2003-01-01

Describes an interdisciplinary course focusing on modeling scientific systems. Investigates elementary education majors' applications of three artificial intelligence concepts used in modeling scientific systems before and after the course. Reveals a great increase in understanding of concepts presented but inconsistent application. (Author/KHR)

Nutrition Labelling: Applying Biological Concepts and Reasoning to Socio-Scientific Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yeung Chung

2016-01-01

Nutrition labelling, which helps consumers to make informed choices, can be used as both a context and a vehicle for students to consolidate and apply their knowledge of food and nutrition to improve health. It also facilitates students' ability to negotiate socio-scientific issues from scientific and other perspectives. This article reports a…

Scientific report 1998

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

The aim of this report is to outline the main developments of the ''Departement des Reacteurs Nucleaires'', (DRN) during the year 1998. DRN is one of the CEA Institution. This report is divided in three main parts: the DRN scientific programs, the scientific and technical publications (with abstracts in english) and economic data on staff, budget and communication. Main results of the Department, for the year 1998, are presented giving information on the reactors technology and safety, the neutronics, the transmutation and the hybrid systems, the dismantling and the sites improvement, the nuclear accidents, the nuclear matter transport, the thermonuclear fusion safety, the fuel cladding materials and radioactive waste control. (A.L.B.)

USSR and Eastern Europe Scientific Abstracts, Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences. Number 73

Science.gov (United States)

1977-06-09

head of the plant- breeding nursery of the Prinemanskiy Sovkhoz [Abstract] The Prinemanskiy Teaching Farm, Grodnyy Agricultural Institute, cultivates...contrast microscopy, ophthalmology , oncology and surgery are enumerated. A large portion of the article is devoted to a description of the effect of... Prevalence of deaths from MI, in a comparison of men and women, is more expressed with athero- sclerosis, especially in the young and mature ages

USSR and Eastern europe Scientific Abstracts, Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences. Number 55.

Science.gov (United States)

1976-11-02

agronomic standards are observed, a hectare of pomegranate orchard can produce more than 5,000 rubles of profit. The utilization of progressive experiments...phorylation, identical quantitatively to the dynamics of chronic intoxication , manifested by a short lasting activation followed by depression...22 Aug 75 [Abstract] In cases of chronic intoxication with a mixture of lindane and phosphamide, there occurs in the heart muscle a lowering of the

Mapping the research on scientific collaboration

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

HOU Jianhua; CHEN Chaomei; YAN Jianxin

2010-01-01

The aim of this paper was to identify the trends and hot topics in the study of scientific collaboration via scientometric analysis.Information visualization and knowledge domain visualization techniques were adopted to determine how the study of scientific collaboration has evolved.A total of 1,455 articles on scientific cooperation published between 1993 and 2007 were retrieved from the SCI,SSCI and A&HCI databases with a topic search of scientific collaboration or scientific cooperation for the analysis.By using CiteSpace,the knowledge bases,research foci,and research fronts in the field of scientific collaboration were studied.The results indicated that research fronts and research foci are highly consistent in terms of the concept,origin,measurement,and theory of scientific collaboration.It also revealed that research fronts included scientific collaboration networks,international scientific collaboration,social network analysis and techniques,and applications of bibliometrical indicators,webmetrics,and health care related areas.

Analysis of the publication rate of the abstracts presented at a national gastroenterology meeting after 6 years

Science.gov (United States)

Gandhi, Divyangkumar; Mclean, Richard W.; Laiyemo, Adeyinka O.

2017-01-01

Background/Aims Abstract presentations at scientific meetings provide an opportunity to convey the results of important research. Unfortunately, many abstracts are not eventually published as full manuscripts. We evaluated factors associated with publication of abstracts as manuscripts up to 6.5 years after presentation at the 73rd scientific meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in 2008. Methods All abstracts, excluding case reports, presented at the meeting were evaluated. We systematically searched for matching manuscripts indexed in PubMed or EMBASE up till May 2015. We used logistic regression models to determine factors associated with manuscript publication and calculated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results Of included 791 abstracts, 249 (31.5%) were published as manuscripts within 6.5 years. Oral presentation (OR=2.11; 95%CI: 1.15-3.87), multicenter studies (OR=2.67; 95%CI: 1.44-4.95), abstracts by University-based authors (OR=1.80; 95%CI: 1.20-2.72), and funded research (OR=2.15; 95%CI: 1.43-3.23) were more likely to be published. Winning an award at the meeting was not associated with manuscript publication (OR=1.09; 95%CI: 0.57-2.06). Conclusions There is an urgent need to improve dissemination of scientific knowledge through publication of abstracts presented at gastroenterology meetings as manuscripts. Mentors should endeavor to encourage their mentees to complete this final stage of their scholarly activities. PMID:27931019

14th National Conference on Physics. Abstracts. Volume 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calboreanu, Alexandru; Grecu, Dan

2005-01-01

The National Conference on Physics 2005, is dedicated to 'The International Year of Physics' by the scientific community of physicists in Romania. Within the frame of this 'Festival of Physics', The First Symposium on Technical Physics and Physical Engineering' TPPE 2005, was organized as a satellite event at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. As it is well known, the contributed papers to the National Conference on Physics were structured on chapters, corresponding to 'the sections' of The Romanian Society of Physics, their abstracts being then published in a two volume 'Book of Abstracts'. All the chapters of this book, except the 8th and the 9th, can be found in 'Abstracts Volume I'. According to the topics of the TPPE 2005, these two chapters, namely: 8. Technical Physics and Physical Engineering and 9. Physics and Energy are published separately in the 'Abstracts Volume II', but as it can be seen, the unitary character of the Conference is preserved and developed. The most important topics of this second volume are: optoelectronics; advanced materials and technologies; physics, electronics and electrical engineering; physics and mechanical engineering; physics and chemical engineering; physics, information and computer engineering; physics and industry; physics, biology and medical engineering; renewable energy sources and energy efficiency; nuclear engineering. We present the progress made in physics education concerning: physics teaching in technical education; E-learning and modern methods in physics teaching; physics education in schools and universities, in a special section of the first volume of abstracts. Regarding the essential role of physics in the realizing of a knowledge-based society of the new millennium the strengthening of the relationship between researchers and academics becomes thus the main message of this scientific meeting. (P.S.)

CUBE (Computer Use By Engineers) symposium abstracts. [LASL, October 4--6, 1978

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ruminer, J.J. (comp.)

1978-07-01

This report presents the abstracts for the CUBE (Computer Use by Engineers) Symposium, October 4, through 6, 1978. Contributors are from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, and Sandia Laboratories.

Eliminating the “concept” concept

OpenAIRE

Harnad, Stevan

2010-01-01

Machery suggests that the concept of “concept” is too heterogeneous to serve as a “natural kind” for scientific explanation, so cognitive science should do without concepts. I second the suggestion and propose substituting, in place of concepts, inborn and acquired sensorimotor category-detectors and category-names combined into propositions that define and describe further categories.

USSR and Eastern Europe Scientific Abstracts, Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences, Number 85

Science.gov (United States)

1978-01-12

KURILINA, T. A. and BEREZIN, I. V. , Department of Chemical Enzymology Moscow State University imeni M. V. Lomonosov [Abstract] The study investigated...Western. USSR UDC 576.8:577.15.03 INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT THAT SOME CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS HAVE ON THE LIBERATION OF INVERTASE FROM YEAST WITH...Tween-lj-O) purifying compounds have on the liberation of invertase from untreated and acetone- treated yeast Sacch. cerevisiae XI when the latter

Scientific Workflows and the Sensor Web for Virtual Environmental Observatories

Science.gov (United States)

Simonis, I.; Vahed, A.

2008-12-01

interfaces. All data sets and sensor communication follow well-defined abstract models and corresponding encodings, mostly developed by the OGC Sensor Web Enablement initiative. Scientific progress is currently accelerated by an emerging new concept called scientific workflows, which organize and manage complex distributed computations. A scientific workflow represents and records the highly complex processes that a domain scientist typically would follow in exploration, discovery and ultimately, transformation of raw data to publishable results. The challenge is now to integrate the benefits of scientific workflows with those provided by the Sensor Web in order to leverage all resources for scientific exploration, problem solving, and knowledge generation. Scientific workflows for the Sensor Web represent the next evolutionary step towards efficient, powerful, and flexible earth observation frameworks and platforms. Those platforms support the entire process from capturing data, sharing and integrating, to requesting additional observations. Multiple sites and organizations will participate on single platforms and scientists from different countries and organizations interact and contribute to large-scale research projects. Simultaneously, the data- and information overload becomes manageable, as multiple layers of abstraction will free scientists to deal with underlying data-, processing or storage peculiarities. The vision are automated investigation and discovery mechanisms that allow scientists to pose queries to the system, which in turn would identify potentially related resources, schedules processing tasks and assembles all parts in workflows that may satisfy the query.

How to write a good scientific paper

CERN Document Server

Mack, Chris A

2018-01-01

Many scientists and engineers consider themselves poor writers or find the writing process difficult. The good news is that you do not have to be a talented writer to produce a good scientific paper, but you do have to be a careful writer. In particular, writing for a peer-reviewed scientific or engineering journal requires learning and executing a specific formula for presenting scientific work. This book is all about teaching the style and conventions of writing for a peer-reviewed scientific journal. From structure to style, titles to tables, abstracts to author lists, this book gives practical advice about the process of writing a paper and getting it published.

A study of understanding: Alchemy, abstraction, and circulating reference in tertiary science education

Science.gov (United States)

Merritt, Brett W.

Understanding is widely touted to be of paramount importance for education. This is especially true in science education research and development where understanding is heralded as one of the cornerstones of reform. Teachers are expected to teach for understanding and students are expected to learn with understanding. This dissertation is an empirical study of the concept of understanding. After analyzing various constructions of understanding in current U.S. education literature, I suggest that understanding is defined by five distinct features---they are knowledge (or knowledge base), coherence, transfer, extrapolation, and cognition--- and that these features are heavily informed and shaped by the psychological sciences. This relationship is neither good nor bad, I argue, but it means that teaching for and learning with understanding are not heavily informed and shaped by, for example, the natural sciences. Drawing from historical, philosophical, and anthropological perspectives of science, but especially from the work of Bruno Latour, I enact a radical revision(ing) of psychological notions such as "abstraction" and "transfer." The two main purposes of this re-visioning are (1) to draw critical attention to particular characteristics of a cognitive learning theory that emphasizes abstract concepts, and (2) to align many of the principles and tools used in science education more closely with those used in empirical scientific research. Finally, by bringing some examples of teaching and learning from an undergraduate biology classroom into conversation with both psychological and empirical practices and perspectives, I suggest that problematizing the current construction of understanding creates much needed room in mainstream science education for more empirical forms of learning and styles of teaching. A shift to such forms and styles, I conclude, should prove to be more inclusive and less constraining for both students and teachers.

Biological Principles and Threshold Concepts for Understanding Natural Selection. Implications for Developing Visualizations as a Pedagogic Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Tibell, Lena A. E.; Harms, Ute

2017-11-01

Modern evolutionary theory is both a central theory and an integrative framework of the life sciences. This is reflected in the common references to evolution in modern science education curricula and contexts. In fact, evolution is a core idea that is supposed to support biology learning by facilitating the organization of relevant knowledge. In addition, evolution can function as a pivotal link between concepts and highlight similarities in the complexity of biological concepts. However, empirical studies in many countries have for decades identified deficiencies in students' scientific understanding of evolution mainly focusing on natural selection. Clearly, there are major obstacles to learning natural selection, and we argue that to overcome them, it is essential to address explicitly the general abstract concepts that underlie the biological processes, e.g., randomness or probability. Hence, we propose a two-dimensional framework for analyzing and structuring teaching of natural selection. The first—purely biological—dimension embraces the three main principles variation, heredity, and selection structured in nine key concepts that form the core idea of natural selection. The second dimension encompasses four so-called thresholds, i.e., general abstract and/or non-perceptual concepts: randomness, probability, spatial scales, and temporal scales. We claim that both of these dimensions must be continuously considered, in tandem, when teaching evolution in order to allow development of a meaningful understanding of the process. Further, we suggest that making the thresholds tangible with the aid of appropriate kinds of visualizations will facilitate grasping of the threshold concepts, and thus, help learners to overcome the difficulties in understanding the central theory of life.

Student Scientific Research within Communities-of-Practice (Abstract)

Science.gov (United States)

Genet, R.; Armstrong, J.; Blanko, P.; Boyce, G. B. P.; Brewer, M.; Buchheim, R.; Calanog, J.; Castaneda, D.; Chamberlin, R.; Clark, R. K.; Collins, D.; Conti, D.; Cormier, S.; FItzgerald, M.; Estrada, C.; Estrada, R.; Freed, R.; Gomez, E.; Hardersen, P.; Harshaw, R.; Johnson, J.; Kafka, S.; Kenney, J.; Monanan, K.; Ridgely, J.; Rowe, D.; Silliman, M.; Stojimirovic, I.; Tock, K.; Walker, D.

2017-12-01

(Abstract only) Social learning theory suggests that students who wish to become scientists will benefit by being active researchers early in their educational careers. As coauthors of published research, they identify themselves as scientists. This provides them with the inspiration, motivation, and staying power that many will need to complete the long educational process. This hypothesis was put to the test over the past decade by a one-semester astronomy research seminar where teams of students managed their own research. Well over a hundred published papers coauthored by high school and undergraduate students at a handful of schools substantiated this hypothesis. However, one could argue that this was a special case. Astronomy, after all, is supported by a large professional-amateur community-of-practice. Furthermore, the specific area of research - double star astrometry - was chosen because the observations could be quickly made, the data reduction and analysis was straight forward, and publication of the research was welcomed by the Journal of Double Star Observations. A recently initiated seminar development and expansion program - supported in part by the National Science Foundation - is testing a more general hypothesis that: (1) the seminar can be successfully adopted by many other schools; (2) research within astronomy can be extended from double star astrometry to time series photometry of variable stars, exoplanet transits, and asteroids; and (3) the seminar model can be extended to a science beyond astronomy: environmental science' specifically atmospheric science. If the more general hypothesis is also supported, seminars that similarly feature published high school and undergraduate student team research could have the potential to significantly improve science education by increasing the percentage of students who complete the education required to become professional scientists.

Concept for integrated environmental monitoring. Scientific approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haber, W [comp.; Schoenthaler, K; Kerner, H F; Koeppel, J; Spandau, L

1998-09-01

Despite considerable expenditures for environmental protection and intensified efforts in the areas of environmental research and monitoring, environmental damage increasingly occurs, sometimes with global effects, largely due to the lack of early diagnosis. In the past few years various institutions have therefore demanded improvements in environmental monitoring. The Council of Experts on Environmental Issues (`Rat von Sachverstaendigen fuer Umweltfragen`, SRU), in particular, in its `Environmental Report` of 1987 and in its Special Report on `General Ecological Environmental Monitoring` (1990) presented far-reaching demands for a nationwide ecological early warning system which should integrate the various local, regional, national, and even global monitoring levels, and which should encompass an environmental monitoring of entire ecosystems at representative locations. This is aimed at creating the prerequisites for - detection of long-term gradual environmental change, - confirmation of refutation of initial assumptions regarding the causes of these environmental changes, - permitting decisions on preventive actions to stabilize or improve environmental conditions and - making it possible to assess the success of environmental protection policies. This report includes an abbreviated version and documentation of the conference on the `Concept for Integrated Environmental Monitoring` and the final report `Specification of the Concept for Integrated Environmental Monitoring from the Perspective of Nature Conservation`. (orig.)

49. Annual meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Neuroradiologie. Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-01-01

The conference proceedings of the 48. Annual meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Neuroradiologie contain abstracts on the following issues: neuro-oncological imaging, multimodal imaging concepts, subcranial imaging, spinal codes, interventional neuroradiology.

19. IAEA fusion energy conference. Book of abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-01-01

Book of abstracts of the papers, accepted by an international programme committee for presentation at the 19th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in Lyon, France. The subjects covered are magnetic confinement experiments, plasma heating and current drive, ITER EDA, inertial fusion energy, innovative concepts, fusion technology and theory

USSR and Eastern Europe Scientific Abstracts Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences No. 61

Science.gov (United States)

1977-01-05

castrated spikes of the maternal form under parchment in- sulators. However, results indicated that the probability of producing forms with high spike...Oct 76 p 7 [Abstract] A factory which produces a protein dietary supplement for cattle is described. The plant uses six extruders and two serial...construction at large cattle farms. 2/2 USSR UDC 725.42:636 SAZONOV, YE., Chief Mechanical Specialist, Ural All-Union State Institute for the Planning

Bases of the scientific conception of the “green frame” designing in urban areas for providing ecological safety of the urban environment

Science.gov (United States)

Bespalov, V.; Kotlyarova, E.

2017-10-01

In modern conditions of a stable urban areas development special place is occupied by the problem of ecological security of built-up areas, including residential, recreational, industrial areas and objects of transport and engineering infrastructure. The main results of the study are to establish the basis of formation of the concept of choice of energy-efficient technologies and tools of forming an ecologically efficient “green frame” of urban areas on the basis of a single integrated scientific concept. Analysis allowed us to divide the measures for improvement into the following main groups: organizational and planning, engineering and technical and special engineering and environmental. The significance of these results for the construction industry, including transport infrastructure, is to increase the level of environmental safety in the construction and reconstruction of urban areas due to the organization of their improvement on the basis suggested by the authors scientific approach. Its basis is integrated accounting of the natural and climatic features of the landscaping territory, the types and level of environmental impact of negative anthropogenic factors, the features of architectural and planning solutions of the existing or projected on the studied area, the structure and types of green spaces and their functional ecological properties.

A comprehensive and quantitative comparison of text-mining in 15 million full-text articles versus their corresponding abstracts.

Science.gov (United States)

Westergaard, David; Stærfeldt, Hans-Henrik; Tønsberg, Christian; Jensen, Lars Juhl; Brunak, Søren

2018-02-01

Across academia and industry, text mining has become a popular strategy for keeping up with the rapid growth of the scientific literature. Text mining of the scientific literature has mostly been carried out on collections of abstracts, due to their availability. Here we present an analysis of 15 million English scientific full-text articles published during the period 1823-2016. We describe the development in article length and publication sub-topics during these nearly 250 years. We showcase the potential of text mining by extracting published protein-protein, disease-gene, and protein subcellular associations using a named entity recognition system, and quantitatively report on their accuracy using gold standard benchmark data sets. We subsequently compare the findings to corresponding results obtained on 16.5 million abstracts included in MEDLINE and show that text mining of full-text articles consistently outperforms using abstracts only.

Laboratory technology research: Abstracts of FY 1998 projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-11-01

The Laboratory Technology Research (LTR) program supports high-risk, multidisciplinary research partnerships to investigate challenging scientific problems whose solutions have promising commercial potential. These partnerships capitalize on two great strengths of the country: the world-class basic research capability of the DOE Office of Science (SC) national laboratories and the unparalleled entrepreneurial spirit of American industry. Projects supported by the LTR program in FY 1998 explore the applications of basic research advances relevant to DOE`s mission over a full range of scientific disciplines. The program presently emphasizes three critical areas of mission-related research: advanced materials, intelligent processing and manufacturing research, and environmental and biomedical research. Abstracts for 85 projects are contained in this report.

In defense of abstract conceptual representations.

Science.gov (United States)

Binder, Jeffrey R

2016-08-01

An extensive program of research in the past 2 decades has focused on the role of modal sensory, motor, and affective brain systems in storing and retrieving concept knowledge. This focus has led in some circles to an underestimation of the need for more abstract, supramodal conceptual representations in semantic cognition. Evidence for supramodal processing comes from neuroimaging work documenting a large, well-defined cortical network that responds to meaningful stimuli regardless of modal content. The nodes in this network correspond to high-level "convergence zones" that receive broadly crossmodal input and presumably process crossmodal conjunctions. It is proposed that highly conjunctive representations are needed for several critical functions, including capturing conceptual similarity structure, enabling thematic associative relationships independent of conceptual similarity, and providing efficient "chunking" of concept representations for a range of higher order tasks that require concepts to be configured as situations. These hypothesized functions account for a wide range of neuroimaging results showing modulation of the supramodal convergence zone network by associative strength, lexicality, familiarity, imageability, frequency, and semantic compositionality. The evidence supports a hierarchical model of knowledge representation in which modal systems provide a mechanism for concept acquisition and serve to ground individual concepts in external reality, whereas broadly conjunctive, supramodal representations play an equally important role in concept association and situation knowledge.

A brain-based account of "basic-level" concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Bauer, Andrew James; Just, Marcel Adam

2017-11-01

This study provides a brain-based account of how object concepts at an intermediate (basic) level of specificity are represented, offering an enriched view of what it means for a concept to be a basic-level concept, a research topic pioneered by Rosch and others (Rosch et al., 1976). Applying machine learning techniques to fMRI data, it was possible to determine the semantic content encoded in the neural representations of object concepts at basic and subordinate levels of abstraction. The representation of basic-level concepts (e.g. bird) was spatially broad, encompassing sensorimotor brain areas that encode concrete object properties, and also language and heteromodal integrative areas that encode abstract semantic content. The representation of subordinate-level concepts (robin) was less widely distributed, concentrated in perceptual areas that underlie concrete content. Furthermore, basic-level concepts were representative of their subordinates in that they were neurally similar to their typical but not atypical subordinates (bird was neurally similar to robin but not woodpecker). The findings provide a brain-based account of the advantages that basic-level concepts enjoy in everyday life over subordinate-level concepts: the basic level is a broad topographical representation that encompasses both concrete and abstract semantic content, reflecting the multifaceted yet intuitive meaning of basic-level concepts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Action Relations. Basic Design Concepts for Behaviour Modelling and Refinement.

OpenAIRE

Quartel, Dick

1998-01-01

This thesis presents basic design concepts, design methods and a basic design language for distributed system behaviours. This language is based on two basic concepts: the action concept and the causality relation concept. Our methods focus on behaviour refinement, which consists of replacing an abstract behaviour by a more concrete behaviour, such that the concrete behaviour conforms to the abstract behaviour. An important idea underlying this thesis is that an effective design methodology s...

Instructional scientific humor in the secondary classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Wizner, Francine

This study is an examination of the manner in which educators employ scientific content humor and how that humor is perceived by their students. Content humor is a useful strategy in drawing the attention of students and improving their receptivity toward scientific information. It is also a useful tool in combating the growing distractions of the electronic classroom. Previous studies have found that humor has a positive effect on knowledge, memory, and understanding. However, few studies have been conducted below the undergraduate level and mainly quantitative measures of student recall have been used to measure learning. This study employed multiple data sources to determine how two secondary biology teachers used humor in order to explain scientific concepts and how their students perceived their teachers' use of scientific instructional humor. Evidence of student humor reception was collected from four students in each of the two classes. All of the scientific instructional humor used in the studied classrooms was cognitive in nature, varying among factual, procedural, conceptual, and metacognitive knowledge. Teachers tended to use dialogic forms of humor. Their scientific humor reflected everyday experiences, presented queries, poked fun at authority, and asked students to search out new perspectives and perform thought experiments. Teachers were the primary actors in performing the humorous events. The events were sometimes physical exaggerations of words or drawings, and they occurred for the purpose of establishing rapport or having students make connections between scientific concepts and prior knowledge. Student perceptions were that teachers did employ humor toward instructional objectives that helped their learning. Helping students become critical thinkers is a trademark of science teachers. Science teachers who take the risk of adopting some attributes of comedians may earn the reward of imparting behaviors on their students like critical thinking

List of scientific publications of Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe 1983

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1984-04-01

This report contains the titles of the publications edited in the year 1983. The scientific and technical-scientific publications of the Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe are printed as books, as original contributions in scientific or technical specialists' journals, as scripts for habilitation, thesis, scripts for diploma, as patents, as KfK-Reports (KfK=Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe) and are being presented as lectures on scientific meetings. No further separate abstracts of this list of publications were prepared. (orig./HBR) [de

The Effect of Using Jigsaw Strategy in Teaching Science on the Acquisition of Scientific Concepts among the Fourth Graders of Bani Kinana Directorate of Education

Science.gov (United States)

Hamadneh, Qaseem Mohammad Salim

2017-01-01

The study aimed to identify the effect of using Jigsaw strategy in teaching science on the acquisition of scientific concepts among the fourth graders of Bani Kinana Directorate of Education compared to the traditional way. The study sample consisted of 70 male and female students, divided into two groups: experimental and control where the…

SYSTEMATIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES TO THE INTERPRETATION OF INFORMATION ECONOMY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nataliya Kholiavko

2017-09-01

, however, we should not consider them as synonymous terms. There is no the only consistent interpretation of the term “information economy” in the scientific literature, which is explained by differences in views and research methods of different scholars. Moreover, this is complemented by the high dynamism of the economic component of the information society, which is why new aspects of its study are constantly emerging. Conclusions. The article analyses views of domestic and foreign scholars on the essence of the information economy. Systematization of scientific approaches made it possible to note that their pluralism is determined by differences in the views of scientists, the methodology used, scientific schools, etc. The analysed definitions are characterized by different degrees of concreteness, abstractness, scale, complexity, completeness, and systematicity in disclosing the essence of information economy with possible identification of the component composition and determinants of its development. Based on the systematization of scientific approaches to the interpretation of this concept, it is proposed to consider the information economy as a type of economic system, which is characterized by the defining role of information and information technologies in the processes of production, exchange, distribution, and consumption, as well as in the development of basic industries and the national economy as a whole. The author emphasizes that ensuring the competitiveness of economic entities at the micro (local, sectoral, macro (national, and mega (international levels requires the implementation of flexible and highly adaptive mechanisms for generation, accumulation, processing, analysis, information transfer, effective distribution and use of information resources, rapid update and implementation of innovative information and communication technologies. In terms of formation of the information economy, industries, sectors, and spheres, which are capable of

The Representation of Abstract Words: Why Emotion Matters

Science.gov (United States)

Kousta, Stavroula-Thaleia; Vigliocco, Gabriella; Vinson, David P.; Andrews, Mark; Del Campo, Elena

2011-01-01

Although much is known about the representation and processing of concrete concepts, knowledge of what abstract semantics might be is severely limited. In this article we first address the adequacy of the 2 dominant accounts (dual coding theory and the context availability model) put forward in order to explain representation and processing…

Exploration and thinking of dynamic scientific and technical intelligence research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Xupu; Xia Yun

2014-01-01

This article discusses the concept and types of dynamic scientific and technical intelligence, describes the characteristics and role of dynamic scientific and technical intelligence, and analyzes methods and procedures of dynamic scientific and technical intelligence research. Combined with the status quo of dynamic scientific and technical intelligence research in library of China Institute of Atomic Energy, this article makes some suggestions for strengthening dynamic scientific and technical intelligence research. (authors)

Design of Concept Libraries for C++

KAUST Repository

Sutton, Andrew

2012-01-01

We present a set of concepts (requirements on template arguments) for a large subset of the ISO C++ standard library. The goal of our work is twofold: to identify a minimal and useful set of concepts required to constrain the library\\'s generic algorithms and data structures and to gain insights into how best to support such concepts within C++. We start with the design of concepts rather than the design of supporting language features; the language design must be made to fit the concepts, rather than the other way around. A direct result of the experiment is the realization that to simply and elegantly support generic programming we need two kinds of abstractions: constraints are predicates on static properties of a type, and concepts are abstract specifications of an algorithm\\'s syntactic and semantic requirements. Constraints are necessary building blocks of concepts. Semantic properties are represented as axioms. We summarize our approach: concepts = constraints + axioms. This insight is leveraged to develop a library containing only 14 concepts that encompassing the functional, iterator, and algorithm components of the C++ Standard Library (the STL). The concepts are implemented as constraint classes and evaluated using Clang\\'s and GCC\\'s Standard Library test suites. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

A comprehensive and quantitative comparison of text-mining in 15 million full-text articles versus their corresponding abstracts

Science.gov (United States)

Westergaard, David; Stærfeldt, Hans-Henrik

2018-01-01

Across academia and industry, text mining has become a popular strategy for keeping up with the rapid growth of the scientific literature. Text mining of the scientific literature has mostly been carried out on collections of abstracts, due to their availability. Here we present an analysis of 15 million English scientific full-text articles published during the period 1823–2016. We describe the development in article length and publication sub-topics during these nearly 250 years. We showcase the potential of text mining by extracting published protein–protein, disease–gene, and protein subcellular associations using a named entity recognition system, and quantitatively report on their accuracy using gold standard benchmark data sets. We subsequently compare the findings to corresponding results obtained on 16.5 million abstracts included in MEDLINE and show that text mining of full-text articles consistently outperforms using abstracts only. PMID:29447159

Learning Crude Oil by Using Scientific Literacy Comics

Science.gov (United States)

Aisyah, R.; Zakiyah, I. A.; Farida, I.; Ramdhani, M. A.

2017-09-01

A research has been conducted to create a crude oil learning media in the form of scientific literacy-oriented comic. The research included some phases, namely: concept analysis, material transformation to concept map, indicator identification and science literacy aspect. The product was made based on flowcharts and storyboards that have been validated by expert validators. The product has characteristics namely; 1) Develops indicators and aspects of science literacy, 2) presents the materials in form of story of science fiction genre, 3) has characters adopting levels of scientific literacy, 4) has optional stories, because it depends on questions asked to develop scientific literacy in terms of content, context, process and attitude. Based on feasibility test, the product is feasible to be used as learning media. It is suggested to do an expanded experiment to examine its affectivity in improving scientific literacy and growing students’ awareness about the issues of energy crisis and the impacts of fossil fuel use on the environment.

On the notion of abstract platform in MDA development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Andrade Almeida, João; Dijkman, R.M.; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Ferreira Pires, Luis

2004-01-01

Although platform-independence is a central property in MDA models, the study of platform-independence has been largely overlooked in MDA. As a consequence, there is a lack of guidelines to select abstraction criteria and modelling concepts for platform-independent design. In addition, there is

A Chemistry Concept Reasoning Test

Science.gov (United States)

Cloonan, Carrie A.; Hutchinson, John S.

2011-01-01

A Chemistry Concept Reasoning Test was created and validated providing an easy-to-use tool for measuring conceptual understanding and critical scientific thinking of general chemistry models and theories. The test is designed to measure concept understanding comparable to that found in free-response questions requiring explanations over…

MicroCar 2003. Abstracts of papers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2003-07-01

Mechatronics for automotive applications is an important trend, combining mechanics, electronics and information technology. Micro- and nanomechatronics, particularly innovative research disciplines, will help create, in combination with advanced solutions from microsystem technologies, e.g. the electronic packaging, a range of entirely new developments in automobiles. Under the umbrella of the Automotive Suppliers Fair Z2003, it is happening for the very first time now that a momentous scientific conference, such as the MicroCar 2003, brings together representatives from car manufacturers and the electronics industry, as well as a large number of experts from technical colleges, universities and research institutes to discuss the new potentials and possibilities presented by the use of micro and nanomaterials in Leipzig. With the presentation of 50 papers, speakers will inform about their latest research results as well as current trends in micro and nanotechnologies for automotives. This issue is publishing the abstracts of this scientific event.

What goes up... gravity and scientific method

CERN Document Server

Kosso, Peter

2017-01-01

The concept of gravity provides a natural phenomenon that is simultaneously obvious and obscure; we all know what it is, but rarely question why it is. The simple observation that 'what goes up must come down' contrasts starkly with our current scientific explanation of gravity, which involves challenging and sometimes counterintuitive concepts. With such extremes between the plain and the perplexing, gravity forces a sharp focus on scientific method. Following the history of gravity from Aristotle to Einstein, this clear account highlights the logic of scientific method for non-specialists. Successive theories of gravity and the evidence for each are presented clearly and rationally, focusing on the fundamental ideas behind them. Using only high-school level algebra and geometry, the author emphasizes what the equations mean rather than how they are derived, making this accessible for all those curious about gravity and how science really works.

Self-Concept Research: A Historical Overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenberg, Morris

1989-01-01

Reviews the history of self-concept research. Suggests that self-concept research was long neglected due to major hostile scientific paradigms: psychology's behaviorist paradigm, sociology's social factist and social behaviorist paradigms, and the Freudian paradigm in psychoanalysis. Contains 46 references. (SV)

Forces and functions in scientific communication: an analysis of their interplay

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roosendaal, Hans E.; Geurts, Petrus A.T.M.

1997-01-01

This article deals with the transformation of the familiar, linear scientific information chain into an interactive scientific communication “network” in response to concomitant changes in scientific research and education. Societal conditions are seen to lead worldwide to the concept of strategic

Commentary: Usability – A Sensitizing Concept

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hertzum, Morten

2018-01-01

In his article “The Usability Construct: A Dead End?”, Tractinsky (in Human-Computer Interaction) contends that for scientific research on usability to progress, the usability construct should be unbundled and replaced by well-defined constructs. This contention is presented as the conclusion...... that follows naturally from taking a scientist’s viewpoint on usability. Similar calls for definitive concepts – constructs in Tractinsky’s terminology – have been made in other scientific fields with concepts as ambiguous as that of usability. But counterarguments have also been presented....

A one day workshop on scientific writing: Brief report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

PR Shankar

2010-04-01

Full Text Available A one-day workshop on scientific writing was held at KISTMedical College, Lalitpur, Nepal on Saturday, 27th February2010. Topics covered were ‘Writing an original researcharticle’, ‘Writing an abstract’, ‘Why articles are rejected –views from a reviewer’, ‘Tips for effective scientific writing’,‘Writing a case report’ and ‘Journals where you can publishyour work’. The various sections of an original research articleare abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results,discussion, conclusion, acknowledgements, references andfigures and tables. Let us now examine the first section of apaper, the abstract. An abstract can be regarded as anabbreviated and accurate representation of the papercontents. Abstracts can be unstructured, in IMRaD format(Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion or in an eightheading format. Key words help in indexing and retrieval.Common reasons why articles are rejected are that they aresent to the wrong journal, the article does not follow the wordlimits of the journal or is not prepared in accordance with thejournal instructions, errors with presentation, grammar andlanguage, problems with the theoretical framework,references to appropriate literature are lacking or there areserious methodological flaws. A narrative structure should linktogether various parts of the paper. Sentences should beshort, written in active voice and address one thought at atime. Unnecessary words should be deleted and short andsimple words used instead of long and complicated ones.While writing an original article most authors start with theMethods section and then write the Results. Ensure that thearticle conforms to the journal’s guidelines for authors.Plagiarism should be avoided and previous studies read,understood and then paraphrased in the writer’s own words.A case report, one of the forms of scientific writing is acarefully documented scientific observation useful foreducation, research, practice

Scientific Services on the Cloud

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, David; Joshi, Karuna P.; Yesha, Yelena; Halem, Milt; Yesha, Yaacov; Nguyen, Phuong

Scientific Computing was one of the first every applications for parallel and distributed computation. To this date, scientific applications remain some of the most compute intensive, and have inspired creation of petaflop compute infrastructure such as the Oak Ridge Jaguar and Los Alamos RoadRunner. Large dedicated hardware infrastructure has become both a blessing and a curse to the scientific community. Scientists are interested in cloud computing for much the same reason as businesses and other professionals. The hardware is provided, maintained, and administrated by a third party. Software abstraction and virtualization provide reliability, and fault tolerance. Graduated fees allow for multi-scale prototyping and execution. Cloud computing resources are only a few clicks away, and by far the easiest high performance distributed platform to gain access to. There may still be dedicated infrastructure for ultra-scale science, but the cloud can easily play a major part of the scientific computing initiative.

Scientific Approach and Inquiry Learning Model in the Topic of Buffer Solution: A Content Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Kusumaningrum, I. A.; Ashadi, A.; Indriyanti, N. Y.

2017-09-01

Many concepts in buffer solution cause student’s misconception. Understanding science concepts should apply the scientific approach. One of learning models which is suitable with this approach is inquiry. Content analysis was used to determine textbook compatibility with scientific approach and inquiry learning model in the concept of buffer solution. By using scientific indicator tools (SIT) and Inquiry indicator tools (IIT), we analyzed three chemistry textbooks grade 11 of senior high school labeled as P, Q, and R. We described how textbook compatibility with scientific approach and inquiry learning model in the concept of buffer solution. The results show that textbook P and Q were very poor and book R was sufficient because the textbook still in procedural level. Chemistry textbooks used at school are needed to be improved in term of scientific approach and inquiry learning model. The result of these analyses might be of interest in order to write future potential textbooks.

Things to see and do: how scientific images work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærgaard, Rikke Schmidt

2011-01-01

Visual representations are an important and integral part of understanding and developing new scientific concepts – both in the laboratory and when engaging a public audience. Images often serve as the primary evidence supporting the claims of the scientific publication (Goodsell & Johnson, 2007...

[Development and opportunities from de scientific committee of 25 SECA congress held in Barcelona, 2007].

Science.gov (United States)

Astier Peña, M P; Lorenzo Martínez, S; Santiñá, M; Martín, A

2009-01-01

To perform a self-assessment of the Scientific Committee of the 25th Conference of the Spanish Society for Quality in Healthcare held in Barcelona on October 2007 in order to identify improvement areas for future Conferences. Applying PDCA methodology to the tasks undertaken by the Scientific Committee (SC) of the Conference. Plan: A description of the preparation of the conference based on the abstract management of the Scientific Committee. Do: description of the implementation. Check: evaluation of activities. A: improvement proposals for the coming conferences. The SC (22 people) worked in the abstracts management, book publishing and development of the scientific aspects of the Conference. Abstracts evaluation was conducted by 11 pairs of blind evaluators who analysed 348 oral communications and 457 posters, and 10.09% were rejected. Oral communications were performed in a total of 36 oral presentations sessions and 24 poster sessions. The book was published with the abstracts, addresses and the Conference opening and closing sessions. Awards: communications graded over 7.5 applied for an award and were reassessed by the SC. The on-line conference was also well received. The satisfaction with the Conference regarding the scientific activities was good; however, several areas of improvement were identified.

DOE-NABIR PI Workshop: Abstracts January 31-February 2, 2000

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pratt, Mary (ed.)

2000-01-01

The mission of the NABIR program is to provide the scientific understanding needed to use natural processes and to develop new methods to accelerate those processes for the bioremediation of contaminated soils, sediments and groundwater at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities. The program is implemented through seven interrelated scientific research elements (Assessment, Bacterial Transport, Biogeochemical Dynamics, Bimolecular Science and Engineering, Biotransformation and Biodegradation, Community Dynamics/Microbial Ecology and System Engineering, Integration, Prediction and Optimization); and through an element called Bioremediation and its Societal Implications and Concerns (BASIC), which addresses societal issues and concerns of stakeholders through communication and collaboration among all relevant groups, including community leaders and representatives, engineers, scientists, lawyers, etc. The initial emphasis of NABIR program research is on the bioremediation of metals and radionuclides in the subsurface below the root zone, including both thick vadose and saturated zones. The material presented at this year's workshop focuses on research funded in FY 1998-2000 by DOE's Office of Science through its Office of Biological and Environmental Research. Sixty-eight projects have been funded in the scientific program elements, and two have been funded in the BASIC program. Abstracts of these programs are summarized in this booklet, along with abstracts of other DOE programs related to research in the NABIR program.

A guide to writing a scientific paper: a focus on high school through graduate level student research.

Science.gov (United States)

Hesselbach, Renee A; Petering, David H; Berg, Craig A; Tomasiewicz, Henry; Weber, Daniel

2012-12-01

This article presents a detailed guide for high school through graduate level instructors that leads students to write effective and well-organized scientific papers. Interesting research emerges from the ability to ask questions, define problems, design experiments, analyze and interpret data, and make critical connections. This process is incomplete, unless new results are communicated to others because science fundamentally requires peer review and criticism to validate or discard proposed new knowledge. Thus, a concise and clearly written research paper is a critical step in the scientific process and is important for young researchers as they are mastering how to express scientific concepts and understanding. Moreover, learning to write a research paper provides a tool to improve science literacy as indicated in the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards (1996), and A Framework for K-12 Science Education (2011), the underlying foundation for the Next Generation Science Standards currently being developed. Background information explains the importance of peer review and communicating results, along with details of each critical component, the Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Specific steps essential to helping students write clear and coherent research papers that follow a logical format, use effective communication, and develop scientific inquiry are described.

Mixed metaphors: Electrophysiological brain responses to (un)expected concrete and abstract prepositional phrases.

Science.gov (United States)

Zane, Emily; Shafer, Valerie

2018-02-01

Languages around the world use spatial terminology, like prepositions, to describe non-spatial, abstract concepts, including time (e.g., in the moment). The Metaphoric Mapping Theory explains this pattern by positing that a universal human cognitive process underlies it, whereby abstract concepts are conceptualized via the application of concrete, three-dimensional space onto abstract domains. The alternative view is that the use of spatial propositions in abstract phrases is idiomatic, and thus does not trigger metaphoric mapping. In the current study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to examine the time-course of neural processing of concrete and abstract phrases consisting of the prepositions in or on followed by congruent and incongruent nouns (e.g., in the bowl/plate and in the moment/mend). ERPs were recorded from the onset of reference nouns in 28 adult participants using a 128-channel electrode net. Results show that congruency has differential effects on neural measures, depending on whether the noun is concrete or abstract. Incongruent reference nouns in concrete phrases (e.g., on the bowl) elicited a significant central negativity (an N400 effect), while incongruent reference nouns in abstract phrases (e.g., on the moment) did not. These results suggest that spatially incongruent concrete nouns are semantically unexpected (N400 effect). A P600 effect, which might indicate rechecking, reanalysis and/or reconstruction, was predicted for incongruent abstract nouns, but was not observed, possibly due to the variability in abstract stimuli. Findings cast doubt on accounts claiming that abstract uses of prepositions are cognitively and metaphorically linked to their spatial sense during natural, on-line processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Switching Between Everyday and Scientific Language

Science.gov (United States)

Blown, Eric J.; Bryce, Tom G. K.

2017-06-01

The research reported here investigated the everyday and scientific repertoires of children involved in semi-structured, Piagetian interviews carried out to check their understanding of dynamic astronomical concepts like daytime and night-time. It focused on the switching taking place between embedded and disembedded thinking; on the imagery which subjects referred to in their verbal dialogue and their descriptions of drawings and play-dough models of the Earth, Sun and Moon; and it examined the prevalence and character of animism and figurative speech in children's thinking. Five hundred and thirty-nine children (aged 3-18) from Wairarapa in New Zealand (171 boys and 185 girls) and Changchun in China (99 boys and 84 girls) took part in the study. Modified ordinal scales for the relevant concept categories were used to classify children's responses and data from each age group (with numbers balanced as closely as practicable by culture and gender) analysed with Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample tests (at an alpha level of 0.05). Although, in general, there was consistency of dynamic concepts within and across media and their associated modalities in keeping with the theory of conceptual coherence (see Blown and Bryce 2010; Bryce and Blown 2016), there were several cases of inter-modal and intra-modal switching in both cultures. Qualitative data from the interview protocols revealed how children switch between everyday and scientific language (in both directions) and use imagery in response to questioning. The research indicates that children's grasp of scientific ideas in this field may ordinarily be under-estimated if one only goes by formal scientific expression and vocabulary.

Ethical muscle and scientific interests: a role for philosophy in scientific research.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaposy, Chris

2008-03-01

Ethics, a branch of philosophy, has a place in the regulatory framework of human subjects research. Sometimes, however, ethical concepts and arguments play a more central role in scientific activity. This can happen, for example, when violations of research norms are also ethical violations. In such a situation, ethical arguments can be marshaled to improve the quality of the scientific research. I explore two different examples in which philosophers and scientists have used ethical arguments to plead for epistemological improvements in the conduct of research. The first example deals with research dishonesty in pharmaceutical development. The second example is concerned with neuropsychological research using fMRI technology.

Learning scientific programming with Python

CERN Document Server

Hill, Christian

2015-01-01

Learn to master basic programming tasks from scratch with real-life scientifically relevant examples and solutions drawn from both science and engineering. Students and researchers at all levels are increasingly turning to the powerful Python programming language as an alternative to commercial packages and this fast-paced introduction moves from the basics to advanced concepts in one complete volume, enabling readers to quickly gain proficiency. Beginning with general programming concepts such as loops and functions within the core Python 3 language, and moving onto the NumPy, SciPy and Matplotlib libraries for numerical programming and data visualisation, this textbook also discusses the use of IPython notebooks to build rich-media, shareable documents for scientific analysis. Including a final chapter introducing challenging topics such as floating-point precision and algorithm stability, and with extensive online resources to support advanced study, this textbook represents a targeted package for students...

The 12-th INS scientific computational programs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-06-01

This issue is the collection of the paper on INS scientific computational programs. Separate abstracts were presented for 3 of the papers in this report. The remaining 5 were considered outside the subject scope of INIS. (J.P.N.)

Mathematical and Scientific Foundations for an Integrative Engineering Curriculum.

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Robin; And Others

1995-01-01

Describes the Mathematical and Scientific Foundations of Engineering curriculum which emphasizes the mathematical and scientific concepts common to all engineering fields. Scientists and engineers together devised topics and experiments that emphasize the relevance of theory to real-world applications. Presents material efficiently while building…

Exponentially Convergent Algorithms for Abstract Differential Equations

CERN Document Server

Gavrilyuk, Ivan; Vasylyk, Vitalii

2011-01-01

This book presents new accurate and efficient exponentially convergent methods for abstract differential equations with unbounded operator coefficients in Banach space. These methods are highly relevant for the practical scientific computing since the equations under consideration can be seen as the meta-models of systems of ordinary differential equations (ODE) as well as the partial differential equations (PDEs) describing various applied problems. The framework of functional analysis allows one to obtain very general but at the same time transparent algorithms and mathematical results which

Mapping the evolution of scientific fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Herrera, Mark; Roberts, David C; Gulbahce, Natali

2010-05-04

Despite the apparent cross-disciplinary interactions among scientific fields, a formal description of their evolution is lacking. Here we describe a novel approach to study the dynamics and evolution of scientific fields using a network-based analysis. We build an idea network consisting of American Physical Society Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme (PACS) numbers as nodes representing scientific concepts. Two PACS numbers are linked if there exist publications that reference them simultaneously. We locate scientific fields using a community finding algorithm, and describe the time evolution of these fields over the course of 1985-2006. The communities we identify map to known scientific fields, and their age depends on their size and activity. We expect our approach to quantifying the evolution of ideas to be relevant for making predictions about the future of science and thus help to guide its development.

Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cook, John; Nuccitelli, Dana; Winkler, Bärbel; Painting, Rob; Skuce, Andrew; Green, Sarah A; Richardson, Mark; Way, Robert; Jacobs, Peter

2013-01-01

We analyze the evolution of the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming (AGW) in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, examining 11 944 climate abstracts from 1991–2011 matching the topics ‘global climate change’ or ‘global warming’. We find that 66.4% of abstracts expressed no position on AGW, 32.6% endorsed AGW, 0.7% rejected AGW and 0.3% were uncertain about the cause of global warming. Among abstracts expressing a position on AGW, 97.1% endorsed the consensus position that humans are causing global warming. In a second phase of this study, we invited authors to rate their own papers. Compared to abstract ratings, a smaller percentage of self-rated papers expressed no position on AGW (35.5%). Among self-rated papers expressing a position on AGW, 97.2% endorsed the consensus. For both abstract ratings and authors’ self-ratings, the percentage of endorsements among papers expressing a position on AGW marginally increased over time. Our analysis indicates that the number of papers rejecting the consensus on AGW is a vanishingly small proportion of the published research. (letter)

From Abstract Art to Abstracted Artists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romi Mikulinsky

2016-11-01

Full Text Available What lineage connects early abstract films and machine-generated YouTube videos? Hans Richter’s famous piece Rhythmus 21 is considered to be the first abstract film in the experimental tradition. The Webdriver Torso YouTube channel is composed of hundreds of thousands of machine-generated test patterns designed to check frequency signals on YouTube. This article discusses geometric abstraction vis-à-vis new vision, conceptual art and algorithmic art. It argues that the Webdriver Torso is an artistic marvel indicative of a form we call mathematical abstraction, which is art performed by computers and, quite possibly, for computers.

Mario Bunge's Scientific Realism

Science.gov (United States)

Cordero, Alberto

2012-01-01

This paper presents and comments on Mario Bunge's scientific realism. After a brief introduction in Sects. 1 and 2 outlines Bunge's conception of realism. Focusing on the case of quantum mechanics, Sect. 3 explores how his approach plays out for problematic theories. Section 4 comments on Bunge's project against the background of the current…

Operating System Abstraction Layer (OSAL)

Science.gov (United States)

Yanchik, Nicholas J.

2007-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the concept of the Operating System Abstraction Layer (OSAL) and its benefits. The OSAL is A small layer of software that allows programs to run on many different operating systems and hardware platforms It runs independent of the underlying OS & hardware and it is self-contained. The benefits of OSAL are that it removes dependencies from any one operating system, promotes portable, reusable flight software. It allows for Core Flight software (FSW) to be built for multiple processors and operating systems. The presentation discusses the functionality, the various OSAL releases, and describes the specifications.

Scientific report 1999

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

The aim of this report is to outline the main developments of the 'Departement des Reacteurs Nucleaires' (DRN) during the year 1999. DRN is one of the CEA Institutions. This report is divided in three main parts: the DRN scientific programs, the scientific and technical publications (with abstracts in English) and economic data on staff, budget and communication. Main results of the Department for the year 1999 are presented giving information on the simulation of low mach number compressible flow, experimental irradiation of multi-materials, progress in the dry route conversion process of UF 6 to UO 2 , the neutronics, the CASCADE installation, the corium, the BWR type reactor cores technology, the reactor safety, the transmutation of americium and fuel cell flow studies, the crack propagation, the hybrid systems and the CEA sites improvement. (A.L.B.)

MememxGATE: Unearthing Latent Content Features for Improved Search and Relevancy Ranking Across Scientific Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, B. D.; McGibbney, L. J.; Mattmann, C. A.; Ramirez, P.; Joyce, M.; Whitehall, K. D.

2015-12-01

Quantifying scientific relevancy is of increasing importance to NASA and the research community. Scientific relevancy may be defined by mapping the impacts of a particular NASA mission, instrument, and/or retrieved variables to disciplines such as climate predictions, natural hazards detection and mitigation processes, education, and scientific discoveries. Related to relevancy, is the ability to expose data with similar attributes. This in turn depends upon the ability for us to extract latent, implicit document features from scientific data and resources and make them explicit, accessible and useable for search activities amongst others. This paper presents MemexGATE; a server side application, command line interface and computing environment for running large scale metadata extraction, general architecture text engineering, document classification and indexing tasks over document resources such as social media streams, scientific literature archives, legal documentation, etc. This work builds on existing experiences using MemexGATE (funded, developed and validated through the DARPA Memex Progrjam PI Mattmann) for extracting and leveraging latent content features from document resources within the Materials Research domain. We extend the software functionality capability to the domain of scientific literature with emphasis on the expansion of gazetteer lists, named entity rules, natural language construct labeling (e.g. synonym, antonym, hyponym, etc.) efforts to enable extraction of latent content features from data hosted by wide variety of scientific literature vendors (AGU Meeting Abstract Database, Springer, Wiley Online, Elsevier, etc.) hosting earth science literature. Such literature makes both implicit and explicit references to NASA datasets and relationships between such concepts stored across EOSDIS DAAC's hence we envisage that a significant part of this effort will also include development and understanding of relevancy signals which can ultimately

Implementation of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) in basic scientific research: Translating the concept beyond regulatory compliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Jena, G B; Chavan, Sapana

2017-10-01

The principles of Good Laboratory Practices (GLPs) are mainly intended for the laboratories performing studies for regulatory compliances. However, today GLP can be applied to broad disciplines of science to cater to the needs of the experimental objectives, generation of quality data and assay reproducibility. Considering its significance, it can now be applied in academics; industries as well as government set ups throughout the world. GLP is the best way to promote the reliability, reproducibility of the test data and hence facilitates the international acceptability. Now it is high time to translate and implement the concept of GLP beyond regulatory studies. Thus, it can pave the way for better understanding of scientific problems and help to maintain a good human and environmental health. Through this review, we have made an attempt to explore the uses of GLP principles in different fields of science and its acceptability as well as looking for its future perspectives. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Scientific Process Flowchart Assessment (SPFA): A Method for Evaluating Changes in Understanding and Visualization of the Scientific Process in a Multidisciplinary Student Population

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Kristy J.; Rigakos, Bessie

2016-01-01

The scientific process is nonlinear, unpredictable, and ongoing. Assessing the nature of science is difficult with methods that rely on Likert-scale or multiple-choice questions. This study evaluated conceptions about the scientific process using student-created visual representations that we term "flowcharts." The methodology,…

Is the motor system necessary for processing action and abstract emotion words? Evidence from focal brain lesions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felix R. Dreyer

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Neuroimaging and neuropsychological experiments suggest that modality-preferential cortices, including motor- and somatosensory areas contribute to the semantic processing of action related concrete words. In contrast, a possible role of modality-preferential – including sensorimotor – areas in processing abstract meaning remains under debate. However, recent fMRI studies indicate an involvement of the left sensorimotor cortex in the processing of abstract-emotional words (e.g. love. But are these areas indeed necessary for processing action-related and abstract words? The current study now investigates word processing in two patients suffering from focal brain lesion in the left frontocentral motor system. A speeded lexical decision task (LDT on meticulously matched word groups showed that the recognition of nouns from different semantic categories – related to food, animals, tools and abstract-emotional concepts – was differentially affected. Whereas patient HS with a lesion in dorsolateral central sensorimotor cortex next to the hand area showed a category-specific deficit in recognizing tool words, patient CA suffering from lesion centered in the left SMA was primarily impaired in abstract-emotional word processing. These results point to a causal role of the motor cortex in the semantic processing of both action-related object concepts and abstract-emotional concepts and therefore suggest that the motor areas previously found active in action-related and abstract word processing can serve a meaning-specific necessary role in word recognition. The category-specific nature of the observed dissociations is difficult to reconcile with the idea that sensorimotor systems are somehow peripheral or ‘epiphenomenal’ to meaning and concept processing. Rather, our results are consistent with the claim that cognition is grounded in action and perception and based on distributed action perception circuits reaching into sensorimotor areas.

Is writing style predictive of scientific fraud?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Braud, Chloé Elodie; Søgaard, Anders

2017-01-01

The problem of detecting scientific fraud using machine learning was recently introduced, with initial, positive results from a model taking into account various general indicators. The results seem to suggest that writing style is predictive of scientific fraud. We revisit these initial experime......The problem of detecting scientific fraud using machine learning was recently introduced, with initial, positive results from a model taking into account various general indicators. The results seem to suggest that writing style is predictive of scientific fraud. We revisit these initial...... experiments, and show that the leave-one-out testing procedure they used likely leads to a slight over-estimate of the predictability, but also that simple models can outperform their proposed model by some margin. We go on to explore more abstract linguistic features, such as linguistic complexity...

Science Teaching as Educational Interrogation of Scientific Research

Science.gov (United States)

Ginev, Dimitri

2013-01-01

The main argument of this article is that science teaching based on a pedagogy of questions is to be modeled on a hermeneutic conception of scientific research as a process of the constitution of texts. This process is spelled out in terms of hermeneutic phenomenology. A text constituted by scientific practices is at once united by a hermeneutic…

Scientific program and abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerich, C.

1983-01-01

The Fifth International Conference on High-Power Particle Beams is organized jointly by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Physics International Company. As in the previous conferences in this series, the program includes the following topics: high-power, electron- and ion-beam acceleration and transport; diode physics; high-power particle beam interaction with plasmas and dense targets; particle beam fusion (inertial confinement); collective ion acceleration; particle beam heating of magnetically confined plasmas; and generation of microwave/free-electron lasers

1. National Congress of Environmental Science: Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

The First National Congress of Environmental Sciences had a plural participation in the environmental thematic. The public universities and the research institutes of the different states of Mexico submitted papers containing proposals of scientific and technological solutions to the problems of management of hazardous wastes: water and land pollution; new methods of evaluation to pollutants of air and water; protection and conservation of relevant species of the ecology; control of genetic alterations; development and conservation of natural resources, and environmental education. Another part of the abstracts is dedicated to the posters session (Author)

Sexual Consent as a Scientific Subject: A Literature Review

Science.gov (United States)

Fenner, Lydia

2017-01-01

Despite the presumed centrality of sexual consent to definitions of sexual violence, it remains an ambiguous and often unexamined concept both in lay and professional/scientific discourses. The following literature review of peer-reviewed research studying sexual consent as a scientific object will thematically present major findings from said…

Using Scientific and Industrial Films in Teaching Technical Communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Veeder, Gerry

A film course especially designed for technical communication students can illustrate basic film concepts and techniques while showing how film effectively communicates ideas in an industrial and scientific communication system. After a basic introduction to film terms, the study of actual scientific and industrial films demonstrates the following…

Things to see and do: how scientific images work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærgaard, Rikke Schmidt

2011-01-01

Visual representations are an important and integral part of understanding and developing new scientific concepts – both in the laboratory and when engaging a public audience. Images often serve as the primary evidence supporting the claims of the scientific publication (Goodsell & Johnson, 2007...... a broad range of scientific areas, visual approaches and imaging technologies. It explores the way we look at scientific data, why some representations are better than others, and what you can do to achieve clarity, accuracy and aesthetic appearance in a visual representation that will represent your...... scientific data in the best possible way....

Coliforms Everywhere! Using Microbiology to Teach the Scientific Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cindy R. Cisar

2010-11-01

Full Text Available The scientific method is a fundamental concept in science. In this exercise the scientific method is taught as a hands-on investigative laboratory experience. Students generate a hypothesis concerning the environmental distribution of coliforms, design and execute an experimental test of that hypothesis, and analyze the resulting data. The exercise is safe and straightforward. It is appropriate for use in undergraduate laboratory courses for science majors and secondary school students and undergraduate non-majors with the appropriate mathematical backgrounds. Students learn both the process by which science progresses, as well as more advanced concepts in microbiology and statistics.

Full Text or Abstract? : Examining Topic Coherence Scores Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Syed, S.; Spruit, M.

2017-01-01

This paper assesses topic coherence and human topic ranking of uncovered latent topics from scientific publications when utilizing the topic model latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) on abstract and full-text data. The coherence of a topic, used as a proxy for topic quality, is based on the

The readability of scientific texts is decreasing over time

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Clarity and accuracy of reporting are fundamental to the scientific process. Readability formulas can estimate how difficult a text is to read. Here, in a corpus consisting of 709,577 abstracts published between 1881 and 2015 from 123 scientific journals, we show that the readability of science is steadily decreasing. Our analyses show that this trend is indicative of a growing use of general scientific jargon. These results are concerning for scientists and for the wider public, as they impact both the reproducibility and accessibility of research findings. PMID:28873054

CSPG - SEPM joint convention : Program with abstracts - Sedimentary events and hydrocarbon systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beauchamp, B.

1997-01-01

This joint conference of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG) and the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) was held in Calgary, to encourage collaboration between the petroleum resource industry and academia. Well over 150 papers were presented in various special sessions. The principal topics of discussion included examination, investigation and assessment of the geology, geophysics, geochemistry and the resource potential of sedimentary basins in Canada and around the world. In the course of the presentations the depositional, tectonic and diagenetic histories of various formations, augmented with interpretations of the origin and evolution of the basins were reviewed. The new interpretations were made possible by the new concepts and models of sedimentary geoscience that were born in the creative cauldron of collaboration that exists between industry, government institutions and the universities. The widespread use of modern sequence stratigraphy was used as an example of how scientific and engineering synergy evolved over time to shed new light on the nature of the stratigraphic record. Environmental issues regarding the petroleum industry also received much attention. This volume contains the complete conference program listing, a list of the sponsors and exhibitors, and provides brief abstracts of all papers presented at the conference

A "Semantic" View of Scientific Models for Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Adúriz-Bravo, Agustín

2013-01-01

In this paper I inspect a "semantic" view of scientific models taken from contemporary philosophy of science-I draw upon the so-called "semanticist family", which frontally challenges the received, syntactic conception of scientific theories. I argue that a semantic view may be of use both for science education in the…

Using Technology To Bring Abstract Concepts into Focus: A Programming Case Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Crews, Thad; Butterfield, Jeff

2002-01-01

Discusses the three-step implementation of an instructional technology tool and associated pedagogy to support teaching and learning computer programming concepts. The Flowchart Interpreter (FLINT) was proven through experiments to support novice programmers better than the traditional textbook approach. (EV)

La verità scientifica - Scientific truth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Mazzeo

2012-10-01

Full Text Available A scientific theory is not a speculation. On the contrary it is based on facts and observations. Nevertheless the facts and the observations are unable to show us the truth about the world. Indeed to understand the facts or even to discover them through experiments we need a starting theory about the world. Therefore the world is not only discovered by us, but we can say that it is created by our brain. Facts are the constraints for the possible theories and theories are creations of our minds to understand the facts. There are no facts without a theory in mind, and there are no scientific theories about the world without facts. It is obvious therefore that science cannot give any absolute truth but “only” temporary truths which will change with new discoveries and theories. The scientific truth is therefore unstable: after few decades the concepts become unable to explain the news discoveries and become old, but the new concepts will include the old ones. This is called science progress. In this work we analyze all these points discussing the historical creation of the gravitational theory from Aristotle to Newton.

The Risky Path to a Followership Identity: From Abstract Concept to Situated Reality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsson, Magnus; Nielsen, Mie Femø

2017-01-01

. The findings reveal the risks of misidentifying the task at hand, of being too authoritative, and of claiming too much knowledge. Also, our analyses highlight that leader and follower roles remain abstract in workplace interactions and, instead, people focus more on negotiated, task-oriented, practical...

Disciplinarity and sport science in Europe: A statistical and sociological study of ECSS conference abstracts.

Science.gov (United States)

Champely, Stéphane; Fargier, Patrick; Camy, Jean

2017-02-01

Abstracts of European College of Sports Science conferences (1995-2014) are studied. The number of abstracts has been increasing regularly (+90 per year). This rise is in recent years largely due to extra-European countries. The magnitude and accumulation of the different topics of discussion are examined. An operational criterion determines four stages of evolution of a topic: social network, cluster, specialty, and discipline. The scientific production can, therefore, be classified as disciplinary or non-disciplinary. The disciplinary part is more important but has been less dynamic recently. The cognitive content of sport science is then explored through a multidimensional scaling of the topics based on the keywords used in the abstracts. Three areas are visible: social sciences and humanities, sports medicine and physiology, and biomechanics and neurophysiology. According to the field theory of Bourdieu ( 1975 ), three scientific habitus are distinguished. The logic of academic disciplinary excellence is the consequence of the autonomy of this scientific field, its closure, peer-review process, and barriers to entry. The distribution of scientific capital and professional capital is unequal across the three areas. Basically, conservation strategies of academic disciplinary excellence are predicted in biomechanics and neurophysiology, subversion strategies of interdisciplinarity based on professional concerns can appear in the sports medicine and physiology area, and critical strategies of interdisciplinarity based on social utility in social sciences and humanities. Moreover, additional tensions within these areas are depicted. Lastly methods based on co-citations of disciplines and boundary objects are proposed to find tangible patterns of multidisciplinarity confirming these strategies.

Analysis of full-text publication and publishing predictors of abstracts presented at an Italian public health meeting (2005-2007).

Science.gov (United States)

Castaldi, S; Giacometti, M; Toigo, W; Bert, F; Siliquini, R

2015-09-29

In Public Health, a thorough review of abstract quality evaluations and the publication history of studies presented at scientific meetings has never been conducted. To analyse the long-term outcome of quality abstracts submitted to conferences of Italian Society of Hygiene and Public Health (SItI) from 2005 to 2007, we conducted a second analysis of previously published material aiming to estimate full-text publication rate of high quality abstract presented at Italian public health meetings, and to identify predictors of full-text publication. The search was undertaken through scientific databases and search engines and through the web sites of the major Italian journals of Public Health. For each publication confirmed as a full text paper, the journal name, impact factor, year of publication, gender of the first author, type of study design, characteristics of the results and sample size were collected. The overall publication rate of the abstracts presented is 23.5%; most of the papers were published in Public Health journals (average impact factor: 3.007). Non universitary affiliation had resulted in a lower probability of publication, while some of the Conference topics had predisposed the studies to an increased likelihood of publication as well as poster form presentation. The method presented in this study provides a good framework for the evaluation of the scientific evidence. The findings achieved should be taken into consideration by the Scientific Societies during the contributions selection phase, with the aim of achieving a continuous improvement of work quality. In the future, it would be interesting to survey the abstract authors to identify reasons for unpublished data.

Student Scientific Conference. Collection of abstracts of works of students and post-graduate students

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-04-01

The conference included the following sections: (i) Biology (36 verbal presentations + 34 posters); (ii) Didactics (7 verbal presentations + 8 posters); Environment (8 verbal presentations + 5 posters); Geography (8 verbal presentations + 4 posters); Geology (9 verbal presentations + 6 posters); Chemistry (26 verbal presentations + 27 posters). Abstracts relevant of INIS interest has been input to INIS

Abstract "why" Thoughts About Success Lead to Greater Positive Generalization in Sport Participants.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Lier, Jens; Moulds, Michelle L; Raes, Filip

2015-01-01

Generalizing from a single failure or success to future performances and their self-concept could have an important impact on sport participants. This study examined the impact of the way sport participants think about success on positive generalization. Sport participants (N = 222) completed an online experimental study in which they were induced to think about meanings, causes and implications (i.e., abstract-"why"-thinking) or about more perceptual concrete aspects of their performance (i.e., concrete-"how"-thinking). We hypothesized that abstract-"why"-thinking would lead to greater positive generalization and that this effect would be moderated by self-esteem. Our results supported our hypothesis that abstract thinking increased positive generalization, and this effect was more clearly visible in sport participants with higher self-esteem. These results suggest that retrospective thinking about the "why" of a good performance may benefit athletes in the long run because they generalize the outcome to future performances and their self-concept which may boost their motivation and consequently their performance.

Toward fostering the scientific and technological literacy establishment of the 'Central Scientific and Technological Museum-Institute' and nuclear development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murata, Takashi

1999-01-01

The public in general does not necessarily have enough knowledge for the reasonable decision making in the application of scientific and technological development even in the ear of the Information Society. However strongly the necessity of the consensus in the scientific policy like nuclear R and D is required, it is impossible to attain the goal, unless the scientific literacy of the general public is. In order to improve it the role of the scientific museum as a social educational facility is very important. In this respect, there still remains vast room to improve in the Japanese museum system and its activities. The concept of the 'Central Scientific and Technological Museum-Institute', which also operates very small-sized reactor for the educational use, is developed in this paper. (author)

BOREAS/AES Campbell Scientific 15-minute Surface Meteorological Data: 1995

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — ABSTRACT: Contains data from 1995 from the Atmospheric Environment Service Campbell Scientific autostations collecting continuous fifteen minute data for BOREAS.

Innovative confinement concepts workshop

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirkpatrick, R.C.

1998-01-01

The Innovative Confinement Concepts Workshop occurred in California during the week preceding the Second Symposium on Current Trends in International Fusion Research. An informal report was made to the Second Symposium. A summary of the Workshop concluded that some very promising ideas were presented, that innovative concept development is a central element of the restructured US DOE. Fusion Energy Sciences program, and that the Workshop should promote real scientific progress in fusion

From grasp to language: embodied concepts and the challenge of abstraction.

Science.gov (United States)

Arbib, Michael A

2008-01-01

The discovery of mirror neurons in the macaque monkey and the discovery of a homologous "mirror system for grasping" in Broca's area in the human brain has revived the gestural origins theory of the evolution of the human capability for language, enriching it with the suggestion that mirror neurons provide the neurological core for this evolution. However, this notion of "mirror neuron support for the transition from grasp to language" has been worked out in very different ways in the Mirror System Hypothesis model [Arbib, M.A., 2005a. From monkey-like action recognition to human language: an evolutionary framework for neurolinguistics (with commentaries and author's response). Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28, 105-167; Rizzolatti, G., Arbib, M.A., 1998. Language within our grasp. Trends in Neuroscience 21(5), 188-194] and the Embodied Concept model [Gallese, V., Lakoff, G., 2005. The brain's concepts: the role of the sensory-motor system in reason and language. Cognitive Neuropsychology 22, 455-479]. The present paper provides a critique of the latter to enrich analysis of the former, developing the role of schema theory [Arbib, M.A., 1981. Perceptual structures and distributed motor control. In: Brooks, V.B. (Ed.), Handbook of Physiology--The Nervous System II. Motor Control. American Physiological Society, pp. 1449-1480].

The Innocence of Scientific »Truths«

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Metka Mencin Čeplak

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The article presents a case of »scientific« argument supporting racism in psychology (»Cattell controversy«. The author argues that scientific racism in psychology should not be considered as an excess but rather as a symptom. It is not limited to a few cases of eugenicist and evolutionary psychologists; it is closely tied to the genetic reductionist concept of a person and of psychological differences, and to the role of psychological knowledge in (bio power relations. It concludes with comments on the social responsibility of scientists and points out that scientific conclusions cannot be detached from their effects.

misconceptions of genetics concepts among pre-service teachers

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Global Journal

GLOBAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH VOL 16, 2017: 121-128. COPYRIGHT© ... of scientific concepts and remain even after instruction. A large number of prior .... in life science have indicated that new concepts can hardly be.

Tenth annual scientific conference of the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (USA), July 19, 1995, Seattle, Washington

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holm, V.A.; Hudgins, L. [Univ. of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA (United States); Cassidy, S.B. [Univ. of Washington School of Medicine, and Children`s Hospital and Medical Center, Seattle, WA (United States)]|[Univ. Hospitals of Cleveland, OH (United States)

1996-09-06

Each year for the last 10 years, scientists conducting research on Prader-Willi syndrome have come together to exchange information during a scientific conference held in conjunction with the annual Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (USA) meeting. Presentations based on submitted abstracts encompass such varied fields as genetics, endocrinology, pediatrics, nutrition, psychology, psychiatry, and education. This year`s scientific conference was held in Seattle, Washington, on July 19, 1995, in conjunction with the 14th PWSA (USA) meeting held July 20-23. Seventeen reports were presented at the scientific meeting, the abstracts of which follow.

Scientific and technological information: analysis of periodic publications of information science

OpenAIRE

Mayara Cintya do Nascimento Vasconcelos; Gabriela Belmont de Farias

2017-01-01

The research analyzes the articles published in national scientific journals of the area of Information Science, classified with Qualis A1, having as parameter the term "scientific and technological information". It presents concepts about scientific and technological information and the processes that involve its uses, as well as scientific communication, information flows and sources of information. The methodology used is a descriptive study with a quantitative-qualitative approach, using ...

How new concepts become universal scientific approaches: insights from citation network analysis of agent-based complex systems science.

Science.gov (United States)

Vincenot, Christian E

2018-03-14

Progress in understanding and managing complex systems comprised of decision-making agents, such as cells, organisms, ecosystems or societies, is-like many scientific endeavours-limited by disciplinary boundaries. These boundaries, however, are moving and can actively be made porous or even disappear. To study this process, I advanced an original bibliometric approach based on network analysis to track and understand the development of the model-based science of agent-based complex systems (ACS). I analysed research citations between the two communities devoted to ACS research, namely agent-based (ABM) and individual-based modelling (IBM). Both terms refer to the same approach, yet the former is preferred in engineering and social sciences, while the latter prevails in natural sciences. This situation provided a unique case study for grasping how a new concept evolves distinctly across scientific domains and how to foster convergence into a universal scientific approach. The present analysis based on novel hetero-citation metrics revealed the historical development of ABM and IBM, confirmed their past disjointedness, and detected their progressive merger. The separation between these synonymous disciplines had silently opposed the free flow of knowledge among ACS practitioners and thereby hindered the transfer of methodological advances and the emergence of general systems theories. A surprisingly small number of key publications sparked the ongoing fusion between ABM and IBM research. Beside reviews raising awareness of broad-spectrum issues, generic protocols for model formulation and boundary-transcending inference strategies were critical means of science integration. Accessible broad-spectrum software similarly contributed to this change. From the modelling viewpoint, the discovery of the unification of ABM and IBM demonstrates that a wide variety of systems substantiate the premise of ACS research that microscale behaviours of agents and system-level dynamics

Relativism and the social scientific study of medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Risjord, M

1993-04-01

Does the social scientific study of medicine require a commitment to relativism? Relativism claims that some subject (e.g., knowledge claims or moral judgments) is relative to a background (e.g., a culture or conceptual scheme) and that judgments about the subject are incommensurable. Examining the concept of success as it appears in orthodox and nonorthodox medical systems, we see that judgments of success are relative to a background medical system. Relativism requires the social scientific study of medicine to be value free in the sense that a medical system must be described without evaluating its elements. When social scientists do evaluate the successfulness of a nonorthodox medical system, they give a crucial role to the nonorthodox conception of success. This strategy does not vitiate value-freedom and it entails a relativism about success. The social scientific study of medicine, therefore, does require relativism in the form of a relativism about success.

Public understanding of radiation protection concepts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-01-01

The Chernobyl accident in April 1986 clearly showed that communication with the public was one of the areas where there was a strong need for improvement, particularly concerning the nature and extent of the information provided by national authorities. The countermeasures adopted by public health authorities also raised difficulties in terms of public understanding and acceptance due, in part, to the perception of discrepancies in national, regional or local response to the accident, but also to a more basic lack of comprehension of the complex radiation protection considerations involved. In an attempt to help improve the situation, the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health decided to organise a Workshop on public communication in the event of a nuclear accident, centered on radiation protection issues. The purpose of this Workshop was to analyse appropriate methods and language to be used when explaining to the public the scientific concepts underlying radiation risks and radiation protection, and the technical rationale for the choice of protective actions in an emergency. Separate abstracts were prepared for individual papers presented at the meeting

Roles of Illustrators in Visual Communication of Scientific Knowledge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kana Okawa

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Scientific knowledge is the knowledge accumulated by systematic studies and organized by general principles. Visual, verbal, numeric, and other types of representation are used to communicate scientific knowledge. Scientific illustration is the visual representation of objects and concepts in order to record and to convey scientific knowledge(Ford, 1993. There are some discussions on scientific illustrations in history, philosophy and the sociology of science(Burri & Dumit, 2008, but little has been done on the creation of scientific illustrations by illustrators. This study focuses on the creation of scientific illustrations by illustrators. The purpose is to show how illustrators create the visual messages in communications of scientific knowledge. Through analysis of semi-structured interviews with 6 professional illustrators, creators and art directors, it is showed that illustrators select and edit scientific information, add non-scientific information, and organize information into one visual representation of scientific knowledge. The implication of this research will provide a new perspective to multisensory communication of scientific knowledge.

The scientific argumentation profile of physics teacher candidate in Surabaya

Science.gov (United States)

Ain, T. N.; Wibowo, H. A. C.; Rohman, A.; Deta, U. A.

2018-03-01

The ability of scientific argumentation is an essential factor that must be mastered by physics teacher candidate as a requirement in explaining good and accurate scientific concepts. In the process of arguing, students develop explanations or persuade colleagues to support their hypotheses, express doubts, ask questions, relate alternative answers, and confirm what is unknown to develop the ability to provide rational and scientific explanations. The design of this research is descriptive qualitative with the subject of research is 20 undergraduate students of Physics Education Department in Surabaya. The research instrument consists of four casuistic questions related to the concept of kinematics. The argumentation pattern of physics teacher candidate is coded using Toulmin's argumentation pattern. The results show that the student’s ability in providing scientific argument is at the level of providing claims with the support of a weak warrant. The students are not able to provide excellent rebuttals. In each case given, the student can give a good claim statement in answering the questions. However, the concept used to support the claim is not correct. This case causes the warrant used to support the claim is weak. Students also do not analyse other facts that affect the system. Students have not reached a higher level because the understanding of physics is not deep enough.

Abstract Word Definition in Patients with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Soo Ryon; Baek, Min Jae; Kim, HyangHee

2015-01-01

The aims of this study were to investigate concrete and abstract word definition ability (1) between patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and normal adults and (2) between the aMCI subtypes (i.e., amnestic single-domain MCI and amnestic multidomain MCI; asMCI and amMCI) and normal controls. The 68 patients with aMCI (29 asMCI and 39 amMCI) and 93 age- and education-matched normal adults performed word definition tasks composed of five concrete (e.g., train) and five abstract nouns (e.g., jealousy). Task performances were analyzed on total score, number of core meanings, and number of supplementary meanings. The results were as follows. First, the aMCI patients scored significantly poorer than the normal controls in only abstract word definition. Second, both subtypes of aMCI performed worse than the controls in only abstract word definition. In conclusion, a definition task of abstract rather than concrete concepts may provide richer information to show semantic impairment of aMCI. PMID:26347214

Abstract Word Definition in Patients with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soo Ryon Kim

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The aims of this study were to investigate concrete and abstract word definition ability (1 between patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI and normal adults and (2 between the aMCI subtypes (i.e., amnestic single-domain MCI and amnestic multidomain MCI; asMCI and amMCI and normal controls. The 68 patients with aMCI (29 asMCI and 39 amMCI and 93 age- and education-matched normal adults performed word definition tasks composed of five concrete (e.g., train and five abstract nouns (e.g., jealousy. Task performances were analyzed on total score, number of core meanings, and number of supplementary meanings. The results were as follows. First, the aMCI patients scored significantly poorer than the normal controls in only abstract word definition. Second, both subtypes of aMCI performed worse than the controls in only abstract word definition. In conclusion, a definition task of abstract rather than concrete concepts may provide richer information to show semantic impairment of aMCI.

Towards a scientific concept of free will as a biological trait: spontaneous actions and decision-making in invertebrates.

Science.gov (United States)

Brembs, Björn

2011-03-22

Until the advent of modern neuroscience, free will used to be a theological and a metaphysical concept, debated with little reference to brain function. Today, with ever increasing understanding of neurons, circuits and cognition, this concept has become outdated and any metaphysical account of free will is rightfully rejected. The consequence is not, however, that we become mindless automata responding predictably to external stimuli. On the contrary, accumulating evidence also from brains much smaller than ours points towards a general organization of brain function that incorporates flexible decision-making on the basis of complex computations negotiating internal and external processing. The adaptive value of such an organization consists of being unpredictable for competitors, prey or predators, as well as being able to explore the hidden resource deterministic automats would never find. At the same time, this organization allows all animals to respond efficiently with tried-and-tested behaviours to predictable and reliable stimuli. As has been the case so many times in the history of neuroscience, invertebrate model systems are spearheading these research efforts. This comparatively recent evidence indicates that one common ability of most if not all brains is to choose among different behavioural options even in the absence of differences in the environment and perform genuinely novel acts. Therefore, it seems a reasonable effort for any neurobiologist to join and support a rather illustrious list of scholars who are trying to wrestle the term 'free will' from its metaphysical ancestry. The goal is to arrive at a scientific concept of free will, starting from these recently discovered processes with a strong emphasis on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying them.

Transforming "Ecosystem" from a Scientific Concept into a Teachable Topic: Philosophy and History of Ecology Informs Science Textbook Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Schizas, Dimitrios; Papatheodorou, Efimia; Stamou, George

2017-04-01

This study conducts a textbook analysis in the frame of the following working hypothesis: The transformation of scientific knowledge into school knowledge is expected to reproduce the problems encountered with the scientific knowledge itself or generate additional problems, which may both induce misconceptions in textbook users. Specifically, we describe four epistemological problems associated with how the concept of "ecosystem" is elaborated within ecological science and we examine how each problem is reproduced in the biology textbook utilized by Greek students in the 12th grade and the resulting teacher and student misunderstandings that may occur. Our research demonstrates that the authors of the textbook address these problems by appealing simultaneously to holistic and reductionist ideas. This results in a meaningless and confused depiction of "ecosystem" and may provoke many serious misconceptions on the part of textbook users, for example, that an ecosystem is a system that can be applied to every set of interrelated ecological objects irrespective of the organizational level to which these entities belong or how these entities are related to each other. The implications of these phenomena for science education research are discussed from a perspective that stresses the role of background assumptions in the understanding of declarative knowledge.

Abstraction Mechanisms in the BETA Programming Language

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristensen, Bent Bruun; Madsen, Ole Lehrmann; Møller-Pedersen, Birger

1983-01-01

. It is then necessary that the abstraction mechanisms are powerful in order to define more specialized constructs. BETA is an object oriented language like SIMULA 67 ([SIMULA]) and SMALLTALK ([SMALLTALK]). By this is meant that a construct like the SIMULA class/subclass mechanism is fundamental in BETA. In contrast......]) --- covering both data, procedural and control abstractions, substituting constructs like class, procedure, function and type. Correspondingly objects, procedure activation records and variables are all regarded as special cases of the basic building block of program executions: the entity. A pattern thus......The BETA programming language is developed as part of the BETA project. The purpose of this project is to develop concepts, constructs and tools in the field of programming and programming languages. BETA has been developed from 1975 on and the various stages of the language are documented in [BETA...

Using the Concept Attainment Strategy to Enhance Reading Comprehension

Science.gov (United States)

Boulware, Beverly J.; Crow, Mary Lynn

2008-01-01

The Concept Attainment Strategy is an instructional technique proposed by Jerome Bruner that targets the "big idea" or concept underlining concrete or abstract examples. This strategy focuses on the developing comprehension of words and ideas associated with a concept rather than on its name or what the concept is called. Specifically it develops…

Concepts of combinatorial optimization

CERN Document Server

Paschos, Vangelis Th

2014-01-01

Combinatorial optimization is a multidisciplinary scientific area, lying in the interface of three major scientific domains: mathematics, theoretical computer science and management.  The three volumes of the Combinatorial Optimization series aim to cover a wide range  of topics in this area. These topics also deal with fundamental notions and approaches as with several classical applications of combinatorial optimization.Concepts of Combinatorial Optimization, is divided into three parts:- On the complexity of combinatorial optimization problems, presenting basics about worst-case and randomi

Avibase – a database system for managing and organizing taxonomic concepts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denis Lepage

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Scientific names of biological entities offer an imperfect resolution of the concepts that they are intended to represent. Often they are labels applied to entities ranging from entire populations to individual specimens representing those populations, even though such names only unambiguously identify the type specimen to which they were originally attached. Thus the real-life referents of names are constantly changing as biological circumscriptions are redefined and thereby alter the sets of individuals bearing those names. This problem is compounded by other characteristics of names that make them ambiguous identifiers of biological concepts, including emendations, homonymy and synonymy. Taxonomic concepts have been proposed as a way to address issues related to scientific names, but they have yet to receive broad recognition or implementation. Some efforts have been made towards building systems that address these issues by cataloguing and organizing taxonomic concepts, but most are still in conceptual or proof-of-concept stage. We present the on-line database Avibase as one possible approach to organizing taxonomic concepts. Avibase has been successfully used to describe and organize 844,000 species-level and 705,000 subspecies-level taxonomic concepts across every major bird taxonomic checklist of the last 125 years. The use of taxonomic concepts in place of scientific names, coupled with efficient resolution services, is a major step toward addressing some of the main deficiencies in the current practices of scientific name dissemination and use.

A training program for scientific supercomputing users

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hanson, F.; Moher, T.; Sabelli, N.; Solem, A.

1988-01-01

There is need for a mechanism to transfer supercomputing technology into the hands of scientists and engineers in such a way that they will acquire a foundation of knowledge that will permit integration of supercomputing as a tool in their research. Most computing center training emphasizes computer-specific information about how to use a particular computer system; most academic programs teach concepts to computer scientists. Only a few brief courses and new programs are designed for computational scientists. This paper describes an eleven-week training program aimed principally at graduate and postdoctoral students in computationally-intensive fields. The program is designed to balance the specificity of computing center courses, the abstractness of computer science courses, and the personal contact of traditional apprentice approaches. It is based on the experience of computer scientists and computational scientists, and consists of seminars and clinics given by many visiting and local faculty. It covers a variety of supercomputing concepts, issues, and practices related to architecture, operating systems, software design, numerical considerations, code optimization, graphics, communications, and networks. Its research component encourages understanding of scientific computing and supercomputer hardware issues. Flexibility in thinking about computing needs is emphasized by the use of several different supercomputer architectures, such as the Cray X/MP48 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IBM 3090 600E/VF at the Cornell National Supercomputer Facility, and Alliant FX/8 at the Advanced Computing Research Facility at Argonne National Laboratory. 11 refs., 6 tabs.

How Effective Is Example Generation for Learning Declarative Concepts?

Science.gov (United States)

Rawson, Katherine A.; Dunlosky, John

2016-01-01

Declarative concepts (i.e., key terms and corresponding definitions for abstract concepts) represent foundational knowledge that students learn in many content domains. Thus, investigating techniques to enhance concept learning is of critical importance. Various theoretical accounts support the expectation that example generation will serve this…

Scientific and technical production of IPEN - Nuclear and Energetic Research Institute, SP, Brazil. 1997-1999

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

This document reports the general activities results of technical and scientific research production of the Institute for Energetic and Nuclear Researches, IPEN, Brazil, during the year of 1997-1999, listing journal articles, scientific events (complete texts, communications, abstracts and panels), thesis and dissertations, books, technical and scientific reports

Publication Rate of Avian Medicine Conference Abstracts and Influencing Factors: 2011-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Doukaki, Christina; MedVet, Dr; Beaufrère, Hugues; Vet, Dr Med; Huynh, Minh

2018-06-01

International conferences on avian medicine and surgery aim to disseminate scientific and evidence-based information in the form of oral presentations and posters. Most manuscripts presented are printed in the conference proceedings as abstracts. Subsequent publication in a scientific peer-reviewed journal is the natural outcome of the research cycle, although studies have shown that the vast majority of conference abstracts are not published. The purpose of this study was to explore 1) the fate of abstracts presented in avian conferences (Association of Avian Veterinarians, European Association of Avian Veterinarians, International Conference on Avian Herpetological and Exotic Mammal Medicine) in the years 2011-2015, 2) assess the publication rate in peer-reviewed journals, 3) describe the time course of subsequent publication, and 4) identify factors associated with increased likelihood of publication. The results showed that 24% of conference abstracts were published within the next 2 years. Depending on the statistical model used, several factors were identified as associated with increased publication rate. North American papers seem to publish with more frequency (univariate model), while European papers had the opposite trend (multivariable model). Likewise, experimental studies were more prone to being published overall (univariate model), whereas retrospective observational studies had a lower rate of publication (multivariable model). Increasing the number of authors was also associated with increased publication rate. Most publications were published in the Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery, which tends to suggest that this journal is the main journal of the specialty. Some parameters highlighted in this study may assist conference attendees to assess the likelihood of later publication.

Nursing identity and patient-centredness in scholarly health services research: a computational text analysis of PubMed abstracts 1986-2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Erica; Campbell, Steve; Goldberg, Lynette R

2015-01-22

The most important and contested element of nursing identity may be the patient-centredness of nursing, though this concept is not well-treated in the nursing identity literature. More conceptually-based mapping of nursing identity constructs are needed to help nurses shape their identity. The field of computational text analytics offers new opportunities to scrutinise how growing disciplines such as health services research construct nursing identity. This paper maps the conceptual content of scholarly health services research in PubMed as it relates to the patient-centeredness of nursing. Computational text analytics software was used to analyse all health services abstracts in the database PubMed since 1986. Abstracts were treated as indicative of the content of health services research. The database PubMed was searched for all research papers using the term "service" or "services" in the abstract or keywords for the period 01/01/1986 to 30/06/2013. A total of 234,926 abstracts were obtained. Leximancer software was used in 1) mapping of 4,144,458 instances of 107 concepts; 2) analysis of 106 paired concept co-occurrences for the nursing concept; and 3) sentiment analysis of the nursing concept versus patient, family and community concepts, and clinical concepts. Nursing is constructed within quality assurance or service implementation or workforce development concepts. It is relatively disconnected from patient, family or community care concepts. For those who agree that patient-centredness should be a part of nursing identity in practice, this study suggests that there is a need for development of health services research into both the nature of the caring construct in nursing identity and its expression in practice. More fundamentally, the study raises questions about whether health services research cultures even value the politically popular idea of nurses as patient-centred caregivers and whether they should.

Generic process model structures: towards a standard notation for abstract representations

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Van Der Merwe, A

2007-10-01

Full Text Available in the case of objects, or repositories in the case of process models. The creation of the MIT Process Handbook was a step in this direction. However, although the authors used object-oriented concepts in the abstract representations, they did not rigorously...

A comprehensive and quantitative comparison of text-mining in 15 million full-text articles versus their corresponding abstracts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Westergaard, David; Stærfeldt, Hans Henrik; Tønsberg, Christian

2018-01-01

Across academia and industry, text mining has become a popular strategy for keeping up with the rapid growth of the scientific literature. Text mining of the scientific literature has mostly been carried out on collections of abstracts, due to their availability. Here we present an analysis of 15...... subcellular associations using a named entity recognition system, and quantitatively report on their accuracy using gold standard benchmark data sets. We subsequently compare the findings to corresponding results obtained on 16.5 million abstracts included in MEDLINE and show that text mining of full...... million English scientific full-text articles published during the period 1823-2016. We describe the development in article length and publication sub-topics during these nearly 250 years. We showcase the potential of text mining by extracting published protein-protein, disease-gene, and protein...

Development of the Central Dogma Concept Inventory (CDCI) Assessment Tool

OpenAIRE

Newman, Dina L.; Snyder, Christopher W.; Fisk, J. Nick; Wright, L. Kate

2016-01-01

Scientific teaching requires scientifically constructed, field-tested instruments to accurately evaluate student thinking and gauge teacher effectiveness. We have developed a 23-question, multiple select?format assessment of student understanding of the essential concepts of the central dogma of molecular biology that is appropriate for all levels of undergraduate biology. Questions for the Central Dogma Concept Inventory (CDCI) tool were developed and iteratively revised based on student lan...

Is risk analysis scientific?

Science.gov (United States)

Hansson, Sven Ove; Aven, Terje

2014-07-01

This article discusses to what extent risk analysis is scientific in view of a set of commonly used definitions and criteria. We consider scientific knowledge to be characterized by its subject matter, its success in developing the best available knowledge in its fields of study, and the epistemic norms and values that guide scientific investigations. We proceed to assess the field of risk analysis according to these criteria. For this purpose, we use a model for risk analysis in which science is used as a base for decision making on risks, which covers the five elements evidence, knowledge base, broad risk evaluation, managerial review and judgment, and the decision; and that relates these elements to the domains experts and decisionmakers, and to the domains fact-based or value-based. We conclude that risk analysis is a scientific field of study, when understood as consisting primarily of (i) knowledge about risk-related phenomena, processes, events, etc., and (ii) concepts, theories, frameworks, approaches, principles, methods and models to understand, assess, characterize, communicate, and manage risk, in general and for specific applications (the instrumental part). © 2014 Society for Risk Analysis.

Fate of abstracts presented at a National Turkish Orthopedics and Traumatology Congress: publication rates and consistency of abstracts compared with their subsequent full-text publications.

Science.gov (United States)

Yalçınkaya, Merter; Bagatur, Erdem

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the publication rates of full-text articles after presentation of abstracts at a Turkish National Orthopaedics and Traumatology Congress, determine the time lag from the congress date to publication of full-text articles and assess the consistency between abstracts and the subsequent publications. All abstracts from the scientific program of the 20th Turkish National Orthopaedics and Traumatology Congress (2007) were identified and computerized PubMed searches were conducted to determine whether an abstract had been followed by publication of a full-text article and key features were compared to evaluate their consistency. The time lag to publication and the impact factors of the journals where the articles were published were noted. Of the 770 abstracts (264 oral, 506 poster presentations), 227 (29.5%) were followed by a full-text and 116 (44%) of the 264 oral and 111 (22%) of the 506 poster presentations were published. The mean time to publication was 14.9±16.075 (range: 33 to 55) months. Thirty-three (14.5%) were published prior to the presentation at the congress. The likelihood of publication decreased after the third year (26 of 227, 11.5%). A total of 182 (80.2%) articles showed inconsistencies with the abstract; 74 (32.6%) minor, 14 (6.2%) major, and 94 (41.4%) minor and major inconsistencies. The mean impact factor of the journals was 1.152±0.858. The vast majority of abstracts presented at this congress were not followed by publication of a full-text article. Additionally, frequent inconsistencies between the final published article and the original abstract indicated the inadequacy of quality of reporting in abstracts.

Family-centred care of children in hospital - a concept analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mikkelsen, Gitte; Frederiksen, Kirsten

2011-01-01

from 1951 to 2009 resulted in a sample of 25 research articles. Review methods.  A theoretical concept analysis influenced by Risjord's distinction between theoretical and colloquial analyses and based on the principles developed by Morse, Hupcey and Penrod was used to examine the structure...... of professionals and families, mostly represented by mothers. Few attempts have been made to operationalize the concept. Conclusion.  Family-centred care is a partially mature and highly abstract concept. Developing a theory of family-centred care could position the concept in a theoretical context and should also......mikkelsen g. & frederiksen k. (2011) Family-centred care of children in hospital - a concept analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing67(5), 1152-1162. ABSTRACT: Aim.  This paper reports a concept analysis of family-centred nursing care of hospitalized children. Background.  Family-centred care...

Factors predicting publication of sexual medicine abstracts presented at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association.

Science.gov (United States)

Berookhim, Boback M; Kaya, Yekta; Deveci, Serkan; Nelson, Christian J; Mulhall, John P

2013-10-01

At sexual medicine meetings throughout the world, hundreds of scientific abstracts are presented each year. To our knowledge, no previous studies have looked at the rate of publication of these studies in a peer-reviewed journal. To define the fate of abstracts presented at sexual medicine sessions at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) and to describe the factors predicting ultimate publication in scientific journals. All abstracts presented at the 2006 and 2007 AUA annual meeting were surveyed to find sexual medicine abstracts. Publication status as of October 2009 was assessed using the Medline database. Abstract parameters were recorded including number of authors, country of origin, clinical or basic research, and area of sexual research. Predictors of publication were analyzed using a multivariable model. Publication status of all sexual medicine abstracts presented at the 2006 and 2007 AUA annual meetings. A total of 208 sexual medicine abstracts were presented in 2006 and 2007. Fifty-one percent of these were published by October 2009. On univariate analysis, the predictors of publication in a peer-reviewed journal included the number of authors (r=0.22, Pacademic centers (RR 2.7, CI 1.7-4.3, Pacademic center (OR 5.9, CI 2.8-12.7, Pmedicine abstracts presented at the 2006 and 2007 annual AUA meetings have been published within 2 to 3 years of the date of presentation. Studies originating from academic centers were six times more likely to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. © 2013 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

Sixth international symposium on mycotoxins and phycotoxins: book of abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1985-01-01

This book contains only the abstracts of seminars that were delivered on the sixth international symposium on mycotoxins and phycotoxins on 22-25 July 1985 in Pretoria under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Subject-coverage includes biosynthesis, metabolism, structure and chemical properties, analysis, biochemical mechanisms, toxicity, and pathology of mycotoxins and phycotoxins

Superconductivity of high Tc Scientific revolution?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marquina, J.E.; Ridaura, R.; Gomez, R.; Marquina, V.; Alvarez, J.L.

1997-01-01

A short history of superconductivity, since its discovery by Bednorz and Muller to the development of new materials with high transition temperatures, is presented. Further evolvements are analyzed in terms of T.s. Kuhn conceptions expressed in his book. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. (Author) 4 refs

INFECTIOUS DISEASES ARE SLEEPING MONSTERS: Conventional and culturally adapted new metaphors in a corpus of abstracts on immunology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Hidalgo Downing

2009-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper we examine the role played by metaphor in a corpus of sixty abstracts on immunology from Scientific American. We focus on the distinction between conventional metaphors and culturally adapted new metaphors and discuss the role played by metaphor choice in the communicative purposes of the abstracts and their register features. We argue that one of the main strategies used to attract the reader‘s attention is the combination of highly conventionalized metaphors, which occur more frequently in the corpus, together with what we call “culturally adapted new metaphors”, which display different degrees of creativity and are less frequent in the corpus. Conventional metaphors typically reinforce the world view shared by the scientific community and introduce basic ideas on the subject of immunology. Culturally adapted new metaphors include a cline from slightly new perspectives of conventional models, to highly creative uses of metaphor. Culturally adapted new metaphors appeal primarily to a general readership and not to the scientific community, as they tap human emotions and mythic constructions. These play a crucial role in the abstracts, as they contribute to persuasive and didactic communicative functions in the text.

Critical levels and loads of atmospheric pollutants for terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The emergence of a scientific concept. Application potentials and their limits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Landmann, G.

1993-01-01

The 'critical loads and levels' are defined as the highest atmospheric deposition rate or concentration of a gaseous pollutant, respectively, that will not cause harmful effects on sensitive elements of an ecosystem. The recent emergence of the concept of critical loads and levels is described, from the first explicit mention in 1986 to the production of the first European maps in 1991. The difficulties linked to the definition of the concept and to its english-derived terminology are discussed. The main approaches used for assessing critical loads and levels are briefly described. Important research is developed under the auspices of the Convention of Geneva (Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution Transport, UN-ECE), arising from intensive studies which have been carried out on the effects of air pollution on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for the past ten or fifteen years. Current knowledge is summarized, as well as the remaining gaps (and questions) which hinder the calculation of the critical thresholds. Finally, beyond the fundamental relevance of this scientifically sound and easily understood concept, its limits are pointed out. In brief, the 'critical loads and levels' concept is attractive and motivating to many scientists: it implies to apply an integrated and finalized approach, favors the prospecting of poorly known ecosystems and regions, and represents an interesting interface with decision makers

What is a Natural Conception of the World?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Philipse, H.

2001-01-01

Examines competing intellectual strategies used by analytic and Continental philosophers to answer questions pertaining to a natural conception of the world. Natural versus naturalist conception of the world; Transcendental strategy of Martin Heidegger's 'Sein und Zeit'; Aspect of abstraction

A Teaching Model for Scaffolding 4th Grade Students' Scientific Explanation Writing

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Hsiu-Ting; Wang, Kuo-Hua

2014-08-01

Improving students scientific explanations is one major goal of science education. Both writing activities and concept mapping are reported as effective strategies for enhancing student learning of science. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a teaching model, named the DCI model, which integrates a Descriptive explanation writing activity, Concept mapping, and an Interpretive explanation writing activity, is introduced in a 4th grade science class to see if it would improve students' scientific explanations and understanding. A quasi-experimental design, including a non-randomized comparison group and a pre- and post-test design, was adopted for this study. An experimental group of 25 students were taught using the DCI teaching model, while a comparison group received a traditional lecture teaching. A rubric and content analysis was used to assess students' scientific explanations. The independent sample t test was used to measure difference in conceptual understanding between the two groups, before and after instruction. Then, the paired t test analysis was used to understand the promotion of the DCI teaching model. The results showed that students in the experimental group performed better than students in the comparison group, both in scientific concept understanding and explanation. Suggestions for using concept mapping and writing activities (the DCI teaching model) in science classes are provided in this study.

The Visual Geophysical Exploration Environment: A Multi-dimensional Scientific Visualization

Science.gov (United States)

Pandya, R. E.; Domenico, B.; Murray, D.; Marlino, M. R.

2003-12-01

The Visual Geophysical Exploration Environment (VGEE) is an online learning environment designed to help undergraduate students understand fundamental Earth system science concepts. The guiding principle of the VGEE is the importance of hands-on interaction with scientific visualization and data. The VGEE consists of four elements: 1) an online, inquiry-based curriculum for guiding student exploration; 2) a suite of El Nino-related data sets adapted for student use; 3) a learner-centered interface to a scientific visualization tool; and 4) a set of concept models (interactive tools that help students understand fundamental scientific concepts). There are two key innovations featured in this interactive poster session. One is the integration of concept models and the visualization tool. Concept models are simple, interactive, Java-based illustrations of fundamental physical principles. We developed eight concept models and integrated them into the visualization tool to enable students to probe data. The ability to probe data using a concept model addresses the common problem of transfer: the difficulty students have in applying theoretical knowledge to everyday phenomenon. The other innovation is a visualization environment and data that are discoverable in digital libraries, and installed, configured, and used for investigations over the web. By collaborating with the Integrated Data Viewer developers, we were able to embed a web-launchable visualization tool and access to distributed data sets into the online curricula. The Thematic Real-time Environmental Data Distributed Services (THREDDS) project is working to provide catalogs of datasets that can be used in new VGEE curricula under development. By cataloging this curricula in the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE), learners and educators can discover the data and visualization tool within a framework that guides their use.

Misconceptions of genetics concepts among pre-service teachers ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Students' misconceptions are often deeply rooted and instruction-resistant obstacles to the acquizition of scientific concepts and remain even after instruction. A large number of prior studies reported that primary and secondary school students have many conceptional problems concerning cell biology and genetics.

Functional Neuroanatomy of Contextual Acquisition of Concrete and Abstract Words

Science.gov (United States)

Mestres-Misse, Anna; Munte, Thomas F.; Rodriguez-Fornells, Antoni

2009-01-01

The meaning of a novel word can be acquired by extracting it from linguistic context. Here we simulated word learning of new words associated to concrete and abstract concepts in a variant of the human simulation paradigm that provided linguistic context information in order to characterize the brain systems involved. Native speakers of Spanish…

Toward fostering the scientific and technological literacy establishment of the 'Central Scientific and Technological Museum-Institute' and nuclear development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murata, Takashi [Graduate School of Energy Sci., Kyoto Univ., Kyoto (Japan)

1999-12-01

The public in general does not necessarily have enough knowledge for the reasonable decision making in the application of scientific and technological development even in the ear of the Information Society. However strongly the necessity of the consensus in the scientific policy like nuclear R and D is required, it is impossible to attain the goal, unless the scientific literacy of the general public is. In order to improve it the role of the scientific museum as a social educational facility is very important. In this respect, there still remains vast room to improve in the Japanese museum system and its activities. The concept of the 'Central Scientific and Technological Museum-Institute', which also operates very small-sized reactor for the educational use, is developed in this paper. (author)

Surveying Geology Concepts in Education Standards for a Rapidly Changing Global Context

Science.gov (United States)

Guffey, Sarah K.; Slater, Stephanie J.; Schleigh, Sharon P.; Slater, Timothy F.; Heyer, Inge

2016-01-01

Internationally much attention is being paid to which of a seemingly endless list of scientific concepts should be taught to schoolchildren to enable them to best participate in the global economy of the 21st Century. In regards to science education, the concepts framing the subject of geology holds exalted status as core scientific principles in…

Agriscience Student Engagement in Scientific Inquiry: Representations of Scientific Processes and Nature of Science.

Science.gov (United States)

Grady, Julie R; Dolan, Erin L; Glasson, George E

2010-01-01

Students' experiences with science integrated into agriscience courses contribute to their developing epistemologies of science. The purpose of this case study was to gain insight into the implementation of scientific inquiry in an agriscience classroom. Also of interest was how the tenets of the nature of science were reflected in the students' experiments. Participants included an agriscience teacher and her fifteen students who were conducting plant experiments to gain insight into the role of a gene disabled by scientists. Data sources included classroom observations, conversations with students, face-to-face interviews with the teacher, and students' work. Analysis of the data indicated that the teacher viewed scientific inquiry as a mechanical process with little emphasis on the reasoning that typifies scientific inquiry. Students' participation in their experiments also centered on the procedural aspects of inquiry with little attention to scientific reasoning. There was no explicit attention to the nature of science during the experiments, but the practice implied correct, incorrect, and underdeveloped conceptions of the nature of science. Evidence from the study suggests a need for collaboration between agriscience and science teacher educators to design and conduct professional development focused on scientific inquiry and nature of science for preservice and practicing teachers.

Scientific Assistant Virtual Laboratory (SAVL)

Science.gov (United States)

Alaghband, Gita; Fardi, Hamid; Gnabasik, David

2007-03-01

The Scientific Assistant Virtual Laboratory (SAVL) is a scientific discovery environment, an interactive simulated virtual laboratory, for learning physics and mathematics. The purpose of this computer-assisted intervention is to improve middle and high school student interest, insight and scores in physics and mathematics. SAVL develops scientific and mathematical imagination in a visual, symbolic, and experimental simulation environment. It directly addresses the issues of scientific and technological competency by providing critical thinking training through integrated modules. This on-going research provides a virtual laboratory environment in which the student directs the building of the experiment rather than observing a packaged simulation. SAVL: * Engages the persistent interest of young minds in physics and math by visually linking simulation objects and events with mathematical relations. * Teaches integrated concepts by the hands-on exploration and focused visualization of classic physics experiments within software. * Systematically and uniformly assesses and scores students by their ability to answer their own questions within the context of a Master Question Network. We will demonstrate how the Master Question Network uses polymorphic interfaces and C# lambda expressions to manage simulation objects.

Mapping the evolution of scientific ideas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roberts, David C [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Herrera, Mark [UNIV OF MARYLAND; Gulbahce, Natali [NORTHEASTERN UNIV

2008-01-01

The importance of interdisciplinary research is ever increasing as challenging world problems require expertise across diverse fields. Despite the apparent conceptual boundaries of scientific fields, a formal description for their evolution is lacking. Here we describe a novel approach to study the dynamics and evolution of scientific ideas and fields using a network-based analysis. We build a idea network consisting of American Physical Society Pacs numbers as nodes representing scientific concepts. Two Pacs numbers are linked in the network if there exist publications that reference them simultaneously. We locate scientific fields using an overlapping community finding algorithm and describe the time evolution of these fields using a community evolution method over the course of 1985-2006. We find that the communities we find map to scientific fields, the lifetime of these fields strongly depends on their size, impact and activity, and longest living communities are least volatile. The described approach to quantify the evolution of ideas is expected to be relevant in making predictions about the future of science and how to guide its development.

Inservice Elementary and Middle School Teachers' Conceptions of Photosynthesis and Respiration

Science.gov (United States)

Krall, Rebecca McNall; Lott, Kimberly H.; Wymer, Carol L.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate inservice elementary and middle school teachers' conceptions of photosynthesis and respiration, basic concepts they are expected to teach. A forced-choice instrument assessing selected standards-based life science concepts with non-scientific conceptions embedded in distracter options was…

Ghana Science Association. 21st biennial conference. Program and abstracts book

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-08-01

The publication covers the program and abstracts of papers presented during the 21st biennial conference of the Ghana Science Association. The conference was held at the University of Ghana, Legon from 8th to 13th August 1999. The theme of the conference was S ustainable food Industry in Ghana in the 21st Century . The first part of the publication covers membership of various committees, list of sponsors and conference program among others. The second part is devoted to abstracts of papers presented during various scientific sessions. Papers have been grouped under the following subject areas: Biological and Medical Science, Physical Sciences, Food and Agriculture, Social Science Education and Policy Research and Poster Presentations. (E.A.)

Medical physics 2013. Abstracts; Medizinische Physik 2013. Abstractband

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Treuer, Harald (ed.) [Koeln Univ. (Germany). Klinik fuer Stereotaxie und Funktionelle Neurochirurgie

2013-07-01

The proceedings of the medical physics conference 2013 include abstract of lectures and poster sessions concerning the following issues: Tele-therapy - application systems, nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, neuromodulation, hearing and technical support, basic dosimetry, NMR imaging -CEST (chemical exchange saturation transfer), medical robotics, magnetic particle imaging, audiology, radiation protection, phase contrast - innovative concepts, particle therapy, brachytherapy, computerized tomography, quantity assurance, hybrid imaging techniques, diffusion and lung NMR imaging, image processing - visualization, cardiac and abdominal NMR imaging.

[The scientific entertainer in primary health care].

Science.gov (United States)

Ortega-Calvo, Manuel; Santos, José Manuel; Lapetra, José

2012-09-01

The scientific method is capable of being applied in primary care. In this article we defend the role of the "scientific entertainer "as strategic and necessary in achieving this goal. The task has to include playful and light-hearted content. We explore some words in English that may help us to understand the concept of "scientific entertainer" from a semantic point of view (showman, master of ceremonies, entrepreneur, go-between) also in Spanish language (counsellor, mediator, methodologist) and finally in Latin and Greek (tripalium, negotium, chronos, kairos). We define the clinical, manager or research health-worker who is skilled in primary care as a "primarylogist". Copyright © 2011 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Scientific report 1998; Rapport scientifique 1998

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-07-01

The aim of this report is to outline the main developments of the ''Departement des Reacteurs Nucleaires'', (DRN) during the year 1998. DRN is one of the CEA Institution. This report is divided in three main parts: the DRN scientific programs, the scientific and technical publications (with abstracts in english) and economic data on staff, budget and communication. Main results of the Department, for the year 1998, are presented giving information on the reactors technology and safety, the neutronics, the transmutation and the hybrid systems, the dismantling and the sites improvement, the nuclear accidents, the nuclear matter transport, the thermonuclear fusion safety, the fuel cladding materials and radioactive waste control. (A.L.B.)

Scientific report 1998; Rapport scientifique 1998

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-07-01

The aim of this report is to outline the main developments of the ''Departement des Reacteurs Nucleaires'', (DRN) during the year 1998. DRN is one of the CEA Institution. This report is divided in three main parts: the DRN scientific programs, the scientific and technical publications (with abstracts in english) and economic data on staff, budget and communication. Main results of the Department, for the year 1998, are presented giving information on the reactors technology and safety, the neutronics, the transmutation and the hybrid systems, the dismantling and the sites improvement, the nuclear accidents, the nuclear matter transport, the thermonuclear fusion safety, the fuel cladding materials and radioactive waste control. (A.L.B.)

Slash Writers and Guinea Pigs as Models for a Scientific Multiliteracy

Science.gov (United States)

Weinstein, Matthew

2006-01-01

This paper explores alternative approaches to the conception of scientific literacy, drawing on cultural studies and emerging practices in language arts as its framework. The paper reviews historic tensions in the understanding of scientific literacy and then draws on the multiliteracies movement in language arts to suggest a scientific…

Formal concept analysis in knowledge discovery: A survey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poelmans, J.; Elzinga, P.; Viaene, S.; Dedene, G.; Croitoru, M.; Ferré, S.; Lukose, D.

2010-01-01

In this paper, we analyze the literature on Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) using FCA. We collected 702 papers published between 2003-2009 mentioning Formal Concept Analysis in the abstract. We developed a knowledge browsing environment to support our literature analysis process. The pdf-files

Abstracts of the International Congress of Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences & Human Development (2016

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vitor Reis

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The papers published in this book of abstracts / proceedings were submitted to the Scientific Commission of the International Congress of Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences & Human Development, held on 11 and 12 November 2016, at the University of Évora, Évora, Portugal, under the topic of Exercise and Health, Sports and Human Development. The content of the abstracts is solely and exclusively of its authors responsibility. The editors and the Scientific Committee of the International Congress of Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences & Human Development do not assume any responsibility for the opinions and statements expressed by the authors. Partial reproduction of the texts and their use without commercial purposes is allowed, provided the source / reference is duly mentioned.

The Influence of Concreteness of Concepts on the Integration of Novel Words into the Semantic Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Jinfeng; Liu, Wenjuan; Yang, Yufang

2017-01-01

On the basis of previous studies revealing a processing advantage of concrete words over abstract words, the current study aimed to further explore the influence of concreteness on the integration of novel words into semantic memory with the event related potential (ERP) technique. In the experiment during the learning phase participants read two-sentence contexts and inferred the meaning of novel words. The novel words were two-character non-words in Chinese language. Their meaning was either a concrete or abstract known concept which could be inferred from the contexts. During the testing phase participants performed a lexical decision task in which the learned novel words served as primes for either their corresponding concepts, semantically related or unrelated targets. For the concrete novel words, the semantically related words belonged to the same semantic categories with their corresponding concepts. For the abstract novel words, the semantically related words were synonyms of their corresponding concepts. The unrelated targets were real words which were concrete or abstract for the concrete or abstract novel words respectively. The ERP results showed that the corresponding concepts and the semantically related words elicited smaller N400s than the unrelated words. The N400 effect was not modulated by the concreteness of the concepts. In addition, the concrete corresponding concepts elicited a smaller late positive component (LPC) than the concrete unrelated words. This LPC effect was absent for the abstract words. The results indicate that although both concrete and abstract novel words can be acquired and linked to their related words in the semantic network after a short learning phase, the concrete novel words are learned better. Our findings support the (extended) dual coding theory and broaden our understanding of adult word learning and changes in concept organization.

The Influence of Concreteness of Concepts on the Integration of Novel Words into the Semantic Network

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Jinfeng Ding

2017-12-01

Full Text Available On the basis of previous studies revealing a processing advantage of concrete words over abstract words, the current study aimed to further explore the influence of concreteness on the integration of novel words into semantic memory with the event related potential (ERP technique. In the experiment during the learning phase participants read two-sentence contexts and inferred the meaning of novel words. The novel words were two-character non-words in Chinese language. Their meaning was either a concrete or abstract known concept which could be inferred from the contexts. During the testing phase participants performed a lexical decision task in which the learned novel words served as primes for either their corresponding concepts, semantically related or unrelated targets. For the concrete novel words, the semantically related words belonged to the same semantic categories with their corresponding concepts. For the abstract novel words, the semantically related words were synonyms of their corresponding concepts. The unrelated targets were real words which were concrete or abstract for the concrete or abstract novel words respectively. The ERP results showed that the corresponding concepts and the semantically related words elicited smaller N400s than the unrelated words. The N400 effect was not modulated by the concreteness of the concepts. In addition, the concrete corresponding concepts elicited a smaller late positive component (LPC than the concrete unrelated words. This LPC effect was absent for the abstract words. The results indicate that although both concrete and abstract novel words can be acquired and linked to their related words in the semantic network after a short learning phase, the concrete novel words are learned better. Our findings support the (extended dual coding theory and broaden our understanding of adult word learning and changes in concept organization.

Social behavioural epistemology and the scientific community.

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Watve, Milind

2017-07-01

The progress of science is influenced substantially by social behaviour of and social interactions within the scientific community. Similar to innovations in primate groups, the social acceptance of an innovation depends not only upon the relevance of the innovation but also on the social dominance and connectedness of the innovator. There are a number of parallels between many well-known phenomena in behavioural evolution and various behavioural traits observed in the scientific community. It would be useful, therefore, to use principles of behavioural evolution as hypotheses to study the social behaviour of the scientific community. I argue in this paper that a systematic study of social behavioural epistemology is likely to boost the progress of science by addressing several prevalent biases and other problems in scientific communication and by facilitating appropriate acceptance/rejection of novel concepts.

The Notion of “Emotion”: From a Moral Philosophy to a Scientific Study

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Carlos Andrés Salazar Martínez

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The scientific development in fields like psychophysiology or biology and the curiosity of thinkers such as Charles Darwin, William James, or Wilhelm Wundt regarding the concept of “emotion” caused the change of the linguistic use of this word definitively. During the XIX century, this concept went from occupying an exclusive place in the theological and moral discourse to being a central concept in the consolidation of new scientific disciplines that belong to the human being. In Colombia, the experimental psychology introduced this new way to understand emotion. This article is a bibliographic revision of those authors that were essential for this change during the XIX century.

Work and Consumption in Digital Capitalism: From Commodity Abstraction to 'Eidetisation'

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Xavi Cava

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The digital sphere can be studied as one of the most mature materialisations of the process of abstraction that accompanies capitalism. It is also a framework where subjectivity internalises the abstract form of commodities even further. In this sense, the Internet is the home of an abstract nature that is linked to a particular reification process that characterises post-Fordist production and consumption. This process can be named “eidetisation”. My basic assumption is that the process of reification is being intensified with the digitalisation of the capitalist system. I will begin discussing the concept of reification as a specific form of alienation, stressing that the reification of society changes and intensifies in as much as capitalist production and consumption evolve. Then I will consider the process of abstraction as one of the main elements of reification. Finally, I will try to identify some distinctive traits within the process of “eidetisation”.

Assessment of scientific thinking in basic science in the Iranian second national Olympiad

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Azarpira Negar

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background To evaluate the scientific reasoning in basic science among undergraduate medical students, we established the National Medical Science Olympiad in Iran. In this Olympiad, the drawing of a concept map was used to evaluate a student's knowledge framework; students' ability in hypothesis generation and testing were also evaluated in four different steps. All medical students were invited to participate in this program. Finally, 133 undergraduate medical students with average grades ≥ 16/20 from 45 different medical schools in Iran were selected. The program took the form of four exams: drawing a concept map (Exam I, hypothesis generation (Exam II, choosing variables based on the hypothesis (Exam III, measuring scientific thought (Exam IV. The examinees were asked to complete all examination items in their own time without using textbooks, websites, or personal consultations. Data were presented as mean ± SE of each parameter. The correlation coefficient between students' scores in each exam with the total final score and average grade was calculated using the Spearman test. Results Out of a possible score of 200, the mean ± SE of each exam were as follows: 183.88 ± 5.590 for Exam I; 78.68 ± 9.168 for Exam II; 92.04 ± 2.503 for exam III; 106.13 ± 2.345 for Exam IV. The correlation of each exam score with the total final score was calculated, and there was a significant correlation between them (p The average grade was significantly correlated with the total final score (R = 0.770, (p p R = 0.7708 and the average grade. This means students with higher average grades had better grades in each exam, especially in drawing the concept map. Conclusions We hope that this competition will encourage medical schools to integrate theory and practice, analyze data, and read research articles. Our findings relate to a selected population, and our data may not be applicable to all medical students. Therefore, further studies are

A Qualitative Study Examining the Exclusive Use of Primary Literature in a Special Topics Biology Course: Improving Conceptions about the Nature of Science and Boosting Confidence in Approaching Original Scientific Research

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Carter, B. Elijah; Wiles, Jason R.

2017-01-01

This qualitative study explores the experiences of six students enrolled in a special topics biology class that exclusively used primary literature as course material. Nature of science (NOS) conceptions have been linked to students' attitudes toward scientific subjects, but there has been little research specifically exploring the effects of…

Emotion Oriented Programming: Computational Abstractions for AI Problem Solving

OpenAIRE

Darty , Kevin; Sabouret , Nicolas

2012-01-01

International audience; In this paper, we present a programming paradigm for AI problem solving based on computational concepts drawn from Affective Computing. It is believed that emotions participate in human adaptability and reactivity, in behaviour selection and in complex and dynamic environments. We propose to define a mechanism inspired from this observation for general AI problem solving. To this purpose, we synthesize emotions as programming abstractions that represent the perception ...

Abstract quantum computing machines and quantum computational logics

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Chiara, Maria Luisa Dalla; Giuntini, Roberto; Sergioli, Giuseppe; Leporini, Roberto

2016-06-01

Classical and quantum parallelism are deeply different, although it is sometimes claimed that quantum Turing machines are nothing but special examples of classical probabilistic machines. We introduce the concepts of deterministic state machine, classical probabilistic state machine and quantum state machine. On this basis, we discuss the question: To what extent can quantum state machines be simulated by classical probabilistic state machines? Each state machine is devoted to a single task determined by its program. Real computers, however, behave differently, being able to solve different kinds of problems. This capacity can be modeled, in the quantum case, by the mathematical notion of abstract quantum computing machine, whose different programs determine different quantum state machines. The computations of abstract quantum computing machines can be linguistically described by the formulas of a particular form of quantum logic, termed quantum computational logic.

Data First: Building Scientific Reasoning in AP Chemistry via the Concept Development Study Approach

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Nichol, Carolyn A.; Szymczyk, Amber J.; Hutchinson, John S.

2014-01-01

This article introduces the "Data First" approach and shows how the observation and analysis of scientific data can be used as a scaffold to build conceptual understanding in chemistry through inductive reasoning. The "Data First" approach emulates the scientific process by changing the order by which we introduce data. Rather…

Concept Maps for Improved Science Reasoning and Writing: Complexity Isn’t Everything

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Dowd, Jason E.; Duncan, Tanya; Reynolds, Julie A.

2015-01-01

A pervasive notion in the literature is that complex concept maps reflect greater knowledge and/or more expert-like thinking than less complex concept maps. We show that concept maps used to structure scientific writing and clarify scientific reasoning do not adhere to this notion. In an undergraduate course for thesis writers, students use concept maps instead of traditional outlines to define the boundaries and scope of their research and to construct an argument for the significance of their research. Students generate maps at the beginning of the semester, revise after peer review, and revise once more at the end of the semester. Although some students revised their maps to make them more complex, a significant proportion of students simplified their maps. We found no correlation between increased complexity and improved scientific reasoning and writing skills, suggesting that sometimes students simplify their understanding as they develop more expert-like thinking. These results suggest that concept maps, when used as an intervention, can meet the varying needs of a diverse population of student writers. PMID:26538388

Bridging Scientific Reasoning and Conceptual Change through Adaptive Web-Based Learning

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She, Hsiao-Ching; Liao, Ya-Wen

2010-01-01

This study reports an adaptive digital learning project, Scientific Concept Construction and Reconstruction (SCCR), and examines its effects on 108 8th grade students' scientific reasoning and conceptual change through mixed methods. A one-group pre-, post-, and retention quasi-experimental design was used in the study. All students received tests…

Advanced concepts in the United States fusion program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dove, W.F.

1985-01-01

The goal of the magnetic fusion program is to establish the scientific and technological base for fusion energy. Development of a variety of magnetic confinement systems is essential to achieving that goal. The role of the advanced concepts program is to conduct experimental investigations of confinement concepts other than the tokamaks and tandem mirror concepts. The present advanced concepts program consists of the reversed-field-pinch (RFP), the spheromak and the field-reversed configuration (FRC). Significant new experiments in the RFP and FRC concepts have been approved and are described

Developing the critical thinking skills of astrobiology students through creative and scientific inquiry.

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Foster, Jamie S; Lemus, Judith D

2015-01-01

Scientific inquiry represents a multifaceted approach to explore and understand the natural world. Training students in the principles of scientific inquiry can help promote the scientific learning process as well as help students enhance their understanding of scientific research. Here, we report on the development and implementation of a learning module that introduces astrobiology students to the concepts of creative and scientific inquiry, as well as provide practical exercises to build critical thinking skills. The module contained three distinct components: (1) a creative inquiry activity designed to introduce concepts regarding the role of creativity in scientific inquiry; (2) guidelines to help astrobiology students formulate and self-assess questions regarding various scientific content and imagery; and (3) a practical exercise where students were allowed to watch a scientific presentation and practice their analytical skills. Pre- and post-course surveys were used to assess the students' perceptions regarding creative and scientific inquiry and whether this activity impacted their understanding of the scientific process. Survey results indicate that the exercise helped improve students' science skills by promoting awareness regarding the role of creativity in scientific inquiry and building their confidence in formulating and assessing scientific questions. Together, the module and survey results confirm the need to include such inquiry-based activities into the higher education classroom, thereby helping students hone their critical thinking and question asking skill set and facilitating their professional development in astrobiology.

Abstracts Book of 41. Scientific Assembly of Polish Chemical Society and Association of Engineers and Technicians of Chemical Industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

Scientific Assembly of Polish Chemical Society and Association of Engineers and Technicians of Chemical Industry is the most important scientific forum of Polish Chemists. The state of the art in many basic, fundamental and applied investigations has been presented and discussed. The following scientific sessions and microsymposia have been proposed: theoretical chemistry; molecular interactions; metal compounds - chemical, physical, electronic and biological aspects; catalysis and surface physico-chemistry; polymers - radiochemistry, modifications, physics and analytical methods; organic and bioorganic chemistry; physico-chemistry of condensed matter; chemical metallurgy; environmental protection; inorganic technology; chemistry and technology of coal; radiation chemistry; analytical chemistry; chemical engineering; young scientists forum; chemical didactics; petrochemistry; energetic materials; membranes and membrane processes; medical chemistry

Scientific computer simulation review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaizer, Joshua S.; Heller, A. Kevin; Oberkampf, William L.

2015-01-01

Before the results of a scientific computer simulation are used for any purpose, it should be determined if those results can be trusted. Answering that question of trust is the domain of scientific computer simulation review. There is limited literature that focuses on simulation review, and most is specific to the review of a particular type of simulation. This work is intended to provide a foundation for a common understanding of simulation review. This is accomplished through three contributions. First, scientific computer simulation review is formally defined. This definition identifies the scope of simulation review and provides the boundaries of the review process. Second, maturity assessment theory is developed. This development clarifies the concepts of maturity criteria, maturity assessment sets, and maturity assessment frameworks, which are essential for performing simulation review. Finally, simulation review is described as the application of a maturity assessment framework. This is illustrated through evaluating a simulation review performed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In making these contributions, this work provides a means for a more objective assessment of a simulation’s trustworthiness and takes the next step in establishing scientific computer simulation review as its own field. - Highlights: • We define scientific computer simulation review. • We develop maturity assessment theory. • We formally define a maturity assessment framework. • We describe simulation review as the application of a maturity framework. • We provide an example of a simulation review using a maturity framework

The LDC detector concept

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Abstract. In preparation of the experimental program at the international linear collider (ILC), the large detector concept (LDC) is being developed. The main points of the LDC are a large volume gaseous tracking system, combined with high precision vertex detector and an extremely granular calorimeter. The main design ...

Probing concept of critical thinking in nursing education in Iran: a concept analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Tajvidi, Mansooreh; Ghiyasvandian, Shahrzad; Salsali, Mahvash

2014-06-01

Given the wide disagreement over the definition of critical thinking in different disciplines, defining and standardizing the concept according to the discipline of nursing is essential. Moreover, there is limited scientific evidence regarding critical thinking in the context of nursing in Iran. The aim of this study was to analyze and clarify the concept of critical thinking in nursing education in Iran. We employed the hybrid model to define the concept of critical thinking. The hybrid model has three interconnected phases--the theoretical phase, the fieldwork phase, and the final analytic phase. In the theoretical phase, we searched the online scientific databases (such as Elsevier, Wiley, CINAHL, Proquest, Ovid, and Springer as well as Iranian databases such as SID, Magiran, and Iranmedex). In the fieldwork phase, a purposive sample of 17 nursing faculties, PhD students, clinical instructors, and clinical nurses was recruited. Participants were interviewed by using an interview guide. In the analytical phase we compared the data from the theoretical and the fieldwork phases. The concept of critical thinking had many different antecedents, attributes, and consequences. Antecedents, attributes, and consequences of critical thinking concept identified in the theoretical phase were in some ways different and in some way similar to antecedents, attributes, and consequences identified in the fieldwork phase. Finally critical thinking in nursing education in Iran was clarified. Critical thinking is a logical, situational, purposive, and outcome-oriented thinking process. It is an acquired and evolving ability which develops individually. Such thinking process could lead to the professional accountability, personal development, God's consent, conscience appeasement, and personality development. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Don't forget the posters! Quality and content variables associated with accepted abstracts at a national trauma meeting.

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Dossett, Lesly A; Fox, Erin E; del Junco, Deborah J; Zaydfudim, Victor; Kauffmann, Rondi; Shelton, Julia; Wang, Weiwei; Cioffi, William G; Holcomb, John B; Cotton, Bryan A

2012-05-01

As a primary venue for presenting research results, abstracts selected for presentation at national meetings should be of the highest scientific merit and research quality. It is uncertain to what degree this is achieved as the methodological quality of abstracts submitted to national surgical meetings has not been previously described. The objective of this study was to evaluate abstracts presented at a leading trauma meeting for methodological quality. All abstracts accepted for the 2009 American Association for the Surgery of Trauma meeting were reviewed and scored for methodological quality based on 10 criteria (scores, 0-10; 10 being the highest). Criteria were based on nationally published methodology guidelines. Two independent reviewers who were blinded to institution, region, and author reviewed each abstract. A total of 187 abstracts were accepted for presentation (67 oral and 120 posters). The most frequent clinical topics were shock/transfusion (23%), abdomen (12%), and nervous system (11%). Shock/transfusion abstracts were more common in the oral presentations (31% vs. 19%; p = 0.06). Abstracts from the northeast and south regions were the most common in both oral (26% and 29%) and posters (25% and 24%). Basic science accounted for 12% of accepted studies, while 51% were clinical and 28% were health services/outcomes. Only 8% of abstracts presented randomized data and only 11% reported null findings. Overall abstract scores ranged from 3 to 10 (median, 7; mean, 7.4). Abstracts selected for poster presentation had an overall higher score than those selected for oral presentation (7.4 ± 1.7 vs. 6.8 ± 1.7; p = 0.02). Although oral presentations traditionally receive the most attention and interest, the methodological quality of abstracts accepted for poster presentation equals (and sometimes exceeds) that of oral abstracts. Attendees of these national meetings should reconsider their time spent in viewing and visiting these poster sessions as with the

Abstract ‘why’ thoughts about success lead to greater positive generalization in sport participants

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Jens eVan Lier

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Generalizing from a single failure or success to future performances and their self-concept could have an important impact on sport participants. This study examined the impact of the way sport participants think about success on positive generalization. Sport participants (N=222 completed an online experimental study in which they were induced to think about meanings, causes and implications (i.e., abstract-‘why’-thinking or about more perceptual concrete aspects of their performance (i.e., concrete-‘how’-thinking. We hypothesized that abstract-‘why’-thinking would lead to greater positive generalization and that this effect would be moderated by self-esteem. Our results supported our hypothesis that abstract thinking increased positive generalization, and this effect was more clearly visible in sport participants with higher self-esteem. These results suggest that retrospective thinking about the ‘why’ of a good performance may benefit athletes in the long run because they generalize the outcome to future performances and their self-concept which may boost their motivation and consequently their performance.

The Development of Scientific Thinking in Elementary School: A Comprehensive Inventory

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Koerber, Susanne; Mayer, Daniela; Osterhaus, Christopher; Schwippert, Knut; Sodian, Beate

2015-01-01

The development of scientific thinking was assessed in 1,581 second, third, and fourth graders (8-, 9-, 10-year-olds) based on a conceptual model that posits developmental progression from naïve to more advanced conceptions. Using a 66-item scale, five components of scientific thinking were addressed, including experimental design, data…

The NASA X-Ray Mission Concepts Study

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