Analysis backpropagation methods with neural network for prediction of children's ability in psychomotoric

Science.gov (United States)

Izhari, F.; Dhany, H. W.; Zarlis, M.; Sutarman

2018-03-01

A good age in optimizing aspects of development is at the age of 4-6 years, namely with psychomotor development. Psychomotor is broader, more difficult to monitor but has a meaningful value for the child's life because it directly affects his behavior and deeds. Therefore, there is a problem to predict the child's ability level based on psychomotor. This analysis uses backpropagation method analysis with artificial neural network to predict the ability of the child on the psychomotor aspect by generating predictions of the child's ability on psychomotor and testing there is a mean squared error (MSE) value at the end of the training of 0.001. There are 30% of children aged 4-6 years have a good level of psychomotor ability, excellent, less good, and good enough.

Number sense in infancy predicts mathematical abilities in childhood.

Science.gov (United States)

Starr, Ariel; Libertus, Melissa E; Brannon, Elizabeth M

2013-11-05

Human infants in the first year of life possess an intuitive sense of number. This preverbal number sense may serve as a developmental building block for the uniquely human capacity for mathematics. In support of this idea, several studies have demonstrated that nonverbal number sense is correlated with mathematical abilities in children and adults. However, there has been no direct evidence that infant numerical abilities are related to mathematical abilities later in childhood. Here, we provide evidence that preverbal number sense in infancy predicts mathematical abilities in preschool-aged children. Numerical preference scores at 6 months of age correlated with both standardized math test scores and nonsymbolic number comparison scores at 3.5 years of age, suggesting that preverbal number sense facilitates the acquisition of numerical symbols and mathematical abilities. This relationship held even after controlling for general intelligence, indicating that preverbal number sense imparts a unique contribution to mathematical ability. These results validate the many prior studies purporting to show number sense in infancy and support the hypothesis that mathematics is built upon an intuitive sense of number that predates language.

Predictive ability of boiler production models | Ogundu | Animal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The weekly body weight measurements of a growing strain of Ross broiler were used to compare the of ability of three mathematical models (the multi, linear, quadratic and Exponential) to predict 8 week body weight from early body measurements at weeks I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII. The results suggest that the three models ...

Fine motor skills predict maths ability better than they predict reading ability in the early primary school years

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicola J. Pitchford

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Fine motor skills have long been recognised as an important foundation for development in other domains. However, more precise insights into the role of fine motor skills, and their relationships to other skills in mediating early educational achievements, are needed to support the development of optimal educational interventions. We explored concurrent relationships between two components of fine motor skills, Fine Motor Precision and Fine Motor Integration, and early reading and maths development in two studies with primary school children of low-to-mid socio-economic status in the U.K. Two key findings were revealed. First, despite being in the first two years of primary school education, significantly better performance was found in reading compared to maths across both studies. This may reflect the protective effects of recent national-level interventions to promote early literacy skills in young children in the U.K. that have not been similarly promoted for maths. Second, fine motor skills were a better predictor of early maths ability than they were of early reading ability. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that fine motor skills did not significantly predict reading ability when verbal short-term memory was taken into account. In contrast, Fine Motor Integration remained a significant predictor of maths ability, even after the influence of non-verbal IQ had been accounted for. These results suggest that fine motor skills should have a pivotal role in educational interventions designed to support the development of early mathematical skills.

Fine Motor Skills Predict Maths Ability Better than They Predict Reading Ability in the Early Primary School Years

Science.gov (United States)

Pitchford, Nicola J.; Papini, Chiara; Outhwaite, Laura A.; Gulliford, Anthea

2016-01-01

Fine motor skills have long been recognized as an important foundation for development in other domains. However, more precise insights into the role of fine motor skills, and their relationships to other skills in mediating early educational achievements, are needed to support the development of optimal educational interventions. We explored concurrent relationships between two components of fine motor skills, Fine Motor Precision and Fine Motor Integration, and early reading and maths development in two studies with primary school children of low-to-mid socio-economic status in the UK. Two key findings were revealed. First, despite being in the first 2 years of primary school education, significantly better performance was found in reading compared to maths across both studies. This may reflect the protective effects of recent national-level interventions to promote early literacy skills in young children in the UK that have not been similarly promoted for maths. Second, fine motor skills were a better predictor of early maths ability than they were of early reading ability. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that fine motor skills did not significantly predict reading ability when verbal short-term memory was taken into account. In contrast, Fine Motor Integration remained a significant predictor of maths ability, even after the influence of non-verbal IQ had been accounted for. These results suggest that fine motor skills should have a pivotal role in educational interventions designed to support the development of early mathematical skills. PMID:27303342

Fine Motor Skills Predict Maths Ability Better than They Predict Reading Ability in the Early Primary School Years.

Science.gov (United States)

Pitchford, Nicola J; Papini, Chiara; Outhwaite, Laura A; Gulliford, Anthea

2016-01-01

Fine motor skills have long been recognized as an important foundation for development in other domains. However, more precise insights into the role of fine motor skills, and their relationships to other skills in mediating early educational achievements, are needed to support the development of optimal educational interventions. We explored concurrent relationships between two components of fine motor skills, Fine Motor Precision and Fine Motor Integration, and early reading and maths development in two studies with primary school children of low-to-mid socio-economic status in the UK. Two key findings were revealed. First, despite being in the first 2 years of primary school education, significantly better performance was found in reading compared to maths across both studies. This may reflect the protective effects of recent national-level interventions to promote early literacy skills in young children in the UK that have not been similarly promoted for maths. Second, fine motor skills were a better predictor of early maths ability than they were of early reading ability. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that fine motor skills did not significantly predict reading ability when verbal short-term memory was taken into account. In contrast, Fine Motor Integration remained a significant predictor of maths ability, even after the influence of non-verbal IQ had been accounted for. These results suggest that fine motor skills should have a pivotal role in educational interventions designed to support the development of early mathematical skills.

Social problem solving ability predicts mental health among undergraduate students.

Science.gov (United States)

Ranjbar, Mansour; Bayani, Ali Asghar; Bayani, Ali

2013-11-01

The main objective of this study was predicting student's mental health using social problem solving- ability. In this correlational. descriptive study, 369 (208 female and 161 male) from, Mazandaran University of Medical Science were selected through stratified random sampling method. In order to collect the data, the social problem solving inventory-revised and general health questionnaire were used. Data were analyzed through SPSS-19, Pearson's correlation, t test, and stepwise regression analysis. Data analysis showed significant relationship between social problem solving ability and mental health (P Social problem solving ability was significantly associated with the somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression (P social problem solving ability and mental health.

Predictive validity of the Work Ability Index and its individual items in the general population.

Science.gov (United States)

Lundin, Andreas; Leijon, Ola; Vaez, Marjan; Hallgren, Mats; Torgén, Margareta

2017-06-01

This study assesses the predictive ability of the full Work Ability Index (WAI) as well as its individual items in the general population. The Work, Health and Retirement Study (WHRS) is a stratified random national sample of 25-75-year-olds living in Sweden in 2000 that received a postal questionnaire ( n = 6637, response rate = 53%). Current and subsequent sickness absence was obtained from registers. The ability of the WAI to predict long-term sickness absence (LTSA; ⩾ 90 consecutive days) during a period of four years was analysed by logistic regression, from which the Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUC) was computed. There were 313 incident LTSA cases among 1786 employed individuals. The full WAI had acceptable ability to predict LTSA during the 4-year follow-up (AUC = 0.79; 95% CI 0.76 to 0.82). Individual items were less stable in their predictive ability. However, three of the individual items: current work ability compared with lifetime best, estimated work impairment due to diseases, and number of diagnosed current diseases, exceeded AUC > 0.70. Excluding the WAI item on number of days on sickness absence did not result in an inferior predictive ability of the WAI. The full WAI has acceptable predictive validity, and is superior to its individual items. For public health surveys, three items may be suitable proxies of the full WAI; current work ability compared with lifetime best, estimated work impairment due to diseases, and number of current diseases diagnosed by a physician.

Individual differences in episodic memory abilities predict successful prospective memory output monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter Ball, B; Pitães, Margarida; Brewer, Gene A

2018-02-07

Output monitoring refers to memory for one's previously completed actions. In the context of prospective memory (PM) (e.g., remembering to take medication), failures of output monitoring can result in repetitions and omissions of planned actions (e.g., over- or under-medication). To be successful in output monitoring paradigms, participants must flexibly control attention to detect PM cues as well as engage controlled retrieval of previous actions whenever a particular cue is encountered. The current study examined individual differences in output monitoring abilities in a group of younger adults differing in attention control (AC) and episodic memory (EM) abilities. The results showed that AC ability uniquely predicted successful cue detection on the first presentation, whereas EM ability uniquely predicted successful output monitoring on the second presentation. The current study highlights the importance of examining external correlates of PM abilities and contributes to the growing body of research on individual differences in PM.

Sex/gender and socioeconomic differences in the predictive ability of self-rated health for mortality.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Akihiro Nishi

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Studies have reported that the predictive ability of self-rated health (SRH for mortality varies by sex/gender and socioeconomic group. The purpose of this study is to evaluate this relationship in Japan and explore the potential reasons for differences between the groups. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The analyses in the study were based on the Aichi Gerontological Evaluation Study's (AGES 2003 Cohort Study in Chita Peninsula, Japan, which followed the four-year survival status of 14,668 community-dwelling people who were at least 65 years old at the start of the study. We first examined sex/gender and education-level differences in association with fair/poor SRH. We then estimated the sex/gender- and education-specific hazard ratios (HRs of mortality associated with lower SRH using Cox models. Control variables, including health behaviors (smoking and drinking, symptoms of depression, and chronic co-morbid conditions, were added to sequential regression models. The results showed men and women reported a similar prevalence of lower SRH. However, lower SRH was a stronger predictor of mortality in men (HR = 2.44 [95% confidence interval (CI: 2.14-2.80] than in women (HR = 1.88 [95% CI: 1.44-2.47]; p for sex/gender interaction = 0.018. The sex/gender difference in the predictive ability of SRH was progressively attenuated with the additional introduction of other co-morbid conditions. The predictive ability among individuals with high school education (HR = 2.39 [95% CI: 1.74-3.30] was similar to that among individuals with less than a high school education (HR = 2.14 [95% CI: 1.83-2.50]; p for education interaction = 0.549. CONCLUSIONS: The sex/gender difference in the predictive ability of SRH for mortality among this elderly Japanese population may be explained by male/female differences in what goes into an individual's assessment of their SRH, with males apparently weighting depressive symptoms more than

Specific Abilities May Increment Psychometric g for High Ability Populations

Science.gov (United States)

2016-04-14

tend to sort themselves into jobs that are commensurate with their ability level ( McCormick , DeNisi, & Staw, 1979; McCormick , Jeanneret, & Mecham...of Genetic Psychology, 153, 229-230. Specific abilities, g, & high ability populations 14 McCormick , E. J., DeNisi, A. S., & Shaw, J. B... McCormick , E. J., Jeanneret, P. R., & Mecham, R. C. (1972). A study of job characteristics and job dimensions as based on the Position Analysis Questionnaire

Connectivity patterns in cognitive control networks predict naturalistic multitasking ability.

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Wen, Tanya; Liu, De-Cyuan; Hsieh, Shulan

2018-06-01

Multitasking is a fundamental aspect of everyday life activities. To achieve a complex, multi-component goal, the tasks must be subdivided into sub-tasks and component steps, a critical function of prefrontal networks. The prefrontal cortex is considered to be organized in a cascade of executive processes from the sensorimotor to anterior prefrontal cortex, which includes execution of specific goal-directed action, to encoding and maintaining task rules, and finally monitoring distal goals. In the current study, we used a virtual multitasking paradigm to tap into real-world performance and relate it to each individual's resting-state functional connectivity in fMRI. While did not find any correlation between global connectivity of any of the major networks with multitasking ability, global connectivity of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) was predictive of multitasking ability. Further analysis showed that multivariate connectivity patterns within the sensorimotor network (SMN), and between-network connectivity of the frontoparietal network (FPN) and dorsal attention network (DAN), predicted individual multitasking ability and could be generalized to novel individuals. Together, these results support previous research that prefrontal networks underlie multitasking abilities and show that connectivity patterns in the cascade of prefrontal networks may explain individual differences in performance. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Non-"g" Residuals of the SAT and ACT Predict Specific Abilities

Science.gov (United States)

Coyle, Thomas R.; Purcell, Jason M.; Snyder, Anissa C.; Kochunov, Peter

2013-01-01

This research examined whether non-"g" residuals of the SAT and ACT subtests, obtained after removing g, predicted specific abilities. Non-"g" residuals of the verbal and math subtests of the SAT and ACT were correlated with academic (verbal and math) and non-academic abilities (speed and shop), both based on the Armed Services…

Evaluation of a numerical model's ability to predict bed load transport observed in braided river experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Javernick, Luke; Redolfi, Marco; Bertoldi, Walter

2018-05-01

New data collection techniques offer numerical modelers the ability to gather and utilize high quality data sets with high spatial and temporal resolution. Such data sets are currently needed for calibration, verification, and to fuel future model development, particularly morphological simulations. This study explores the use of high quality spatial and temporal data sets of observed bed load transport in braided river flume experiments to evaluate the ability of a two-dimensional model, Delft3D, to predict bed load transport. This study uses a fixed bed model configuration and examines the model's shear stress calculations, which are the foundation to predict the sediment fluxes necessary for morphological simulations. The evaluation is conducted for three flow rates, and model setup used highly accurate Structure-from-Motion (SfM) topography and discharge boundary conditions. The model was hydraulically calibrated using bed roughness, and performance was evaluated based on depth and inundation agreement. Model bed load performance was evaluated in terms of critical shear stress exceedance area compared to maps of observed bed mobility in a flume. Following the standard hydraulic calibration, bed load performance was tested for sensitivity to horizontal eddy viscosity parameterization and bed morphology updating. Simulations produced depth errors equal to the SfM inherent errors, inundation agreement of 77-85%, and critical shear stress exceedance in agreement with 49-68% of the observed active area. This study provides insight into the ability of physically based, two-dimensional simulations to accurately predict bed load as well as the effects of horizontal eddy viscosity and bed updating. Further, this study highlights how using high spatial and temporal data to capture the physical processes at work during flume experiments can help to improve morphological modeling.

Creativity, synthetic intelligence and high ability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marta Sainz

2010-04-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study is to analyze the construct of creativity and its relationship with high ability, presenting different definitions, assessment tools and strategies to encourage their development in the school context. The paper is structured into five sections: firstly, we define the concept of creativity. Secondly, we present the most relevant instruments used in the analysis of high ability students’ creativity. Thirdly, we look into several studies on creativity and high abilitiy, highlighting the main limitations of the research carried out. Fourthly, we present principles and strategies in order to foster creativity in the school context. Finally, some conclusions are drawn on the relationship between creativity and high ability.

Shared-Environmental Contributions to High Cognitive Ability

OpenAIRE

Kirkpatrick, Robert M.; McGue, Matt; Iacono, William G.

2009-01-01

Using a combined sample of adolescent twins, biological siblings, and adoptive siblings, we estimated and compared the differential shared-environmentality for high cognitive ability and the shared-environmental variance for the full range of ability during adolescence. Estimates obtained via multiple methods were in the neighborhood of 0.20, and suggest a modest effect of the shared environment on both high and full-range ability. We then examined the association of ability with three measur...

The Diagnostic Apathia Scale predicts the ability to return to work following depression or anxiety

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hellström, Lc; Eplov, Lf; Nordentoft, M

2014-01-01

, tiredness/fatigue, insomnia, and reduced ability to work and engage in personal interests. The scale was analysed for psychometric validity (scalability) and for its ability to predict RTW. Finally, the predictive validity of the Diagnostic Apathia Scale regarding RTW was compared with scales measuring...

Visuo-motor coordination ability predicts performance with brain-computer interfaces controlled by modulation of sensorimotor rhythms (SMR

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Eva Maria Hammer

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Modulation of sensorimotor rhythms (SMR was suggested as a control signal for brain-computer interfaces (BCI. Yet, there is a population of users estimated between 10 to 50% not able to achieve reliable control and only about 20% of users achieve high (80-100% performance. Predicting performance prior to BCI use would facilitate selection of the most feasible system for an individual, thus constitute a practical benefit for the user, and increase our knowledge about the correlates of BCI control. In a recent study, we predicted SMR-BCI performance from psychological variables that were assessed prior to the BCI sessions and BCI control was supported with machine-learning techniques. We described two significant psychological predictors, namely the visuo-motor coordination ability and the ability to concentrate on the task. The purpose of the current study was to replicate these results thereby validating these predictors within a neurofeedback based SMR-BCI that involved no machine learning. Thirty-three healthy BCI novices participated in a calibration session and three further neurofeedback training sessions. Two variables were related with mean SMR-BCI performance: (1 A measure for the accuracy of fine motor skills, i.e. a trade for a person’s visuo-motor control ability and (2 subject’s attentional impulsivity. In a linear regression they accounted for almost 20% in variance of SMR-BCI performance, but predictor (1 failed significance. Nevertheless, on the basis of our prior regression model for sensorimotor control ability we could predict current SMR-BCI performance with an average prediction error of M = 12.07%. In more than 50% of the participants, the prediction error was smaller than 10%. Hence, psychological variables played a moderate role in predicting SMR-BCI performance in a neurofeedback approach that involved no machine learning. Future studies are needed to further consolidate (or reject the present predictors.

Statistical tests for equal predictive ability across multiple forecasting methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borup, Daniel; Thyrsgaard, Martin

We develop a multivariate generalization of the Giacomini-White tests for equal conditional predictive ability. The tests are applicable to a mixture of nested and non-nested models, incorporate estimation uncertainty explicitly, and allow for misspecification of the forecasting model as well as ...

The predictive ability of different customer feedback metrics for retention

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Haan, Evert; Verhoef, Peter C.; Wiesel, Thorsten

This study systematically compares different customer feedback metrics (CFMs) - namely customer satisfaction, the Net Promoter Score, and the Customer Effort Score - to test their ability to predict retention across a wide range of industries. We classify the CFMs according to a time focus (past,

Humor Ability Reveals Intelligence, Predicts Mating Success, and Is Higher in Males

Science.gov (United States)

Greengross, Gil; Miller, Geoffrey

2011-01-01

A good sense of humor is sexually attractive, perhaps because it reveals intelligence, creativity, and other "good genes" or "good parent" traits. If so, intelligence should predict humor production ability, which in turn should predict mating success. In this study, 400 university students (200 men and 200 women) completed…

Emotions in the classroom: the role of teachers' emotional intelligence ability in predicting students' achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Curci, Antonietta; Lanciano, Tiziana; Soleti, Emanuela

2014-01-01

School days can be a difficult time, especially when students are faced with subjects that require motivational investment along with cognitive effort, such as mathematics and sciences. In the present study, we investigated the effects of teachers' emotional intelligence (El) ability, self-efficacy, and emotional states and students' self-esteem, perceptions of ability, and metacognitive beliefs in predicting school achievement. We hypothesized that the level of teacher EI ability would moderate the impact of students' self-perceptions and beliefs about their achievements in mathematics and sciences. Students from Italian junior high schools (N = 338) and their math teachers (N = 12) were involved in the study, and a multilevel approach was used. Findings showed that teachers' EI has a positive role in promoting students' achievement, by enhancing the effects of students' self-perceptions of ability and self-esteem.These results have implications for the implementation of intervention programs on the emotional, motivational, and metacognitive correlates of studying and learning behavior.

Low verbal ability predicts later violence in adolescent boys with serious conduct problems.

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Manninen, Marko; Lindgren, Maija; Huttunen, Matti; Ebeling, Hanna; Moilanen, Irma; Kalska, Hely; Suvisaari, Jaana; Therman, Sebastian

2013-10-01

Delinquent adolescents are a known high-risk group for later criminality. Cognitive deficits correlate with adult criminality, and specific cognitive deficits might predict later criminality in the high-risk adolescents. This study aimed to explore the neuropsychological performance and predictors of adult criminal offending in adolescents with severe behavioural problems. Fifty-three adolescents (33 boys and 20 girls), aged 15-18 years, residing in a reform school due to serious conduct problems, were examined for neuropsychological profile and psychiatric symptoms. Results were compared with a same-age general population control sample, and used for predicting criminality 5 years after the baseline testing. The reform school adolescents' neuropsychological performance was weak on many tasks, and especially on the verbal domain. Five years after the baseline testing, half of the reform school adolescents had obtained a criminal record. Males were overrepresented in both any criminality (75% vs. 10%) and in violent crime (50% vs. 5%). When cognitive variables, psychiatric symptoms and background factors were used as predictors for later offending, low verbal intellectual ability turned out to be the most significant predictor of a criminal record and especially a record of violent crime. Neurocognitive deficits, especially in the verbal and attention domains, are common among delinquent adolescents. Among males, verbal deficits are the best predictors for later criminal offending and violence. Assessing verbal abilities among adolescent population with conduct problems might prove useful as a screening method for inclusion in specific therapies for aggression management.

Inhibition and Updating, but Not Switching, Predict Developmental Dyslexia and Individual Variation in Reading Ability

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Caoilainn Doyle

2018-05-01

Full Text Available To elucidate the core executive function profile (strengths and weaknesses in inhibition, updating, and switching associated with dyslexia, this study explored executive function in 27 children with dyslexia and 29 age matched controls using sensitive z-mean measures of each ability and controlled for individual differences in processing speed. This study found that developmental dyslexia is associated with inhibition and updating, but not switching impairments, at the error z-mean composite level, whilst controlling for processing speed. Inhibition and updating (but not switching error composites predicted both dyslexia likelihood and reading ability across the full range of variation from typical to atypical. The predictive relationships were such that those with poorer performance on inhibition and updating measures were significantly more likely to have a diagnosis of developmental dyslexia and also demonstrate poorer reading ability. These findings suggest that inhibition and updating abilities are associated with developmental dyslexia and predict reading ability. Future studies should explore executive function training as an intervention for children with dyslexia as core executive functions appear to be modifiable with training and may transfer to improved reading ability.

Temporal prediction abilities are mediated by motor effector and rhythmic expertise.

Science.gov (United States)

Manning, Fiona C; Harris, Jennifer; Schutz, Michael

2017-03-01

Motor synchronization is a critical part of musical performance and listening. Recently, motor control research has described how movements that contain more available degrees of freedom are more accurately timed. Previously, we demonstrated that stick tapping improves perception in a timing detection task, where percussionists greatly outperformed non-percussionists only when tapping along. Since most synchronization studies implement finger tapping to examine simple motor synchronization, here we completed a similar task where percussionists and non-percussionists synchronized using finger tapping; movement with fewer degrees of freedom than stick tapping. Percussionists and non-percussionists listened to an isochronous beat sequence and identified the timing of a probe tone. On half of the trials, they tapped along with their index finger, and on the other half of the trials, they listened without moving prior to making timing judgments. We found that both groups benefited from tapping overall. Interestingly, percussionists performed only marginally better than did non-percussionists when finger tapping and no different when listening alone, differing from past studies reporting highly superior timing abilities in percussionists. Additionally, we found that percussionist finger tapping was less variable and less asynchronous than was non-percussionist tapping. Moreover, in both groups finger tapping was more variable and more asynchronous than stick tapping in our previous study. This study demonstrates that the motor effector implemented in tapping studies affects not only synchronization abilities, but also subsequent prediction abilities. We discuss these findings in light of effector-specific training and degrees of freedom in motor timing, both of which impact timing abilities to different extents.

Do Teachers' Perceptions of Children's Math and Reading Related Ability and Effort Predict Children's Self-Concept of Ability in Math and Reading?

Science.gov (United States)

Upadyaya, Katja; Eccles, Jacquelynne

2015-01-01

This study investigated to what extent primary school teachers' perceptions of their students' ability and effort predict developmental changes in children's self-concepts of ability in math and reading after controlling for students' academic performance and general intelligence. Three cohorts (N?=?849) of elementary school children and their…

High Ability Students' Voice on Learning Motivation

Science.gov (United States)

Garn, Alex C.; Jolly, Jennifer L.

2014-01-01

This study used a self-determination theory lens to investigate high ability learners' motivational experiences. Participants were 15 high ability youth involved in a summer learning camp for gifted students. Two major themes emerged from qualitative data analysis: (a) "The Fun Factor of Learning" and (b) "The Rewards and Pressures…

Shared-environmental contributions to high cognitive ability.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirkpatrick, Robert M; McGue, Matt; Iacono, William G

2009-07-01

Using a combined sample of adolescent twins, biological siblings, and adoptive siblings, we estimated and compared the differential shared-environmentality for high cognitive ability and the shared-environmental variance for the full range of ability during adolescence. Estimates obtained via multiple methods were in the neighborhood of 0.20, and suggest a modest effect of the shared environment on both high and full-range ability. We then examined the association of ability with three measures of the family environment in a subsample of adoptive siblings: parental occupational status, parental education, and disruptive life events. Only parental education showed significant (albeit modest) association with ability in both the biological and adoptive samples. We discuss these results in terms of the need for cognitive-development research to combine genetically sensitive designs and modern statistical methods with broad, thorough environmental measurement.

Numerical ability predicts mortgage default.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerardi, Kristopher; Goette, Lorenz; Meier, Stephan

2013-07-09

Unprecedented levels of US subprime mortgage defaults precipitated a severe global financial crisis in late 2008, plunging much of the industrialized world into a deep recession. However, the fundamental reasons for why US mortgages defaulted at such spectacular rates remain largely unknown. This paper presents empirical evidence showing that the ability to perform basic mathematical calculations is negatively associated with the propensity to default on one's mortgage. We measure several aspects of financial literacy and cognitive ability in a survey of subprime mortgage borrowers who took out loans in 2006 and 2007, and match them to objective, detailed administrative data on mortgage characteristics and payment histories. The relationship between numerical ability and mortgage default is robust to controlling for a broad set of sociodemographic variables, and is not driven by other aspects of cognitive ability. We find no support for the hypothesis that numerical ability impacts mortgage outcomes through the choice of the mortgage contract. Rather, our results suggest that individuals with limited numerical ability default on their mortgage due to behavior unrelated to the initial choice of their mortgage.

Numerical ability predicts mortgage default

Science.gov (United States)

Gerardi, Kristopher; Goette, Lorenz; Meier, Stephan

2013-01-01

Unprecedented levels of US subprime mortgage defaults precipitated a severe global financial crisis in late 2008, plunging much of the industrialized world into a deep recession. However, the fundamental reasons for why US mortgages defaulted at such spectacular rates remain largely unknown. This paper presents empirical evidence showing that the ability to perform basic mathematical calculations is negatively associated with the propensity to default on one’s mortgage. We measure several aspects of financial literacy and cognitive ability in a survey of subprime mortgage borrowers who took out loans in 2006 and 2007, and match them to objective, detailed administrative data on mortgage characteristics and payment histories. The relationship between numerical ability and mortgage default is robust to controlling for a broad set of sociodemographic variables, and is not driven by other aspects of cognitive ability. We find no support for the hypothesis that numerical ability impacts mortgage outcomes through the choice of the mortgage contract. Rather, our results suggest that individuals with limited numerical ability default on their mortgage due to behavior unrelated to the initial choice of their mortgage. PMID:23798401

Implicit Learning Abilities Predict Treatment Response in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-01

early behavioral interventions are the most effective treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but almost half of the children do not make...behavioral intervention . 2. KEYWORDS Autism Spectrum Disorder , implicit learning, associative learning, individual differences, functional Magnetic...2 AWARD NUMBER: W81XWH-14-1-0261 TITLE: Implicit Learning Abilities Predict Treatment Response in Autism Spectrum Disorders PRINCIPAL

Evaluating the ability of regional models to predict local avian abundance

Science.gov (United States)

LeBrun, Jaymi J.; Thogmartin, Wayne E.; Miller, James R.

2012-01-01

Spatial modeling over broad scales can potentially direct conservation efforts to areas with high species-specific abundances. We examined the performance of regional models for predicting bird abundance at spatial scales typically addressed in conservation planning. Specifically, we used point count data on wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) and blue-winged warbler (Vermivora cyanoptera) from 2 time periods (1995-1998 and 2006-2007) to evaluate the ability of regional models derived via Bayesian hierarchical techniques to predict bird abundance. We developed models for each species within Bird Conservation Region (BCR) 23 in the upper midwestern United States at 800-ha, 8,000-ha, and approximately 80,000-ha scales. We obtained count data from the Breeding Bird Survey and land cover data from the National Land Cover Dataset (1992). We evaluated predictions from the best models, as defined by an information-theoretic criterion, using point count data collected within an ecological subregion of BCR 23 at 131 count stations in the 1990s and again in 2006-2007. Competing (Deviance Information Criteria rs = 0.57; P = 0.14), the survey period that most closely aligned with the time period of data used for regional model construction. Wood thrush models exhibited positive correlations with point count data for all survey areas and years combined (rs = 0.58, P ≤ 0.001). In comparison, blue-winged warbler models performed worse as time increased between the point count surveys and vintage of the model building data (rs = 0.03, P = 0.92 for Iowa and rs = 0.13, P = 0.51 for all areas, 2006-2007), likely related to the ephemeral nature of their preferred early successional habitat. Species abundance and sensitivity to changing habitat conditions seems to be an important factor in determining the predictive ability of regional models. Hierarchical models can be a useful tool for concentrating efforts at the scale of management units and should be one of many tools used by

The predictive ability of the STarT Back Tool was limited in people with chronic low back pain: a prospective cohort study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle Kendell

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Questions: In people with chronic non-specific low back pain (LBP, what is the predictive and discriminative validity of the STarT Back Tool (SBT for pain intensity, self-reported LBP-related disability, and global self-perceived change at 1-year follow-up? What is the profile of the SBT risk subgroups with respect to demographic variables, pain intensity, self-reported LBP-related disability, and psychological measures? Design: Prospective cohort study. Participants: A total of 290 adults with dominant axial LBP of ≥ 3 months’ duration recruited from the general community, and private physiotherapy, psychology, and pain-management clinics in Western Australia. Outcome measures: The 1-year follow-up measures were pain intensity, LBP-related disability, and global self-perceived change. Results: Outcomes were collected on 264 participants. The SBT categorised 82 participants (28% as low risk, 116 (40% as medium risk, and 92 (32% as high risk. The risk subgroups differed significantly (p < 0.05 on baseline pain, disability, and psychological scores. The SBT’s predictive ability was strongest for disability: RR was 2.30 (95% CI 1.28 to 4.10 in the medium-risk group and 2.86 (95% CI 1.60 to 5.11 in the high-risk group. The SBT’s predictive ability was weaker for pain: RR was 1.25 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.51 in the medium-risk group and 1.26 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.52 in the high-risk group. For the SBT total score, the AUC was 0.71 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.77 for disability and 0.63 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.71 for pain. Conclusion: This was the first large study to investigate the SBT in a population exclusively with chronic LBP. The SBT provided an acceptable indication of 1-year disability, had poor predictive and discriminative ability for future pain, and was unable to predict or discriminate global perceived change. In this cohort with chronic non-specific LBP, the SBT’s predictive and discriminative abilities were restricted to disability at 1�

Imitated prosodic fluency predicts reading comprehension ability in good and poor high school readers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mara Breen

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Researchers have established a relationship between beginning readers’ silent comprehension ability and their prosodic fluency, such that readers who read aloud with appropriate prosody tend to have higher scores on silent reading comprehension assessments. The current study was designed to investigate this relationship in two groups of high school readers: Specifically Poor Comprehenders (SPCs, who have adequate word level and phonological skills but poor reading comprehension ability, and a group of age- and decoding skill-matched controls. We compared the prosodic fluency of the two groups by determining how effectively they produced prosodic cues to syntactic and semantic structure in imitations of a model speaker’s production of syntactically and semantically varied sentences. Analyses of pitch and duration patterns revealed that speakers in both groups produced the expected prosodic patterns; however, controls provided stronger durational cues to syntactic structure. These results demonstrate that the relationship between prosodic fluency and reading comprehension continues past the stage of early reading instruction. Moreover, they suggest that prosodically fluent speakers may also generate more fluent implicit prosodic representations during silent reading, leading to more effective comprehension.

Limitations of BCC_CSM's ability to predict summer precipitation over East Asia and the Northwestern Pacific

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Zhiqiang; Dogar, Muhammad Mubashar Ahmad; Qiao, Shaobo; Hu, Po; Feng, Guolin

2017-09-01

This study examines the ability of the Beijing Climate Center Climate System Model (BCC_CSM) to predict the meridional pattern of summer precipitation over East Asia-Northwest Pacific (EA-NWP) and its East Asia-Pacific (EAP) teleconnection. The differences of summer precipitation modes of the empirical orthogonal function and the bias of atmospheric circulations over EA-NWP are analyzed to determine the reason for the precipitation prediction errors. Results indicate that the BCC_CSM could not reproduce the positive-negative-positive meridional tripole pattern from south to north that differs markedly from that observed over the last 20 years. This failure can be attributed to the bias of the BCC_CSM hindcasts of the summer EAP teleconnection and the low predictability of 500 hPa at the mid-high latitude lobe of the EAP. Meanwhile, the BCC_CSM hindcasts' deficiencies of atmospheric responses to SST anomalies over the Indonesia maritime continent (IMC) resulted in opposite and geographically shifted geopotential anomalies at 500 hPa as well as wind and vorticity anomalies at 850 hPa, rendering the BCC_CSM unable to correctly reproduce the EAP teleconnection pattern. Understanding these two problems will help further improve BCC_CSM's summer precipitation forecasting ability over EA-NWP.

Limitations of BCC_CSM's ability to predict summer precipitation over East Asia and the Northwestern Pacific

KAUST Repository

Gong, Zhiqiang

2017-04-05

This study examines the ability of the Beijing Climate Center Climate System Model (BCC_CSM) to predict the meridional pattern of summer precipitation over East Asia-Northwest Pacific (EA-NWP) and its East Asia-Pacific (EAP) teleconnection. The differences of summer precipitation modes of the empirical orthogonal function and the bias of atmospheric circulations over EA-NWP are analyzed to determine the reason for the precipitation prediction errors. Results indicate that the BCC_CSM could not reproduce the positive-negative-positive meridional tripole pattern from south to north that differs markedly from that observed over the last 20 years. This failure can be attributed to the bias of the BCC_CSM hindcasts of the summer EAP teleconnection and the low predictability of 500 hPa at the mid-high latitude lobe of the EAP. Meanwhile, the BCC_CSM hindcasts\\' deficiencies of atmospheric responses to SST anomalies over the Indonesia maritime continent (IMC) resulted in opposite and geographically shifted geopotential anomalies at 500 hPa as well as wind and vorticity anomalies at 850 hPa, rendering the BCC_CSM unable to correctly reproduce the EAP teleconnection pattern. Understanding these two problems will help further improve BCC_CSM\\'s summer precipitation forecasting ability over EA-NWP.

Narrative Ability of Children With Speech Sound Disorders and the Prediction of Later Literacy Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Wellman, Rachel L.; Lewis, Barbara A.; Freebairn, Lisa A.; Avrich, Allison A.; Hansen, Amy J.; Stein, Catherine M.

2012-01-01

Purpose The main purpose of this study was to examine how children with isolated speech sound disorders (SSDs; n = 20), children with combined SSDs and language impairment (LI; n = 20), and typically developing children (n = 20), ages 3;3 (years;months) to 6;6, differ in narrative ability. The second purpose was to determine if early narrative ability predicts school-age (8–12 years) literacy skills. Method This study employed a longitudinal cohort design. The children completed a narrative retelling task before their formal literacy instruction began. The narratives were analyzed and compared for group differences. Performance on these early narratives was then used to predict the children’s reading decoding, reading comprehension, and written language ability at school age. Results Significant group differences were found in children’s (a) ability to answer questions about the story, (b) use of story grammars, and (c) number of correct and irrelevant utterances. Regression analysis demonstrated that measures of story structure and accuracy were the best predictors of the decoding of real words, reading comprehension, and written language. Measures of syntax and lexical diversity were the best predictors of the decoding of nonsense words. Conclusion Combined SSDs and LI, and not isolated SSDs, impact a child’s narrative abilities. Narrative retelling is a useful task for predicting which children may be at risk for later literacy problems. PMID:21969531

The identification of high potential archers based on fitness and motor ability variables: A Support Vector Machine approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Taha, Zahari; Musa, Rabiu Muazu; P P Abdul Majeed, Anwar; Alim, Muhammad Muaz; Abdullah, Mohamad Razali

2018-02-01

Support Vector Machine (SVM) has been shown to be an effective learning algorithm for classification and prediction. However, the application of SVM for prediction and classification in specific sport has rarely been used to quantify/discriminate low and high-performance athletes. The present study classified and predicted high and low-potential archers from a set of fitness and motor ability variables trained on different SVMs kernel algorithms. 50 youth archers with the mean age and standard deviation of 17.0 ± 0.6 years drawn from various archery programmes completed a six arrows shooting score test. Standard fitness and ability measurements namely hand grip, vertical jump, standing broad jump, static balance, upper muscle strength and the core muscle strength were also recorded. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis (HACA) was used to cluster the archers based on the performance variables tested. SVM models with linear, quadratic, cubic, fine RBF, medium RBF, as well as the coarse RBF kernel functions, were trained based on the measured performance variables. The HACA clustered the archers into high-potential archers (HPA) and low-potential archers (LPA), respectively. The linear, quadratic, cubic, as well as the medium RBF kernel functions models, demonstrated reasonably excellent classification accuracy of 97.5% and 2.5% error rate for the prediction of the HPA and the LPA. The findings of this investigation can be valuable to coaches and sports managers to recognise high potential athletes from a combination of the selected few measured fitness and motor ability performance variables examined which would consequently save cost, time and effort during talent identification programme. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The predictive ability of the STarT Back Tool was limited in people with chronic low back pain: a prospective cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kendell, Michelle; Beales, Darren; O'Sullivan, Peter; Rabey, Martin; Hill, Jonathan; Smith, Anne

2018-04-01

In people with chronic non-specific low back pain (LBP), what is the predictive and discriminative validity of the STarT Back Tool (SBT) for pain intensity, self-reported LBP-related disability, and global self-perceived change at 1-year follow-up? What is the profile of the SBT risk subgroups with respect to demographic variables, pain intensity, self-reported LBP-related disability, and psychological measures? Prospective cohort study. A total of 290 adults with dominant axial LBP of≥3months' duration recruited from the general community, and private physiotherapy, psychology, and pain-management clinics in Western Australia. The 1-year follow-up measures were pain intensity, LBP-related disability, and global self-perceived change. Outcomes were collected on 264 participants. The SBT categorised 82 participants (28%) as low risk, 116 (40%) as medium risk, and 92 (32%) as high risk. The risk subgroups differed significantly (ppredictive ability was strongest for disability: RR was 2.30 (95% CI 1.28 to 4.10) in the medium-risk group and 2.86 (95% CI 1.60 to 5.11) in the high-risk group. The SBT's predictive ability was weaker for pain: RR was 1.25 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.51) in the medium-risk group and 1.26 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.52) in the high-risk group. For the SBT total score, the AUC was 0.71 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.77) for disability and 0.63 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.71) for pain. This was the first large study to investigate the SBT in a population exclusively with chronic LBP. The SBT provided an acceptable indication of 1-year disability, had poor predictive and discriminative ability for future pain, and was unable to predict or discriminate global perceived change. In this cohort with chronic non-specific LBP, the SBT's predictive and discriminative abilities were restricted to disability at 1year. [Kendell M, Beales D, O'Sullivan P, Rabey M, Hill J, Smith A (2018) The predictive ability of the STarT Back Tool was limited in people with chronic low back pain: a prospective

Desirable characteristics for teachers of High Ability/Gifted students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandra da Costa Souza Martins

2011-06-01

Full Text Available This study investigated the desirable educational background for a teacher to work with high ability/gifted students, desirable characteristics these teachers should present and conceptions on high ability/giftedness. The participants were 20 public school teachers from a city surrounding Brasilia. Of this group, ten were elementary school teachers working with initial grades and ten were undergraduate Pedagogy teachers. A qualitative approach was used and data were collected by means of a semi-structured interview. A content analysis was then conducted. In relation to the desirable educational background for a teach of high ability/gifted students, participants indicated the need of continuous training, under graduation curriculum adapted to the theme and graduation courses in the area. The desirable features for teachers of high ability/gifted students were related to personological attributes (personality traits and intellectual ability, as well as professional characteristics. The conceptions on high ability/giftedness presented by the participants were, in general, close to those found in the literature and used as reference for this study. However, there was lack of information on how to apply the theory into real practice, as well as several wrong ideas on the topic.

Discrimination ability of comorbidity, frailty, and subjective health to predict mortality in community-dwelling older people

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kusumastuti, Sasmita; Gerds, Thomas Alexander; Lund, Rikke

2017-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the added value of comorbidity, frailty, and subjective health to mortality predictions in community-dwelling older people and whether it changes with increasing age. PARTICIPANTS: 36,751 community-dwelling subjects aged 50-100 from the longitudinal Survey of Health......, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe. METHODS: Mortality risk associated with Comorbidity Index, Frailty Index, Frailty Phenotype, and subjective health was analysed using Cox regression. The extent to which health indicators modified individual mortality risk predictions was examined and the added ability......, and household income. CONCLUSION: Calendar age encompasses most of the discrimination ability to predict mortality. The added value of comorbidity, frailty, and subjective health to mortality predictions decreases with increasing age....

Social Problem Solving Ability Predicts Mental Health Among Undergraduate Students

OpenAIRE

Ranjbar, Mansour; Bayani, Ali Asghar; Bayani, Ali

2013-01-01

Background : The main objective of this study was predicting student′s mental health using social problem solving- ability . Methods : In this correlational- descriptive study, 369 (208 female and 161 male) from, Mazandaran University of Medical Science were selected through stratified random sampling method. In order to collect the data, the social problem solving inventory-revised and general health questionnaire were used. Data were analyzed through SPSS-19, Pearson′s correlation, t tes...

Carotenoid-dependent coloration of male American kestrels predicts ability to reduce parasitic infections

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, Russell D.; Bortolotti, Gary R.

2006-12-01

The signaling function of sexually selected traits, such as carotenoid-dependent avian plumage coloration, has received a great deal of recent attention especially with respect to parasitism and immunocompetence. We argue that parasite-mediated models of sexual selection may have an implicit temporal component that many researchers have ignored. For example, previous studies have demonstrated that carotenoid-dependent traits can signal past parasite exposure, current levels of parasitism, or the ability of individuals to manage parasitic infections in the future. We examined repeated measures of carotenoid-dependent skin color and blood parasitism in American kestrels ( Falco sparverius) to distinguish whether coloration might signal current parasitism or the potential to deal with infections in the future. We found no evidence that coloration was related to current levels of parasitism in either sex. However, coloration of males significantly predicted their response to parasitism; males with bright orange coloration during prelaying, when mate choice is occurring, were more likely than dull yellow males to reduce their levels of infection by the time incubation began. Coloration during prelaying may advertise a male’s health later in the breeding season. For kestrels, the ability to predict future health would be highly beneficial given the male’s role in providing food to his mate and offspring. Coloration of females was not a significant predictor of parasitism in the future, and we provide several possible explanations for this result.

On the increase of predictive performance with high-level data fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doeswijk, T.G.; Smilde, A.K.; Hageman, J.A.; Westerhuis, J.A.; Eeuwijk, F.A. van

2011-01-01

The combination of the different data sources for classification purposes, also called data fusion, can be done at different levels: low-level, i.e. concatenating data matrices, medium-level, i.e. concatenating data matrices after feature selection and high-level, i.e. combining model outputs. In this paper the predictive performance of high-level data fusion is investigated. Partial least squares is used on each of the data sets and dummy variables representing the classes are used as response variables. Based on the estimated responses y-hat j for data set j and class k, a Gaussian distribution p(g k |y-hat j ) is fitted. A simulation study is performed that shows the theoretical performance of high-level data fusion for two classes and two data sets. Within group correlations of the predicted responses of the two models and differences between the predictive ability of each of the separate models and the fused models are studied. Results show that the error rate is always less than or equal to the best performing subset and can theoretically approach zero. Negative within group correlations always improve the predictive performance. However, if the data sets have a joint basis, as with metabolomics data, this is not likely to happen. For equally performing individual classifiers the best results are expected for small within group correlations. Fusion of a non-predictive classifier with a classifier that exhibits discriminative ability lead to increased predictive performance if the within group correlations are strong. An example with real life data shows the applicability of the simulation results.

Work ability as prognostic risk marker of disability pension: single-item work ability score versus multi-item work ability index.

Science.gov (United States)

Roelen, Corné A M; van Rhenen, Willem; Groothoff, Johan W; van der Klink, Jac J L; Twisk, Jos W R; Heymans, Martijn W

2014-07-01

Work ability predicts future disability pension (DP). A single-item work ability score (WAS) is emerging as a measure for work ability. This study compared single-item WAS with the multi-item work ability index (WAI) in its ability to identify workers at risk of DP. This prospective cohort study comprised 11 537 male construction workers, who completed the WAI at baseline and reported DP after a mean 2.3 years of follow-up. WAS and WAI were calibrated for DP risk predictions with the Hosmer-Lemeshow (H-L) test and their ability to discriminate between high- and low-risk construction workers was investigated with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). At follow-up, 336 (3%) construction workers reported DP. Both WAS [odds ratio (OR) 0.72, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.66-0.78] and WAI (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.52-0.63) scores were associated with DP at follow-up. The WAS showed miscalibration (H-L model χ (�)=10.60; df=3; P=0.01) and poorly discriminated between high- and low-risk construction workers (AUC 0.67, 95% CI 0.64-0.70). In contrast, calibration (H-L model χ �=8.20; df=8; P=0.41) and discrimination (AUC 0.78, 95% CI 0.75-0.80) were both adequate for the WAI. Although associated with the risk of future DP, the single-item WAS poorly identified male construction workers at risk of DP. We recommend using the multi-item WAI to screen for risk of DP in occupational health practice.

Myth 15: High-Ability Students Don't Face Problems and Challenges

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Moon, Sidney M.

2009-01-01

One rationale for failure to address the needs of high-ability students in schools is that high-ability students do not need special services because they do not face any special problems or challenges. A more extreme corollary of this attitude is the notion that high ability is so protective that students with high ability do not face problems or…

Atomistic approach to predict the glass-forming ability in Zr–Cu–Al ternary metallic glasses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, C.Y. [Center for Advanced Structural Materials, Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong (China); Liu, X.J. [State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083 (China); Zheng, G.P. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong (China); Niu, X.R. [Center for Advanced Structural Materials, Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong (China); Liu, C.T., E-mail: chainliu@cityu.edu.hk [Center for Advanced Structural Materials, Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong (China)

2015-04-05

Highlights: • An atomistic approach has been developed to predict the glass forming ability (GFA) in Zr–Cu–Al ternary alloy system. • Both of the thermodynamic and structure-dependent kinetic effects to glass formation have been taken into account. • The first-principles calculation and molecular dynamics simulation have been performed. • The approach predicts the best glass former in the model Zr–Cu–Al alloy system. • The predicted GFA is consistent with various experimental results. - Abstract: Prediction of composition-dependent glass-forming ability (GFA) remains to be a key scientific challenge in the metallic-glass community, especially in multi-component alloy systems. In the present study, we apply an atomistic approach to predict the trend of GFA effectively in the Zr–Cu–Al ternary alloy system from alloy compositions alone. This approach is derived from the first-principles calculations based on the density-functional theory and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations. By considering of both the thermodynamic and atomic-structure induced kinetic effects, the predicted GFA trend from this approach shows an excellent agreement with experimental data available in this alloy system, manifesting its capability of seeking metallic glasses with superior GFA in ternary alloy systems.

Do the physical and environment PETTLEP elements predict sport imagery ability?

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Anuar, Nurwina; Williams, Sarah E; Cumming, Jennifer

2017-11-01

The present study aimed to examine whether physical and environment elements of PETTLEP imagery relate to the ability to image five types of sport imagery (i.e. skill, strategy, goal, affect and mastery). Two hundred and ninety participants (152 males, 148 females; M age  = 20.24 years, SD = 4.36) from various sports completed the Sport Imagery Ability Questionnaire (SIAQ), and a set of items designed specifically for the study to assess how frequently participants incorporate physical (e.g. 'I make small movements or gestures during the imagery') and environment (e.g. 'I image in the real training/competition environment') elements of PETTLEP imagery. Structural equation modelling tested a hypothesised model in which imagery priming (i.e. the best fitting physical and environment elements) significantly and positively predicted imagery ability of the different imagery types (skill, β = 0.38; strategy, β = 0.23; goal, β = 0.21; affect, β = 0.25; mastery, β = 0.22). The model was a good fit to the data: χ 2 (174) = 263.87, p environment elements is associated with better skill, strategy, goal, affect and mastery imagery ability. The findings extend models of imagery use by indicating that how athletes images may influence their imagery ability.

A Tempest in A Ladle: The Debate about the Roles of General and Specific Abilities in Predicting Important Outcomes

OpenAIRE

Wendy Johnson

2018-01-01

The debate about the roles of general and specific abilities in predicting important outcomes is a tempest in a ladle because we cannot measure abilities without also measuring skills. Skills always develop through exposure, are specific rather than general, and are executed using different strategies by different people, thus tapping into varied specific abilities. Relative predictive validities of measurement formats depend on the purpose: the more general and long-term the purpose, the bet...

Looking Like a Leader–Facial Shape Predicts Perceived Height and Leadership Ability

Science.gov (United States)

Re, Daniel E.; Hunter, David W.; Coetzee, Vinet; Tiddeman, Bernard P.; Xiao, Dengke; DeBruine, Lisa M.; Jones, Benedict C.; Perrett, David I.

2013-01-01

Judgments of leadership ability from face images predict the outcomes of actual political elections and are correlated with leadership success in the corporate world. The specific facial cues that people use to judge leadership remain unclear, however. Physical height is also associated with political and organizational success, raising the possibility that facial cues of height contribute to leadership perceptions. Consequently, we assessed whether cues to height exist in the face and, if so, whether they are associated with perception of leadership ability. We found that facial cues to perceived height had a strong relationship with perceived leadership ability. Furthermore, when allowed to manually manipulate faces, participants increased facial cues associated with perceived height in order to maximize leadership perception. A morphometric analysis of face shape revealed that structural facial masculinity was not responsible for the relationship between perceived height and perceived leadership ability. Given the prominence of facial appearance in making social judgments, facial cues to perceived height may have a significant influence on leadership selection. PMID:24324651

Neurophysiology in preschool improves behavioral prediction of reading ability throughout primary school.

Science.gov (United States)

Maurer, Urs; Bucher, Kerstin; Brem, Silvia; Benz, Rosmarie; Kranz, Felicitas; Schulz, Enrico; van der Mark, Sanne; Steinhausen, Hans-Christoph; Brandeis, Daniel

2009-08-15

More struggling readers could profit from additional help at the beginning of reading acquisition if dyslexia prediction were more successful. Currently, prediction is based only on behavioral assessment of early phonological processing deficits associated with dyslexia, but it might be improved by adding brain-based measures. In a 5-year longitudinal study of children with (n = 21) and without (n = 23) familial risk for dyslexia, we tested whether neurophysiological measures of automatic phoneme and tone deviance processing obtained in kindergarten would improve prediction of reading over behavioral measures alone. Together, neurophysiological and behavioral measures obtained in kindergarten significantly predicted reading in school. Particularly the late mismatch negativity measure that indicated hemispheric lateralization of automatic phoneme processing improved prediction of reading ability over behavioral measures. It was also the only significant predictor for long-term reading success in fifth grade. Importantly, this result also held for the subgroup of children at familial risk. The results demonstrate that brain-based measures of processing deficits associated with dyslexia improve prediction of reading and thus may be further evaluated to complement clinical practice of dyslexia prediction, especially in targeted populations, such as children with a familial risk.

Effects of historical and predictive information on ability of transport pilot to predict an alert

Science.gov (United States)

Trujillo, Anna C.

1994-01-01

In the aviation community, the early detection of the development of a possible subsystem problem during a flight is potentially useful for increasing the safety of the flight. Commercial airlines are currently using twin-engine aircraft for extended transport operations over water, and the early detection of a possible problem might increase the flight crew's options for safely landing the aircraft. One method for decreasing the severity of a developing problem is to predict the behavior of the problem so that appropriate corrective actions can be taken. To investigate the pilots' ability to predict long-term events, a computer workstation experiment was conducted in which 18 airline pilots predicted the alert time (the time to an alert) using 3 different dial displays and 3 different parameter behavior complexity levels. The three dial displays were as follows: standard (resembling current aircraft round dial presentations); history (indicating the current value plus the value of the parameter 5 sec in the past); and predictive (indicating the current value plus the value of the parameter 5 sec into the future). The time profiles describing the behavior of the parameter consisted of constant rate-of-change profiles, decelerating profiles, and accelerating-then-decelerating profiles. Although the pilots indicated that they preferred the near term predictive dial, the objective data did not support its use. The objective data did show that the time profiles had the most significant effect on performance in estimating the time to an alert.

Spontaneous brain activity predicts learning ability of foreign sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Ventura-Campos, Noelia; Sanjuán, Ana; González, Julio; Palomar-García, María-Ángeles; Rodríguez-Pujadas, Aina; Sebastián-Gallés, Núria; Deco, Gustavo; Ávila, César

2013-05-29

Can learning capacity of the human brain be predicted from initial spontaneous functional connectivity (FC) between brain areas involved in a task? We combined task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) before and after training with a Hindi dental-retroflex nonnative contrast. Previous fMRI results were replicated, demonstrating that this learning recruited the left insula/frontal operculum and the left superior parietal lobe, among other areas of the brain. Crucially, resting-state FC (rs-FC) between these two areas at pretraining predicted individual differences in learning outcomes after distributed (Experiment 1) and intensive training (Experiment 2). Furthermore, this rs-FC was reduced at posttraining, a change that may also account for learning. Finally, resting-state network analyses showed that the mechanism underlying this reduction of rs-FC was mainly a transfer in intrinsic activity of the left frontal operculum/anterior insula from the left frontoparietal network to the salience network. Thus, rs-FC may contribute to predict learning ability and to understand how learning modifies the functioning of the brain. The discovery of this correspondence between initial spontaneous brain activity in task-related areas and posttraining performance opens new avenues to find predictors of learning capacities in the brain using task-related fMRI and rs-fMRI combined.

Human face recognition ability is specific and highly heritable.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilmer, Jeremy B; Germine, Laura; Chabris, Christopher F; Chatterjee, Garga; Williams, Mark; Loken, Eric; Nakayama, Ken; Duchaine, Bradley

2010-03-16

Compared with notable successes in the genetics of basic sensory transduction, progress on the genetics of higher level perception and cognition has been limited. We propose that investigating specific cognitive abilities with well-defined neural substrates, such as face recognition, may yield additional insights. In a twin study of face recognition, we found that the correlation of scores between monozygotic twins (0.70) was more than double the dizygotic twin correlation (0.29), evidence for a high genetic contribution to face recognition ability. Low correlations between face recognition scores and visual and verbal recognition scores indicate that both face recognition ability itself and its genetic basis are largely attributable to face-specific mechanisms. The present results therefore identify an unusual phenomenon: a highly specific cognitive ability that is highly heritable. Our results establish a clear genetic basis for face recognition, opening this intensively studied and socially advantageous cognitive trait to genetic investigation.

Bright minds and dark attitudes: lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice through right-wing ideology and low intergroup contact.

Science.gov (United States)

Hodson, Gordon; Busseri, Michael A

2012-02-01

Despite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations, cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice. We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups. In an analysis of two large-scale, nationally representative United Kingdom data sets (N = 15,874), we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology. A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice, a relation partially mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact. All analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status. Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice. Consequently, we recommend a heightened focus on cognitive ability in research on prejudice and a better integration of cognitive ability into prejudice models.

External validation of the ability of the DRAGON score to predict outcome after thrombolysis treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Ovesen, C; Christensen, A; Nielsen, J K; Christensen, H

2013-11-01

Easy-to-perform and valid assessment scales for the effect of thrombolysis are essential in hyperacute stroke settings. Because of this we performed an external validation of the DRAGON scale proposed by Strbian et al. in a Danish cohort. All patients treated with intravenous recombinant plasminogen activator between 2009 and 2011 were included. Upon admission all patients underwent physical and neurological examination using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale along with non-contrast CT scans and CT angiography. Patients were followed up through the Outpatient Clinic and their modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was assessed after 3 months. Three hundred and three patients were included in the analysis. The DRAGON scale proved to have a good discriminative ability for predicting highly unfavourable outcome (mRS 5-6) (area under the curve-receiver operating characteristic [AUC-ROC]: 0.89; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.81-0.96; pDRAGON scale provided good discriminative capability (AUC-ROC: 0.89; 95% CI 0.78-1.0; p=0.003) for highly unfavourable outcome. We confirmed the validity of the DRAGON scale in predicting outcome after thrombolysis treatment. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Future Cognitive Ability: US IQ Prediction until 2060 Based on NAEP

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

The US National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures cognitive competences in reading and mathematics of US students (last 2012 survey N = 50,000). The long-term development based on results from 1971 to 2012 allows a prediction of future cognitive trends. For predicting US averages also demographic trends have to be considered. The largest groups’ (White) average of 1978/80 was set at M = 100 and SD = 15 and was used as a benchmark. Based on two past NAEP development periods for 17-year-old students, 1978/80 to 2012 (more optimistic) and 1992 to 2012 (more pessimistic), and demographic projections from the US Census Bureau, cognitive trends until 2060 for the entire age cohort and ethnic groups were estimated. Estimated population averages for 2060 are 103 (optimistic) or 102 (pessimistic). The average rise per decade is dec = 0.76 or 0.45 IQ points. White-Black and White-Hispanic gaps are declining by half, Asian-White gaps treble. The catch-up of minorities (their faster ability growth) contributes around 2 IQ to the general rise of 3 IQ; however, their larger demographic increase reduces the general rise at about the similar amount (-1.4 IQ). Because minorities with faster ability growth also rise in their population proportion the interactive term is positive (around 1 IQ). Consequences for economic and societal development are discussed. PMID:26460731

Predicting reading ability in teenagers who are deaf or hard of hearing: A longitudinal analysis of language and reading.

Science.gov (United States)

Worsfold, Sarah; Mahon, Merle; Pimperton, Hannah; Stevenson, Jim; Kennedy, Colin

2018-04-13

Deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) children and young people are known to show group-level deficits in spoken language and reading abilities relative to their hearing peers. However, there is little evidence on the longitudinal predictive relationships between language and reading in this population. To determine the extent to which differences in spoken language ability in childhood predict reading ability in D/HH adolescents. and procedures: Participants were drawn from a population-based cohort study and comprised 53 D/HH teenagers, who used spoken language, and a comparison group of 38 normally hearing teenagers. All had completed standardised measures of spoken language (expression and comprehension) and reading (accuracy and comprehension) at 6-10 and 13-19 years of age. and results: Forced entry stepwise regression showed that, after taking reading ability at age 8 years into account, language scores at age 8 years did not add significantly to the prediction of Reading Accuracy z-scores at age 17 years (change in R 2  = 0.01, p = .459) but did make a significant contribution to the prediction of Reading Comprehension z-scores at age 17 years (change in R 2  = 0.17, p skills in middle childhood predict reading comprehension ability in adolescence. Continued intervention to support language development beyond primary school has the potential to benefit reading comprehension and hence educational access for D/HH adolescents. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

On Strategies of Improving Junior High School Students' Oral English Ability

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

罗茜

2015-01-01

With the increasingly frequent international exchanges,English,as an international language,has been attached greater importance.The oral English ability of junior high school students plays an indispensable role in their everyday study and social interaction,and it is the present junior school study that can lay a solid foundation for their future study and life. Therefore,to comprehensively improve their oral English ability is in urgent need and of paramount significance.This paper focuses on analyzing the external and internal factors influencing the cultivation of junior high school students' oral English ability,and put forwards the corresponding cultivating strategies of the oral English ability of junior high school students.

On Strategies of Improving Junior High School Students’ Oral English Ability

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

罗茜

2015-01-01

With the increasingly frequent international exchanges,English,as an international language,has been attached greater importance.The oral English ability of junior high school students plays an indispensable role in their everyday study and social interaction,and it is the present junior school study that can lay a solid foundation for their future study and life.Therefore,to comprehensively improve their oral English ability is in urgent need and of paramount significance.This paper focuses on analyzing the external and internal factors influencing the cultivation of junior high school students’oral English ability,and put forwards the corresponding cultivating strategies of the oral English ability of junior high school students.

Work ability as prognostic risk marker of disability pension : Single-item work ability score versus multi-item work ability index

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roelen, C.A.M.; Rhenen, van W.; Groothoff, J.W.; Klink, van der J.J.L.; Twisk, W.R.; Heymans, M.W.

2014-01-01

Work ability predicts future disability pension (DP). A single-item work ability score (WAS) is emerging as a measure for work ability. This study compared single-item WAS with the multi-item work ability index (WAI) in its ability to identify workers at risk of DP.

Work ability as prognostic risk marker of disability pension: single-item work ability score versus multi-item work ability index

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roelen, C.A.M.; van Rhenen, W.; Groothoff, J.W.; van der Klink, J.J.L.; Twisk, J.W.R.; Heymans, M.W.

2014-01-01

Objectives Work ability predicts future disability pension (DP). A single-item work ability score (WAS) is emerging as a measure for work ability. This study compared single-item WAS with the multi-item work ability index (WAI) in its ability to identify workers at risk of DP. Methods This

Work ability as prognostic risk marker of disability pension : single-item work ability score versus multi-item work ability index

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roelen, Corne A. M.; van Rhenen, Willem; Groothoff, Johan W.; van der Klink, Jac J. L.; Twisk, Jos W. R.; Heymans, Martijn W.

Objectives Work ability predicts future disability pension (DP). A single-item work ability score (WAS) is emerging as a measure for work ability. This study compared single-item WAS with the multi-item work ability index (WAI) in its ability to identify workers at risk of DP. Methods This

Sociocultural Concept of High Ability and Heart-Mind Epistemology in Confucian Societies

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Jae

2016-01-01

This theoretical paper begins with a reflection on the dominant conceptions of "high ability", based on psychometrics, and examines claims that the ethos of a particular cultural heritage is essential to what "high ability" signifies. The article semantically distinguishes "giftedness" from "ability", using…

High Ability and Learner Characteristics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huda Hindal

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The outstandingly able learner has been conceptualised, in terms of test and examination performance, as the learner showing superior academic performance which is markedly better than that of peers and in ways regarded as of value by wider society. In Kuwait, such superior examination performance leads to a classification regarded as being ‘gifted’. This study looks at the inter-correlations between performance in various subjects in examinations and then considers how examination performance correlates with measures of working memory capacity, extent of field dependency, extent of divergency and visual-spatial abilities. A very large sample of grade 7 Kuwaiti students (aged ~13 was involved, the sample being selected in such a way that it contained a high proportion of those regarded as ‘gifted’ under the procedures used in Kuwait. While specific learner characteristics have been related to examination performance, this study brings four different characteristics together to gain a picture of the way these characteristics may be seen in those who perform extremely well in examinations. Principal components analysis using varimax rotation, was used to look at the examination data and one factor accounted for 87% of the variance. A consideration of the examination papers led to the conclusion that the national examinations tested only recall-recognition. It was also found that those who performed best in all six subjects tended to be those who are highly divergent and strongly visual-spatial as well as those tending to have higher working memory capacities and being more field independent. The inter-correlations between the various learner characteristics are explained in terms of the way the brain is known to process information. The implications of the findings for assessment and for the way high ability is considered are discussed.

Risk approximation in decision making: approximative numeric abilities predict advantageous decisions under objective risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, Silke M; Schiebener, Johannes; Delazer, Margarete; Brand, Matthias

2018-01-22

Many decision situations in everyday life involve mathematical considerations. In decisions under objective risk, i.e., when explicit numeric information is available, executive functions and abilities to handle exact numbers and ratios are predictors of objectively advantageous choices. Although still debated, exact numeric abilities, e.g., normative calculation skills, are assumed to be related to approximate number processing skills. The current study investigates the effects of approximative numeric abilities on decision making under objective risk. Participants (N = 153) performed a paradigm measuring number-comparison, quantity-estimation, risk-estimation, and decision-making skills on the basis of rapid dot comparisons. Additionally, a risky decision-making task with exact numeric information was administered, as well as tasks measuring executive functions and exact numeric abilities, e.g., mental calculation and ratio processing skills, were conducted. Approximative numeric abilities significantly predicted advantageous decision making, even beyond the effects of executive functions and exact numeric skills. Especially being able to make accurate risk estimations seemed to contribute to superior choices. We recommend approximation skills and approximate number processing to be subject of future investigations on decision making under risk.

A comprehensive test of evolutionarily increased competitive ability in a highly invasive plant species

Science.gov (United States)

Joshi, Srijana; Gruntman, Michal; Bilton, Mark; Seifan, Merav; Tielbörger, Katja

2014-01-01

Background and Aims A common hypothesis to explain plants' invasive success is that release from natural enemies in the introduced range selects for reduced allocation to resistance traits and a subsequent increase in resources available for growth and competitive ability (evolution of increased competitive ability, EICA). However, studies that have investigated this hypothesis have been incomplete as they either did not test for all aspects of competitive ability or did not select appropriate competitors. Methods Here, the prediction of increased competitive ability was examined with the invasive plant Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) in a set of common-garden experiments that addressed these aspects by carefully distinguishing between competitive effect and response of invasive and native plants, and by using both intraspecific and interspecific competition settings with a highly vigorous neighbour, Urtica dioica (stinging nettle), which occurs in both ranges. Key Results While the intraspecific competition results showed no differences in competitive effect or response between native and invasive plants, the interspecific competition experiment revealed greater competitive response and effect of invasive plants in both biomass and seed production. Conclusions The use of both intra- and interspecific competition experiments in this study revealed opposing results. While the first experiment refutes the EICA hypothesis, the second shows strong support for it, suggesting evolutionarily increased competitive ability in invasive populations of L. salicaria. It is suggested that the use of naturally co-occurring heterospecifics, rather than conspecifics, may provide a better evaluation of the possible evolutionary shift towards greater competitive ability. PMID:25301818

Sound induced activity in voice sensitive cortex predicts voice memory ability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebecca eWatson

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The ‘temporal voice areas’ (TVAs (Belin et al., 2000 of the human brain show greater neuronal activity in response to human voices than to other categories of nonvocal sounds. However, a direct link between TVA activity and voice perceptionbehaviour has not yet been established. Here we show that a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI measure of activity in the TVAs predicts individual performance at a separately administered voice memory test. This relation holds whengeneral sound memory ability is taken into account. These findings provide the first evidence that the TVAs are specifically involved in voice cognition.

Evaluating the predictive abilities of community occupancy models using AUC while accounting for imperfect detection

Science.gov (United States)

Zipkin, Elise F.; Grant, Evan H. Campbell; Fagan, William F.

2012-01-01

The ability to accurately predict patterns of species' occurrences is fundamental to the successful management of animal communities. To determine optimal management strategies, it is essential to understand species-habitat relationships and how species habitat use is related to natural or human-induced environmental changes. Using five years of monitoring data in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Maryland, USA, we developed four multi-species hierarchical models for estimating amphibian wetland use that account for imperfect detection during sampling. The models were designed to determine which factors (wetland habitat characteristics, annual trend effects, spring/summer precipitation, and previous wetland occupancy) were most important for predicting future habitat use. We used the models to make predictions of species occurrences in sampled and unsampled wetlands and evaluated model projections using additional data. Using a Bayesian approach, we calculated a posterior distribution of receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC AUC) values, which allowed us to explicitly quantify the uncertainty in the quality of our predictions and to account for false negatives in the evaluation dataset. We found that wetland hydroperiod (the length of time that a wetland holds water) as well as the occurrence state in the prior year were generally the most important factors in determining occupancy. The model with only habitat covariates predicted species occurrences well; however, knowledge of wetland use in the previous year significantly improved predictive ability at the community level and for two of 12 species/species complexes. Our results demonstrate the utility of multi-species models for understanding which factors affect species habitat use of an entire community (of species) and provide an improved methodology using AUC that is helpful for quantifying the uncertainty in model predictions while explicitly accounting for

Use of self-report to predict ability to walk 400 meters in mobility-limited older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Sayers, Stephen P; Brach, Jennifer S; Newman, Anne B; Heeren, Tim C; Guralnik, Jack M; Fielding, Roger A

2004-12-01

To determine whether the ability to walk 400 m could be predicted from self-reported walking habits and abilities in older adults and to develop an accurate self-report measure appropriate for observational trials of mobility when functional measures are impractical to collect. Cross-sectional. University-based human physiology laboratory. One hundred fifty community-dwelling older men and women (mean age+/-standard error= 79.8+/-0.3). An 18-item questionnaire assessing walking habits and ability was administered to each participant, followed by a 400-m walk test. Ninety-eight (65%) volunteers were able to complete the 400-m walk; 52 (35%) were unable. Logistic regression was performed using response items from a questionnaire as predictors and 400-m walk as the outcome. Three questions (Do you think you could walk one-quarter of a mile now without sitting down to rest. Because of a health or physical problem, do you have difficulty walking 1 mile? Could you walk up and down every aisle of a grocery store without sitting down to rest or leaning on a cart?) were predictive of 400-m walking ability and were included in the model. If participants answered all three questions compatible with the inability to walk 400 m, there was a 91% probability that they were unable to walk 400 m, with a sensitivity of 46% and a specificity of 97%. A three-item self-report developed in the study was able to accurately predict mobility disability. The utility of this instrument may be in evaluating self-reported mobility in large observational trials on mobility when functional mobility tasks are impractical to collect.

Social understanding of high-ability children in middle and late childhood

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boor-Klip, H.J.; Cillessen, A.H.N.; Hell, J.G. van

2014-01-01

Despite its importance in social development, social understanding has hardly been studied in high-ability children. This study explores differences in social understanding between children in high-ability and regular classrooms, specifically theory of mind (ToM) and perception accuracy, as well as

'Will I want these stickers tomorrow?' Preschoolers' ability to predict current and future needs.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin-Ordas, Gema

2017-11-01

Between 3 and 5 years of age, children develop the ability to plan for their own and others' future needs; however, they have great difficulty predicting future needs that conflict with current ones. Importantly, this ability has only been tested in the domain of physiological states (e.g., thirst). Therefore, it is still an open question whether in a different context preschoolers can disengage from their current needs to secure a different future one. In a Resource Allocation task, 4- and 5-year-olds had to distribute three types of rewards between themselves and another child for either 'right now' or 'tomorrow'. Children's current needs were manipulated by providing them (or not) with their preferred reward at beginning of the task. Only 5-year-olds could predict future needs that conflict with their current ones and act accordingly. Younger children's performance is discussed in the context of temporal and social distance. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? By the age of 4, children can plan for their own and others' future needs. Seven-year-old children still have difficulty predicting future physiological needs that conflict with their current ones. What does this study add? In a Resource Allocation task, preschoolers had to share rewards with another child for 'right now' or 'tomorrow'. Children's current needs were manipulated by providing them (or not) with their preferred reward. This study shows that 5-year-olds can predict future (non-physiological) needs that conflict with their current ones. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Improvement of prediction ability for genomic selection of dairy cattle by including dominance effects.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chuanyu Sun

Full Text Available Dominance may be an important source of non-additive genetic variance for many traits of dairy cattle. However, nearly all prediction models for dairy cattle have included only additive effects because of the limited number of cows with both genotypes and phenotypes. The role of dominance in the Holstein and Jersey breeds was investigated for eight traits: milk, fat, and protein yields; productive life; daughter pregnancy rate; somatic cell score; fat percent and protein percent. Additive and dominance variance components were estimated and then used to estimate additive and dominance effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs. The predictive abilities of three models with both additive and dominance effects and a model with additive effects only were assessed using ten-fold cross-validation. One procedure estimated dominance values, and another estimated dominance deviations; calculation of the dominance relationship matrix was different for the two methods. The third approach enlarged the dataset by including cows with genotype probabilities derived using genotyped ancestors. For yield traits, dominance variance accounted for 5 and 7% of total variance for Holsteins and Jerseys, respectively; using dominance deviations resulted in smaller dominance and larger additive variance estimates. For non-yield traits, dominance variances were very small for both breeds. For yield traits, including additive and dominance effects fit the data better than including only additive effects; average correlations between estimated genetic effects and phenotypes showed that prediction accuracy increased when both effects rather than just additive effects were included. No corresponding gains in prediction ability were found for non-yield traits. Including cows with derived genotype probabilities from genotyped ancestors did not improve prediction accuracy. The largest additive effects were located on chromosome 14 near DGAT1 for yield traits for both

Early prediction of 90Sr and 137Cs content in edible parts of crops and selection of plants with high uptake ability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao Wenhu; Xu Shiming; Hou Lanxin; Shang Zhaorong

1995-10-01

The uptake characteristics to 90 Sr and 137 Cs of nine kinds of crops, including spring wheat, rice, soybean, vegetables etc., were studied from seedling to maturity. The change of 90 Sr content per unit of dry weight can be classified into two types--the 90 Sr content kept in the same level during the whole growing season and kept increasing with the growing period until it came to the maximum point at the time of maturity. 90 Sr and 137 Cs in the aerial part of plants were mainly distributed in leaves, but the amounts in seeds and fruits were less. The content of 90 Sr decreased but the content of 137 Cs increased from young to old leaves. So it could be concluded that early prediction of the radioactive content of edible parts according to the content of young leaves was possible. Selection of 169 species in 18 families of plants with high uptake ability of 90 Sr and 137 Cs, which grow in Qinshan region near a nuclear power plant and in Beijing region, is also reported. (8 refs., 6 figs., 16 tabs.)

Social Understanding of High-Ability Children in Middle and Late Childhood

Science.gov (United States)

Boor-Klip, Henrike J.; Cillessen, Antonius H. N.; van Hell, Janet G.

2014-01-01

Despite its importance in social development, social understanding has hardly been studied in high-ability children. This study explores differences in social understanding between children in high-ability and regular classrooms, specifically theory of mind (ToM) and perception accuracy, as well as associations between individual characteristics…

Frontoparietal Structural Connectivity in Childhood Predicts Development of Functional Connectivity and Reasoning Ability: A Large-Scale Longitudinal Investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wendelken, Carter; Ferrer, Emilio; Ghetti, Simona; Bailey, Stephen K; Cutting, Laurie; Bunge, Silvia A

2017-08-30

Prior research points to a positive concurrent relationship between reasoning ability and both frontoparietal structural connectivity (SC) as measured by diffusion tensor imaging (Tamnes et al., 2010) and frontoparietal functional connectivity (FC) as measured by fMRI (Cocchi et al., 2014). Further, recent research demonstrates a link between reasoning ability and FC of two brain regions in particular: rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) and the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) (Wendelken et al., 2016). Here, we sought to investigate the concurrent and dynamic, lead-lag relationships among frontoparietal SC, FC, and reasoning ability in humans. To this end, we combined three longitudinal developmental datasets with behavioral and neuroimaging data from 523 male and female participants between 6 and 22 years of age. Cross-sectionally, reasoning ability was most strongly related to FC between RLPFC and IPL in adolescents and adults, but to frontoparietal SC in children. Longitudinal analysis revealed that RLPFC-IPL SC, but not FC, was a positive predictor of future changes in reasoning ability. Moreover, we found that RLPFC-IPL SC at one time point positively predicted future changes in RLPFC-IPL FC, whereas, in contrast, FC did not predict future changes in SC. Our results demonstrate the importance of strong white matter connectivity between RLPFC and IPL during middle childhood for the subsequent development of both robust FC and good reasoning ability. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The human capacity for reasoning develops substantially during childhood and has a profound impact on achievement in school and in cognitively challenging careers. Reasoning ability depends on communication between lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices. Therefore, to understand how this capacity develops, we examined the dynamic relationships over time among white matter tracts connecting frontoparietal cortices (i.e., structural connectivity, SC), coordinated frontoparietal activation

Limitations of BCC_CSM's ability to predict summer precipitation over East Asia and the Northwestern Pacific

KAUST Repository

Gong, Zhiqiang; Dogar, Muhammad Mubashar; Qiao, Shaobo; Hu, Po; Feng, Guolin

2017-01-01

This study examines the ability of the Beijing Climate Center Climate System Model (BCC_CSM) to predict the meridional pattern of summer precipitation over East Asia-Northwest Pacific (EA-NWP) and its East Asia-Pacific (EAP) teleconnection

Teachers of high ability pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cándido Genovard

2010-04-01

Full Text Available In this article we analyze the characteristics of gifted and talented students’ expert teachers. The subject background and the specific proprieties of the instructional process to meet gifted students’ educational needs are analyzed. The value of teacher-student interactions and of teaching and learning styles are highlighted. Also, we include different action guidelines and instructional resources to use in the classroom to teach these students. There is not an ideal teacher for high ability students. However, teachers must know what the teaching-learning processes are and how these work, and the diverse psychological, content and contextual variables involved in such processes.

A comprehensive test of evolutionarily increased competitive ability in a highly invasive plant species.

Science.gov (United States)

Joshi, Srijana; Gruntman, Michal; Bilton, Mark; Seifan, Merav; Tielbörger, Katja

2014-12-01

A common hypothesis to explain plants' invasive success is that release from natural enemies in the introduced range selects for reduced allocation to resistance traits and a subsequent increase in resources available for growth and competitive ability (evolution of increased competitive ability, EICA). However, studies that have investigated this hypothesis have been incomplete as they either did not test for all aspects of competitive ability or did not select appropriate competitors. Here, the prediction of increased competitive ability was examined with the invasive plant Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) in a set of common-garden experiments that addressed these aspects by carefully distinguishing between competitive effect and response of invasive and native plants, and by using both intraspecific and interspecific competition settings with a highly vigorous neighbour, Urtica dioica (stinging nettle), which occurs in both ranges. While the intraspecific competition results showed no differences in competitive effect or response between native and invasive plants, the interspecific competition experiment revealed greater competitive response and effect of invasive plants in both biomass and seed production. The use of both intra- and interspecific competition experiments in this study revealed opposing results. While the first experiment refutes the EICA hypothesis, the second shows strong support for it, suggesting evolutionarily increased competitive ability in invasive populations of L. salicaria. It is suggested that the use of naturally co-occurring heterospecifics, rather than conspecifics, may provide a better evaluation of the possible evolutionary shift towards greater competitive ability. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Increasing Predictive Ability by Modeling Interactions between Environments, Genotype and Canopy Coverage Image Data for Soybeans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diego Jarquin

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Phenomics is a new area that offers numerous opportunities for its applicability in plant breeding. One possibility is to exploit this type of information obtained from early stages of the growing season by combining it with genomic data. This opens an avenue that can be capitalized by improving the predictive ability of the common prediction models used for genomic prediction. Imagery (canopy coverage data recorded between days 14–71 using two collection methods (ground information in 2013 and 2014; aerial information in 2014 and 2015 on a soybean nested association mapping population (SoyNAM was used to calibrate the prediction models together with the inclusion of several types of interactions between canopy coverage data, environments, and genomic data. Three different scenarios were considered that breeders might face testing lines in fields: (i incomplete field trials (CV2; (ii newly developed lines (CV1; and (iii predicting lines in unobserved environments (CV0. Two different traits were evaluated in this study: yield and days to maturity (DTM. Results showed improvements in the predictive ability for yield with respect to those models that solely included genomic data. These relative improvements ranged 27–123%, 27–148%, and 65–165% for CV2, CV1, and CV0, respectively. No major changes were observed for DTM. Similar improvements were observed for both traits when the reduced canopy information for days 14–33 was used to build the training-testing relationships, showing a clear advantage of using phenomics in very early stages of the growing season.

Simple Mindreading Abilities Predict Complex Theory of Mind: Developmental Delay in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Pino, Maria Chiara; Mazza, Monica; Mariano, Melania; Peretti, Sara; Dimitriou, Dagmara; Masedu, Francesco; Valenti, Marco; Franco, Fabia

2017-01-01

Theory of mind (ToM) is impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The aims of this study were to: (i) examine the developmental trajectories of ToM abilities in two different mentalizing tasks in children with ASD compared to TD children; and (ii) to assess if a ToM simple test known as eyes-test could predict performance on…

Predicting Future High-Cost Schizophrenia Patients Using High-Dimensional Administrative Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yajuan Wang

2017-06-01

health care, medication utilization features, and supervised machine learning methods improved the ability to predict and identify future high-cost patients with schizophrenia when compared with the CMS-HCC model.

Use of 15N dilution method for screening soybean lines with high yield and high nitrogen fixation ability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Haixian; Li Xinmin; Danso, S.K.A.

1998-01-01

15 N dilution method was used for screening soybean lines with high nitrogen fixation ability. Screened lines 1005, 8502, 2096, 943, 1454 and Dongnong-42 have high nitrogen fixation ability with their % Ndfa of about 70%. 1454 and 1555 are both high yield and high nitrogen fixation lines. The ability of nitrogen fixation was not related to the yield, but related to maturing time. The cultivars with different maturing time have different levels of nitrogen fixation ability. The longer the maturing period is, the greater the ability of nitrogen fixation it has. There were ten cultivars or lines used in the test of 1992 and 1994. Although the weather condition were greatly different between the two years the results of seven cultivars or lines were the same, indicating that nitrogen fixation ability of the soybean is stable with years. Using 15 N dilution method to estimate nitrogen fixation ability of soybean is reliable, however, the % Ndfa of lines 8502 and 2096 increased by 19% in 1994, a rainy year, indicating that a change in % Ndfa with a few varieties maybe caused by weather

Ability, Parental Valuation of Education and the High School Dropout Decision

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Foley, Kelly; Gallipoli, Giovanni; Green, David

of the factor model set out in Carneiro, Hansen, and Heckman (2003). Specically, we consider the impact of cognitive and non-cognitive ability and the value that parents place on education. Our results support three main conclusions. First, cognitive ability at age 15 has a substantial impact on dropping out....... Second, parental valuation of education has an impact of approximately the same size as cognitive ability e ects for medium and low ability teenagers. A low ability teenager has a probability of dropping out of approximately .03 if his parents place a high value on education but .36 if their education......We use a large, rich Canadian micro-level dataset to examine the channels through which family socio-economic status and unobservable characteristics a ect children's decisions to drop out of high school. First, we document the strength of observable socio-economic factors: our data suggest...

Spatial Abilities of High-School Students in the Perception of Geologic Structures.

Science.gov (United States)

Kali, Yael; Orion, Nir

1996-01-01

Characterizes specific spatial abilities required in geology studies through the examination of the performance of high school students in solving structural geology problems on the geologic spatial ability test (GeoSAT). Concludes that visual penetration ability and the ability to perceive the spatial configuration of the structure are…

Geometry optimization method versus predictive ability in QSPR modeling for ionic liquids

Science.gov (United States)

Rybinska, Anna; Sosnowska, Anita; Barycki, Maciej; Puzyn, Tomasz

2016-02-01

Computational techniques, such as Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship (QSPR) modeling, are very useful in predicting physicochemical properties of various chemicals. Building QSPR models requires calculating molecular descriptors and the proper choice of the geometry optimization method, which will be dedicated to specific structure of tested compounds. Herein, we examine the influence of the ionic liquids' (ILs) geometry optimization methods on the predictive ability of QSPR models by comparing three models. The models were developed based on the same experimental data on density collected for 66 ionic liquids, but with employing molecular descriptors calculated from molecular geometries optimized at three different levels of the theory, namely: (1) semi-empirical (PM7), (2) ab initio (HF/6-311+G*) and (3) density functional theory (B3LYP/6-311+G*). The model in which the descriptors were calculated by using ab initio HF/6-311+G* method indicated the best predictivity capabilities ({{Q}}_{{EXT}}2 = 0.87). However, PM7-based model has comparable values of quality parameters ({{Q}}_{{EXT}}2 = 0.84). Obtained results indicate that semi-empirical methods (faster and less expensive regarding CPU time) can be successfully employed to geometry optimization in QSPR studies for ionic liquids.

A simple criterion to predict the glass forming ability of metallic alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Falcao de Oliveira, Marcelo

2012-01-01

A new and simple criterion with which to quantitatively predict the glass forming ability (GFA) of metallic alloys is proposed. It was found that the critical cooling rate for glass formation (R C ) correlates well with a proper combination of two factors, the minimum topological instability (λ min ) and the Δh parameter, which depends on the average work function difference (Δφ) and the average electron density difference (Δn ws 1/3 ) among the constituent elements of the alloy. A correlation coefficient (R 2 ) of 0.76 was found between R c and the new criterion for 68 alloys in 30 different metallic systems. The new criterion and the Uhlmann's approach were used to estimate the critical amorphous thickness (Z C ) of alloys in the Cu-Zr system. The new criterion underestimated R C in the Cu-Zr system, producing predicted Z C values larger than those observed experimentally. However, when considering a scale factor, a remarkable similarity was observed between the predicted and the experimental behavior of the GFA in the binary Cu-Zr. When using the same scale factor and performing the calculation for the ternary Zr-Cu-Al, good agreement was found between the predicted and the actual best GFA region, as well as between the expected and the observed critical amorphous thickness.

Teaching High-Ability Pupils in Early Primary School

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijkstra, Elma

2015-01-01

This thesis describes the design and implementation of the intervention 'Excel Kwadraat' in primary schools. This intervention aims to improve teachers’ differentiation practices in order to better anticipate pupil differences, including excellent or high-ability pupils. In the end, the intervention

Childhood Cognitive Ability Predicts Adult Financial Well-Being

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian Furnham

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This study set out to investigate to what extent childhood cognitive ability, along with personality traits, education and occupational status, as well as marital status influence adult financial success. Data were drawn from a large, prospective birth cohort in the UK, the National Child Development Study (NCDS. The analytic sample was comprised of 4537 cohort members with data on parental social class (at birth, cognitive ability (at age 11, educational qualifications (at age 33, personality traits (at age 50, current marital status and occupational prestige, and salary/wage earning level (all measured at age 54. Correlational results showed that parental social class, childhood cognitive ability, traits extraversion, emotional stability, conscientiousness, and openness, being married positively, being divorced or separated negatively, education and occupation as well as gender were all significantly associated with adult earning ability (p < 0.05 to p < 0.001. Effect sizes for the relationship between intelligence and income was moderate. Results of a multiple regression analysis showed that childhood cognitive ability, traits conscientiousness and openness, educational qualifications and occupational prestige were significant and independent predictors of adult earning ability accounting for 30% of the total variance. There was also a gender effect on the outcome variable. Numerous limitations are noted.

The ability of preoperative factors to predict patient-reported disability following surgery for rotator cuff pathology.

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Woollard, Jason D; Bost, James E; Piva, Sara R; Kelley Fitzgerald, G; Rodosky, Mark W; Irrgang, James J

2017-10-01

Minimal research has examined the prognostic ability of shoulder examination data or psychosocial factors in predicting patient-reported disability following surgery for rotator cuff pathology. The purpose of this study was to examine these factors for prognostic value in order to help clinicians and patients understand preoperative factors that impact disability following surgery. Sixty-two patients scheduled for subacromial decompression with or without supraspinatus repair were recruited. Six-month follow-up data were available for 46 patients. Patient characteristics, history of the condition, shoulder impairments, psychosocial factors, and patient-reported disability questionnaires were collected preoperatively. Six months following surgery, the Western Ontario Rotator Cuff Index (WORC) and global rating of change dichotomized subjects into responders versus nonresponders. Logistic regression quantified prognostic ability and created the most parsimonious model to predict outcome. Being on modified job duty (OR = .17, 95%CI: 0.03-0.94), and having a worker's compensation claim (OR = 0.08, 95%CI: 0.01-0.74) decreased probability of a positive outcome, while surgery on the dominant shoulder (OR = 11.96, 95%CI: 2.91-49.18) increased probability. From the examination, only impaired internal rotation strength was a significant univariate predictor. The Fear-avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) score (OR = 0.95, 95%CI: 0.91-0.98) and the FABQ_work subscale (OR = 0.92, 95%CI: 0.87-0.97) were univariate predictors. In the final model, surgery on the dominant shoulder (OR = 8.9, 95%CI 1.75-45.7) and FABQ_work subscale score ≤25 (OR = 15.3, 95%CI 2.3-101.9) remained significant. Surgery on the dominant arm resulted in greater improvement in patient-reported disability, thereby increasing the odds of a successful surgery. The predictive ability of the FABQ_work subscale highlights the potential impact of psychosocial factors on patient

External validation of the ability of the DRAGON score to predict outcome after thrombolysis treatment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ovesen, Christian Aavang; Christensen, Anders; Nielsen, J K

2013-01-01

Easy-to-perform and valid assessment scales for the effect of thrombolysis are essential in hyperacute stroke settings. Because of this we performed an external validation of the DRAGON scale proposed by Strbian et al. in a Danish cohort. All patients treated with intravenous recombinant plasmino......Easy-to-perform and valid assessment scales for the effect of thrombolysis are essential in hyperacute stroke settings. Because of this we performed an external validation of the DRAGON scale proposed by Strbian et al. in a Danish cohort. All patients treated with intravenous recombinant...... and their modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was assessed after 3 months. Three hundred and three patients were included in the analysis. The DRAGON scale proved to have a good discriminative ability for predicting highly unfavourable outcome (mRS 5-6) (area under the curve-receiver operating characteristic [AUC-ROC]: 0...

Simple Mindreading Abilities Predict Complex Theory of Mind: Developmental Delay in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

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Pino, Maria Chiara; Mazza, Monica; Mariano, Melania; Peretti, Sara; Dimitriou, Dagmara; Masedu, Francesco; Valenti, Marco; Franco, Fabia

2017-09-01

Theory of mind (ToM) is impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The aims of this study were to: (i) examine the developmental trajectories of ToM abilities in two different mentalizing tasks in children with ASD compared to TD children; and (ii) to assess if a ToM simple test known as eyes-test could predict performance on the more advanced ToM task, i.e. comic strip test. Based on a sample of 37 children with ASD and 55 TD children, our results revealed slower development at varying rates in all ToM measures in children with ASD, with delayed onset compared to TD children. These results could stimulate new treatments for social abilities, which would lessen the social deficit in ASD.

Ability of the MACRO Model to Predict Long-Term Leaching of Metribuzin and Diketometribuzin

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Rosenbom, Annette E; Kjær, Jeanne; Henriksen, Trine

2009-01-01

In a regulatory context, numerical models are increasingly employed to quantify leaching of pesticides and their metabolites. Although the ability of these models to accurately simulate leaching of pesticides has been evaluated, little is known about their ability to accurately simulate long...... alternative kinetics (a two-site approach), we captured the observed leaching scenario, thus underlining the necessity of accounting for the long-term sorption and dissipation characteristics when using models to predict the risk of groundwater contamination.......-term leaching of metabolites. A Danish study on the dissipation and sorption of metribuzin, involving both monitoring and batch experiments, concluded that desorption and degradation of metribuzin and leaching of its primary metabolite diketometribuzin continued for 5-6 years after application, posing a risk...

The Influence of Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Metacognitive Prompting on Genetics Problem Solving Ability among High School Students in Kenya

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Aurah, Catherine Muhonja

Within the framework of social cognitive theory, the influence of self-efficacy beliefs and metacognitive prompting on genetics problem solving ability among high school students in Kenya was examined through a mixed methods research design. A quasi-experimental study, supplemented by focus group interviews, was conducted to investigate both the outcomes and the processes of students' genetics problem-solving ability. Focus group interviews substantiated and supported findings from the quantitative instruments. The study was conducted in 17 high schools in Western Province, Kenya. A total of 2,138 high school students were purposively sampled. A sub-sample of 48 students participated in focus group interviews to understand their perspectives and experiences during the study so as to corroborate the quantitative data. Quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, zero-order correlations, 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA,, and sequential hierarchical multiple regressions. Qualitative data were transcribed, coded, and reported thematically. Results revealed metacognitive prompts had significant positive effects on student problem-solving ability independent of gender. Self-efficacy and metacognitive prompting significantly predicted genetics problem-solving ability. Gender differences were revealed, with girls outperforming boys on the genetics problem-solving test. Furthermore, self-efficacy moderated the relationship between metacognitive prompting and genetics problem-solving ability. This study established a foundation for instructional methods for biology teachers and recommendations are made for implementing metacognitive prompting in a problem-based learning environment in high schools and science teacher education programs in Kenya.

Implicit Theories, Expectancies, and Values Predict Mathematics Motivation and Behavior across High School and College.

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Priess-Groben, Heather A; Hyde, Janet Shibley

2017-06-01

Mathematics motivation declines for many adolescents, which limits future educational and career options. The present study sought to identify predictors of this decline by examining whether implicit theories assessed in ninth grade (incremental/entity) predicted course-taking behaviors and utility value in college. The study integrated implicit theory with variables from expectancy-value theory to examine potential moderators and mediators of the association of implicit theories with college mathematics outcomes. Implicit theories and expectancy-value variables were assessed in 165 American high school students (47 % female; 92 % White), who were then followed into their college years, at which time mathematics courses taken, course-taking intentions, and utility value were assessed. Implicit theories predicted course-taking intentions and utility value, but only self-concept of ability predicted courses taken, course-taking intentions, and utility value after controlling for prior mathematics achievement and baseline values. Expectancy for success in mathematics mediated associations between self-concept of ability and college outcomes. This research identifies self-concept of ability as a stronger predictor than implicit theories of mathematics motivation and behavior across several years: math self-concept is critical to sustained engagement in mathematics.

[Ability of procalcitonin to predict bacteremia in patients with community acquired pneumonia].

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Julián-Jiménez, Agustín; Timón Zapata, Jesús; Laserna Mendieta, Emilio José; Parejo Miguez, Raquel; Flores Chacartegui, Manuel; Gallardo Schall, Pablo

2014-04-07

To analyze the usefulness and ability of procalcitonin (PCT) to predict the presence of bacteremia in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) or other bacteria. This is an observational, prospective and descriptive study involving patients who were diagnosed with CAP in our Emergency Department. Data collected included socio-demographic and comorbidity variables, Charlson index, stage in the Pneumonia Severity Index and criteria of severe NAC, microbiologic studies and biomarker determinations (PCT and C reactive protein). The follow-up was carried out during 30 days to calculate the predictive power and the diagnostic performance for bacteremia caused or not by S. pneumoniae. Four hundred and seventy-four patients were finally included in the study. Blood cultures were positive in 85 individuals (17.9%) and S. pneumoniae was identified as the responsible pathogen in 75 of them (88.4%) (in 5 cases together with another agent). The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve for PCT to predict bacteremia (caused by S. pneumoniae or not) was 0.988 (95% confidence interval 0.908-0.995; P98% and>10, respectively. The most frequently isolated serotypes of S. pneumoniae were 19A, 7F, 1 and 3. The highest mean levels of PCT were found in serotypes 7F, 19A, 3 and 1, which showed statistically significant differences with regard to the others serotypes considered (P=.008). Serotypes associated with the highest percentage of severe sepsis-septic shock, 30-days mortality and multi-lobe or bilateral affection were 3, 1 and 19A; 1, 3 and 19A; and 3, 19A and 6A, respectively. PCT had a remarkable diagnostic ability to discard or suspect bacteremia and to guide the etiology of CAP caused by S. pneumoniae. Serotypes 1, 3, 19A and 7F showed greater frequency, systemic inflammatory response and clinical severity. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Predicting Bobsled Pushing Ability from Various Combine Testing Events.

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Tomasevicz, Curtis L; Ransone, Jack W; Bach, Christopher W

2018-03-12

The requisite combination of speed, power, and strength necessary for a bobsled push athlete coupled with the difficulty in directly measuring pushing ability makes selecting effective push crews challenging. Current practices by USA Bobsled and Skeleton (USABS) utilize field combine testing to assess and identify specifically selected performance variables in an attempt to best predict push performance abilities. Combine data consisting of 11 physical performance variables were collected from 75 subjects across two winter Olympic qualification years (2009 and 2013). These variables were sprints of 15-, 30-, and 60 m, a flying 30 m sprint, a standing broad jump, a shot toss, squat, power clean, body mass, and dry-land brake and side bobsled pushes. Discriminant Analysis (DA) in addition to Principle Component Analysis (PCA) was used to investigate two cases (Case 1: Olympians vs. non-Olympians; Case 2: National Team vs. non-National Team). Using these 11 variables, DA led to a classification rule that proved capable of identifying Olympians from non-Olympians and National Team members from non-National Team members with 9.33% and 14.67% misclassification rates, respectively. The PCA was used to find similar test variables within the combine that provided redundant or useless data. After eliminating the unnecessary variables, DA on the new combinations showed that 8 (Case 1) and 20 (Case 2) other combinations with fewer performance variables yielded misclassification rates as low as 6.67% and 13.33% respectively. Utilizing fewer performance variables can allow governing bodies in many other sports to create more appropriate combine testing that maximize accuracy, while minimizing irrelevant and redundant strategies.

Parenting Style, Perfectionism, and Creativity in High-Ability and High-Achieving Young Adults

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Miller, Angie L.; Lambert, Amber D.; Speirs Neumeister, Kristie L.

2012-01-01

The current study explores the potential relationships among perceived parenting style, perfectionism, and creativity in a high-ability and high-achieving young adult population. Using data from 323 honors college students at a Midwestern university, bivariate correlations suggested positive relationships between (a) permissive parenting style and…

Comparing the predictive abilities of phenotypic and marker-assisted selection methods in a biparental lettuce population

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Breeding and selection for the traits with polygenic inheritance is a challenging task that can be done by phenotypic selection, by marker-assisted selection or by genome wide selection. We tested predictive ability of four selection models in a biparental population genotyped with 95 SNP markers an...

Diet simplification selects for high gut microbial diversity and strong fermenting ability in high-altitude pikas.

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Li, Huan; Qu, Jiapeng; Li, Tongtong; Wirth, Stephan; Zhang, Yanming; Zhao, Xinquan; Li, Xiangzhen

2018-06-03

The gut microbiota in mammals plays a key role in host metabolism and adaptation. However, relatively little is known regarding to how the animals adapts to extreme environments through regulating gut microbial diversity and function. Here, we investigated the diet, gut microbiota, short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) profiles, and cellulolytic activity from two common pika (Ochotona spp.) species in China, including Plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Daurian pika (Ochotona daurica) from the Inner Mongolia Grassland. Despite a partial diet overlap, Plateau pikas harbored lower diet diversity than Daurian pikas. Some bacteria (e.g., Prevotella and Ruminococcus) associated with fiber degradation were enriched in Plateau pikas. They harbored higher gut microbial diversity, total SCFA concentration, and cellulolytic activity than Daurian pikas. Interestingly, cellulolytic activity was positively correlated with the gut microbial diversity and SCFAs. Gut microbial communities and SCFA profiles were segregated structurally between host species. PICRUSt metagenome predictions demonstrated that microbial genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism and energy metabolism were overrepresented in the gut microbiota of Plateau pikas. Our results demonstrate that Plateau pikas harbor a stronger fermenting ability for the plant-based diet than Daurian pikas via gut microbial fermentation. The enhanced ability for utilization of plant-based diets in Plateau pikas may be partly a kind of microbiota adaptation for more energy requirements in cold and hypoxic high-altitude environments.

Ontological confusions but not mentalizing abilities predict religious belief, paranormal belief, and belief in supernatural purpose.

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Lindeman, Marjaana; Svedholm-Häkkinen, Annika M; Lipsanen, Jari

2015-01-01

The current research tested the hypothesis that the abilities for understanding other people's minds give rise to the cognitive biases that underlie supernatural beliefs. We used structural equation modeling (N=2789) to determine the roles of various mentalizing tendencies, namely self-reported affective and cognitive empathy (i.e., mind reading), actual cognitive and affective empathic abilities, hyper-empathizing, and two cognitive biases (core ontological confusions and promiscuous teleology) in giving rise to supernatural beliefs. Support for a path from mentalizing abilities through cognitive biases to supernatural beliefs was weak. The relationships of mentalizing abilities with supernatural beliefs were also weak, and these relationships were not substantially mediated by cognitive biases. Core ontological confusions emerged as the best predictor, while promiscuous teleology predicted only a small proportion of variance. The results were similar for religious beliefs, paranormal beliefs, and for belief in supernatural purpose. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Work ability of Dutch employees with rheumatoid arthritis.

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de Croon, E M; Sluiter, J K; Nijssen, T F; Kammeijer, M; Dijkmans, B A C; Lankhorst, G J; Frings-Dresen, M H W

2005-01-01

To (i) examine the association between fatigue, psychosocial work characteristics (job control, support, participation in decision making, psychological job demands), and physical work requirements on the one hand and work ability of employees with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on the other, and (ii) determine the advice that health care professionals give to employees with RA on how to maintain their work ability. Data were gathered from 78 employees with early RA (response = 99%) by telephone interviews and self-report questionnaires. Fatigue, lack of autonomy, low coworker/supervisor support, low participation in decision making, and high physical work requirements (i.e. using manual force) predicted low work ability. High psychological job demands, however, did not predict low work ability. The rheumatologist, occupational physician, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, and psychologist gave advice on how to cope with RA at work to 36, 30, 27, 26, and 17% of the employees, respectively. Advice was directed mainly at factors intrinsic to the employee. Employees expressed a positive attitude towards this advice. Fatigue, lack of support, lack of autonomy, lack of participation in decision making, and using manual force at work (e.g. pushing and pulling) threaten the work ability of employees with RA. According to the employees with RA, involvement of health care professionals from different disciplines and the implementation of organizational and technical interventions would help them to tackle these threats.

Selecting the Right Educational Setting for High-Ability TCKS: A Mother's Perspective

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Yamada, Sylvia

2015-01-01

Meeting the needs of gifted students is challenging even in traditional contexts and settings. Well-known issues include a limited choice of schools, underrepresentation of certain populations, and, often, the lack of facilities and support for high-ability students. Imagine, then, the further complexities of high-ability Third Culture Kids (TCKs)…

Event segmentation ability uniquely predicts event memory.

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Sargent, Jesse Q; Zacks, Jeffrey M; Hambrick, David Z; Zacks, Rose T; Kurby, Christopher A; Bailey, Heather R; Eisenberg, Michelle L; Beck, Taylor M

2013-11-01

Memory for everyday events plays a central role in tasks of daily living, autobiographical memory, and planning. Event memory depends in part on segmenting ongoing activity into meaningful units. This study examined the relationship between event segmentation and memory in a lifespan sample to answer the following question: Is the ability to segment activity into meaningful events a unique predictor of subsequent memory, or is the relationship between event perception and memory accounted for by general cognitive abilities? Two hundred and eight adults ranging from 20 to 79years old segmented movies of everyday events and attempted to remember the events afterwards. They also completed psychometric ability tests and tests measuring script knowledge for everyday events. Event segmentation and script knowledge both explained unique variance in event memory above and beyond the psychometric measures, and did so as strongly in older as in younger adults. These results suggest that event segmentation is a basic cognitive mechanism, important for memory across the lifespan. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The ability of 'non-cognitive' traits to predict undergraduate performance in medical schools: a national linkage study.

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Finn, Gabrielle M; Mwandigha, Lazaro; Paton, Lewis W; Tiffin, Paul A

2018-05-03

In addition to the evaluation of educational attainment and intellectual ability there has been interest in the potential to select medical school applicants on non-academic qualities. Consequently, a battery of self-report measures concerned with assessing 'non-cognitive' traits was piloted as part of the UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) administration to evaluate their potential to be used in selection. The four non-cognitive instruments piloted were: 1) the Libertarian-communitarian scale, (2) The NACE (narcissism, aloofness, confidence and empathy, (3) the MEARS (Managing emotions and resilience scale; self-esteem, optimism, control, self-discipline, emotional-nondefensiveness and faking, and (4) an abridged version of instruments (1) and (2) combined. Non-cognitive scores and sociodemographic characteristics were available for 14,387 applicants. A series of univariable and multivariable analyses were conducted in order to assess the ability of the non-cognitive scores to predict knowledge and skills-based performance, as well as the odds of passing each academic year at first attempt. Non-cognitive scores and medical performance were standardised within cohorts. The scores on the non-cognitive scales showed only very small (magnitude of standardised betas< 0.2), though sometimes statistically significant (p < 0.01) univariable associations with subsequent performance on knowledge or skills-based assessments. The only statistically significant association between the non-cognitive scores and the probability of passing an academic year at first attempt was the narcissism score from one the abridged tests (OR 0.84,95% confidence intervals 0.71 to 0.97, p = 0.02). Our findings are consistent with previously published research. The tests had a very limited ability to predict undergraduate academic performance, though further research on identifying narcissism in medical students may be warranted. However, the validity of such self-report tools in high

Multitrait, Random Regression, or Simple Repeatability Model in High-Throughput Phenotyping Data Improve Genomic Prediction for Wheat Grain Yield.

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Sun, Jin; Rutkoski, Jessica E; Poland, Jesse A; Crossa, José; Jannink, Jean-Luc; Sorrells, Mark E

2017-07-01

High-throughput phenotyping (HTP) platforms can be used to measure traits that are genetically correlated with wheat ( L.) grain yield across time. Incorporating such secondary traits in the multivariate pedigree and genomic prediction models would be desirable to improve indirect selection for grain yield. In this study, we evaluated three statistical models, simple repeatability (SR), multitrait (MT), and random regression (RR), for the longitudinal data of secondary traits and compared the impact of the proposed models for secondary traits on their predictive abilities for grain yield. Grain yield and secondary traits, canopy temperature (CT) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), were collected in five diverse environments for 557 wheat lines with available pedigree and genomic information. A two-stage analysis was applied for pedigree and genomic selection (GS). First, secondary traits were fitted by SR, MT, or RR models, separately, within each environment. Then, best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) of secondary traits from the above models were used in the multivariate prediction models to compare predictive abilities for grain yield. Predictive ability was substantially improved by 70%, on average, from multivariate pedigree and genomic models when including secondary traits in both training and test populations. Additionally, (i) predictive abilities slightly varied for MT, RR, or SR models in this data set, (ii) results indicated that including BLUPs of secondary traits from the MT model was the best in severe drought, and (iii) the RR model was slightly better than SR and MT models under drought environment. Copyright © 2017 Crop Science Society of America.

A comparative analysis of primary and secondary Gleason pattern predictive ability for positive surgical margins after radical prostatectomy.

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Sfoungaristos, S; Kavouras, A; Kanatas, P; Polimeros, N; Perimenis, P

2011-01-01

To compare the predictive ability of primary and secondary Gleason pattern for positive surgical margins in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer and a preoperative Gleason score ≤ 6. A retrospective analysis of the medical records of patients undergone a radical prostatectomy between January 2005 and October 2010 was conducted. Patients' age, prostate volume, preoperative PSA, biopsy Gleason score, the 1st and 2nd Gleason pattern were entered a univariate and multivariate analysis. The 1st and 2nd pattern were tested for their ability to predict positive surgical margins using receiver operating characteristic curves. Positive surgical margins were noticed in 56 cases (38.1%) out of 147 studied patients. The 2nd pattern was significantly greater in those with positive surgical margins while the 1st pattern was not significantly different between the 2 groups of patients. ROC analysis revealed that area under the curve was 0.53 (p=0.538) for the 1st pattern and 0.60 (p=0.048) for the 2nd pattern. Concerning the cases with PSA <10 ng/ml, it was also found that only the 2nd pattern had a predictive ability (p=0.050). When multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted it was found that the 2nd pattern was the only independent predictor. The second Gleason pattern was found to be of higher value than the 1st one for the prediction of positive surgical margins in patients with preoperative Gleason score ≤ 6 and this should be considered especially when a neurovascular bundle sparing radical prostatectomy is planned, in order not to harm the oncological outcome.

Comparing frailty measures in their ability to predict adverse outcome among older residents of assisted living

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hogan David B

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Few studies have directly compared the competing approaches to identifying frailty in more vulnerable older populations. We examined the ability of two versions of a frailty index (43 vs. 83 items, the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS frailty criteria, and the CHESS scale to accurately predict the occurrence of three outcomes among Assisted Living (AL residents followed over one year. Methods The three frailty measures and the CHESS scale were derived from assessment items completed among 1,066 AL residents (aged 65+ participating in the Alberta Continuing Care Epidemiological Studies (ACCES. Adjusted risks of one-year mortality, hospitalization and long-term care placement were estimated for those categorized as frail or pre-frail compared with non-frail (or at high/intermediate vs. low risk on CHESS. The area under the ROC curve (AUC was calculated for select models to assess the predictive accuracy of the different frailty measures and CHESS scale in relation to the three outcomes examined. Results Frail subjects defined by the three approaches and those at high risk for decline on CHESS showed a statistically significant increased risk for death and long-term care placement compared with those categorized as either not frail or at low risk for decline. The risk estimates for hospitalization associated with the frailty measures and CHESS were generally weaker with one of the frailty indices (43 items showing no significant association. For death and long-term care placement, the addition of frailty (however derived or CHESS significantly improved on the AUC obtained with a model including only age, sex and co-morbidity, though the magnitude of improvement was sometimes small. The different frailty/risk models did not differ significantly from each other in predicting mortality or hospitalization; however, one of the frailty indices (83 items showed significantly better performance over the other measures in predicting long

Preschool speech articulation and nonword repetition abilities may help predict eventual recovery or persistence of stuttering.

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Spencer, Caroline; Weber-Fox, Christine

2014-09-01

In preschool children, we investigated whether expressive and receptive language, phonological, articulatory, and/or verbal working memory proficiencies aid in predicting eventual recovery or persistence of stuttering. Participants included 65 children, including 25 children who do not stutter (CWNS) and 40 who stutter (CWS) recruited at age 3;9-5;8. At initial testing, participants were administered the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language, 3rd edition (TACL-3), Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test, 3rd edition (SPELT-3), Bankson-Bernthal Test of Phonology-Consonant Inventory subtest (BBTOP-CI), Nonword Repetition Test (NRT; Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998), and Test of Auditory Perceptual Skills-Revised (TAPS-R) auditory number memory and auditory word memory subtests. Stuttering behaviors of CWS were assessed in subsequent years, forming groups whose stuttering eventually persisted (CWS-Per; n=19) or recovered (CWS-Rec; n=21). Proficiency scores in morphosyntactic skills, consonant production, verbal working memory for known words, and phonological working memory and speech production for novel nonwords obtained at the initial testing were analyzed for each group. CWS-Per were less proficient than CWNS and CWS-Rec in measures of consonant production (BBTOP-CI) and repetition of novel phonological sequences (NRT). In contrast, receptive language, expressive language, and verbal working memory abilities did not distinguish CWS-Rec from CWS-Per. Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that preschool BBTOP-CI scores and overall NRT proficiency significantly predicted future recovery status. Results suggest that phonological and speech articulation abilities in the preschool years should be considered with other predictive factors as part of a comprehensive risk assessment for the development of chronic stuttering. At the end of this activity the reader will be able to: (1) describe the current status of nonlinguistic and linguistic predictors for

Anterior Temporal Lobe Morphometry Predicts Categorization Ability.

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Garcin, Béatrice; Urbanski, Marika; Thiebaut de Schotten, Michel; Levy, Richard; Volle, Emmanuelle

2018-01-01

Categorization is the mental operation by which the brain classifies objects and events. It is classically assessed using semantic and non-semantic matching or sorting tasks. These tasks show a high variability in performance across healthy controls and the cerebral bases supporting this variability remain unknown. In this study we performed a voxel-based morphometry study to explore the relationships between semantic and shape categorization tasks and brain morphometric differences in 50 controls. We found significant correlation between categorization performance and the volume of the gray matter in the right anterior middle and inferior temporal gyri. Semantic categorization tasks were associated with more rostral temporal regions than shape categorization tasks. A significant relationship was also shown between white matter volume in the right temporal lobe and performance in the semantic tasks. Tractography revealed that this white matter region involved several projection and association fibers, including the arcuate fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus, and inferior longitudinal fasciculus. These results suggest that categorization abilities are supported by the anterior portion of the right temporal lobe and its interaction with other areas.

The precision of mapping between number words and the approximate number system predicts children's formal math abilities.

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Libertus, Melissa E; Odic, Darko; Feigenson, Lisa; Halberda, Justin

2016-10-01

Children can represent number in at least two ways: by using their non-verbal, intuitive approximate number system (ANS) and by using words and symbols to count and represent numbers exactly. Furthermore, by the time they are 5years old, children can map between the ANS and number words, as evidenced by their ability to verbally estimate numbers of items without counting. How does the quality of the mapping between approximate and exact numbers relate to children's math abilities? The role of the ANS-number word mapping in math competence remains controversial for at least two reasons. First, previous work has not examined the relation between verbal estimation and distinct subtypes of math abilities. Second, previous work has not addressed how distinct components of verbal estimation-mapping accuracy and variability-might each relate to math performance. Here, we addressed these gaps by measuring individual differences in ANS precision, verbal number estimation, and formal and informal math abilities in 5- to 7-year-old children. We found that verbal estimation variability, but not estimation accuracy, predicted formal math abilities, even when controlling for age, expressive vocabulary, and ANS precision, and that it mediated the link between ANS precision and overall math ability. These findings suggest that variability in the ANS-number word mapping may be especially important for formal math abilities. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Importance of Intrinsic Motivation for High and Low Ability Readers' Reading Comprehension Performance

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Logan, Sarah; Medford, Emma; Hughes, Naomi

2011-01-01

The study examined how cognitive and motivational factors predicted reading skill and whether intrinsic reading motivation would explain significantly more variance in low ability readers' reading performance. One hundred and eleven children (aged 9-11) completed assessments of reading comprehension skill, verbal IQ, decoding skill and intrinsic…

Assessing the ability of operational snow models to predict snowmelt runoff extremes (Invited)

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Wood, A. W.; Restrepo, P. J.; Clark, M. P.

2013-12-01

In the western US, the snow accumulation and melt cycle of winter and spring plays a critical role in the region's water management strategies. Consequently, the ability to predict snowmelt runoff at time scales from days to seasons is a key input for decisions in reservoir management, whether for avoiding flood hazards or supporting environmental flows through the scheduling of releases in spring, or for allocating releases for multi-state water distribution in dry seasons of year (using reservoir systems to provide an invaluable buffer for many sectors against drought). Runoff forecasts thus have important benefits at both wet and dry extremes of the climatological spectrum. The importance of the prediction of the snow cycle motivates an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the US's central operational snow model, SNOW17, in contrast to process-modeling alternatives, as they relate to simulating observed snowmelt variability and extremes. To this end, we use a flexible modeling approach that enables an investigation of different choices in model structure, including model physics, parameterization and degree of spatiotemporal discretization. We draw from examples of recent extreme events in western US watersheds and an overall assessment of retrospective model performance to identify fruitful avenues for advancing the modeling basis for the operational prediction of snow-related runoff extremes.

Does the ability to express different emotions predict different indices of physical health? A skill-based study of physical symptoms and heart rate variability.

Science.gov (United States)

Tuck, Natalie L; Adams, Kathryn S; Consedine, Nathan S

2017-09-01

of contribution What is already known on this subject The tendency to outwardly express felt emotion generally predicts better health, whereas expressive suppression typically predicts worse health outcomes. Most work has been based on trait assessments; however, the ability to regulate the expression of felt emotion can be objectively assessed using performance-based tests. Prior work in mental health suggests that the ability to flexibly up- and downregulate the expression of emotion predicts better outcomes. What does this study add The first evidence that the ability to flexibly regulate expressions predicts indices of health. Skill in both expressing and suppressing facial expressions predicts better reported health. Skills with different emotions differentially predict symptom interference and cardiac vagal tone. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Language Ability Predicts Cortical Structure and Covariance in Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharda, Megha; Foster, Nicholas E V; Tryfon, Ana; Doyle-Thomas, Krissy A R; Ouimet, Tia; Anagnostou, Evdokia; Evans, Alan C; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie; Lerch, Jason P; Lewis, John D; Hyde, Krista L

2017-03-01

There is significant clinical heterogeneity in language and communication abilities of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, no consistent pathology regarding the relationship of these abilities to brain structure has emerged. Recent developments in anatomical correlation-based approaches to map structural covariance networks (SCNs), combined with detailed behavioral characterization, offer an alternative for studying these relationships. In this study, such an approach was used to study the integrity of SCNs of cortical thickness and surface area associated with language and communication, in 46 high-functioning, school-age children with ASD compared with 50 matched, typically developing controls (all males) with IQ > 75. Findings showed that there was alteration of cortical structure and disruption of fronto-temporal cortical covariance in ASD compared with controls. Furthermore, in an analysis of a subset of ASD participants, alterations in both cortical structure and covariance were modulated by structural language ability of the participants, but not communicative function. These findings indicate that structural language abilities are related to altered fronto-temporal cortical covariance in ASD, much more than symptom severity or cognitive ability. They also support the importance of better characterizing ASD samples while studying brain structure and for better understanding individual differences in language and communication abilities in ASD. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Ability to Categorize Food Predicts Hypothetical Food Choices in Head Start Preschoolers.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholson, Jody S; Barton, Jennifer M; Simons, Ali L

2018-03-01

To investigate whether preschoolers are able to identify and categorize foods, and whether their ability to classify food as healthy predicts their hypothetical food choice. Structured interviews and body measurements with preschoolers, and teacher reports of classroom performance. Six Head Start centers in a large southeastern region. A total of 235 preschoolers (mean age [SD], 4.73 [0.63] years; 45.4% girls). Teachers implemented a nutrition education intervention across the 2014-2015 school year in which children were taught to identify and categorize food as sometimes (ie, unhealthy) and anytime (ie, healthy). Preschooler responses to a hypothetical snack naming, classifying, and selection scenario. Hierarchical regression analyses to examine predictors of child hypothetical food selection. While controlling for child characteristics and cognitive functioning, preschoolers who were better at categorizing food as healthy or unhealthy were more likely to say they would choose the healthy food. Low-contrast food pairs in which food had to be classified based on multiple dimensions were outside the cognitive abilities of the preschoolers. Nutrition interventions may be more effective in helping children make healthy food choices if developmental limitations in preschoolers' abilities to categorize food is addressed in their curriculum. Classification of food into evaluative categories is challenging for this age group. Categorizing on multiple dimensions is difficult, and dichotomous labeling of food as good or bad is not always accurate in directing children toward making food choices. Future research could evaluate further preschoolers' developmental potential for food categorization and nutrition decision making and consider factors that influence healthy food choices at both snack and mealtime. Copyright © 2017 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Memory and Cognitive Strategies of High Ability Students in a Rural Secondary School

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, Fuziana; Yunus, Melor Md

2013-01-01

This study was conducted to examine language learning strategies employed by the high ability students in a rural secondary school. Memory and cognitive strategies employed by the high ability students were the main focus in this study. A survey design was used and data was collected using Oxford's questionnaires. Findings reveal that the high…

Anterior Temporal Lobe Morphometry Predicts Categorization Ability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Béatrice Garcin

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Categorization is the mental operation by which the brain classifies objects and events. It is classically assessed using semantic and non-semantic matching or sorting tasks. These tasks show a high variability in performance across healthy controls and the cerebral bases supporting this variability remain unknown. In this study we performed a voxel-based morphometry study to explore the relationships between semantic and shape categorization tasks and brain morphometric differences in 50 controls. We found significant correlation between categorization performance and the volume of the gray matter in the right anterior middle and inferior temporal gyri. Semantic categorization tasks were associated with more rostral temporal regions than shape categorization tasks. A significant relationship was also shown between white matter volume in the right temporal lobe and performance in the semantic tasks. Tractography revealed that this white matter region involved several projection and association fibers, including the arcuate fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus, and inferior longitudinal fasciculus. These results suggest that categorization abilities are supported by the anterior portion of the right temporal lobe and its interaction with other areas.

High Working Memory Capacity Predicts Less Retrieval Induced Forgetting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mall, Jonathan T.; Morey, Candice C.

2013-01-01

Background : Working Memory Capacity (WMC) is thought to be related to executive control and focused memory search abilities. These two hypotheses make contrasting predictions regarding the effects of retrieval on forgetting. Executive control during memory retrieval is believed to lead to retrieval

Reprocessing ability of high density fuels for research and test reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gay, A.; Belieres, M.

1997-01-01

The development of a new high density fuel is becoming a key issue for Research Reactors operators. Such a new fuel should be a Low Enrichment Uranium (LEU) fuel with a high density, to improve present in core performances. It must be compatible with the reprocessing in an industrial plant to provide a steady back-end solution. Within the framework of a work group CEA/CERCA/COGEMA on new fuel development for Research Reactors, COGEMA has performed an evaluation of the reprocessing ability of some fuel dispersants selected as good candidates. The results will allow US to classify these fuel dispersants from a reprocessing ability point of view. (author)

Sensorimotor abilities predict on-field performance in professional baseball.

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Burris, Kyle; Vittetoe, Kelly; Ramger, Benjamin; Suresh, Sunith; Tokdar, Surya T; Reiter, Jerome P; Appelbaum, L Gregory

2018-01-08

Baseball players must be able to see and react in an instant, yet it is hotly debated whether superior performance is associated with superior sensorimotor abilities. In this study, we compare sensorimotor abilities, measured through 8 psychomotor tasks comprising the Nike Sensory Station assessment battery, and game statistics in a sample of 252 professional baseball players to evaluate the links between sensorimotor skills and on-field performance. For this purpose, we develop a series of Bayesian hierarchical latent variable models enabling us to compare statistics across professional baseball leagues. Within this framework, we find that sensorimotor abilities are significant predictors of on-base percentage, walk rate and strikeout rate, accounting for age, position, and league. We find no such relationship for either slugging percentage or fielder-independent pitching. The pattern of results suggests performance contributions from both visual-sensory and visual-motor abilities and indicates that sensorimotor screenings may be useful for player scouting.

Looking at the high ability/giftedness through the lens of curriculum studies

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Soraia Napoleão Freitas

2011-12-01

Full Text Available From diving in the educational field, either in teaching or research in Special Education, this article postulates bring visibility to a curricular discussion strongly marked by the educational practice of learners with high ability/giftedness and having the "lighthouse flag” the inclusion policy school principles, not just theorizing about the elements of the theme. Curriculum is understood as a territory of knowledge and power, so the manufacturing process of the curriculum in the wake of the inclusive hillside – a journey which aims to solidify egalitarian social link - can put up as an potentiating agent of different actions for the education of students with high ability/giftedness, protecting them from moments of discrimination, segregation and personal, family, school and social exclusion. Therefore, this article takes up an invitation to educators to look at the prerogatives of education that hosts students with high ability/giftedness with the lens of curriculum studies.

Ability of preoperative 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging to predict the absence of side-specific extracapsular extension of prostate cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Hara, Tomohiko; Nakanishi, Hiroyuki; Nakagawa, Tohru; Komiyama, Motokiyo; Kawahara, Takashi; Manabe, Tomoko; Miyake, Mototaka; Arai, Eri; Kanai, Yae; Fujimoto, Hiroyuki

2013-10-01

Recent studies have shown an improvement in prostate cancer diagnosis with the use of 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging. We retrospectively assessed the ability of this imaging technique to predict side-specific extracapsular extension of prostate cancer. From October 2007 to August 2011, prostatectomy was carried out in 396 patients after preoperative 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging. Among these, 132 (primary sample) and 134 patients (validation sample) underwent 12-core prostate biopsy at the National Cancer Center Hospital of Tokyo, Japan, and at other institutions, respectively. In the primary dataset, univariate and multivariate analyses were carried out to predict side-specific extracapsular extension using variables determined preoperatively, including 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging findings (T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted imaging). A prediction model was then constructed and applied to the validation study sample. Multivariate analysis identified four significant independent predictors (P Tesla diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging findings, ≥2 positive biopsy cores on each side and a maximum percentage of positive cores ≥31% on each side. The negative predictive value was 93.9% in the combination model with these four predictors, meanwhile the positive predictive value was 33.8%. Good reproducibility of these four significant predictors and the combination model was observed in the validation study sample. The side-specific extracapsular extension prediction by the biopsy Gleason score and factors associated with tumor location, including a positive 3.0-Tesla diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging finding, have a high negative predictive value, but a low positive predictive value. © 2013 The Japanese Urological Association.

Addressing criticisms of existing predictive bias research: cognitive ability test scores still overpredict African Americans' job performance.

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Berry, Christopher M; Zhao, Peng

2015-01-01

Predictive bias studies have generally suggested that cognitive ability test scores overpredict job performance of African Americans, meaning these tests are not predictively biased against African Americans. However, at least 2 issues call into question existing over-/underprediction evidence: (a) a bias identified by Aguinis, Culpepper, and Pierce (2010) in the intercept test typically used to assess over-/underprediction and (b) a focus on the level of observed validity instead of operational validity. The present study developed and utilized a method of assessing over-/underprediction that draws on the math of subgroup regression intercept differences, does not rely on the biased intercept test, allows for analysis at the level of operational validity, and can use meta-analytic estimates as input values. Therefore, existing meta-analytic estimates of key parameters, corrected for relevant statistical artifacts, were used to determine whether African American job performance remains overpredicted at the level of operational validity. African American job performance was typically overpredicted by cognitive ability tests across levels of job complexity and across conditions wherein African American and White regression slopes did and did not differ. Because the present study does not rely on the biased intercept test and because appropriate statistical artifact corrections were carried out, the present study's results are not affected by the 2 issues mentioned above. The present study represents strong evidence that cognitive ability tests generally overpredict job performance of African Americans. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

The Role of Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Cognitive Abilities in Predicting Writing Achievement during the School-Age Years

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Cormier, Damien C.; Bulut, Okan; McGrew, Kevin S.; Frison, Jessica

2016-01-01

Writing is a complex academic task--it involves numerous mental processes. Given the necessity for developing writing skills from elementary to secondary school, this study aimed to investigate the role of broad cognitive abilities derived from the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of intelligence in predicting skills associated with writing…

The Precision of Mapping Between Number Words and the Approximate Number System Predicts Children’s Formal Math Abilities

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Libertus, Melissa E.; Odic, Darko; Feigenson, Lisa; Halberda, Justin

2016-01-01

Children can represent number in at least two ways: by using their non-verbal, intuitive Approximate Number System (ANS), and by using words and symbols to count and represent numbers exactly. Further, by the time they are five years old, children can map between the ANS and number words, as evidenced by their ability to verbally estimate numbers of items without counting. How does the quality of the mapping between approximate and exact numbers relate to children’s math abilities? The role of the ANS-number word mapping in math competence remains controversial for at least two reasons. First, previous work has not examined the relation between verbal estimation and distinct subtypes of math abilities. Second, previous work has not addressed how distinct components of verbal estimation – mapping accuracy and variability – might each relate to math performance. Here, we address these gaps by measuring individual differences in ANS precision, verbal number estimation, and formal and informal math abilities in 5- to 7-year-old children. We found that verbal estimation variability, but not estimation accuracy, predicted formal math abilities even when controlling for age, expressive vocabulary, and ANS precision, and that it mediated the link between ANS precision and overall math ability. These findings suggest that variability in the ANS-number word mapping may be especially important for formal math abilities. PMID:27348475

ASD Screening Measures for High-Ability Youth with ASD: Examining the ASSQ and SRS

Science.gov (United States)

Cederberg, Charles D.; Gann, Lianne C.; Foley-Nicpon, Megan; Sussman, Zachary

2018-01-01

High-ability youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) historically have been neglected within samples validating ASD screening measures, and consensus for what constitutes high ability has not been established. The Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) are two common screening tools for ASD…

Cabri 3D - assisted collaborative learning to enhance junior high school students’ spatial ability

Science.gov (United States)

Muntazhimah; Miatun, A.

2018-01-01

The main purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the enhancement of spatial ability of junior high school students who learned through Cabri-3D assisted collaborative learning. The methodology of this study was the nonequivalent group that was conducted to students of the eighth grade in a junior high school as a population. Samples consisted one class of the experimental group who studied with Cabri-3D assisted collaborative learning and one class as a control group who got regular learning activity. The instrument used in this study was a spatial ability test. Analyzing normalized gain of students’ spatial ability based on mathemathical prior knowledge (MPK) and its interactions was tested by two-way ANOVA at a significance level of 5% then continued with using Post Hoc Scheffe test. The research results showed that there was significant difference in enhancement of the spatial ability between students who learnt with Cabri 3D assisted collaborative learning and students who got regular learning, there was significant difference in enhancement of the spatial ability between students who learnt with cabri 3D assisted collaborative learning and students who got regular learning in terms of MPK and there is no significant interaction between learning (Cabri-3D assisted collaborative learning and regular learning) with students’ MPK (high, medium, and low) toward the enhancement of students’ spatial abilities. From the above findings, it can be seen that cabri-3D assisted collaborative learning could enhance spatial ability of junior high school students.

The Relationship Between Utilization of Computer Games and Spatial Abilities Among High School Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vahid Motamedi

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This study aimed at investigating the relationship between computer game use and spatial abilities among high school students. The sample consisted of 300 high school male students selected through multi-stage cluster sampling. Data gathering tools consisted of a researcher made questionnaire (to collect information on computer game usage and the Newton and Bristol spatial ability questionnaire with reliability value of .85. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results showed that there was a meaningful relationship between the use of computer games and spatial ability (r = .59 and p = 00.00, there was a meaningful relationship between the use of computer games and the spatial perceived ability (r = .60 and p = .00, there was a meaningful relationship between the use of computer games and mental rotation ability (r = .48 and p = .00 and there was a meaningful relationship between computer game use and spatial visualization ability (r = .48 and p = .00. In general, the findings showed there was a positive and a significant relationship between the use of computer games and spatial abilities in students.

[Predicting individual risk of high healthcare cost to identify complex chronic patients].

Science.gov (United States)

Coderch, Jordi; Sánchez-Pérez, Inma; Ibern, Pere; Carreras, Marc; Pérez-Berruezo, Xavier; Inoriza, José M

2014-01-01

To develop a predictive model for the risk of high consumption of healthcare resources, and assess the ability of the model to identify complex chronic patients. A cross-sectional study was performed within a healthcare management organization by using individual data from 2 consecutive years (88,795 people). The dependent variable consisted of healthcare costs above the 95th percentile (P95), including all services provided by the organization and pharmaceutical consumption outside of the institution. The predictive variables were age, sex, morbidity-based on clinical risk groups (CRG)-and selected data from previous utilization (use of hospitalization, use of high-cost drugs in ambulatory care, pharmaceutical expenditure). A univariate descriptive analysis was performed. We constructed a logistic regression model with a 95% confidence level and analyzed sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values (PPV), and the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Individuals incurring costs >P95 accumulated 44% of total healthcare costs and were concentrated in ACRG3 (aggregated CRG level 3) categories related to multiple chronic diseases. All variables were statistically significant except for sex. The model had a sensitivity of 48.4% (CI: 46.9%-49.8%), specificity of 97.2% (CI: 97.0%-97.3%), PPV of 46.5% (CI: 45.0%-47.9%), and an AUC of 0.897 (CI: 0.892 to 0.902). High consumption of healthcare resources is associated with complex chronic morbidity. A model based on age, morbidity, and prior utilization is able to predict high-cost risk and identify a target population requiring proactive care. Copyright © 2013 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Predictive ability of the Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system after first-time lower extremity revascularizations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J. Darling (Jeremy); J.C. McCallum (John C.); P.A. Soden (Peter A.); Guzman, R.J. (Raul J.); Wyers, M.C. (Mark C.); Hamdan, A.D. (Allen D.); H.J.M. Verhagen (Hence); M.L. Schermerhorn (Marc)

2017-01-01

markdownabstract__Objective:__ The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Wound, Ischemia and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system was proposed to predict 1-year amputation risk and potential benefit from revascularization. Our goal was to evaluate the predictive ability of this scale in a

Factors associated with poor balance ability in older adults of nine high-altitude communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Urrunaga-Pastor, Diego; Moncada-Mapelli, Enrique; Runzer-Colmenares, Fernando M; Bailon-Valdez, Zaira; Samper-Ternent, Rafael; Rodriguez-Mañas, Leocadio; Parodi, Jose F

2018-05-01

Poor balance ability in older adults result in multiple complications. Poor balance ability has not been studied among older adults living at high altitudes. In this study, we analysed factors associated with poor balance ability by using the Functional Reach (FR) among older adults living in nine high-altitude communities. Analytical cross-sectional study, carried out in inhabitants aged 60 or over from nine high-altitude Andean communities of Peru during 2013-2016. FR was divided according to the cut-off point of 8 inches (20.32 cm) and two groups were generated: poor balance ability (FR less or equal than 20.32 cm) and good balance ability (greater than 20.32 cm). Additionally, we collected socio-demographic, medical, functional and cognitive assessment information. Poisson regression models were constructed to identify factors associated with poor balance ability. Prevalence ratio (PR) with 95% confidence intervals (95CI%) are presented. A total of 365 older adults were studied. The average age was 73.0 ± 6.9 years (range: 60-91 years), and 180 (49.3%) participants had poor balance ability. In the adjusted Poisson regression analysis, the factors associated with poor balance ability were: alcohol consumption (PR = 1.35; 95%CI: 1.05-1.73), exhaustion (PR = 2.22; 95%CI: 1.49-3.31), gait speed (PR = 0.67; 95%CI: 0.50-0.90), having had at least one fall in the last year (PR = 2.03; 95%CI: 1.19-3.46), having at least one comorbidity (PR = 1.60; 95%CI: 1.10-2.35) and having two or more comorbidities (PR = 1.61; 95%CI: 1.07-2.42) compared to none. Approximately a half of the older adults from these high-altitude communities had poor balance ability. Interventions need to be designed to target these balance issues and prevent adverse events from concurring to these individuals. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The theory of multiple intelligences in the identification of high-ability students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Hernández-Torrano

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This study provides a framework to implement the theory of multiple intelligences (MI in the identification of high-ability students in secondary education. The internal structure of three scales to assess students' MI (students, parents and teachers' ratings was analyzed in a sample of 566 students nominated as gifted by their teachers. Participants aged 11 to 16 years (M = 14.85, SD = 1.08. The results indicated differentiated intellectual profiles depending on the informant estimating students' MI. This study provided evidence for two components that allow us to analyze the cognitive competence of high-ability students beyond the areas commonly assessed at school: an academic component composed by the linguistic, logical-mathematical, naturalistic, and visual-spatial intelligences; and a non-academic component statistically loaded by the bodily-kinesthetic, musical and social intelligences. Convergence of the two components in the three scales was evidenced; and correlations between these components and students' objective performance on a psychometric intelligence test were found to be low. Finally, the utility of the MI scales to identify high-ability students in secondary education is discussed.

Locus of Control, Academic Self-Concept, and Academic Dishonesty among High Ability College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Rinn, Anne N.; Boazman, Janette

2014-01-01

The purposes of the current study were to evaluate a measure of academic dishonesty and examine high ability college students' loci of control and its effect on behaviors of academic dishonesty, as moderated by academic self-concept. A total of 357 high ability college students enrolled at two universities in the southwestern United States took…

PRESCHOOL SPEECH ARTICULATION AND NONWORD REPETITION ABILITIES MAY HELP PREDICT EVENTUAL RECOVERY OR PERSISTENCE OF STUTTERING

Science.gov (United States)

Spencer, Caroline; Weber-Fox, Christine

2014-01-01

Purpose In preschool children, we investigated whether expressive and receptive language, phonological, articulatory, and/or verbal working memory proficiencies aid in predicting eventual recovery or persistence of stuttering. Methods Participants included 65 children, including 25 children who do not stutter (CWNS) and 40 who stutter (CWS) recruited at age 3;9–5;8. At initial testing, participants were administered the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language, 3rd edition (TACL-3), Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test, 3rd edition (SPELT-3), Bankson-Bernthal Test of Phonology-Consonant Inventory subtest (BBTOP-CI), Nonword Repetition Test (NRT; Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998), and Test of Auditory Perceptual Skills-Revised (TAPS-R) auditory number memory and auditory word memory subtests. Stuttering behaviors of CWS were assessed in subsequent years, forming groups whose stuttering eventually persisted (CWS-Per; n=19) or recovered (CWS-Rec; n=21). Proficiency scores in morphosyntactic skills, consonant production, verbal working memory for known words, and phonological working memory and speech production for novel nonwords obtained at the initial testing were analyzed for each group. Results CWS-Per were less proficient than CWNS and CWS-Rec in measures of consonant production (BBTOP-CI) and repetition of novel phonological sequences (NRT). In contrast, receptive language, expressive language, and verbal working memory abilities did not distinguish CWS-Rec from CWS-Per. Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that preschool BBTOP-CI scores and overall NRT proficiency significantly predicted future recovery status. Conclusion Results suggest that phonological and speech articulation abilities in the preschool years should be considered with other predictive factors as part of a comprehensive risk assessment for the development of chronic stuttering. PMID:25173455

Ability of different screening tools to predict positive effect on nutritional intervention among the elderly in primary health care

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Beck, Anne Marie; Beermann, Tina; Kjær, Stine

2013-01-01

Routine identification of nutritional risk screening is paramount as the first stage in nutritional treatment of the elderly. The major focus of former validation studies of screening tools has been on the ability to predict undernutrition. The aim of this study was to validate Mini Nutritional A...

The Modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status is More Predictive of Memory Abilities Than the Mini-Mental State Examination.

Science.gov (United States)

Duff, Kevin; Tometich, Danielle; Dennett, Kathryn

2015-09-01

Although not as popular as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (mTICS) has some distinct advantages when screening cognitive functioning in older adults. The current study compared these 2 cognitive screening measures in their ability to predict performance on a memory composite (ie, delayed recall of verbal and visual information) in a cohort of 121 community-dwelling older adults, both at baseline and after 1 year. Both the MMSE and the mTICS significantly correlated with the memory composite at baseline (r's of .41 and .62, respectively) and at 1 year (r's of .36 and .50, respectively). At baseline, stepwise linear regression indicated that the mTICS and gender best predicted the memory composite score (R (2) = .45, P similar. Despite its lesser popularity, the mTICS may be a more attractive option when screening for cognitive abilities in this age range. © The Author(s) 2015.

The importance of subjective facial appearance on the ability of anesthesiologists to predict difficult intubation.

Science.gov (United States)

Connor, Christopher W; Segal, Scott

2014-02-01

Previously we demonstrated that a computer algorithm based on bedside airway examinations and facial photographs accurately classified easy and difficult airways. The extent of the ability of anesthesiologists to perform the same task is unknown. We hypothesized that providing photographs would add to the predictive ability of anesthesiologists over that achieved when provided only with the Mallampati (MP) score and the thyromental distance (TMD). We further hypothesized that human observers would implicitly bias their predictions toward more sensitive determination of difficult airways, rather than more specific determination of easy airways. Residents, fellows, and attending anesthesiologists with varying levels of experience (N = 160) were presented with MP and TMD information from 80 Caucasian men subjects. The same subjects' data, accompanied by 3 facial photographs in head-on and right and left profiles, were also presented. Anesthesiologists classified the airways as easy or difficult according to specified criteria ("easy" defined as a single attempt with a Macintosh 3 blade resulting in a grade 1 laryngoscopic view; "difficult" defined as >1 attempt by an operator with at least 12 months anesthesia experience, grade 3 or 4 laryngoscopic view, need for a second operator, or nonelective use of an alternative airway device). Accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated for each anesthesiologist. We further developed a cost function to quantify a relative bias toward avoiding an unexpectedly difficult intubation versus overpreparing for an easy intubation. One hundred sixty respondents completed the study. Presenting photographs improved respondents' sensitivity and accuracy in classifying airways, though specificity decreased slightly. Overall accuracy when given photographs was 61.6% (95% confidence interval, 60.8%-62.4%), which was significantly lower than the computer's performance of 87.5% (t test, P interval, 4.9:1-8.4:1). Anesthesiologists can

The importance of job autonomy, cognitive ability, and job-related skill for predicting role breadth and job performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgeson, Frederick P; Delaney-Klinger, Kelly; Hemingway, Monica A

2005-03-01

Role theory suggests and empirical research has found that there is considerable variation in how broadly individuals define their jobs. We investigated the theoretically meaningful yet infrequently studied relationships between incumbent job autonomy, cognitive ability, job-related skill, role breadth, and job performance. Using multiple data sources and multiple measurement occasions in a field setting, we found that job autonomy, cognitive ability, and job-related skill were positively related to role breadth, accounting for 23% of the variance in role breadth. In addition, role breadth was positively related to job performance and was found to mediate the relationship between job autonomy, cognitive ability, job-related skill, and job performance. These results add to our understanding of the factors that predict role breadth, as well as having implications for how job aspects and individual characteristics are translated into performance outcomes and the treatment of variability in incumbent reports of job tasks.

Effects of Full-Time and Part-Time High-Ability Programs on Developments in Students' Achievement Emotions

Science.gov (United States)

Hornstra, Lisette; van der Veen, Ineke; Peetsma, Thea

2017-01-01

This study focused on effects of high-ability programs on students' achievement emotions, i.e. emotions that students experience that are associated with achievement activities. Participants were students in grade 4-6 of primary education: 218 students attended full-time high-ability programs, 245 attended part-time high-ability programs (i.e.…

Predictive ability of severe rainfall events over Catalonia for the year 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Comellas, A.; Molini, L.; Parodi, A.; Sairouni, A.; Llasat, M. C.; Siccardi, F.

2011-07-01

This paper analyses the predictive ability of quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF) and the so-called "poor-man" rainfall probabilistic forecasts (RPF). With this aim, the full set of warnings issued by the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC) for potentially-dangerous events due to severe precipitation has been analysed for the year 2008. For each of the 37 warnings, the QPFs obtained from the limited-area model MM5 have been verified against hourly precipitation data provided by the rain gauge network covering Catalonia (NE of Spain), managed by SMC. For a group of five selected case studies, a QPF comparison has been undertaken between the MM5 and COSMO-I7 limited-area models. Although MM5's predictive ability has been examined for these five cases by making use of satellite data, this paper only shows in detail the heavy precipitation event on the 9-10 May 2008. Finally, the "poor-man" rainfall probabilistic forecasts (RPF) issued by SMC at regional scale have also been tested against hourly precipitation observations. Verification results show that for long events (>24 h) MM5 tends to overestimate total precipitation, whereas for short events (≤24 h) the model tends instead to underestimate precipitation. The analysis of the five case studies concludes that most of MM5's QPF errors are mainly triggered by very poor representation of some of its cloud microphysical species, particularly the cloud liquid water and, to a lesser degree, the water vapor. The models' performance comparison demonstrates that MM5 and COSMO-I7 are on the same level of QPF skill, at least for the intense-rainfall events dealt with in the five case studies, whilst the warnings based on RPF issued by SMC have proven fairly correct when tested against hourly observed precipitation for 6-h intervals and at a small region scale. Throughout this study, we have only dealt with (SMC-issued) warning episodes in order to analyse deterministic (MM5 and COSMO-I7) and probabilistic (SMC

Environment and feeding change the ability of heart rate to predict metabolism in resting Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus).

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Beth L; Rosen, David A S; Haulena, Martin; Hindle, Allyson G; Trites, Andrew W

2011-01-01

The ability to use heart rate (fh) to predict oxygen consumption rates ([Formula: see text]) in Steller sea lions and other pinnipeds has been investigated in fasting animals. However, it is unknown whether established fh:[Formula: see text] relationships hold under more complex physiological situations, such as when animals are feeding or digesting. We assessed whether fh could accurately predict [Formula: see text] in trained Steller sea lions while fasting and after being fed. Using linear mixed-effects models, we derived unique equations to describe the fh:[Formula: see text] relationship for fasted sea lions resting on land and in water. Feeding did not significantly change the fh:[Formula: see text] relationship on land. However, Steller sea lions in water displayed a different fh:[Formula: see text] relationship after consuming a 4-kg meal compared with the fasting condition. Incorporating comparable published fh:[Formula: see text] data from Steller sea lions showed a distinct effect of feeding after a 6-kg meal. Ultimately, our study illustrated that both feeding and physical environment are statistically relevant when deriving [Formula: see text] from telemetered fh, but that only environment affects the practical ability to predict metabolism from fh. Updating current bioenergetic models with data gathered using these predictive fh:[Formula: see text] equations will yield more accurate estimates of metabolic rates of free-ranging Steller sea lions under a variety of physiological, behavioral, and environmental states.

Intrinsic Motivation and Its Determinants as Factors Enhancing the Prediction of Job Performance from Ability. Research Report No. 11.

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Howard, Ann

The primary purpose of the present research was to explore the relationship of ability and intrinsic motivation in the prediction of job performance. Intrinsic motivation was traced to two primary determinants. One, an organizational factor, is the extent to which an employee's job is "enriched," or incorporates challenging elements such as…

Visual short term memory related brain activity predicts mathematical abilities.

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Boulet-Craig, Aubrée; Robaey, Philippe; Lacourse, Karine; Jerbi, Karim; Oswald, Victor; Krajinovic, Maja; Laverdière, Caroline; Sinnett, Daniel; Jolicoeur, Pierre; Lippé, Sarah

2017-07-01

Previous research suggests visual short-term memory (VSTM) capacity and mathematical abilities are significantly related. Moreover, both processes activate similar brain regions within the parietal cortex, in particular, the intraparietal sulcus; however, it is still unclear whether the neuronal underpinnings of VSTM directly correlate with mathematical operation and reasoning abilities. The main objective was to investigate the association between parieto-occipital brain activity during the retention period of a VSTM task and performance in mathematics. The authors measured mathematical abilities and VSTM capacity as well as brain activity during memory maintenance using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 19 healthy adult participants. Event-related magnetic fields (ERFs) were computed on the MEG data. Linear regressions were used to estimate the strength of the relation between VSTM related brain activity and mathematical abilities. The amplitude of parieto-occipital cerebral activity during the retention of visual information was related to performance in 2 standardized mathematical tasks: mathematical reasoning and calculation fluency. The findings show that brain activity during retention period of a VSTM task is associated with mathematical abilities. Contributions of VSTM processes to numerical cognition should be considered in cognitive interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Native-language N400 and P600 predict dissociable language-learning abilities in adults

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Qi, Zhenghan; Beach, Sara D.; Finn, Amy S.; Minas, Jennifer; Goetz, Calvin; Chan, Brian; Gabrieli, John D.E.

2018-01-01

Language learning aptitude during adulthood varies markedly across individuals. An individual’s native-language ability has been associated with success in learning a new language as an adult. However, little is known about how native-language processing affects learning success and what neural markers of native-language processing, if any, are related to success in learning. We therefore related variation in electrophysiology during native-language processing to success in learning a novel artificial language. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while native English speakers judged the acceptability of English sentences prior to learning an artificial language. There was a trend towards a double dissociation between native-language ERPs and their relationships to novel syntax and vocabulary learning. Individuals who exhibited a greater N400 effect when processing English semantics showed better future learning of the artificial language overall. The N400 effect was related to syntax learning via its specific relationship to vocabulary learning. In contrast, the P600 effect size when processing English syntax predicted future syntax learning but not vocabulary learning. These findings show that distinct neural signatures of native-language processing relate to dissociable abilities for learning novel semantic and syntactic information. PMID:27737775

Ability Group Configuration for the High School Physics Classroom

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Zitnik, Scott

This research project looks to investigate the effectiveness of different ability grouping arrangements for the high school physics classroom. Students were first organized based on their academic aptitude in physics into three general groups of high, medium, and low achieving students. They were then divided into both groups of four and dyads that were constructed in one of four arrangements, namely: random, homogeneous, heterogeneous, or student choice. Data was collected based on their academic performance as well as survey responses regarding the group and dyad performance. Students worked in a rotation of these groups and dyads for a unit to measure student preference and introduce collaborative work formally to the classes. At this point it was evident that students preferred the student choice arrangement based on survey responses, yet the student choice survey responses also resulted in the lowest level of reliability when compared to all other grouping methods. For the next unit students were kept in either the random, homogeneous, or heterogeneous grouping arrangement for the entirety of the unit. At the conclusion of the second unit student achievement as well as survey responses were analyzed. As a result of this research there appears to be a slight student preference as well as academic benefit to homogeneous group and dyad arrangements for each of the three ability groups of students in the high school physics classroom when compared to random and heterogeneous grouping methods of academic group arrangement.

A high-fat high-sugar diet predicts poorer hippocampal-related memory and a reduced ability to suppress wanting under satiety.

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Attuquayefio, Tuki; Stevenson, Richard J; Boakes, Robert A; Oaten, Megan J; Yeomans, Martin R; Mahmut, Mehmet; Francis, Heather M

2016-10-01

Animal data indicate that greater intake of fats and sugars prevalent in a Western diet impairs hippocampal memory and tests of behavioral inhibition known to be related to hippocampal function (e.g., feature negative discrimination tasks). It has been argued that such high-fat high-sugar diets (HFS) impair the hippocampus, which then becomes less sensitive to modulation by physiological state. Thus retrieval of motivationally salient memories (e.g., when seeing or smelling food) occurs irrespective of state. Here we examine whether evidence of similar effects can be observed in humans using a correlational design. Healthy human participants (N = 94), who varied in their habitual consumption of a HFS diet, completed the verbal paired-associate (VPA) test, a known hippocampal-dependent process, as well as liking and wanting ratings of palatable snack foods, assessed both when hungry and when sated. Greater intake of a HFS diet was significantly associated with a slower VPA learning rate, as predicted. Importantly, for those who regularly consumed a HFS diet, though reductions in liking and wanting occurred between hungry and sated states, the reduction in wanting was far smaller relative to liking. The latter effect was strongly related to VPA learning rate, suggestive of hippocampal mediation. In agreement with the animal literature, human participants with a greater intake of a HFS diet show deficits in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory, and their desire to consume palatable food is less affected by physiological state-a process we suggest that is also hippocampal related. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Identifying high ability students: a contribution from neuropsychological indicators

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Dora Cortat Simonetti

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents some data on the convergence between psychometric intelligence measurements (IQ tests and physiological signs of mental activity found in high ability adolescents. The research study focus on a small group of 15 subjects submitted to electric encephalograms, previously chosen from a larger group of 77 classmates on the basis of scores on the WISC-III IQ Test. The results suggest continuous predominance of Alpha waves for the gifted group (higher frequency percentile and higher amplitude what was not observed in the group without any superior intellectual ability. Even taking into account methodological limitations, this study may contribute to the understanding of a relationship between the intellectual quotient (IQ and alpha waves frequency and amplitude, as observed during performance on cognitive tasks. Such results may suggest a possibility to complement psychometric measures with encephalic registers in giftedness research studies.

Developing Student-Centered Learning Model to Improve High Order Mathematical Thinking Ability

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Saragih, Sahat; Napitupulu, Elvis

2015-01-01

The purpose of this research was to develop student-centered learning model aiming to improve high order mathematical thinking ability of junior high school students of based on curriculum 2013 in North Sumatera, Indonesia. The special purpose of this research was to analyze and to formulate the purpose of mathematics lesson in high order…

Rhythm perception and production predict reading abilities in developmental dyslexia

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Elena eFlaugnacco

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Rhythm organizes events in time and plays a major role in music, but also in the phonology and prosody of a language. Interestingly, children with developmental dyslexia - a learning disability that affects reading acquisition despite normal intelligence and adequate education - have a poor rhythmic perception. It has been suggested that an accurate perception of rhythmical/metrical structure, that requires accurate perception of rise time, may be critical for phonological development and subsequent literacy. This hypothesis is mostly based on results showing a high degree of correlation between phonological awareness and metrical skills, using a very specific metrical task. We present new findings from the analysis of a sample of 48 children with a diagnosis of dyslexia, without comorbidities. These children were assessed with neuropsychological tests, as well as specifically-devised psychoacoustic and musical tasks mostly testing temporal abilities. Associations were tested by multivariate analyses including data mining strategies, correlations and most importantly logistic regressions to understand to what extent the different auditory and musical skills can be a robust predictor of reading and phonological skills. Results show a strong link between several temporal skills and phonological and reading abilities. These findings are discussed in the framework of the neuroscience literature comparing music and language processing, with a particular interest in the links between rhythm processing in music and language.

The Ability of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE IV Score to Predict Mortality in a Single Tertiary Hospital

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Jae Woo Choi

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Background The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II model has been widely used in Korea. However, there have been few studies on the APACHE IV model in Korean intensive care units (ICUs. The aim of this study was to compare the ability of APACHE IV and APACHE II in predicting hospital mortality, and to investigate the ability of APACHE IV as a critical care triage criterion. Methods The study was designed as a prospective cohort study. Measurements of discrimination and calibration were performed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC and the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test respectively. We also calculated the standardized mortality ratio (SMR. Results The APACHE IV score, the Charlson Comorbidity index (CCI score, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and unplanned ICU admissions were independently associated with hospital mortality. The calibration, discrimination, and SMR of APACHE IV were good (H = 7.67, P = 0.465; C = 3.42, P = 0.905; AUROC = 0.759; SMR = 1.00. However, the explanatory power of an APACHE IV score >93 alone on hospital mortality was low at 44.1%. The explanatory power was increased to 53.8% when the hospital mortality was predicted using a model that considers APACHE IV >93 scores, medical admission, and risk factors for CCI >3 coincidentally. However, the discriminative ability of the prediction model was unsatisfactory (C index <0.70. Conclusions The APACHE IV presented good discrimination, calibration, and SMR for hospital mortality.

Nintendo Wii video-gaming ability predicts laparoscopic skill.

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Badurdeen, Shiraz; Abdul-Samad, Omar; Story, Giles; Wilson, Clare; Down, Sue; Harris, Adrian

2010-08-01

Studies using conventional consoles have suggested a possible link between video-gaming and laparoscopic skill. The authors hypothesized that the Nintendo Wii, with its motion-sensing interface, would provide a better model for laparoscopic tasks. This study investigated the relationship between Nintendo Wii skill, prior gaming experience, and laparoscopic skill. In this study, 20 participants who had minimal experience with either laparoscopic surgery or Nintendo Wii performed three tasks on a Webcam-based laparoscopic simulator and were assessed on three games on the Wii. The participants completed a questionnaire assessing prior gaming experience. The score for each of the three Wii games correlated positively with the laparoscopic score (r = 0.78, 0.63, 0.77; P skill overlap between the Nintendo Wii and basic laparoscopic tasks. Surgical candidates with advanced Nintendo Wii ability may possess higher baseline laparoscopic ability.

Predicting first-grade mathematics achievement: The contributions of domain-general cognitive abilities, nonverbal number sense, and early number competence.

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Caroline eHornung

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Early number competence, grounded in number-specific and domain-general cognitive abilities, is theorized to lay the foundation for later math achievement. Few longitudinal studies have tested a comprehensive model for early math development. Using structural equation modeling and mediation analyses, the present work examined the influence of kindergarteners’ nonverbal number sense and domain-general abilities i.e., working memory, fluid intelligence, and receptive vocabulary and their early number competence (i.e., symbolic number skills on first grade math achievement (arithmetic, shape and space skills, and number line estimation assessed one year later. Latent regression models revealed that nonverbal number sense and working memory are central building blocks for developing early number competence in kindergarten and that early number competence is key for first grade math achievement. After controlling for early number competence, fluid intelligence significantly predicted arithmetic and number line estimation while receptive vocabulary significantly predicted shape and space skills. In sum we suggest that early math achievement draws on different constellations of number-specific and domain-general mechanisms.

Predicting functional communication ability in children with cerebral palsy at school entry.

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Coleman, Andrea; Weir, Kelly; Ware, Robert S; Boyd, Roslyn

2015-03-01

To explore the value of demographic, environmental, and early clinical characteristics in predicting functional communication in children with cerebral palsy (CP) at school entry. Data are from an Australian prospective longitudinal study of children with CP. Children assessed at 18 to 24 and 48 to 60 months corrected age were included in the study. Functional communication was classified at 48 to 60 months using the Communication Function Classification System (CFCS). Predictive variables included communication skills at 18 to 24 months, evaluated using the Communication and Symbolic Behavioural Scales Developmental Profile (CSBS-DP) Infant-Toddler Checklist. Early Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), Manual Ability Classification System, and motor type and distribution were evaluated by two physiotherapists. Demographic and comorbid variables were obtained through parent interview with a paediatrician or rehabilitation specialist. A total of 114 children (76 males, 38 females) were included in the study. At 18 to 24 months the mean CSBS-DP was 84.9 (SD 19.0). The CFCS distribution at 48 to 60 months was I=36(32%), II=25(22%), III=20(18%), IV=19(17%), and V=14(12%). In multivariable regression analysis, only CSBS-DP (pcommunication at school entry. Body structure and function and not environmental factors impact functional communication at school entry in children with CP. This provides valuable guidance for early screening, parent education, and future planning of intervention programs to improve functional communication. © 2014 Mac Keith Press.

Predictive ability of machine learning methods for massive crop yield prediction

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Alberto Gonzalez-Sanchez

2014-04-01

Full Text Available An important issue for agricultural planning purposes is the accurate yield estimation for the numerous crops involved in the planning. Machine learning (ML is an essential approach for achieving practical and effective solutions for this problem. Many comparisons of ML methods for yield prediction have been made, seeking for the most accurate technique. Generally, the number of evaluated crops and techniques is too low and does not provide enough information for agricultural planning purposes. This paper compares the predictive accuracy of ML and linear regression techniques for crop yield prediction in ten crop datasets. Multiple linear regression, M5-Prime regression trees, perceptron multilayer neural networks, support vector regression and k-nearest neighbor methods were ranked. Four accuracy metrics were used to validate the models: the root mean square error (RMS, root relative square error (RRSE, normalized mean absolute error (MAE, and correlation factor (R. Real data of an irrigation zone of Mexico were used for building the models. Models were tested with samples of two consecutive years. The results show that M5-Prime and k-nearest neighbor techniques obtain the lowest average RMSE errors (5.14 and 4.91, the lowest RRSE errors (79.46% and 79.78%, the lowest average MAE errors (18.12% and 19.42%, and the highest average correlation factors (0.41 and 0.42. Since M5-Prime achieves the largest number of crop yield models with the lowest errors, it is a very suitable tool for massive crop yield prediction in agricultural planning.

Growth rates and specific motor abilities as a function to predict the selection of talents taekwondo sport (Egyptian national project

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Mohammed Mustafa Bakr

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to investigate the contribution ratios of Growth rates and specific motor abilities as a function to predict the selection of talented taekwondo sport. The study was carried out on a sample of (755 individual Clubs and youth centers across the governorates of Egypt, and the average age (11.64 ± 0.48 years, height (144.06 ± 7.04 cm and weight (36.86 ± 7.51 kg. Tests were conducted in the period from 7/11/2011 to 29/12/2011 selected individuals underwent the following tests and measurements (Ability, Hinge flexibility basin, Agility, Kinetics speed in level trunk, Kinetics speed in level face, Endure Performance, Performance , the researcher used the descriptive survey method. The statistical analysis SPSS was used to apply formulas statistical by calculating: average, standard deviation, correlation, stepwise regression. The results showed that the growth rates and special motor abilities contribute to the selection of talented taekwondo. In addition, taekwondo players are characterized by flexibility, Endure performance and motor speed. The study concluded that there are five factors affect the selection of talented junior Taekwondo detailed flexibility contribute (28.8%, endure Performance contribute by (15.1%, ability contribute (7.8%, Growth rates (age, length, weight a contribution rate (5.2%, kinesthetic speed motor (in the level of the trunk - in the face level (1.1%. Predictable talented selection junior taekwondo through the following equation = 49.835 + Age (-0.389 + Length (0.157 + Weight (-0.188 + Flexibility (-0.359 + Ability (0.081 + Agility (-2.261 + Endure Performance (0.608 + Kinetics speed motor in the level of the trunk (0.586 + Kinetics speed motor in the face level (0.260. These results should be taken into account by the taekwondo Federation and trainers for use as an indicator for selecting talented taekwondo sport.

Cognitive abilities and motivational processes in high school students' science achievement and engagement

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Lau, Shun

The dissertation presents two analytic approaches, a variable-centered and person-centered approach, to investigating holistic patterns of the cognitive, motivational, and affective correlates of science achievement and engagement in a sample of 491 10th and 11th grade high-school students. Building on Snow's (1989) idea of two pathways to achievement outcomes, Study 1 adopted a variable-centered approach to examining how cognitive and motivational factors associated with the performance and commitment pathways, respectively, contributed to the prediction of achievement outcomes in science. Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that (a) students' cognitive abilities were the strongest predictors of their performance in science as measured by standardized test scores; (b) motivational processes enhanced the predictive validity for science test scores and grades beyond the variance accounted for by ability and demography; (c) motivational processes were the strongest predictors of students' commitment to science in the form of situational engagement and anticipated choices of science-related college majors and careers; and (d) competence beliefs served as a point of contact between the performance and commitment pathways. These results are consistent with Snow's (1989) conjecture that both performance and commitment pathway-related factors are necessary for understanding the full range of person-level inputs to achievement outcomes. Study 2 adopted a person-centered approach to examining holistic organizations of psychological factors within individuals and their relations to science achievement and engagement. Four types of students characterized by unique configurations of cognitive, motivational, and affective attributes were identified in both the male and female subsamples using inverse factor analysis. Type membership was found to distinguish students in various indicators of science achievement and engagement. Two of the four types were also found

PREDICTIVE CONTRIBUTION OF MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND MOTOR ABILITIES ON THE RESULT OF RUNNING THE 60m HURDLES IN BOYS AGED 12 - 13 YEARS

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Zana Bujak

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The subject of this study is to determine predictive contributions of morphological characteristics and motor abilities on the 60m hurdles, with an aim to form a group of easily applicable field tests so as to identify boys who are talented in hurdl e racing . The subject sample of this study was comprised of 60 boys aged 12 - 13. The variable sample consisted of a 60m hurdles criterion variable and a set of 13 p re dictor variables comprising of morphological characteristics, speed - strength abilities and the subjects' coordina tion qualities . Applying the regression analysis , the predictive contribution of a complete variable s et of morpholog ical characteristics and motor abilities was determined as an above average statistical significance, influencing 60m hurdle outcome. The greatest individual statistically significant predictive contribution was achieved by the variables of speed - strength quality assessment: 20m flying start r ace result with a standing long jump; and only one variable from the field of morphological characteristics: the shin length. The results support the following conclusion: the two specific variables of speed - strength quality, and 20m flying start race results along with standing long jump , can be relevant predictors of successful outcome in hurdle races .

Predictions of High Energy Experimental Results

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Comay E.

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Eight predictions of high energy experimental results are presented. The predictions contain the $Sigma ^+$ charge radius and results of two kinds of experiments using energetic pionic beams. In addition, predictions of the failure to find the following objects are presented: glueballs, pentaquarks, Strange Quark Matter, magnetic monopoles searched by their direct interaction with charges and the Higgs boson. The first seven predictions rely on the Regular Charge-Monopole Theory and the last one relies on mathematical inconsistencies of the Higgs Lagrangian density.

Genomic prediction applied to high-biomass sorghum for bioenergy production.

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de Oliveira, Amanda Avelar; Pastina, Maria Marta; de Souza, Vander Filipe; da Costa Parrella, Rafael Augusto; Noda, Roberto Willians; Simeone, Maria Lúcia Ferreira; Schaffert, Robert Eugene; de Magalhães, Jurandir Vieira; Damasceno, Cynthia Maria Borges; Margarido, Gabriel Rodrigues Alves

2018-01-01

The increasing cost of energy and finite oil and gas reserves have created a need to develop alternative fuels from renewable sources. Due to its abiotic stress tolerance and annual cultivation, high-biomass sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) shows potential as a bioenergy crop. Genomic selection is a useful tool for accelerating genetic gains and could restructure plant breeding programs by enabling early selection and reducing breeding cycle duration. This work aimed at predicting breeding values via genomic selection models for 200 sorghum genotypes comprising landrace accessions and breeding lines from biomass and saccharine groups. These genotypes were divided into two sub-panels, according to breeding purpose. We evaluated the following phenotypic biomass traits: days to flowering, plant height, fresh and dry matter yield, and fiber, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin proportions. Genotyping by sequencing yielded more than 258,000 single-nucleotide polymorphism markers, which revealed population structure between subpanels. We then fitted and compared genomic selection models BayesA, BayesB, BayesCπ, BayesLasso, Bayes Ridge Regression and random regression best linear unbiased predictor. The resulting predictive abilities varied little between the different models, but substantially between traits. Different scenarios of prediction showed the potential of using genomic selection results between sub-panels and years, although the genotype by environment interaction negatively affected accuracies. Functional enrichment analyses performed with the marker-predicted effects suggested several interesting associations, with potential for revealing biological processes relevant to the studied quantitative traits. This work shows that genomic selection can be successfully applied in biomass sorghum breeding programs.

Logical Reasoning Abilities of Junior High School Students in the Province of Cotabato, Philippines

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Paul John B. Ongcoy

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Reasoning abilities of the learners and its development was well-discussed in the world of education. The higher the ability of the person to reason abstractly, the higher the probability that a person will effectively function in the society. Thus, it is the main goal of the K-12 Curriculum of the Department of Education to improve the reasoning abilities and formal reasoning among students in the country. The higher the reasoning ability of a person, the more productive he is. The ability of logical reasoning has an essential function in the academic performance of students and their construction of the concepts. This study aimed to determine the logical reasoning abilities of 150 randomly selected junior high school students. Specifically, this study aimed to determine the logical reasoning abilities namely combinatorial reasoning, controlling variables, correlation reasoning, probabilistic reasoning and proportional reasoning among the grade 10 junior high school students and determine whether there is a significant difference in students’ logical reasoning abilities according to their gender. The respondents answered the Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT. Thirty respondents were interviewed to verify their answers. The findings of the study led to the following conclusions: most students correctly answered problems in probabilistic reasoning and least number of students correctly answered problems in proportional reasoning and combinatorial reasoning and, male and female respondents have equal performances in problems pertaining to combinatorial reasoning, controlling variables, correlational reasoning and probabilistic reasoning but female respondents are better in proportional reasoning than the male respondents.

Utilization of Illustrations during Learning of Science Textbook Passages among Low- and High-Ability Children.

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Hannus; Hyönä

1999-04-01

Effects of illustrations on learning authentic textbook materials were studied among 10-year-old elementary school children of high and low intellectual ability. Experiment 1 showed that the presence of illustrations improved learning of illustrated text content, but not that of nonillustrated text content. Comprehension scores were improved by the presence of illustrations for high-ability children, but not for low-ability children. In Experiment 2, children's eye movements were measured during learning of illustrated textbook passages to study how children divide their attention between text and illustrations. The results suggest that learning is heavily driven by the text and that children inspect illustrations only minimally. High-ability students were more strategic in processing in the sense that they spent relatively more time on pertinent segments of text and illustrations. It is concluded that the learning of illustrated science textbook materials involves requirements that may be more readily met by more intellectually capable students. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

Social problem solving ability predicts mental health among undergraduate students

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Mansour Ranjbar

2013-01-01

Methods : In this correlational- descriptive study, 369 (208 female and 161 male from, Mazandaran University of Medical Science were selected through stratified random sampling method. In order to collect the data, the social problem solving inventory-revised and general health questionnaire were used. Data were analyzed through SPSS-19, Pearson′s correlation, t test, and stepwise regression analysis. Results : Data analysis showed significant relationship between social problem solving ability and mental health (P < 0.01. Social problem solving ability was significantly associated with the somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression (P < 0.01. Conclusions: The results of our study demonstrated that there is a significant correlation between social problem solving ability and mental health.

Predictive ability of severe rainfall events over Catalonia for the year 2008

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A. Comellas

2011-07-01

Full Text Available This paper analyses the predictive ability of quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF and the so-called "poor-man" rainfall probabilistic forecasts (RPF. With this aim, the full set of warnings issued by the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC for potentially-dangerous events due to severe precipitation has been analysed for the year 2008. For each of the 37 warnings, the QPFs obtained from the limited-area model MM5 have been verified against hourly precipitation data provided by the rain gauge network covering Catalonia (NE of Spain, managed by SMC. For a group of five selected case studies, a QPF comparison has been undertaken between the MM5 and COSMO-I7 limited-area models. Although MM5's predictive ability has been examined for these five cases by making use of satellite data, this paper only shows in detail the heavy precipitation event on the 9–10 May 2008. Finally, the "poor-man" rainfall probabilistic forecasts (RPF issued by SMC at regional scale have also been tested against hourly precipitation observations. Verification results show that for long events (>24 h MM5 tends to overestimate total precipitation, whereas for short events (≤24 h the model tends instead to underestimate precipitation. The analysis of the five case studies concludes that most of MM5's QPF errors are mainly triggered by very poor representation of some of its cloud microphysical species, particularly the cloud liquid water and, to a lesser degree, the water vapor. The models' performance comparison demonstrates that MM5 and COSMO-I7 are on the same level of QPF skill, at least for the intense-rainfall events dealt with in the five case studies, whilst the warnings based on RPF issued by SMC have proven fairly correct when tested against hourly observed precipitation for 6-h intervals and at a small region scale.

Throughout this study, we have only dealt with (SMC-issued warning episodes in order to analyse deterministic (MM5 and COSMO-I7

Native-language N400 and P600 predict dissociable language-learning abilities in adults.

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Qi, Zhenghan; Beach, Sara D; Finn, Amy S; Minas, Jennifer; Goetz, Calvin; Chan, Brian; Gabrieli, John D E

2017-04-01

Language learning aptitude during adulthood varies markedly across individuals. An individual's native-language ability has been associated with success in learning a new language as an adult. However, little is known about how native-language processing affects learning success and what neural markers of native-language processing, if any, are related to success in learning. We therefore related variation in electrophysiology during native-language processing to success in learning a novel artificial language. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while native English speakers judged the acceptability of English sentences prior to learning an artificial language. There was a trend towards a double dissociation between native-language ERPs and their relationships to novel syntax and vocabulary learning. Individuals who exhibited a greater N400 effect when processing English semantics showed better future learning of the artificial language overall. The N400 effect was related to syntax learning via its specific relationship to vocabulary learning. In contrast, the P600 effect size when processing English syntax predicted future syntax learning but not vocabulary learning. These findings show that distinct neural signatures of native-language processing relate to dissociable abilities for learning novel semantic and syntactic information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Can personality predict individual differences in brook trout spatial learning ability?

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White, S.L.; Wagner, Tyler; Gowan, C.; Braithwaite, V.A.

2017-01-01

While differences in individual personality are common in animal populations, understanding the ecological significance of variation has not yet been resolved. Evidence suggests that personality may influence learning and memory; a finding that could improve our understanding of the evolutionary processes that produce and maintain intraspecific behavioural heterogeneity. Here, we tested whether boldness, the most studied personality trait in fish, could predict learning ability in brook trout. After quantifying boldness, fish were trained to find a hidden food patch in a maze environment. Stable landmark cues were provided to indicate the location of food and, at the conclusion of training, cues were rearranged to test for learning. There was a negative relationship between boldness and learning as shy fish were increasingly more successful at navigating the maze and locating food during training trials compared to bold fish. In the altered testing environment, only shy fish continued using cues to search for food. Overall, the learning rate of bold fish was found to be lower than that of shy fish for several metrics suggesting that personality could have widespread effects on behaviour. Because learning can increase plasticity to environmental change, these results have significant implications for fish conservation.

The geometry ability of junior high school students in Karanganyar based on the Hoffer’s theory

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Nurwijayanti, A.; Budiyono; Fitriana, L.

2018-03-01

Geometry ability is the aspect which underlay students to solve the geometry problems. However, some studies suggests the difficulty students when learning geometry. This leads to the ability of the geometri students difficult to develop. There are five the geometry ability based the Hoffer’s theory, namely visual, verbal, drawing, logical, and applied. These five aspects are basic geometry ability to be mastered by Junior High School students level. This study aimed to describe the students’ geometry ability according to the Hoffer’s theory. The participants of this study are six students from 9th grade in State Junior High School 1 Jaten at Karanganyar that consisted of three categories, namely higher ability, moderate ability, and lower ability students. The data collection methods used are geometry test and in-depth interview and than analyzed using triangulation. The result of the study showed that the ability of those three categories is different. Each of the students' geometry ability can be described as follows. (1) On visual skill, higher ability and moderate ability students could mention the elements of the geometrical shapes correctly based on its shapes obtained. However, lower ability students were unable to mention it specifically; (2) On verbal skill, moderate ability students were able to link the relationship among shapes based on the characteristics correctly, despite that the higher ability and lower ability seemed to have difficulty; (3) On drawing skill, higher ability students could construct the shapes based on the relationship among shapes well, but moderate ability and lower ability students continually faced difficulty; (4) On logical skill, both higher ability, and moderate ability students were able to determine the formula of a particular geometrical shape based on the relationship among the elements of the shape well, while the lower ability students were unable to; (5) On applied skill, higher ability, and moderate ability

Effects of full-time and part-time high-ability programs on developments in students’ achievement emotions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hornstra, L.; van der Veen, I.; Peetsma, T.

2017-01-01

This study focused on effects of high-ability programs on students’ achievement emotions, i.e. emotions that students experience that are associated with achievement activities. Participants were students in grade 4–6 of primary education: 218 students attended full-time high-ability programs, 245

Predictive Ability of the Medicine Ball Chest Throw and Vertical Jump Tests for Determining Muscular Strength and Power in Adolescents

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Hackett, Daniel A.; Davies, Timothy B.; Ibel, Denis; Cobley, Stephen; Sanders, Ross

2018-01-01

This study examined the predictive ability of the medicine ball chest throw and vertical jump for muscular strength and power in adolescents. One hundred and ninety adolescents participated in this study. Participants performed trials of the medicine ball chest throw and vertical jump, with vertical jump peak power calculated via an estimation…

Predicting performance and performance satisfaction: mindfulness and beliefs about the ability to deal with social barriers in sport.

Science.gov (United States)

Blecharz, Jan; Luszczynska, Aleksandra; Scholz, Urte; Schwarzer, Ralf; Siekanska, Malgorzata; Cieslak, Roman

2014-05-01

This research investigates the role of beliefs about the ability to deal with specific social barriers and its relationships to mindfulness, football performance, and satisfaction with one's own and team performance. Study 1 aimed at eliciting these social barriers. Study 2 tested (i) whether self-efficacy referring to social barriers would predict performance over and above task-related self-efficacy and collective efficacy and (ii) the mediating role of self-efficacy to overcome social barriers in the relationship between mindfulness and performance. Participants were football (soccer) players aged 16-21 years (Study 1: N=30; Study 2: N=101, longitudinal sample: n=88). Study 1 resulted in eliciting 82 social barriers referring to team, peer leadership, and coaches. Study 2 showed that task-related self-efficacy and collective efficacy explained performance satisfaction at seven-month follow-up, whereas self-efficacy referring to social barriers explained shooting performance at seven-month follow-up. Indirect associations between mindfulness and performance were found with three types of self-efficacy referring to social barriers, operating as parallel mediators. Results provide evidence for the role of beliefs about the ability to cope with social barriers and show a complex interplay between different types of self-efficacy and collective efficacy in predicting team sport performance.

Predictors of fatigue and work ability in cancer survivors.

Science.gov (United States)

van Muijen, P; Duijts, S F A; Bonefaas-Groenewoud, K; van der Beek, A J; Anema, J R

2017-12-30

Workers diagnosed with cancer are at risk for job loss or work disability. To determine predictors of fatigue and work ability at 36 months after diagnosis in a population of cancer survivors. Individuals diagnosed with cancer and who applied for work disability benefit at 24 months of sick leave were surveyed at the time of application and again 12 months later. Fatigue was measured using the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness-Fatigue scale questionnaire and work ability was measured using the work ability index. Linear regression analyses were applied to identify predictors. There were 336 participants. Participants who were divorced or widowed had more physical limitations, more depressive symptoms and were more fatigued at baseline, and who worked in health care demonstrated higher levels of fatigue. Lower fatigue was predicted by having received chemotherapy. A higher level of work ability was predicted by having received chemotherapy, better global health and better work ability at baseline. Lower work ability was predicted by being principal wage earner, insecurity about being free of disease, having more physical limitations and having greater wage loss. Socio-demographic, health- and work-related factors were associated with fatigue and work ability in cancer survivors on long-term sick leave. As fatigue and poor work ability are important risk factors for work disability, addressing the identified predictive factors may assist in mitigation of work disability in cancer survivors. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Improving Junior High School Students' Mathematical Analogical Ability Using Discovery Learning Method

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Maarif, Samsul

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to identify the influence of discovery learning method towards the mathematical analogical ability of junior high school's students. This is a research using factorial design 2x2 with ANOVA-Two ways. The population of this research included the entire students of SMPN 13 Jakarta (State Junior High School 13 of Jakarta)…

The ability of PAM50 risk of recurrence score to predict 10-year distant recurrence in hormone receptor-positive postmenopausal women with special histological subtypes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Laenkholm, Anne-Vibeke; Jensen, Maj-Britt; Eriksen, Jens Ole

2018-01-01

INTRODUCTION: The Prosigna-PAM50 risk of recurrence (ROR) score has been validated in randomized clinical trials to predict 10-year distant recurrence (DR) in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Here, we examine the ability of Prosigna for predicting DR at 10 years in a subgroup of postmenop...

Fine Particulate Matter Predictions Using High Resolution Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) Retrievals

Science.gov (United States)

Chudnovsky, Alexandra A.; Koutrakis, Petros; Kloog, Itai; Melly, Steven; Nordio, Francesco; Lyapustin, Alexei; Wang, Jujie; Schwartz, Joel

2014-01-01

To date, spatial-temporal patterns of particulate matter (PM) within urban areas have primarily been examined using models. On the other hand, satellites extend spatial coverage but their spatial resolution is too coarse. In order to address this issue, here we report on spatial variability in PM levels derived from high 1 km resolution AOD product of Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm developed for MODIS satellite. We apply day-specific calibrations of AOD data to predict PM(sub 2.5) concentrations within the New England area of the United States. To improve the accuracy of our model, land use and meteorological variables were incorporated. We used inverse probability weighting (IPW) to account for nonrandom missingness of AOD and nested regions within days to capture spatial variation. With this approach we can control for the inherent day-to-day variability in the AOD-PM(sub 2.5) relationship, which depends on time-varying parameters such as particle optical properties, vertical and diurnal concentration profiles and ground surface reflectance among others. Out-of-sample "ten-fold" cross-validation was used to quantify the accuracy of model predictions. Our results show that the model-predicted PM(sub 2.5) mass concentrations are highly correlated with the actual observations, with out-of- sample R(sub 2) of 0.89. Furthermore, our study shows that the model captures the pollution levels along highways and many urban locations thereby extending our ability to investigate the spatial patterns of urban air quality, such as examining exposures in areas with high traffic. Our results also show high accuracy within the cities of Boston and New Haven thereby indicating that MAIAC data can be used to examine intra-urban exposure contrasts in PM(sub 2.5) levels.

Genome-wide prediction methods in highly diverse and heterozygous species: proof-of-concept through simulation in grapevine.

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Agota Fodor

Full Text Available Nowadays, genome-wide association studies (GWAS and genomic selection (GS methods which use genome-wide marker data for phenotype prediction are of much potential interest in plant breeding. However, to our knowledge, no studies have been performed yet on the predictive ability of these methods for structured traits when using training populations with high levels of genetic diversity. Such an example of a highly heterozygous, perennial species is grapevine. The present study compares the accuracy of models based on GWAS or GS alone, or in combination, for predicting simple or complex traits, linked or not with population structure. In order to explore the relevance of these methods in this context, we performed simulations using approx 90,000 SNPs on a population of 3,000 individuals structured into three groups and corresponding to published diversity grapevine data. To estimate the parameters of the prediction models, we defined four training populations of 1,000 individuals, corresponding to these three groups and a core collection. Finally, to estimate the accuracy of the models, we also simulated four breeding populations of 200 individuals. Although prediction accuracy was low when breeding populations were too distant from the training populations, high accuracy levels were obtained using the sole core-collection as training population. The highest prediction accuracy was obtained (up to 0.9 using the combined GWAS-GS model. We thus recommend using the combined prediction model and a core-collection as training population for grapevine breeding or for other important economic crops with the same characteristics.

Credit Ratings and Bank Monitoring Ability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nakamura, L.I.; Roszbach, K.

2010-01-01

In this paper we use credit rating data from two Swedish banks to elicit evidence on these banks’ loan monitoring ability. We do so by comparing the ability of bank ratings to predict loan defaults relative to that of public ratings from the Swedish credit bureau. We test the banks’ abilility to

Differences and similarities in double special educational needs: high abilities/giftedness x Asperger’s Syndrome

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Nara Joyce Wellausen Vieira

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The study was developed from a literature search in books, articles and theses that have been published since the year 2000 on the theme High Abilities / Giftedness and Asperger’s Syndrome. The objectives of this research were to conduct a search on publications from 2000 to 2011, about the common and different features to the person with Asperger syndrome and high ability gifted, and also relate the number of publications found in Education and Special Education. At theoretical we present the conception of High Abilities / Giftedness of Renzulli (2004 and Gardner (2000 and in the conception of Asperger Syndrome, Mello (2007 and Klin (2006. When analyzing the data, were perceived similarities and differences between the behavioral characteristics of individuals with High Abilities / Giftedness and those with Asperger’s Syndrome. It’s possible point out that there is much evidence that separate these two special educational needs and few similarities between them. But do not neglect that there may be a dual disability between these two particular special educational needs, because there are still few studies that verify theoretically the differences and similarities of these subjects, much less those that investigate these similarities and distinctions in the subjects themselves.

Apparent height and body mass index influence perceived leadership ability in three-dimensional faces.

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Re, Daniel E; Dzhelyova, Milena; Holzleitner, Iris J; Tigue, Cara C; Feinberg, David R; Perrett, David I

2012-01-01

Facial appearance has a well-documented effect on perceived leadership ability. Face judgments of leadership ability predict political election outcomes across the world, and similar judgments of business CEOs predict company profits. Body height is also associated with leadership ability, with taller people attaining positions of leadership more than their shorter counterparts in both politics and in the corporate world. Previous studies have found some face characteristics that are associated with leadership judgments, however there have been no studies with three-dimensional faces. We assessed which facial characteristics drive leadership judgments in three-dimensional faces. We found a perceptual relationship between height and leadership ability. We also found that facial maturity correlated with leadership judgments, and that faces of people with an unhealthily high body mass index received lower leadership ratings. We conclude that face attributes associated with body size and maturity alter leadership perception, and may influence real-world democratic leadership selection.

Functional enrichment analyses and construction of functional similarity networks with high confidence function prediction by PFP

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Kihara Daisuke

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A new paradigm of biological investigation takes advantage of technologies that produce large high throughput datasets, including genome sequences, interactions of proteins, and gene expression. The ability of biologists to analyze and interpret such data relies on functional annotation of the included proteins, but even in highly characterized organisms many proteins can lack the functional evidence necessary to infer their biological relevance. Results Here we have applied high confidence function predictions from our automated prediction system, PFP, to three genome sequences, Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Plasmodium falciparum (malaria. The number of annotated genes is increased by PFP to over 90% for all of the genomes. Using the large coverage of the function annotation, we introduced the functional similarity networks which represent the functional space of the proteomes. Four different functional similarity networks are constructed for each proteome, one each by considering similarity in a single Gene Ontology (GO category, i.e. Biological Process, Cellular Component, and Molecular Function, and another one by considering overall similarity with the funSim score. The functional similarity networks are shown to have higher modularity than the protein-protein interaction network. Moreover, the funSim score network is distinct from the single GO-score networks by showing a higher clustering degree exponent value and thus has a higher tendency to be hierarchical. In addition, examining function assignments to the protein-protein interaction network and local regions of genomes has identified numerous cases where subnetworks or local regions have functionally coherent proteins. These results will help interpreting interactions of proteins and gene orders in a genome. Several examples of both analyses are highlighted. Conclusion The analyses demonstrate that applying high confidence predictions from PFP

Can personality predict individual differences in brook trout spatial learning ability?

Science.gov (United States)

White, S L; Wagner, T; Gowan, C; Braithwaite, V A

2017-08-01

While differences in individual personality are common in animal populations, understanding the ecological significance of variation has not yet been resolved. Evidence suggests that personality may influence learning and memory; a finding that could improve our understanding of the evolutionary processes that produce and maintain intraspecific behavioural heterogeneity. Here, we tested whether boldness, the most studied personality trait in fish, could predict learning ability in brook trout. After quantifying boldness, fish were trained to find a hidden food patch in a maze environment. Stable landmark cues were provided to indicate the location of food and, at the conclusion of training, cues were rearranged to test for learning. There was a negative relationship between boldness and learning as shy fish were increasingly more successful at navigating the maze and locating food during training trials compared to bold fish. In the altered testing environment, only shy fish continued using cues to search for food. Overall, the learning rate of bold fish was found to be lower than that of shy fish for several metrics suggesting that personality could have widespread effects on behaviour. Because learning can increase plasticity to environmental change, these results have significant implications for fish conservation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The predictive and external validity of the STarT Back Tool in Danish primary care.

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Morsø, Lars; Kent, Peter; Albert, Hanne B; Hill, Jonathan C; Kongsted, Alice; Manniche, Claus

2013-08-01

The STarT Back Tool (SBT) was recently translated into Danish and its concurrent validity described. This study tested the predictive validity of the Danish SBT. Danish primary care patients (n = 344) were compared to a UK cohort. SBT subgroup validity for predicting high activity limitation at 3 months' follow-up was assessed using descriptive proportions, relative risks, AUC and odds ratios. The SBT had a statistically similar predictive ability in Danish primary care as in UK primary care. Unadjusted relative risks for poor clinical outcome on activity limitation in the Danish cohort were 2.4 (1.7-3.4) for the medium-risk subgroup and 2.8 (1.8-3.8) for the high-risk subgroup versus 3.1 (2.5-3.9) and 4.5 (3.6-5.6) for the UK cohort. Adjusting for confounders appeared to explain the lower predictive ability of the Danish high-risk group. The Danish SBT distinguished between low- and medium-risk subgroups with a similar predictive ability of the UK SBT. That distinction is useful information for informing patients about their expected prognosis and may help guiding clinicians' choice of treatment. However, cross-cultural differences in the SBT psychosocial subscale may reduce the predictive ability of the high-risk subgroup in Danish primary care.

Individual differences in multitasking ability and adaptability.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Brent; D'Mello, Sidney; Abbott, Robert; Radvansky, Gabriel; Haass, Michael; Tamplin, Andrea

2013-08-01

The aim of this study was to identify the cognitive factors that predictability and adaptability during multitasking with a flight simulator. Multitasking has become increasingly prevalent as most professions require individuals to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. Considerable research has been undertaken to identify the characteristics of people (i.e., individual differences) that predict multitasking ability. Although working memory is a reliable predictor of general multitasking ability (i.e., performance in normal conditions), there is the question of whether different cognitive faculties are needed to rapidly respond to changing task demands (adaptability). Participants first completed a battery of cognitive individual differences tests followed by multitasking sessions with a flight simulator. After a baseline condition, difficulty of the flight simulator was incrementally increased via four experimental manipulations, and performance metrics were collected to assess multitasking ability and adaptability. Scholastic aptitude and working memory predicted general multitasking ability (i.e., performance at baseline difficulty), but spatial manipulation (in conjunction with working memory) was a major predictor of adaptability (performance in difficult conditions after accounting for baseline performance). Multitasking ability and adaptability may be overlapping but separate constructs that draw on overlapping (but not identical) sets of cognitive abilities. The results of this study are applicable to practitioners and researchers in human factors to assess multitasking performance in real-world contexts and with realistic task constraints. We also present a framework for conceptualizing multitasking adaptability on the basis of five adaptability profiles derived from performance on tasks with consistent versus increased difficulty.

[Work ability among workers from a condominiun of high technology companies].

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandes, Angela Cristina Puzzi; Monteiro, Maria Inês

2006-01-01

Remarkable transformation occurred in the last two decades on the industrial sector, such as the use of trainees and outsourced labor. In a epidemiological cross-sectional study 190 workers, aimed at assessing work ability and building up a socio-demographic life styles of workers, outsourced workers and trainees, who work at a corporate condominium comprising high technology companies. The Work Ability Index was employed with a questionnaire concerning lifestyle and demographic data. Gender balance was noticed, with a prevalence of youngsters and single people (63.2%). Few were tobacco smokers (13.2%), 62.6% performed physical exercise. In addition, 44.2% were medically diagnosed with some illness. This study is very important due to their interchangeability and to the general lack of a worker's health service.

A Test of the Relationship between Reading Ability & Standardized Biology Assessment Scores

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Allen, Denise A.

2014-01-01

Little empirical evidence suggested that independent reading abilities of students enrolled in biology predicted their performance on the Biology I Graduation End-of-Course Assessment (ECA). An archival study was conducted at one Indiana urban public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, by examining existing educational assessment data to test…

The impact of menopausal symptoms on work ability.

Science.gov (United States)

Geukes, Marije; van Aalst, Mariëlle P; Nauta, Mary C E; Oosterhof, Henk

2012-03-01

Menopause is an important life event that may have a negative influence on quality of life. Work ability, a concept widely used in occupational health, can predict both future impairment and duration of sickness absence. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of menopausal symptoms on work ability. This was a cross-sectional study that used a sample of healthy working Dutch women aged 44 to 60 years. Work ability was measured using the Work Ability Index, and menopausal symptoms were measured using the Greene Climacteric Scale. Stepwise multiple linear regression models were used to examine the relationship between menopausal symptoms and work ability. A total of 208 women were included in this study. There was a significant negative correlation between total Greene Climacteric Scale score and Work Ability Index score. Total Greene Climacteric Scale score predicted 33.8% of the total variance in the Work Ability Index score. Only the psychological and somatic subscales of the Greene Climacteric Scale were significant predictors in multiple linear regression analysis. Together, they accounted for 36.5% of total variance in Work Ability Index score. Menopausal symptoms are negatively associated with work ability and may increase the risk of sickness absence.

Consumer Decision-Making Abilities and Long-Term Care Insurance Purchase.

Science.gov (United States)

McGarry, Brian E; Tempkin-Greener, Helena; Grabowski, David C; Chapman, Benjamin P; Li, Yue

2018-04-16

To determine the impact of consumer decision-making abilities on making a long-term care insurance (LTCi) purchasing decision that is consistent with normative economic predictions regarding policy ownership. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, multivariate analyses are implemented to estimate the effect of decision-making ability factors on owning LTCi. Stratified multivariate analyses are used to examine the effect of decision-making abilities on the likelihood of adhering to economic predictions of LTCi ownership. In the full sample, better cognitive capacity was found to significantly increase the odds of ownership. When the sample was stratified based on expected LTCi ownership status, cognitive capacity was positively associated with ownership among those predicted to own and negatively associated with ownership among those predicted not to own who could likely afford a policy. Consumer decision-making abilities, specifically cognitive capacity, are an important determinant of LTCi decision outcomes. Deficits in this ability may prevent individuals from successfully preparing for future long-term care expenses. Policy makers should consider changes that reduce the cognitive burden of this choice, including the standardization of the LTCi market, the provision of consumer decision aids, and alternatives to voluntary and private insuring mechanisms.

Predictive ability of the Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system after first-time lower extremity revascularizations

OpenAIRE

Darling, Jeremy; McCallum, John C.; Soden, Peter A.; Guzman, R.J. (Raul J.); Wyers, M.C. (Mark C.); Hamdan, A.D. (Allen D.); Verhagen, Hence; Schermerhorn, Marc

2017-01-01

markdownabstract__Objective:__ The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Wound, Ischemia and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system was proposed to predict 1-year amputation risk and potential benefit from revascularization. Our goal was to evaluate the predictive ability of this scale in a real-world selection of patients undergoing a first-time lower extremity revascularization for chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI). __Methods:__ From 2005 to 2014, 1336 limbs underwent a first-time ...

Estimated maximal and current brain volume predict cognitive ability in old age

Science.gov (United States)

Royle, Natalie A.; Booth, Tom; Valdés Hernández, Maria C.; Penke, Lars; Murray, Catherine; Gow, Alan J.; Maniega, Susana Muñoz; Starr, John; Bastin, Mark E.; Deary, Ian J.; Wardlaw, Joanna M.

2013-01-01

Brain tissue deterioration is a significant contributor to lower cognitive ability in later life; however, few studies have appropriate data to establish how much influence prior brain volume and prior cognitive performance have on this association. We investigated the associations between structural brain imaging biomarkers, including an estimate of maximal brain volume, and detailed measures of cognitive ability at age 73 years in a large (N = 620), generally healthy, community-dwelling population. Cognitive ability data were available from age 11 years. We found positive associations (r) between general cognitive ability and estimated brain volume in youth (male, 0.28; females, 0.12), and in measured brain volume in later life (males, 0.27; females, 0.26). Our findings show that cognitive ability in youth is a strong predictor of estimated prior and measured current brain volume in old age but that these effects were the same for both white and gray matter. As 1 of the largest studies of associations between brain volume and cognitive ability with normal aging, this work contributes to the wider understanding of how some early-life factors influence cognitive aging. PMID:23850342

Modification of the Feline-Ality™ Assessment and the Ability to Predict Adopted Cats’ Behaviors in Their New Homes

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Weiss, Emily; Gramann, Shannon; Drain, Natasha; Dolan, Emily; Slater, Margaret

2015-01-01

Simple Summary While millions of cats enter animal shelters every year, only 11.5% of pet cats are obtained from a shelter in the United States. Previous research has indicated that unrealistic expectations set by adopters can increase the chances of an adopted cat returning to the shelter. The ASPCA®’s Meet Your Match® Feline-ality™ adoption program was designed to provide adopters with accurate information about an adult cat’s future behavior in the home. This research explored the ability of the modified Feline-ality™ assessment when done one day after the cat entered the shelter. Our modified version was predictive of feline behavior post adoption. Abstract It is estimated that 2.5 million cats enter animal shelters in the United States every year and as few as 20% leave the shelter alive. Of those adopted, the greatest risk to post-adoption human animal bond is unrealistic expectations set by the adopter. The ASPCA®’s Meet Your Match® Feline-ality™ adoption program was developed to provide adopters with an accurate assessment of an adult cat’s future behavior in the home. However, the original Feline-ality™ required a three-day hold time to collect cat behaviors on a data card, which was challenging for some shelters. This research involved creating a survey to determine in-home feline behavior post adoption and explored the predictive ability of the in-shelter assessment without the data card. Our results show that the original Feline-ality™ assessment and our modified version were predictive of feline behavior post adoption. Our modified version also decreased hold time for cats to one day. Shelters interested in increasing cat adoptions, decreasing length of stay and improving the adoption experience can now implement the modified version for future feline adoption success. PMID:26479138

Complex population response of dorsal putamen neurons predicts the ability to learn.

Science.gov (United States)

Laquitaine, Steeve; Piron, Camille; Abellanas, David; Loewenstein, Yonatan; Boraud, Thomas

2013-01-01

Day-to-day variability in performance is a common experience. We investigated its neural correlate by studying learning behavior of monkeys in a two-alternative forced choice task, the two-armed bandit task. We found substantial session-to-session variability in the monkeys' learning behavior. Recording the activity of single dorsal putamen neurons we uncovered a dual function of this structure. It has been previously shown that a population of neurons in the DLP exhibits firing activity sensitive to the reward value of chosen actions. Here, we identify putative medium spiny neurons in the dorsal putamen that are cue-selective and whose activity builds up with learning. Remarkably we show that session-to-session changes in the size of this population and in the intensity with which this population encodes cue-selectivity is correlated with session-to-session changes in the ability to learn the task. Moreover, at the population level, dorsal putamen activity in the very beginning of the session is correlated with the performance at the end of the session, thus predicting whether the monkey will have a "good" or "bad" learning day. These results provide important insights on the neural basis of inter-temporal performance variability.

Executive Functions and Prosodic Abilities in Children With High-Functioning Autism

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Marisa G. Filipe

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Little is known about the relationship between prosodic abilities and executive function skills. As deficits in executive functions (EFs and prosodic impairments are characteristics of autism, we examined how EFs are related to prosodic performance in children with high-functioning autism (HFA. Fifteen children with HFA (M = 7.4 years; SD = 1.12, matched to 15 typically developing peers on age, gender, and non-verbal intelligence participated in the study. The Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C was used to assess prosodic performance. The Children’s Color Trails Test (CCTT-1, CCTT-2, and CCTT Interference Index was used as an indicator of executive control abilities. Our findings suggest no relation between prosodic abilities and visual search and processing speed (assessed by CCTT-1, but a significant link between prosodic skills and divided attention, working memory/sequencing, set-switching, and inhibition (assessed by CCTT-2 and CCTT Interference Index. These findings may be of clinical relevance since difficulties in EFs and prosodic deficits are characteristic of many neurodevelopmental disorders. Future studies are needed to further investigate the nature of the relationship between impaired prosody and executive (dysfunction.

[Relationship between occupational stress and working ability of workers in a petroleum processing enterprise in high altitude area].

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, X M; Kang, H L; Shi, C B; Li, Y; Wu, Y F; Liu, Z H; Wang, G; Lei, H Y

2017-12-20

Objective: To investigate the relationship between occupational stress and working ability of workers in a petroleum processing enterprise in a high altitude area. Methods: A total of 728 workers in a petroleum processing enterprise at an altitude of 2850 m were subjected to a survey using Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI) , Work Ability Index (WAI) Scale, Occupational Role Questionnaire (ORQ) , Personal Strain Questionnaire (PSQ) , and Personal Resource Questionnaire (PRQ) from May 2014 to August 2016. Results: Of the 728 workers, 55 (7.6%) had a poor working ability, moderate in 262 (35.9%) , and good in 411 (56.5%). There were significant differences in WAI between the workers with different types of work, sexes, ages, and working years ( P occupational stress groups ( P Occupational stress is an influencing factor for the working ability of workers in the petroleum processing enterprise in the high altitude area. Hypoxia in high altitude area may further reduce the working ability. In order to reduce occupational stress and improve work ability, it should be considered to strengthen skills training, improve the working environment, and pay attention to mental health.

Improving Mathematical Communication Ability and Self Regulation Learning Of Yunior High Students by Using Reciprocal Teaching

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Abdul Qohar

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the findings from a posttest experiment control group design  by  using reciprocal teaching, conducted  in Indonesia University of Education to investigate students’ ability in mathematical communication and self regulated learning.  Subject of the study were 254 of 9th grade students from three junior high schools of high, medium, and low level in Bojonegoro, East Java.  The instruments of the study were an essay mathematical communication test, and a self regulated learning scale. The study found that reciprocal teaching took the best role among school  cluster  and students’ prior mathematics ability on students’ mathematical communication ability and self regulated learning as well.  The other finding were there was interaction between school cluster and teaching approaches, but was no interaction between students’ prior mathematics ability and teaching approaches on mathematical communication ability and  self regulated learning. Moreover, there was association between mathematical communication and self regulated learningKeywords: Reciprocal Teaching, Mathematical Communication, Self Regulated Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22342/jme.4.1.562.59-74

Genomic Prediction of Sunflower Hybrids Oil Content

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Brigitte Mangin

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Prediction of hybrid performance using incomplete factorial mating designs is widely used in breeding programs including different heterotic groups. Based on the general combining ability (GCA of the parents, predictions are accurate only if the genetic variance resulting from the specific combining ability is small and both parents have phenotyped descendants. Genomic selection (GS can predict performance using a model trained on both phenotyped and genotyped hybrids that do not necessarily include all hybrid parents. Therefore, GS could overcome the issue of unknown parent GCA. Here, we compared the accuracy of classical GCA-based and genomic predictions for oil content of sunflower seeds using several GS models. Our study involved 452 sunflower hybrids from an incomplete factorial design of 36 female and 36 male lines. Re-sequencing of parental lines allowed to identify 468,194 non-redundant SNPs and to infer the hybrid genotypes. Oil content was observed in a multi-environment trial (MET over 3 years, leading to nine different environments. We compared GCA-based model to different GS models including female and male genomic kinships with the addition of the female-by-male interaction genomic kinship, the use of functional knowledge as SNPs in genes of oil metabolic pathways, and with epistasis modeling. When both parents have descendants in the training set, the predictive ability was high even for GCA-based prediction, with an average MET value of 0.782. GS performed slightly better (+0.2%. Neither the inclusion of the female-by-male interaction, nor functional knowledge of oil metabolism, nor epistasis modeling improved the GS accuracy. GS greatly improved predictive ability when one or both parents were untested in the training set, increasing GCA-based predictive ability by 10.4% from 0.575 to 0.635 in the MET. In this scenario, performing GS only considering SNPs in oil metabolic pathways did not improve whole genome GS prediction but

Drug response prediction in high-risk multiple myeloma

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vangsted, A J; Helm-Petersen, S; Cowland, J B

2018-01-01

from high-risk patients by GEP70 at diagnosis from Total Therapy 2 and 3A to predict the response by the DRP score of drugs used in the treatment of myeloma patients. The DRP score stratified patients further. High-risk myeloma with a predicted sensitivity to melphalan by the DRP score had a prolonged...

The Reliability and Predictive Ability of a Biomarker of Oxidative DNA Damage on Functional Outcomes after Stroke Rehabilitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu-Wei Hsieh

2014-04-01

Full Text Available We evaluated the reliability of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG, and determined its ability to predict functional outcomes in stroke survivors. The rehabilitation effect on 8-OHdG and functional outcomes were also assessed. Sixty-one stroke patients received a 4-week rehabilitation. Urinary 8-OHdG levels were determined by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The test-retest reliability of 8-OHdG was good (interclass correlation coefficient = 0.76. Upper-limb motor function and muscle power determined by the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA and Medical Research Council (MRC scales before rehabilitation showed significant negative correlation with 8-OHdG (r = −0.38, r = −0.30; p < 0.05. After rehabilitation, we found a fair and significant correlation between 8-OHdG and FMA (r = −0.34 and 8-OHdG and pain (r = 0.26, p < 0.05. Baseline 8-OHdG was significantly correlated with post-treatment FMA, MRC, and pain scores (r = −0.34, −0.31, and 0.25; p < 0.05, indicating its ability to predict functional outcomes. 8-OHdG levels were significantly decreased, and functional outcomes were improved after rehabilitation. The exploratory study findings conclude that 8-OHdG is a reliable and promising biomarker of oxidative stress and could be a valid predictor of functional outcomes in patients. Monitoring of behavioral indicators along with biomarkers may have crucial benefits in translational stroke research.

Do in-training evaluation reports deserve their bad reputations? A study of the reliability and predictive ability of ITER scores and narrative comments.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginsburg, Shiphra; Eva, Kevin; Regehr, Glenn

2013-10-01

Although scores on in-training evaluation reports (ITERs) are often criticized for poor reliability and validity, ITER comments may yield valuable information. The authors assessed across-rotation reliability of ITER scores in one internal medicine program, ability of ITER scores and comments to predict postgraduate year three (PGY3) performance, and reliability and incremental predictive validity of attendings' analysis of written comments. Numeric and narrative data from the first two years of ITERs for one cohort of residents at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine (2009-2011) were assessed for reliability and predictive validity of third-year performance. Twenty-four faculty attendings rank-ordered comments (without scores) such that each resident was ranked by three faculty. Mean ITER scores and comment rankings were submitted to regression analyses; dependent variables were PGY3 ITER scores and program directors' rankings. Reliabilities of ITER scores across nine rotations for 63 residents were 0.53 for both postgraduate year one (PGY1) and postgraduate year two (PGY2). Interrater reliabilities across three attendings' rankings were 0.83 for PGY1 and 0.79 for PGY2. There were strong correlations between ITER scores and comments within each year (0.72 and 0.70). Regressions revealed that PGY1 and PGY2 ITER scores collectively explained 25% of variance in PGY3 scores and 46% of variance in PGY3 rankings. Comment rankings did not improve predictions. ITER scores across multiple rotations showed decent reliability and predictive validity. Comment ranks did not add to the predictive ability, but correlation analyses suggest that trainee performance can be measured through these comments.

Students' Understanding of Genetics Concepts: The Effect of Reasoning Ability and Learning Approaches

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Kiliç, Didem; Saglam, Necdet

2014-01-01

Students tend to learn genetics by rote and may not realise the interrelationships in daily life. Because reasoning abilities are necessary to construct relationships between concepts and rote learning impedes the students' sound understanding, it was predicted that having high level of formal reasoning and adopting meaningful learning orientation…

Improvement of The Ability of Junior High School Students Thinking Through Visual Learning Assisted Geo gbra Tutorial

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Elvi, M.; Nurjanah

2017-02-01

This research is distributed on the issue of the lack of visual thinking ability is a must-have basic ability of students in learning geometry. The purpose of this research is to investigate and elucide: 1) the enhancement of visual thinking ability of students to acquire learning assisted with geogebra tutorial learning: 2) the increase in visual thinking ability of students who obtained a model of learning assisted with geogebra and students who obtained a regular study of KAM (high, medium, and low). This research population is grade VII in Bandung Junior High School. The instruments used to collect data in this study consisted of instruments of the test and the observation sheet. The data obtained were analyzed using the test average difference i.e. Test-t and ANOVA Test one line to two lines. The results showed that: 1) the attainment and enhancement of visual thinking ability of students to acquire learning assisted geogebra tutorial better than students who acquire learning; 2) there may be differences of visual upgrade thinking students who acquire the learning model assisted with geogebra tutorial earn regular learning of KAM (high, medium and low).

Academic scientific-production in Brazil in the area of high abilities/giftedness on the period from 1987 to 2011

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Miguel Claudio Moriel Chacon

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Among students with special educational needs, subjects of special education, are those with high ability/giftedness, a complex phenomenon that requires the participation of education professionals and researchers to foster the potential of development of these students. In this sense, we aimed to identify and analyze thesis and dissertations that they propose to investigate the theme high ability/giftedness, verifying participation of the area of education in these studies. The study was done through a literature review, guided by the following questions: Have the researches on high ability/giftedness been growing in recent years? What is the participation of education area in those researches? What are the issues related to high ability/giftedness addressed in Education? The results show that the institutions present an increasing trend and there is a predominance of education area in this scientific production. However, there is an imbalance between the institutions that aim to investigate the theme in Brazilian regions, as well as among the cases covered by these researches on high ability/giftedness.

The Impact of Problem-Based Learning Approach to Senior High School Students’ Mathematics Critical Thinking Ability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reviandari Widyatiningtyas

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The study was report the findings of an only post-test control group research design and aims to analyze the influence of problem-based learning approach, school level, and students’ prior mathematical ability to student’s mathematics critical thinking ability. The research subjects were 140 grade ten senior high school students coming from excellent and moderate school level. The research instruments a set of mathematical critical thinking ability test, and the data were analyzed by using two ways ANOVA and t-test. The research found that the problem based learning approach has significant impact to the ability of students’ mathematics critical thinking in terms of school level and students’ prior mathematical abilities. Furthermore. This research also found that there is no interaction between learning approach and school level, and learning approach and students’ prior mathematics ability to students’ mathematics critical thinking ability.

An algorithm to discover gene signatures with predictive potential

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Hallett Robin M

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The advent of global gene expression profiling has generated unprecedented insight into our molecular understanding of cancer, including breast cancer. For example, human breast cancer patients display significant diversity in terms of their survival, recurrence, metastasis as well as response to treatment. These patient outcomes can be predicted by the transcriptional programs of their individual breast tumors. Predictive gene signatures allow us to correctly classify human breast tumors into various risk groups as well as to more accurately target therapy to ensure more durable cancer treatment. Results Here we present a novel algorithm to generate gene signatures with predictive potential. The method first classifies the expression intensity for each gene as determined by global gene expression profiling as low, average or high. The matrix containing the classified data for each gene is then used to score the expression of each gene based its individual ability to predict the patient characteristic of interest. Finally, all examined genes are ranked based on their predictive ability and the most highly ranked genes are included in the master gene signature, which is then ready for use as a predictor. This method was used to accurately predict the survival outcomes in a cohort of human breast cancer patients. Conclusions We confirmed the capacity of our algorithm to generate gene signatures with bona fide predictive ability. The simplicity of our algorithm will enable biological researchers to quickly generate valuable gene signatures without specialized software or extensive bioinformatics training.

Perfectionism in High-Ability Students: Relational Precursors and Influences on Achievement Motivation

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Speirs Neumeister, Kristie L.; Finch, Holmes

2006-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to create and test a model that (a) illustrated variables influencing the development of perfectionism, and (b) demonstrated how different types of perfectionism may influence the achievement goals of high-ability students. Using a multiple groups path analysis, the researchers found that parenting style was…

P300 correlates with learning & memory abilities and fluid intelligence.

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Amin, Hafeez Ullah; Malik, Aamir Saeed; Kamel, Nidal; Chooi, Weng-Tink; Hussain, Muhammad

2015-09-23

Educational psychology research has linked fluid intelligence with learning and memory abilities and neuroimaging studies have specifically associated fluid intelligence with event related potentials (ERPs). The objective of this study is to find the relationship of ERPs with learning and memory recall and predict the memory recall score using P300 (P3) component. A sample of thirty-four healthy subjects between twenty and thirty years of age was selected to perform three tasks: (1) Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) test to assess fluid intelligence; (2) learning and memory task to assess learning ability and memory recall; and (3) the visual oddball task to assess brain-evoked potentials. These subjects were divided into High Ability (HA) and Low Ability (LA) groups based on their RAPM scores. A multiple regression analysis was used to predict the learning & memory recall and fluid intelligence using P3 amplitude and latency. Behavioral results demonstrated that the HA group learned and recalled 10.89 % more information than did the LA group. ERP results clearly showed that the P3 amplitude of the HA group was relatively larger than that observed in the LA group for both the central and parietal regions of the cerebrum; particularly during the 300-400 ms time window. In addition, a shorter latency for the P3 component was observed at Pz site for the HA group compared to the LA group. These findings agree with previous educational psychology and neuroimaging studies which reported an association between ERPs and fluid intelligence as well as learning performance. These results also suggest that the P3 component is associated with individual differences in learning and memory recall and further indicate that P3 amplitude might be used as a supporting factor in standard psychometric tests to assess an individual's learning & memory recall ability; particularly in educational institutions to aid in the predictability of academic skills.

Predictive ability of genomic selection models for breeding value estimation on growth traits of Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei

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Wang, Quanchao; Yu, Yang; Li, Fuhua; Zhang, Xiaojun; Xiang, Jianhai

2017-09-01

Genomic selection (GS) can be used to accelerate genetic improvement by shortening the selection interval. The successful application of GS depends largely on the accuracy of the prediction of genomic estimated breeding value (GEBV). This study is a first attempt to understand the practicality of GS in Litopenaeus vannamei and aims to evaluate models for GS on growth traits. The performance of GS models in L. vannamei was evaluated in a population consisting of 205 individuals, which were genotyped for 6 359 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers by specific length amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) and phenotyped for body length and body weight. Three GS models (RR-BLUP, BayesA, and Bayesian LASSO) were used to obtain the GEBV, and their predictive ability was assessed by the reliability of the GEBV and the bias of the predicted phenotypes. The mean reliability of the GEBVs for body length and body weight predicted by the different models was 0.296 and 0.411, respectively. For each trait, the performances of the three models were very similar to each other with respect to predictability. The regression coefficients estimated by the three models were close to one, suggesting near to zero bias for the predictions. Therefore, when GS was applied in a L. vannamei population for the studied scenarios, all three models appeared practicable. Further analyses suggested that improved estimation of the genomic prediction could be realized by increasing the size of the training population as well as the density of SNPs.

A hypothetical model for predicting the toxicity of high aspect ratio nanoparticles (HARN)

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Tran, C. L.; Tantra, R.; Donaldson, K.; Stone, V.; Hankin, S. M.; Ross, B.; Aitken, R. J.; Jones, A. D.

2011-12-01

The ability to predict nanoparticle (dimensional structures which are less than 100 nm in size) toxicity through the use of a suitable model is an important goal if nanoparticles are to be regulated in terms of exposures and toxicological effects. Recently, a model to predict toxicity of nanoparticles with high aspect ratio has been put forward by a consortium of scientists. The High aspect ratio nanoparticles (HARN) model is a platform that relates the physical dimensions of HARN (specifically length and diameter ratio) and biopersistence to their toxicity in biological environments. Potentially, this model is of great public health and economic importance, as it can be used as a tool to not only predict toxicological activity but can be used to classify the toxicity of various fibrous nanoparticles, without the need to carry out time-consuming and expensive toxicology studies. However, this model of toxicity is currently hypothetical in nature and is based solely on drawing similarities in its dimensional geometry with that of asbestos and synthetic vitreous fibres. The aim of this review is two-fold: (a) to present findings from past literature, on the physicochemical property and pathogenicity bioassay testing of HARN (b) to identify some of the challenges and future research steps crucial before the HARN model can be accepted as a predictive model. By presenting what has been done, we are able to identify scientific challenges and research directions that are needed for the HARN model to gain public acceptance. Our recommendations for future research includes the need to: (a) accurately link physicochemical data with corresponding pathogenicity assay data, through the use of suitable reference standards and standardised protocols, (b) develop better tools/techniques for physicochemical characterisation, (c) to develop better ways of monitoring HARN in the workplace, (d) to reliably measure dose exposure levels, in order to support future epidemiological

A hypothetical model for predicting the toxicity of high aspect ratio nanoparticles (HARN)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tran, C. L.; Tantra, R.; Donaldson, K.; Stone, V.; Hankin, S. M.; Ross, B.; Aitken, R. J.; Jones, A. D.

2011-01-01

The ability to predict nanoparticle (dimensional structures which are less than 100 nm in size) toxicity through the use of a suitable model is an important goal if nanoparticles are to be regulated in terms of exposures and toxicological effects. Recently, a model to predict toxicity of nanoparticles with high aspect ratio has been put forward by a consortium of scientists. The High aspect ratio nanoparticles (HARN) model is a platform that relates the physical dimensions of HARN (specifically length and diameter ratio) and biopersistence to their toxicity in biological environments. Potentially, this model is of great public health and economic importance, as it can be used as a tool to not only predict toxicological activity but can be used to classify the toxicity of various fibrous nanoparticles, without the need to carry out time-consuming and expensive toxicology studies. However, this model of toxicity is currently hypothetical in nature and is based solely on drawing similarities in its dimensional geometry with that of asbestos and synthetic vitreous fibres. The aim of this review is two-fold: (a) to present findings from past literature, on the physicochemical property and pathogenicity bioassay testing of HARN (b) to identify some of the challenges and future research steps crucial before the HARN model can be accepted as a predictive model. By presenting what has been done, we are able to identify scientific challenges and research directions that are needed for the HARN model to gain public acceptance. Our recommendations for future research includes the need to: (a) accurately link physicochemical data with corresponding pathogenicity assay data, through the use of suitable reference standards and standardised protocols, (b) develop better tools/techniques for physicochemical characterisation, (c) to develop better ways of monitoring HARN in the workplace, (d) to reliably measure dose exposure levels, in order to support future epidemiological

Increasing Senior High School Students’ Ability In Speaking English Through Contextual Storytelling Method

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Meyke Machrita Mamahit

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This research aimed (1 to increase the ability of students XII Grade Science 6 Senior High School state 7 Manado in speaking English through contextual storytelling method, (2 to increase the motivation and interest of students XII Grade Science 6 Senior High School state 7 Manado in speaking English through contextual storytelling method. This research is Classroom Action Research. The population was 325 students and the sample was 30 students. The research data was collected using performance test of cycle 1, 2, 3 and questionnaire. The research results indicated that the use of contextual storytelling method in learning English significantly increased the ability, interest and motivation of students XII Grade Science 6 Senior High School state 7 Manado in speaking English. The percentage of students who achieved the minimum score increased from 60 % in the first cycle became 70 % in the second cycle, and it increased 90 % in the third cycle. The students’ interest and motivation in speaking English increased from 70 % in first cycle became 80 % in the second cycle and it became 90 % in the third cycle.

Discriminative ability of commonly used indices to predict adverse outcomes after poster lumbar fusion: a comparison of demographics, ASA, the modified Charlson Comorbidity Index, and the modified Frailty Index.

Science.gov (United States)

Ondeck, Nathaniel T; Bohl, Daniel D; Bovonratwet, Patawut; McLynn, Ryan P; Cui, Jonathan J; Shultz, Blake N; Lukasiewicz, Adam M; Grauer, Jonathan N

2018-01-01

As research tools, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification system, the modified Charlson Comorbidity Index (mCCI), and the modified Frailty Index (mFI) have been associated with complications following spine procedures. However, with respect to clinical use for various adverse outcomes, no known study has compared the predictive performance of these indices specifically following posterior lumbar fusion (PLF). This study aimed to compare the discriminative ability of ASA, mCCI, and mFI, as well as demographic factors including age, body mass index, and gender for perioperative adverse outcomes following PLF. A retrospective review of prospectively collected data was performed. Patients undergoing elective PLF with or without interbody fusion were extracted from the 2011-2014 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP). Perioperative adverse outcome variables assessed included the occurrence of minor adverse events, severe adverse events, infectious adverse events, any adverse event, extended length of hospital stay, and discharge to higher-level care. Patient comorbidity indices and characteristics were delineated and assessed for discriminative ability in predicting perioperative adverse outcomes using an area under the curve analysis from the receiver operating characteristics curves. In total, 16,495 patients were identified who met the inclusion criteria. The most predictive comorbidity index was ASA and demographic factor was age. Of these two factors, age had the larger discriminative ability for three out of the six adverse outcomes and ASA was the most predictive for one out of six adverse outcomes. A combination of the most predictive demographic factor and comorbidity index resulted in improvements in discriminative ability over the individual components for five of the six outcome variables. For PLF, easily obtained patient ASA and age have overall similar or better

Parkinson's disease and driving ability

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Singh, Rajiv; Pentland, Brian; Hunter, John; Provan, Frances

2007-01-01

Objectives To explore the driving problems associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) and to ascertain whether any clinical features or tests predict driver safety. Methods The driving ability of 154 individuals with PD referred to a driving assessment centre was determined by a combination of clinical tests, reaction times on a test rig and an in‐car driving test. Results The majority of cases (104, 66%) were able to continue driving although 46 individuals required an automatic transmission and 10 others needed car modifications. Ability to drive was predicted by the severity of physical disease, age, presence of other associated medical conditions, particularly dementia, duration of disease, brake reaction, time on a test rig and score on a driving test (all pautomatic transmission. A combination of clinical tests and in‐car driving assessment will establish safety to drive, and a number of clinical correlates can be shown to predict the likely outcome and may assist in the decision process. This is the largest series of consecutive patients seen at a driving assessment centre reported to date, and the first to devise a scoring system for on‐road driving assessment. PMID:17178820

The Relationship between Utilization of Computer Games and Spatial Abilities among High School Students

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Motamedi, Vahid; Yaghoubi, Razeyah Mohagheghyan

2015-01-01

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between computer game use and spatial abilities among high school students. The sample consisted of 300 high school male students selected through multi-stage cluster sampling. Data gathering tools consisted of a researcher made questionnaire (to collect information on computer game usage) and the…

Neural Network Optimization of Ligament Stiffnesses for the Enhanced Predictive Ability of a Patient-Specific, Computational Foot/Ankle Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Chande, Ruchi D; Wayne, Jennifer S

2017-09-01

Computational models of diarthrodial joints serve to inform the biomechanical function of these structures, and as such, must be supplied appropriate inputs for performance that is representative of actual joint function. Inputs for these models are sourced from both imaging modalities as well as literature. The latter is often the source of mechanical properties for soft tissues, like ligament stiffnesses; however, such data are not always available for all the soft tissues nor is it known for patient-specific work. In the current research, a method to improve the ligament stiffness definition for a computational foot/ankle model was sought with the greater goal of improving the predictive ability of the computational model. Specifically, the stiffness values were optimized using artificial neural networks (ANNs); both feedforward and radial basis function networks (RBFNs) were considered. Optimal networks of each type were determined and subsequently used to predict stiffnesses for the foot/ankle model. Ultimately, the predicted stiffnesses were considered reasonable and resulted in enhanced performance of the computational model, suggesting that artificial neural networks can be used to optimize stiffness inputs.

Preliminary evaluation of a predictive blood assay to identify patients at high risk of chemotherapy-induced nausea.

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Kutner, Thomas; Kunkel, Emily; Wang, Yue; George, Kyle; Zeger, Erik L; Ali, Zonera A; Prendergast, George C; Gilman, Paul B; Wallon, U Margaretha

2017-02-01

The aim of this study was to test a new blood-based assay for its ability to predict delayed chemotherapy-induced nausea. Blood drawn from consented patients prior to receiving their first platinum-based therapy was tested for glutathione recycling capacity and normalized to total red cell numbers. This number was used to predict nausea and then compared to patient reported outcomes using the Rotterdam Symptom Check List and medical records. We show that the pathways involved in the glutathione recycling are stable for at least 48 h and that the test was able to correctly classify the risk of nausea for 89.1 % of the patients. The overall incidence of nausea was 21.9 % while women had an incidence of 29.6 %. This might be the first objective test to predict delayed nausea for cancer patients receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy. We believe that this assay could better guide clinicians in their efforts to provide optimal patient-oriented care.

Ability of High-Resolution Manometry to Determine Feeding Method and to Predict Aspiration Pneumonia in Patients With Dysphagia.

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Park, Chul-Hyun; Lee, Yong-Taek; Yi, Youbin; Lee, Jung-Sang; Park, Jung Ho; Yoon, Kyung Jae

2017-07-01

The introduction of high-resolution manometry (HRM) offered an improved method to objectively analyze the status of pharynx and esophagus. At present, HRM for patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia has been poorly studied. We aimed to determine feeding method and predict the development of aspiration pneumonia in patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia using HRM. We recruited 120 patients with dysphagia who underwent both HRM and videofluoroscopic swallow study. HRM was used to estimate pressure events from velopharynx (VP) to upper esophageal sphincter (UES). Feeding methods were determined to non-oral or oral feeding according to dysphagia severity. We prospectively followed patients to assess the development of aspiration pneumonia. VP maximal pressure and UES relaxation duration were independently associated with non-oral feeding. Non-oral feeding was determined based on optimal cutoff value of 105.0 mm Hg for VP maximal pressure (95.0% sensitivity and 70.0% specificity) and 0.45 s for UES relaxation duration (76.3% sensitivity and 57.5% specificity), respectively. During a mean follow-up of 18.8 months, 15.8% of patients developed aspiration pneumonia. On multivariate Cox regression analysis, VP maximal pressure (Pdysphagia.

The Impact of Problem-Based Learning Approach to Senior High School Students' Mathematics Critical Thinking Ability

Science.gov (United States)

Widyatiningtyas, Reviandari; Kusumah, Yaya S.; Sumarmo, Utari; Sabandar, Jozua

2015-01-01

The study reported the findings of an only post-test control group research design and aims to analyze the influence of problem-based learning approach, school level, and students' prior mathematical ability to student's mathematics critical thinking ability. The research subjects were 140 grade ten senior high school students coming from…

Academic Reading ability of first-year students: what's high school ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Both groups were administered a pre-test and post-test of academic reading ability. The dependent variable was academic reading ability and the independent variables were matric grade and prior exposure. Two measures of reading ability were used, namely a reading comprehension and a cloze passage. An analysis of ...

Predicting High Frequency Exchange Rates using Machine Learning

OpenAIRE

Palikuca, Aleksandar; Seidl,, Timo

2016-01-01

This thesis applies a committee of Artificial Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines on high-dimensional, high-frequency EUR/USD exchange rate data in an effort to predict directional market movements on up to a 60 second prediction horizon. The study shows that combining multiple classifiers into a committee produces improved precision relative to the best individual committee members and outperforms previously reported results. A trading simulation implementing the committee classifier...

Music Abilities and Experiences as Predictors of Error-Detection Skill.

Science.gov (United States)

Brand, Manny; Burnsed, Vernon

1981-01-01

This study examined the predictive validity of previous music abilities and experiences of skill in music error detection among undergraduate instrumental music education majors. Results indicated no statistically significant relationships which suggest that the ability to detect music errors may exist independently of other music abilities.…

The ability of in vitro antioxidant assays to predict the efficiency of a cod protein hydrolysate and brown seaweed extract to prevent oxidation in marine food model systems.

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Jónsdóttir, Rósa; Geirsdóttir, Margrét; Hamaguchi, Patricia Y; Jamnik, Polona; Kristinsson, Hordur G; Undeland, Ingrid

2016-04-01

The ability of different in vitro antioxidant assays to predict the efficiency of cod protein hydrolysate (CPH) and Fucus vesiculosus ethyl acetate extract (EA) towards lipid oxidation in haemoglobin-fortified washed cod mince and iron-containing cod liver oil emulsion was evaluated. The progression of oxidation was followed by sensory analysis, lipid hydroperoxides and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) in both systems, as well as loss of redness and protein carbonyls in the cod system. The in vitro tests revealed high reducing capacity, high DPPH radical scavenging properties and a high oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) value of the EA which also inhibited lipid and protein oxidation in the cod model system. The CPH had a high metal chelating capacity and was efficient against oxidation in the cod liver oil emulsion. The results indicate that the F. vesiculosus extract has a potential as an excellent natural antioxidant against lipid oxidation in fish muscle foods while protein hydrolysates are more promising for fish oil emulsions. The usefulness of in vitro assays to predict the antioxidative properties of new natural ingredients in foods thus depends on the knowledge about the food systems, particularly the main pro-oxidants present. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.

Gender, Parental Education, and Ability: Their Interacting Roles in Predicting GCSE Success

Science.gov (United States)

Glaesser, Judith; Cooper, Barry

2012-01-01

We investigate the relations between gender, parental education, ability, and educational achievement in Britain, focusing on the way in which gender and parental education interact with ability to contribute to a pupil's obtaining secondary school qualifications. This allows us to provide evidence relevant to claims concerning the effects of…

Utility of high-resolution computed tomography for predicting risk of sputum smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakanishi, Masanori; Demura, Yoshiki; Ameshima, Shingo; Kosaka, Nobuyuki; Chiba, Yukio; Nishikawa, Satoshi; Itoh, Harumi; Ishizaki, Takeshi

2010-01-01

Background: To diagnose sputum smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is difficult and the ability of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) for diagnosing PTB has remained unclear in the sputum smear-negative setting. We retrospectively investigated whether or not this imaging modality can predict risk for sputum smear-negative PTB. Methods: We used HRCT to examine the findings of 116 patients with suspected PTB despite negative sputum smears for acid-fast bacilli (AFB). We investigated their clinical features and HRCT-findings to predict the risk for PTB by multivariate analysis and a combination of HRCT findings by stepwise regression analysis. We then designed provisional HRCT diagnostic criteria based on these results to rank the risk of PTB and blinded observers assessed the validity and reliability of these criteria. Results: A positive tuberculin skin test alone among clinical laboratory findings was significantly associated with an increase of risk of PTB. Multivariate regression analysis showed that large nodules, tree-in-bud appearance, lobular consolidation and the main lesion being located in S1, S2, and S6 were significantly associated with an increased risk of PTB. Stepwise regression analysis showed that coexistence of the above 4 factors was most significantly associated with an increase in the risk for PTB. Ranking of the results using our HRCT diagnostic criteria by blinded observers revealed good utility and agreement for predicting PTB risk. Conclusions: Even in the sputum smear-negative setting, HRCT can predict the risk of PTB with good reproducibility and can select patients having a high probability of PTB.

Utility of high-resolution computed tomography for predicting risk of sputum smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nakanishi, Masanori [Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, 23 Shimoaizuki Eiheizi-cho, Fukui 910-1193 (Japan)], E-mail: mnakanishi@nifty.ne.jp; Demura, Yoshiki; Ameshima, Shingo [Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, 23 Shimoaizuki Eiheizi-cho, Fukui 910-1193 (Japan); Kosaka, Nobuyuki [Departments of Radiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, 23 Shimoaizuki Eiheizi-cho, Fukui 910-1193 (Japan); Chiba, Yukio [Department of Respiratory Medicine, National Hospital Organization, Fukui Hospital, Tsuruga, Fukui 914-0195 (Japan); Nishikawa, Satoshi [Department of Radiology, National Hospital Organization, Fukui Hospital, Tsuruga, Fukui 914-0195 (Japan); Itoh, Harumi [Departments of Radiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, 23 Shimoaizuki Eiheizi-cho, Fukui 910-1193 (Japan); Ishizaki, Takeshi [Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, 23 Shimoaizuki Eiheizi-cho, Fukui 910-1193 (Japan)

2010-03-15

Background: To diagnose sputum smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is difficult and the ability of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) for diagnosing PTB has remained unclear in the sputum smear-negative setting. We retrospectively investigated whether or not this imaging modality can predict risk for sputum smear-negative PTB. Methods: We used HRCT to examine the findings of 116 patients with suspected PTB despite negative sputum smears for acid-fast bacilli (AFB). We investigated their clinical features and HRCT-findings to predict the risk for PTB by multivariate analysis and a combination of HRCT findings by stepwise regression analysis. We then designed provisional HRCT diagnostic criteria based on these results to rank the risk of PTB and blinded observers assessed the validity and reliability of these criteria. Results: A positive tuberculin skin test alone among clinical laboratory findings was significantly associated with an increase of risk of PTB. Multivariate regression analysis showed that large nodules, tree-in-bud appearance, lobular consolidation and the main lesion being located in S1, S2, and S6 were significantly associated with an increased risk of PTB. Stepwise regression analysis showed that coexistence of the above 4 factors was most significantly associated with an increase in the risk for PTB. Ranking of the results using our HRCT diagnostic criteria by blinded observers revealed good utility and agreement for predicting PTB risk. Conclusions: Even in the sputum smear-negative setting, HRCT can predict the risk of PTB with good reproducibility and can select patients having a high probability of PTB.

Conceptions of ability and self-determined motivation in young Spanish athletes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Antonio Moreno-Murcia

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This investigation examined the relationship between implicit ability beliefs and self-determined motivation. The sample was comprised of 775 young athletes between the ages of 12 and 17 competing at national level in Spain. The participants completed the Spanish version of the Conceptions of the Nature of Athletic Ability Questionnaire (CNAAQ-2 and the Sport Motivation Scale (SMS. The results revealed a positive and significant correlation between stable ability beliefs and learning ability, and between self-determined motivation and perceived sports ability. To the contrary, stable entity beliefs were negatively correlated with self-determined motivation. Competitiveness in sports was significantly predicted by self-determined motivation, and the latter, in its turn, was positively predicted by learning belief and negatively by stable entity beliefs.

Math anxiety, self-efficacy, and ability in British undergraduate nursing students.

Science.gov (United States)

McMullan, Miriam; Jones, Ray; Lea, Susan

2012-04-01

Nurses need to be able to make drug calculations competently. In this study, involving 229 second year British nursing students, we explored the influence of mathematics anxiety, self-efficacy, and numerical ability on drug calculation ability and determined which factors would best predict this skill. Strong significant relationships (p anxiety, self-efficacy, and ability. Students who failed the numerical and/or drug calculation ability tests were more anxious (p < .001) and less confident (p ≤ .002) in performing calculations than those who passed. Numerical ability made the strongest unique contribution in predicting drug calculation ability (beta = 0.50, p < .001) followed by drug calculation self-efficacy (beta = 0.16, p = .04). Early testing is recommended for basic numerical skills. Faculty are advised to refresh students' numerical skills before introducing drug calculations. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The influence of mathematics learning using SAVI approach on junior high school students’ mathematical modelling ability

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Khusna, H.; Heryaningsih, N. Y.

2018-01-01

The aim of this research was to examine mathematical modeling ability who learn mathematics by using SAVI approach. This research was a quasi-experimental research with non-equivalent control group designed by using purposive sampling technique. The population of this research was the state junior high school students in Lembang while the sample consisted of two class at 8th grade. The instrument used in this research was mathematical modeling ability. Data analysis of this research was conducted by using SPSS 20 by Windows. The result showed that students’ ability of mathematical modeling who learn mathematics by using SAVI approach was better than students’ ability of mathematical modeling who learn mathematics using conventional learning.

The Role of Visual-Spatial Abilities in Dyslexia: Age Differences in Children's Reading?

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Giovagnoli, Giulia; Vicari, Stefano; Tomassetti, Serena; Menghini, Deny

2016-01-01

Reading is a highly complex process in which integrative neurocognitive functions are required. Visual-spatial abilities play a pivotal role because of the multi-faceted visual sensory processing involved in reading. Several studies show that children with developmental dyslexia (DD) fail to develop effective visual strategies and that some reading difficulties are linked to visual-spatial deficits. However, the relationship between visual-spatial skills and reading abilities is still a controversial issue. Crucially, the role that age plays has not been investigated in depth in this population, and it is still not clear if visual-spatial abilities differ across educational stages in DD. The aim of the present study was to investigate visual-spatial abilities in children with DD and in age-matched normal readers (NR) according to different educational stages: in children attending primary school and in children and adolescents attending secondary school. Moreover, in order to verify whether visual-spatial measures could predict reading performance, a regression analysis has been performed in younger and older children. The results showed that younger children with DD performed significantly worse than NR in a mental rotation task, a more-local visual-spatial task, a more-global visual-perceptual task and a visual-motor integration task. However, older children with DD showed deficits in the more-global visual-perceptual task, in a mental rotation task and in a visual attention task. In younger children, the regression analysis documented that reading abilities are predicted by the visual-motor integration task, while in older children only the more-global visual-perceptual task predicted reading performances. Present findings showed that visual-spatial deficits in children with DD were age-dependent and that visual-spatial abilities engaged in reading varied across different educational stages. In order to better understand their potential role in affecting reading

Inconclusive Predictions and Contradictions: A Lack of Consensus on Seed Germination Response to Climate Change at High Altitude and High Latitude

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ganesh K. Jaganathan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Climate change directly affects arctic-alpine plants and acute responses to increased temperatures may be seen in their reproductive fitness and germination ability. However, uncertainties prevail in predicting whether a future warmer climate favors or hampers seed germination in high latitude and high altitude soils and seed germination research in such systems has not been able to provide generalizable patterns of response. The available literature on this subject has been conducted at various locations contributing to difficulties in predicting the response of arctic-alpine seeds to climate change. Here, we show that discrepancies in seed collection, dormancy breaking treatments, and germination conditions found in the published literature are possible reasons for our inability to draw large scale conclusions. We explore how these factors influence the results and highlight the fact that many of the previous investigations have reported the effects of warmer temperature, rather than a warmer climate and all the associated complex environmental interactions, on seed germination. We recommend that long-term monitoring of seed response to treatments that mimic the present and future alpine climate is likely to produce more ecologically meaningful insights and suggest several practical steps that researchers can take that would facilitate greater coherence between studies.

The Relationship between Ethical Sensitivity, High Ability and Gender in Higher Education Students

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Schutte, Ingrid; Wolfensberger, Marca; Tirri, Kirsi

2014-01-01

This study examined the ethical sensitivity of high-ability undergraduate students (n=731) in the Netherlands who completed the 28-item Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ) developed by Tirri & Nokelainen (2007; 2011). The ESSQ is based on Narvaez' (2001) operationalization of ethical sensitivity in seven dimensions. The following…

Does cognitive ability buffer the link between childhood disadvantage and adult health?

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Bridger, Emma; Daly, Michael

2017-10-01

Individual differences in childhood cognitive ability have been neglected in the study of how early life psychosocial factors may buffer the long-term health consequences of social disadvantage. In this study, we drew on rich data from two large British cohorts to test whether high levels of cognitive ability may protect children from experiencing the physical and mental health consequences of early life socioeconomic disadvantage. Participants from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS; N = 11,522) were followed from birth to age 42, and those from the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS; N = 13,213) were followed from birth to age 50. Childhood social disadvantage was indexed using 6 indicators gauging parental education, occupational prestige, and housing characteristics (i.e., housing tenure and home crowding). Standardized assessments of cognitive ability were completed at ages 10 (BCS) and 11 (NCDS) years. Psychological distress, self-rated health, and all-cause mortality were examined from early adulthood to midlife in both cohorts. Early social disadvantage predicted elevated levels of psychological distress and lower levels of self-rated health in both cohorts and higher mortality risk in the NCDS. Childhood cognitive ability moderated each of these relationships such that the link between early life social disadvantage and poor health in adulthood was markedly stronger at low (-1 SD) compared to high (+1 SD) levels of childhood cognitive ability. This study provides evidence that high childhood cognitive ability is associated with a decrease in the strength of socioeconomic status-driven health inequalities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Metacognitive Ability Relationship with Test Result of Senior High School of Biology Teacher Competence in Sijunjung District

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Ardi, A.; Fadilah, M.; Ichsani, W.

2018-04-01

This research aimed to reveal how the relationship between metacognitive ability and the test result of biology teacher competence in Sijunjung District. The population of this descriptive research were all high school biology teachers in Sijunjung District, and sample is all teachers who are members of the population, which is 23 biology teachers. The instrument used in this research are a questionnaire of research on teacher's metacognitive ability and document about teacher competence test result. The questionnaire was validated first by two lecturers of biology and one lecturer of English. Data analysis using Pearson Product Moment's. Based on the results of research and discussion that have been described, it can generally be concluded that there is a low relationship between metacognitive ability with competence test results of high school biology teachers in Sijunjung District. Partially, the relationship of metacognitive ability with the test result of professional competence of biology teacher showed significant result, with correlation coefficient 0,46 and t table 1,72 while titung 2,37. The contribution of metacognitive ability to the competence test result of the teacher is 21.6%, while the other 78.4% have not been revealed in this research.

High resolution solar observations in the context of space weather prediction

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Yang, Guo

Space weather has a great impact on the Earth and human life. It is important to study and monitor active regions on the solar surface and ultimately to predict space weather based on the Sun's activity. In this study, a system that uses the full power of speckle masking imaging by parallel processing to obtain high-spatial resolution images of the solar surface in near real-time has been developed and built. The application of this system greatly improves the ability to monitor the evolution of solar active regions and to predict the adverse effects of space weather. The data obtained by this system have also been used to study fine structures on the solar surface and their effects on the upper solar atmosphere. A solar active region has been studied using high resolution data obtained by speckle masking imaging. Evolution of a pore in an active region presented. Formation of a rudimentary penumbra is studied. The effects of the change of the magnetic fields on the upper level atmosphere is discussed. Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) have a great impact on space weather. To study the relationship between CMEs and filament disappearance, a list of 431 filament and prominence disappearance events has been compiled. Comparison of this list with CME data obtained by satellite has shown that most filament disappearances seem to have no corresponding CME events. Even for the limb events, only thirty percent of filament disappearances are associated with CMEs. A CME event that was observed on March 20, 2000 has been studied in detail. This event did not show the three-parts structure of typical CMEs. The kinematical and morphological properties of this event were examined.

Predicting High-Power Performance in Professional Cyclists.

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Sanders, Dajo; Heijboer, Mathieu; Akubat, Ibrahim; Meijer, Kenneth; Hesselink, Matthijs K

2017-03-01

To assess if short-duration (5 to ~300 s) high-power performance can accurately be predicted using the anaerobic power reserve (APR) model in professional cyclists. Data from 4 professional cyclists from a World Tour cycling team were used. Using the maximal aerobic power, sprint peak power output, and an exponential constant describing the decrement in power over time, a power-duration relationship was established for each participant. To test the predictive accuracy of the model, several all-out field trials of different durations were performed by each cyclist. The power output achieved during the all-out trials was compared with the predicted power output by the APR model. The power output predicted by the model showed very large to nearly perfect correlations to the actual power output obtained during the all-out trials for each cyclist (r = .88 ± .21, .92 ± .17, .95 ± .13, and .97 ± .09). Power output during the all-out trials remained within an average of 6.6% (53 W) of the predicted power output by the model. This preliminary pilot study presents 4 case studies on the applicability of the APR model in professional cyclists using a field-based approach. The decrement in all-out performance during high-intensity exercise seems to conform to a general relationship with a single exponential-decay model describing the decrement in power vs increasing duration. These results are in line with previous studies using the APR model to predict performance during brief all-out trials. Future research should evaluate the APR model with a larger sample size of elite cyclists.

FUNCTIONAL ABILITIES AS PREDICTORS OF PREADOSLESCENT STUDENTS’ ATHLETIC RESULTS OUTCOME

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Miroljub Ivanović

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Aim of this research has been directed to the functional abilities relation testing (as predictors and athletic results (as criterion of students, who are VII and VIII grade of primary school (Χ= 13, 9 years; SD = 1, 17. The research has been conducted in Valjevo during November 2010. on the sample of 108 examinees. Variables’ sample has been assembled from 3 tests for functional abilities (maximal oxygen consumption, pulse frequency and vital lungs capacity evaluation and 4 athletic disciplines (high jump, long jump, shot put and 60 meters low start sprint from current physical education curriculum. Crombah-alfa coefficient values indicate to satisfactory reliability of applied instruments. In data processing canonical correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis have been used. Achieved canonical correlation analysis results showed that functional abilities set is statistically and significantly related to criterion variables set (R=.67, manifesting one canonical factor on the level p<.03. Achieved determination coefficient (R² = .43 indicates to functional abilities prognostic significance of explained variance 46% criterion. Using hierarchy regression model following statistically significant beta coefficient of functional abilities as partial predictors of athletics outcome have been determined: I for vital lungs capacity- high jump (β = .67, p < .01, II for vital lungs capacity- long jump (β = .55, p < .01, III for vital lungs capacity and pulse frequency- shot put (β =.-.34, p < .01; β =.42, p < .02 and IV for vital lungs capacity- 60 meters sprint (β = .-.39. Regression equation calculation of other applied functional abilities preadolescents’ predictor variables has not statistically and significantly contributed to univariance prediction of criterion variable variance

Text Recall in Adulthood: The Role of Intellectual Abilities.

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Hultsch, David F.; And Others

1984-01-01

Examines age-related predictive relationships among an array of psychometric intellectual ability markers and text recall performance. Women from three age groups (ranging from 21 to 78 years) read and recalled four narratives at three delay intervals and completed a battery of intellectual ability tests. (Author/CB)

Class prediction for high-dimensional class-imbalanced data

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Lusa Lara

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The goal of class prediction studies is to develop rules to accurately predict the class membership of new samples. The rules are derived using the values of the variables available for each subject: the main characteristic of high-dimensional data is that the number of variables greatly exceeds the number of samples. Frequently the classifiers are developed using class-imbalanced data, i.e., data sets where the number of samples in each class is not equal. Standard classification methods used on class-imbalanced data often produce classifiers that do not accurately predict the minority class; the prediction is biased towards the majority class. In this paper we investigate if the high-dimensionality poses additional challenges when dealing with class-imbalanced prediction. We evaluate the performance of six types of classifiers on class-imbalanced data, using simulated data and a publicly available data set from a breast cancer gene-expression microarray study. We also investigate the effectiveness of some strategies that are available to overcome the effect of class imbalance. Results Our results show that the evaluated classifiers are highly sensitive to class imbalance and that variable selection introduces an additional bias towards classification into the majority class. Most new samples are assigned to the majority class from the training set, unless the difference between the classes is very large. As a consequence, the class-specific predictive accuracies differ considerably. When the class imbalance is not too severe, down-sizing and asymmetric bagging embedding variable selection work well, while over-sampling does not. Variable normalization can further worsen the performance of the classifiers. Conclusions Our results show that matching the prevalence of the classes in training and test set does not guarantee good performance of classifiers and that the problems related to classification with class

Ability of commercially available dairy ration programs to predict duodenal flows of protein and essential amino acids in dairy cows.

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Pacheco, D; Patton, R A; Parys, C; Lapierre, H

2012-02-01

The objective of this analysis was to compare the rumen submodel predictions of 4 commonly used dairy ration programs to observed values of duodenal flows of crude protein (CP), protein fractions, and essential AA (EAA). The literature was searched and 40 studies, including 154 diets, were used to compare observed values with those predicted by AminoCow (AC), Agricultural Modeling and Training Systems (AMTS), Cornell-Penn-Miner (CPM), and National Research Council 2001 (NRC) models. The models were evaluated based on their ability to predict the mean, their root mean square prediction error (RMSPE), error bias, and adequacy of regression equations for each protein fraction. The models predicted the mean duodenal CP flow within 5%, with more than 90% of the variation due to random disturbance. The models also predicted within 5% the mean microbial CP flow except CPM, which overestimated it by 27%. Only NRC, however, predicted mean rumen-undegraded protein (RUP) flows within 5%, whereas AC and AMTS underpredicted it by 8 to 9% and CPM by 24%. Regarding duodenal flows of individual AA, across all diets, CPM predicted substantially greater (>10%) mean flows of Arg, His, Ile, Met, and Lys; AMTS predicted greater flow for Arg and Met, whereas AC and NRC estimations were, on average, within 10% of observed values. Overpredictions by the CPM model were mainly related to mean bias, whereas the NRC model had the highest proportion of bias in random disturbance for flows of EAA. Models tended to predict mean flows of EAA more accurately on corn silage and alfalfa diets than on grass-based diets, more accurately on corn grain-based diets than on non-corn-based diets, and finally more accurately in the mid range of diet types. The 4 models were accurate at predicting mean dry matter intake. The AC, AMTS, and NRC models were all sufficiently accurate to be used for balancing EAA in dairy rations under field conditions. Copyright © 2012 American Dairy Science Association

Creativity, visualization abilities, and visual cognitive style.

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Kozhevnikov, Maria; Kozhevnikov, Michael; Yu, Chen Jiao; Blazhenkova, Olesya

2013-06-01

Despite the recent evidence for a multi-component nature of both visual imagery and creativity, there have been no systematic studies on how the different dimensions of creativity and imagery might interrelate. The main goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between different dimensions of creativity (artistic and scientific) and dimensions of visualization abilities and styles (object and spatial). In addition, we compared the contributions of object and spatial visualization abilities versus corresponding styles to scientific and artistic dimensions of creativity. Twenty-four undergraduate students (12 females) were recruited for the first study, and 75 additional participants (36 females) were recruited for an additional experiment. Participants were administered a number of object and spatial visualization abilities and style assessments as well as a number of artistic and scientific creativity tests. The results show that object visualization relates to artistic creativity and spatial visualization relates to scientific creativity, while both are distinct from verbal creativity. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that style predicts corresponding dimension of creativity even after removing shared variance between style and visualization ability. The results suggest that styles might be a more ecologically valid construct in predicting real-life creative behaviour, such as performance in different professional domains. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Cognitive abilities predict death during the next 15 years in older Japanese adults.

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Nishita, Yukiko; Tange, Chikako; Tomida, Makiko; Otsuka, Rei; Ando, Fujiko; Shimokata, Hiroshi

2017-10-01

The longitudinal relationship between cognitive abilities and subsequent death was investigated among community-dwelling older Japanese adults. Participants (n = 1060; age range 60-79 years) comprised the first-wave participants of the National Institute for Longevity Sciences-Longitudinal Study of Aging. Participants' cognitive abilities were measured at baseline using the Japanese Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised Short Form, which includes the following tests: Information (general knowledge), Similarities (logical abstract thinking), Picture Completion (visual perception and long-term visual memory) and Digit Symbol (information processing speed). By each cognitive test score, participants were classified into three groups: the high-level group (≥ the mean + 1SD), the low-level group (≤ the mean - 1SD) and the middle-level group. Data on death and moving during the subsequent 15 years were collected and analyzed using the multiple Cox proportional hazard model adjusted for physical and psychosocial covariates. During the follow-up period, 308 participants (29.06%) had died and 93 participants (8.77%) had moved. In the Similarities test, adjusted hazard ratios (HR) of the low-level group to the high-level group were significant (HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.02-2.17, P = 0.038). Furthermore, in the Digit symbol test, the adjusted HR of the low-level group to the high-level group was significant (HR 1.62, 95% CI 1.03-2.58, P = 0.038). Significant adjusted HR were not observed for the Information or Picture Completion tests. It is suggested that a lower level of logical abstract thinking and slower information processing speed are associated with shorter survival among older Japanese adults. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1654-1660. © 2016 Japan Geriatrics Society.

Prefrontal-hippocampal-fusiform activity during encoding predicts intraindividual differences in free recall ability: an event-related functional-anatomic MRI study.

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Dickerson, B C; Miller, S L; Greve, D N; Dale, A M; Albert, M S; Schacter, D L; Sperling, R A

2007-01-01

The ability to spontaneously recall recently learned information is a fundamental mnemonic activity of daily life, but has received little study using functional neuroimaging. We developed a functional MRI (fMRI) paradigm to study regional brain activity during encoding that predicts free recall. In this event-related fMRI study, ten lists of fourteen pictures of common objects were shown to healthy young individuals and regional brain activity during encoding was analyzed based on subsequent free recall performance. Free recall of items was predicted by activity during encoding in hippocampal, fusiform, and inferior prefrontal cortical regions. Within-subject variance in free recall performance for the ten lists was predicted by a linear combination of condition-specific inferior prefrontal, hippocampal, and fusiform activity. Recall performance was better for lists in which prefrontal activity was greater for all items of the list and hippocampal and fusiform activity were greater specifically for items that were recalled from the list. Thus, the activity of medial temporal, fusiform, and prefrontal brain regions during the learning of new information is important for the subsequent free recall of this information. These fronto-temporal brain regions act together as a large-scale memory-related network, the components of which make distinct yet interacting contributions during encoding that predict subsequent successful free recall performance.

Visualisation Ability of Senior High School Students with Using GeoGebra and Transparent Mica

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thohirudin, M; Maryati, TK; Dwirahayu, G

2017-01-01

Visualisation ability is an ability to process, inform, and transform object which suitable for geometry topic in math. This research aims to describe the influence of using software GeoGebra and transparent mica for student’s visualisation ability. GeoGebra is shortness of geometry and algebra. GeoGebra is an open source program that is created for math. Transparent mica is a tool that is created by the author to transform a geometry object. This research is a quantitative experiment model. The subject of this research were students in grade XII of science program in Annajah Senior High School Rumpin with two classes which one as an experiment class (science one) and another one as a control class (science two). Experiment class use GeoGebra and transparent mica in the study, and control class use powerpoint in the study. Data of student’s visualisation ability is collected from posttest with visual questions which are gifted at the end of the research to both classes with topic “transformation geometry”. This research resulted that studying with GeoGebra and transparent mica had a better influence than studying with powerpoint to student’s visualisation ability. The time of study in class and the habit of the students to use software and tool affected the result of research. Although, GeoGebra and transparent mica can give help to students in transformation geometry topic. (paper)

Soil and Water Assessment Tool model predictions of annual maximum pesticide concentrations in high vulnerability watersheds.

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Winchell, Michael F; Peranginangin, Natalia; Srinivasan, Raghavan; Chen, Wenlin

2018-05-01

Recent national regulatory assessments of potential pesticide exposure of threatened and endangered species in aquatic habitats have led to increased need for watershed-scale predictions of pesticide concentrations in flowing water bodies. This study was conducted to assess the ability of the uncalibrated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to predict annual maximum pesticide concentrations in the flowing water bodies of highly vulnerable small- to medium-sized watersheds. The SWAT was applied to 27 watersheds, largely within the midwest corn belt of the United States, ranging from 20 to 386 km 2 , and evaluated using consistent input data sets and an uncalibrated parameterization approach. The watersheds were selected from the Atrazine Ecological Exposure Monitoring Program and the Heidelberg Tributary Loading Program, both of which contain high temporal resolution atrazine sampling data from watersheds with exceptionally high vulnerability to atrazine exposure. The model performance was assessed based upon predictions of annual maximum atrazine concentrations in 1-d and 60-d durations, predictions critical in pesticide-threatened and endangered species risk assessments when evaluating potential acute and chronic exposure to aquatic organisms. The simulation results showed that for nearly half of the watersheds simulated, the uncalibrated SWAT model was able to predict annual maximum pesticide concentrations within a narrow range of uncertainty resulting from atrazine application timing patterns. An uncalibrated model's predictive performance is essential for the assessment of pesticide exposure in flowing water bodies, the majority of which have insufficient monitoring data for direct calibration, even in data-rich countries. In situations in which SWAT over- or underpredicted the annual maximum concentrations, the magnitude of the over- or underprediction was commonly less than a factor of 2, indicating that the model and uncalibrated parameterization

Social Media Social Comparison of Ability (but not Opinion) Predicts Lower Identity Clarity: Identity Processing Style as a Mediator.

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Yang, Chia-Chen; Holden, Sean M; Carter, Mollie D K

2018-01-11

Social comparison on social media has received increasing attention, but most research has focused on one type of social comparison and its psycho-emotional implications. Little is known about how different types of social comparison influence youth's identity development. Drawing on the theories of identity processing styles and social comparison, we examined how two different forms of social comparison on social media related to three identity processing styles, which in turn predicted youth's global self-esteem and identity clarity. We surveyed 219 college freshmen (M age  = 18.29; 74% female) once in the Fall and once in the Spring. Social comparison of ability on social media was related to concurrent diffuse-avoidant identity processing style, which predicted lower identity clarity months later. In contrast, social comparison of opinion on social media did not influence college freshmen's global self-esteem and identity clarity through identity processing styles. The findings clarified the implications of online social comparison for youth's identity development.

Psycholegal abilities and restoration of competence to stand trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Douglas R; Deyoung, Nathaniel J

2012-01-01

Criminal defendants adjudicated incompetent to stand trial are typically hospitalized for competence restoration in state institutions. Prolonged restoration hospitalizations involve civil rights concerns and increasing financial costs, and there remains interest in determining which individuals are likely to be successfully restored. We retrospectively reviewed hospital records of 455 male defendants admitted to a forensic treatment center for competence restoration in an effort to determine whether psychiatric diagnoses, demographic factors, or psycholegal abilities were predictive of successful or failed restoration. At varying stages of restoration efforts, psychotic disorder, mental retardation, and previous state hospitalization predicted unsuccessful restoration, while substance use and personality disorders were predictive of successful restoration. Psycholegal abilities were predictive of successful restoration and appeared to form a continuum, with basic behavior and outlook, factual legal understanding, and rational attorney assistance factors demonstrating progressively increased importance in successful restoration. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comparing predictive ability of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy to Near Infrared Spectroscopy for soil texture and organic carbon determination

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knadel, Maria; Peng, Yi; Gislum, René

Soil organic carbon (SOC) and texture have a practical value for agronomy and the environment. Thus, alternative techniques to supplement or substitute for the expensive conventional analysis of soil are developed. Here the feasibility of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to determine SOC...... and texture was tested and compared with near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique and traditional laboratory analysis. Calibration models were developed on 50 topsoil samples. For all properties except silt, higher predictive ability of LIBS than NIRS models was obtained. Successful calibrations indicate...... that LIBS can be used as a fast and reliable method for SOC and texture estimation....

Cognitive Ability, Principled Reasoning and Political Tolerance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hebbelstrup Rye Rasmussen, Stig; Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne

Individuals are not equally politically tolerant. To explain why, individual differences in emotions and threat have received much scholarly attention in recent years. However, extant research also shows that psychological dispositions, habitual cognitive styles, ideological orientation...... and ‘principled reasoning’ influence political tolerance judgments. The extent to which cognitive ability plays a role has not been entertained even if the capacity to think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas and apply abstract ideas to concrete situations is inherent to both principled tolerance judgment...... and cognitive ability. Cognitive ability, we argue and show, adds to the etiology of political tolerance. In Danish and American samples cognitive ability strongly predicts political tolerance after taking habitual cognitive styles (as measured by personality traits), education, social ideology, and feelings...

Genetic relations among procrastination, impulsivity, and goal-management ability: implications for the evolutionary origin of procrastination.

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Gustavson, Daniel E; Miyake, Akira; Hewitt, John K; Friedman, Naomi P

2014-06-01

Previous research has revealed a moderate and positive correlation between procrastination and impulsivity. However, little is known about why these two constructs are related. In the present study, we used behavior-genetics methodology to test three predictions derived from an evolutionary account that postulates that procrastination arose as a by-product of impulsivity: (a) Procrastination is heritable, (b) the two traits share considerable genetic variation, and (c) goal-management ability is an important component of this shared variation. These predictions were confirmed. First, both procrastination and impulsivity were moderately heritable (46% and 49%, respectively). Second, although the two traits were separable at the phenotypic level (r = .65), they were not separable at the genetic level (r genetic = 1.0). Finally, variation in goal-management ability accounted for much of this shared genetic variation. These results suggest that procrastination and impulsivity are linked primarily through genetic influences on the ability to use high-priority goals to effectively regulate actions. © The Author(s) 2014.

Video gaming enhances psychomotor skills but not visuospatial and perceptual abilities in surgical trainees.

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Kennedy, A M; Boyle, E M; Traynor, O; Walsh, T; Hill, A D K

2011-01-01

There is considerable interest in the identification and assessment of underlying aptitudes or innate abilities that could potentially predict excellence in the technical aspects of operating. However, before the assessment of innate abilities is introduced for high-stakes assessment (such as competitive selection into surgical training programs), it is essential to determine that these abilities are stable and unchanging and are not influenced by other factors, such as the use of video games. The aim of this study was to investigate whether experience playing video games will predict psychomotor performance on a laparoscopic simulator or scores on tests of visuospatial and perceptual abilities, and to examine the correlation, if any, between these innate abilities. Institutional ethical approval was obtained. Thirty-eight undergraduate medical students with no previous surgical experience were recruited. All participants completed a self-reported questionnaire that asked them to detail their video game experience. They then underwent assessment of their psychomotor, visuospatial, and perceptual abilities using previously validated tests. The results were analyzed using independent samples t tests to compare means and linear regression curves for subsequent analysis. Students who played video games for at least 7 hours per week demonstrated significantly better psychomotor skills than students who did not play video games regularly. However, there was no difference on measures of visuospatial and perceptual abilities. There was no correlation between psychomotor tests and visuospatial or perceptual tests. Regular video gaming correlates positively with psychomotor ability, but it does not seem to influence visuospatial or perceptual ability. This study suggests that video game experience might be beneficial to a future career in surgery. It also suggests that relevant surgical skills may be gained usefully outside the operating room in activities that are not

Young children's non-numerical ordering ability at the start of formal education longitudinally predicts their symbolic number skills and academic achievement in maths.

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O'Connor, Patrick A; Morsanyi, Kinga; McCormack, Teresa

2018-01-25

Ordinality is a fundamental feature of numbers and recent studies have highlighted the role that number ordering abilities play in mathematical development (e.g., Lyons et al., ), as well as mature mathematical performance (e.g., Lyons & Beilock, ). The current study tested the novel hypothesis that non-numerical ordering ability, as measured by the ordering of familiar sequences of events, also plays an important role in maths development. Ninety children were tested in their first school year and 87 were followed up at the end of their second school year, to test the hypothesis that ordinal processing, including the ordering of non-numerical materials, would be related to their maths skills both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The results confirmed this hypothesis. Ordinal processing measures were significantly related to maths both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and children's non-numerical ordering ability in their first year of school (as measured by order judgements for everyday events and the parents' report of their child's everyday ordering ability) was the strongest longitudinal predictor of maths one year later, when compared to several measures that are traditionally considered to be important predictors of early maths development. Children's everyday ordering ability, as reported by parents, also significantly predicted growth in formal maths ability between Year 1 and Year 2, although this was not the case for the event ordering task. The present study provides strong evidence that domain-general ordering abilities play an important role in the development of children's maths skills at the beginning of formal education. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Modeling Ability Differentiation in the Second-Order Factor Model

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Molenaar, Dylan; Dolan, Conor V.; van der Maas, Han L. J.

2011-01-01

In this article we present factor models to test for ability differentiation. Ability differentiation predicts that the size of IQ subtest correlations decreases as a function of the general intelligence factor. In the Schmid-Leiman decomposition of the second-order factor model, we model differentiation by introducing heteroscedastic residuals,…

Writing Abilities Longitudinally Predict Academic Outcomes of Adolescents with ADHD

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Molitor, Stephen J.; Langberg, Joshua M.; Bourchtein, Elizaveta; Eddy, Laura D.; Dvorsky, Melissa R.; Evans, Steven W.

2016-01-01

Students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience a host of negative academic outcomes, and deficits in reading and mathematics abilities contribute to these academic impairments. Students with ADHD may also have difficulties with written expression, but there has been minimal research in this area and it is not clear…

Are inflationary predictions sensitive to very high energy physics?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burgess, C.P.; Lemieux, F.; Holman, R.; Cline, J.M.

2003-01-01

It has been proposed that the successful inflationary description of density perturbations on cosmological scales is sensitive to the details of physics at extremely high (trans-Planckian) energies. We test this proposal by examining how inflationary predictions depend on higher-energy scales within a simple model where the higher-energy physics is well understood. We find the best of all possible worlds: inflationary predictions are robust against the vast majority of high-energy effects, but can be sensitive to some effects in certain circumstances, in a way which does not violate ordinary notions of decoupling. This implies both that the comparison of inflationary predictions with CMB data is meaningful, and that it is also worth searching for small deviations from the standard results in the hopes of learning about very high energies. (author)

Morphometry of Left Frontal and Temporal Poles Predicts Analogical Reasoning Abilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Aichelburg, Clarisse; Urbanski, Marika; Thiebaut de Schotten, Michel; Humbert, Frederic; Levy, Richard; Volle, Emmanuelle

2016-03-01

Analogical reasoning is critical for making inferences and adapting to novelty. It can be studied experimentally using tasks that require creating similarities between situations or concepts, i.e., when their constituent elements share a similar organization or structure. Brain correlates of analogical reasoning have mostly been explored using functional imaging that has highlighted the involvement of the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (rlPFC) in healthy subjects. However, whether inter-individual variability in analogical reasoning ability in a healthy adult population is related to differences in brain architecture is unknown. We investigated this question by employing linear regression models of performance in analogy tasks and voxel-based morphometry in 54 healthy subjects. Our results revealed that the ability to reason by analogy was associated with structural variability in the left rlPFC and the anterior part of the inferolateral temporal cortex. Tractography of diffusion-weighted images suggested that these 2 regions have a different set of connections but may exchange information via the arcuate fasciculus. These results suggest that enhanced integrative and semantic abilities supported by structural variation in these areas (or their connectivity) may lead to more efficient analogical reasoning. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The role of early language abilities on math skills among Chinese children.

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Juan Zhang

Full Text Available The present study investigated the role of early language abilities in the development of math skills among Chinese K-3 students. About 2000 children in China, who were on average aged 6 years, were assessed for both informal math (e.g., basic number concepts such as counting objects and formal math (calculations including addition and subtraction skills, language abilities and nonverbal intelligence.Correlation analysis showed that language abilities were more strongly associated with informal than formal math skills, and regression analyses revealed that children's language abilities could uniquely predict both informal and formal math skills with age, gender, and nonverbal intelligence controlled. Mediation analyses demonstrated that the relationship between children's language abilities and formal math skills was partially mediated by informal math skills.The current findings indicate 1 Children's language abilities are of strong predictive values for both informal and formal math skills; 2 Language abilities impacts formal math skills partially through the mediation of informal math skills.

Maximal Predictability Approach for Identifying the Right Descriptors for Electrocatalytic Reactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Krishnamurthy, Dilip; Sumaria, Vaidish; Viswanathan, Venkatasubramanian

2018-02-01

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are being routinely used to identify new material candidates that approach activity near fundamental limits imposed by thermodynamics or scaling relations. DFT calculations are associated with inherent uncertainty, which limits the ability to delineate materials (distinguishability) that possess high activity. Development of error-estimation capabilities in DFT has enabled uncertainty propagation through activity-prediction models. In this work, we demonstrate an approach to propagating uncertainty through thermodynamic activity models leading to a probability distribution of the computed activity and thereby its expectation value. A new metric, prediction efficiency, is defined, which provides a quantitative measure of the ability to distinguish activity of materials and can be used to identify the optimal descriptor(s) ΔG opt . We demonstrate the framework for four important electrochemical reactions: hydrogen evolution, chlorine evolution, oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution. Future studies could utilize expected activity and prediction efficiency to significantly improve the prediction accuracy of highly active material candidates.

Trajectories of Self-Perceived Math Ability, Utility Value and Interest across Middle School as Predictors of High School Math Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Jennifer Lee; Hyde, Janet Shibley

2017-01-01

Although many studies have documented developmental change in mathematics motivation, little is known about how these trends predict math performance. A sample of 288 participants from the United States reported their perceived math ability, math utility value and math interest in 5th, 7th and 9th grades. Latent growth curve models estimated…

Pragmatic Inference Abilities in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism. A Review

Science.gov (United States)

Loukusa, Soile; Moilanen, Irma

2009-01-01

This review summarizes studies involving pragmatic language comprehension and inference abilities in individuals with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. Systematic searches of three electronic databases, selected journals, and reference lists identified 20 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. These studies were evaluated in terms of:…

The Relationship between Critical Thinking Abilities and Classroom Management Skills of High School Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Demirdag, Seyithan

2015-01-01

High school teachers experience difficulties while providing effective teaching approaches in their classrooms. Some of the difficulties are associated with the lack of classroom management skills and critical thinking abilities. This quantitative study includes non-random selection of the participants and aims to examine critical thinking…

Development of arithmetical abilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatjana Levstek

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Arithmetic (from the word 'arithmos' which means 'numbers' is an elementary branch of mathematics. Numeracy is essential for understanding mathematics, so the development of arithmetic abilities has been an area of scientific research for a long time. Recent research has shown that the development of arithmetic abilities is not based only on gaining experience and learning. Some arithmetic abilities, especially the sense of quantity, are innate. Even babies are able to distinguish between groups with different number of elements and they perceive numeracy amodally. Six-month-olds distinguish between two groups with the numeracy ratio of 1 : 2. With age this ratio improves rapidly. Five-year-old children already distinguish between groups with the number ratio 7 : 8. The ability to compare two quantities begins to develop after 15 months of age and children learn how to count spontaneously, together with the acquisition of language. Speech enables children to understand number in its abstract, symbolic sense, thus opening the way to symbolic arithmetic. During the preschool period children use intuition when doing calculations, but in school the arithmetic is based on the knowledge of arithmetical algorithms. So, in order to acquire mathematical knowledge, it is necessary to incorporate memory and automate arithmetical processes, without the use of intuition. However, research has shown that intuition is very important and is even a predictive factor for the development of mathematical abilities throughout the schooling process.

Implicit theory of athletic ability and self-handicapping in college students.

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Chen, Lung Hung; Chen, Mei-Yen; Lin, Meng-Shyan; Kee, Ying Hwa; Kuo, Chin Fang; Shui, Shang-Hsueh

2008-10-01

Self-handicapping is a maladaptive behavior which undermines students' achievements, but the antecedents of self-handicapping are not well studied in physical education. The aim was to examine the relations of implicit theory of abilities and self-handicapping in physical education. 264 college students, whose mean age was 20.3 yr. (SD = 1.7), completed the Conceptions of the Nature of Athletic Ability Questionnaire-2 and Self-handicapping Scale for Sport. Analysis indicated entity beliefs positively predicted reduced effort and making excuses. Also, incremental beliefs negatively predicted reduced effort. Results are discussed in terms of implicit theory of ability and self-handicapping. Directions for research and implications are stated.

Academic Achievement in Physics-Chemistry: The Predictive Effect of Attitudes and Reasoning Abilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paulo N. Vilia

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Science education plays a critical role as political priority due to its fundamental importance in engaging students to pursue technological careers considered essential in modern societies, in order to face scientific development challenges. High-level achievement on science education and positive attitudes toward science constitutes a crucial challenge for formal education. Several studies indicate close relationships between students’ attitudes, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of student’s attitudes toward the school discipline of Physics and Chemistry and their reasoning abilities on academic achievement on that school subject, among Portuguese 9th grade students using the data collected during the Project Academic Performance and Development: a longitudinal study on the effects of school transitions in Portuguese students (PTDC/CPE-CED/104884/2008. The participants were 470 students (267 girls – 56.8% and 203 boys – 43.2%, aged 14–16 years old (μ = 14.3 ± 0.58. The attitude data were collected using the Attitude toward Physics-Chemistry Questionnaire (ATPCQ and, the Reasoning Test Battery (RTB was used to assess the students reasoning abilities. Achievement was measured using the students’ quarterly (9-week grades in the physics and chemistry subject. The relationships between the attitude dimensions toward Physics-chemistry and the reasoning dimensions and achievement in each of the three school terms were assessed by multiple regression stepwise analyses and standardized regression coefficients (β, calculated with IBM SPSS Statistics 21 software. Both variables studied proved to be significant predictor variables of school achievement. The models obtained from the use of both variables were always stronger accounting for higher proportions of student’s grade variations. The results show that ATPCQ and RTB had a significantly positive relationship with

Modelling bankruptcy prediction models in Slovak companies

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Kovacova Maria

2017-01-01

Full Text Available An intensive research from academics and practitioners has been provided regarding models for bankruptcy prediction and credit risk management. In spite of numerous researches focusing on forecasting bankruptcy using traditional statistics techniques (e.g. discriminant analysis and logistic regression and early artificial intelligence models (e.g. artificial neural networks, there is a trend for transition to machine learning models (support vector machines, bagging, boosting, and random forest to predict bankruptcy one year prior to the event. Comparing the performance of this with unconventional approach with results obtained by discriminant analysis, logistic regression, and neural networks application, it has been found that bagging, boosting, and random forest models outperform the others techniques, and that all prediction accuracy in the testing sample improves when the additional variables are included. On the other side the prediction accuracy of old and well known bankruptcy prediction models is quiet high. Therefore, we aim to analyse these in some way old models on the dataset of Slovak companies to validate their prediction ability in specific conditions. Furthermore, these models will be modelled according to new trends by calculating the influence of elimination of selected variables on the overall prediction ability of these models.

Development of a new wheat germplasm with high anther culture ability by using a combination of gamma-ray irradiation and anther culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Linshu; Liu, Luxiang; Wang, Jing; Guo, Huijun; Gu, Jiayu; Zhao, Shirong; Li, Junhui; Xie, Yongdun

2015-01-01

Wheat with high anther culture ability would be beneficial for breeding. We aimed to screen a wheat germplasm to with high anther culture ability as well as good agronomic characteristics. The F1 young spikes of winter wheat cross combination Yanfu188/Jimai37 were irradiated with gamma rays at a dose of 1.5 Gy to develop a new germplasm H307 with high anther culture ability. The proportion of green plantlets per 100 anthers (GP/100A) of H307 was 14.50% which was higher than other H2 lines (P green plantlet regeneration ability of H307 remained high in all 3 years. Reciprocal crosses between H307 and Nongda3308 showed no significant differences in their values for calli per 100 anthers (CA/100A), green plantlets per 100 calli (GP/100C) and GP/100A (P > 0.05). Five main wheat varieties used in production, namely Yumai68, Yanzhan4110, Bainongaikang58, Zhoumai18 and Xinmai18, were selected to cross with the new H307. CA/100A, GP/100C and GP/100A were used to assess the anther culture ability of F1 hybrids, demonstrating that the anther culture ability of H307 was heritable. H307 possessed high anther culture ability that was heritable, which would be potential germplasm for improving wheat anther breeding ability. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.

Emotional Intelligence and cognitive abilities - associations and sex differences.

Science.gov (United States)

Pardeller, Silvia; Frajo-Apor, Beatrice; Kemmler, Georg; Hofer, Alex

2017-09-01

In order to expand on previous research, this cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and cognitive abilities in healthy adults with a special focus on potential sex differences. EI was assessed by means of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), whereas cognitive abilities were investigated using the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), which measures key aspects of cognitive functioning, i.e. verbal memory, working memory, motor speed, verbal fluency, attention and processing speed, and reasoning and problem solving. 137 subjects (65% female) with a mean age of 38.7 ± 11.8 years were included into the study. While males and females were comparable with regard to EI, men achieved significantly higher BACS composite scores and outperformed women in the BACS subscales motor speed, attention and processing speed, and reasoning and problem solving. Verbal fluency significantly predicted EI, whereas the MSCEIT subscale understanding emotions significantly predicted the BACS composite score. Our findings support previous research and emphasize the relevance of considering cognitive abilities when assessing ability EI in healthy individuals.

Data-Based Predictive Control with Multirate Prediction Step

Science.gov (United States)

Barlow, Jonathan S.

2010-01-01

Data-based predictive control is an emerging control method that stems from Model Predictive Control (MPC). MPC computes current control action based on a prediction of the system output a number of time steps into the future and is generally derived from a known model of the system. Data-based predictive control has the advantage of deriving predictive models and controller gains from input-output data. Thus, a controller can be designed from the outputs of complex simulation code or a physical system where no explicit model exists. If the output data happens to be corrupted by periodic disturbances, the designed controller will also have the built-in ability to reject these disturbances without the need to know them. When data-based predictive control is implemented online, it becomes a version of adaptive control. One challenge of MPC is computational requirements increasing with prediction horizon length. This paper develops a closed-loop dynamic output feedback controller that minimizes a multi-step-ahead receding-horizon cost function with multirate prediction step. One result is a reduced influence of prediction horizon and the number of system outputs on the computational requirements of the controller. Another result is an emphasis on portions of the prediction window that are sampled more frequently. A third result is the ability to include more outputs in the feedback path than in the cost function.

The Influence of Personality, Parenting Styles, and Perfectionism on Performance Goal Orientation in High Ability Students

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Angie L.; Speirs Neumeister, Kristie L.

2017-01-01

The current study explores relationships among gender, perceived parenting style, the personality traits of conscientiousness and neuroticism, perfectionism, and achievement goal orientation in a high ability and high achieving young adult population. Using data from Honors College students at a Midwestern university, a path model suggests that…

Improved ability of biological and previous caries multimarkers to predict caries disease as revealed by multivariate PLS modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ericson Thorild

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Dental caries is a chronic disease with plaque bacteria, diet and saliva modifying disease activity. Here we have used the PLS method to evaluate a multiplicity of such biological variables (n = 88 for ability to predict caries in a cross-sectional (baseline caries and prospective (2-year caries development setting. Methods Multivariate PLS modelling was used to associate the many biological variables with caries recorded in thirty 14-year-old children by measuring the numbers of incipient and manifest caries lesions at all surfaces. Results A wide but shallow gliding scale of one fifth caries promoting or protecting, and four fifths non-influential, variables occurred. The influential markers behaved in the order of plaque bacteria > diet > saliva, with previously known plaque bacteria/diet markers and a set of new protective diet markers. A differential variable patterning appeared for new versus progressing lesions. The influential biological multimarkers (n = 18 predicted baseline caries better (ROC area 0.96 than five markers (0.92 and a single lactobacilli marker (0.7 with sensitivity/specificity of 1.87, 1.78 and 1.13 at 1/3 of the subjects diagnosed sick, respectively. Moreover, biological multimarkers (n = 18 explained 2-year caries increment slightly better than reported before but predicted it poorly (ROC area 0.76. By contrast, multimarkers based on previous caries predicted alone (ROC area 0.88, or together with biological multimarkers (0.94, increment well with a sensitivity/specificity of 1.74 at 1/3 of the subjects diagnosed sick. Conclusion Multimarkers behave better than single-to-five markers but future multimarker strategies will require systematic searches for improved saliva and plaque bacteria markers.

Cognitive ability predicts motor learning on a virtual reality game in patients with TBI.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neil, Rochelle L; Skeel, Reid L; Ustinova, Ksenia I

2013-01-01

Virtual reality games and simulations have been utilized successfully for motor rehabilitation of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Little is known, however, how TBI-related cognitive decline affects learning of motor tasks in virtual environments. To fill this gap, we examined learning within a virtual reality game involving various reaching motions in 14 patients with TBI and 15 healthy individuals with different cognitive abilities. All participants practiced ten 90-second gaming trials to assess various aspects of motor learning. Cognitive abilities were assessed with a battery of tests including measures of memory, executive functioning, and visuospatial ability. Overall, participants with TBI showed both reduced performance and a slower learning rate in the virtual reality game compared to healthy individuals. Numerous correlations between overall performance and several of the cognitive ability domains were revealed for both the patient and control groups, with the best predictor being overall cognitive ability. The results may provide a starting point for rehabilitation programs regarding which cognitive domains interact with motor learning.

Predicting peer acceptance in Dutch youth - A multilevel analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lubbers, MJ; Van Der Werf, MPC; Kuyper, H; Offringa, GJ

This article uses an ecological approach to predict students' peer acceptance within junior high school classes. The authors investigate whether various characteristics (self perception of physical attractiveness and athletic competence, cognitive ability, agreeableness, extraversion, age, parents'

Perceived Mathematical Ability under Challenge: A Longitudinal Perspective on Sex Segregation among STEM Degree Fields

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samantha eNix

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Students’ perceptions of their mathematics ability vary by gender and seem to influence science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM degree choice. Related, students’ perceptions during academic difficulty are increasingly studied in educational psychology, suggesting a link between such perceptions and task persistence. Despite interest in examining the gender disparities in STEM, these concepts have not been considered in tandem. We investigate how perceived ability under challenge – in particular in mathematics domains – influences entry into the most sex-segregated and mathematics-intensive undergraduate degrees: physics, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (PEMC. Using nationally representative Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS data, we estimate the influence of perceived ability under challenging conditions on advanced high school science course taking, selection of an intended STEM major, and specific major type two years after high school. Demonstrating the importance of specificity when discussing how gender influences STEM career pathways, the intersecting effects of gender and perceived ability under mathematics challenge were distinct for each scientific major category. Perceived ability under challenge in secondary school varied by gender, and was highly predictive of selecting PEMC and health sciences majors. Notably, women’s 12th grade perceptions of their ability under mathematics challenge increased the probability that they would select PEMC majors, increasing women's probability of selecting PEMC over and above biology. In addition, gender moderated the effect of growth mindset on students’ selection of health science majors. The implications of these results are discussed, with particular attention to access to advanced scientific coursework in high school and interventions aimed at enhancing young women’s perceptions of their ability to facilitate their pathways to scientific degrees.

Predictive power of the DASA-IV: Variations in rating method and timescales.

Science.gov (United States)

Nqwaku, Mphindisi; Draycott, Simon; Aldridge-Waddon, Luke; Bush, Emma-Louise; Tsirimokou, Alexandra; Jones, Dominic; Puzzo, Ignazio

2018-05-10

This project evaluated the predictive validity of the Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression - Inpatient Version (DASA-IV) in a high-secure psychiatric hospital in the UK over 24 hours and over a single nursing shift. DASA-IV scores from three sequential nursing shifts over a 24-hour period were compared with the mean (average of three scores across the 24-hour period) and peak (highest of the three scores across the 24-hour period) scores across these shifts. In addition, scores from a single nursing shift were used to predict aggressive incidents over each of the following three shifts. The DASA-IV was completed by nursing staff during handover meetings, rating 43 male psychiatric inpatients over a period of 6 months. Data were compared to incident reports recorded over the same period. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and generalized estimating equations assessed the predictive ability of various DASA-IV scores over 24-hour and single-shift timescales. Scores from the DASA-IV based on a single shift had moderate predictive ability for aggressive incidents occurring the next calendar day, whereas scores based on all three shifts had excellent predictive ability. DASA-IV scores from a single shift showed moderate predictive ability for each of the following three shifts. The DASA-IV has excellent predictive ability for aggressive incidents within a secure setting when data are summarized over a 24-hour period, as opposed to when a single rating is taken. In addition, it has moderate value for predicting incidents over even shorter timescales. © 2018 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Root anatomical phenes predict root penetration ability and biomechanical properties in maize (Zea Mays)

OpenAIRE

Chimungu, Joseph G.; Loades, Kenneth W.; Lynch, Jonathan P.

2015-01-01

The ability of roots to penetrate hard soil is important for crop productivity but specific root phenes contributing to this ability are poorly understood. Root penetrability and biomechanical properties are likely to vary in the root system dependent on anatomical structure. No information is available to date on the influence of root anatomical phenes on root penetrability and biomechanics. Root penetration ability was evaluated using a wax layer system. Root tensile and bending strength we...

Predictability effect on N400 reflects the severity of reading comprehension deficits in aphasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Chih-Ting; Lee, Chia-Ying; Chou, Chia-Ju; Fuh, Jong-Ling; Wu, Hsin-Chi

2016-01-29

Predictability effect on N400, in which low predictability words elicited a larger N400 than high predictability words did over central to posterior electrodes, has been used to index difficulty of lexical retrieval and semantic integration of words in sentence comprehension. This study examined predictability effect on N400 in aphasic patients to determine if the properties of N400 are suited to indexing the severity of reading comprehension deficits. Patients with aphasia were divided into high and low ability groups based on scores on the reading comprehension subtest in the Chinese Concise Aphasia Test (CCAT). The two aphasia groups, a group of healthy elders who were age-matched to the aphasic participants, and a group of young adults, were requested to read sentences that either ended with highly predictable words or unexpected but plausible words, while undergoing electroencephalography (EEG). The young adult and healthy elderly groups exhibited the typical centro-parietal distributed effect of predictability on N400; however, healthy elders exhibited a reduced N400 effect in a delayed time window compared to the young adults. Compared with the elderly control, the high ability aphasia group exhibited a comparable N400 effect in a more restricted time window; by contrast, the low ability aphasia group exhibited a frontal distributed N400 in a much later time window (400-700 ms). These data suggest that the severity of reading comprehension deficits affects predictability effect on a set of N400 characteristics (i.e., amplitude, time window, and topographic distribution), which may be effective as ERP signatures in the evaluation of language recovery in aphasia. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceived mathematical ability under challenge: a longitudinal perspective on sex segregation among STEM degree fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Nix, Samantha; Perez-Felkner, Lara; Thomas, Kirby

2015-01-01

Students' perceptions of their mathematics ability vary by gender and seem to influence science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree choice. Related, students' perceptions during academic difficulty are increasingly studied in educational psychology, suggesting a link between such perceptions and task persistence. Despite interest in examining the gender disparities in STEM, these concepts have not been considered in tandem. In this manuscript, we investigate how perceived ability under challenge-in particular in mathematics domains-influences entry into the most sex-segregated and mathematics-intensive undergraduate degrees: physics, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (PEMC). Using nationally representative Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS) data, we estimate the influence of perceived ability under challenging conditions on advanced high school science course taking, selection of an intended STEM major, and specific major type 2 years after high school. Demonstrating the importance of specificity when discussing how gender influences STEM career pathways, the intersecting effects of gender and perceived ability under mathematics challenge were distinct for each scientific major category. Perceived ability under challenge in secondary school varied by gender, and was highly predictive of selecting PEMC and health sciences majors. Notably, women's 12th grade perceptions of their ability under mathematics challenge increased their probability of selecting PEMC majors over and above biology. In addition, gender moderated the effect of growth mindset on students' selection of health science majors. Perceptions of ability under challenge in general and verbal domains also influenced retention in and declaration of certain STEM majors. The implications of these results are discussed, with particular attention to access to advanced scientific coursework in high school and interventions aimed at enhancing young women's perceptions of

Perceived mathematical ability under challenge: a longitudinal perspective on sex segregation among STEM degree fields

Science.gov (United States)

Nix, Samantha; Perez-Felkner, Lara; Thomas, Kirby

2015-01-01

Students' perceptions of their mathematics ability vary by gender and seem to influence science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree choice. Related, students' perceptions during academic difficulty are increasingly studied in educational psychology, suggesting a link between such perceptions and task persistence. Despite interest in examining the gender disparities in STEM, these concepts have not been considered in tandem. In this manuscript, we investigate how perceived ability under challenge—in particular in mathematics domains—influences entry into the most sex-segregated and mathematics-intensive undergraduate degrees: physics, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (PEMC). Using nationally representative Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS) data, we estimate the influence of perceived ability under challenging conditions on advanced high school science course taking, selection of an intended STEM major, and specific major type 2 years after high school. Demonstrating the importance of specificity when discussing how gender influences STEM career pathways, the intersecting effects of gender and perceived ability under mathematics challenge were distinct for each scientific major category. Perceived ability under challenge in secondary school varied by gender, and was highly predictive of selecting PEMC and health sciences majors. Notably, women's 12th grade perceptions of their ability under mathematics challenge increased their probability of selecting PEMC majors over and above biology. In addition, gender moderated the effect of growth mindset on students' selection of health science majors. Perceptions of ability under challenge in general and verbal domains also influenced retention in and declaration of certain STEM majors. The implications of these results are discussed, with particular attention to access to advanced scientific coursework in high school and interventions aimed at enhancing young women

Use of the Short Physical Performance Battery Score to predict loss of ability to walk 400 meters: analysis from the InCHIANTI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Vasunilashorn, Sarinnapha; Coppin, Antonia K; Patel, Kushang V; Lauretani, Fulvio; Ferrucci, Luigi; Bandinelli, Stefania; Guralnik, Jack M

2009-02-01

Early detection of mobility limitations remains an important goal for preventing mobility disability. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and the loss of ability to walk 400 m, an objectively assessed mobility outcome increasingly used in clinical trials. The study sample consisted of 542 adults from the InCHIANTI study aged 65 and older, who completed the 400 m walk at baseline and had evaluations on the SPPB and 400 m walk at baseline and 3-year follow-up. Multiple logistic regression models were used to determine whether SPPB scores predict the loss of ability to walk 400 m at follow-up among persons able to walk 400 m at baseline. The 3-year incidence of failing the 400 m walk was 15.5%. After adjusting for age, sex, education, body mass index, Mini-Mental State Examination, number of medical conditions, and 400 m walk gait speed at baseline, SPPB score was significantly associated with loss of ability to walk 400 m after 3 years. Participants with SPPB scores of 10 or lower at baseline had significantly higher odds of mobility disability at follow-up (odds ratio [OR] = 3.38, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.32-8.65) compared with those who scored 12, with a graded response across the range of SPPB scores (OR = 26.93, 95% CI: 7.51-96.50; OR = 7.67, 95% CI: 2.26-26.04; OR = 8.28, 95% CI: 3.32-20.67 for SPPB 400 m. Thus, using the SPPB to identify older persons at high risk of lower body functional limitations seems a valid means of recognizing individuals who would benefit most from preventive interventions.

Single-leg lateral, horizontal, and vertical jump assessment: reliability, interrelationships, and ability to predict sprint and change-of-direction performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Meylan, Cesar; McMaster, Travis; Cronin, John; Mohammad, Nur Ikhwan; Rogers, Cailyn; Deklerk, Melissa

2009-07-01

The purposes of this study were to determine the reliability of unilateral vertical, horizontal, and lateral countermovement jump assessments, the interrelationship between these tests, and their usefulness as predictors of sprint (10 m) and change-of-direction (COD) performance for 80 men and women physical education students. Jump performance was assessed on a contact mat and sprint, and COD performances were assessed using timing lights. With regard to the reliability statistics, the largest coefficient of variation (CV) was observed for the vertical jump (CV = 6.7-7.2%) of both genders, whereas the sprint and COD assessments had smallest variability (CV = 0.8 to 2.8%). All intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were greater than 0.85, except for the men's COD assessment with the alternate leg. The shared variance between the single-leg vertical, horizontal, and lateral jumps for men and women was less than 50%, indicating that the jumps are relatively independent of one another and represent different leg strength/power qualities. The ability of the jumps to predict sprint and COD performance was limited (R2 < 43%). It would seem that the ability to change direction with 1 leg is relatively independent of a COD with the other leg, especially in the women (R < 30%) of this study. However, if 1 jump assessment were selected to predict sprint and COD performance in a test battery, the single-leg horizontal countermovement jump would seem the logical choice, given the results of this study. Many of the findings in this study have interesting diagnostic and training implications for the strength and conditioning coach.

Modification of the Feline-Ality™ Assessment and the Ability to Predict Adopted Cats’ Behaviors in Their New Homes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emily Weiss

2015-02-01

Full Text Available It is estimated that 2.5 million cats enter animal shelters in the United States every year and as few as 20% leave the shelter alive. Of those adopted, the greatest risk to post-adoption human animal bond is unrealistic expectations set by the adopter. The ASPCA®’s Meet Your Match® Feline-ality™ adoption program was developed to provide adopters with an accurate assessment of an adult cat’s future behavior in the home. However, the original Feline-ality™ required a three-day hold time to collect cat behaviors on a data card, which was challenging for some shelters. This research involved creating a survey to determine in-home feline behavior post adoption and explored the predictive ability of the in-shelter assessment without the data card. Our results show that the original Feline-ality™ assessment and our modified version were predictive of feline behavior post adoption. Our modified version also decreased hold time for cats to one day. Shelters interested in increasing cat adoptions, decreasing length of stay and improving the adoption experience can now implement the modified version for future feline adoption success.

The Left, The Better: White-Matter Brain Integrity Predicts Foreign Language Imitation Ability.

Science.gov (United States)

Vaquero, Lucía; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Reiterer, Susanne M

2017-08-01

Speech imitation is crucial for language acquisition and second-language learning. Interestingly, large individual differences regarding the ability in imitating foreign-language sounds have been observed. The origin of this interindividual diversity remains unknown, although it might be partially explained by structural predispositions. Here we correlated white-matter structural properties of the arcuate fasciculus (AF) with the performance of 52 German-speakers in a Hindi sentence- and word-imitation task. First, a manual reconstruction was performed, permitting us to extract the mean values along the three branches of the AF. We found that a larger lateralization of the AF volume toward the left hemisphere predicted the performance of our participants in the imitation task. Second, an automatic reconstruction was carried out, allowing us to localize the specific region within the AF that exhibited the largest correlation with foreign language imitation. Results of this reconstruction also showed a left lateralization trend: greater fractional anisotropy values in the anterior half of the left AF correlated with the performance in the Hindi-imitation task. From the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that foreign language imitation aptitude is tested using a more ecological imitation task and correlated with DTI tractography, using both a manual and an automatic method. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Development of an Instrument to Evaluate High School Students' Chemical Symbol Representation Abilities

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Wang, Zuhao; Chi, Shaohui; Luo, Ma; Yang, Yuqin; Huang, Min

2017-01-01

Chemical symbol representation is a medium for transformations between the actual phenomena of the macroscopic world and those of the sub-microscopic world. The aim of this study is to develop an instrument to evaluate high school students' chemical symbol representation abilities (CSRA). Based on the current literature, we defined CSRA and…

Design and Development Computer-Based E-Learning Teaching Material for Improving Mathematical Understanding Ability and Spatial Sense of Junior High School Students

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Nurjanah; Dahlan, J. A.; Wibisono, Y.

2017-02-01

This paper aims to make a design and development computer-based e-learning teaching material for improving mathematical understanding ability and spatial sense of junior high school students. Furthermore, the particular aims are (1) getting teaching material design, evaluation model, and intrument to measure mathematical understanding ability and spatial sense of junior high school students; (2) conducting trials computer-based e-learning teaching material model, asessment, and instrument to develop mathematical understanding ability and spatial sense of junior high school students; (3) completing teaching material models of computer-based e-learning, assessment, and develop mathematical understanding ability and spatial sense of junior high school students; (4) resulting research product is teaching materials of computer-based e-learning. Furthermore, the product is an interactive learning disc. The research method is used of this study is developmental research which is conducted by thought experiment and instruction experiment. The result showed that teaching materials could be used very well. This is based on the validation of computer-based e-learning teaching materials, which is validated by 5 multimedia experts. The judgement result of face and content validity of 5 validator shows that the same judgement result to the face and content validity of each item test of mathematical understanding ability and spatial sense. The reliability test of mathematical understanding ability and spatial sense are 0,929 and 0,939. This reliability test is very high. While the validity of both tests have a high and very high criteria.

The Predictive Ability of IQ and Working Memory Scores in Literacy in an Adult Population

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Alloway, Tracy Packiam; Gregory, David

2013-01-01

Literacy problems are highly prevalent and can persist into adulthood. Yet, the majority of research on the predictive nature of cognitive skills to literacy has primarily focused on development and adolescent populations. The aim of the present study was to extend existing research to investigate the roles of IQ scores and Working Memory…

Controlling of water collection ability by an elasticity-regulated bioinspired fiber.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Sijie; Feng, Shile; Hou, Yongping; Zheng, Yongmei

2015-03-01

A special artificial spider silk is presented which is fabricated by using both an elastic polymer and a fiber, and the water collection behavior is investigated. Through exerting tension in varying degree, the length of the three-phase contact line (TCL) and the area of spindle knot can be regulated readily, which makes a great contribution to the improvement of collecting efficiency and water-hanging ability. The water-hanging ability can be predicted at a given stretching ratio according to the given expression of the TCL. As a result, liquid capture or release of distinct measure can be achieved via exerting tension. This research is helpful to design smart materials for developing applications in fogwater collection, dehumidification, high-efficiency humidity control, and controllable adhesion. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Genomic Prediction of Barley Hybrid Performance

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Norman Philipp

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Hybrid breeding in barley ( L. offers great opportunities to accelerate the rate of genetic improvement and to boost yield stability. A crucial requirement consists of the efficient selection of superior hybrid combinations. We used comprehensive phenotypic and genomic data from a commercial breeding program with the goal of examining the potential to predict the hybrid performances. The phenotypic data were comprised of replicated grain yield trials for 385 two-way and 408 three-way hybrids evaluated in up to 47 environments. The parental lines were genotyped using a 3k single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP array based on an Illumina Infinium assay. We implemented ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction modeling for additive and dominance effects and evaluated the prediction ability using five-fold cross validations. The prediction ability of hybrid performances based on general combining ability (GCA effects was moderate, amounting to 0.56 and 0.48 for two- and three-way hybrids, respectively. The potential of GCA-based hybrid prediction requires that both parental components have been evaluated in a hybrid background. This is not necessary for genomic prediction for which we also observed moderate cross-validated prediction abilities of 0.51 and 0.58 for two- and three-way hybrids, respectively. This exemplifies the potential of genomic prediction in hybrid barley. Interestingly, prediction ability using the two-way hybrids as training population and the three-way hybrids as test population or vice versa was low, presumably, because of the different genetic makeup of the parental source populations. Consequently, further research is needed to optimize genomic prediction approaches combining different source populations in barley.

Improving Mathematical Communication Ability and Self Regulation Learning of Junior High Students by Using Reciprocal Teaching

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Qohar, Abdul; Sumarmo, Utari

2013-01-01

This paper presents the findings from a posttest experiment control group design by using reciprocal teaching, conducted in Indonesia University of Education to investigate students' ability in mathematical communication and self regulated learning. Subject of the study were 254 of 9th grade students from three junior high schools of high, medium,…

Creativity and technical innovation: spatial ability's unique role.

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Kell, Harrison J; Lubinski, David; Benbow, Camilla P; Steiger, James H

2013-09-01

In the late 1970s, 563 intellectually talented 13-year-olds (identified by the SAT as in the top 0.5% of ability) were assessed on spatial ability. More than 30 years later, the present study evaluated whether spatial ability provided incremental validity (beyond the SAT's mathematical and verbal reasoning subtests) for differentially predicting which of these individuals had patents and three classes of refereed publications. A two-step discriminant-function analysis revealed that the SAT subtests jointly accounted for 10.8% of the variance among these outcomes (p development of creativity, beyond the roles played by the abilities traditionally measured in educational selection, counseling, and industrial-organizational psychology. Spatial ability plays a key and unique role in structuring many important psychological phenomena and should be examined more broadly across the applied and basic psychological sciences.

Prediction of the survival and functional ability of severe stroke patients after ICU therapeutic intervention

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Aoun-Bacha Zeina

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This study evaluated the benefits and impact of ICU therapeutic interventions on the survival and functional ability of severe cerebrovascular accident (CVA patients. Methods Sixty-two ICU patients suffering from severe ischemic/haemorrhagic stroke were evaluated for CVA severity using APACHE II and the Glasgow coma scale (GCS. Survival was determined using Kaplan-Meier survival tables and survival prediction factors were determined by Cox multivariate analysis. Functional ability was assessed using the stroke impact scale (SIS-16 and Karnofsky score. Risk factors, life support techniques and neurosurgical interventions were recorded. One year post-CVA dependency was investigated using multivariate analysis based on linear regression. Results The study cohort constituted 6% of all CVA (37.8% haemorrhagic/62.2% ischemic admissions. Patient mean(SD age was 65.8(12.3 years with a 1:1 male: female ratio. During the study period 16 patients had died within the ICU and seven in the year following hospital release. The mean(SD APACHE II score at hospital admission was 14.9(6.0 and ICU mean duration of stay was 11.2(15.4 days. Mechanical ventilation was required in 37.1% of cases. Risk ratios were; GCS at admission 0.8(0.14, (p = 0.024, APACHE II 1.11(0.11, (p = 0.05 and duration of mechanical ventilation 1.07(0.07, (p = 0.046. Linear coefficients were: type of CVA – haemorrhagic versus ischemic: -18.95(4.58 (p = 0.007, GCS at hospital admission: -6.83(1.08, (p = 0.001, and duration of hospital stay -0.38(0.14, (p = 0.40. Conclusion To ensure a better prognosis CVA patients require ICU therapeutic interventions. However, as we have shown, where tests can determine the worst affected patients with a poor vital and functional outcome should treatment be withheld?

Does the time interval between antimüllerian hormone serum sampling and initiation of ovarian stimulation affect its predictive ability in in vitro fertilization-intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Polyzos, Nikolaos P; Nelson, Scott M; Stoop, Dominic

2013-01-01

To investigate whether the time interval between serum antimüllerian hormone (AMH) sampling and initiation of ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF-ICSI) may affect the predictive ability of the marker for low and excessive ovarian response.......To investigate whether the time interval between serum antimüllerian hormone (AMH) sampling and initiation of ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF-ICSI) may affect the predictive ability of the marker for low and excessive ovarian response....

Modeling and prediction of retardance in citric acid coated ferrofluid using artificial neural network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Jing-Fung; Sheu, Jer-Jia

2016-01-01

Citric acid coated (citrate-stabilized) magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) magnetic nanoparticles have been conducted and applied in the biomedical fields. Using Taguchi-based measured retardances as the training data, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed for the prediction of retardance in citric acid (CA) coated ferrofluid (FF). According to the ANN simulation results in the training stage, the correlation coefficient between predicted retardances and measured retardances was found to be as high as 0.9999998. Based on the well-trained ANN model, the predicted retardance at excellent program from Taguchi method showed less error of 2.17% compared with a multiple regression (MR) analysis of statistical significance. Meanwhile, the parameter analysis at excellent program by the ANN model had the guiding significance to find out a possible program for the maximum retardance. It was concluded that the proposed ANN model had high ability for the prediction of retardance in CA coated FF. - Highlights: • The feedforward ANN is applied for modeling of retardance in CA coated FFs. • ANN can predict the retardance at excellent program with acceptable error to MR. • The proposed ANN has high ability for the prediction of retardance.

Predictions of RNA-binding ability and aggregation propensity of proteins

OpenAIRE

Agostini, Federico, 1985-

2014-01-01

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) control the fate of a multitude of coding and non-coding transcripts. Formation of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes fine-tunes regulation of post-transcriptional events and influences gene expression. Recently, it has been observed that non-canonical proteins with RNA-binding ability are enriched in structurally disordered and low-complexity regions that are generally involved in functional and dysfunctional associations. Therefore, it is possible that interaction...

Predicting suicide attempts with the SAD PERSONS scale: a longitudinal analysis.

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Bolton, James M; Spiwak, Rae; Sareen, Jitender

2012-06-01

The SAD PERSONS scale is a widely used risk assessment tool for suicidal behavior despite a paucity of supporting data. The objective of this study was to examine the ability of the scale in predicting suicide attempts. Participants consisted of consecutive referrals (N=4,019) over 2 years (January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010) to psychiatric services in the emergency departments of the 2 largest tertiary care hospitals in the province of Manitoba, Canada. SAD PERSONS and Modified SAD PERSONS (MSPS) scale scores were recorded for individuals at their index and all subsequent presentations. The 2 main outcome measures in the study included current suicide attempts (at index presentation) and future suicide attempts (within the next 6 months). The ability of the scales to predict suicide attempts was evaluated with logistic regression, sensitivity and specificity analyses, and receiver operating characteristic curves. 566 people presented with suicide attempts (14.1% of the sample). Both SAD PERSONS and MSPS showed poor predictive ability for future suicide attempts. Compared to low risk scores, high risk baseline scores had low sensitivity (19.6% and 40.0%, respectively) and low positive predictive value (5.3% and 7.4%, respectively). SAD PERSONS did not predict suicide attempts better than chance (area under the curve =0.572; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.51-0.64; P value nonsignificant). Stepwise regression identified 5 original scale items that accounted for the greatest proportion of future suicide attempt variance. High risk scores using this model had high sensitivity (93.5%) and were associated with a 5-fold higher likelihood of future suicide attempt presentation (odds ratio =5.58; 95% CI, 2.24-13.86; PSAD PERSONS and MSPS do not accurately predict future suicide attempts. © Copyright 2012 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

Making judgments about ability: the role of implicit theories of ability in moderating inferences from temporal and social comparison information.

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Butler, R

2000-05-01

Two studies examined the novel proposal that implicit theories of intelligence (C. S. Dweck & E. L. Leggett, 1988) moderate both the effects of performance trends on ability inferences and the perceived diagnosticity of temporal versus normative feedback. Results from 613 adolescents and 42 teachers confirmed that entity theorists perceived initial outcome as more diagnostic and inferred higher ability in another (Study 1) and in the self (Study 2) in a declining outcome condition; incremental theorists perceived last outcome as more diagnostic and inferred higher ability in an ascending condition. Experimental induction of beliefs about ability had similar effects. As predicted, self-appraisal was affected more by temporal feedback among incremental theorists and by normative feedback among entity theorists. Results help resolve prior mixed findings regarding order effects and responses to temporal and normative evaluation.

[Person-organization fit and work ability].

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Merecz, Dorota; Andysz, Aleksandra

2011-01-01

Person-environment issue has long been in focus of researchers who explore the area of human labor. It is known that the level of fit is a predictor of many phenomena related to health and attitude to work. The aim of this study was to explore the association between the level of person- organization fit (P-O fit) and work ability, including indicators of somatic and mental health. Research was conducted on a representative sample of 600 Polish men and women at working age. The Person-Organization Fit Questionnaire was used to assess three dimensions of P-O fit (supplementary fit, complementary fit and identification with organization); mental health status was measured by GHQ-28; the number of diagnosed diseases was taken as an index of somatic health; work ability, ability to physical and mental efforts were measured by three items from the Work Ability Index. A significant relationship between P-O fit level and work ability was found. In men, work ability predictors were: age, supplementary fit and mental health status, which explained 25% of the variance in work ability. In women, work ability predictors were: the number of diagnosed somatic diseases, supplementary fit, age and complementary fit, which explained 27% of the variance in work ability. Some gender-related differences in the predictive value of variables under the study were also found. The results of this study indicate the importance of P-O fit in shaping the sense of work ability, a recognized predictor of workers' occupational activity and the frequency of taking sick leave in subsequent years. Therefore, this result may be a useful argument to motivate employers to employ workers adequately to their abilities and preferences.

Prediction of grain deformation in drawn copper wire

OpenAIRE

Chang Chao-Cheng; Wang Zi-Wei; Huang Chien-Kuo; Wu Hsu-Fu

2015-01-01

Most copper wire is produced using a drawing process. The crystallographic texture of copper wire, which is strongly associated with grain deformation, can have a profound effect on the formability and mechanical and electrical properties. Thus, the ability to predict grain deformation in drawn copper wire could help to elucidate the evolution of microstructure, which could be highly valuable in product design. This study developed a novel method for predicting grain deformation in drawn copp...

High-risk carotid plaques identified by CT-angiogram can predict acute myocardial infarction.

Science.gov (United States)

Mosleh, Wassim; Adib, Keenan; Natdanai, Punnanithinont; Carmona-Rubio, Andres; Karki, Roshan; Paily, Jacienta; Ahmed, Mohamed Abdel-Aal; Vakkalanka, Sujit; Madam, Narasa; Gudleski, Gregory D; Chung, Charles; Sharma, Umesh C

2017-04-01

Prior studies identified the incremental value of non-invasive imaging by CT-angiogram (CTA) to detect high-risk coronary atherosclerotic plaques. Due to their superficial locations, larger calibers and motion-free imaging, the carotid arteries provide the best anatomic access for the non-invasive characterization of atherosclerotic plaques. We aim to assess the ability of predicting obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) or acute myocardial infarction (MI) based on high-risk carotid plaque features identified by CTA. We retrospectively examined carotid CTAs of 492 patients that presented with acute stroke to characterize the atherosclerotic plaques of the carotid arteries and examined development of acute MI and obstructive CAD within 12-months. Carotid lesions were defined in terms of calcifications (large or speckled), presence of low-attenuation plaques, positive remodeling, and presence of napkin ring sign. Adjusted relative risks were calculated for each plaque features. Patients with speckled (<3 mm) calcifications and/or larger calcifications on CTA had a higher risk of developing an MI and/or obstructive CAD within 1 year compared to patients without (adjusted RR of 7.51, 95%CI 1.26-73.42, P = 0.001). Patients with low-attenuation plaques on CTA had a higher risk of developing an MI and/or obstructive CAD within 1 year than patients without (adjusted RR of 2.73, 95%CI 1.19-8.50, P = 0.021). Presence of carotid calcifications and low-attenuation plaques also portended higher sensitivity (100 and 79.17%, respectively) for the development of acute MI. Presence of carotid calcifications and low-attenuation plaques can predict the risk of developing acute MI and/or obstructive CAD within 12-months. Given their high sensitivity, their absence can reliably exclude 12-month events.

Long term high flow heated oxygen treatment in COPD – lung function and physical ability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Weinreich, Ulla; Storgaard, Line; Hockey, Hans

2017-01-01

Introduction: Long term oxygen therapy (LTOT) improves survival in patients with COPD with resting hypoxemia. Despite this, a progressive loss of lung function and physical ability is expected in COPD. The AIRVO device delivers nasal high flow (NHF) warmed and humidified oxygen-enriched air, 20...

The Clinical Prediction of Dangerousness.

Science.gov (United States)

1985-05-01

8217 8 ings. Szasz (1963) has argued persuasively that clinical predictions of future dangerous behavior are unfairly focused on the mentally ill...Persons labeled paranoid, Szasz states, are readily commitable, while highly dangerous drunken drivers are not. Indeed, dangerousness such as that...Psychology, 31, 492-494. Szasz , T. (1963). Law, liberty and psychiatry. New York: Macmillan. Taft, R. (1955). The ability to judge people. Psychological

The effectiveness of web-programming module based on scientific approach to train logical thinking ability for students in vocational high school

Science.gov (United States)

Nashiroh, Putri Khoirin; Kamdi, Waras; Elmunsyah, Hakkun

2017-09-01

Web programming is a basic subject in Computer and Informatics Engineering, a program study in a vocational high school. It requires logical thinking ability in its learning activities. The purposes of this research were (1) to develop a web programming module that implement scientific approach that can improve logical thinking ability for students in vocational high school; and (2) to test the effectiveness of web programming module based on scientific approach to train students' logical thinking ability. The results of this research was a web-programming module that apply scientific approach for learning activities to improve logical thinking ability of students in the vocational high school. The results of the effectiveness test of web-programming module give conclusion that it was very effective to train logical thinking ability and to improve learning result, this conclusion was supported by: (1) the average of posttest result of students exceeds the minimum criterion value, it was 79.91; (2) the average percentage of students' logical thinking score is 82,98; and (3) the average percentage of students' responses to the web programming module was 81.86%.

Predictive ability of an early diagnostic guess in patients presenting with chest pain; a longitudinal descriptive study.

Science.gov (United States)

Verdon, François; Junod, Michel; Herzig, Lilli; Vaucher, Paul; Burnand, Bernard; Bischoff, Thomas; Pécoud, Alain; Favrat, Bernard

2010-02-21

The intuitive early diagnostic guess could play an important role in reaching a final diagnosis. However, no study to date has attempted to quantify the importance of general practitioners' (GPs) ability to correctly appraise the origin of chest pain within the first minutes of an encounter. The validation study was nested in a multicentre cohort study with a one year follow-up and included 626 successive patients who presented with chest pain and were attended by 58 GPs in Western Switzerland. The early diagnostic guess was assessed prior to a patient's history being taken by a GP and was then compared to a diagnosis of chest pain observed over the next year. Using summary measures clustered at the GP's level, the early diagnostic guess was confirmed by further investigation in 51.0% (CI 95%; 49.4% to 52.5%) of patients presenting with chest pain. The early diagnostic guess was more accurate in patients with a life threatening illness (65.4%; CI 95% 64.5% to 66.3%) and in patients who did not feel anxious (62.9%; CI 95% 62.5% to 63.3%). The predictive abilities of an early diagnostic guess were consistent among GPs. The GPs early diagnostic guess was correct in one out of two patients presenting with chest pain. The probability of a correct guess was higher in patients with a life-threatening illness and in patients not feeling anxious about their pain.

Predictive ability of an early diagnostic guess in patients presenting with chest pain; a longitudinal descriptive study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bischoff Thomas

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The intuitive early diagnostic guess could play an important role in reaching a final diagnosis. However, no study to date has attempted to quantify the importance of general practitioners' (GPs ability to correctly appraise the origin of chest pain within the first minutes of an encounter. Methods The validation study was nested in a multicentre cohort study with a one year follow-up and included 626 successive patients who presented with chest pain and were attended by 58 GPs in Western Switzerland. The early diagnostic guess was assessed prior to a patient's history being taken by a GP and was then compared to a diagnosis of chest pain observed over the next year. Results Using summary measures clustered at the GP's level, the early diagnostic guess was confirmed by further investigation in 51.0% (CI 95%; 49.4% to 52.5% of patients presenting with chest pain. The early diagnostic guess was more accurate in patients with a life threatening illness (65.4%; CI 95% 64.5% to 66.3% and in patients who did not feel anxious (62.9%; CI 95% 62.5% to 63.3%. The predictive abilities of an early diagnostic guess were consistent among GPs. Conclusions The GPs early diagnostic guess was correct in one out of two patients presenting with chest pain. The probability of a correct guess was higher in patients with a life-threatening illness and in patients not feeling anxious about their pain.

The effect of three different educational approaches on children's drawing ability: Steiner, Montessori and traditional.

Science.gov (United States)

Cox, M V; Rowlands, A

2000-12-01

Although there is a national curriculum for art education in the UK there are also alternative approaches in the private sector. This paper addresses the issue of the effect of these approaches on children's drawing ability. To compare the drawing ability in three drawing tasks of children in Steiner, Montessori and traditional schools. The participants were 60 school children between the ages of 5;11 and 7;2. Twenty children were tested in each type of school. Each child completed three drawings: a free drawing, a scene and an observational drawing. As predicted, the free and scene drawings of children in the Steiner school were rated more highly than those of children in Montessori and traditional schools. Steiner children's use of colour was also rated more highly, although they did not use more colours than the other children. Steiner children used significantly more fantasy topics in their free drawings. Further observation indicated that the Steiner children were better at using the whole page and organising their drawings into a scene; their drawings were also more detailed. Contrary to previous research Montessori children did not draw more inanimate objects and geometrical shapes or fewer people than other children. Also, contrary to the prediction, Steiner children were significantly better rather than worse than other children at observational drawing. The results suggest that the approach to art education in Steiner schools is conducive not only to more highly rated imaginative drawings in terms of general drawing ability and use of colour but also to more accurate and detailed observational drawings.

High Altitude Balloon Flight Path Prediction and Site Selection Based On Computer Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Linford, Joel

2010-10-01

Interested in the upper atmosphere, Weber State University Physics department has developed a High Altitude Reconnaissance Balloon for Outreach and Research team, also known as HARBOR. HARBOR enables Weber State University to take a variety of measurements from ground level to altitudes as high as 100,000 feet. The flight paths of these balloons can extend as long as 100 miles from the launch zone, making the choice of where and when to fly critical. To ensure the ability to recover the packages in a reasonable amount of time, days and times are carefully selected using computer simulations limiting flight tracks to approximately 40 miles from the launch zone. The computer simulations take atmospheric data collected by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to plot what flights might have looked like in the past, and to predict future flights. Using these simulations a launch zone has been selected in Duchesne Utah, which has hosted eight successful flights over the course of the last three years, all of which have been recovered. Several secondary launch zones in western Wyoming, Southern Idaho, and Northern Utah are also being considered.

Testing food-related inhibitory control to high- and low-calorie food stimuli: Electrophysiological responses to high-calorie food stimuli predict calorie and carbohydrate intake.

Science.gov (United States)

Carbine, Kaylie A; Christensen, Edward; LeCheminant, James D; Bailey, Bruce W; Tucker, Larry A; Larson, Michael J

2017-07-01

Maintaining a healthy diet has important implications for physical and mental health. One factor that may influence diet and food consumption is inhibitory control-the ability to withhold a dominant response in order to correctly respond to environmental demands. We examined how N2 amplitude, an ERP that reflects inhibitory control processes, differed toward high- and low-calorie food stimuli and related to food intake. A total of 159 participants (81 female; M age = 23.5 years; SD = 7.6) completed two food-based go/no-go tasks (one with high-calorie and one with low-calorie food pictures as no-go stimuli) while N2 amplitude was recorded. Participants recorded food intake using the Automated Self-Administered 24-hour Dietary Recall system. Inhibiting responses toward high-calorie stimuli elicited a larger (i.e., more negative) no-go N2 amplitude; inhibiting responses toward low-calorie stimuli elicited a smaller no-go N2 amplitude. Participants were more accurate during the high-calorie than low-calorie task, but took longer to respond on go trials toward high-calorie rather than low-calorie stimuli. When controlling for age, gender, and BMI, larger high-calorie N2 difference amplitude predicted lower caloric intake (β = 0.17); low-calorie N2 difference amplitude was not related to caloric intake (β = -0.03). Exploratory analyses revealed larger high-calorie N2 difference amplitude predicted carbohydrate intake (β = 0.22), but not protein (β = 0.08) or fat (β = 0.11) intake. Results suggest that withholding responses from high-calorie foods requires increased recruitment of inhibitory control processes, which may be necessary to regulate food consumption, particularly for foods high in calories and carbohydrates. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Higher Language Ability is Related to Angular Gyrus Activation Increase During Semantic Processing, Independent of Sentence Incongruency

Science.gov (United States)

Van Ettinger-Veenstra, Helene; McAllister, Anita; Lundberg, Peter; Karlsson, Thomas; Engström, Maria

2016-01-01

This study investigates the relation between individual language ability and neural semantic processing abilities. Our aim was to explore whether high-level language ability would correlate to decreased activation in language-specific regions or rather increased activation in supporting language regions during processing of sentences. Moreover, we were interested if observed neural activation patterns are modulated by semantic incongruency similarly to previously observed changes upon syntactic congruency modulation. We investigated 27 healthy adults with a sentence reading task—which tapped language comprehension and inference, and modulated sentence congruency—employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We assessed the relation between neural activation, congruency modulation, and test performance on a high-level language ability assessment with multiple regression analysis. Our results showed increased activation in the left-hemispheric angular gyrus extending to the temporal lobe related to high language ability. This effect was independent of semantic congruency, and no significant relation between language ability and incongruency modulation was observed. Furthermore, there was a significant increase of activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) bilaterally when the sentences were incongruent, indicating that processing incongruent sentences was more demanding than processing congruent sentences and required increased activation in language regions. The correlation of high-level language ability with increased rather than decreased activation in the left angular gyrus, a region specific for language processing, is opposed to what the neural efficiency hypothesis would predict. We can conclude that no evidence is found for an interaction between semantic congruency related brain activation and high-level language performance, even though the semantic incongruent condition shows to be more demanding and evoking more neural activation. PMID

Higher language ability is related to angular gyrus activation increase during semantic processing, independent of sentence incongruency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helene eVan Ettinger-Veenstra

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the relation between individual language ability and neural semantic processing abilities. Our aim was to explore whether high-level language ability would correlate to decreased activation in language-specific regions or rather increased activation in supporting language regions during processing of sentences. Moreover, we were interested if observed neural activation patterns are modulated by semantic incongruency similarly to previously observed changes upon syntactic congruency modulation. We investigated 27 healthy adults with a sentence reading task - which tapped language comprehension and inference, and modulated sentence congruency - employing functional magnetic resonance imaging. We assessed the relation between neural activation, congruency modulation, and test performance on a high-level language ability assessment with multiple regression analysis. Our results showed increased activation in the left-hemispheric angular gyrus extending to the temporal lobe related to high language ability. This effect was independent of semantic congruency, and no significant relation between language ability and incongruency modulation was observed. Furthermore, a significant increase of activation in the inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally when the sentences were incongruent, indicating that processing incongruent sentences was more demanding than processing congruent sentences and required increased activation in language regions. The correlation of high-level language ability with increased rather than decreased activation in the left angular gyrus, a region specific for language processing is opposed to what the neural efficiency hypothesis would predict. We can conclude that there is no evidence found for an interaction between semantic congruency related brain activation and high-level language performance, even though the semantic incongruent condition shows to be more demanding and evoking more neural activation.

Short Circuits or Superconductors? Examining Factors That Encourage or Undermine Group Learning and Collaboration among High-Ability Students. CSE Technical Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Webb, Noreen M.; Welner, Mari; Zuniga, Stephen

This study investigated the effects of group ability composition (homogeneous versus heterogeneous) on group processes and outcomes for high ability students completing science performance assessments. Participants were 99 seventh and eighth graders from 9 classes in 2 schools. The results show that group ability composition does not have…

The Relationship between Spatial Visualization Ability and Students' Ability to Model 3D Objects from Engineering Assembly Drawings

Science.gov (United States)

Branoff, T. J.; Dobelis, M.

2012-01-01

Spatial abilities have been used as a predictor of success in several engineering and technology disciplines (Strong & Smith, 2001). In engineering graphics courses, scores on spatial tests have also been used to predict success (Adanez & Velasco, 2002; Leopold, Gorska, & Sorby, 2001). Other studies have shown that some type of…

Predictions versus high-throughput experiments in T-cell epitope discovery: competition or synergy?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lundegaard, Claus; Lund, Ole; Nielsen, Morten

2012-01-01

and limitations regarding the number of proteins and MHC alleles that are feasibly handled by such experimental methods have made in silico prediction models of high interest. MHC binding prediction methods are today of a very high quality and can predict MHC binding peptides with high accuracy. This is possible...

Examining the "Matthew Effect" on the motivation and ability to make lifestyle changes in 217 heart rehabilitation patients.

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Mildestvedt, Thomas; Meland, Eivind

2007-01-01

Those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged and people with emotional problems have a poorer prognosis for cardiovascular disease. The authors wanted to examine: (1) what effect household income, emotional status, high-risk smoking status, and severity of heart disease had on the ability of individuals to make dietary and exercise improvements after heart disease and (2) to what extent unfavourable lifestyle outcomes among disadvantaged people were mediated by motivational problems. A two-year follow-up study of the combined cohorts of a randomized controlled trial. Level of exercise and present dietary habits were measured at inclusion and after 6 and 24 months. Different motivational factors and emotional distress were measured during rehabilitation. Autonomous self-regulation was lowest among smokers (b = -0.31, p = 0.02) and female participants (b = 0.39, p = 0.004). Participants with high scores of emotional distress predicted lower motivation for all the measures. We found no association between socioeconomic status (household income) and the ability to perform lifestyle changes. Current smoking status predicted lower ability to obtain lifestyle changes on all measures. Emotional distress was related to lower ability to increase physical activity at 6 months' but not at 24 months' follow-up. The mediating effects of motivational factors were insignificant. The results of this study do not support the suspicion that preventive efforts accentuate the socioeconomic differences in cardiovascular health. Health-promotive efforts after heart disease should safeguard that high-risk groups such as smokers are not discouraged from improving their lifestyle in other areas.

Predicting Peer Acceptance in Dutch Youth: A Multilevel Analysis

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Lubbers, Miranda; Van Der Werf, Margaretha; Kuyper, Hans; Offringa, G.

2006-01-01

This article uses an ecological approach to predict students' peer acceptance within junior high school classes. The authors investigate whether various characteristics (self-perception of physical attractiveness and athletic competence, cognitive ability, agreeableness, extraversion, age, parents education, number of siblings, siblings at same…

Intrinsic motivation towards sports in Singaporean students: the role of sport ability beliefs.

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Wang, C K John; Biddle, Stuart J H

2003-09-01

This study investigated determinants of active lifestyles in Singaporean university students. Using confirmatory factor analysis, a measure of lay beliefs concerning athletic ability was confirmed. Other results confirmed hypotheses that beliefs reflecting that athletic ability can be developed over time (incremental beliefs) predict an achievement task (self-referenced) orientation, while beliefs reflecting that athletic ability is relatively stable (entity beliefs) predict an ego (other-person, comparative) orientation. Goal orientations directly affect perceived competence which, in turn, influence intrinsic motivation to be physically active. A task orientation had a direct link to intrinsic motivation. Results suggest that intrinsic motivation towards sport and physical activity might be enhanced through interventions that focus on self-referenced and self-improvement notions of ability as well as perceived competence.

Prediction of cognitive abilities at the age of 5 years using developmental follow-up assessments at the age of 2 and 3 years in very preterm children

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Potharst, Eva S.; Houtzager, Bregje A.; van Sonderen, Loekie; Tamminga, Pieter; Kok, Joke H.; Last, Bob F.; van Wassenaer, Aleid G.

2012-01-01

Aim This study investigated prediction of separate cognitive abilities at the age of 5 years by cognitive development at the ages of both 2 and 3 years, and the agreement between these measurements, in very preterm children. METHODS Preterm children (n=102; 44males; 58 females) with a gestational

Influence of social factors on the relation between lie-telling and children's cognitive abilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Talwar, Victoria; Lavoie, Jennifer; Gomez-Garibello, Carlos; Crossman, Angela M

2017-07-01

Lie-telling may be part of a normative developmental process for children. However, little is known about the complex interaction of social and cognitive factors related to this developmental behavior. The current study examined parenting style, maternal exposure to stressors, and children's cognitive abilities in relation to children's antisocial lie-telling behavior in an experimental setting. Children (3-6years, N=157) participated in a modified temptation resistance paradigm to elicit spontaneous lies. Results indicate that high authoritative parenting and high inhibitory control interact to predict a lower propensity to lie, but those who did lie had better semantic leakage control. This suggests that although children's lie-telling may be normative during early development, the relation to children's cognitive abilities can be moderated by responsive parenting behaviors that discourage lying. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Work improvement factors for the amelioration of work ability, with a focus on individual capacity to deal with stress in an IT company.

Science.gov (United States)

Ohta, Masanori; Higuchi, Yoshiyuki; Kumashiro, Masaharu; Yamato, Hiroshi; Sugimura, Hisamichi

2015-03-01

The aim of this study was to explore factors that ameliorate work ability by focusing on workers' capacity to deal with stress.The subjects were 1,330 workers from the Japanese information technology (IT) sector. Each subject completed questionnaires in 2011 and 2012 that consisted of the work ability index (WAI), the three-item sense of coherence (SOC), and the Mental Health Improvement and Reinforcement Research of Recognition (MIRROR). The results of the WAI were also obtained in 2013. The median SOC score in 2011 was used to divide the subjects into two groups, the Low SOC group and the High SOC group, then we verified the factors that contributed to improved work ability in both of these groups over a two-year period. Results indicate that an improvement in work ability in the Low SOC group could be predicted by giving workers opportunities for education or training, by making efforts to reduce the stress of commuting, by clarifying their assignments, and by establishing support systems when troubles occur. For the High SOC group, such improvements could be predicted by giving workers job control, by giving education or training for the promotion of their abilities, and by establishing a system for assuming responsibility. In conclusion, improvements in the work environment can increase the work ability of Japanese IT workers in conformity with their capacity to deal with stress.

Measuring Creative Imagery Abilities

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Dorota M. Jankowska

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Over the decades, creativity and imagination research developed in parallel, but they surprisingly rarely intersected. This paper introduces a new theoretical model of creative imagination, which bridges creativity and imagination research, as well as presents a new psychometric instrument, called the Test of Creative Imagery Abilities (TCIA, developed to measure creative imagery abilities understood in accordance with this model. Creative imagination is understood as constituted by three interrelated components: vividness (the ability to create images characterized by a high level of complexity and detail, originality (the ability to produce unique imagery, and transformativeness (the ability to control imagery. TCIA enables valid and reliable measurement of these three groups of abilities, yielding the general score of imagery abilities and at the same time making profile analysis possible. We present the results of eight studies on a total sample of more than 1,700 participants, showing the factor structure of TCIA using confirmatory factor analysis, as well as provide data confirming this instrument’s validity and reliability. The availability of TCIA for interested researchers may result in new insights and possibilities of integrating the fields of creativity and imagination science.

The identification and inclusion of students with characteristics of high abilities/giftedness: relevant discussions

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Tatiane Negrini

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Thinking about education in general and about the advances that have been coming up, brings us to reflect on the proposal of the inclusive school. The Brazilian educational policies point in this direction and new propositions appear to the school in order to understand how to make significant changes in the daily education. Accordingly, this article is to hold a discussion regarding the identification of students with high abilities/giftedness, articulating with some ideas proposed by the inclusive education. It is with that highlight the importance of identifying these students for a more genuine inclusion of these students in the educational context. In this sense, is used as input theoretical Gardner (1995, Renzulli (2004, Perez (2004, Virgolim (2007, Vieira (2005, among other authors who assist in the discussion of this issue. The considerations made about the high abilities and their process of identification highlight the importance of a great attention facing the process of identification and relevance of this to the actual inclusion of students with high skills in the educational context. Since they are not identified, these students may not be receiving the necessary guidance to learn and develop their potential, often distancing themselves from colleagues and friends. Thus, it is a debate about the appropriate identification of these students and how it can contribute to the inclusion of them.

Predicting long-term sickness absence and early retirement pension from self-reported work ability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sell, L.; Bultmann, U.; Rugulies, R.; Villadsen, E.; Faber, A.; Sogaard, K.

2009-01-01

Objective The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between self-reported work ability and long-term term of sickness absence or early retirement from the labour market. Methods Data on work ability were retrieved from a representative cohort study of Danish wage earners and linked with a

Genomic Prediction with Pedigree and Genotype × Environment Interaction in Spring Wheat Grown in South and West Asia, North Africa, and Mexico

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Sivakumar Sukumaran

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Developing genomic selection (GS models is an important step in applying GS to accelerate the rate of genetic gain in grain yield in plant breeding. In this study, seven genomic prediction models under two cross-validation (CV scenarios were tested on 287 advanced elite spring wheat lines phenotyped for grain yield (GY, thousand-grain weight (GW, grain number (GN, and thermal time for flowering (TTF in 18 international environments (year-location combinations in major wheat-producing countries in 2010 and 2011. Prediction models with genomic and pedigree information included main effects and interaction with environments. Two random CV schemes were applied to predict a subset of lines that were not observed in any of the 18 environments (CV1, and a subset of lines that were not observed in a set of the environments, but were observed in other environments (CV2. Genomic prediction models, including genotype × environment (G×E interaction, had the highest average prediction ability under the CV1 scenario for GY (0.31, GN (0.32, GW (0.45, and TTF (0.27. For CV2, the average prediction ability of the model including the interaction terms was generally high for GY (0.38, GN (0.43, GW (0.63, and TTF (0.53. Wheat lines in site-year combinations in Mexico and India had relatively high prediction ability for GY and GW. Results indicated that prediction ability of lines not observed in certain environments could be relatively high for genomic selection when predicting G×E interaction in multi-environment trials.

Developing geogebra-assisted reciprocal teaching strategy to improve junior high school students’ abstraction ability, lateral thinking and mathematical persistence

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Priatna, N.; Martadiputra, B. A. P.; Wibisono, Y.

2018-05-01

The development of science and technology requires reform in the utilization of various resources for mathematics teaching and learning process. One of the efforts that can be made is the implementation of GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching strategy in mathematics instruction as an effective strategy in improving students’ cognitive, affective, and psychomotor abilities. This research is intended to implement GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching strategy in improving abstraction ability, lateral thinking, and mathematical persistence of junior high school students. It employed quasi-experimental method with non-random pre-test and post-test control design. More specifically, it used the 2x3 factorial design, namely the learning factors that included GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching and conventional teaching learning, and levels of early mathematical ability (high, middle, and low). The subjects in this research were the eighth grade students of junior high school, taken with purposive sampling. The results of this research show: Abstraction and lateral abilities of students who were taught with GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching strategy were significantly higher than those of students who received conventional learning. Mathematical persistence of students taught with GeoGebra-assisted Reciprocal Teaching strategy was also significantly higher than of those taught with conventional learning.

The diagnostic value of high-frequency power-based diffusion-weighted imaging in prediction of neuroepithelial tumour grading

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Chen, Zhiye; Liu, Mengqi [Chinese PLA General Hospital, Department of Radiology, Beijing (China); Hainan Branch of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Department of Radiology, Sanya (China); Zhou, Peng [Chinese Academy of Sciences, Research Center for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Beijing (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Lv, Bin [Academy of Telecommunication Research of MIIT, Beijing (China); Wang, Yan; Wang, Yulin; Lou, Xin; Ma, Lin [Chinese PLA General Hospital, Department of Radiology, Beijing (China); Gui, Qiuping [Chinese PLA General Hospital, Department of Pathology, Beijing (China); He, Huiguang [Chinese Academy of Sciences, Research Center for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Beijing (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Beijing (China)

2017-12-15

To retrospectively evaluate the diagnostic value of high-frequency power (HFP) compared with the minimum apparent diffusion coefficient (MinADC) in the prediction of neuroepithelial tumour grading. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) data were acquired on 115 patients by a 3.0-T MRI system, which included b0 images and b1000 images over the whole brain in each patient. The HFP values and MinADC values were calculated by an in-house script written on the MATLAB platform. There was a significant difference among each group excluding grade I (G1) vs. grade II (G2) (P = 0.309) for HFP and among each group for MinADC. ROC analysis showed a higher discriminative accuracy between low-grade glioma (LGG) and high-grade glioma (HGG) for HFP with area under the curve (AUC) value 1 compared with that for MinADC with AUC 0.83 ± 0.04 and also demonstrated a higher discriminative ability among the G1-grade IV (G4) group for HFP compared with that for MinADC except G1 vs. G2. HFP could provide a simple and effective optimal tool for the prediction of neuroepithelial tumour grading based on diffusion-weighted images in routine clinical practice. (orig.)

Scaling of soaring seabirds and implications for flight abilities of giant pterosaurs.

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Katsufumi Sato

Full Text Available The flight ability of animals is restricted by the scaling effects imposed by physical and physiological factors. In comparisons of the power available from muscle and the mechanical power required to fly, it is predicted that the margin between the powers should decrease with body size and that flying animals have a maximum body size. However, predicting the absolute value of this upper limit has proven difficult because wing morphology and flight styles varies among species. Albatrosses and petrels have long, narrow, aerodynamically efficient wings and are considered soaring birds. Here, using animal-borne accelerometers, we show that soaring seabirds have two modes of flapping frequencies under natural conditions: vigorous flapping during takeoff and sporadic flapping during cruising flight. In these species, high and low flapping frequencies were found to scale with body mass (mass(-0.30 and mass(-0.18 in a manner similar to the predictions from biomechanical flight models (mass(-1/3 and mass(-1/6. These scaling relationships predicted that the maximum limits on the body size of soaring animals are a body mass of 41 kg and a wingspan of 5.1 m. Albatross-like animals larger than the limit will not be able to flap fast enough to stay aloft under unfavourable wind conditions. Our result therefore casts doubt on the flying ability of large, extinct pterosaurs. The largest extant soarer, the wandering albatross, weighs about 12 kg, which might be a pragmatic limit to maintain a safety margin for sustainable flight and to survive in a variable environment.

Age effects on sensory-processing abilities and their impact on handwriting.

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Engel-Yeger, Batya; Hus, Sari; Rosenblum, Sara

2012-12-01

Sensory-processing abilities are known to deteriorate in the elderly. As a result, daily activities such as handwriting may be impaired. Yet, knowledge about sensory-processing involvement in handwriting characteristics among older persons is limited. To examine how age influences sensory-processing abilities and the impact on handwriting as a daily performance. The study participants were 118 healthy, independently functioning adults divided into four age groups: 31-45, 46-60, 61-75 and 76+ years. All participants completed the Adolescent/ Adult Sensory Profile (AASP). Handwriting process was documented using the Computerized Handwriting Penmanship Evaluation Tool (ComPET). Age significantly affects sensory processing and handwriting pressure as well as temporal and spatial measures. Both handwriting time and spatial organization of the written product were predicted by sensory seeking. When examining age contribution to the prediction of handwriting by sensory processing, sensory seeking showed a tendency for predicting handwriting pressure (p = .06), while sensory sensitivity significantly predicted handwriting velocity. Age appears to influence sensory-processing abilities and affect daily performance tasks, such as handwriting, for which sensitivity and seeking for sensations are essential. Awareness of clinicians to sensory-processing deficits among older adults and examining their impact on broader daily activities are essential to improve daily performance and quality of life.

Prediction of cognitive abilities at the age of 5 years using developmental follow-up assessments at the age of 2 and 3 years in very preterm children

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Potharst, E.S.; Houtzager, B.A.; van Sonderen, L.; Tamminga, P.; Kok, J.H.; Last, B.F.; van Wassenaer, A.G.

2012-01-01

Aim This study investigated prediction of separate cognitive abilities at the age of 5years by cognitive development at the ages of both 2 and 3years, and the agreement between these measurements, in very preterm children. Methods Preterm children (n=102; 44 males; 58 females) with a gestational age

Visual motion perception predicts driving hazard perception ability.

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Lacherez, Philippe; Au, Sandra; Wood, Joanne M

2014-02-01

To examine the basis of previous findings of an association between indices of driving safety and visual motion sensitivity and to examine whether this association could be explained by low-level changes in visual function. A total of 36 visually normal participants (aged 19-80 years) completed a battery of standard vision tests including visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and automated visual fields and two tests of motion perception including sensitivity for movement of a drifting Gabor stimulus and sensitivity for displacement in a random dot kinematogram (Dmin ). Participants also completed a hazard perception test (HPT), which measured participants' response times to hazards embedded in video recordings of real-world driving, which has been shown to be linked to crash risk. Dmin for the random dot stimulus ranged from -0.88 to -0.12 log minutes of arc, and the minimum drift rate for the Gabor stimulus ranged from 0.01 to 0.35 cycles per second. Both measures of motion sensitivity significantly predicted response times on the HPT. In addition, while the relationship involving the HPT and motion sensitivity for the random dot kinematogram was partially explained by the other visual function measures, the relationship with sensitivity for detection of the drifting Gabor stimulus remained significant even after controlling for these variables. These findings suggest that motion perception plays an important role in the visual perception of driving-relevant hazards independent of other areas of visual function and should be further explored as a predictive test of driving safety. Future research should explore the causes of reduced motion perception to develop better interventions to improve road safety. © 2012 The Authors. Acta Ophthalmologica © 2012 Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Foundation.

The predictive validity of the HERO Scorecard in determining future health care cost and risk trends.

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Goetzel, Ron Z; Henke, Rachel Mosher; Benevent, Richele; Tabrizi, Maryam J; Kent, Karen B; Smith, Kristyn J; Roemer, Enid Chung; Grossmeier, Jessica; Mason, Shawn T; Gold, Daniel B; Noeldner, Steven P; Anderson, David R

2014-02-01

To determine the ability of the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) Scorecard to predict changes in health care expenditures. Individual employee health care insurance claims data for 33 organizations completing the HERO Scorecard from 2009 to 2011 were linked to employer responses to the Scorecard. Organizations were dichotomized into "high" versus "low" scoring groups and health care cost trends were compared. A secondary analysis examined the tool's ability to predict health risk trends. "High" scorers experienced significant reductions in inflation-adjusted health care costs (averaging an annual trend of -1.6% over 3 years) compared with "low" scorers whose cost trend remained stable. The risk analysis was inconclusive because of the small number of employers scoring "low." The HERO Scorecard predicts health care cost trends among employers. More research is needed to determine how well it predicts health risk trends for employees.

Longitudinal predictive ability of mapping models: examining post-intervention EQ-5D utilities derived from baseline MHAQ data in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

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Kontodimopoulos, Nick; Bozios, Panagiotis; Yfantopoulos, John; Niakas, Dimitris

2013-04-01

The purpose of this methodological study was to to provide insight into the under-addressed issue of the longitudinal predictive ability of mapping models. Post-intervention predicted and reported utilities were compared, and the effect of disease severity on the observed differences was examined. A cohort of 120 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients (60.0% female, mean age 59.0) embarking on therapy with biological agents completed the Modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (MHAQ) and the EQ-5D at baseline, and at 3, 6 and 12 months post-intervention. OLS regression produced a mapping equation to estimate post-intervention EQ-5D utilities from baseline MHAQ data. Predicted and reported utilities were compared with t test, and the prediction error was modeled, using fixed effects, in terms of covariates such as age, gender, time, disease duration, treatment, RF, DAS28 score, predicted and reported EQ-5D. The OLS model (RMSE = 0.207, R(2) = 45.2%) consistently underestimated future utilities, with a mean prediction error of 6.5%. Mean absolute differences between reported and predicted EQ-5D utilities at 3, 6 and 12 months exceeded the typically reported MID of the EQ-5D (0.03). According to the fixed-effects model, time, lower predicted EQ-5D and higher DAS28 scores had a significant impact on prediction errors, which appeared increasingly negative for lower reported EQ-5D scores, i.e., predicted utilities tended to be lower than reported ones in more severe health states. This study builds upon existing research having demonstrated the potential usefulness of mapping disease-specific instruments onto utility measures. The specific issue of longitudinal validity is addressed, as mapping models derived from baseline patients need to be validated on post-therapy samples. The underestimation of post-treatment utilities in the present study, at least in more severe patients, warrants further research before it is prudent to conduct cost-utility analyses in the context

Prediction of centrifugal pump-cleaning ability in waste sludge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Churnetski, B.V.

1981-01-01

Radioactive waste at the Savannah River Plant (SRP) is being transferred from older waste tanks to new, stress-relieved tanks for more effective waste management. The technology developed for waste removal involves the use of long-shaft, recirculating, centrifugal pumps (slurry pumps). Testing completed at the Savannah River Laboratory's 30-meter-diameter mock-up waste tank related the effective cleaning radius (ECR) of a slurry pump to critical pump and materials characteristics. Presently, this theory is being applied to radioactive waste at SRP. However, the technology can be applied to other remote handling situations where the slurry rheology can be determined. For SRP waste, an equation of the form: ECR α DV 0 (rho/tau 0 )/sup 1/2/ was determined where D is the nozzle diameter, V 0 is the average initial velocity, rho is the density of the slurry, and tau 0 is the yield stress of the slurry. Using this relationship, the cleaning performance of a pump operating in any SRP sludge environment can be predicted. Specifically, yield stress and density measurements on sludge samples can be used to predict the required number and effective location for slurry pumps in actual SRP waste tanks

Cognitive ability rivals the effect of political sophistication on ideological voting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hebbelstrup Rye Rasmussen, Stig

2016-01-01

This article examines the impact of cognitive ability on ideological voting. We find, using a US sample and a Danish sample, that the effect of cognitive ability rivals the effect of the traditionally strongest predicter of ideological voting political sophistication. Furthermore, the results...... are consistent with the effect of cognitive ability being partly mediated by political sophistication. Much of the effect of cognitive ability remains however and is not explained by differences in education or Openness to experience either. The implications of these results for democratic theory are discussed....

PREDICTING DEMAND FOR COTTON YARNS

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SALAS-MOLINA Francisco

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Predicting demand for fashion products is crucial for textile manufacturers. In an attempt to both avoid out-of-stocks and minimize holding costs, different forecasting techniques are used by production managers. Both linear and non-linear time-series analysis techniques are suitable options for forecasting purposes. However, demand for fashion products presents a number of particular characteristics such as short life-cycles, short selling seasons, high impulse purchasing, high volatility, low predictability, tremendous product variety and a high number of stock-keeping-units. In this paper, we focus on predicting demand for cotton yarns using a non-linear forecasting technique that has been fruitfully used in many areas, namely, random forests. To this end, we first identify a number of explanatory variables to be used as a key input to forecasting using random forests. We consider explanatory variables usually labeled either as causal variables, when some correlation is expected between them and the forecasted variable, or as time-series features, when extracted from time-related attributes such as seasonality. Next, we evaluate the predictive power of each variable by means of out-of-sample accuracy measurement. We experiment on a real data set from a textile company in Spain. The numerical results show that simple time-series features present more predictive ability than other more sophisticated explanatory variables.

Predicting long-term sickness absence and early retirement pension from self-reported work ability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sell, Lea; Bültmann, Ute; Rugulies, Reiner Ernst

2009-01-01

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between self-reported work ability and long-term term of sickness absence or early retirement from the labour market.......The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between self-reported work ability and long-term term of sickness absence or early retirement from the labour market....

Measuring Work Ability with Its Antecedents: Evaluation of the Work Ability Survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Voltmer, Jan-Bennet; Deller, Jürgen

2017-07-24

Purpose The revised version of the Work Ability Survey (WAS-R) assesses work ability on several sub-scales at the intersection of personal and organizational capacity, thus adding to the measurement of work ability by integrating the holistic model. It, therefore, improves on two features of the current standard measurement tool of work ability, the Work Ability Index (WAI): (1) a ceiling effect and (2) limited detail due to a focus on physical health and personal capacity. Method In two samples (n 1  = 1093, n 2  = 359), psychometric properties and the structure of the WAS-R were analyzed. To evaluate construct validity, inter-correlations of the WAS-R and WAI, sickness absence, expected and desired retirement age, and post-retirement work intention were calculated. Results The WAS-R was found to be distributed closer to normality than the WAI. The structural analyses yielded acceptable results for the hypothesized model. The WAS-R was adequately correlated with the WAI, negatively with sickness absence, and positively with desired retirement age. Conclusions The WAS-R extends the measurement of work ability, reflecting organizations' work demands. Its broad sub-scales lead to high acceptance of the results within the participating companies. In particular, the organizational capacity scales can be used to guide interventions aiming at organizational characteristics to improve work ability.

Glass Forming Ability of Amorphous Drugs Investigated by Continuous Cooling and Isothermal Transformation.

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Blaabjerg, Lasse I; Lindenberg, Eleanor; Löbmann, Korbinian; Grohganz, Holger; Rades, Thomas

2016-09-06

The aim of this study was to investigate the glass forming ability of 12 different drugs by the determination of continuous cooling and isothermal transformation diagrams in order to elucidate if an inherent differentiation between the drugs with respect to their the glass forming ability can be made. Continuous-cooling-transformation (CCT) and time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagrams of the drugs were developed in order to predict the critical cooling rate necessary to convert the drug from the melt into an amorphous form. While TTT diagrams overestimated the actual critical cooling rate, they allowed an inherent differentiation of glass forming ability for the investigated drugs into drugs that are extremely difficult to amorphize (>750 °C/min), drugs that require modest cooling rates (>10 °C/min), and drugs that can be made amorphous even at very slow cooling rates (>2 °C/min). Thus, the glass forming ability can be predicted by the use of TTT diagrams. In contrast to TTT diagrams, CCT diagrams may not be suitable for small organic molecules due to poor separation of exothermic events, which makes it difficult to determine the zone of recrystallization. In conclusion, this study shows that glass forming ability of drugs can be predicted by TTT diagrams.

Fracture predictive ability of physical performance tests and history of falls in elderly women: a 10-year prospective study.

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Wihlborg, A; Englund, M; Åkesson, K; Gerdhem, P

2015-08-01

In a large cohort of elderly women followed for 10 years, we found that balance, gait speed, and self-reported history of fall independently predicted fracture. These clinical risk factors are easily evaluated and therefore advantageous in a clinical setting. They would improve fracture risk assessment and thereby also fracture prevention. The aim of this study was to identify additional risk factors for osteoporosis-related fracture by investigating the fracture predictive ability of physical performance tests and self-reported history of falls. In the population-based Osteoporosis Prospective Risk Assessment study (OPRA), 1044 women were recruited at the age of 75 and followed for 10 years. At inclusion, knee extension force, standing balance, gait speed, and bone mineral density (BMD) were examined. Falls the year before investigation was assessed by questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to determine fracture hazard ratios (HR) with BMD, history of fracture, BMI, smoking habits, bisphosphonate, vitamin D, glucocorticoid, and alcohol use as covariates. Continuous variables were standardized and HR shown for each standard deviation change. Of all women, 427 (41%) sustained at least one fracture during the 10-year follow-up. Failing the balance test had an HR of 1.98 (1.18-3.32) for hip fracture. Each standard deviation decrease in gait speed was associated with an HR of 1.37 (1.14-1.64) for hip fracture. Previous fall had an HR of 1.30 (1.03-1.65) for any fracture; 1.39 (1.08-1.79) for any osteoporosis-related fracture; and 1.60 (1.03-2.48) for distal forearm fracture. Knee extension force did not show fracture predictability. The balance test, gait speed test, and self-reported history of fall all hold independent fracture predictability. Consideration of these clinical risk factors for fracture would improve the fracture risk assessment and subsequently also fracture prevention.

Reciprocal Relationships between Teacher Ratings of Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors in Adolescents with Different Levels of Cognitive Abilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Morin, Alexandre J S; Arens, A Katrin; Maïano, Christophe; Ciarrochi, Joseph; Tracey, Danielle; Parker, Philip D; Craven, Rhonda G

2017-04-01

Are internalizing and externalizing behavior problems interrelated via mutually reinforcing relationships (with each behavior leading to increases over time in levels of the other behavior) or mutually suppressing relationships (with each behavior leading to decreases over time in levels of the other behavior)? Past research on the directionality of these relationships has led to ambiguous results, particularly in adolescence. Furthermore, the extent to which prior results will generalize to adolescents with low levels of cognitive abilities remains unknown. This second limit is particularly important, given that these adolescents are known to present higher levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors than their peers with average-to-high levels of cognitive abilities, and that the mechanisms involved in the reciprocal relationships between these two types of behaviors may differ across both populations. This study examines the directionality of the longitudinal relationships between externalizing and internalizing behavior problems as rated by teachers across three measurement waves (corresponding to Grades 8-10) in matched samples of 138 adolescents (34.78 % girls) with low levels of cognitive abilities and 556 adolescents (44.88 % girls) with average-to-high levels of cognitive abilities. The results showed that the measurement structure was fully equivalent across time periods and groups of adolescents, revealing high levels of developmental stability in both types of problems, and moderately high levels of cross-sectional associations. Levels of both internalizing and externalizing behaviors were higher among adolescents with low levels of cognitive abilities relative to those with average-to-high levels of cognitive abilities. Finally, the predictive analyses revealed negative reciprocal longitudinal relationships (i.e., mutually suppressing relationships) between externalizing and internalizing problems, a result that was replicated within

Risk factors for low receptive vocabulary abilities in the preschool and early school years in the longitudinal study of Australian children.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Christensen

Full Text Available Receptive vocabulary development is a component of the human language system that emerges in the first year of life and is characterised by onward expansion throughout life. Beginning in infancy, children's receptive vocabulary knowledge builds the foundation for oral language and reading skills. The foundations for success at school are built early, hence the public health policy focus on reducing developmental inequalities before children start formal school. The underlying assumption is that children's development is stable, and therefore predictable, over time. This study investigated this assumption in relation to children's receptive vocabulary ability. We investigated the extent to which low receptive vocabulary ability at 4 years was associated with low receptive vocabulary ability at 8 years, and the predictive utility of a multivariate model that included child, maternal and family risk factors measured at 4 years. The study sample comprised 3,847 children from the first nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate risks for low receptive vocabulary ability from 4-8 years and sensitivity-specificity analysis was used to examine the predictive utility of the multivariate model. In the multivariate model, substantial risk factors for receptive vocabulary delay from 4-8 years, in order of descending magnitude, were low receptive vocabulary ability at 4 years, low maternal education, and low school readiness. Moderate risk factors, in order of descending magnitude, were low maternal parenting consistency, socio-economic area disadvantage, low temperamental persistence, and NESB status. The following risk factors were not significant: One or more siblings, low family income, not reading to the child, high maternal work hours, and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander ethnicity. The results of the sensitivity-specificity analysis showed that a well

Implicit beliefs of ability, approach-avoidance goals and cognitive anxiety among team sport athletes.

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Stenling, Andreas; Hassmén, Peter; Holmström, Stefan

2014-01-01

People's implicit beliefs of ability have been suggested as an antecedent of achievement goal adoption, which has in turn been associated with behavioural, cognitive and affective outcomes. This study examined a conditional process model with team sport athletes' approach-avoidance achievement goals as mediators between their implicit beliefs of sport ability and sport-related cognitive anxiety. We expected gender to moderate the paths from implicit beliefs of ability to approach-avoidance goals and from approach-avoidance goals to cognitive anxiety. Team sport athletes with a mean age of 20 years (163 females and 152 males) responded to questionnaires about their implicit beliefs of sport ability, approach-avoidance goals and sport-related cognitive anxiety. Incremental beliefs, gender and the interaction between them predicted mastery-approach goals. Gender also predicted mastery-avoidance goals, with females reporting higher levels than males. Mastery-avoidance goals, gender and the interaction between them predicted cognitive anxiety, with females reporting higher levels of anxiety than males. Entity beliefs positively predicted performance-avoidance goals and the interaction between performance-approach and gender predicted anxiety. The indirect effects also showed gender differences in relation to performance-approach goals. Taken together, our results suggest that coaches trying to create a facilitating climate for their male and female athletes may be wise to consider their athletes' anxiety and achievement goal patterns as these may affect both the athletes' well-being and performance.

Investigating Predictors of Spelling Ability for Adults with Low Literacy Skills

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Talwar, Amani; Cote, Nicole Gilbert; Binder, Katherine

2014-01-01

This study examined whether the spelling abilities of adults with low literacy skills could be predicted by their phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness. Sixty Adult Basic Education (ABE) students completed several literacy tasks. It was predicted that scores on phonological and orthographic tasks would explain variance in…

Work Ability Index predicts application for disability pension after work-related medical rehabilitation for chronic back pain.

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Bethge, Matthias; Gutenbrunner, Christoph; Neuderth, Silke

2013-11-01

To determine whether the Work Ability Index (WAI), a short 7-item self-report questionnaire addressing issues of perceived disability, impairment, and expectations for resuming work, predicts application for disability pension, recommendations for further treatment, and other adverse work-related criteria in patients with chronic back pain after rehabilitation. Cohort study with 3-month follow-up. Seven inpatient rehabilitation centers. Patients (N=294; 168 women; mean age, 49.9y) with chronic back pain. The WAI was completed at the beginning of rehabilitation. All patients were treated according to the German rehabilitation guidelines for chronic back pain and work-related medical rehabilitation. Application for disability pension, as assessed by a postal questionnaire 3 months after discharge. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of the association between the WAI at baseline and subsequent application for disability pension revealed an area under the curve of .80 (95% confidence interval [CI], .62-.97). Youden index was highest when the WAI cutoff value was ≤20 points (sensitivity, 72.7%; specificity, 82.2%; total correct classification, 81.7%). After adjusting for age and sex, persons with a baseline WAI score of ≤20 points had 15.6 times (95% CI, 3.6-68.2) higher odds of subsequent application for disability pension, 4.9 times (95% CI, 1.5-16.8) higher odds of unemployment, and 6 times (95% CI, 2.4-15.2) higher odds of long-term sick leave at follow-up. The WAI could help rehabilitation professionals identify patients with back pain with a high risk of a subsequent application for disability pension. Copyright © 2013 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Relationship between Cognitive Reserve and Math Abilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giorgio Arcara

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Cognitive Reserve is the capital of knowledge and experiences that an individual acquires over their life-span. Cognitive Reserve is strictly related to Brain Reserve, which is the ability of the brain to cope with damage. These two concepts could explain many phenomena such as the modality of onset in dementia or the different degree of impairment in cognitive abilities in aging. The aim of this study is to verify the effect of Cognitive Reserve, as measured by a questionnaire, on a variety of numerical abilities (number comprehension, reading and writing numbers, rules and principles, mental calculations and written calculations, in a group of healthy older people (aged 65–98 years. Sixty older individuals were interviewed with the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIq, and assessed with the Numerical Activities of Daily Living battery (NADL, which included formal tasks on math abilities, an informal test on math, one interview with the participant, and one interview with a relative on the perceived math abilities. We also took into account the years of education, as another proxy for Cognitive Reserve. In the multiple regression analyses on all formal tests, CRIq scores did not significantly predict math performance. Other variables, i.e., years of education and Mini-Mental State Examination score, accounted better for math performance on NADL. Only a subsection of CRIq, CRIq-Working-activity, was found to predict performance on a NADL subtest assessing informal use of math in daily life. These results show that education might better explain abstract math functions in late life than other aspects related to Cognitive Reserve, such as lifestyle or occupational attainment.

The Relationship between Cognitive Reserve and Math Abilities.

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Arcara, Giorgio; Mondini, Sara; Bisso, Alice; Palmer, Katie; Meneghello, Francesca; Semenza, Carlo

2017-01-01

Cognitive Reserve is the capital of knowledge and experiences that an individual acquires over their life-span. Cognitive Reserve is strictly related to Brain Reserve, which is the ability of the brain to cope with damage. These two concepts could explain many phenomena such as the modality of onset in dementia or the different degree of impairment in cognitive abilities in aging. The aim of this study is to verify the effect of Cognitive Reserve, as measured by a questionnaire, on a variety of numerical abilities (number comprehension, reading and writing numbers, rules and principles, mental calculations and written calculations), in a group of healthy older people (aged 65-98 years). Sixty older individuals were interviewed with the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIq), and assessed with the Numerical Activities of Daily Living battery (NADL), which included formal tasks on math abilities, an informal test on math, one interview with the participant, and one interview with a relative on the perceived math abilities. We also took into account the years of education, as another proxy for Cognitive Reserve. In the multiple regression analyses on all formal tests, CRIq scores did not significantly predict math performance. Other variables, i.e., years of education and Mini-Mental State Examination score, accounted better for math performance on NADL. Only a subsection of CRIq, CRIq-Working-activity, was found to predict performance on a NADL subtest assessing informal use of math in daily life. These results show that education might better explain abstract math functions in late life than other aspects related to Cognitive Reserve, such as lifestyle or occupational attainment.

Thermomechanical fatigue life prediction of high temperature components

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seifert, Thomas; Hartrott, Philipp von; Riedel, Hermann; Siegele, Dieter [Fraunhofer-Inst. fuer Werkstoffmechanik (IWM), Freiburg (Germany)

2009-07-01

The aim of the work described in this paper is to provide a computational method for fatigue life prediction of high temperature components, in which the time and temperature dependent fatigue crack growth is a relevant damage mechanism. The fatigue life prediction is based on a law for microcrack growth and a fracture mechanics estimate of the cyclic crack tip opening displacement. In addition, a powerful model for nonisothermal cyclic plasticity is employed, and an efficient laboratory test procedure is proposed for the determination of the model parameters. The models are efficiently implemented into finite element programs and are used to predict the fatigue life of a cast iron exhaust manifold and a notch in the perimeter of a turbine rotor made of a ferritic/martensitic 10%-chromium steel. (orig.)

The role of picture of process (pp) on senior high school students’ collision concept learning activities and multirepresentation ability

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Sutarto; Indrawati; Wicaksono, I.

2018-04-01

The objectives of the study are to describe the effect of PP collision concepts to high school students’ learning activities and multirepresentation abilities. This study was a quasi experimental with non- equivalent post-test only control group design. The population of this study were students who will learn the concept of collision in three state Senior High Schools in Indonesia, with a sample of each school 70 students, 35 students as an experimental group and 35 students as a control group. Technique of data collection were observation and test. The data were analized by descriptive and inferensial statistic. Student learning activities were: group discussions, describing vectors of collision events, and formulating problem-related issues of impact. Multirepresentation capabilities were student ability on image representation, verbal, mathematics, and graph. The results showed that the learning activities in the three aspects for the three high school average categorized good. The impact of using PP on students’ ability on image and graph representation were a significant impact, but for verbal and mathematical skills there are differences but not significant.

The influence of spelling ability on handwriting production: children with and without dyslexia.

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Sumner, Emma; Connelly, Vincent; Barnett, Anna L

2014-09-01

Current models of writing do not sufficiently address the complex relationship between the 2 transcription skills: spelling and handwriting. For children with dyslexia and beginning writers, it is conceivable that spelling ability will influence rate of handwriting production. Our aim in this study was to examine execution speed and temporal characteristics of handwriting when completing sentence-copying tasks that are free from composing demands and to determine the predictive value of spelling, pausing, and motor skill on handwriting production. Thirty-one children with dyslexia (Mage = 9 years 4 months) were compared with age-matched and spelling-ability matched children (Mage = 6 years 6 months). A digital writing tablet and Eye and Pen software were used to analyze handwriting. Children with dyslexia were able to execute handwriting at the same speed as the age-matched peers. However, they wrote less overall and paused more frequently while writing, especially within words. Combined spelling ability and within-word pausing accounted for over 76% of the variance in handwriting production of children with dyslexia, demonstrating that productivity relies on spelling capabilities. Motor skill did not significantly predict any additional variance in handwriting production. Reading ability predicted performance of the age-matched group, and pausing predicted performance for the spelling-ability group. The findings from the digital writing tablet highlight the interactive relationship between the transcription skills and how, if spelling is not fully automatized, it can constrain the rate of handwriting production. Practical implications are also addressed, emphasizing the need for more consideration to be given to what common handwriting tasks are assessing as a whole.

An empirical investigation on the forecasting ability of mallows model averaging in a macro economic environment

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Yin, Yip Chee; Hock-Eam, Lim

2012-09-01

This paper investigates the forecasting ability of Mallows Model Averaging (MMA) by conducting an empirical analysis of five Asia countries, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and China's GDP growth rate. Results reveal that MMA has no noticeable differences in predictive ability compared to the general autoregressive fractional integrated moving average model (ARFIMA) and its predictive ability is sensitive to the effect of financial crisis. MMA could be an alternative forecasting method for samples without recent outliers such as financial crisis.

Coping with examinations: exploring relationships between students' coping strategies, implicit theories of ability, and perceived control.

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Doron, Julie; Stephan, Yannick; Boiché, Julie; Le Scanff, Christine

2009-09-01

Relatively little is known about the contribution of students' beliefs regarding the nature of academic ability (i.e. their implicit theories) on strategies used to deal with examinations. This study applied Dweck's socio-cognitive model of achievement motivation to better understand how students cope with examinations. It was expected that students' implicit theories of academic ability would be related to their use of particular coping strategies to deal with exam-related stress. Additionally, it was predicted that perceived control over exams acts as a mediator between implicit theories of ability and coping. Four hundred and ten undergraduate students (263 males, 147 females), aged from 17 to 26 years old (M=19.73, SD=1.46) were volunteers for the present study. Students completed measures of coping, implicit theories of academic ability, and perception of control over academic examinations during regular classes in the first term of the university year. Multiple regression analyses revealed that incremental beliefs of ability significantly and positively predicted active coping, planning, venting of emotions, seeking social support for emotional and instrumental reasons, whereas entity beliefs positively predicted behavioural disengagement and negatively predicted active coping and acceptance. In addition, analyses revealed that entity beliefs of ability were related to coping strategies through students' perception of control over academic examinations. These results confirm that exam-related coping varies as a function of students' beliefs about the nature of academic ability and their perceptions of control when approaching examinations.

Profile of Secondary School Students with High Mathematics Ability in Solving Shape and Space Problem

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Putra, Mulia; Novita, Rita

2015-01-01

This study aimed to describe the profile of secondary school students with high mathematics ability in solving shape and space problem in PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). It is a descriptive research with a qualitative approach, in which the subjects in this study were students of class VIII SMP N 1 Banda Aceh. The results show…

High seed dispersal ability of Pinus canariensis in stands of contrasting density inferred from genotypic data

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Unai López de Heredia

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Aim of the study: Models that combine parentage analysis from molecular data with spatial information of seeds and seedlings provide a framework to describe and identify the factors involved in seed dispersal and recruitment of forest species. In the present study we used a spatially explicit method (the gene shadow model in order to assess primary and effective dispersal in Pinus canariensis. Area of study: Pinus canariensis is endemic to the Canary Islands (Spain. Sampling sites were a high density forest in southern slopes of Tenerife and a low density stand in South Gran Canaria. Materials and methods: We fitted models based on parentage analysis from seeds and seedlings collected in two sites with contrasting stand density, and then compared the resulting dispersal distributions. Main results: The results showed that: 1 P. canariensis has a remarkable dispersal ability compared to other pine species; 2 there is no discordance between primary and effective dispersals, suggesting limited secondary dispersal by animals and lack of Janzen-Connell effect; and 3 low stand densities enhance the extent of seed dispersal, which was higher in the low density stand. Research highlights: The efficient dispersal mechanism of P. canariensis by wind inferred by the gene shadow model is congruent with indirect measures of gene flow, and has utility in reconstructing past demographic events and in predicting future distribution ranges for the species.

Disentangling the Predictive Validity of High School Grades for Academic Success in University

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Vulperhorst, Jonne; Lutz, Christel; de Kleijn, Renske; van Tartwijk, Jan

2018-01-01

To refine selective admission models, we investigate which measure of prior achievement has the best predictive validity for academic success in university. We compare the predictive validity of three core high school subjects to the predictive validity of high school grade point average (GPA) for academic achievement in a liberal arts university…

A Prospective Study of the Timing and Accuracy of Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin Levels in Predicting Acute Kidney Injury in High-Risk Cardiac Surgery Patients.

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Fanning, Niall; Galvin, Sinead; Parke, Rachael; Gilroy, James; Bellomo, Rinaldo; McGuinness, Shay

2016-01-01

Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) appears to be a promising biomarker in the effort to predict acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiac surgery. The authors aimed to identify the specific time point in the perioperative period at which measurement of either urinary or serum concentrations of NGAL would have the highest predictive power for AKI. The authors also investigated whether change in NGAL from baseline was a better predictor of AKI than absolute NGAL values. A prospective, investigator-blinded observational study. The cardiac surgical unit of a university teaching hospital. The study consisted of 50 patients undergoing cardiac surgery who were classified preoperatively as high risk for developing postoperative AKI. No changes to standard practice were required. The authors performed serial measurements of urinary and serum NGAL concentrations at 18 time points throughout the first 48 postoperative hours and assessed the variables required to diagnose AKI with standard criteria. Statistical analysis of predictive ability was performed using the area under receiver operator curves (AUROC) calculated for each time point. It was demonstrated that urinary NGAL performed marginally better than serum NGAL in predicting AKI. Urinary sampling at 4 and 24 hours after initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass provided the greatest diagnostic ability (AUROC, 0.702 and 0.712, respectively). Absolute NGAL values performed better than changes in NGAL values in predicting AKI. Urinary NGAL performed better than serum NGAL in predicting AKI and was most accurate when measured at 24 hours after initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass; however, NGAL appeared to be at best only a fair predictor of cardiac surgery-associated AKI. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Validity of Some Anthropometric Indicators in the Prediction of High Systolic Blood Pressure among Indian Adolescents

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Shobha Rao

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Background In view of the increasing prevalence of obesity in children, it is necessary to investigate the relative performance of different indicators used for its assessment and health consequences. Objectives To examine concordance between various indicators used for assessing obesity among adolescents and to examine their ability to predict risk of high systolic blood pressure. Design Cross-sectional study, from two schools catering to affluent class. Subjects Children in age 9–16 yr (n = 1146 boys and 1036 girls. Measurements Body weight, height, skinfold thickness at triceps (TSFT and body fat percent by trained investigators and blood pressure measurement by a pediatrician using sphygmomanometer. Results Prevalence of overweight was lowest with criterion of TSFT (11.7% in boys; 7.6% in girls and was highest using criterion of body fat percent (53.7% in boys and 28.4% in girls. Body mass index (BMI had high significant correlation with each of the indicator and with systolic blood pressure (SBP as well, in both sexes. All the indicators with conventional cut offs showed poor sensitivity for predicting high SBP. However, receiver operating characteristics (ROC cut-offs improved sensitivity considerably, but the values were much lower compared to conventional cut-offs. Conclusions There is considerable disparity in the estimates of overweight children obtained by different indicators. Lower values of ROC cut-offs highlights the need for population specific customized classification systems for assessing obesity in view of the probable population differences in relative risks of non-communicable adult diseases.

Prediction of toxicity of nitrobenzenes using ab initio and least squares support vector machines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niazi, Ali; Jameh-Bozorghi, Saeed; Nori-Shargh, Davood

2008-01-01

A quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) study is suggested for the prediction of toxicity (IGC 50 ) of nitrobenzenes. Ab initio theory was used to calculate some quantum chemical descriptors including electrostatic potentials and local charges at each atom, HOMO and LUMO energies, etc. Modeling of the IGC 50 of nitrobenzenes as a function of molecular structures was established by means of the least squares support vector machines (LS-SVM). This model was applied for the prediction of the toxicity (IGC 50 ) of nitrobenzenes, which were not in the modeling procedure. The resulted model showed high prediction ability with root mean square error of prediction of 0.0049 for LS-SVM. Results have shown that the introduction of LS-SVM for quantum chemical descriptors drastically enhances the ability of prediction in QSAR studies superior to multiple linear regression and partial least squares

Fast Algorithms for High-Order Sparse Linear Prediction with Applications to Speech Processing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Tobias Lindstrøm; Giacobello, Daniele; van Waterschoot, Toon

2016-01-01

In speech processing applications, imposing sparsity constraints on high-order linear prediction coefficients and prediction residuals has proven successful in overcoming some of the limitation of conventional linear predictive modeling. However, this modeling scheme, named sparse linear prediction...... problem with lower accuracy than in previous work. In the experimental analysis, we clearly show that a solution with lower accuracy can achieve approximately the same performance as a high accuracy solution both objectively, in terms of prediction gain, as well as with perceptual relevant measures, when...... evaluated in a speech reconstruction application....

Predicting stress from the ability to eavesdrop on feelings: Emotional intelligence and testosterone jointly predict cortisol reactivity.

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Bechtoldt, Myriam N; Schneider, Vanessa K

2016-09-01

While emotional intelligence (EI) is recognized as a resource in social interactions, we hypothesized a positive association with stress in socially evaluative contexts. In particular, we expected emotion recognition, the core component of EI, to inflict stress on individuals in negatively valenced interactions. We expected this association to be stronger for status-driven individuals, that is, for individuals scoring high on basal testosterone. In a laboratory experiment, N = 166 male participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (Kirschbaum, Pirke, & Hellhammer, 1993). As expected, EI measured by the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT V2.0; Mayer et al., 2003) predicted higher cortisol reactivity, including slower recovery from stress. The effect was moderated by basal testosterone, such that the association was positive when basal testosterone was high but not when it was low. On the component level of EI, the interaction was replicated for negative emotion recognition. These findings lend support to the hypothesis that EI is associated with higher activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in contexts where social status is at stake, particularly for those individuals who are more status-driven. Thus, the effects of EI are not unequivocally positive: While EI may positively affect the course of social interactions, it also inflicts stress on the emotionally intelligent individuals themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Statistical approach to predict compressive strength of high workability slag-cement mortars

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Memon, N.A.; Memon, N.A.; Sumadi, S.R.

2009-01-01

This paper reports an attempt made to develop empirical expressions to estimate/ predict the compressive strength of high workability slag-cement mortars. Experimental data of 54 mix mortars were used. The mortars were prepared with slag as cement replacement of the order of 0, 50 and 60%. The flow (workability) was maintained at 136+-3%. The numerical and statistical analysis was performed by using database computer software Microsoft Office Excel 2003. Three empirical mathematical models were developed to estimate/predict 28 days compressive strength of high workability slag cement-mortars with 0, 50 and 60% slag which predict the values accurate between 97 and 98%. Finally a generalized empirical mathematical model was proposed which can predict 28 days compressive strength of high workability mortars up to degree of accuracy 95%. (author)

Exploring students' perceptions and performance on predict-observe-explain tasks in high school chemistry laboratory

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Vadapally, Praveen

This study sought to understand the impact of gender and reasoning level on students' perceptions and performances of Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) laboratory tasks in a high school chemistry laboratory. Several literature reviews have reported that students at all levels have not developed the specific knowledge and skills that were expected from their laboratory work. Studies conducted over the last several decades have found that boys tend to be more successful than girls in science and mathematics courses. However, some recent studies have suggested that girls may be reducing this gender gap. This gender difference is the focal point of this research study, which was conducted at a mid-western, rural high school. The participants were 24 boys and 25 girls enrolled in two physical science classes taught by the same teacher. In this mixed methods study, qualitative and quantitative methods were implemented simultaneously over the entire period of the study. MANOVA statistics revealed significant effects due to gender and level of reasoning on the outcome variables, which were POE performances and perceptions of the chemistry laboratory environment. There were no significant interactions between these effects. For the qualitative method, IRB-approved information was collected, coded, grouped, and analyzed. This method was used to derive themes from students' responses on questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Students with different levels of reasoning and gender were interviewed, and many of them expressed positive themes, which was a clear indication that they had enjoyed participating in the POE learning tasks and they had developed positive perceptions towards POE inquiry laboratory learning environment. When students are capable of formal reasoning, they can use an abstract scientific concept effectively and then relate it to the ideas they generate in their minds. Thus, instructors should factor the nature of students' thinking abilities into their

Development and Validation of a Prediction Model to Estimate Individual Risk of Pancreatic Cancer.

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Yu, Ami; Woo, Sang Myung; Joo, Jungnam; Yang, Hye-Ryung; Lee, Woo Jin; Park, Sang-Jae; Nam, Byung-Ho

2016-01-01

There is no reliable screening tool to identify people with high risk of developing pancreatic cancer even though pancreatic cancer represents the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related death in Korea. The goal of this study was to develop an individualized risk prediction model that can be used to screen for asymptomatic pancreatic cancer in Korean men and women. Gender-specific risk prediction models for pancreatic cancer were developed using the Cox proportional hazards model based on an 8-year follow-up of a cohort study of 1,289,933 men and 557,701 women in Korea who had biennial examinations in 1996-1997. The performance of the models was evaluated with respect to their discrimination and calibration ability based on the C-statistic and Hosmer-Lemeshow type χ2 statistic. A total of 1,634 (0.13%) men and 561 (0.10%) women were newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Age, height, BMI, fasting glucose, urine glucose, smoking, and age at smoking initiation were included in the risk prediction model for men. Height, BMI, fasting glucose, urine glucose, smoking, and drinking habit were included in the risk prediction model for women. Smoking was the most significant risk factor for developing pancreatic cancer in both men and women. The risk prediction model exhibited good discrimination and calibration ability, and in external validation it had excellent prediction ability. Gender-specific risk prediction models for pancreatic cancer were developed and validated for the first time. The prediction models will be a useful tool for detecting high-risk individuals who may benefit from increased surveillance for pancreatic cancer.

Compound Structure-Independent Activity Prediction in High-Dimensional Target Space.

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Balfer, Jenny; Hu, Ye; Bajorath, Jürgen

2014-08-01

Profiling of compound libraries against arrays of targets has become an important approach in pharmaceutical research. The prediction of multi-target compound activities also represents an attractive task for machine learning with potential for drug discovery applications. Herein, we have explored activity prediction in high-dimensional target space. Different types of models were derived to predict multi-target activities. The models included naïve Bayesian (NB) and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers based upon compound structure information and NB models derived on the basis of activity profiles, without considering compound structure. Because the latter approach can be applied to incomplete training data and principally depends on the feature independence assumption, SVM modeling was not applicable in this case. Furthermore, iterative hybrid NB models making use of both activity profiles and compound structure information were built. In high-dimensional target space, NB models utilizing activity profile data were found to yield more accurate activity predictions than structure-based NB and SVM models or hybrid models. An in-depth analysis of activity profile-based models revealed the presence of correlation effects across different targets and rationalized prediction accuracy. Taken together, the results indicate that activity profile information can be effectively used to predict the activity of test compounds against novel targets. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Who multi-tasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking.

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Sanbonmatsu, David M; Strayer, David L; Medeiros-Ward, Nathan; Watson, Jason M

2013-01-01

The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants' perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation--high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking--reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control--low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity--tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity.

Who multi-tasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David M Sanbonmatsu

Full Text Available The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants' perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation--high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking--reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control--low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity--tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity.

Who Multi-Tasks and Why? Multi-Tasking Ability, Perceived Multi-Tasking Ability, Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking

Science.gov (United States)

Sanbonmatsu, David M.; Strayer, David L.; Medeiros-Ward, Nathan; Watson, Jason M.

2013-01-01

The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants’ perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation – high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking – reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control - low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity - tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity. PMID:23372720

Pretreatment data is highly predictive of liver chemistry signals in clinical trials.

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Cai, Zhaohui; Bresell, Anders; Steinberg, Mark H; Silberg, Debra G; Furlong, Stephen T

2012-01-01

The goal of this retrospective analysis was to assess how well predictive models could determine which patients would develop liver chemistry signals during clinical trials based on their pretreatment (baseline) information. Based on data from 24 late-stage clinical trials, classification models were developed to predict liver chemistry outcomes using baseline information, which included demographics, medical history, concomitant medications, and baseline laboratory results. Predictive models using baseline data predicted which patients would develop liver signals during the trials with average validation accuracy around 80%. Baseline levels of individual liver chemistry tests were most important for predicting their own elevations during the trials. High bilirubin levels at baseline were not uncommon and were associated with a high risk of developing biochemical Hy's law cases. Baseline γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT) level appeared to have some predictive value, but did not increase predictability beyond using established liver chemistry tests. It is possible to predict which patients are at a higher risk of developing liver chemistry signals using pretreatment (baseline) data. Derived knowledge from such predictions may allow proactive and targeted risk management, and the type of analysis described here could help determine whether new biomarkers offer improved performance over established ones.

Role of implicit learning abilities in metaphor understanding.

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Drouillet, Luc; Stefaniak, Nicolas; Declercq, Christelle; Obert, Alexandre

2018-05-01

Although the use of metaphors is a central component of language, the processes that sustain their comprehension have yet to be specified. Work in the fields of both metaphors and implicit learning suggests that implicit learning abilities facilitate the comprehension of metaphors. However, to date, no study has directly explored the relationships between the understanding of metaphors and so-called implicit learning tasks. We used a meaning decision task comparing literal, metaphorical and meaningless expressions to assess metaphor understanding and a probabilistic serial reaction time task for assessing implicit learning. Our results show that implicit learning positively predicts the time gap between responses to literal and metaphorical expressions and negatively predicts the difference between metaphorical and meaningless expressions. Thus, when confronted with novel metaphors, participants with higher implicit learning abilities are better able to identify that the expressions have some meaning. These results are interpreted in the context of metaphor understanding and psycholinguistic theories. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prediction-Oriented Marker Selection (PROMISE): With Application to High-Dimensional Regression.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Soyeon; Baladandayuthapani, Veerabhadran; Lee, J Jack

2017-06-01

In personalized medicine, biomarkers are used to select therapies with the highest likelihood of success based on an individual patient's biomarker/genomic profile. Two goals are to choose important biomarkers that accurately predict treatment outcomes and to cull unimportant biomarkers to reduce the cost of biological and clinical verifications. These goals are challenging due to the high dimensionality of genomic data. Variable selection methods based on penalized regression (e.g., the lasso and elastic net) have yielded promising results. However, selecting the right amount of penalization is critical to simultaneously achieving these two goals. Standard approaches based on cross-validation (CV) typically provide high prediction accuracy with high true positive rates but at the cost of too many false positives. Alternatively, stability selection (SS) controls the number of false positives, but at the cost of yielding too few true positives. To circumvent these issues, we propose prediction-oriented marker selection (PROMISE), which combines SS with CV to conflate the advantages of both methods. Our application of PROMISE with the lasso and elastic net in data analysis shows that, compared to CV, PROMISE produces sparse solutions, few false positives, and small type I + type II error, and maintains good prediction accuracy, with a marginal decrease in the true positive rates. Compared to SS, PROMISE offers better prediction accuracy and true positive rates. In summary, PROMISE can be applied in many fields to select regularization parameters when the goals are to minimize false positives and maximize prediction accuracy.

Entropy and the Predictability of Online Life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberta Sinatra

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Using mobile phone records and information theory measures, our daily lives have been recently shown to follow strict statistical regularities, and our movement patterns are, to a large extent, predictable. Here, we apply entropy and predictability measures to two datasets of the behavioral actions and the mobility of a large number of players in the virtual universe of a massive multiplayer online game. We find that movements in virtual human lives follow the same high levels of predictability as offline mobility, where future movements can, to some extent, be predicted well if the temporal correlations of visited places are accounted for. Time series of behavioral actions show similar high levels of predictability, even when temporal correlations are neglected. Entropy conditional on specific behavioral actions reveals that in terms of predictability, negative behavior has a wider variety than positive actions. The actions that contain the information to best predict an individual’s subsequent action are negative, such as attacks or enemy markings, while the positive actions of friendship marking, trade and communication contain the least amount of predictive information. These observations show that predicting behavioral actions requires less information than predicting the mobility patterns of humans for which the additional knowledge of past visited locations is crucial and that the type and sign of a social relation has an essential impact on the ability to determine future behavior.

A Comparison of Perceptions of Barriers to Academic Success among High-Ability Students from High- and Low-Income Groups: Exposing Poverty of a Different Kind

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Cross, Jennifer Riedl; Frazier, Andrea Dawn; Kim, Mihyeon; Cross, Tracy L.

2018-01-01

In 14 focus group interviews, sixth- to eighth-grade high-ability students from high- (n = 36) and low-income (n = 45) families were asked to describe the barriers they perceived to their academic success. Three themes were identified through the qualitative analysis: "Constraining Environments, Integration versus Isolation," and…

Scientific Creativity and High Ability: Gender and academic level differences

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Fernando Javier ESPARZA MOLINA

2015-10-01

Full Text Available  The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of gender and educational level on scientific creativity among gifted/talented students. A cohort of creatividad científica y alta habilidad: diferencias de género y nivel educativo 78 secondary school students from 12 to 16 years old participated in this research. The scientific creativity was measured using the Creative Scientific Ability Test (Sak & Ayas, 2011 designed for secondary school students from 11 to 14 years old. Its theoretical framework sets up the measurement of a three dimensional structure: general creative abilities (fluency, flexibility and creativity, scientific creative abilities (hypothesis generation, hypothesis testing and evidence evaluation and scientific knowledge. This test has the right adequate psychometric properties with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.848 (Sak & Ayas, 2013. Results indicated that male students scored significantly higher in a task named Interaction Graph which measures hypothesis generation in interdisciplinary science. The analysis also showed that students involved in upper education levels scores significantly higher in general fluency and in the task called The Food Chain which measures evidence evaluation in the area of ecology.

Extrinsic Cognitive Load Impairs Spoken Word Recognition in High- and Low-Predictability Sentences.

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Hunter, Cynthia R; Pisoni, David B

Listening effort (LE) induced by speech degradation reduces performance on concurrent cognitive tasks. However, a converse effect of extrinsic cognitive load on recognition of spoken words in sentences has not been shown. The aims of the present study were to (a) examine the impact of extrinsic cognitive load on spoken word recognition in a sentence recognition task and (b) determine whether cognitive load and/or LE needed to understand spectrally degraded speech would differentially affect word recognition in high- and low-predictability sentences. Downstream effects of speech degradation and sentence predictability on the cognitive load task were also examined. One hundred twenty young adults identified sentence-final spoken words in high- and low-predictability Speech Perception in Noise sentences. Cognitive load consisted of a preload of short (low-load) or long (high-load) sequences of digits, presented visually before each spoken sentence and reported either before or after identification of the sentence-final word. LE was varied by spectrally degrading sentences with four-, six-, or eight-channel noise vocoding. Level of spectral degradation and order of report (digits first or words first) were between-participants variables. Effects of cognitive load, sentence predictability, and speech degradation on accuracy of sentence-final word identification as well as recall of preload digit sequences were examined. In addition to anticipated main effects of sentence predictability and spectral degradation on word recognition, we found an effect of cognitive load, such that words were identified more accurately under low load than high load. However, load differentially affected word identification in high- and low-predictability sentences depending on the level of sentence degradation. Under severe spectral degradation (four-channel vocoding), the effect of cognitive load on word identification was present for high-predictability sentences but not for low-predictability

Investigating the running abilities of Tyrannosaurus rex using stress-constrained multibody dynamic analysis

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William I. Sellers

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The running ability of Tyrannosaurus rex has been intensively studied due to its relevance to interpretations of feeding behaviour and the biomechanics of scaling in giant predatory dinosaurs. Different studies using differing methodologies have produced a very wide range of top speed estimates and there is therefore a need to develop techniques that can improve these predictions. Here we present a new approach that combines two separate biomechanical techniques (multibody dynamic analysis and skeletal stress analysis to demonstrate that true running gaits would probably lead to unacceptably high skeletal loads in T. rex. Combining these two approaches reduces the high-level of uncertainty in previous predictions associated with unknown soft tissue parameters in dinosaurs, and demonstrates that the relatively long limb segments of T. rex—long argued to indicate competent running ability—would actually have mechanically limited this species to walking gaits. Being limited to walking speeds contradicts arguments of high-speed pursuit predation for the largest bipedal dinosaurs like T. rex, and demonstrates the power of multiphysics approaches for locomotor reconstructions of extinct animals.

The Abstraction Ability in Constructing Relation Within Triangles by The Seventh Grade Students of Junior High School

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Annas, Suwardi; Djadir; Mutmainna Hasma, Sitti

2018-01-01

on is an activity to organize a mathematical concept that has been previously owned into a new mathematical structure. Activites in abstraction are recognizing, organizing and constructing. Recognizing is a process of identifying a mathematical structure that had existed before. Organizing is a process of using structural knowledge to be assembled into a solution of a problem and constructing is a process of organizing the characteristics of the object into a new structure that does not exist. In abstraction process, the students use attributes to address the object, including routine attribute, nonroutine attributes, and meaningless attributes. This research applied descriptive qualitative research which aimed to describe the abstraction ability of students from high, moderate, and low groups to construct a relation within triangle. In collecting the data, this research used students’ pre-ability math test, abstraction test, and guided interview. The sampling technique in this research was based on the students’ scores in pre-ability math test, which were divided into three groups. Two students from each group were opted as the subjects of this research. Questions of the test are based on the indicators of steps in abstraction activity. Thus, based on the data gained in this research, researcher determined the tendency of attributes used in each abstraction activity. The result of this research revealed that students from high, moderate and low groups were prone to use routine attributes in recognizing triangles. In organizing the characteristics within triangles, high group tended to organize the triangle correctly, while the moderate and low groups tended to organize the triangle incorrectly. In constructing relation within triangles, students in high, moderate and low groups construct it incompletely.

Ductile Bulk Aluminum-Based Alloy with Good Glass-Forming Ability and High Strength

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Long-Chao, Zhuo; Shu-Jie, Pang; Hui, Wang; Tao, Zhang

2009-01-01

Based on a new approach for designing glassy alloy compositions, bulk Al-based alloys with good glass-forming ability (GFA) are synthesized. The cast Al 86 Si 0.5 Ni 4.06 Co 2.94 Y 6 Sc 0.5 rod with a diameter of 1 mm shows almost fully amorphous structure besides about 5% fcc-Al nucleated in the center of the rod. The bulk alloy with high Al concentration exhibits an ultrahigh yield strength of 1.18 GPa and maximum strength of 1.27 GPa as well as an obvious plastic strain of about 2.4% during compressive deformation. This light Al-based alloy with good GFA and mechanical properties is promising as a new high specific strength material with good deformability. (condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties)

A prediction model for treatment decisions in high-grade extremity soft-tissue sarcomas: Personalised sarcoma care (PERSARC).

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van Praag, Veroniek M; Rueten-Budde, Anja J; Jeys, Lee M; Laitinen, Minna K; Pollock, Rob; Aston, Will; van der Hage, Jos A; Dijkstra, P D Sander; Ferguson, Peter C; Griffin, Anthony M; Willeumier, Julie J; Wunder, Jay S; van de Sande, Michiel A J; Fiocco, Marta

2017-09-01

To support shared decision-making, we developed the first prediction model for patients with primary soft-tissue sarcomas of the extremities (ESTS) which takes into account treatment modalities, including applied radiotherapy (RT) and achieved surgical margins. The PERsonalised SARcoma Care (PERSARC) model, predicts overall survival (OS) and the probability of local recurrence (LR) at 3, 5 and 10 years. Development and validation, by internal validation, of the PERSARC prediction model. The cohort used to develop the model consists of 766 ESTS patients who underwent surgery, between 2000 and 2014, at five specialised international sarcoma centres. To assess the effect of prognostic factors on OS and on the cumulative incidence of LR (CILR), a multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression and the Fine and Gray model were estimated. Predictive performance was investigated by using internal cross validation (CV) and calibration. The discriminative ability of the model was determined with the C-index. Multivariate Cox regression revealed that age and tumour size had a significant effect on OS. More importantly, patients who received RT showed better outcomes, in terms of OS and CILR, than those treated with surgery alone. Internal validation of the model showed good calibration and discrimination, with a C-index of 0.677 and 0.696 for OS and CILR, respectively. The PERSARC model is the first to incorporate known clinical risk factors with the use of different treatments and surgical outcome measures. The developed model is internally validated to provide a reliable prediction of post-operative OS and CILR for patients with primary high-grade ESTS. LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE: level III. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Working Memory Ability Predicts Trajectories of Early Alcohol Use in Adolescents: The Mediational Role of Impulsivity

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Khurana, Atika; Romer, Dan; Betancourt, Laura M.; Brodsky, Nancy L.; Giannetta, Joan M.; Hurt, Hallam

2012-01-01

Aims 1) To evaluate the role of pre-existing weakness in working memory ability (WM) as a risk factor for early alcohol use as mediated by different forms of impulsivity. 2) To assess the adverse effects of progressive alcohol use on variations in WM over time. Design, Setting and Participants A community sample of 358 adolescents [48% males, Meanage(baseline) = 11.4± 0.87 years] from a longitudinal cohort design, assessed annually over four consecutive years with less than 6% attrition. Measurements Repeated assessments were conducted for the following key variables: WM (based on performance on four separate tasks), frequency of alcohol use (AU), and three forms of impulsivity, namely sensation seeking (SS), acting-without-thinking (AWT) and delay discounting (DD). Latent growth curve modeling procedures were used to identify individual trajectories of change for all key variables. Findings Weakness in WM (at baseline) significantly predicted both concurrent alcohol use and increased frequency of use over the four waves (p memory (WM) rather than a cause of it. Efforts to reduce early alcohol use should consider the distinct roles of different impulsivity dimensions, in addition to WM, as potential targets of intervention. PMID:23033972

Cognitive abilities and superior decision making under risk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edward T. Cokely

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Individual differences in cognitive abilities and skills can predict normatively superior and logically consistent judgments and decisions. The current experiment investigates the processes that mediate individual differences in risky choices. We assessed working memory span, numeracy, and cognitive impulsivity and conducted a protocol analysis to trace variations in conscious deliberative processes. People higher in cognitive abilities made more choices consistent with expected values; however, expected-value choices rarely resulted from expected-value calculations. Instead, the cognitive ability and choice relationship was mediated by the number of simple considerations made during decision making --- e.g., transforming probabilities and considering the relative size of gains. Results imply that, even in simple lotteries, superior risky decisions associated with cognitive abilities and controlled cognition can reflect metacognitive dynamics and elaborative heuristic search processes, rather than normative calculations. Modes of cognitive control (e.g., dual process dynamics and implications for process models of risky decision-making (e.g., priority heuristic are discussed.

CONNECTION OF TURN AHEAD AND TURN BACK WITH MOTORIC ABILITIES OF THE FOURTH GRADE OF HIGH SCHOOL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jovica Petković

2008-08-01

Full Text Available The research is done for the purpose of determination and defining of the level of connection between some motoric abilities with success in realization of programmed contents from the area of gymnastics (turn ahead and turn back. The research is done on the sample of fifty students from the fourth grade of High School, on ten motoric tests and on two specific motoric assignments – turn ahead and turn back. The results of this research clearly point that there exist the multitude of statistically important coefficients of correlation between treated motoric abilities and applied motoric assignments.

Comparison of ARIMA and Random Forest time series models for prediction of avian influenza H5N1 outbreaks.

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Kane, Michael J; Price, Natalie; Scotch, Matthew; Rabinowitz, Peter

2014-08-13

Time series models can play an important role in disease prediction. Incidence data can be used to predict the future occurrence of disease events. Developments in modeling approaches provide an opportunity to compare different time series models for predictive power. We applied ARIMA and Random Forest time series models to incidence data of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) in Egypt, available through the online EMPRES-I system. We found that the Random Forest model outperformed the ARIMA model in predictive ability. Furthermore, we found that the Random Forest model is effective for predicting outbreaks of H5N1 in Egypt. Random Forest time series modeling provides enhanced predictive ability over existing time series models for the prediction of infectious disease outbreaks. This result, along with those showing the concordance between bird and human outbreaks (Rabinowitz et al. 2012), provides a new approach to predicting these dangerous outbreaks in bird populations based on existing, freely available data. Our analysis uncovers the time-series structure of outbreak severity for highly pathogenic avain influenza (H5N1) in Egypt.

Prostate Health Index (PHI) Predicts High-stage Pathology in African American Men.

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Schwen, Zeyad R; Tosoian, Jeffrey J; Sokoll, Lori J; Mangold, Leslie; Humphreys, Elizabeth; Schaeffer, Edward M; Partin, Alan W; Ross, Ashley E

2016-04-01

To evaluate the association between the Prostate Health Index (PHI) and adverse pathology in a cohort of African American (AA) men undergoing radical prostatectomy. Eighty AA men with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) of 2-10 ng/mL underwent measurement of PSA, free PSA (fPSA), and p2PSA prior to radical prostatectomy. PHI was calculated as [(p2PSA/fPSA) × (PSA)(½)]. Biomarker association with pT3 disease was assessed using logistic regression, and covariates were added to a baseline multivariable model including digital rectal examination. Biomarker ability to predict pT3 disease was measured using the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve. Sixteen men (20%) demonstrated pT3 disease on final pathology. Mean age, PSA, and %fPSA were similar in men with and without pT3 disease (all P  >  .05), whereas PHI was significantly greater in men with pT3 disease (mean 57.2 vs 46.6, P  =  .04). Addition of PHI to the baseline multivariable model improved discriminative ability by 12.9% (P  =. .04) and yielded greater diagnostic accuracy than models, including other individual biomarkers. In AA men with PSA of 2-10 ng/mL, PHI was predictive of pT3 prostate cancer and may help to identify men at increased risk of adverse pathology. Additional studies are needed to substantiate these findings and identify appropriate thresholds for clinical use. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

BOOGIE: Predicting Blood Groups from High Throughput Sequencing Data.

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Giollo, Manuel; Minervini, Giovanni; Scalzotto, Marta; Leonardi, Emanuela; Ferrari, Carlo; Tosatto, Silvio C E

2015-01-01

Over the last decade, we have witnessed an incredible growth in the amount of available genotype data due to high throughput sequencing (HTS) techniques. This information may be used to predict phenotypes of medical relevance, and pave the way towards personalized medicine. Blood phenotypes (e.g. ABO and Rh) are a purely genetic trait that has been extensively studied for decades, with currently over thirty known blood groups. Given the public availability of blood group data, it is of interest to predict these phenotypes from HTS data which may translate into more accurate blood typing in clinical practice. Here we propose BOOGIE, a fast predictor for the inference of blood groups from single nucleotide variant (SNV) databases. We focus on the prediction of thirty blood groups ranging from the well known ABO and Rh, to the less studied Junior or Diego. BOOGIE correctly predicted the blood group with 94% accuracy for the Personal Genome Project whole genome profiles where good quality SNV annotation was available. Additionally, our tool produces a high quality haplotype phase, which is of interest in the context of ethnicity-specific polymorphisms or traits. The versatility and simplicity of the analysis make it easily interpretable and allow easy extension of the protocol towards other phenotypes. BOOGIE can be downloaded from URL http://protein.bio.unipd.it/download/.

Investigation of Problem-Solving and Problem-Posing Abilities of Seventh-Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

Arikan, Elif Esra; Ünal, Hasan

2015-01-01

This study aims to examine the effect of multiple problem-solving skills on the problem-posing abilities of gifted and non-gifted students and to assess whether the possession of such skills can predict giftedness or affect problem-posing abilities. Participants' metaphorical images of problem posing were also explored. Participants were 20 gifted…

Competitive ability, stress tolerance and plant interactions along stress gradients.

Science.gov (United States)

Qi, Man; Sun, Tao; Xue, SuFeng; Yang, Wei; Shao, DongDong; Martínez-López, Javier

2018-04-01

Exceptions to the generality of the stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH) may be reconciled by considering species-specific traits and stress tolerance strategies. Studies have tested stress tolerance and competitive ability in mediating interaction outcomes, but few have incorporated this to predict how species interactions shift between competition and facilitation along stress gradients. We used field surveys, salt tolerance and competition experiments to develop a predictive model interspecific interaction shifts across salinity stress gradients. Field survey and greenhouse tolerance tests revealed tradeoffs between stress tolerance and competitive ability. Modeling showed that along salinity gradients, (1) plant interactions shifted from competition to facilitation at high salinities within the physiological limits of salt-intolerant plants, (2) facilitation collapsed when salinity stress exceeded the physiological tolerance of salt-intolerant plants, and (3) neighbor removal experiments overestimate interspecific facilitation by including intraspecific effects. A community-level field experiment, suggested that (1) species interactions are competitive in benign and, facilitative in harsh condition, but fuzzy under medium environmental stress due to niche differences of species and weak stress amelioration, and (2) the SGH works on strong but not weak stress gradients, so SGH confusion arises when it is applied across questionable stress gradients. Our study clarifies how species interactions vary along stress gradients. Moving forward, focusing on SGH applications rather than exceptions on weak or nonexistent gradients would be most productive. © 2018 by the Ecological Society of America.

Combined effects of form- and meaning-based predictability on perceived clarity of speech.

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Signoret, Carine; Johnsrude, Ingrid; Classon, Elisabet; Rudner, Mary

2018-02-01

The perceptual clarity of speech is influenced by more than just the acoustic quality of the sound; it also depends on contextual support. For example, a degraded sentence is perceived to be clearer when the content of the speech signal is provided with matching text (i.e., form-based predictability) before hearing the degraded sentence. Here, we investigate whether sentence-level semantic coherence (i.e., meaning-based predictability), enhances perceptual clarity of degraded sentences, and if so, whether the mechanism is the same as that underlying enhancement by matching text. We also ask whether form- and meaning-based predictability are related to individual differences in cognitive abilities. Twenty participants listened to spoken sentences that were either clear or degraded by noise vocoding and rated the clarity of each item. The sentences had either high or low semantic coherence. Each spoken word was preceded by the homologous printed word (matching text), or by a meaningless letter string (nonmatching text). Cognitive abilities were measured with a working memory test. Results showed that perceptual clarity was significantly enhanced both by matching text and by semantic coherence. Importantly, high coherence enhanced the perceptual clarity of the degraded sentences even when they were preceded by matching text, suggesting that the effects of form- and meaning-based predictions on perceptual clarity are independent and additive. However, when working memory capacity indexed by the Size-Comparison Span Test was controlled for, only form-based predictions enhanced perceptual clarity, and then only at some sound quality levels, suggesting that prediction effects are to a certain extent dependent on cognitive abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Improving of Junior High School Visual Thinking Representation Ability in Mathematical Problem Solving by CTL

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Edy Surya

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The students’  difficulty which was found is in the problem of understanding, drawing diagrams, reading the charts correctly, conceptual formal  mathematical understanding, and  mathematical problem solving. The appropriate problem representation is the basic way in order to understand the problem itself and make a plan to solve it. This research was the experimental classroom design with a pretest-posttest control in order to increase the representation of visual thinking ability on mathematical problem solving approach  with  contextual learning. The research instrument was a test, observation and interviews. Contextual approach increases of mathematical representations ability increases in students with high initial category, medium, and low compared to conventional approaches. Keywords: Visual Thinking Representation, Mathematical  Problem Solving, Contextual Teaching Learning Approach DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22342/jme.4.1.568.113-126

Profile of student critical thinking ability on static fluid concept

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Sulasih; Suparmi, A.; Sarwanto

2017-11-01

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

Extensions of the Rosner-Colditz breast cancer prediction model to include older women and type-specific predicted risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Glynn, Robert J; Colditz, Graham A; Tamimi, Rulla M; Chen, Wendy Y; Hankinson, Susan E; Willett, Walter W; Rosner, Bernard

2017-08-01

A breast cancer risk prediction rule previously developed by Rosner and Colditz has reasonable predictive ability. We developed a re-fitted version of this model, based on more than twice as many cases now including women up to age 85, and further extended it to a model that distinguished risk factor prediction of tumors with different estrogen/progesterone receptor status. We compared the calibration and discriminatory ability of the original, the re-fitted, and the type-specific models. Evaluation used data from the Nurses' Health Study during the period 1980-2008, when 4384 incident invasive breast cancers occurred over 1.5 million person-years. Model development used two-thirds of study subjects and validation used one-third. Predicted risks in the validation sample from the original and re-fitted models were highly correlated (ρ = 0.93), but several parameters, notably those related to use of menopausal hormone therapy and age, had different estimates. The re-fitted model was well-calibrated and had an overall C-statistic of 0.65. The extended, type-specific model identified several risk factors with varying associations with occurrence of tumors of different receptor status. However, this extended model relative to the prediction of any breast cancer did not meaningfully reclassify women who developed breast cancer to higher risk categories, nor women remaining cancer free to lower risk categories. The re-fitted Rosner-Colditz model has applicability to risk prediction in women up to age 85, and its discrimination is not improved by consideration of varying associations across tumor subtypes.

Improving Mathematical Communication Ability and Self Regulation Learning of Yunior High Students by Using Reciprocal Teaching

OpenAIRE

Qohar, Abdul; Sumarmo, Utari

2013-01-01

This paper presents the findings from a posttest experiment control group design  by  using reciprocal teaching, conducted  in Indonesia University of Education to investigate students’ ability in mathematical communication and self regulated learning.  Subject of the study were 254 of 9th grade students from three junior high schools of high, medium, and low level in Bojonegoro, East Java.  The instruments of the study were an essay mathematical communication test, and a self regulated learn...

18/20 T high magnetic field scanning tunneling microscope with fully low voltage operability, high current resolution, and large scale searching ability.

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Li, Quanfeng; Wang, Qi; Hou, Yubin; Lu, Qingyou

2012-04-01

We present a home-built 18/20 T high magnetic field scanning tunneling microscope (STM) featuring fully low voltage (lower than ±15 V) operability in low temperatures, large scale searching ability, and 20 fA high current resolution (measured by using a 100 GOhm dummy resistor to replace the tip-sample junction) with a bandwidth of 3.03 kHz. To accomplish low voltage operation which is important in achieving high precision, low noise, and low interference with the strong magnetic field, the coarse approach is implemented with an inertial slider driven by the lateral bending of a piezoelectric scanner tube (PST) whose inner electrode is axially split into two for enhanced bending per volt. The PST can also drive the same sliding piece to inertial slide in the other bending direction (along the sample surface) of the PST, which realizes the large area searching ability. The STM head is housed in a three segment tubular chamber, which is detachable near the STM head for the convenience of sample and tip changes. Atomic resolution images of a graphite sample taken under 17.6 T and 18.0001 T are presented to show its performance. © 2012 American Institute of Physics

The Impact of Active Visualisation of High School Students on the Ability to Memorise Verbal Definitions

Science.gov (United States)

Šmajdek, Anamarija; Selan, Jurij

2016-01-01

The era of visual communication influences the cognitive strategies of the individual. Education, too, must adjust to these changes, which raises questions regarding the use of visualisation in teaching. In the present study, we examine the impact of visualisation on the ability of high school students to memorise text. In the theoretical part of…

Albumin-Bilirubin and Platelet-Albumin-Bilirubin Grades Accurately Predict Overall Survival in High-Risk Patients Undergoing Conventional Transarterial Chemoembolization for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansmann, Jan; Evers, Maximilian J; Bui, James T; Lokken, R Peter; Lipnik, Andrew J; Gaba, Ron C; Ray, Charles E

2017-09-01

To evaluate albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) and platelet-albumin-bilirubin (PALBI) grades in predicting overall survival in high-risk patients undergoing conventional transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This single-center retrospective study included 180 high-risk patients (142 men, 59 y ± 9) between April 2007 and January 2015. Patients were considered high-risk based on laboratory abnormalities before the procedure (bilirubin > 2.0 mg/dL, albumin 1.2 mg/dL); presence of ascites, encephalopathy, portal vein thrombus, or transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt; or Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score > 15. Serum albumin, bilirubin, and platelet values were used to determine ALBI and PALBI grades. Overall survival was stratified by ALBI and PALBI grades with substratification by Child-Pugh class (CPC) and Barcelona Liver Clinic Cancer (BCLC) stage using Kaplan-Meier analysis. C-index was used to determine discriminatory ability and survival prediction accuracy. Median survival for 79 ALBI grade 2 patients and 101 ALBI grade 3 patients was 20.3 and 10.7 months, respectively (P  .05). ALBI and PALBI grades are accurate survival metrics in high-risk patients undergoing conventional transarterial chemoembolization for HCC. Use of these scores allows for more refined survival stratification within CPC and BCLC stage. Copyright © 2017 SIR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Motor ability and inhibitory processes in children with ADHD: a neuroelectric study.

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, Chiao-Ling; Chang, Yu-Kai; Chan, Yuan-Shuo; Shih, Chia-Hao; Huang, Chung-Ju; Hung, Tsung-Min

2013-06-01

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between motor ability and response inhibition using behavioral and electrophysiological indices in children with ADHD. A total of 32 participants were recruited and underwent a motor ability assessment by administering the Basic Motor Ability Test-Revised (BMAT) as well as the Go/No-Go task and event-related potential (ERP) measurements at the same time. The results indicated that the BMAT scores were positively associated with the behavioral and ERP measures. Specifically, the BMAT average score was associated with a faster reaction time and higher accuracy, whereas higher BMAT subset scores predicted a shorter P3 latency in the Go condition. Although the association between the BMAT average score and the No-Go accuracy was limited, higher BMAT average and subset scores predicted a shorter N2 and P3 latency and a larger P3 amplitude in the No-Go condition. These findings suggest that motor abilities may play roles that benefit the cognitive performance of ADHD children.

Cognitive capitalism: the effect of cognitive ability on wealth, as mediated through scientific achievement and economic freedom.

Science.gov (United States)

Rindermann, Heiner; Thompson, James

2011-06-01

Traditional economic theories stress the relevance of political, institutional, geographic, and historical factors for economic growth. In contrast, human-capital theories suggest that peoples' competences, mediated by technological progress, are the deciding factor in a nation's wealth. Using three large-scale assessments, we calculated cognitive-competence sums for the mean and for upper- and lower-level groups for 90 countries and compared the influence of each group's intellectual ability on gross domestic product. In our cross-national analyses, we applied different statistical methods (path analyses, bootstrapping) and measures developed by different research groups to various country samples and historical periods. Our results underscore the decisive relevance of cognitive ability--particularly of an intellectual class with high cognitive ability and accomplishments in science, technology, engineering, and math--for national wealth. Furthermore, this group's cognitive ability predicts the quality of economic and political institutions, which further determines the economic affluence of the nation. Cognitive resources enable the evolution of capitalism and the rise of wealth.

Extreme cognitions are associated with diminished ability to use disconfirming evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Haigh, Matthew; Dodd, Alyson L

2017-03-01

An Integrative Cognitive Model of mood swings and bipolar disorder proposes that cognitive styles characterized by extreme self-referent appraisals of internal states (e.g., 'If I have a bad night's sleep it means that I am about to have a breakdown') interfere with mood regulation. The aim of this study is to determine whether strong endorsement of such appraisals is predicted by a diminished ability to access disconfirming counterexamples. We examined whether the ability to access two different categories of counterexample (known as Disabling Conditions and Alternative Causes) would predict endorsement of extreme appraisals (measured by the Hypomanic Attitudes and Positive Predictions Inventory; HAPPI) and mania risk (measured by the Hypomanic Personality Scale; HPS). A non-clinical sample of 150 students completed the HAPPI, the HPS and a conditional reasoning task that indexed the ability to access Disabling Conditions and Alternative Causes. Current mood was controlled for using the Internal States Scale. The ability to make use of disabling counterexamples during the reasoning task was inversely related with scores on the HAPPI (r = -.19, p referent appraisals to a greater extent. There was no association between the use of alternative cause counterexamples and the HAPPI, and no association between either measure of counterexample generation and the HPS. A diminished ability to use disconfirming evidence when reasoning about the world may reinforce problematic cognitive styles such as extreme, personalized appraisals of experience, which can interfere with mood regulation. Problematic cognitive styles such as extreme, personalized appraisals of experience may be reinforced by the inability to produce or access evidence that disconfirms these maladaptive beliefs. This reasoning bias may be associated with cognitive styles underlying psychopathology. There may be clinical utility in exploring the use of disabler generation in psychological interventions, to

The relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts: A study of career-exploring adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dennis Dahl

2012-11-01

Research purpose: This study investigated the relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative thoughts pertaining to career in a sample of unemployed, non-student adults. Motivation for study: There is a need for research which investigates the psychological factors that contribute to successful career exploration and decision-making. Cognitive ability is one such factor, whilst emotional intelligence is another whose validity is not yet well established. Research design, approach and method: A survey design and quantitative procedures were used in gathering and analysing data gathered from 193 non-student, middle-aged adults attending a community-based career exploration programme in British Columbia, Canada. Cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts before and after a career exploration programme were measured. Main findings: Neither cognitive ability nor any aspect of emotional intelligence predicted negative career thinking change. Cognitive ability predicted overall negative career thoughts as well as decision-making confusion, but only after the programme. The ability to manage emotions, however, predicted negative career thoughts both before and after the career decision-making programme. Practical/managerial implications: The managing emotions component of emotional intelligence is significantly associated with negative career thoughts. These findings suggest that career counselling requires that the role of emotions and their influence on behaviours must be given more consideration. Industrial and organisational (IO psychologists would benefit from engaging in programmes that train them to assist clients in becoming more aware of, and increasing, their own emotional intelligence. Contribution/value-add: The study added insights to the field of career psychology regarding the ability of emotional intelligence to predict important outcomes regarding the dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI as

Assessment of prediction skill in equatorial Pacific Ocean in high resolution model of CFS

Science.gov (United States)

Arora, Anika; Rao, Suryachandra A.; Pillai, Prasanth; Dhakate, Ashish; Salunke, Kiran; Srivastava, Ankur

2018-01-01

The effect of increasing atmospheric resolution on prediction skill of El Niño southern oscillation phenomenon in climate forecast system model is explored in this paper. Improvement in prediction skill for sea surface temperature (SST) and winds at all leads compared to low resolution model in the tropical Indo-Pacific basin is observed. High resolution model is able to capture extreme events reasonably well. As a result, the signal to noise ratio is improved in the high resolution model. However, spring predictability barrier (SPB) for summer months in Nino 3 and Nino 3.4 region is stronger in high resolution model, in spite of improvement in overall prediction skill and dynamics everywhere else. Anomaly correlation coefficient of SST in high resolution model with observations in Nino 3.4 region targeting boreal summer months when predicted at lead times of 3-8 months in advance decreased compared its lower resolution counterpart. It is noted that higher variance of winds predicted in spring season over central equatorial Pacific compared to observed variance of winds results in stronger than normal response on subsurface ocean, hence increases SPB for boreal summer months in high resolution model.

Girls underestimate maths ability

Science.gov (United States)

2017-05-01

A study by psychologists in the US has found that high-school girls rate their competence in mathematics lower than boys, even for those with similar abilities (Front. Psychol. 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00386).

The predictive ability of triglycerides and waist (hypertriglyceridemic waist) in assessing metabolic triad change in obese children and adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Hobkirk, James P; King, Roderick F; Gately, Paul; Pemberton, Philip; Smith, Alexander; Barth, Julian H; Harman, Nicola; Davies, Ian; Carroll, Sean

2013-10-01

The metabolic triad [fasting insulin, apolipoprotein B, and low-density lipoporotein (LDL) peak particle density] is characteristic of increased intra-abdominal adipose tissue and insulin resistance and can be predicted by the simple and adoptable screening tool, the hypertriglyceridemic waist. The associations between hypertriglyceridemic waist components [fasting triglycerides (TG) and waist circumference cut-points derived from a child-specific metabolic syndrome definition] with the metabolic triad were examined in obese youth before and after weight loss. A continuous metabolic triad score (MTS) was calculated as a cumulative and standardized residual score of fasting insulin, apolipoprotein B, and LDL peak particle density (z-scores of the metabolic triad variables regressed onto age and sex). The predictive ability of TG and waist in assessing metabolic triad change was undertaken in 75 clinically obese boys and girls, aged 8-18, body mass index (BMI) 34.2±6.4 kg/m(2) before and after weight loss. Fasting TG concentrations (r(2)=0.216, PFasting TG change was the only significant predictor of the MTS change (r(2)=0.177, Pfasting TG concentration (but not waist circumference) was the only significant predictor of MTS change. Fasting TG may be the most important metabolic syndrome component to best characterize the metabolic heterogeneity in obese cohorts and the changes in metabolic risk in clinically obese youth.

Triangle network motifs predict complexes by complementing high-error interactomes with structural information.

Science.gov (United States)

Andreopoulos, Bill; Winter, Christof; Labudde, Dirk; Schroeder, Michael

2009-06-27

A lot of high-throughput studies produce protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs) with many errors and missing information. Even for genome-wide approaches, there is often a low overlap between PPINs produced by different studies. Second-level neighbors separated by two protein-protein interactions (PPIs) were previously used for predicting protein function and finding complexes in high-error PPINs. We retrieve second level neighbors in PPINs, and complement these with structural domain-domain interactions (SDDIs) representing binding evidence on proteins, forming PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles. We find low overlap between PPINs, SDDIs and known complexes, all well below 10%. We evaluate the overlap of PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles with known complexes from Munich Information center for Protein Sequences (MIPS). PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles have ~20 times higher overlap with MIPS complexes than using second-level neighbors in PPINs without SDDIs. The biological interpretation for triangles is that a SDDI causes two proteins to be observed with common interaction partners in high-throughput experiments. The relatively few SDDIs overlapping with PPINs are part of highly connected SDDI components, and are more likely to be detected in experimental studies. We demonstrate the utility of PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles by reconstructing myosin-actin processes in the nucleus, cytoplasm, and cytoskeleton, which were not obvious in the original PPIN. Using other complementary datatypes in place of SDDIs to form triangles, such as PubMed co-occurrences or threading information, results in a similar ability to find protein complexes. Given high-error PPINs with missing information, triangles of mixed datatypes are a promising direction for finding protein complexes. Integrating PPINs with SDDIs improves finding complexes. Structural SDDIs partially explain the high functional similarity of second-level neighbors in PPINs. We estimate that relatively little structural information would be sufficient

Dopamine D1 sensitivity in the prefrontal cortex predicts general cognitive abilities and is modulated by working memory training.

Science.gov (United States)

Wass, Christopher; Pizzo, Alessandro; Sauce, Bruno; Kawasumi, Yushi; Sturzoiu, Tudor; Ree, Fred; Otto, Tim; Matzel, Louis D

2013-10-15

A common source of variance (i.e., "general intelligence") underlies an individual's performance across diverse tests of cognitive ability, and evidence indicates that the processing efficacy of working memory may serve as one such source of common variance. One component of working memory, selective attention, has been reported to co-vary with general intelligence, and dopamine D1 signaling in prefrontal cortex can modulate attentional abilities. Based on their aggregate performance across five diverse tests of learning, here we characterized the general cognitive ability (GCA) of CD-1 outbred mice. In response to a D1 agonist (SKF82958, 1 mg/kg), we then assessed the relationship between GCA and activation of D1 receptor (D1R)-containing neurons in the prelimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex, the agranular insular cortex, and the dorsomedial striatum. Increased activation of D1R-containing neurons in the prelimbic cortex (but not the agranular insular cortex or dorsomedial striatum) was observed in animals of high GCA relative to those of low GCA (quantified by c-Fos activation in response to the D1 agonist). However, a Western blot analysis revealed no differences in the density of D1Rs in the prelimbic cortex between animals of high and low GCA. Last, it was observed that working memory training promoted an increase in animals' GCA and enhanced D1R-mediated neuronal activation in the prelimbic cortex. These results suggest that the sensitivity (but not density) of D1Rs in the prelimbic cortex may both regulate GCA and be a target for working memory training.

Discourse abilities in the structure of intelligence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Voronin A. N.

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Background. This article is devoted to empirical research on discourse abilities within the structure of cognitive abilities. Discourse abilities, as well as linguistic abilities, are part of language abilities, but they are directly linked with discourse practices and a certain communicative situation. Discourse abilities allow a person to effectively initiate, keep, expand, and complete the process of communication, using language appropriate to any given situation. These abilities contribute to making communication more effective and achieving mutual understanding between partners, while at the same time they speed up the process of forming an interaction strategy. the empirical verification of the construct “discourse abilities,” and the design of original diagnostic tests on them, led us to differentiate linguistic and discourse abilities. Objective. However, it is not yet clear what place discourse abilities occupy in the structure of cognitive abilities. This is the primary goal of our research. Method. The design of the study involved group testing (in groups of 15-35 people using the following methods: a discourse abilities test; a short selection test; a social intelligence test, and short variations of Torrance’s and Mednick’s tests. In total, 208 people (133 women and 75 men, ages 17 to 21 years participated in the study, all of them either first year humanities students or high school students from Moscow. Results and Discussion. The research results revealed that discourse abilities relevantly correlate with the majority of indicators of general and social intelligence and creativity (except non-verbal intelligence. Discourse abilities as part of the structure of cognitive capabilities form a discrete factor, and include relevant components such as verbal and general intelligence and indicators of social intelligence, such as the ability to group expressions. Structures indicative of cognitive abilities varied within the

High Sensitivity TSS Prediction: Estimates of Locations Where TSS Cannot Occur

KAUST Repository

Schaefer, Ulf; Kodzius, Rimantas; Kai, Chikatoshi; Kawai, Jun; Carninci, Piero; Hayashizaki, Yoshihide; Bajic, Vladimir B.

2013-01-01

from mouse and human genomes, we developed a methodology that allows us, by performing computational TSS prediction with very high sensitivity, to annotate, with a high accuracy in a strand specific manner, locations of mammalian genomes that are highly

The relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts: A study of career-exploring adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dennis Dahl

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Career exploration can be a stressful experience, often manifested by negative career thoughts. In this article, the factors which influence the ability to cope with negative thinking are investigated.Research purpose: This study investigated the relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative thoughts pertaining to career in a sample of unemployed, non-student adults.Motivation for study: There is a need for research which investigates the psychological factors that contribute to successful career exploration and decision-making. Cognitive ability is one such factor, whilst emotional intelligence is another whose validity is not yet well established.Research design, approach and method: A survey design and quantitative procedures were used in gathering and analysing data gathered from 193 non-student, middle-aged adults attending a community-based career exploration programme in British Columbia, Canada. Cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts before and after a career exploration programme were measured.Main findings: Neither cognitive ability nor any aspect of emotional intelligence predicted negative career thinking change. Cognitive ability predicted overall negative career thoughts as well as decision-making confusion, but only after the programme. The ability to manage emotions, however, predicted negative career thoughts both before and after the career decision-making programme.Practical/managerial implications: The managing emotions component of emotional intelligence is significantly associated with negative career thoughts. These findings suggest that career counselling requires that the role of emotions and their influence on behaviours must be given more consideration. Industrial and organisational (IO psychologists would benefit from engaging in programmes that train them to assist clients in becoming more aware of, and increasing, their own emotional

The discriminative ability of waist circumference, body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio in identifying metabolic syndrome: Variations by age, sex and race.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheong, Kee C; Ghazali, Sumarni M; Hock, Lim K; Subenthiran, Soobitha; Huey, Teh C; Kuay, Lim K; Mustapha, Feisul I; Yusoff, Ahmad F; Mustafa, Amal N

2015-01-01

Many studies have suggested that there is variation in the capabilities of BMI, WC and WHR in predicting cardiometabolic risk and that it might be confounded by gender, ethnicity and age group. The objective of this study is to examine the discriminative abilities of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-hip ratio (WHR) to predict two or more non-adipose components of the metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, hypertriglyceridemia, low high density lipoprotein-cholesterol and high fasting plasma glucose) among the adult Malaysian population by gender, age group and ethnicity. Data from 2572 respondents (1044 men and 1528 women) aged 25-64 years who participated in the Non Communicable Disease Surveillance 2005/2006, a population-based cross sectional study, were analysed. Participants' socio-demographic details, anthropometric indices (BMI, WC and WHR), blood pressure, fasting lipid profile and fasting glucose level were assessed. Receiver operating characteristics curves analysis was used to evaluate the ability of each anthropometric index to discriminate MetS cases from non-MetS cases based on the area under the curve. Overall, WC had better discriminative ability than WHR for women but did not perform significantly better than BMI in both sexes, whereas BMI was better than WHR in women only. Waist circumference was a better discriminator of MetS compared to WHR in Malay men and women. Waist circumference and BMI performed better than WHR in Chinese women, men aged 25-34 years and women aged 35-44 years. The discriminative ability of BMI and WC is better than WHR for predicting two or more non-adipose components of MetS. Therefore, either BMI or WC measurements are recommended in screening for metabolic syndrome in routine clinical practice in the effort to combat cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes mellitus. Copyright © 2015 Diabetes India. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Approaches for predicting long-term sickness absence. Re: Schouten et al. "Screening manual and office workers for risk of long-term sickness absence: cut-off points for the Work Ability Index".

Science.gov (United States)

van Amelsvoort, Ludovic Gpm; Jansen, Nicole W H; Kant, I Jmert

2015-05-01

We read with much interest the article of Schouten et al (1) on identifying workers with a high risk for future long-term sickness absence using the Work Ability Index (WAI). The ability to identify high-risk workers might facilitate targeted interventions for such workers and, consequently, can reduce sickness absence levels and improve workers' health. Earlier studies by both Tamela et al (2), Kant et al (3), and Lexis et al (4) have demonstrated that such an approach, based on the identification of high-risk workers and a subsequent intervention, can be effectively applied in practice to reduce sickness absence significantly. The reason for our letter on Schouten et al's article is twofold. First, by including workers already on sick leave in a study predicting long-term sick leave will result in an overestimation of the predictive properties of the instrument and biased predictors, especially when also the outcome of interest is included as a factor in the prediction model. Second, we object to the use of the term "screening" when subjects with the condition screened for are included in the study. Reinforced by the inclusion of sickness absence in the prediction model, including workers already on sick leave will shift the focus of the study findings towards the prediction of (re)current sickness absence and workers with a below-average return-to-work rate, rather than the identification of workers at high risk for the onset of future long-term sickness absence. The possibilities for prevention will shift from pure secondary prevention to a mix of secondary and tertiary prevention. As a consequence, the predictors of the model presented in the Schouten et al article can be used as a basis for tailoring neither preventive measures nor interventions. Moreover, including the outcome (sickness absence) as a predictor in the model, especially in a mixed population including workers with and without the condition (on sick leave), will result in biased predictors and

Comparison of two ordinal prediction models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kattan, Michael W; Gerds, Thomas A

2015-01-01

system (i.e. old or new), such as the level of evidence for one or more factors included in the system or the general opinions of expert clinicians. However, given the major objective of estimating prognosis on an ordinal scale, we argue that the rival staging system candidates should be compared...... on their ability to predict outcome. We sought to outline an algorithm that would compare two rival ordinal systems on their predictive ability. RESULTS: We devised an algorithm based largely on the concordance index, which is appropriate for comparing two models in their ability to rank observations. We...... demonstrate our algorithm with a prostate cancer staging system example. CONCLUSION: We have provided an algorithm for selecting the preferred staging system based on prognostic accuracy. It appears to be useful for the purpose of selecting between two ordinal prediction models....

A global high-resolution model experiment on the predictability of the atmosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Judt, F.

2016-12-01