WorldWideScience

Sample records for providing prior written

  1. Providing written language services in the schools: the time is now.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fallon, Karen A; Katz, Lauren A

    2011-01-01

    The current study was conducted to investigate the provision of written language services by school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Specifically, the study examined SLPs' knowledge, attitudes, and collaborative practices in the area of written language services as well as the variables that impact provision of these services. Public school-based SLPs from across the country were solicited for participation in an online, Web-based survey. Data from 645 full-time SLPs from 49 states were evaluated using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Many school-based SLPs reported not providing any services in the area of written language to students with written language weaknesses. Knowledge, attitudes, and collaborative practices were mixed. A logistic regression revealed three variables likely to predict high levels of service provision in the area of written language. Data from the current study revealed that many struggling readers and writers on school-based SLPs' caseloads are not receiving services from their SLPs. Implications for SLPs' preservice preparation, continuing education, and doctoral preparation are discussed.

  2. Teachers' Accounts of Their Perceptions and Practices of Providing Written Feedback to Nursing Students on Their Assignments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iqbal, Sajid; Gul, Raisa; Lakhani, Arusa; Rizvi, Nusrat Fatima

    2014-01-01

    Written feedback can facilitate students' learning in several ways. However, the teachers' practices of written feedback may be affected by various factors. This study aimed to explore the nurse teachers' accounts of their perceptions and practices of providing written feedback. A descriptive exploratory design was employed in the study. A…

  3. GENERAL ASPECTS REGARDING THE PRIOR DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ANDRA PURAN (DASCĂLU

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Disciplinary research is the first phase of the disciplinary action. According to art. 251 paragraph 1 of the Labour Code no disciplinary sanction may be ordered before performing the prior disciplinary research.These regulations provide an exception: the sanction of written warning. The current regulations in question, kept from the old regulation, provides a protection for employees against abuses made by employers, since sanctions are affecting the salary or the position held, or even the development of individual employment contract. Thus, prior research of the fact that is a misconduct, before a disciplinary sanction is applied, is an essential condition for the validity of the measure ordered. Through this study we try to highlight some general issues concerning the characteristics, processes and effects of prior disciplinary research.

  4. Providing written information increases patient satisfaction: a web-based questionnaire survey of Japanese cancer survivors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakai, Hitomi; Katsumata, Noriyuki; Takahashi, Miyako

    2017-07-01

    The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the United States recommends that all cancer survivors be provided with a survivorship care plan (SCP), which includes a patient treatment summary and a follow-up care plan. However, SCPs have not been widely adopted in Japan. To provide basic data necessary for implementing SCPs in Japan, we aimed to investigate the forms of clinical and survivorship-related information that Japanese cancer survivors receive from their healthcare providers, and to examine whether written information increases their satisfaction. We performed a cross-sectional online survey of cancer survivors who underwent acute cancer treatment and had at least one follow-up with a physician in the past year. Cancer survivors provided the elements and forms (verbally and/or written) of information they received, as well as the degree of satisfaction with the information provided. Responses were obtained from 545 cancer survivors. Information elements such as surgical procedure (98.3%), surgical outcome (98.1%), and names of administered chemotherapy agents (97.8%) were commonly provided, whereas mental care resources and providers (29.7%), effects on marital relationship and sexual health (35.7%), and effects on fertility (43.4%) were less common. A large proportion of cancer survivors received verbal information only. For 18 of 20 elements, except for effects on fertility and duration of hormonal therapy, satisfaction was significantly higher when both forms of information were provided (P information can better meet the needs of Japanese cancer survivors. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  5. Before the teaching begins: Managing patient anxiety prior to providing education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephenson, Pamela L

    2006-04-01

    Patients experiencing cancer also can experience anxiety. Moderate to severe levels of anxiety can interfere with patients' ability to concentrate and comprehend new information. The condition is particularly troublesome when trying to present educational material related to recommended treatment interventions. Patients' understanding of the material is critical to ensure informed consent. Informed consent can be compromised if patients are unable to understand the information being provided. Nurses must be cognizant of the impact that anxiety has on patient education and assess patients prior to initiating patient teaching. By managing anxiety before beginning education, nurses can provide an environment more conducive to learning.

  6. The use of a written assessment checklist for the provision of emergency contraception via community pharmacies: a simulated patient study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Schneider CR

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Background: The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia recommends use of a written assessment checklist prior to supply of emergency contraception by pharmacists. Objective: The aim of this research was to determine the prevalence of use of a written assessment checklist by community pharmacists and secondly, to ascertain the effect of the checklist on appropriate assessment and supply.Methods: Three female simulated patients visited 100 randomly selected pharmacies requesting supply of ‘the morning after pill’. Information provided when assessed by the pharmacist was that she had missed one inactive pill of her regular hormonal contraception. The amount of assessment provided and the appropriateness of supply were used as comparative outcome measures.Results: Eighty-three pharmacies used a written assessment checklist. Twenty-four of the pharmacies visited provided the appropriate outcome of non-supply. Pharmacies that used a written assessment checklist provided a greater quantity and consistency of assessment (11.3 ±2.5 v. 6.5 ±3.8 questions, p<0.0001 but this did not result in an improved frequency of an appropriate outcome (20%, n=16 v. 23%, n=3. Conclusions: While a written patient assessment checklist improved the quantity and consistency of patient assessment, it did not improve the advice provided by community pharmacies when handling requests for emergency contraception.

  7. 7 CFR 4290.480 - Prior approval of changes to RBIC's business plan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Prior approval of changes to RBIC's business plan... § 4290.480 Prior approval of changes to RBIC's business plan. Without the Secretary's prior written approval, no change in your business plan, upon which you were selected and licensed as a RBIC, may take...

  8. A Descriptive Analysis of Care Provided by Law Enforcement Prior to EMS Arrival in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klassen, Aaron B; Core, S Brent; Lohse, Christine M; Sztajnkrycer, Matthew D

    2018-04-01

    Study Objectives Law enforcement is increasingly viewed as a key component in the out-of-hospital chain of survival, with expanded roles in cardiac arrest, narcotic overdose, and traumatic bleeding. Little is known about the nature of care provided by law enforcement prior to the arrival of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) assets. The purpose of the current study was to perform a descriptive analysis of events reported to a national EMS database. This study was a descriptive analysis of the 2014 National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) public release research data set, containing EMS emergency response data from 41 states. Code E09_02 1200 specifically identifies care provided by law enforcement prior to EMS arrival. A total of 25,835,729 unique events were reported. Of events in which pre-arrival care was documented, 2.0% received prior aid by law enforcement. Patients receiving law enforcement care prior to EMS arrival were more likely to be younger (52.8 [SD=23.3] years versus 58.7 [SD=23.3] years), male (54.8% versus 46.7%), and white (80.3% versus 77.5%). Basic Life Support (BLS) EMS response was twice as likely in patients receiving prior aid by law enforcement. Multiple-casualty incidents were five times more likely with prior aid by law enforcement. Compared with prior aid by other services, law enforcement pre-arrival care was more likely with motor vehicle accidents, firearm assaults, knife assaults, blunt assaults, and drug overdoses, and less likely at falls and childbirths. Cardiac arrest was significantly more common in patients receiving prior aid by law enforcement (16.5% versus 2.6%). Tourniquet application and naloxone administration were more common in the law enforcement prior aid group. Where noted, law enforcement pre-arrival care occurs in 2.0% of EMS patient encounters. The majority of cases involve cardiac arrest, motor vehicle accidents, and assaults. Better understanding of the nature of law enforcement care is

  9. Impact of Prior Therapeutic Opioid Use by Emergency Department Providers on Opioid Prescribing Decisions

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    Adam C Pomerleau

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Our study sought to examine the opioid analgesic (OA prescribing decisions of emergency department (ED providers who have themselves used OA therapeutically and those who have not. A second objective was to determine if OA prescribing decisions would differ based on the patient's relationship to the provider. METHODS: We distributed an electronic survey to a random sample of ED providers at participating centers in a nationwide research consortium. Question topics included provider attitudes about OA prescribing, prior personal therapeutic use of OAs (indications, dosing, and disposal of leftover medication, and hypothetical analgesic-prescribing decisions for their patients, family members, and themselves for different painful conditions. RESULTS: The total survey population was 957 individuals; 515 responded to the survey, a 54% response rate. Prior personal therapeutic OA use was reported in 63% (95% CI = [58-68]. A majority of these providers (82%; 95% CI = [77-87] took fewer than half the number of pills prescribed. Regarding provider attitudes towards OA prescribing, 66% (95% CI = [61-71] agreed that OA could lead to addiction even with short-term use. When providers were asked if they would prescribe OA to a patient with 10/10 pain from an ankle sprain, 21% (95% CI = [17-25] would for an adult patient, 13% (95% CI = [10-16] would for an adult family member, and 6% (95% CI = [4-8] indicated they themselves would take an opioid for the same pain. When the scenario involved an ankle fracture, 86% (95% CI = [83-89] would prescribe OA for an adult patient, 75% (95% CI = [71-79] for an adult family member, and 52% (95% CI = [47-57] would themselves take OA. Providers who have personally used OA to treat their pain were found to make similar prescribing decisions compared to those who had not. CONCLUSION: No consistent differences in prescribing decisions were found between ED providers based on their prior therapeutic use of OA

  10. Validating a Written Instrument for Assessing Students' Fractions Schemes and

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkins, Jesse L. M.; Norton, Anderson; Boyce, Steven J.

    2013-01-01

    Previous research has documented schemes and operations that undergird students' understanding of fractions. This prior research was based, in large part, on small-group teaching experiments. However, written assessments are needed in order for teachers and researchers to assess students' ways of operating on a whole-class scale. In this study,…

  11. Top-down influences of written text on perceived clarity of degraded speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sohoglu, Ediz; Peelle, Jonathan E; Carlyon, Robert P; Davis, Matthew H

    2014-02-01

    An unresolved question is how the reported clarity of degraded speech is enhanced when listeners have prior knowledge of speech content. One account of this phenomenon proposes top-down modulation of early acoustic processing by higher-level linguistic knowledge. Alternative, strictly bottom-up accounts argue that acoustic information and higher-level knowledge are combined at a late decision stage without modulating early acoustic processing. Here we tested top-down and bottom-up accounts using written text to manipulate listeners' knowledge of speech content. The effect of written text on the reported clarity of noise-vocoded speech was most pronounced when text was presented before (rather than after) speech (Experiment 1). Fine-grained manipulation of the onset asynchrony between text and speech revealed that this effect declined when text was presented more than 120 ms after speech onset (Experiment 2). Finally, the influence of written text was found to arise from phonological (rather than lexical) correspondence between text and speech (Experiment 3). These results suggest that prior knowledge effects are time-limited by the duration of auditory echoic memory for degraded speech, consistent with top-down modulation of early acoustic processing by linguistic knowledge. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  12. Clearly written, easily comprehended? The readability of websites providing information on epilepsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brigo, Francesco; Otte, Willem M; Igwe, Stanley C; Tezzon, Frediano; Nardone, Raffaele

    2015-03-01

    There is a general need for high-quality, easily accessible, and comprehensive health-care information on epilepsy to better inform the general population about this highly stigmatized neurological disorder. The aim of this study was to evaluate the health literacy level of eight popular English-written websites that provide information on epilepsy in quantitative terms of readability. Educational epilepsy material on these websites, including 41 Wikipedia articles, were analyzed for their overall level of readability and the corresponding academic grade level needed to comprehend the published texts on the first reading. The Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) was used to assess ease of comprehension while the Gunning Fog Index, Coleman-Liau Index, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Automated Readability Index, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook scales estimated the corresponding academic grade level needed for comprehension. The average readability of websites yielded results indicative of a difficult-to-fairly-difficult readability level (FRE results: 44.0±8.2), with text readability corresponding to an 11th academic grade level (11.3±1.9). The average FRE score of the Wikipedia articles was indicative of a difficult readability level (25.6±9.5), with the other readability scales yielding results corresponding to a 14th grade level (14.3±1.7). Popular websites providing information on epilepsy, including Wikipedia, often demonstrate a low level of readability. This can be ameliorated by increasing access to clear and concise online information on epilepsy and health in general. Short "basic" summaries targeted to patients and nonmedical users should be added to articles published in specialist websites and Wikipedia to ease readability. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. The challenge of giving written thesis feedback to nursing students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuvesson, Hanna; Borglin, Gunilla

    2014-11-01

    Providing effective written feedback on nursing student's assignments can be a challenging task for any assessor. Additionally, as the student groups tend to become larger, written feedback is likely to gain an overall more prominent position than verbal feedback. Lack of formal training or regular discussion in the teaching faculty about the skill set needed to provide written feedback could negatively affect the students' learning abilities. In this brief paper, we discuss written feedback practices, whilst using the Bachelor of Science in Nursing thesis as an example. Our aim is to highlight the importance of an informed understanding of the impact written feedback can have on students. Creating awareness about this can facilitate the development of more strategic and successful written feedback strategies. We end by offering examples of some relatively simple strategies for improving this practice. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. 5 CFR 7901.102 - Prior approval for outside employment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... ETHICAL CONDUCT FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY § 7901.102 Prior approval for outside... or designee. The written request shall be submitted through the employee's supervisor or human resource office and shall, at a minimum, identify the employer or other person for whom the services are to...

  15. 5 CFR 7401.102 - Prior approval for outside employment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... STANDARDS OF ETHICAL CONDUCT FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE MERIT SYSTEMS PROTECTION BOARD § 7401.102 Prior approval... written approval from the employee's supervisor and the concurrence of the Designated Agency Ethics... name of the employer or organization; (ii) The nature of the legal activity or other work to be...

  16. 7 CFR 4290.470 - Prior approval of merger, consolidation, or reorganization of RBIC.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... merge, consolidate, change form of organization (corporation, limited liability company, or limited partnership) or reorganize without the Secretary's prior written approval. Any such merger, consolidation, or...

  17. Extending Prior Posts in Dyadic Online Text Chat

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tudini, Vincenza

    2015-01-01

    This study explores whether chat users are able to extend prior, apparently completed posts in the dyadic online text chat context. Dyadic text chat has a unique turn-taking system, and most chat softwares do not permit users to monitor one another's written messages-in-progress. This is likely to impact on their use of online extensions as an…

  18. Written Teacher Feedback: Aspects of Quality, Benefits and Challenges

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holmeier, Monika; Grob, Regula; Nielsen, Jan Alexis

    2018-01-01

    was provided based on rubrics and templates for open comments. For this purpose, written teacher feedback itself, student artefacts and data from questionnaires were analysed. Furthermore, the benefits and challenges that teachers noticed in using written feedback will be examined. Finally......, it will be discussed which means of support for teachers seem necessary in order to foster the implementation of written teacher feedback as part of formative assessment in inquiry-based science education....

  19. MODEL WRITTEN TEXTS IN THE RECOMMENDED SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dwi Rukmini

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: This article is based on the study on the model written texts provided in the Senior High School English textbooks. It is aimed at finding out whether those models are written by considering the English two contexts, cultural and situational, which encircle them. The data are all written texts provided in the six recommended English textbooks published by six different publishers. The results reveal that only eleven out of 115 model written texts tend to be incompatible with the two contexts encircling them, this implies that 104 of them (93.43% are likely to be compatible and can be used as model texts.

  20. Prior Elicitation, Assessment and Inference with a Dirichlet Prior

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Evans

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Methods are developed for eliciting a Dirichlet prior based upon stating bounds on the individual probabilities that hold with high prior probability. This approach to selecting a prior is applied to a contingency table problem where it is demonstrated how to assess the prior with respect to the bias it induces as well as how to check for prior-data conflict. It is shown that the assessment of a hypothesis via relative belief can easily take into account what it means for the falsity of the hypothesis to correspond to a difference of practical importance and provide evidence in favor of a hypothesis.

  1. Bariatric Surgery Prior to Total Joint Arthroplasty May Not Provide Dramatic Improvements In Post Arthroplasty Surgical Outcomes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paxton, Elizabeth W.; Fisher, David; Li, Robert A.; Barber, Thomas C.; Singh, Jasvinder A.

    2014-01-01

    This study compared the total joint arthroplasty (TJA) surgical outcomes of patients who had bariatric surgery prior to TJA to TJA patients who were candidates but did not have bariatric surgery. Patients were retrospectively grouped into: Group 1 (n=69), those with bariatric surgery >2 years prior to TJA, Group 2 (n=102), those with surgery within 2 years of TJA, and Group 3 (n=11,032), those without bariatric surgery. In Group 1, 2.9% (95%CI 0.0–6.9%) had complications within 1 year compared to 5.9% (95%CI 1.3–10.4%) in Group 2, and 4.1% (95%CI 3.8–4.5%) in Group 3. 90-day readmission (7.2%, 95%CI 1.1–13.4%) and revision density (3.4/100 years of observation) was highest in Group 1. Bariatric surgery prior to TJA may not provide dramatic improvements in post-operative TJA surgical outcomes. PMID:24674730

  2. Improving the use of historical written sources in paleopathology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitchell, Piers D

    2017-12-01

    The texts written by the people of past societies can provide key information that enhances our understanding of disease in the past. Written sources and art can describe cultural contexts that not only help us interpret lesions in excavated human remains, but also provide evidence for past disease events themselves. However, in recent decades many biohistorical articles have been published that claim to diagnose diseases present in past celebrities or well known individuals, often using less than scholarly methodology. This article aims to help researchers use historical written sources and artwork responsibly, thus improving our understanding of health and disease in the past. It explores a broad range of historical sources, from medical texts and histories to legal documents and tax records, and it highlights how the key to interpreting any past text is to understand who wrote it, when it was written, and why it was written. Case studies of plague epidemics, crucifixion, and the spinal deformity of King Richard III are then used to highlight how we might better integrate archaeological and historical evidence. When done well, integrating evidence from both archaeological and historical sources increases the probability of a complete and well-balanced understanding of disease in past societies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. The Quality of Written Feedback by Attendings of Internal Medicine Residents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Jeffrey L; Kay, Cynthia; Jackson, Wilkins C; Frank, Michael

    2015-07-01

    Attending evaluations are commonly used to evaluate residents. Evaluate the quality of written feedback of internal medicine residents. Retrospective. Internal medicine residents and faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin from 2004 to 2012. From monthly evaluations of residents by attendings, a randomly selected sample of 500 written comments by attendings were qualitatively coded and rated as high-, moderate-, or low-quality feedback by two independent coders with good inter-rater reliability (kappa: 0.94). Small group exercises with residents and attendings also coded the utterances as high, moderate, or low quality and developed criteria for this categorization. In-service examination scores were correlated with written feedback. There were 228 internal medicine residents who had 6,603 evaluations by 334 attendings. Among 500 randomly selected written comments, there were 2,056 unique utterances: 29% were coded as nonspecific statements, 20% were comments about resident personality, 16% about patient care, 14% interpersonal communication, 7% medical knowledge, 6% professionalism, and 4% each on practice-based learning and systems-based practice. Based on criteria developed by group exercises, the majority of written comments were rated as moderate quality (65%); 22% were rated as high quality and 13% as low quality. Attendings who provided high-quality feedback rated residents significantly lower in all six of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies (p service examination scores. Most attending written evaluation was of moderate or low quality. Attendings who provided high-quality feedback appeared to be more discriminating, providing significantly lower ratings of residents in all six ACGME core competencies, and across a greater range. Attendings' negative written comments on medical knowledge correlated with lower in-service training scores.

  4. Expectation prior to human papilloma virus vaccination: 11 to 12-Year-old girls' written narratives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forsner, M; Nilsson, S; Finnström, B; Mörelius, E

    2016-09-01

    Expectations prior to needle-related procedures can influence individuals' decision making and compliance with immunization programmes. To protect from human papilloma virus (HPV) and cervical cancer, the immunization needs to be given before sexual debut raising interest for this study's aim to investigate how 11 to 12-year-old girls narrate about their expectations prior to HPV vaccination. A total of 27 girls aged 11 to 12 years participated in this qualitative narrative study by writing short narratives describing their expectations. The requirement for inclusion was to have accepted HPV vaccination. Data were subjected to qualitative content analysis. Findings showed the following expectations: going to hurt, going to be scared and going to turn out fine. The expectations were based on the girls' previous experiences, knowledge and self-image. The latent content revealed that the girls tried to transform uneasiness to confidence. The conclusion drawn from this study is that most girls of this age seem confident about their ability to cope with possible unpleasantness related to vaccinations. However, nurses need to find strategies to help those children who feel uneasy about needle-related procedures. © The Author(s) 2015.

  5. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS

    OpenAIRE

    Oana COSMAN

    2013-01-01

    The article examines the work of researchers primarily interested in the investigation of written communication in business settings. The author regards 'business discourse' as a field of study with distinct features in the domain of discourse analysis. Thus, the paper overviews the most important contributions to the development of written business discourse with a number of landmark studies. To gain a greater understanding of the written business discourse, the author also investigates some...

  6. 5 CFR 3601.107 - Prior approval for outside employment and business activities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... STANDARDS OF ETHICAL CONDUCT FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE § 3601.107 Prior approval for.... It does not include a routine commercial transaction or the purchase of an asset or interest, such as... component designated agency ethics official or designee may, by a written notice, exempt categories of...

  7. Written production of learners of Portuguese as an additional foreign language: referentiation as a sociocognitive processing resource

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucia Rottava

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available This article discusses referentiation in texts written by learners of Portuguese as an additional foreign language. Referentiation consists of construction and reconstruction of discourse objects, a product that results from cognitive and interactive activity. Among forms of interaction, written production is an interactive process as meanings derive from the interaction between writer/reader and text in complex and multifaceted experiences that involve prior experiences and/or knowledge, besides the interlocutor’s discursive purpose. Therefore, the text is the result of an action ‘under construction’ made possible through the use of language. Data for this article come from written production developed in classes of Portuguese as a foreign language. The findings reveal learners’ textual processing and its peculiarities resulting from the learners’ proficiency levels and the requirements of the type and theme of the specified task.

  8. Supporting patients in obtaining and oncologists in providing evidence-based health-related quality of life information prior to and after esophageal cancer surgery

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jacobs, M.

    2015-01-01

    The overall aim of this thesis was to support patients in obtaining and oncologists in providing evidence-based HRQL data prior to and following esophageal cancer surgery. This thesis is divided in two parts. In Part I, we addressed the information needs of esophageal cancer patients prior to and

  9. Aptitude-treatment interactions revisited: effect of metacognitive intervention on subtypes of written expression in elementary school students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hooper, Stephen R; Wakely, Melissa B; de Kruif, Renee E L; Swartz, Carl W

    2006-01-01

    We examined the effectiveness of a metacognitive intervention for written language performance, based on the Hayes model of written expression, for 73 fourth-grade (n = 38) and fifth-grade (n = 35) students. The intervention consisted of twenty 45-min writing lessons designed to improve their awareness of writing as a problem-solving process. Each of the lessons addressed some aspect of planning, translating, and reflecting on written products; their self-regulation of these processes; and actual writing practice. All instruction was conducted in intact classrooms. Prior to the intervention, all students received a battery of neurocognitive tests measuring executive functions, attention, and language. In addition, preintervention writing samples were obtained and analyzed holistically and for errors in syntax, semantics, and spelling. Following the intervention, the writing tasks were readministered and cluster analysis of the neurocognitive data was conducted. Cluster analytic procedures yielded 7 reliable clusters: 4 normal variants, 1 Problem Solving weakness, 1 Problem Solving Language weaknesses, and 1 Problem Solving strength. The response to the single treatment by these various subtypes revealed positive but modest findings. Significant group differences were noted for improvement in syntax errors and spelling, with only spelling showing differential improvement for the Problem Solving Language subtype. In addition, there was a marginally significant group effect for holistic ratings. These findings provide initial evidence that Writing Aptitude (subtype) x Single Treatment interactions exist in writing, but further research is needed with other classification schemes and interventions.

  10. Word frequencies in written and spoken English based on the British National Corpus

    CERN Document Server

    Leech, Geoffrey; Wilson, Andrew (All Of Lancaster University)

    2014-01-01

    Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English is a landmark volume in the development of vocabulary frequency studies. Whereas previous books have in general given frequency information about the written language only, this book provides information on both speech and writing. It not only gives information about the language as a whole, but also about the differences between spoken and written English, and between different spoken and written varieties of the language. The frequencies are derived from a wide ranging and up-to-date corpus of English: the British Na

  11. The Importance of Prior Knowledge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cleary, Linda Miller

    1989-01-01

    Recounts a college English teacher's experience of reading and rereading Noam Chomsky, building up a greater store of prior knowledge. Argues that Frank Smith provides a theory for the importance of prior knowledge and Chomsky's work provided a personal example with which to interpret and integrate that theory. (RS)

  12. How Do Surgery Students Use Written Language to Say What They See? A Framework to Understand Medical Students' Written Evaluations of Their Teachers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, David W; White, Jonathan S

    2015-11-01

    There remains debate regarding the value of the written comments that medical students are traditionally asked to provide to evaluate the teaching they receive. The purpose of this study was to examine written teaching evaluations to understand how medical students conceptualize teachers' behaviors and performance. All written comments collected from medical students about teachers in the two surgery clerkships at the University of Alberta in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 were collated and anonymized. A grounded theory approach was used for analysis, with iterative reading and open coding to identify recurring themes. A framework capturing variations observed in the data was generated until data saturation was achieved. Domains and subdomains were named using an in situ coding approach. The conceptual framework contained three main domains: "Physician as Teacher," "Physician as Person," and "Physician as Physician." Under "Physician as Teacher," students commented on specific acts of teaching and subjective perceptions of an educator's teaching values. Under the "Physician as Physician" domain, students commented on elements of their educator's physicianship, including communication and collaborative skills, medical expertise, professionalism, and role modeling. Under "Physician as Person," students commented on how both positive and negative personality traits impacted their learning. This framework describes how medical students perceive their teachers and how they use written language to attach meaning to the behaviors they observe. Such a framework can be used to help students provide more constructive feedback to teachers and to assist in faculty development efforts aimed at improving teaching performance.

  13. Development of E-Info geneca: a website providing computer-tailored information and question prompt prior to breast cancer genetic counseling.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Albada, A.; Dulmen, S. van; Otten, R.; Bensing, J.M.; Ausems, M.G.E.M.

    2009-01-01

    This article describes the stepwise development of the website ‘E-info geneca’. The website provides counselees in breast cancer genetic counseling with computer-tailored information and a question prompt prior to their first consultation. Counselees generally do not know what to expect from genetic

  14. Improving medical students' written communication skills: design and evaluation of an educational curriculum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melvin, L; Connolly, K; Pitre, L; Dore, K L; Wasi, P

    2015-06-01

    Written and verbal communication skills are important skills for all physicians. While verbal skills are taught and assessed in medical school, medical students report limited instruction in written communication skills. This study examined the impact of a curriculum delivered during a 6-week clinical rotation in Internal Medicine on the objective assessment of medical students' written communication skills. The curriculum consisted of two educational programmes: a medical student communication tutorial and a resident feedback workshop. The study was conducted from March 2012 to January 2013 at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The study featured three arms: (1) control, (2) medical student communication tutorial alone and (3) student tutorial and resident feedback workshop. Data were collected on 126 students during 6-week Internal Medicine clerkship rotations. Students' written consultation notes were collected prior to the educational programmes and at 6 weeks. Blinded faculty assessors used an independently validated Assessment Checklist to evaluate consultation notes. Consultation note scores improved from week 1 to week 6 across all study arms. However, the change was statistically significant only in arm 3, featuring both the medical student tutorial and the resident feedback workshop, with mean scores improving from 4.75 (SD=1.496) to 5.56 (SD=0.984) out of 7. The mean difference between week 1 and week 6 was significantly different (0.806, p=0.002, 95% CI 0.306 to 1.058). The combination of a resident feedback workshop with medical student written communication tutorial improves objective evaluations of consultation note scores over student tutorial alone. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  15. Written cohesion in children with and without language learning disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koutsoftas, Anthony D; Petersen, Victoria

    2017-09-01

    Cohesion refers to the linguistic elements of discourse that contribute to its continuity and is an important element to consider as part of written language intervention, especially in children with language learning disabilities (LLD). There is substantial evidence that children with LLD perform more poorly than typically developing (TD) peers on measures of cohesion in spoken language and on written transcription measures; however, there is far less research comparing groups on cohesion as a measure of written language across genres. The current study addresses this gap through the following two aims. First, to describe and compare cohesion in narrative and expository writing samples of children with and without language learning disabilities. Second, to relate measures of cohesion to written transcription and translation measures, oral language, and writing quality. Fifty intermediate-grade children produced one narrative and one expository writing sample from which measures of written cohesion were obtained. These included the frequency, adequacy and complexity of referential and conjunctive ties. Expository samples resulted in more complex cohesive ties and children with TD used more complex ties than peers with LLD. Different relationships among cohesion measures and writing were observed for narrative verse expository samples. Findings from this study demonstrate cohesion as a discourse-level measure of written transcription and how the use of cohesion can vary by genre and group (LLD, TD). Clinical implications for assessment, intervention, and future research are provided. © 2016 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

  16. Consumer Preferences for Written and Oral Information about Allergens When Eating Out.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Begen, Fiona M; Barnett, Julie; Payne, Ros; Roy, Debbie; Gowland, M Hazel; Lucas, Jane S

    2016-01-01

    Avoiding food allergens when eating outside the home presents particular difficulties for food allergic (FA) and intolerant (FI) consumers and a lack of allergen information in restaurants and takeaways causes unnecessary restrictions. Across Europe, legislation effective from December 2014, aims to improve allergen information by requiring providers of non-prepacked foods to supply information related to allergen content within their foods. Using in-depth interviews with 60 FA/FI adults and 15 parents/carers of FA/FI children, we aimed to identify FA/FI consumers' preferences for written and/or verbal allergen information when eating out or ordering takeaway food. A complex and dynamic set of preferences and practices for written and verbal allergen information was identified. Overwhelmingly, written information was favoured in the first instance, but credible personal/verbal communication was highly valued and essential to a good eating out experience. Adequate written information facilitated implicit trust in subsequent verbal information. Where written information was limited, FA/FIs depended on social cues to assess the reliability of verbal information resources, and defaulted to tried and tested allergen avoidance strategies when these were deemed unreliable. Understanding the subtle negotiations and difficulties encountered by FA/FIs when eating out can serve as a guide for legislators and food providers; by encouraging provision of clear written and verbal allergen information, and training of proactive, allergen-aware staff. This, in tandem with legal requirements for allergen information provision, paves the way for FA/FIs to feel more confident in eating out choices; and to experience improved eating out experiences.

  17. Assessing written communication during interhospital transfers of emergency general surgery patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harl, Felicity N R; Saucke, Megan C; Greenberg, Caprice C; Ingraham, Angela M

    2017-06-15

    Poor communication causes fragmented care. Studies of transitions of care within a hospital and on discharge suggest significant communication deficits. Communication during transfers between hospitals has not been well studied. We assessed the written communication provided during interhospital transfers of emergency general surgery patients. We hypothesized that patients are transferred with incomplete documentation from referring facilities. We performed a retrospective review of written communication provided during interhospital transfers to our emergency department (ED) from referring EDs for emergency general surgical evaluation between January 1, 2014 and January 1, 2016. Elements of written communication were abstracted from referring facility documents scanned into the medical record using a standardized abstraction protocol. Descriptive statistics summarized the information communicated. A total of 129 patients met inclusion criteria. 87.6% (n = 113) of charts contained referring hospital documents. 42.5% (n = 48) were missing history and physicals. Diagnoses were missing in 9.7% (n = 11). Ninety-one computed tomography scans were performed; among 70 with reads, final reads were absent for 70.0% (n = 49). 45 ultrasounds and x-rays were performed; among 27 with reads, final reads were missing for 80.0% (n = 36). Reasons for transfer were missing in 18.6% (n = 21). Referring hospital physicians outside the ED were consulted in 32.7% (n = 37); consultants' notes were absent in 89.2% (n = 33). In 12.4% (n = 14), referring documents arrived after the patient's ED arrival and were not part of the original documentation provided. This study documents that information important to patient care is often missing in the written communication provided during interhospital transfers. This gap affords a foundation for standardizing provider communication during interhospital transfers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Concreteness Effects and Syntactic Modification in Written Composition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadoski, Mark; Goetz, Ernest T.

    1998-01-01

    Investigates whether concreteness was related to a key characteristic of written composition--the cumulative sentence with a final modifier--which has been consistently associated with higher quality writing. Supports the conceptual-peg hypothesis of dual coding theory, with concrete verbs providing the pegs on which cumulative sentences are…

  19. Quantitative Evidence Synthesis with Power Priors

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rietbergen, C.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/322847796

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this thesis is to provide the applied researcher with a practical approach for quantitative evidence synthesis using the conditional power prior that allows for subjective input and thereby provides an alternative tgbgo deal with the difficulties as- sociated with the joint power prior

  20. Factors affecting written distance-learning feedback: the tutor’s perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine Calfoglou

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Launching the distance-learning student-tutor interaction process, tutors of the first module of the M.Ed in English course at the HOU lay the foundations of academic student autonomy by means of providing – inter alia -- the appropriate written feedback on written assignments. In doing so, they need to gauge the content and form of their written comments systematically with regard to both output- and student-, that is human factor-related issues (cf. Goldstein, 2004, the latter being particularly relevant to the distance-learning context. In this article we discuss tutor policy as well as tutor perceptions (cf. Lee, 2004, 2009 among others regarding written feedback on students’ academic assignments in terms of aspects of deviance treated and the relative gravity of ‘global’ and ‘local’ errors (e.g. Ferris, 2002, the directness of the correction, the punitive or facilitative nature of the comments provided as well as the relative balance of student strengths and weaknesses on the tutor’s comment agenda (cf. Hyland & Hyland, 2006. The role of the tutor as an assessor and/or counsellor is explored and the importance of striking a delicate balance between the two, especially in a context where face-to-face feedback opportunities are severely restricted, is underscored. We suggest that distance-learning feedback practices may need to be at least partially individualized to maximize student response and meet the goal of ‘informed autonomy’.

  1. 47 CFR 76.936 - Written decision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE Cable Rate Regulation § 76.936 Written decision. (a) A franchising authority... of interested parties. A franchising authority is not required to issue a written decision that...

  2. Finding A Minimally Informative Dirichlet Prior Using Least Squares

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kelly, Dana

    2011-01-01

    In a Bayesian framework, the Dirichlet distribution is the conjugate distribution to the multinomial likelihood function, and so the analyst is required to develop a Dirichlet prior that incorporates available information. However, as it is a multiparameter distribution, choosing the Dirichlet parameters is less straightforward than choosing a prior distribution for a single parameter, such as p in the binomial distribution. In particular, one may wish to incorporate limited information into the prior, resulting in a minimally informative prior distribution that is responsive to updates with sparse data. In the case of binomial p or Poisson λ, the principle of maximum entropy can be employed to obtain a so-called constrained noninformative prior. However, even in the case of p, such a distribution cannot be written down in the form of a standard distribution (e.g., beta, gamma), and so a beta distribution is used as an approximation in the case of p. In the case of the multinomial model with parametric constraints, the approach of maximum entropy does not appear tractable. This paper presents an alternative approach, based on constrained minimization of a least-squares objective function, which leads to a minimally informative Dirichlet prior distribution. The alpha-factor model for common-cause failure, which is widely used in the United States, is the motivation for this approach, and is used to illustrate the method. In this approach to modeling common-cause failure, the alpha-factors, which are the parameters in the underlying multinomial model for common-cause failure, must be estimated from data that are often quite sparse, because common-cause failures tend to be rare, especially failures of more than two or three components, and so a prior distribution that is responsive to updates with sparse data is needed.

  3. Supporting patients in obtaining and oncologists in providing evidence-based health-related quality of life information prior to and after esophageal cancer surgery

    OpenAIRE

    Jacobs, M.

    2015-01-01

    The overall aim of this thesis was to support patients in obtaining and oncologists in providing evidence-based HRQL data prior to and following esophageal cancer surgery. This thesis is divided in two parts. In Part I, we addressed the information needs of esophageal cancer patients prior to and following esophageal surgery, the barriers and facilitators patients experienced when discussing their information needs with their oncologist, and the development of a web-based question prompt shee...

  4. For whom were Gospels written?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard Bauckham

    1999-12-01

    Full Text Available This arlcie challenges the current consensus in Gospels scholarship that each Gospel was written for a specific church or group of churches. It argues that, since all our evidence about the early Christian movement shows it to have been a network of communities in constant, close communication, since all our evidence about early Christian leaders, such as might have written Gospels, shows them to have been typically people who travelled widely around the churches, and since, moreover, the evidence we have about early Christian literature shows that it did in fact circulate rapidily and widely, the strong probability is that the Gospels were written for general circulation around all the churches.

  5. A precompiler written in SPITBOL applied to programs to analyze nuclear data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Winkelmann, K.; Croome, D.

    1985-01-01

    For an interactive data acquisition and analysis system for nuclear physics experiments a precompiler is provided to expand system specific macros in user written analysis programs. It is written with help of the string processing language SPITBOL and generates PL/I or PL-11 code. It is shown that SPITBOL is a suitable precompiler language for this kind of medium size precompile problems. (orig.)

  6. Minimal Poems Written in 1979 Minimal Poems Written in 1979

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Sirangelo Maggio

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available The reading of M. van der Slice's Minimal Poems Written in 1979 (the work, actually, has no title reminded me of a book I have seen a long time ago. called Truth, which had not even a single word printed inside. In either case we have a sample of how often excentricities can prove efficient means of artistic creativity, in this new literary trend known as Minimalism. The reading of M. van der Slice's Minimal Poems Written in 1979 (the work, actually, has no title reminded me of a book I have seen a long time ago. called Truth, which had not even a single word printed inside. In either case we have a sample of how often excentricities can prove efficient means of artistic creativity, in this new literary trend known as Minimalism.

  7. Incremental comprehension of pitch relationships in written music: Evidence from eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hadley, Lauren V; Sturt, Patrick; Eerola, Tuomas; Pickering, Martin J

    2017-03-17

    To investigate how proficient pianists comprehend pitch relationships in written music when they first encounter it we conducted two experiments in which proficient pianists' eyes were tracked while they read and played single-line melodies. In Experiment 1, participants played at their own speed; in Experiment 2 they played with an external metronome. The melodies were either congruent or anomalous, with the anomaly involving one bar being shifted in pitch to alter the implied harmonic structure (e.g., non-resolution of a dominant). In both experiments, anomaly led to rapid disruption in participants' eye-movements in terms of regressions from the target bar, indicating that pianists process written pitch relationships online. This is particularly striking because in musical sight-reading eye movement behaviour is constrained by the concurrent performance. Both experiments also showed that anomaly induced pupil dilation. Together these results indicate that proficient pianists rapidly integrate the music that they read into the prior context, and that anomalies in terms of pitch relationships lead to processing difficulty. These findings parallel those of text reading, suggesting that structural processing involves similar constraints across domains.

  8. Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback in Developmental Multilingual Writing Classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurzer, Kendon

    2018-01-01

    This study investigated the role of dynamic written corrective feedback (DWCF; Evans, Hartshorn, McCollum, & Wolfersberger, 2010; Hartshorn & Evans, 2015; Hartshorn et al., 2010), a mode of providing specific, targeted, and individualized grammar feedback in developmental English as a second language (ESL) writing classes (pre-first year…

  9. Finding a minimally informative Dirichlet prior distribution using least squares

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kelly, Dana; Atwood, Corwin

    2011-01-01

    In a Bayesian framework, the Dirichlet distribution is the conjugate distribution to the multinomial likelihood function, and so the analyst is required to develop a Dirichlet prior that incorporates available information. However, as it is a multiparameter distribution, choosing the Dirichlet parameters is less straightforward than choosing a prior distribution for a single parameter, such as p in the binomial distribution. In particular, one may wish to incorporate limited information into the prior, resulting in a minimally informative prior distribution that is responsive to updates with sparse data. In the case of binomial p or Poisson λ, the principle of maximum entropy can be employed to obtain a so-called constrained noninformative prior. However, even in the case of p, such a distribution cannot be written down in the form of a standard distribution (e.g., beta, gamma), and so a beta distribution is used as an approximation in the case of p. In the case of the multinomial model with parametric constraints, the approach of maximum entropy does not appear tractable. This paper presents an alternative approach, based on constrained minimization of a least-squares objective function, which leads to a minimally informative Dirichlet prior distribution. The alpha-factor model for common-cause failure, which is widely used in the United States, is the motivation for this approach, and is used to illustrate the method. In this approach to modeling common-cause failure, the alpha-factors, which are the parameters in the underlying multinomial model for common-cause failure, must be estimated from data that are often quite sparse, because common-cause failures tend to be rare, especially failures of more than two or three components, and so a prior distribution that is responsive to updates with sparse data is needed.

  10. Finding a Minimally Informative Dirichlet Prior Distribution Using Least Squares

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kelly, Dana; Atwood, Corwin

    2011-01-01

    In a Bayesian framework, the Dirichlet distribution is the conjugate distribution to the multinomial likelihood function, and so the analyst is required to develop a Dirichlet prior that incorporates available information. However, as it is a multiparameter distribution, choosing the Dirichlet parameters is less straight-forward than choosing a prior distribution for a single parameter, such as p in the binomial distribution. In particular, one may wish to incorporate limited information into the prior, resulting in a minimally informative prior distribution that is responsive to updates with sparse data. In the case of binomial p or Poisson, the principle of maximum entropy can be employed to obtain a so-called constrained noninformative prior. However, even in the case of p, such a distribution cannot be written down in closed form, and so an approximate beta distribution is used in the case of p. In the case of the multinomial model with parametric constraints, the approach of maximum entropy does not appear tractable. This paper presents an alternative approach, based on constrained minimization of a least-squares objective function, which leads to a minimally informative Dirichlet prior distribution. The alpha-factor model for common-cause failure, which is widely used in the United States, is the motivation for this approach, and is used to illustrate the method. In this approach to modeling common-cause failure, the alpha-factors, which are the parameters in the underlying multinomial aleatory model for common-cause failure, must be estimated from data that is often quite sparse, because common-cause failures tend to be rare, especially failures of more than two or three components, and so a prior distribution that is responsive to updates with sparse data is needed.

  11. The Prior-project

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Engerer, Volkmar Paul; Roued-Cunliffe, Henriette; Albretsen, Jørgen

    digitisation of Arthur Prior’s Nachlass kept in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The DH infrastructure in question is the Prior Virtual Lab (PVL). PVL was established in 2011 in order to provide researchers in the field of temporal logic easy access to the papers of Arthur Norman Prior (1914-1969), and officially......In this paper, we present a DH research infrastructure which relies heavily on a combination of domain knowledge with information technology. The general goal is to develop tools to aid scholars in their interpretations and understanding of temporal logic. This in turn is based on an extensive...

  12. Effect of Prior Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Knowledge on Compression Performance by Hospital Providers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joshua N. Burkhardt

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR knowledge of hospital providers and whether knowledge affects performance of effective compressions during a simulated cardiac arrest. Methods: This cross-sectional study evaluated the CPR knowledge and performance of medical students and ED personnel with current CPR certification. We collected data regarding compression rate, hand placement, depth, and recoil via a questionnaire to determine knowledge, and then we assessed performance using 60 seconds of compressions on a simulation mannequin. Results: Data from 200 enrollments were analyzed by evaluators blinded to subject knowledge. Regarding knowledge, 94% of participants correctly identified parameters for rate, 58% for hand placement, 74% for depth, and 94% for recoil. Participants identifying an effective rate of ≥100 performed compressions at a significantly higher rate than participants identifying <100 (µ=117 vs. 94, p<0.001. Participants identifying correct hand placement performed significantly more compressions adherent to guidelines than those identifying incorrect placement (µ=86% vs. 72%, p<0.01. No significant differences were found in depth or recoil performance based on knowledge of guidelines. Conclusion: Knowledge of guidelines was variable; however, CPR knowledge significantly impacted certain aspects of performance, namely rate and hand placement, whereas depth and recoil were not affected. Depth of compressions was poor regardless of prior knowledge, and knowledge did not correlate with recoil performance. Overall performance was suboptimal and additional training may be needed to ensure consistent, effective performance and therefore better outcomes after cardiopulmonary arrest.

  13. Written Language Shift among Norwegian Youth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamil ÖZERK

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available In Norway there are two written Norwegian languages, Bokmål and Nynorsk. Of these two written languages Bokmål is being used by the majority of the people, and Bokmål has the highest prestige in the society. This article is about the shift of written language from Nynorsk to Bokmål among young people in a traditional Nynorsk district in the country. Drawing on empirical data we conclude that many adolescents are experiencing written language shift. We discuss various reasons for this phenomenon in the linguistic landscape of Norway. In our discussions we emphasize the importance of the school with regard to language maintenance and language revitalization. We call for a new language policy in the educational system that can prevent language shift. Having several dialects and two officially written forms of Norwegian in the country, creates a special linguistic landscape in Norway. Despite the fact that the Norwegian language situation is in several ways unique, it’s done very little research on how the existing policy works in practice. Our research reveals that the existing language policy and practice in the school system is not powerful enough to prevent language shift and language decay among the youngsters. The school system functions like a fabric for language shift.

  14. Feedforward: helping students interpret written feedback

    OpenAIRE

    Hurford, Donna; Read, Andrew

    2008-01-01

    "Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners... "(Assessment Reform Group, 2002, p.2): for the Higher Education tutor, written feedback forms an integral part of this. This short article reports on teaching methods to engage students in feedback and assessment of their written work.

  15. Mushu, a free- and open source BCI signal acquisition, written in Python.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Venthur, Bastian; Blankertz, Benjamin

    2012-01-01

    The following paper describes Mushu, a signal acquisition software for retrieval and online streaming of Electroencephalography (EEG) data. It is written, but not limited, to the needs of Brain Computer Interfacing (BCI). It's main goal is to provide a unified interface to EEG data regardless of the amplifiers used. It runs under all major operating systems, like Windows, Mac OS and Linux, is written in Python and is free- and open source software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

  16. Poling of UV-written Waveguides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arentoft, Jesper; Kristensen, Martin; Hübner, Jörg

    1999-01-01

    We report poling of UV-written silica waveguides. Thermal poling induces an electro-optic coefficient of 0.05 pm/V. We also demonstrate simultaneous UV-writing and UV-poling. No measurable decay in the induced electro-optic effect was detected after nine months......We report poling of UV-written silica waveguides. Thermal poling induces an electro-optic coefficient of 0.05 pm/V. We also demonstrate simultaneous UV-writing and UV-poling. No measurable decay in the induced electro-optic effect was detected after nine months...

  17. Justify Your Answer: The Role of Written Think Aloud in Script Concordance Testing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Power, Alyssa; Lemay, Jean-Francois; Cooke, Suzette

    2017-01-01

    Construct: Clinical reasoning assessment is a growing area of interest in the medical education literature. Script concordance testing (SCT) evaluates clinical reasoning in conditions of uncertainty and has emerged as an innovative tool in the domain of clinical reasoning assessment. SCT quantifies the degree of concordance between a learner and an experienced clinician and attempts to capture the breadth of responses of expert clinicians, acknowledging the significant yet acceptable variation in practice under situations of uncertainty. SCT has been shown to be a valid and reliable clinical reasoning assessment tool. However, as SCT provides only quantitative information, it may not provide a complete assessment of clinical reasoning. Think aloud (TA) is a qualitative research tool used in clinical reasoning assessment in which learners verbalize their thought process around an assigned task. This study explores the use of TA, in the form of written reflection, in SCT to assess resident clinical reasoning, hypothesizing that the information obtained from the written TA would enrich the quantitative data obtained through SCT. Ninety-one pediatric postgraduate trainees and 21 pediatricians from 4 Canadian training centers completed an online test consisting of 24 SCT cases immediately followed by retrospective written TA. Six of 24 cases were selected to gather TA data. These cases were chosen to allow all phases of clinical decision making (diagnosis, investigation, and treatment) to be represented in the TA data. Inductive thematic analysis was employed when systematically reviewing TA responses. Three main benefits of adding written TA to SCT were identified: (a) uncovering instances of incorrect clinical reasoning despite a correct SCT response, (b) revealing sound clinical reasoning in the context of a suboptimal SCT response, and (c) detecting question misinterpretation. Written TA can optimize SCT by demonstrating when correct examinee responses are based on

  18. Written advice can provide a safe and acceptable alternative to new patient assessment for selected referrals to haematologists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganly, Peter S; Keeman, Helen; Spearing, Ruth L; Smith, Mark P; Patton, Nigel; Merriman, Eileen G; Gibbons, Steve S

    2008-01-07

    To measure the safety and acceptability of providing written advice (WA) for selected patients referred to a haematology service, as an alternative to inpatient or outpatient assessment. Review of the initial management and subsequent course of patients newly referred to a tertiary referral hospital in Christchurch, New Zealand, between 16 October 2003 and 8 June 2006. Structured questionnaires were sent to all referring doctors and patients recently managed with WA. Numbers and diagnoses of patients managed with WA, early assessment or delayed assessment; re-referral and treatment details; characteristics of WA letters; and opinions of referring doctors and their patients on the WA process. 26% of new referrals (714/2785) were managed with prompt WA, while 16% (455/2785) received the alternative of delayed assessment. After a median follow-up of 23 months (range, 8-40 months), 13% of those managed with WA (91/714) were re-referred back to the same haematologists; 7% (52/714) were assessed in hospital and 2% (15/714) eventually required treatment. There were no deaths due to haematological causes. Over 90% of responding referring doctors said the WA process was rapid and effective, and 77% of recently managed patients were pleased to be treated by their own doctors. Using WA to manage a substantial minority of patients referred to haematologists can be rapid and safe. It is widely accepted by referring doctors.

  19. 29 CFR 100.610 - Written demand for payment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... Procedures § 100.610 Written demand for payment. (a) The NLRB will promptly make written demand upon the debtor for payment of money or the return of specific property. The written demand for payment will be... late charges will be 60 days from the date that the demand letter is mailed or hand-delivered. (b) The...

  20. Palliative sedation challenging the professional competency of health care providers and staff: a qualitative focus group and personal written narrative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leboul, Danièle; Aubry, Régis; Peter, Jean-Michel; Royer, Victor; Richard, Jean-François; Guirimand, Frédéric

    2017-04-11

    Despite recent advances in palliative medicine, sedating a terminally ill patient is regarded as an indispensable treatment to manage unbearable suffering. With the prospect of widespread use of palliative sedation, the feelings and representations of health care providers and staff (carers) regarding sedation must be carefully explored if we are to gain a better understanding of its impact and potential pitfalls. The objective of the study was to provide a comprehensive description of the opinions of carers about the use of sedation practices in palliative care units (PCU), which have become a focus of public attention following changes in legislation. Data were collected using a qualitative study involving multi-professional focus groups with health care providers and staff as well as personal narratives written by physicians and paramedical staff. A total of 35 medical and paramedical providers volunteered to participate in focus group discussions in three Palliative Care Units in two French hospitals and to write personal narratives. Health care provider and staff opinions had to do with their professional stance and competencies when using midazolam and practicing sedation in palliative care. They expressed uncertainty regarding three aspects of the comprehensive care: biomedical rigour of diagnosis and therapeutics, quality of the patient/provider relationship and care to be provided. Focusing on the sedative effect of midazolam and continuous sedation until death, the interviewed health care providers examined the basics of their professional competency as well as the key role played by the health care team in terms of providing support and minimizing workplace suffering. Nurses were subject to the greatest misgivings about their work when they were called upon to sedate patients. The uncertainty experienced by the carers with regard to the medical, psychosocial and ethical justification for sedation is a source of psychological burden and moral distress

  1. Primary Teachers' Written Unit Plans in Mathematics and Their Perceptions of Essential Elements of These

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roche, Anne; Clarke, Doug M.; Clarke, David J.; Sullivan, Peter

    2014-01-01

    The content and purpose of written unit plans in mathematics is an under-researched area. In this article, we provide a brief overview of research on teachers' planning processes and the place of mental and written plans. We report on data from a questionnaire completed by 357 teachers from Victorian Catholic primary schools, where we focused on…

  2. The "SignOn"-Model for Teaching Written Language to Deaf People

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marlene Hilzensauer

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper shows a method of teaching written language to deaf people using sign language as the language of instruction. Written texts in the target language are combined with sign language videos which provide the users with various modes of translation (words/phrases/sentences. As examples, two EU projects for English for the Deaf are presented which feature English texts and translations into the national sign languages of all the partner countries plus signed grammar explanations and interactive exercises. Both courses are web-based; the programs may be accessed free of charge via the respective homepages (without any download or log-in.

  3. 12 CFR 704.16 - Contracts/written agreements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Contracts/written agreements. 704.16 Section 704.16 Banks and Banking NATIONAL CREDIT UNION ADMINISTRATION REGULATIONS AFFECTING CREDIT UNIONS CORPORATE CREDIT UNIONS § 704.16 Contracts/written agreements. Services, facilities, personnel, or equipment...

  4. Evanescent fields of laser written waveguides

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jukić, Dario; Pohl, Thomas; Götte, Jörg B.

    2015-03-01

    We investigate the evanescent field at the surface of laser written waveguides. The waveguides are written by a direct femtosecond laser writing process into fused silica, which is then sanded down to expose the guiding layer. These waveguides support eigenmodes which have an evanescent field reaching into the vacuum above the waveguide. We study the governing wave equations and present solution for the fundamental eigenmodes of the modified waveguides.

  5. Sets of priors reflecting prior-data conflict and agreement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Walter, G.M.; Coolen, F.P.A.; Carvalho, J.P.; Lesot, M.-J.; Kaymak, U.; Vieira, S.; Bouchon-Meunier, B.; Yager, R.R.

    2016-01-01

    Bayesian inference enables combination of observations with prior knowledge in the reasoning process. The choice of a particular prior distribution to represent the available prior knowledge is, however, often debatable, especially when prior knowledge is limited or data are scarce, as then

  6. The Influence of Topic Status on Written and Spoken Sentence Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cowles, H. Wind; Ferreira, Victor S.

    2012-01-01

    Four experiments investigate the influence of topic status and givenness on how speakers and writers structure sentences. The results of these experiments show that when a referent is previously given, it is more likely to be produced early in both sentences and word lists, confirming prior work showing that givenness increases the accessibility of given referents. When a referent is previously given and assigned topic status, it is even more likely to be produced early in a sentence, but not in a word list. Thus, there appears to be an early mention advantage for topics that is present in both written and spoken modalities, but is specific to sentence production. These results suggest that information-structure constructs like topic exert an influence that is not based only on increased accessibility, but also reflects mapping to syntactic structure during sentence production. PMID:22408281

  7. 45 CFR 99.26 - Unsponsored written material.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Unsponsored written material. 99.26 Section 99.26 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL ADMINISTRATION PROCEDURE FOR HEARINGS FOR THE CHILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT FUND Hearing Procedures § 99.26 Unsponsored written material. Letters...

  8. Oral and Literate Strategies in Spoken and Written Narratives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tannen, Deborah

    1982-01-01

    Discusses comparative analysis of spoken and written versions of a narrative to demonstrate that features which have been identified as characterizing oral discourse are also found in written discourse and that the written short story combines syntactic complexity expected in writing with features which create involvement expected in speaking.…

  9. Examining the central and peripheral processes of written word production through meta-analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeremy ePurcell

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Producing written words requires central cognitive processes (such as orthographic long-term and working memory as well as more peripheral processes responsible for generating the motor actions needed for producing written words in a variety of formats (handwriting, typing, etc.. In recent years, various functional neuroimaging studies have examined the neural substrates underlying the central and peripheral processes of written word production. This study provides the first quantitative meta-analysis of these studies by applying Activation Likelihood Estimation methods (Turkeltaub et al., 2002. For alphabet languages, we identified 11 studies (with a total of 17 experimental contrasts that had been designed to isolate central and/or peripheral processes of word spelling (total number of participants = 146. Three ALE meta-analyses were carried out. One involved the complete set of 17 contrasts; two others were applied to subsets of contrasts to distinguish the neural substrates of central from peripheral processes. These analyses identified a network of brain regions reliably associated with the central and peripheral processes of word spelling. Among the many significant results, is the finding that the regions with the greatest correspondence across studies were in the left inferior temporal/fusiform gyri and left inferior frontal gyrus. Furthermore, although the angular gyrus has traditionally been identified as a key site within the written word production network, none of the meta-analyses found it to be a consistent site of activation, identifying instead a region just superior/medial to the left angular gyrus in the left posterior intraparietal sulcus. In general these meta-analyses and the discussion of results provide a valuable foundation upon which future studies that examine the neural basis of written word production can build.

  10. Understanding Extraordinary Architectural Experiences through Content Analysis of Written Narratives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brandon Richard Ro

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This study a identifies how people describe, characterize, and communicate in written form Extraordinary Architectural Experiences (EAE, and b expands the traditional qualitative approach to architectural phenomenology by demonstrating a quantitative method to analyze written narratives. Specifically, this study reports on the content analysis of 718 personal accounts of EAEs. Using a deductive, ‘theory-driven’ approach, these narratives were read, coded, and statistically analyzed to identify storyline structure, convincing power, and the relationship between subjective and objective experiential qualities used in the story-telling process. Statistical intercoder agreement tests were conducted to verify the reliability of the interpretations to approach the hard problem of “extraordinary aesthetics” in architecture empirically. The results of this study confirm the aesthetic nature of EAE narratives (and of told experiences by showing their higher dependence on external objective content (e.g., a building’s features and location rather than its internal subjective counterpart (e.g., emotions and sensations, which makes them more outwardly focused. The strong interrelationships and intercoder agreement between the thematic realms provide a unique aesthetic construct revealing EAE narratives as memorable, embodied, emotional events mapped by the externally focused content of place, social setting, time, and building features. A majority of EAE narratives were found to possess plot-structure along with significant relationships to objective-subjective content that further grounded their storylines. This study concludes that content analysis provides not only a valid method to understand written narratives about extraordinary architectural experiences quantitatively, but also a view as to how to map the unique nature of aesthetic phenomenology empirically.

  11. Written Composition Process, Evaluation Difficulties and Modalities: An Experimental Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodriguez, Celestino; Garci, Jesus Nicasio; Gonzalez-Castro, Paloma; Alvarez, David; Cerezo, Rebeca; Bernardo, Ana

    2011-01-01

    The underlying processes used in written compositions are currently a very interesting subject. Participants in this study were 326 people between 10 and 16 years of age, divided into two groups and compared by means of a "writing log". One group was provided assistance in the writing task by means of a graphic organiser, whilst the other was not…

  12. Effects of Written and Auditory Language-Processing Skills on Written Passage Comprehension in Middle and High School Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caplan, David; Waters, Gloria; Bertram, Julia; Ostrowski, Adam; Michaud, Jennifer

    2016-01-01

    The authors assessed 4,865 middle and high school students for the ability to recognize and understand written and spoken morphologically simple words, morphologically complex words, and the syntactic structure of sentences and for the ability to answer questions about facts presented in a written passage and to make inferences based on those…

  13. Use of Saliva for Assessment of Stress and Its Effect on the Immune System Prior to Gross Anatomy Practical Examinations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lester, S. Reid; Brown, Jason R.; Aycock, Jeffrey E.; Grubbs, S. Lee; Johnson, Roger B.

    2010-01-01

    The objective of this study was to determine the longitudinal effects of a series of stressful gross anatomy tests on the immune system. Thirty-six freshman occupational therapy students completed a written stress evaluation survey, and saliva samples were obtained at baseline and prior to each of three timed-practical gross anatomy tests.…

  14. Oral vs. written evaluation of students

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Asklund, U.; Bendix, Lars Gotfred

    2003-01-01

    In this short paper we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of oral and written evaluation of students. First in more general terms and then followed by details of what we did in our course and our experience. Finally, we outline some topics for further study and discussions......In this short paper we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of oral and written evaluation of students. First in more general terms and then followed by details of what we did in our course and our experience. Finally, we outline some topics for further study and discussions...

  15. Spelling in Written Stories by School-Age Children with Cochlear Implants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Straley, Sara G.; Werfel, Krystal L.; Hendricks, Alison Eisel

    2016-01-01

    This study evaluated the spelling of 3rd to 6th grade children with cochlear implants in written stories. Spelling was analysed using traditional correct/incorrect scoring as well as the Spelling Sensitivity Score, which provides linguistic information about spelling attempts. Children with cochlear implants spelled 86 per cent of words in stories…

  16. Terminology for pregnancy loss prior to viability

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kolte, A M; Bernardi, L A; Christiansen, O B

    2015-01-01

    Pregnancy loss prior to viability is common and research in the field is extensive. Unfortunately, terminology in the literature is inconsistent. The lack of consensus regarding nomenclature and classification of pregnancy loss prior to viability makes it difficult to compare study results from...... different centres. In our opinion, terminology and definitions should be based on clinical findings, and when possible, transvaginal ultrasound. With this Early Pregnancy Consensus Statement, it is our goal to provide clear and consistent terminology for pregnancy loss prior to viability....

  17. 5 CFR 179.306 - Written agreement for repayment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Written agreement for repayment. 179.306 Section 179.306 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS CLAIMS COLLECTION STANDARDS Administrative Offset § 179.306 Written agreement for repayment. A debtor who admits...

  18. Some Effects of Explicit Grammar Instruction and Syntactic Priming on Students’ Written Language Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rahman Muhammad Asfah

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Structural or syntactic priming is a phenomenon in which prior exposure to specific language structures either facilitates or interferes with a learner’s subsequent language production [1]. Exposure to English structures through explicit instruction is reported to have inconclusive results. [2] reported that explicit and implicit grammar instruction ends up with automatization. This study reexamines the effect of syntactic priming and explicit grammar instruction on students’ writing. Specific grammatical features frequently appeared on TOEFL (Written Expression Section test were intensively practiced and then the students took a test whose items were specifically collected from TOEFL practice tests. Finally, the students were assigned to write a short essay. Sentences with similar structures which the students had been exposed to were extracted from the students’ essays. Out of 40 test items, only 59.86% in average could be answered correctly, and all of the grammatical features to which the students were previously exposed were contained in their essays. However, in average only eight out of 18 sentences were grammatically constructed. It can be concluded that although priming method with explicit instruction leads the students to use similar syntactic features in their writing, it seems to have little impact on students’ grammatical knowledge for immediate use in written language production.

  19. Politeness strategies in written communications: the issue of Iranian EFL learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karimkhanlooei Giti

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The approximation of the pragmatic knowledge of English language learners to native speakers has been a realm of concern for the scholars and researchers in applied linguistics. Thus, this research was an endeavor to figure out the association between the proficiency level and politeness strategies and external/internal modifications in written communication skills in the speech act of requests in Iranian English language learners. To this end, a written Discourse Completion Test (DCT, adapted from Rose (1994, including 8 situations was administered to elicit data from Iran Language Institute120 female and male EFL learners, 60 upper-intermediate and 60 intermediate. The data were sorted out using Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies taxonomy (Brown and Levinson 1987 and external/internal modifications developed by Faerch and Kasper (1989. The written request utterances provided by each participant were analyzed in terms of frequency and types of politeness strategies, namely, positive, negative, bald on record, and off-record as well as external/internal modifications utilized in requests. The Pearson Chi-Square test results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between upper-intermediate and intermediate learners’ type of politeness strategies and external/internal modifications.

  20. Improving Written Language Performance of Adolescents with Asperger Syndrome

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delano, Monica E

    2007-01-01

    The effects of a multicomponent intervention involving self-regulated strategy development delivered via video self-modeling on the written language performance of 3 students with Asperger syndrome were examined. During intervention sessions, each student watched a video of himself performing strategies for increasing the number of words written and the number of functional essay elements. He then wrote a persuasive essay. The number of words written and number of functional essay elements included in each essay were measured. Each student demonstrated gains in the number of words written and number of functional essay elements. Maintenance of treatment effects at follow-up varied across targets and participants. Implications for future research are suggested. PMID:17624076

  1. Accurate modeling of UV written waveguide components

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Svalgaard, Mikael

    BPM simulation results of UV written waveguide components that are indistinguishable from measurements can be achieved on the basis of trajectory scan data and an equivalent step index profile that is very easy to measure.......BPM simulation results of UV written waveguide components that are indistinguishable from measurements can be achieved on the basis of trajectory scan data and an equivalent step index profile that is very easy to measure....

  2. Accurate modelling of UV written waveguide components

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Svalgaard, Mikael

    BPM simulation results of UV written waveguide components that are indistinguishable from measurements can be achieved on the basis of trajectory scan data and an equivalent step index profile that is very easy to measure.......BPM simulation results of UV written waveguide components that are indistinguishable from measurements can be achieved on the basis of trajectory scan data and an equivalent step index profile that is very easy to measure....

  3. Interpretation of Written Contracts in England

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Neil Andrews

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This article examines the leading principles governing interpretation of written contracts under English law. This is a comprehensive and incisive analysis of the current law and of the relevant doctrines, including the equitable principles of rectification, as well as the powers of appeal courts or of the High Court when hearing an appeal from an arbitral award. The topic of interpretation of written contracts is fast-moving. It is of fundamental importance because this is the most significant commercial focus for dispute and because of the number of cross-border transactions to which English law is expressly applied by businesses.

  4. The security analyzer: A security analyzer program written in Prolog

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zimmerman, B.D.; Densley, P.J.

    1986-09-01

    The Security Analyzer is a software tool capable of analyzing the effectiveness of a facility's security system. It is written in the Prolog logic programming computer language, using entity-relationship data modeling techniques. The program performs the following functions: (1) provides descriptive, locational and operational status information about intrusion detectors and assessment devices (i.e., ''sensors'' and ''cameras'') upon request; (2) provides for storage and retrieval of maintenance history information for various components of the security system (including intrusion detectors), and allows for changing that information as desired; (3) provides a ''search'' mode, wherein all paths are found from any specified physical location to another specified location which satisfy user chosen ''intruder detection'' probability and elapsed time criteria (i.e., the program finds the ''weakest paths'' from a security point of view). The first two of these functions can be provided fairly easily with a conventional database program; the third function could be provided using Fortran or some similar language, though with substantial difficulty. In the Security Analyzer program, all these functions are provided in a simple and straight-forward manner. This simplicity is possible because the program is written in the symbolic (as opposed to numeric) processing language Prolog, and because the knowledge base is structured according to entity-relationship modeling principles. Also, the use of Prolog and the entity-relationship modeling technique allows the capabilities of the Security analyzer program, both for knowledge base interrogation and for searching-type operations, to be easily expanded in ways that would be very difficult for a numeric and more algorithmically deterministic language such as Fortran to duplicate. 4 refs

  5. Assessing readability formula differences with written health information materials: application, results, and recommendations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Lih-Wern; Miller, Michael J; Schmitt, Michael R; Wen, Frances K

    2013-01-01

    Readability formulas are often used to guide the development and evaluation of literacy-sensitive written health information. However, readability formula results may vary considerably as a result of differences in software processing algorithms and how each formula is applied. These variations complicate interpretations of reading grade level estimates, particularly without a uniform guideline for applying and interpreting readability formulas. This research sought to (1) identify commonly used readability formulas reported in the health care literature, (2) demonstrate the use of the most commonly used readability formulas on written health information, (3) compare and contrast the differences when applying common readability formulas to identical selections of written health information, and (4) provide recommendations for choosing an appropriate readability formula for written health-related materials to optimize their use. A literature search was conducted to identify the most commonly used readability formulas in health care literature. Each of the identified formulas was subsequently applied to word samples from 15 unique examples of written health information about the topic of depression and its treatment. Readability estimates from common readability formulas were compared based on text sample size, selection, formatting, software type, and/or hand calculations. Recommendations for their use were provided. The Flesch-Kincaid formula was most commonly used (57.42%). Readability formulas demonstrated variability up to 5 reading grade levels on the same text. The Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) readability formula performed most consistently. Depending on the text sample size, selection, formatting, software, and/or hand calculations, the individual readability formula estimated up to 6 reading grade levels of variability. The SMOG formula appears best suited for health care applications because of its consistency of results, higher level of expected

  6. 42 CFR 2.16 - Security for written records.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Security for written records. 2.16 Section 2.16 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL PROVISIONS CONFIDENTIALITY OF ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE PATIENT RECORDS General Provisions § 2.16 Security for written records...

  7. Age of acquisition and word frequency in written picture naming.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonin, P; Fayol, M; Chalard, M

    2001-05-01

    This study investigates age of acquisition (AoA) and word frequency effects in both spoken and written picture naming. In the first two experiments, reliable AoA effects on object naming speed, with objective word frequency controlled for, were found in both spoken (Experiment 1) and written picture naming (Experiment 2). In contrast, no reliable objective word frequency effects were observed on naming speed, with AoA controlled for, in either spoken (Experiment 3) or written (Experiment 4) picture naming. The implications of the findings for written picture naming are briefly discussed.

  8. The Written Corrective Feedback Debate: Next Steps for Classroom Teachers and Practitioners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Dan

    2012-01-01

    Language teachers spend much of their time providing corrective feedback on students' writing in hope of helping them improve grammatical accuracy. Turning to research for guidance, however, can leave practitioners with few concrete answers as to the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (CF). Debate in the literature continues, reflecting…

  9. 49 CFR 1018.20 - Written demand for payment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... Collection of Claims § 1018.20 Written demand for payment. (a) The Board shall make appropriate written demand upon the debtor for payment of money in terms which specify: (1) The basis for the indebtedness... the debtor has explicitly refused to pay, or that sending a further demand is futile. Depending upon...

  10. Written Cultural Heritage in the Context of Adopted Legal Regulations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eva Kodrič-Dačić

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACTPurpose: Libraries collect written cultural heritage which is not only the most valuable part of their collections but also a part of library materials which is, due to digitalization projects in the last decade, becoming more and more interesting to librarians and library users. The main goal of the study is a theoretical research of library materials acknowledged as Slovenian heritage. By defining the basic terms it highlights the attributes which are immanent to library materials, derived from the context of their origin or later destiny. Slovenian library legislation concerning protection of written cultural heritage is also critically analysed.Methodology/approach: Comparative analyses of European and Slovenian legislation concerning librarianship and written cultural heritage. Research limitation: Research was mainly limited to professional literature and resources dealing with written cultural heritage. Originality/practical implications: Results of the research serve as formal criteria for definition of library materials as written heritage and suggest how to improve legislation in the field of protection of written heritage in libraries. 

  11. Polish Phoneme Statistics Obtained On Large Set Of Written Texts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bartosz Ziółko

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The phonetical statistics were collected from several Polish corpora. The paper is a summaryof the data which are phoneme n-grams and some phenomena in the statistics. Triphonestatistics apply context-dependent speech units which have an important role in speech recognitionsystems and were never calculated for a large set of Polish written texts. The standardphonetic alphabet for Polish, SAMPA, and methods of providing phonetic transcriptions are described.

  12. Failure to Follow Written Procedures

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-12-01

    Most tasks in aviation have a mandated written procedure to be followed specifically under the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 14, Section 43.13(a). However, the incidence of Failure to Follow Procedure (FFP) events continues to be a major iss...

  13. The Medicinal Cannabis Treatment Agreement: Providing Information to Chronic Pain Patients Through a Written Document.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilsey, Barth; Atkinson, J Hampton; Marcotte, Thomas D; Grant, Igor

    2015-12-01

    Pain practitioners would seem to have an obligation to understand and inform their patients on key issues of the evidence base on cannabinoid therapeutics. One way to fulfill this obligation might be to borrow from concepts developed in the prescription of opioids: the use of a written agreement to describe and minimize risks. Regrettably, the widespread adoption of opioids was undertaken while harmful effects were minimized; obviously, no one wants to repeat this misstep. This article describes a method of educating patients in a manner analogous to other treatment agreements. Surveys have demonstrated that pain is the most common indication for medical use of cannabis. As more individuals gain access to this botanical product through state ballot initiatives and legislative mandate, the pain specialist is likely to be confronted by patients either seeking such treatment where permitted, or otherwise inquiring about its potential benefits and harms, and alternative pharmaceuticals containing cannabinoids. PubMed searches were conducted using the following keywords: cannabis guidelines, harmful effects of cannabis, medical marijuana, medicinal cannabis, opioid cannabis interaction, cannabis dependence and cannabis abuse : The authors selected individual tenets a medicinal cannabis patient would be asked to review and acknowledge via signature. Undoubtedly, the knowledge base concerning risks will be an iterative process as we learn more about the long-term use of medicinal cannabis. But we should start the process now so that patients may be instructed about our current conception of what the use of medicinal cannabis entails.

  14. The Medicinal Cannabis Treatment Agreement: Providing Information to Chronic Pain Patients via a Written Document

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilsey, Barth; Atkinson, J. Hampton; Marcotte, Thomas D.; Grant, Igor

    2014-01-01

    Over 20 states now approve medical marijuana for a long list of "indications," and more states may well offer access in the near future. Surveys have demonstrated that pain is the most common indication for medical use of cannabis. As more individuals gain access to this botanical product through state ballot initiatives and legislative mandate, the pain specialist is likely to be confronted by patients either seeking such treatment where permitted, or otherwise inquiring about its potential benefits and harms, and alternative pharmaceuticals containing cannabinoids. Whether or not they are in the position to prescribe medical cannabis, pain physicians would seem to have an obligation to understand and inform their patients on key issues of the evidence base on cannabinoid therapeutics. One way to fulfill this obligation might be to borrow from concepts developed in the prescription of opioids: the use of a written agreement to describe and minimize risks. Regrettably, the widespread adoption of opioids was undertaken while harmful effects were minimized; obviously, no one wants to repeat this misstep. This article describes a method of educating patients in a manner analogous to other treatment agreements. Undoubtedly, the knowledge base concerning risks will be an iterative process as we learn more about the long-term use of medicinal cannabis. But we should start the process now so that patients may be instructed about our current conception of what the use of medicinal cannabis entails. PMID:25370134

  15. Attentional and Contextual Priors in Sound Perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolmetz, Michael; Elhilali, Mounya

    2016-01-01

    Behavioral and neural studies of selective attention have consistently demonstrated that explicit attentional cues to particular perceptual features profoundly alter perception and performance. The statistics of the sensory environment can also provide cues about what perceptual features to expect, but the extent to which these more implicit contextual cues impact perception and performance, as well as their relationship to explicit attentional cues, is not well understood. In this study, the explicit cues, or attentional prior probabilities, and the implicit cues, or contextual prior probabilities, associated with different acoustic frequencies in a detection task were simultaneously manipulated. Both attentional and contextual priors had similarly large but independent impacts on sound detectability, with evidence that listeners tracked and used contextual priors for a variety of sound classes (pure tones, harmonic complexes, and vowels). Further analyses showed that listeners updated their contextual priors rapidly and optimally, given the changing acoustic frequency statistics inherent in the paradigm. A Bayesian Observer model accounted for both attentional and contextual adaptations found with listeners. These results bolster the interpretation of perception as Bayesian inference, and suggest that some effects attributed to selective attention may be a special case of contextual prior integration along a feature axis.

  16. Written Expression Performance in Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeBono, Tony; Hosseini, Armita; Cairo, Cassandra; Ghelani, Karen; Tannock, Rosemary; Toplak, Maggie E.

    2012-01-01

    We examined written expression performance in a sample of adolescents with ADHD and subthreshold ADHD using two different strategies: examining performance on standardized measures of written expression and using other indicators of written expression developed in this study. We examined associations between standardized measures of written…

  17. Written but not oral verbal production is preserved in young schizophrenic patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salomé, Franck; Boyer, Patrice; Fayol, Michel

    2002-08-30

    The aim of this study is to discover whether the language capabilities of young schizophrenic patients are more affected in speaking than in writing or whether the disorders are equivalent in the two modes. To do this, we compared spoken and written descriptions of pictures obtained from 10 schizophrenic patients with those produced by 10 control subjects. These productions were analysed on the basis of objective indices. The syntax and coherence of the productions were evaluated by judges. The comparison of the performances of the controls and schizophrenic patients supports the hypothesis that the latter suffer from a language disorder affecting the oral mode but impacting less frequently and less severely on the written mode. These results are discussed in the light of the cognitive mechanisms which may provide an explanation of these language disorders.

  18. Developmental screening and parents' written comments: an added dimension to the parents' evaluation of developmental status questionnaire.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, Joanne E; Huntington, Noelle; Saada, Adrianna; Epee-Bounya, Alexandra; Schonwald, Alison D

    2010-12-01

    The aim of this study was to better understand the utility of using the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) in well-child visits by analyzing themes and patterns in parents' written responses on the PEDS form. We reviewed a consecutive sample of medical records with PEDS forms for children aged 6 months to 9 years (site 1) and 3 to 5 years (site 2). We recorded the concerns that parents identified in response to the 10 PEDS questions along with demographic information. We then categorized parents' written comments about those concerns according to comment content. We used qualitative and quantitative methods for analysis. We collected 752 PEDS forms. Ninety percent of the parents endorsed at least 1 concern (94.6% on the English forms versus 69.7% on the Spanish forms; P Parents qualified 27.5% of their concerns with a written comment. In 23.9% of cases in which parents identified a concern and provided a written comment, the content of the comment did not match the question's intent; rates of mismatch were similar for the English and Spanish forms. Among comments regarding behavioral concerns, 12% reflected a misunderstanding of age-appropriate behavior. Medical concerns accounted for 14.1% of the comments; these concerns were more common on English forms (61.3%) than on Spanish forms (1.7%) (P Parents frequently used the PEDS forms to communicate additional concerns regarding their child or provide positive feedback on their child's progress. The inappropriate developmental expectations, limited health literacy, and culturally distinct comments on the PEDS forms reinforce the importance of using screening tools to enhance the care provided during visits but not to replace patient-provider communication.

  19. Teaching Written Communication Strategies: A Training to Improve Writing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hanane Benali Taouis

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This research can be described as an experimental quantitative one including: a strategy training; two homogenous experimental groups with different levels of proficiency; and two homogenous control groups. The subjects are 60 Spanish high school students, who have been selected after taking the Oxford Quick Placement-Test. The study aims at investigating the possible relationship between the effect of the strategy training and the subjects' level of proficiency. It is also designed to analyze the effect of the training on the use of communication strategies in the written medium. It is meant to study the effect of the strategy training on the subjects' writing skill in English. The results show that the students' level of proficiency exerts a strong effect on the subjects' use of written communication strategies (CSs and on their strategy preference in written production. They also demonstrate how strategy training improves the subjects' written communication ability.

  20. Triangulation of written assessments from patients, teachers and students: useful for students and teachers?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gran, Sarah Frandsen; Braend, Anja Maria; Lindbaek, Morten

    2010-01-01

    Many medical students in general practice clerkships experience lack of observation-based feedback. The StudentPEP project combined written feedback from patients, observing teachers and students. This study analyzes the perceived usefulness of triangulated written feedback. A total of 71 general practitioners and 79 medical students at the University of Oslo completed project evaluation forms after a 6-week clerkship. A principal component analysis was performed to find structures within the questionnaire. Regression analysis was performed regarding students' answers to whether StudentPEP was worthwhile. Free-text answers were analyzed qualitatively. Student and teacher responses were mixed within six subscales, with highest agreement on 'Teachers oral and written feedback' and 'Attitude to patient evaluation'. Fifty-four per cent of the students agreed that the triangulation gave concrete feedback on their weaknesses, and 59% valued the teachers' feedback provided. Two statements regarding the teacher's attitudes towards StudentPEP were significantly associated with the student's perception of worthwhileness. Qualitative analysis showed that patient evaluations were encouraging or distrusted. Some students thought that StudentPEP ensured observation and feedback. The patient evaluations increased the students' awareness of the patient perspective. A majority of the students considered the triangulated written feedback beneficial, although time-consuming. The teacher's attitudes strongly influenced how the students perceived the usefulness of StudentPEP.

  1. 19 CFR 148.111 - Written declaration for unaccompanied articles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Written declaration for unaccompanied articles... of the United States § 148.111 Written declaration for unaccompanied articles. The baggage... covers articles which do not accompany him and: (a) The articles are entitled to free entry under the $1...

  2. Written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia: an empirical-based organizational-ethical framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemiengre, Joke; Dierckx de Casterlé, Bernadette; Schotsmans, Paul; Gastmans, Chris

    2014-05-01

    As euthanasia has become a widely debated issue in many Western countries, hospitals and nursing homes especially are increasingly being confronted with this ethically sensitive societal issue. The focus of this paper is how healthcare institutions can deal with euthanasia requests on an organizational level by means of a written institutional ethics policy. The general aim is to make a critical analysis whether these policies can be considered as organizational-ethical instruments that support healthcare institutions to take their institutional responsibility for dealing with euthanasia requests. By means of an interpretative analysis, we conducted a process of reinterpretation of results of former Belgian empirical studies on written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia in dialogue with the existing international literature. The study findings revealed that legal regulations, ethical and care-oriented aspects strongly affected the development, the content, and the impact of written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia. Hence, these three cornerstones-law, care and ethics-constituted the basis for the empirical-based organizational-ethical framework for written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia that is presented in this paper. However, having a euthanasia policy does not automatically lead to more legal transparency, or to a more professional and ethical care practice. The study findings suggest that the development and implementation of an ethics policy on euthanasia as an organizational-ethical instrument should be considered as a dynamic process. Administrators and ethics committees must take responsibility to actively create an ethical climate supporting care providers who have to deal with ethical dilemmas in their practice.

  3. External Prior Guided Internal Prior Learning for Real-World Noisy Image Denoising

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Jun; Zhang, Lei; Zhang, David

    2018-06-01

    Most of existing image denoising methods learn image priors from either external data or the noisy image itself to remove noise. However, priors learned from external data may not be adaptive to the image to be denoised, while priors learned from the given noisy image may not be accurate due to the interference of corrupted noise. Meanwhile, the noise in real-world noisy images is very complex, which is hard to be described by simple distributions such as Gaussian distribution, making real noisy image denoising a very challenging problem. We propose to exploit the information in both external data and the given noisy image, and develop an external prior guided internal prior learning method for real noisy image denoising. We first learn external priors from an independent set of clean natural images. With the aid of learned external priors, we then learn internal priors from the given noisy image to refine the prior model. The external and internal priors are formulated as a set of orthogonal dictionaries to efficiently reconstruct the desired image. Extensive experiments are performed on several real noisy image datasets. The proposed method demonstrates highly competitive denoising performance, outperforming state-of-the-art denoising methods including those designed for real noisy images.

  4. Attentive Reading With Constrained Summarization Adapted to Address Written Discourse in People With Mild Aphasia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Obermeyer, Jessica A; Edmonds, Lisa A

    2018-03-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the preliminary efficacy of Attentive Reading and Constrained Summarization-Written (ARCS-W) in people with mild aphasia. ARCS-W adapts an existing treatment, ARCS (Rogalski & Edmonds, 2008), to address discourse level writing in mild aphasia. ARCS-W focuses on the cognitive and linguistic skills required for discourse production. This study was a within-subject pre-postdesign. Three people with mild aphasia participated. ARCS-W integrates attentive reading or listening with constrained summarization of discourse level material in spoken and written modalities. Outcomes included macro- (main concepts) and microlinguistic (correct information units, complete utterances) discourse measures, confrontation naming, aphasia severity, and functional communication. All 3 participants demonstrated some generalization to untrained spoken and written discourse at the word, sentence, and text levels. Reduced aphasia severity and/or increased functional communication and confrontation naming were also observed in some participants. The findings of this study provide preliminary evidence of the efficacy of ARCS-W to improve spoken and written discourse in mild aphasia. Different generalization patterns suggest different mechanisms of improvement. Further research and replication are required to better understand how ARCS-W can impact discourse abilities.

  5. Written pain neuroscience education in fibromyalgia: a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Ittersum, Miriam W; van Wilgen, C Paul; van der Schans, Cees P; Lambrecht, Luc; Groothoff, Johan W; Nijs, Jo

    2014-11-01

    Mounting evidence supports the use of face-to-face pain neuroscience education for the treatment of chronic pain patients. This study aimed at examining whether written education about pain neuroscience improves illness perceptions, catastrophizing, and health status in patients with fibromyalgia. A double-blind, multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial with 6-month follow-up was conducted. Patients with FM (n = 114) that consented to participate were randomly allocated to receive either written pain neuroscience education or written relaxation training. Written pain neuroscience education comprised of a booklet with pain neuroscience education plus a telephone call to clarify any difficulties; the relaxation group received a booklet with relaxation education and a telephone call. The revised illness perception questionnaire, Pain Catastrophizing Scale, and fibromyalgia impact questionnaire were used as outcome measures. Both patients and assessors were blinded. Repeated-measures analyses with last observation carried forward principle were performed. Cohen's d effect sizes (ES) were calculated for all within-group changes and between-group differences. The results reveal that written pain neuroscience education does not change the impact of FM on daily life, catastrophizing, or perceived symptoms of patients with FM. Compared with written relaxation training, written pain neuroscience education improved beliefs in a chronic timeline of FM (P = 0.03; ES = 0.50), but it does not impact upon other domains of illness perceptions. Compared with written relaxation training, written pain neuroscience education slightly improved illness perceptions of patients with FM, but it did not impart clinically meaningful effects on pain, catastrophizing, or the impact of FM on daily life. Face-to-face sessions of pain neuroscience education are required to change inappropriate cognitions and perceived health in patients with FM. © 2013 World Institute of Pain.

  6. The influence of the pregroove on the shape of thermomagnetically written domains

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ichihara, K.

    1990-01-01

    In order to clarify the influence of pregrooved substrates on the shape of thermomagnetically written domains, the difference between the shape of the domains written on a pregrooved area and that written on a mirror area have been examined. Trilayered magneto-optical media, which had rare-earth- (RE-) rich TbFeCo films, transition-metal-rich TbFeCo films, and RE-rich GdTbFeCo films as a recording layer, were sputtered on disk substrates. The substrates had both a pregrooved area and a mirror area in a recording track. The domains were written in each medium by varying the recording power and the external field, and were observed by an Ar + -laser scanning polarized microscope. In the case of TbFeCo media which were written with lower recording power condition, the shape of the domains on a pregrooved area were almost the same as those written on a mirror area. On the other hand, the widths of the domains written on a mirror area became larger than those of domains written on a pregrooved area when the recording power was increased. In the case of a GdTbFeCo medium, the widths of the domains written on a mirror area were much larger than those of domains written on a pregrooved area independent of the recording conditions. The lengths of the domains written on both areas were almost the same for all cases. It is believed that the reason for the experimental results is that thermal diffusion in the film plane is suppressed at the step of a pregroove. The different result between TbFeCo and GdTbFeCo films is believed to come from the differences in the contracting forces on the domain walls during the writing process

  7. On written expression of primary school pupils

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stevanović Jelena

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Normative rules of standard Serbian language are acquired during primary and secondary education through curriculum demands of Serbian language instruction, which takes place in three fields: grammar, orthography and culture of expression. Topic of interest in this paper is the quality of written expression of 6th and 7th grade pupils, in the context of all three fields specified to be mastered by the curriculum of Serbian language. Research comprised 148 primary school pupils from Belgrade. Linguistic analysis of spontaneously created written text was performed, in the conditions where it was not explicitly demanded form the pupil to write correctly. The results indicate that the majority of pupils make spelling and grammatical errors, meeting the condition for the basic level of mastering the knowledge in Serbian language according to the standards specified for the end of compulsory education. In addition to this, a considerable majority of pupils has a satisfactory level of culture of written expression. Pupils more often make spelling than grammatical errors. Seventh grade pupils are better than sixth grade pupils with respect to adhering to grammar rules and according to culture of written expression, while the mark in Serbian language and general school achievement of pupils correlate only with the degree of adhering to the orthographic rules. It was concluded that not only individual programs of support for pupils who make more errors are necessary, but also launching national projects for the development of linguistic competence of the young in Serbia.

  8. The Written Communication Skills That Matter Most for Accountants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riley, Tracey J.; Simons, Kathleen A.

    2016-01-01

    Given the importance of effective written communication skills to the discipline of accounting, faculty must emphasize these skills in their classroom in order to adequately prepare students for successful careers in the field. Since 2000, only two studies in the accounting literature have examined which written communication skills are needed by…

  9. 10 CFR 2.813 - Written communications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... other written communications under the regulations of this chapter is requested but not required to cite whenever practical, in the upper right corner of the first page of the submission, the specific regulation...

  10. Prior image constrained scatter correction in cone-beam computed tomography image-guided radiation therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brunner, Stephen; Nett, Brian E; Tolakanahalli, Ranjini; Chen, Guang-Hong

    2011-02-21

    X-ray scatter is a significant problem in cone-beam computed tomography when thicker objects and larger cone angles are used, as scattered radiation can lead to reduced contrast and CT number inaccuracy. Advances have been made in x-ray computed tomography (CT) by incorporating a high quality prior image into the image reconstruction process. In this paper, we extend this idea to correct scatter-induced shading artifacts in cone-beam CT image-guided radiation therapy. Specifically, this paper presents a new scatter correction algorithm which uses a prior image with low scatter artifacts to reduce shading artifacts in cone-beam CT images acquired under conditions of high scatter. The proposed correction algorithm begins with an empirical hypothesis that the target image can be written as a weighted summation of a series of basis images that are generated by raising the raw cone-beam projection data to different powers, and then, reconstructing using the standard filtered backprojection algorithm. The weight for each basis image is calculated by minimizing the difference between the target image and the prior image. The performance of the scatter correction algorithm is qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated through phantom studies using a Varian 2100 EX System with an on-board imager. Results show that the proposed scatter correction algorithm using a prior image with low scatter artifacts can substantially mitigate scatter-induced shading artifacts in both full-fan and half-fan modes.

  11. Prior Inoculation with Type B Strains of Francisella tularensis Provides Partial Protection against Virulent Type A Strains in Cottontail Rabbits.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vienna R Brown

    Full Text Available Francisella tularensis is a highly virulent bacterium that is capable of causing severe disease (tularemia in a wide range of species. This organism is characterized into two distinct subspecies: tularensis (type A and holarctica (type B which vary in several crucial ways, with some type A strains having been found to be considerably more virulent in humans and laboratory animals. Cottontail rabbits have been widely implicated as a reservoir species for this subspecies; however, experimental inoculation in our laboratory revealed type A organisms to be highly virulent, resulting in 100% mortality following challenge with 50-100 organisms. Inoculation of cottontail rabbits with the same number of organisms from type B strains of bacteria was found to be rarely lethal and to result in a robust humoral immune response. The objective of this study was to characterize the protection afforded by a prior challenge with type B strains against a later inoculation with a type A strain in North American cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus spp. Previous infection with a type B strain of organism was found to lengthen survival time and in some cases prevent death following inoculation with a type A2 strain of F. tularensis. In contrast, inoculation of a type A1b strain was uniformly lethal in cottontail rabbits irrespective of a prior type B inoculation. These findings provide important insight about the role cottontail rabbits may play in environmental maintenance and transmission of this organism.

  12. Oral and written language in late adulthood: findings from the Nun Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitzner, Tracy L; Kemper, Susan

    2003-01-01

    As a part of the Nun Study, a longitudinal investigation of aging and Alzheimer's disease, oral and written autobiographies from 118 older women were analyzed to examine the relationship between spoken and written language. The written language samples were more complex than the oral samples, both conceptually and grammatically. The relationship between the linguistic measures and participant characteristics was also examined. The results suggest that the grammatical and conceptual characteristics of oral and written language are affected by participant differences in education, cognitive status, and physical function and that written language samples have greater power than oral language samples to differentiate between high- and low-ability older adults.

  13. Verb-Noun Collocations in Written Discourse of Iranian EFL Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fatemeh Ebrahimi-Bazzaz

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available When native speakers of English write, they employ both grammatical rules and collocations. Collocations are words that are present in the memory of native speakers as ready-made prefabricated chunks. Non-native speakers who wish to acquire native-like fluency should give appropriate attention to collocations in writing in order not to produce sentences that native speakers may consider odd. The present study tries to explore the use of verb-noun collocations in written discourse of English as foreign language (EFL among Iranian EFL learners from one academic year to the next in Iran. To measure the use of verb-noun collocations in written discourse, there was a 60-minute task of writing story  based on a series of six pictures whereby for each picture, three verb-noun collocations were measured, and nouns were provided to limit the choice of collocations. The results of the statistical analysis of ANOVA for the research question indicated that there was a significant difference in the use of lexical verb-noun collocations in written discourse both between and within the four academic years. The results of a post hoc multiple comparison tests confirmed that the means are significantly different between the first year and the third and fourth years, between the second and the fourth, and between the third and the fourth academic year which indicate substantial development in verb-noun collocation proficiency.  The vital implication is that the learners could use verb-noun collocations in productive skill of writing.

  14. Teaching Computation in Primary School without Traditional Written Algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartnett, Judy

    2015-01-01

    Concerns regarding the dominance of the traditional written algorithms in schools have been raised by many mathematics educators, yet the teaching of these procedures remains a dominant focus in in primary schools. This paper reports on a project in one school where the staff agreed to put the teaching of the traditional written algorithm aside,…

  15. Preparing learners with partly incorrect intuitive prior knowledge for learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea eOhst

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Learners sometimes have incoherent and fragmented intuitive prior knowledge that is (partly ‘incompatible’ with the to-be-learned contents. Such knowledge in pieces can cause conceptual disorientation and cognitive overload while learning. We hypothesized that a pre-training intervention providing a generalized schema as a structuring framework for such knowledge in pieces would support (reorganizing-processes of prior knowledge and thus reduce unnecessary cognitive load during subsequent learning. Fifty-six student teachers participated in the experiment. A framework group underwent a pre-training intervention providing a generalized, categorical schema for categorizing primary learning strategies and related but different strategies as a cognitive framework for (re-organizing their prior knowledge. Our control group received comparable factual information but no framework. Afterwards, all participants learned about primary learning strategies. The framework group claimed to possess higher levels of interest and self-efficacy, achieved higher learning outcomes, and learned more efficiently. Hence, providing a categorical framework can help overcome the barrier of incorrect prior knowledge in pieces.

  16. Preparing learners with partly incorrect intuitive prior knowledge for learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohst, Andrea; Fondu, Béatrice M. E.; Glogger, Inga; Nückles, Matthias; Renkl, Alexander

    2014-01-01

    Learners sometimes have incoherent and fragmented intuitive prior knowledge that is (partly) “incompatible” with the to-be-learned contents. Such knowledge in pieces can cause conceptual disorientation and cognitive overload while learning. We hypothesized that a pre-training intervention providing a generalized schema as a structuring framework for such knowledge in pieces would support (re)organizing-processes of prior knowledge and thus reduce unnecessary cognitive load during subsequent learning. Fifty-six student teachers participated in the experiment. A framework group underwent a pre-training intervention providing a generalized, categorical schema for categorizing primary learning strategies and related but different strategies as a cognitive framework for (re-)organizing their prior knowledge. Our control group received comparable factual information but no framework. Afterwards, all participants learned about primary learning strategies. The framework group claimed to possess higher levels of interest and self-efficacy, achieved higher learning outcomes, and learned more efficiently. Hence, providing a categorical framework can help overcome the barrier of incorrect prior knowledge in pieces. PMID:25071638

  17. Prior Sensitivity Analysis in Default Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Erp, Sara; Mulder, Joris; Oberski, Daniel L

    2017-11-27

    Bayesian structural equation modeling (BSEM) has recently gained popularity because it enables researchers to fit complex models and solve some of the issues often encountered in classical maximum likelihood estimation, such as nonconvergence and inadmissible solutions. An important component of any Bayesian analysis is the prior distribution of the unknown model parameters. Often, researchers rely on default priors, which are constructed in an automatic fashion without requiring substantive prior information. However, the prior can have a serious influence on the estimation of the model parameters, which affects the mean squared error, bias, coverage rates, and quantiles of the estimates. In this article, we investigate the performance of three different default priors: noninformative improper priors, vague proper priors, and empirical Bayes priors-with the latter being novel in the BSEM literature. Based on a simulation study, we find that these three default BSEM methods may perform very differently, especially with small samples. A careful prior sensitivity analysis is therefore needed when performing a default BSEM analysis. For this purpose, we provide a practical step-by-step guide for practitioners to conducting a prior sensitivity analysis in default BSEM. Our recommendations are illustrated using a well-known case study from the structural equation modeling literature, and all code for conducting the prior sensitivity analysis is available in the online supplemental materials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  18. Is handwriting constrained by phonology? Evidence from Stroop tasks with written responses and Chinese characters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markus eDamian

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available To what extent is handwritten word production based on phonological codes? A few studies conducted in Western languages have recently provided evidence showing that phonology contributes to the retrieval of graphemic properties in written output tasks. Less is known about how orthographic production works in languages with non-alphabetic scripts such as written Chinese. We report a Stroop study in which Chinese participants wrote the colour of characters on a digital graphic tablet; characters were either neutral, or homophonic to the target (congruent, or homophonic to an alternative (incongruent. Facilitation was found from congruent homophonic distractors, but only when the homophone shared the same tone with the target. This finding suggests a contribution of phonology to written word production. A second experiment served as a control experiment to exclude the possibility that the effect in Experiment 1 had an exclusively semantic locus. Overall, the findings offer new insight into the relative contribution of phonology to handwriting, particularly in non-Western languages.

  19. Syllable frequency and word frequency effects in spoken and written word production in a non-alphabetic script

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qingfang eZhang

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available The effects of word frequency and syllable frequency are well-established phenomena in domain such as spoken production in alphabetic languages. Chinese, as a non-alphabetic language, presents unique lexical and phonological properties in speech production. For example, the proximate unit of phonological encoding is syllable in Chinese but segments in Dutch, French or English. The present study investigated the effects of word frequency and syllable frequency, and their interaction in Chinese written and spoken production. Significant facilitatory word frequency and syllable frequency effects were observed in spoken as well as in written production. The syllable frequency effect in writing indicated that phonological properties (i.e., syllabic frequency constrain orthographic output via a lexical route, at least, in Chinese written production. However, the syllable frequency effect over repetitions was divergent in both modalities: it was significant in the former two repetitions in spoken whereas it was significant in the second repetition only in written. Due to the fragility of the syllable frequency effect in writing, we suggest that the phonological influence in handwritten production is not mandatory and universal, and it is modulated by experimental manipulations. This provides evidence for the orthographic autonomy hypothesis, rather than the phonological mediation hypothesis. The absence of an interaction between word frequency and syllable frequency showed that the syllable frequency effect is independent of the word frequency effect in spoken and written output modalities. The implications of these results on written production models are discussed.

  20. Perception and Assessment of Verbal and Written Information on Sex and Relationships after Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wendt, Christel

    2017-12-01

    This study aimed to investigate experiences of verbal and written information about sex and relationships among men and women treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The study also aimed to investigate the demand for information and assessment of the quality of written patient information material entitled "Sex and relationships in the treatment of blood diseases." Few studies exist that shed any light on the demand for information about sex and relationships on the part of patients with hematological diseases before, during, and after their treatment. A total of 216 patients undergoing treatment for malignant blood diseases between 2000 and 2010 participated in this study. Patients' experiences of information about sex and relationships, and their opinions about the written patient information, were assessed using a questionnaire created specifically for this study. Most patients (81 %) had not received information about sex and relationships from a healthcare professional. Almost 90 % of men felt that verbal information was important, compared with 82 % of women. The majority also held that written information was important. These results indicate that patients, regardless of gender, age, and treatment, consider oral and written information about sex and relationships to be important and that the healthcare system should provide the information. The written patient information was considered to play an important role in creating an opening for a conversation about a sensitive topic such as sexuality, and also as a source of reference and support for the patient and his/her partner.

  1. Psychosis screening practices in schools: A survey of school-based mental health providers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kline, Emily R; Chokran, Cole; Rodenhiser-Hill, Janine; Seidman, Larry J; Woodberry, Kristen A

    2018-05-04

    Many school districts in the United States employ mental health professionals to provide assessment, counselling and crisis interventions within the school setting; however, little is known about actual clinical practices of psychosis screening in schools. The aim of the present study is to examine attitudes and practices regarding psychosis screening among school mental health providers in metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts. School-based mental health clinicians (N = 100) completed an anonymous survey assessing familiarity, screening, and involvement with psychosis and psychosis risk prior to attending trainings on psychosis. Providers reported screening for psychosis less often than other mental health problems and rated themselves as less confident treating psychosis relative to other mental health concerns. Frequency of screening for psychosis was significantly associated with familiarity with psychosis assessment and case management, confidence providing treatment for individuals experiencing psychosis, and the number of students with or at risk for psychosis with whom providers had been involved. Frequency of screening for psychosis was not associated with years of practice, suggesting that both novice and experienced school-based providers may benefit from training on this issue. Community outreach via school-based provider training on assessment and management of psychosis may help to increase providers' understanding of psychosis and increase the practice of verbal or written screening for psychosis and psychosis risk within schools. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

  2. Thinking aloud during idea generating and planning before written translation: Developmental changes from ages 10 to 12 in expressing and defending opinions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidson, Matt; Berninger, Virginia

    2016-01-01

    This interdisciplinary research, drawing on cognitive psychology and linguistics, extended to middle childhood past research during early childhood or adulthood on thinking aloud prior to written composing. In year 5 of a longitudinal study of typical writing, when cohort 1 was in grade 5 ( n = 110 ten year-olds) and cohort 2 in grade 7 ( n = 97 twelve year-olds), a cross-sectional study was conducted. Children were first asked to think aloud while they generated ideas and second while they planned their essays to express and defend their opinions on a controversial topic in the region of the United States where they lived. Third, they wrote their essays. Their think-aloud protocols were audio-recorded and later transcribed into writing for analysis. The authors developed and applied rating scales for quality of idea generating and planning in the written transcriptions and quality of opinion expression, opinion defense, organization, and content in the essays children wrote after thinking aloud; total number of words in essays was also counted. Seventh graders scored significantly higher than fifth graders on quality of idea generation but not planning, and higher on all variables rated for quality in the written essays including length. Quality of expressing opinions and defending opinions were uncorrelated in grade 5, but moderately correlated in grade 7. Whether idea generating or planning quality explained unique variance in essays varied with coded written essay variables and grade. Educational applications of results for assessment, assessment-instruction links, instruction in social studies, and theory of mind in persuasive essay writing are discussed.

  3. Developing Oral and Written Communication Skills in Undergraduate Computer Science and Information Systems Curriculum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kortsarts, Yana; Fischbach, Adam; Rufinus, Jeff; Utell, Janine M.; Yoon, Suk-Chung

    2010-01-01

    Developing and applying oral and written communication skills in the undergraduate computer science and computer information systems curriculum--one of the ABET accreditation requirements - is a very challenging and, at the same time, a rewarding task that provides various opportunities to enrich the undergraduate computer science and computer…

  4. Constrained noninformative priors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Atwood, C.L.

    1994-10-01

    The Jeffreys noninformative prior distribution for a single unknown parameter is the distribution corresponding to a uniform distribution in the transformed model where the unknown parameter is approximately a location parameter. To obtain a prior distribution with a specified mean but with diffusion reflecting great uncertainty, a natural generalization of the noninformative prior is the distribution corresponding to the constrained maximum entropy distribution in the transformed model. Examples are given

  5. The Influence of Process Drama on Elementary Students' Written Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Alida

    2012-01-01

    This article describes the influence of process drama on fourth grade students' written language productivity and specificity. Participants included 16 students with learning and/or behavioral challenges at an urban public charter school. The influence of process drama on students' written language was compared across contextualized and…

  6. On the use of a pruning prior for neural networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Goutte, Cyril

    1996-01-01

    We address the problem of using a regularization prior that prunes unnecessary weights in a neural network architecture. This prior provides a convenient alternative to traditional weight-decay. Two examples are studied to support this method and illustrate its use. First we use the sunspots...

  7. Written narrative practices in elementary school students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romano-Soares, Soraia; Soares, Aparecido José Couto; Cárnio, Maria Silvia

    2010-01-01

    Promotion of a written narratives production program in the third grade of an Elementary School. To analyze two written narrative practice proposals in order to verify which resources are more efficient in benefitting the textual productions of third grade Elementary School students. Sixty students were selected from two third grade groups of a public Elementary School in São Paulo (Brazil). For the analysis, students were divided into two groups (Group A and Group B). Fourteen children's storybooks were used. In Group A, the story was orally told by the researchers in a colloquial manner, keeping the narrator role and the original structure proposed by the author. In Group B, the story was fully read. The book was projected onto a screen and read aloud so the students could follow the reading and observe the corresponding illustrations. Voice changing resources in the characters' dialogues were used. In the overall comparison, statistically significant results were found for moment (initial and final assessments) and for interaction between groups. It was observed that both groups presented substantial development from initial to final assessment. The Written Narratives Promotion Program based on the shared reading of children's storybooks constituted a more effective strategy than telling the stories using a single reader.

  8. Crowdsourcing prior information to improve study design and data analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeffrey S Chrabaszcz

    Full Text Available Though Bayesian methods are being used more frequently, many still struggle with the best method for setting priors with novel measures or task environments. We propose a method for setting priors by eliciting continuous probability distributions from naive participants. This allows us to include any relevant information participants have for a given effect. Even when prior means are near-zero, this method provides a principle way to estimate dispersion and produce shrinkage, reducing the occurrence of overestimated effect sizes. We demonstrate this method with a number of published studies and compare the effect of different prior estimation and aggregation methods.

  9. Concreteness and Imagery Effects in the Written Composition of Definitions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadoski, Mark; Kealy, William A.; Goetz, Ernest T.; Paivio, Allan

    1997-01-01

    In two experiments, undergraduates (n=48 and n=50) composed written definitions of concrete and abstract nouns that were matched for frequency of use and meaningfulness. Results support previous research suggesting that common cognitive mechanisms underlie production of spoken and written language as explained by dual coding theory. (SLD)

  10. Quantity and quality of written feedback, action plans, and student ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Background. Mini-clinical-evaluation exercise (mini-CEX) assessment forms that have been modified with the addition of specific spaces on separate sheets are expected to improve the quantity and quality of written feedback and the action plan for further learning which is agreed upon, and to encourage written reflection.

  11. Classifying Written Texts Through Rhythmic Features

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Balint, Mihaela; Dascalu, Mihai; Trausan-Matu, Stefan

    2016-01-01

    Rhythm analysis of written texts focuses on literary analysis and it mainly considers poetry. In this paper we investigate the relevance of rhythmic features for categorizing texts in prosaic form pertaining to different genres. Our contribution is threefold. First, we define a set of rhythmic

  12. Written mathematical traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Høyrup, Jens

    2015-01-01

    Writing, as well as various mathematical techniques, were created in proto-literate Uruk in order to serve accounting, and Mesopotamian mathematics as we know it was always expressed in writing. In so far, mathematics generically regarded was always part of the generic written tradition....

  13. Development of a CD-ROM on written language for the continuing education of elementary school teachers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thaís dos Santos Gonçalves

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Distance education has emerged to minimize the anxiety of many professionals who need to update their knowledge, but do not have the time and opportunity to travel to educational centers. Objectives: To describe the development of a CD-ROM to provide distance continuing education to basic school teachers that addresses issues related to written language. Material and Methods: Previously, a script was developed with themes related to the acquisition and development of written language. Subsequently, a technical team transformed the texts in multimedia language. Results: The titles of each content area addressed are available on buttons and links. The files can be viewed in a linear sequence, allowing the teacher to start learning at the desired moment and go straight to the file that he or she wants to access. Videos that show practical applications of the concepts available in text are included. Conclusions: Brazil is a developing country. The use of technologies for education reduces cultural isolation among education professionals. It is necessary to focus on making teaching materials for distance education. In order to provide an effective learning environment, the learners reality should be considered. A multidisciplinary team should prepare the materials. The development of educational material for distance education on the acquisition and development of written language seems not only appropriate, but also warranted to provide professional growth opportunity for teachers who need time flexibility and/or live far away from academic centers.

  14. [Alcohol advertising in written mass media in Spain].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montes-Santiago, J; Alvarez Muñiz, M L; Baz Lomba, A

    2007-03-01

    Alcohol advertising is a powerful factor of incitation to consumption. We analyzed the alcohol advertising, especially that youth-focused, in written mass media in Spain during the period 2002-2006. Annual cross-sectional study of advertisements in 41 widely difused written mass media (average readers: 10,1 millions). Media admitting alcohol publicity were 29% in the whole. (2,9 millions of readers on average, 29% of total readers). Alcohol advertising constituted the 3,8% of global publicity and the 8,6% of the publicity in media admitting alcohol publicity. In this period only 4% of the media (2,4% of total readers) inserted antidrug campaigns. In brief, three out of 10 total readers and one out of 12 people older than 15 years suffered the impact of tobacco advertising. Young people were included in 33% of alcohol advertisements and 3 out of 6 of youth-oriented magazines permitted a such publicity. Alcohol publicity remains high in written mass media in Spain. By contrast few people received informative antidrug campaigns. Advertising was preferentially directed to young people.

  15. Promoting Strong Written Communication Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narayanan, M.

    2015-12-01

    The reason that an improvement in the quality of technical writing is still needed in the classroom is due to the fact that universities are facing challenging problems not only on the technological front but also on the socio-economic front. The universities are actively responding to the changes that are taking place in the global consumer marketplace. Obviously, there are numerous benefits of promoting strong written communication skills. They can be summarized into the following six categories. First, and perhaps the most important: The University achieves learner satisfaction. The learner has documented verbally, that the necessary knowledge has been successfully acquired. This results in learner loyalty that in turn will attract more qualified learners.Second, quality communication lowers the cost per pupil, consequently resulting in increased productivity backed by a stronger economic structure and forecast. Third, quality communications help to improve the cash flow and cash reserves of the university. Fourth, having high quality communication enables the university to justify the need for high costs of tuition and fees. Fifth, better quality in written communication skills result in attracting top-quality learners. This will lead to happier and satisfied learners, not to mention greater prosperity for the university as a whole. Sixth, quality written communication skills result in reduced complaints, thus meaning fewer hours spent on answering or correcting the situation. The University faculty and staff are thus able to devote more time on scholarly activities, meaningful research and productive community service. References Boyer, Ernest L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the Professorate.Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Hawkins, P., & Winter, J. (1997). Mastering change: Learning the lessons of the enterprise.London: Department for Education and Employment. Buzzel, Robert D., and Bradley T. Gale. (1987

  16. 12 CFR 516.110 - Who may submit a written comment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Who may submit a written comment? 516.110 Section 516.110 Banks and Banking OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY APPLICATION PROCESSING PROCEDURES Comment Procedures § 516.110 Who may submit a written comment? Any person may submit a...

  17. 21 CFR 14.35 - Written submissions to an advisory committee.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Written submissions to an advisory committee. 14.35 Section 14.35 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES... of the written summary along with a proposed agenda outlining the topics to be covered and...

  18. Appropriating Written French: Literacy Practices in a Parisian Elementary Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rockwell, Elsie

    2012-01-01

    In this article, I examine French language instruction in an elementary classroom serving primarily children of Afro-French immigrants in Paris. I show that a prevalent French language ideology privileges written over oral expression and associates full mastery of written French with rational thought and full inclusion in the French polity. This…

  19. Generalized species sampling priors with latent Beta reinforcements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Airoldi, Edoardo M.; Costa, Thiago; Bassetti, Federico; Leisen, Fabrizio; Guindani, Michele

    2014-01-01

    Many popular Bayesian nonparametric priors can be characterized in terms of exchangeable species sampling sequences. However, in some applications, exchangeability may not be appropriate. We introduce a novel and probabilistically coherent family of non-exchangeable species sampling sequences characterized by a tractable predictive probability function with weights driven by a sequence of independent Beta random variables. We compare their theoretical clustering properties with those of the Dirichlet Process and the two parameters Poisson-Dirichlet process. The proposed construction provides a complete characterization of the joint process, differently from existing work. We then propose the use of such process as prior distribution in a hierarchical Bayes modeling framework, and we describe a Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampler for posterior inference. We evaluate the performance of the prior and the robustness of the resulting inference in a simulation study, providing a comparison with popular Dirichlet Processes mixtures and Hidden Markov Models. Finally, we develop an application to the detection of chromosomal aberrations in breast cancer by leveraging array CGH data. PMID:25870462

  20. Evidence for a Limited-Cascading Account of Written Word Naming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonin, Patrick; Roux, Sebastien; Barry, Christopher; Canell, Laura

    2012-01-01

    We address the issue of how information flows within the written word production system by examining written object-naming latencies. We report 4 experiments in which we manipulate variables assumed to have their primary impact at the level of object recognition (e.g., quality of visual presentation of pictured objects), at the level of semantic…

  1. 37 CFR 251.43 - Written cases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... and redirect) must be referenced. (d) In the case of a royalty fee distribution proceeding, each party... ROYALTY PANEL RULES AND PROCEDURES COPYRIGHT ARBITRATION ROYALTY PANEL RULES OF PROCEDURE Procedures of Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels § 251.43 Written cases. (a) All parties who have filed a notice of...

  2. 34 CFR 32.9 - Written decision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... the employee has submitted the financial statement and written explanation required under § 32.4(c... stating the facts supporting the nature and origin of the debt and the hearing official's analysis... determination of the existence and the amount of the overpayment or the extreme financial hardship caused by the...

  3. Prosodic Parallelism – comparing spoken and written language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard Wiese

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The Prosodic Parallelism hypothesis claims adjacent prosodic categories to prefer identical branching of internal adjacent constituents. According to Wiese and Speyer (2015, this preference implies feet contained in the same phonological phrase to display either binary or unary branching, but not different types of branching. The seemingly free schwa-zero alternations at the end of some words in German make it possible to test this hypothesis. The hypothesis was successfully tested by conducting a corpus study which used large-scale bodies of written German. As some open questions remain, and as it is unclear whether Prosodic Parallelism is valid for the spoken modality as well, the present study extends this inquiry to spoken German. As in the previous study, the results of a corpus analysis recruiting a variety of linguistic constructions are presented. The Prosodic Parallelism hypothesis can be demonstrated to be valid for spoken German as well as for written German. The paper thus contributes to the question whether prosodic preferences are similar between the spoken and written modes of a language. Some consequences of the results for the production of language are discussed.

  4. Prior elicitation: Interactive spreadsheet graphics with sliders can be fun, and informative

    OpenAIRE

    Jones, G; Johnson, WO

    2014-01-01

    There are several approaches to setting priors in Bayesian data analysis. Some attempt to minimize the impact of the prior on the posterior, allowing the data to "speak for themselves," or to provide Bayesian inferences that have good frequentist properties. In contrast, this note focuses on priors where scientific knowledge is used, possibly partially informative. There are many articles on the use of such subjective information. We focus on using standard software for eliciting priors from ...

  5. DISCOURSE AND PARTICIPATION IN ESL FACE-TO-FACE AND WRITTEN ELECTRONIC CONFERENCES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Fitze

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This study was a comparative investigation of face-to-face and written electronic conferences. The participants were advanced English as a second language (hereafter: ESL students. The two types of conferences were compared in terms of textual features and participation. There was no statistically significant difference in the total number of words that students produced in an equivalent amount of time in the two types of conferences. The discourse in written electronic conferences displayed greater lexical range, and students in these conferences produced more discourse demonstrating interactive competence. The statistically significant finding of increased lexical range in written electronic conferences persisted even when the interactive discourse was eliminated from the conference transcripts and the transcripts were reanalyzed. This finding suggests that, during written electronic conferences, students were better able to use and practice a wider range of vocabulary related to the topics. For one of the groups, participation in written electronic conferences was more balanced among students, while for the other group participation was about equally balanced regardless of the conference setting. This last finding came as a surprise and points to a need for further research into variables that might mediate balanced participation in face-to-face and written electronic conferences.

  6. Towards a Theory of Vernacularisation: Insights from Written Chinese Vernaculars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snow, Don

    2013-01-01

    This paper examines the history of four Chinese vernaculars which have developed written forms, and argues that five of the patterns Hanan identifies in the early development of Bai Hua can also be found in the early development of written Wu, Cantonese, and Minnan. In each of the cases studied, there is a clear pattern of early use of the…

  7. Uses of the word "macula" in written English, 1400-present.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwartz, Stephen G; Leffler, Christopher T

    2014-01-01

    We compiled uses of the word "macula" in written English by searching multiple databases, including the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership, America's Historical Newspapers, the Gale Cengage Collections, and others. "Macula" has been used: as a non-medical "spot" or "stain", literal or figurative, including in astronomy and in Shakespeare; as a medical skin lesion, occasionally with a following descriptive adjective, such as a color (macula alba); as a corneal lesion, including the earliest identified use in English, circa 1400; and to describe the center of the retina. Francesco Buzzi described a yellow color in the posterior pole ("retina tinta di un color giallo") in 1782, but did not use the word "macula". "Macula lutea" was published by Samuel Thomas von Sömmering by 1799, and subsequently used in 1818 by James Wardrop, which appears to be the first known use in English. The Google n-gram database shows a marked increase in the frequencies of both "macula" and "macula lutea" following the introduction of the ophthalmoscope in 1850. "Macula" has been used in multiple contexts in written English. Modern databases provide powerful tools to explore historical uses of this word, which may be underappreciated by contemporary ophthalmologists. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. 7 CFR 900.40 - Written testimony and USDA data request requirements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... and Nut Marketing Agreements and Marketing Orders § 900.40 Written testimony and USDA data request... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Written testimony and USDA data request requirements...) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements and Orders; Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts), DEPARTMENT OF...

  9. Introducing Professional Writing Skills to Future Naval Officers: An Adjunct to NPS Distance Learning

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Booher, Brandon M; Waisanen, Derek S

    2008-01-01

    .... This project answers the following question: will written communication training provided to midshipmen prior to commissioning enable them to report to their first assignments with the written communication knowledge and skills to communicate...

  10. Form of prior for constrained thermodynamic processes with uncertainty

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aneja, Preety; Johal, Ramandeep S.

    2015-05-01

    We consider the quasi-static thermodynamic processes with constraints, but with additional uncertainty about the control parameters. Motivated by inductive reasoning, we assign prior distribution that provides a rational guess about likely values of the uncertain parameters. The priors are derived explicitly for both the entropy-conserving and the energy-conserving processes. The proposed form is useful when the constraint equation cannot be treated analytically. The inference is performed using spin-1/2 systems as models for heat reservoirs. Analytical results are derived in the high-temperatures limit. An agreement beyond linear response is found between the estimates of thermal quantities and their optimal values obtained from extremum principles. We also seek an intuitive interpretation for the prior and the estimated value of temperature obtained therefrom. We find that the prior over temperature becomes uniform over the quantity kept conserved in the process.

  11. Wavelet-based resolution recovery using an anatomical prior provides quantitative recovery for human population phantom PET [11C]raclopride data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shidahara, M; Tamura, H; Tsoumpas, C; McGinnity, C J; Hammers, A; Turkheimer, F E; Kato, T; Watabe, H

    2012-01-01

    The objective of this study was to evaluate a resolution recovery (RR) method using a variety of simulated human brain [ 11 C]raclopride positron emission tomography (PET) images. Simulated datasets of 15 numerical human phantoms were processed by a wavelet-based RR method using an anatomical prior. The anatomical prior was in the form of a hybrid segmented atlas, which combined an atlas for anatomical labelling and a PET image for functional labelling of each anatomical structure. We applied RR to both 60 min static and dynamic PET images. Recovery was quantified in 84 regions, comparing the typical ‘true’ value for the simulation, as obtained in normal subjects, simulated and RR PET images. The radioactivity concentration in the white matter, striatum and other cortical regions was successfully recovered for the 60 min static image of all 15 human phantoms; the dependence of the solution on accurate anatomical information was demonstrated by the difficulty of the technique to retrieve the subthalamic nuclei due to mismatch between the two atlases used for data simulation and recovery. Structural and functional synergy for resolution recovery (SFS-RR) improved quantification in the caudate and putamen, the main regions of interest, from −30.1% and −26.2% to −17.6% and −15.1%, respectively, for the 60 min static image and from −51.4% and −38.3% to −27.6% and −20.3% for the binding potential (BP ND ) image, respectively. The proposed methodology proved effective in the RR of small structures from brain [ 11 C]raclopride PET images. The improvement is consistent across the anatomical variability of a simulated population as long as accurate anatomical segmentations are provided. (paper)

  12. Written argument underlying the Brokdorf verdict

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1980-01-01

    In December 1979, the Schleswig administrative court delivered its judgment (AZ.: 10 A 512/76) against the plaintiffs (four neighbouring communities and nine individuals), who had brought in an action against the first part-construction permit for the Brokdorf nuclear power plant, issued on October 25, 1976. In mid-march 1980, the written argument underlying this court ruling (58 pages) has been sent out. The written argument conscientiously explains the reasoning of the court which delivered its verdict after several days of oral proceedings in October and November 1979, and clearly states the position of the court with regard to the limits of control by administrative jurisdiction as well as to the controversial legal problem of whether there is a lawful connection between the licensing in accordance with section 7, sub-section 2 of the AtG (Atomic Energy Act) and sufficient nuclear waste management provisions according to section 9a AtG. The court ruling declared the action to be substantially admissible but hot well-founded. (orig./HP) [de

  13. The determinants of spoken and written picture naming latencies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonin, Patrick; Chalard, Marylène; Méot, Alain; Fayol, Michel

    2002-02-01

    The influence of nine variables on the latencies to write down or to speak aloud the names of pictures taken from Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) was investigated in French adults. The major determinants of both written and spoken picture naming latencies were image variability, image agreement and age of acquisition. To a lesser extent, name agreement was also found to have an impact in both production modes. The implications of the findings for theoretical views of both spoken and written picture naming are discussed.

  14. Enhancing the Benefits of Written Emotional Disclosure through Response Training

    OpenAIRE

    Konig, Andrea; Eonta, Alison; Dyal, Stephanie R.; Vrana, Scott R.

    2013-01-01

    Writing about a personal stressful event has been found to have psychological and physical health benefits, especially when physiological response increases during writing. Response training was developed to amplify appropriate physiological reactivity in imagery exposure. The present study examined whether response training enhances the benefits of written emotional disclosure. Participants were assigned to either a written emotional disclosure condition (n = 113) or a neutral writing condit...

  15. Single-longitudinal-mode BEFL incorporating a Bragg grating written in EDF

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Ya; Sun, Junqiang; Chen, Guodong; Xie, Heng

    2015-06-01

    A stable and tunable single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) Brillouin/Erbium fiber laser (BEFL) with narrow linewidth is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A uniform Bragg grating written in a segment of unpumped Erbium-doped fiber (EDF) is incorporated as an auto-tracking filter to achieve SLM operation. A length of 5 m pumped EDF is used to provide both Brillouin and linear gain in the cavity. The linewidth is measured to be 18 kHz and the lasing peak power fluctuation and wavelength shift are monitored less than 0.027 dB and 2 pm respectively.

  16. Sparse Multivariate Modeling: Priors and Applications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Henao, Ricardo

    This thesis presents a collection of statistical models that attempt to take advantage of every piece of prior knowledge available to provide the models with as much structure as possible. The main motivation for introducing these models is interpretability since in practice we want to be able...... a general yet self-contained description of every model in terms of generative assumptions, interpretability goals, probabilistic formulation and target applications. Case studies, benchmark results and practical details are also provided as appendices published elsewhere, containing reprints of peer...

  17. PET image reconstruction using multi-parametric anato-functional priors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehranian, Abolfazl; Belzunce, Martin A.; Niccolini, Flavia; Politis, Marios; Prieto, Claudia; Turkheimer, Federico; Hammers, Alexander; Reader, Andrew J.

    2017-08-01

    also showed that the Gaussian prior with voxel-based feature vectors, the Bowsher and the joint Burg entropy priors were the best performing priors. However, for the FDG dataset with simulated tumours, the TV and proposed priors were capable of preserving the PET-unique tumours. Finally, an important outcome was the demonstration that the MAP reconstruction of a low-count FDG PET dataset using the proposed joint entropy prior can lead to comparable image quality to a conventional ML reconstruction with up to 5 times more counts. In conclusion, multi-parametric anato-functional priors provide a solution to address the pitfalls of the conventional priors and are therefore likely to increase the diagnostic confidence in MR-guided PET image reconstructions.

  18. A Comparative Content Analysis of Vegetarian Food Blogs Written by Registered Dietitians and Non-Registered Dietitians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dumas, Audrée-Anne; Lemieux, Simone; Lapointe, Annie; Dugrenier, Marilyn; Desroches, Sophie

    2017-06-01

    This purpose of this study was to compare the nutritional content of vegetarian recipes published in food blogs written by registered dietitians (RDs) and by non-registered dietitians (non-RDs). Twelve food blogs written by RDs and 12 written by non-RDs were selected using a systematic approach. For each food blog, 2 vegetarian entrée recipes per season were selected (n = 192 recipes). Descriptive analyses were performed using Fisher's exact test. Median nutritional values per serving between RDs' and non-RDs' recipes were compared using Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests. RDs' recipes were significantly lower in energy, non-heme iron, vitamin C, and sodium, contained significantly more vitamin D and had a higher protein proportion than non-RDs' recipes. Disparities were also observed across type of entrée and vegetarian dietary pattern. In conclusion, this study showed that RD and non-RD food bloggers provided vegetarian recipes with few nutritional differences. Whether expanding the comparative analysis between RDs and non-RDs' blogs targeting different nutrition-related topics would yield different results remains to be investigated.

  19. Increasing advertising power via written scent references

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fenko, Anna; Breulmann, Svenja; Bialkova, Svetlana; Bialkova, Svetlana

    2014-01-01

    Olfactory cues in advertisements can evoke positive consumer emotions and product attitudes, yet including real scent in advertising is not always feasible. This study aimed at investigating whether written scent references could produce effects similar to real scents. Participants in online

  20. Recommendations for reducing ambiguity in written procedures.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Matzen, Laura E.

    2009-11-01

    Previous studies in the nuclear weapons complex have shown that ambiguous work instructions (WIs) and operating procedures (OPs) can lead to human error, which is a major cause for concern. This report outlines some of the sources of ambiguity in written English and describes three recommendations for reducing ambiguity in WIs and OPs. The recommendations are based on commonly used research techniques in the fields of linguistics and cognitive psychology. The first recommendation is to gather empirical data that can be used to improve the recommended word lists that are provided to technical writers. The second recommendation is to have a review in which new WIs and OPs and checked for ambiguities and clarity. The third recommendation is to use self-paced reading time studies to identify any remaining ambiguities before the new WIs and OPs are put into use. If these three steps are followed for new WIs and OPs, the likelihood of human errors related to ambiguity could be greatly reduced.

  1. A Comparison of Written, Vocal, and Video Feedback When Training Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luck, Kally M.; Lerman, Dorothea C.; Wu, Wai-Ling; Dupuis, Danielle L.; Hussein, Louisa A.

    2018-01-01

    We compared the effectiveness of and preference for different feedback strategies when training six special education teachers during a 5-day summer training program. In Experiment 1, teachers received written or vocal feedback while learning to implement two different types of preference assessments. In Experiment 2, we compared either written or…

  2. Depth image enhancement using perceptual texture priors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bang, Duhyeon; Shim, Hyunjung

    2015-03-01

    A depth camera is widely used in various applications because it provides a depth image of the scene in real time. However, due to the limited power consumption, the depth camera presents severe noises, incapable of providing the high quality 3D data. Although the smoothness prior is often employed to subside the depth noise, it discards the geometric details so to degrade the distance resolution and hinder achieving the realism in 3D contents. In this paper, we propose a perceptual-based depth image enhancement technique that automatically recovers the depth details of various textures, using a statistical framework inspired by human mechanism of perceiving surface details by texture priors. We construct the database composed of the high quality normals. Based on the recent studies in human visual perception (HVP), we select the pattern density as a primary feature to classify textures. Upon the classification results, we match and substitute the noisy input normals with high quality normals in the database. As a result, our method provides the high quality depth image preserving the surface details. We expect that our work is effective to enhance the details of depth image from 3D sensors and to provide a high-fidelity virtual reality experience.

  3. On Verification of PLC-Programs Written in the LD-Language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. V. Kuzmin

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available We discuss some questions connected with the construction of a technology of analysing correctness of Programmable Logic Controller programs. We consider an example of modeling and automated verification of PLC-programs written in the Ladder Diagram language (including timed function blocks of the IEC 61131-3 standard. We use the Cadence SMV for symbolic model checking. Program properties are written in the linear-time temporal logic LTL.

  4. Comparisons between written and computerised patient histories

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Quaak, Martien; Westerman, R. Frans; van Bemmel, Jan H.

    1987-01-01

    Patient histories were obtained from 99 patients in three different ways: by a computerised patient interview (patient record), by the usual written interview (medical record), and by the transcribed record, which was a computerised version of the medical record. Patient complaints, diagnostic

  5. 14 CFR 302.207 - Cases to be decided on written submissions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... administrative law judge is otherwise required by the public interest. (b) The standards employed in deciding... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Cases to be decided on written submissions....207 Cases to be decided on written submissions. (a) Applications under this subpart will be decided on...

  6. Short message service (SMS language and written language skills: educators' perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Salomé Geertsema

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available SMS language is English language slang, used as a means of mobile phone text messaging. This practice may impact on the written language skills of learners at school. The main aim of this study was to determine the perspectives of Grade 8 and 9 English (as Home Language educators in Gauteng regarding the possible influence of SMS language on certain aspects of learners' written language skills. If an influence was perceived by the educators, their perceptions regarding the degree and nature of the influence were also explored. A quantitative research design, utilising a questionnaire, was employed. The sample of participants comprised 22 educators employed at independent secondaryschools within Gauteng, South Africa. The results indicated that the majority of educators viewed SMS language as having a negative influence on the written language skills of Grade 8 and 9 learners. The influence was perceived as occurring in the learners' spelling, punctuation, and sentence length. A further finding was that the majority of educators address the negative influences of SMS language when encountered in written tasks.

  7. Attitudes towards chiropractic: an analysis of written comments from a survey of north american orthopaedic surgeons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Busse Jason W

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background There is increasing interest by chiropractors in North America regarding integration into mainstream healthcare; however, there is limited information about attitudes towards the profession among conventional healthcare providers, including orthopaedic surgeons. Methods We administered a 43-item cross-sectional survey to 1000 Canadian and American orthopaedic surgeons that inquired about demographic variables and their attitudes towards chiropractic. Our survey included an option for respondants to include written comments, and our present analysis is restricted to these comments. Two reviewers, independantly and in duplicate, coded all written comments using thematic analysis. Results 487 surgeons completed the survey (response rate 49%, and 174 provided written comments. Our analysis revealed 8 themes and 24 sub-themes represented in surgeons' comments. Reported themes were: variability amongst chiropractors (n = 55; concerns with chiropractic treatment (n = 54; areas where chiropractic is perceived as effective (n = 43; unethical behavior (n = 43; patient interaction (n = 36; the scientific basis of chiropractic (n = 26; personal experiences with chiropractic (n = 21; and chiropractic training (n = 18. Common sub-themes endorsed by surgeon's were diversity within the chiropractic profession as a barrier to increased interprofessional collaboration, endorsement for chiropractic treatment of musculoskeletal complaints, criticism for treatment of non-musculoskeletal complaints, and concern over whether chiropractic care was evidence-based. Conclusions Our analysis identified a number of issues that will have to be considered by the chiropractic profession as part of its efforts to further integrate chiropractic into mainstream healthcare.

  8. Nurses' Written Responses to Pain Management Values Education: A Content Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernhofer, Esther I; Hosler, Rose; Karius, Diana

    2016-12-01

    Providing optimal pain care for patients is essential to the work of nursing and a measure of patient satisfaction prompting some hospitals to offer pain management classes for clinicians. Although nurses generally do well on knowledge tests after attending a pain class, actual improvement in pain care for patients may not occur. The personal values of the clinician may be a key driver of pain-management decision making. Therefore, a segment on how clinicians' personal values influence pain care decisions was added to a large Midwestern hospital's pain management class. The purpose of this study was to examine the written answers to questions posed to nurses regarding any practice changes they have made to caring for patients with pain after participating in a class that included a segment on personal values. This study used a qualitative content analysis method. A large Midwestern healthcare system. Twenty clinical registered nurses who attended a pain class in April 2014. Participants provided written answers to two open-ended interview questions. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis of the text. Four themes were identified among participants' answers: understanding the patient, importance of pain education, nurse's self-awareness, and interpretation of personal values. Nurses who learned how their personal values affect their pain management decisions described new insights into their own approach to pain management. More research is needed to fully understand the impact of knowing one's own values and determining which clinician values are associated with optimal pain care. Copyright © 2016 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. English tsotsitaals? − an analysis of two written texts in Surfspeak ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... medium of English; (b) give an appreciation of the humour, wit and style associated with English tsotsitaals, via the analysis of two written texts; and (c) show the limitations of tsotsitaals in extended written usage, for which they have to co-exist with more mainstream forms of the dialect of English they utilise for their base.

  10. Developmental perspectives in written language and literacy: In honor of Ludo Verhoeven

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Segers, P.C.J.; Broek, P.W. van den

    2017-01-01

    Research on the development on written language and literacy is inherently multidisciplinary. In this book, leading researchers studying brain, cognition and behavior, come together in revealing how children develop written language and literacy, why they may experience difficulties, and which

  11. Evolution of Industry Knowledge in the Public Domain: Prior Art Searching for Software Patents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinseok Park

    2005-03-01

    Full Text Available Searching prior art is a key part of the patent application and examination processes. A comprehensive prior art search gives the inventor ideas as to how he can improve or circumvent existing technology by providing up to date knowledge on the state of the art. It also enables the patent applicant to minimise the likelihood of an objection from the patent office. This article explores the characteristics of prior art associated with software patents, dealing with difficulties in searching prior art due to the lack of resources, and considers public contribution to the formation of prior art databases. It addresses the evolution of electronic prior art in line with technological development, and discusses laws and practices in the EPO, USPTO, and the JPO in relation to the validity of prior art resources on the Internet. This article also investigates the main features of searching sources and tools in the three patent offices as well as non-patent literature databases. Based on the analysis of various searching databases, it provides some strategies of efficient prior art searching that should be considered for software-related inventions.

  12. ELLIPT2D: A Flexible Finite Element Code Written Python

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pletzer, A.; Mollis, J.C.

    2001-01-01

    The use of the Python scripting language for scientific applications and in particular to solve partial differential equations is explored. It is shown that Python's rich data structure and object-oriented features can be exploited to write programs that are not only significantly more concise than their counter parts written in Fortran, C or C++, but are also numerically efficient. To illustrate this, a two-dimensional finite element code (ELLIPT2D) has been written. ELLIPT2D provides a flexible and easy-to-use framework for solving a large class of second-order elliptic problems. The program allows for structured or unstructured meshes. All functions defining the elliptic operator are user supplied and so are the boundary conditions, which can be of Dirichlet, Neumann or Robbins type. ELLIPT2D makes extensive use of dictionaries (hash tables) as a way to represent sparse matrices.Other key features of the Python language that have been widely used include: operator over loading, error handling, array slicing, and the Tkinter module for building graphical use interfaces. As an example of the utility of ELLIPT2D, a nonlinear solution of the Grad-Shafranov equation is computed using a Newton iterative scheme. A second application focuses on a solution of the toroidal Laplace equation coupled to a magnetohydrodynamic stability code, a problem arising in the context of magnetic fusion research

  13. Figure-ground segmentation based on class-independent shape priors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yang; Liu, Yang; Liu, Guojun; Guo, Maozu

    2018-01-01

    We propose a method to generate figure-ground segmentation by incorporating shape priors into the graph-cuts algorithm. Given an image, we first obtain a linear representation of an image and then apply directional chamfer matching to generate class-independent, nonparametric shape priors, which provide shape clues for the graph-cuts algorithm. We then enforce shape priors in a graph-cuts energy function to produce object segmentation. In contrast to previous segmentation methods, the proposed method shares shape knowledge for different semantic classes and does not require class-specific model training. Therefore, the approach obtains high-quality segmentation for objects. We experimentally validate that the proposed method outperforms previous approaches using the challenging PASCAL VOC 2010/2012 and Berkeley (BSD300) segmentation datasets.

  14. Learners' right to freedom of written expression

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Erna Kinsey

    Learners' right to freedom of written expression. W.J. van Vollenhoven. Department of Education Management and Policy Studies, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002 South Africa wvvollen@postino.up.ac.za. Charles I. Glenn. Training and Policy Studies of the University Professors' Program, University of Boston. Although ...

  15. Written culture: reading pratices and printed book

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lidia Eugenia Cavalcante

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available The history of the written culture and the reading practices is the subject argued in this article. It aims at to understand the trajectory of the printed book in its materiality, as well as the processes delineated from the undisputed cultural presence and politics of this support for the modern society. Search to evidence the reading practices, the phenomena and the mutations that fortify such support per centuries, approaching the “book crisis”, its causes and effects. Therefore, it deals with the particularitities of the written culture, that if they had accomplished in the Siècle des Lumières and if they had consecrated in “acting” of the spirit of the authors and the readers of that time, whose propagation influenced the western person. It analyzes the sociological and historical conditions of the place of the modern reader between Science, Philosophy and Romance, continuously transformed for the renewal of the thought and the culture.

  16. The Written-Pole{sup TM} motor: high efficiency - low start current

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Beck, B. [C.Eng. Precise Power Corp., Bradenton, FL (United States); Friesen, D. [P.E. Manitoba Hydro, Winnipeg (Canada)

    2000-07-01

    Written-Pole{sup TM} technology is a patented machine technology, which changes the magnetic polarity of the rotor field in a rotating machine, while the machine is operating. The number of poles is thereby changed, resulting in a constant frequency - variable speed machine. When operating as a motor, a Written-Pole machine has inherently low starting current and high operating efficiency. (orig.)

  17. 17 CFR 230.437a - Written consents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ...) Are filing a registration statement containing financial statements in which Arthur Andersen LLP (or a foreign affiliate of Arthur Andersen LLP) had been acting as the independent public accountant. (b... dispense with the requirement for the registrant to file the written consent of Arthur Andersen LLP (or a...

  18. 78 FR 14034 - Health Insurance Providers Fee

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-04

    ... Health Insurance Providers Fee AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury. ACTION: Notice of... insurance for United States health risks. This fee is imposed by section 9010 of the Patient Protection and... insurance for United States health risks. DATES: Written or electronic comments must be received by June 3...

  19. Uses of the Word “Macula” in Written English, 1400-Present

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwartz, Stephen G.; Leffler, Christopher T.

    2014-01-01

    We compiled uses of the word “macula” in written English by searching multiple databases, including the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership, America’s Historical Newspapers, the Gale Cengage Collections, and others. “Macula” has been used: as a non-medical “spot” or “stain”, literal or figurative, including in astronomy and in Shakespeare; as a medical skin lesion, occasionally with a following descriptive adjective, such as a color (macula alba); as a corneal lesion, including the earliest identified use in English, circa 1400; and to describe the center of the retina. Francesco Buzzi described a yellow color in the posterior pole (“retina tinta di un color giallo”) in 1782, but did not use the word “macula”. “Macula lutea” was published by Samuel Thomas von Sömmering by 1799, and subsequently used in 1818 by James Wardrop, which appears to be the first known use in English. The Google n-gram database shows a marked increase in the frequencies of both “macula” and “macula lutea” following the introduction of the ophthalmoscope in 1850. “Macula” has been used in multiple contexts in written English. Modern databases provide powerful tools to explore historical uses of this word, which may be underappreciated by contemporary ophthalmologists. PMID:24913329

  20. A Simulation of Pell Grant Awards and Costs Using Prior-Prior Year Financial Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelchen, Robert; Jones, Gigi

    2015-01-01

    We examine the likely implications of switching from a prior year (PY) financial aid system, the current practice in which students file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) using income data from the previous tax year, to prior-prior year (PPY), in which data from two years before enrollment is used. While PPY allows students to…

  1. A Quantitative Analysis of Uncertainty in the Grading of Written Exams in Mathematics and Physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammer, Hugo Lewi; Habib, Laurence

    2016-01-01

    The most common way to grade students in courses at university and university college level is to use final written exams. The aim of final exams is generally to provide a reliable and a valid measurement of the extent to which a student has achieved the learning outcomes for the course. A source of uncertainty in grading students based on an exam…

  2. STRATEGIES OF EXPRESSING WRITTEN APOLOGIES IN THE ONLINE NEWSPAPERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cipto Wardoyo

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Expressing apology is a universal activity although people have different strategies or ways to express the apology based on the culture, situation, and context. An apology has played a vital role in verbal politeness; it is certainly impolite when someone does not express an apology when he or she has commited an offence to the others. Apologies in the Pragmatic study is classified under speech act theory. An apology based on Searle (1969 is classified as expressive speech acts because it expresses speaker’s physiological attitude. An apology expresses speaker’s sorrow and regret because he/she has offended hearers or readers.  This paper tries to discuss strategies of editors in expressing written apologies in the online newspaper. The objective of this paper is to explain what the strategies of written apologies are in the online newspaper. This study uses qualitative method; the writer chooses descriptive interpretative technique for analyzing data. There are four written apologies in the online neswpapers as data sources in this paper, the data are taken from The Jakarta Post, The Daily Express, The Sun, and Brisbane Times. The writer tries to describe and analyzes utterances in the data sources based on Olshtain & Cohen theory (1986. There are five main strategies in expressing apologies according to Olshtain & Cohen (1986; they are Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID, expression responsibility, explanation/justification, offer repairs, and promise forbearance. The writer found that all of the written apologies used combination strategies, they used IFID by using performative verb: apologize and be sorry then followed by expression resposbility, explanation, offer repairs, and promise forbearance. Keywords: apologies, speech acts, politeness, pragmatics

  3. Synergistic relationships between Analytical Chemistry and written standards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valcárcel, Miguel; Lucena, Rafael

    2013-01-01

    Graphical abstract: -- Highlights: •Analytical Chemistry is influenced by international written standards. •Different relationships can be established between them. •Synergies can be generated when these standards are conveniently managed. -- Abstract: This paper describes the mutual impact of Analytical Chemistry and several international written standards (norms and guides) related to knowledge management (CEN-CWA 14924:2004), social responsibility (ISO 26000:2010), management of occupational health and safety (OHSAS 18001/2), environmental management (ISO 14001:2004), quality management systems (ISO 9001:2008) and requirements of the competence of testing and calibration laboratories (ISO 17025:2004). The intensity of this impact, based on a two-way influence, is quite different depending on the standard considered. In any case, a new and fruitful approach to Analytical Chemistry based on these relationships can be derived

  4. Synergistic relationships between Analytical Chemistry and written standards

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Valcárcel, Miguel, E-mail: qa1vacam@uco.es; Lucena, Rafael

    2013-07-25

    Graphical abstract: -- Highlights: •Analytical Chemistry is influenced by international written standards. •Different relationships can be established between them. •Synergies can be generated when these standards are conveniently managed. -- Abstract: This paper describes the mutual impact of Analytical Chemistry and several international written standards (norms and guides) related to knowledge management (CEN-CWA 14924:2004), social responsibility (ISO 26000:2010), management of occupational health and safety (OHSAS 18001/2), environmental management (ISO 14001:2004), quality management systems (ISO 9001:2008) and requirements of the competence of testing and calibration laboratories (ISO 17025:2004). The intensity of this impact, based on a two-way influence, is quite different depending on the standard considered. In any case, a new and fruitful approach to Analytical Chemistry based on these relationships can be derived.

  5. Transforming Biology Assessment with Machine Learning: Automated Scoring of Written Evolutionary Explanations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nehm, Ross H.; Ha, Minsu; Mayfield, Elijah

    2012-01-01

    This study explored the use of machine learning to automatically evaluate the accuracy of students' written explanations of evolutionary change. Performance of the Summarization Integrated Development Environment (SIDE) program was compared to human expert scoring using a corpus of 2,260 evolutionary explanations written by 565 undergraduate…

  6. Comprehensive Summary and Analysis of Oral and Written Scoping Comments on the Hawaii Geothermal Project EIS (DOE Review Draft)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None

    1992-09-18

    This report contains summaries of the oral and written comments received during the scoping process for the Hawaii Geothermal Project (HGP) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Oral comments were presented during public scoping meetings; written comments were solicited at the public scoping meetings and in the ''Advance Notice of Intent'' and ''Notice of Intent'' (published in the ''Federal Register'') to prepare the HGP EIS. This comprehensive summary of scoping inputs provides an overview of the issues that have been suggested for inclusion in the HGP EIS.

  7. The effect of written standardized feedback on the structure and quality of surgical lectures: A prospective cohort study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jasmina Sterz

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Lectures remain an important teaching method to present and structure knowledge to many students concurrently. Adequate measures are necessary to maintain the quality of the lectures. The aim of this study was to determine the impact on the lecture quality using written structured feedback and to compare the ratings of surgical lectures between students and surgical peers. Methods Prospective analysis of two consecutive surgical lecture series for undergraduate students at Goethe-University Medical School was performed before and after evaluation of the lecturers via independent written feedback from trained undergraduate students and surgeons. The 22-item feedback instrument covered three areas of performance: content, visualization, and delivery. Additional suggestions for improvement were provided from both students and surgical peers who anonymously attended the lectures. The lecturers, experienced surgeons, as well as the student and peer raters were blinded in terms of the aim and content of the study. Their response to the feedback was collected using a web-based 13-item questionnaire. The Kendall’s-W coefficient was computed to calculate inter-rater reliability (IRR. Differences between ratings before and after feedback were analyzed using Student’s t-test for dependent samples. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov-test was used for independent samples. Results A total of 22 lectures from a possible 32 given by 13 lecturers were included and analyzed by at least three surgeons and two students. There were significant improvements in overall score as well as in the details of 9 of the 13 items were found. The average inter-rater reliability was 0.71. There were no differences in the ratings as a function of the rater’s level of expertise (peers vs. students. We found that 13/23 lecturers (56.5% answered the questionnaire, and 92% strongly agreed that the written feedback was useful. 76.9% of the lecturers revised their lecture

  8. Psycholinguistic norms for action photographs in French and their relationships with spoken and written latencies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonin, Patrick; Boyer, Bruno; Méot, Alain; Fayol, Michel; Droit, Sylvie

    2004-02-01

    A set of 142 photographs of actions (taken from Fiez & Tranel, 1997) was standardized in French on name agreement, image agreement, conceptual familiarity, visual complexity, imageability, age of acquisition, and duration of the depicted actions. Objective word frequency measures were provided for the infinitive modal forms of the verbs and for the cumulative frequency of the verbal forms associated with the photographs. Statistics on the variables collected for action items were provided and compared with the statistics on the same variables collected for object items. The relationships between these variables were analyzed, and certain comparisons between the current database and other similar published databases of pictures of actions are reported. Spoken and written naming latencies were also collected for the photographs of actions, and multiple regression analyses revealed that name agreement, image agreement, and age of acquisition are the major determinants of action naming speed. Finally, certain analyses were performed to compare object and action naming times. The norms and the spoken and written naming latencies corresponding to the pictures are available on the Internet (http://www.psy.univ-bpclermont.fr/~pbonin/pbonin-eng.html) and should be of great use to researchers interested in the processing of actions.

  9. Cue Reliance in L2 Written Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiechmann, Daniel; Kerz, Elma

    2014-01-01

    Second language learners reach expert levels in relative cue weighting only gradually. On the basis of ensemble machine learning models fit to naturalistic written productions of German advanced learners of English and expert writers, we set out to reverse engineer differences in the weighting of multiple cues in a clause linearization problem. We…

  10. Neutrino mass priors for cosmology from random matrices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, Andrew J.; Raveri, Marco; Hu, Wayne; Dodelson, Scott

    2018-02-01

    Cosmological measurements of structure are placing increasingly strong constraints on the sum of the neutrino masses, Σ mν, through Bayesian inference. Because these constraints depend on the choice for the prior probability π (Σ mν), we argue that this prior should be motivated by fundamental physical principles rather than the ad hoc choices that are common in the literature. The first step in this direction is to specify the prior directly at the level of the neutrino mass matrix Mν, since this is the parameter appearing in the Lagrangian of the particle physics theory. Thus by specifying a probability distribution over Mν, and by including the known squared mass splittings, we predict a theoretical probability distribution over Σ mν that we interpret as a Bayesian prior probability π (Σ mν). Assuming a basis-invariant probability distribution on Mν, also known as the anarchy hypothesis, we find that π (Σ mν) peaks close to the smallest Σ mν allowed by the measured mass splittings, roughly 0.06 eV (0.1 eV) for normal (inverted) ordering, due to the phenomenon of eigenvalue repulsion in random matrices. We consider three models for neutrino mass generation: Dirac, Majorana, and Majorana via the seesaw mechanism; differences in the predicted priors π (Σ mν) allow for the possibility of having indications about the physical origin of neutrino masses once sufficient experimental sensitivity is achieved. We present fitting functions for π (Σ mν), which provide a simple means for applying these priors to cosmological constraints on the neutrino masses or marginalizing over their impact on other cosmological parameters.

  11. Modeling statistical properties of written text.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M Angeles Serrano

    Full Text Available Written text is one of the fundamental manifestations of human language, and the study of its universal regularities can give clues about how our brains process information and how we, as a society, organize and share it. Among these regularities, only Zipf's law has been explored in depth. Other basic properties, such as the existence of bursts of rare words in specific documents, have only been studied independently of each other and mainly by descriptive models. As a consequence, there is a lack of understanding of linguistic processes as complex emergent phenomena. Beyond Zipf's law for word frequencies, here we focus on burstiness, Heaps' law describing the sublinear growth of vocabulary size with the length of a document, and the topicality of document collections, which encode correlations within and across documents absent in random null models. We introduce and validate a generative model that explains the simultaneous emergence of all these patterns from simple rules. As a result, we find a connection between the bursty nature of rare words and the topical organization of texts and identify dynamic word ranking and memory across documents as key mechanisms explaining the non trivial organization of written text. Our research can have broad implications and practical applications in computer science, cognitive science and linguistics.

  12. Language and Ageing--Exploring Propositional Density in Written Language--Stability over Time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spencer, Elizabeth; Craig, Hugh; Ferguson, Alison; Colyvas, Kim

    2012-01-01

    This study investigated the stability of propositional density (PD) in written texts, as this aspect of language shows promise as an indicator and as a predictor of language decline with ageing. This descriptive longitudinal study analysed written texts obtained from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health in which participants were…

  13. Speech language therapy bilingual clinic, a written language therapeutical proposal to deaf people: case report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guarinello, Ana Cristina; Massi, Giselle; Berberian, Ana Paula; Tonocchi, Rita; Lustosa, Sandra Silva

    2015-01-01

    This study aimed to analyze the written production of a deaf person who is in the process of written language acquisition. One person with hearing disability, called R., participated in this study together with his Speech Language Pathologist. The therapist, proficient in sign language, acted as an interlocutor and interpreter, prioritizing the interactive nature of language and interfering in the written production only when it was requested. During the 3 years of work with R., a change in stance toward written language was observed. In addition, he began to reflect on his texts and utilize written Portuguese in a way that allowed his texts to be more coherent. Writing became an opportunity to show his singularity and to begin reconstructing his relationship with language. Speech language pathology and audiology therapy, at a bilingual clinic, can allow people with hearing disability early access to sign language and, consequently, enable the development of the written form of Portuguese.

  14. Interplay among Technical, Socio-Emotional and Personal Factors in Written Feedback Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chong, Ivan

    2018-01-01

    The centrality of written feedback is clearly seen from the proliferation of research in the context of higher education. As an increasingly expanding field in research, the majority of written feedback studies have been interested in investigating the technical aspect of how feedback should be given in order to promote student learning. More…

  15. Piloting a Structured Practice Audit to Assess ACGME Milestones in Written Handoff Communication in Internal Medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Shannon K; Farnan, Jeanne M; McConville, John F; Arora, Vineet M

    2015-06-01

    Written communication skills are integral to patient care handoffs. Residency programs require feasible assessment tools that provide timely formative and summative feedback, ideally linked to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Milestones. We describe the use of 1 such tool-UPDATED-to assess written handoff communication skills in internal medicine interns. During 2012-2013, the authors piloted a structured practice audit at 1 academic institution to audit written sign-outs completed by 45 interns, using the UPDATED tool, which scores 7 aspects of sign-out communication linked to milestones. Intern sign-outs were audited by trained faculty members throughout the year. Results were incorporated into intern performance reviews and Clinical Competency Committees. A total of 136 sign-outs were audited (averaging 3.1 audits per intern). In the first trimester, 14 interns (31%) had satisfactory audit results. Five interns (11%) had critical deficiencies and received immediate feedback, and the remaining 26 (58%) were assigned future audits due to missing audits or unsatisfactory scores. In the second trimester, 21 interns (68%) had satisfactory results, 1 had critical deficiencies, and 9 (29%) required future audits. Nine of the 10 remaining interns in the final trimester had satisfactory audits. Faculty time was estimated at 10 to 15 minutes per sign-out audited. The UPDATED audit is a milestone-based tool that can be used to assess written sign-out communication skills in internal medicine residency programs. Future work is planned to adapt the tool for use by senior supervisory residents to appraise sign-outs in real time.

  16. Subtypes of written expression in elementary school children: a linguistic-based model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wakely, Melissa B; Hooper, Stephen R; de Kruif, Renee E L; Swartz, Carl

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to provide a reliable and valid classification scheme for written expression that captured the linguistic variability present in a typical elementary school sample. This empirically derived classification model was based on the following linguistic-based writing skills: (a) understandability of discourse, (b) grammar, (c) semantics, (d) spelling, and (e) reading comprehension. The sample included 257 fourth-grade (n = 142) and fifth-grade (n = 115) students (46.3% boys, 79.4% White, age range = 8;3-11;7 years; M = 10.10). All of the students were receiving their writing instruction in the regular education setting, with approximately one third receiving some type of educational assistance. The sample fell in the middle socioeconomic stratum. Cluster analytic techniques derived different possible solutions. Results of a series of internal validity studies provided strong evidence that the six-cluster solution was both stable and interpretable, with subtypes reflecting normal as well as writing disability variants. Further, the writing disability subtypes ranged from global impairment to more specific linguistic impediments. Based on their characteristics, the clusters were named (a) Average Writers (n = 102), (b) Low Semantics (n = 31), (c) Low Grammar (n = 18), (d) Expert Writers (n = 33), (e) Low Spelling-Reading (n = 13), and (f) Poor Text Quality (n = 60). Subtypes differed on the percentages of children in selected subtypes manifesting specific writing deficits as well as on selected aspects of measures of metacognition, self-efficacy, and self-regulation of the writing process. Results provide researchers with a foundation to further investigate the underlying neurolinguistic and neurocognitive processes that may strengthen or undermine students' ability to produce a quality written product and to design and implement intervention techniques to address the various subtype patterns inherent in a regular elementary school classroom.

  17. Individual Differences in Strategy Use on Division Problems: Mental versus Written Computation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hickendorff, Marian; van Putten, Cornelis M.; Verhelst, Norman D.; Heiser, Willem J.

    2010-01-01

    Individual differences in strategy use (choice and accuracy) were analyzed. A sample of 362 Grade 6 students solved complex division problems under 2 different conditions. In the choice condition students were allowed to use either a mental or a written strategy. In the subsequent no-choice condition, they were required to use a written strategy.…

  18. Chromosomal differences between acute nonlymphocytic leukemia in patients with prior solid tumors and prior hematologic malignancies. A study of 14 cases with prior breast cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mamuris, Z.; Dumont, J.; Dutrillaux, B.; Aurias, A.

    1989-01-01

    A cytogenetic study of 14 patients with secondary acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (S-ANLL) with prior treatment for breast cancer is reported. The chromosomes recurrently involved in numerical or structural anomalies are chromosomes 7, 5, 17, and 11, in decreasing order of frequency. The distribution of the anomalies detected in this sample of patients is similar to that observed in published cases with prior breast or other solid tumors, though anomalies of chromosome 11 were not pointed out, but it significantly differs from that of the S-ANLL with prior hematologic malignancies. This difference is principally due to a higher involvement of chromosome 7 in patients with prior hematologic malignancies and of chromosomes 11 and 17 in patients with prior solid tumors. A genetic determinism involving abnormal recessive alleles located on chromosomes 5, 7, 11, and 17 uncovered by deletions of the normal homologs may be a cause of S-ANLL. The difference between patients with prior hematologic malignancies or solid tumors may be explained by different constitutional mutations of recessive genes in the two groups of patients

  19. Relations between scripted online peer feedback processes and quality of written argumentative essay

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Noroozi, Omid; Biemans, Harm; Mulder, Martin

    2016-01-01

    Teachers often complain about the quality of students' written essays in higher education. This study explores the relations between scripted online peer feedback processes and quality of written argumentative essay as they occur in an authentic learning situation with direct practical relevance.

  20. Gamma prior distribution selection for Bayesian analysis of failure rate and reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Waler, R.A.; Johnson, M.M.; Waterman, M.S.; Martz, H.F. Jr.

    1977-01-01

    It is assumed that the phenomenon under study is such that the time-to-failure may be modeled by an exponential distribution with failure-rate parameter, lambda. For Bayesian analyses of the assumed model, the family of gamma distributions provides conjugate prior models for lambda. Thus, an experimenter needs to select a particular gamma model to conduct a Bayesian reliability analysis. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology which can be used to translate engineering information, experience, and judgment into a choice of a gamma prior distribution. The proposed methodology assumes that the practicing engineer can provide percentile data relating to either the failure rate or the reliability of the phenomenon being investigated. For example, the methodology will select the gamma prior distribution which conveys an engineer's belief that the failure rate, lambda, simultaneously satisfies the probability statements, P(lambda less than 1.0 x 10 -3 ) = 0.50 and P(lambda less than 1.0 x 10 -5 ) = 0.05. That is, two percentiles provided by an engineer are used to determine a gamma prior model which agrees with the specified percentiles. For those engineers who prefer to specify reliability percentiles rather than the failure-rate percentiles illustrated above, one can use the induced negative-log gamma prior distribution which satisfies the probability statements, P(R(t 0 ) less than 0.99) = 0.50 and P(R(t 0 ) less than 0.99999) = 0.95 for some operating time t 0 . Also, the paper includes graphs for selected percentiles which assist an engineer in applying the methodology

  1. Order-Constrained Reference Priors with Implications for Bayesian Isotonic Regression, Analysis of Covariance and Spatial Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gong, Maozhen

    Selecting an appropriate prior distribution is a fundamental issue in Bayesian Statistics. In this dissertation, under the framework provided by Berger and Bernardo, I derive the reference priors for several models which include: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)/Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) models with a categorical variable under common ordering constraints, the conditionally autoregressive (CAR) models and the simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) models with a spatial autoregression parameter rho considered. The performances of reference priors for ANOVA/ANCOVA models are evaluated by simulation studies with comparisons to Jeffreys' prior and Least Squares Estimation (LSE). The priors are then illustrated in a Bayesian model of the "Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in New Mexico" data, where the relationship between the type 2 diabetes risk (through Hemoglobin A1c) and different smoking levels is investigated. In both simulation studies and real data set modeling, the reference priors that incorporate internal order information show good performances and can be used as default priors. The reference priors for the CAR and SAR models are also illustrated in the "1999 SAT State Average Verbal Scores" data with a comparison to a Uniform prior distribution. Due to the complexity of the reference priors for both CAR and SAR models, only a portion (12 states in the Midwest) of the original data set is considered. The reference priors can give a different marginal posterior distribution compared to a Uniform prior, which provides an alternative for prior specifications for areal data in Spatial statistics.

  2. Impact of more intensive written information in patients having radical radiation therapy: Results of a prospective randomized phase III trial

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zissiadis, Yvonne; Harper, Emily; Kearney, Elizabeth

    2010-01-01

    Background and purpose: A diagnosis of malignancy and its treatment is a very stressful time for patients and their families. This study was conducted to determine the impact of more intensive written information on patients' anxiety levels. The secondary aim was to determine the impact of this information on patients' satisfaction levels. Materials and methods: This prospective randomized trial consisted of patients with a pathological diagnosis of cancer having radical radiotherapy (RT). Patients were randomized to receive the more intensive information (including written information and a telephone call from the research nurse) or not to receive the more intensive information at the time of their initial consultation with the radiation oncologist. Study questionnaires measuring anxiety (STAI form) were completed prior to their first consultation (baseline) at the time of simulation (pre-RT) and at the completion of radiotherapy. A second questionnaire assessing satisfaction with the information given (ISQ) was completed at the time of simulation prior to commencing RT. Results: One hundred and ninety-four patients were enrolled in the study. The mean age of the patients was 58.5 years and 70% of patients were female. Breast cancer (67%) was the commonest cancer. One hundred and two patients were randomized to receive the intensive information package and 92 patients received the standard consultation. There was no significant difference in mean State or Trait anxiety scores between any of the time intervals and no difference between the two information groups. There was no significant difference between the groups with regard to mean satisfaction scores with the overall information given, nor with any individual question. The satisfaction scores with lifestyle information given were lower than those for any other type of information in both randomization arms. Conclusion: More intensive information did not significantly change patients' anxiety scores or

  3. Role of strategies and prior exposure in mental rotation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cherney, Isabelle D; Neff, Nicole L

    2004-06-01

    The purpose of these two studies was to examine sex differences in strategy use and the effect of prior exposure on the performance on Vandenberg and Kuse's 1978 Mental Rotation Test. A total of 152 participants completed the spatial task and self-reported their strategy use. Consistent with previous studies, men outperformed women. Strategy usage did not account for these differences, although guessing did. Previous exposure to the Mental Rotation Test, American College Test scores and frequent computer or video game play predicted performance on the test. These results suggest that prior exposure to spatial tasks may provide cues to improve participants' performance.

  4. Accommodating Uncertainty in Prior Distributions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Picard, Richard Roy [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Vander Wiel, Scott Alan [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2017-01-19

    A fundamental premise of Bayesian methodology is that a priori information is accurately summarized by a single, precisely de ned prior distribution. In many cases, especially involving informative priors, this premise is false, and the (mis)application of Bayes methods produces posterior quantities whose apparent precisions are highly misleading. We examine the implications of uncertainty in prior distributions, and present graphical methods for dealing with them.

  5. Effects of regularisation priors on dynamic PET Data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caldeira, Liliana; Scheins, Juergen; Silva, Nuno da; Gaens, Michaela; Shah, N Jon

    2014-01-01

    Dynamic PET provides temporal information about tracer uptake. However, each PET frame has usually low statistics, resulting in noisy images. The goal is to study effects of prior regularisation on dynamic PET data. Quantification and noise in image-domain and time-domain as well as impact on parametric images is assessed.

  6. PIRPLE: a penalized-likelihood framework for incorporation of prior images in CT reconstruction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stayman, J Webster; Dang, Hao; Ding, Yifu; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H

    2013-01-01

    Over the course of diagnosis and treatment, it is common for a number of imaging studies to be acquired. Such imaging sequences can provide substantial patient-specific prior knowledge about the anatomy that can be incorporated into a prior-image-based tomographic reconstruction for improved image quality and better dose utilization. We present a general methodology using a model-based reconstruction approach including formulations of the measurement noise that also integrates prior images. This penalized-likelihood technique adopts a sparsity enforcing penalty that incorporates prior information yet allows for change between the current reconstruction and the prior image. Moreover, since prior images are generally not registered with the current image volume, we present a modified model-based approach that seeks a joint registration of the prior image in addition to the reconstruction of projection data. We demonstrate that the combined prior-image- and model-based technique outperforms methods that ignore the prior data or lack a noise model. Moreover, we demonstrate the importance of registration for prior-image-based reconstruction methods and show that the prior-image-registered penalized-likelihood estimation (PIRPLE) approach can maintain a high level of image quality in the presence of noisy and undersampled projection data. (paper)

  7. 49 CFR 375.409 - May household goods brokers provide estimates?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false May household goods brokers provide estimates? 375... Estimating Charges § 375.409 May household goods brokers provide estimates? A household goods broker must not... there is a written agreement between the broker and you, the carrier, adopting the broker's estimate as...

  8. 42 CFR 456.180 - Individual written plan of care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS UTILIZATION CONTROL Utilization Control: Mental Hospitals Plan of Care § 456.180 Individual written plan of care. (a) Before admission to a mental hospital or...

  9. 19 CFR 210.4 - Written submissions; representations; sanctions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Written submissions; representations; sanctions. 210.4 Section 210.4 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION INVESTIGATIONS OF UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Rules of General Applicability § 210.4...

  10. 47 CFR 76.1503 - Carriage of video programming providers on open video systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... service showing that the Notice of Intent has been served on all local cable franchising authorities... video programming provider within five business days of receiving a written request from the provider...

  11. One-Dimensional Signal Extraction Of Paper-Written ECG Image And Its Archiving

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhi-ni; Zhang, Hong; Zhuang, Tian-ge

    1987-10-01

    A method for converting paper-written electrocardiograms to one dimensional (1-D) signals for archival storage on floppy disk is presented here. Appropriate image processing techniques were employed to remove the back-ground noise inherent to ECG recorder charts and to reconstruct the ECG waveform. The entire process consists of (1) digitization of paper-written ECGs with an image processing system via a TV camera; (2) image preprocessing, including histogram filtering and binary image generation; (3) ECG feature extraction and ECG wave tracing, and (4) transmission of the processed ECG data to IBM-PC compatible floppy disks for storage and retrieval. The algorithms employed here may also be used in the recognition of paper-written EEG or EMG and may be useful in robotic vision.

  12. The Contribution of Verbal Working Memory to Deaf Children’s Oral and Written Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arfé, Barbara; Rossi, Cristina; Sicoli, Silvia

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated the contribution of verbal working memory to the oral and written story production of deaf children. Participants were 29 severely to profoundly deaf children aged 8–13 years and 29 hearing controls, matched for grade level. The children narrated a picture story orally and in writing and performed a reading comprehension test, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition forward digit span task, and a reading span task. Oral and written stories were analyzed at the microstructural (i.e., clause) and macrostructural (discourse) levels. Hearing children’s stories scored higher than deaf children’s at both levels. Verbal working memory skills contributed to deaf children’s oral and written production over and above age and reading comprehension skills. Verbal rehearsal skills (forward digit span) contributed significantly to deaf children’s ability to organize oral and written stories at the microstructural level; they also accounted for unique variance at the macrostructural level in writing. Written story production appeared to involve greater verbal working memory resources than oral story production. PMID:25802319

  13. Natural priors, CMSSM fits and LHC weather forecasts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Allanach, Benjamin C.; Cranmer, Kyle; Lester, Christopher G.; Weber, Arne M.

    2007-01-01

    Previous LHC forecasts for the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM), based on current astrophysical and laboratory measurements, have used priors that are flat in the parameter tan β, while being constrained to postdict the central experimental value of M Z . We construct a different, new and more natural prior with a measure in μ and B (the more fundamental MSSM parameters from which tan β and M Z are actually derived). We find that as a consequence this choice leads to a well defined fine-tuning measure in the parameter space. We investigate the effect of such on global CMSSM fits to indirect constraints, providing posterior probability distributions for Large Hadron Collider (LHC) sparticle production cross sections. The change in priors has a significant effect, strongly suppressing the pseudoscalar Higgs boson dark matter annihilation region, and diminishing the probable values of sparticle masses. We also show how to interpret fit information from a Markov Chain Monte Carlo in a frequentist fashion; namely by using the profile likelihood. Bayesian and frequentist interpretations of CMSSM fits are compared and contrasted

  14. Written object naming, spelling to dictation, and immediate copying: Different tasks, different pathways?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonin, Patrick; Méot, Alain; Lagarrigue, Aurélie; Roux, Sébastien

    2015-01-01

    We report an investigation of cross-task comparisons of handwritten latencies in written object naming, spelling to dictation, and immediate copying. In three separate sessions, adults had to write down a list of concrete nouns from their corresponding pictures (written naming), from their spoken (spelling to dictation) and from their visual presentation (immediate copying). Linear mixed models without random slopes were performed on the latencies in order to study and compare within-task fixed effects. By-participants random slopes were then included to investigate individual differences within and across tasks. Overall, the findings suggest that written naming, spelling to dictation, and copying all involve a lexical pathway, but that written naming relies on this pathway more than the other two tasks do. Only spelling to dictation strongly involves a nonlexical pathway. Finally, the analyses performed at the level of participants indicate that, depending on the type of task, the slower participants are more or less influenced by certain psycholinguistic variables.

  15. Provider knowledge of treatment policy and dosing regimen with artemether-lumefantrine and quinine in malaria-endemic areas of western Kenya

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Watsierah Carren A

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Due to widespread anti-malarial drug resistance in many countries, Kenya included, artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT has been adopted as the most effective treatment option against malaria. Artemether-lumefantrine (AL is the first-line ACT for treatment of uncomplicated malaria in Kenya, while quinine is preferred for complicated and severe malaria. Information on the providers’ knowledge and practices prior to or during AL and quinine implementation is scanty. The current study evaluated providers’ knowledge and practices of treatment policy and dosing regimens with AL and quinine in the public, private and not-for-profit drug outlets. Methods A cross-sectional survey using three-stage sampling of 288 (126 public, 96 private and 66 not-for-profits providers in drug outlets was conducted in western Kenya in two Plasmodium falciparum-endemic regions with varying malarial risk. Information on provider in-service training, knowledge (qualification, treatment policy, dosing regimen, recently banned anti-malarials and on practices (request for written prescription, prescription of AL, selling partial packs and advice given to patients after prescription, was collected. Results Only 15.6% of providers in private outlets had received any in-service training on AL use. All (100% in public and majority (98.4% in not-for-profit outlets mentioned AL as first line-treatment drug. Quinine was mentioned as second-line drug by 47.9% in private outlets. A total of 92.0% in public, 57.3% in private and 78.8% in not-for-profit outlets stated correct AL dose for adults. A total of 85.7% of providers in public, 30.2% in private and 41.0% in not-for-profit outlets were aware that SP recommendations changed from treatment for mild malaria to IPTp in high risk areas. In-service training influenced treatment regimen for uncomplicated malaria (P = 0.039 and P = 0.039 and severe malaria (P P = 0.002 in children and adults

  16. The Written Literacy Forum: Combining Research and Practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Christopher M.; Florio, Susan

    1983-01-01

    Writing teachers and researchers collaborate in the Written Literacy Forum at Michigan State University to: (1) heighten teachers' awareness of the complexity of writing; (2) stimulate discussion across grade levels; and (3) focus research on areas concerning teachers. Discussion formats and inservice activities are described, and materials…

  17. Optimizing the efficiency of femtosecond-laser-written holograms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wædegaard, Kristian Juncher; Hansen, Henrik Dueholm; Balling, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Computer-generated binary holograms are written on a polished copper surface using single 800-nm, 120-fs pulses from a 1-kHz-repetition-rate laser system. The hologram efficiency (i.e. the power in the holographic reconstructed image relative to the incoming laser power) is investigated...

  18. A qualitative description of service providers' experiences of ethical issues in HIV care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabone, Motshedisi B; Mogobe, Keitshokile Dintle; Matshediso, Ellah; Shaibu, Sheila; Ntsayagae, Esther I; Corless, Inge B; Cuca, Yvette P; Holzemer, William L; Dawson-Rose, Carol; Baez, Solymar S Soliz; Rivero-Mendz, Marta; Webel, Allison R; Eller, Lucille Sanzero; Reid, Paula; Johnson, Mallory O; Kemppainen, Jeanne; Reyes, Darcel; Nokes, Kathleen; Wantland, Dean; Nicholas, Patrice K; Lingren, Teri; Portillo, Carmen J; Sefcik, Elizabeth; Long-Middleton, Ellen

    2018-01-01

    Managing HIV treatment is a complex multi-dimensional task because of a combination of factors such as stigma and discrimination of some populations who frequently get infected with HIV. In addition, patient-provider encounters have become increasingly multicultural, making effective communication and provision of ethically sound care a challenge. This article explores ethical issues that health service providers in the United States and Botswana encountered in their interaction with patients in HIV care. A descriptive qualitative design was used to collect data from health service providers and patients using focused group discussions. This article is based on responses from health service providers only. Participants and context: This article is based on 11 focused group discussions with a total sample of 71 service providers in seven US sites and one Botswana site. Ethical considerations: Ethical review boards at all the study sites reviewed the study protocol and approved it. Ethical review boards of the study's coordinating centers, Rutgers University and the University of California at San Francisco, also approved it. The study participants provided a written informed consent to participate. HIV service providers encountered ethical challenges in all the four Beauchamp and Childress' biomedical ethics of respect for patients' autonomy, beneficence, justice, and nonmaleficence. The finding that HIV service providers encounter ethical challenges in their interaction with patients is supported by prior studies. The ethical challenges are particularly prominent in multicultural care and resource-constrained care environments. Provision of HIV care is fraught with ethical challenges that tend to pose different issues depending on a given care environment. It is important that strong partnerships are developed among key stakeholders in HIV care. In addition, health service providers need to be provided with resources so they can provide quality and ethically sound

  19. High agreement between the new Mongolian electronic immunization register and written immunization records: a health centre based audit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jocelyn Chan

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Monitoring of vaccination coverage is vital for the prevention and control of vaccine-preventable diseases. Electronic immunization registers have been increasingly adopted to assist with the monitoring of vaccine coverage; however, there is limited literature about the use of electronic registers in low- and middle-income countries such as Mongolia. We aimed to determine the accuracy and completeness of the newly introduced electronic immunization register for calculating vaccination coverage and determining vaccine effectiveness within two districts in Mongolia in comparison to written health provider records. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional record review among children 2–23 months of age vaccinated at immunization clinics within the two districts. We linked data from written records with the electronic immunization register using the national identification number to determine the completeness and accuracy of the electronic register. Results: Both completeness (90.9%; 95% CI: 88.4–93.4 and accuracy (93.3%; 95% CI: 84.1–97.4 of the electronic immunization register were high when compared to written records. The increase in completeness over time indicated a delay in data entry. Conclusion: Through this audit, we have demonstrated concordance between a newly introduced electronic register and health provider records in a middle-income country setting. Based on this experience, we recommend that electronic registers be accompanied by routine quality assurance procedures for the monitoring of vaccination programmes in such settings.

  20. Modality differences between written and spoken story retelling in healthy older adults

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jessica Ann Obermeyer

    2015-04-01

    Methods: Ten native English speaking healthy elderly participants between the ages of 50 and 80 were recruited. Exclusionary criteria included neurological disease/injury, history of learning disability, uncorrected hearing or vision impairment, history of drug/alcohol abuse and presence of cognitive decline (based on Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test. Spoken and written discourse was analyzed for micro linguistic measures including total words, percent correct information units (CIUs; Nicholas & Brookshire, 1993 and percent complete utterances (CUs; Edmonds, et al. 2009. CIUs measure relevant and informative words while CUs focus at the sentence level and measure whether a relevant subject and verb and object (if appropriate are present. Results: Analysis was completed using Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test due to small sample size. Preliminary results revealed that healthy elderly people produced significantly more words in spoken retellings than written retellings (p=.000; however, this measure contrasted with %CIUs and %CUs with participants producing significantly higher %CIUs (p=.000 and %CUs (p=.000 in written story retellings than in spoken story retellings. Conclusion: These findings indicate that written retellings, while shorter, contained higher accuracy at both a word (CIU and sentence (CU level. This observation could be related to the ability to revise written text and therefore make it more concise, whereas the nature of speech results in more embellishment and “thinking out loud,” such as comments about the task, associated observations about the story, etc. We plan to run more participants and conduct a main concepts analysis (before conference time to gain more insight into modality differences and implications.

  1. Novel bayes factors that capture expert uncertainty in prior density specification in genetic association studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spencer, Amy V; Cox, Angela; Lin, Wei-Yu; Easton, Douglas F; Michailidou, Kyriaki; Walters, Kevin

    2015-05-01

    Bayes factors (BFs) are becoming increasingly important tools in genetic association studies, partly because they provide a natural framework for including prior information. The Wakefield BF (WBF) approximation is easy to calculate and assumes a normal prior on the log odds ratio (logOR) with a mean of zero. However, the prior variance (W) must be specified. Because of the potentially high sensitivity of the WBF to the choice of W, we propose several new BF approximations with logOR ∼N(0,W), but allow W to take a probability distribution rather than a fixed value. We provide several prior distributions for W which lead to BFs that can be calculated easily in freely available software packages. These priors allow a wide range of densities for W and provide considerable flexibility. We examine some properties of the priors and BFs and show how to determine the most appropriate prior based on elicited quantiles of the prior odds ratio (OR). We show by simulation that our novel BFs have superior true-positive rates at low false-positive rates compared to those from both P-value and WBF analyses across a range of sample sizes and ORs. We give an example of utilizing our BFs to fine-map the CASP8 region using genotype data on approximately 46,000 breast cancer case and 43,000 healthy control samples from the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS) Consortium, and compare the single-nucleotide polymorphism ranks to those obtained using WBFs and P-values from univariate logistic regression. © 2015 The Authors. *Genetic Epidemiology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Iterated random walks with shape prior

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pujadas, Esmeralda Ruiz; Kjer, Hans Martin; Piella, Gemma

    2016-01-01

    the parametric probability density function. Then, random walks is performed iteratively aligning the prior with the current segmentation in every iteration. We tested the proposed approach with natural and medical images and compared it with the latest techniques with random walks and shape priors......We propose a new framework for image segmentation using random walks where a distance shape prior is combined with a region term. The shape prior is weighted by a confidence map to reduce the influence of the prior in high gradient areas and the region term is computed with k-means to estimate....... The experiments suggest that this method gives promising results for medical and natural images....

  3. Gamma prior distribution selection for Bayesian analysis of failure rate and reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Waller, R.A.; Johnson, M.M.; Waterman, M.S.; Martz, H.F. Jr.

    1976-07-01

    It is assumed that the phenomenon under study is such that the time-to-failure may be modeled by an exponential distribution with failure rate lambda. For Bayesian analyses of the assumed model, the family of gamma distributions provides conjugate prior models for lambda. Thus, an experimenter needs to select a particular gamma model to conduct a Bayesian reliability analysis. The purpose of this report is to present a methodology that can be used to translate engineering information, experience, and judgment into a choice of a gamma prior distribution. The proposed methodology assumes that the practicing engineer can provide percentile data relating to either the failure rate or the reliability of the phenomenon being investigated. For example, the methodology will select the gamma prior distribution which conveys an engineer's belief that the failure rate lambda simultaneously satisfies the probability statements, P(lambda less than 1.0 x 10 -3 ) equals 0.50 and P(lambda less than 1.0 x 10 -5 ) equals 0.05. That is, two percentiles provided by an engineer are used to determine a gamma prior model which agrees with the specified percentiles. For those engineers who prefer to specify reliability percentiles rather than the failure rate percentiles illustrated above, it is possible to use the induced negative-log gamma prior distribution which satisfies the probability statements, P(R(t 0 ) less than 0.99) equals 0.50 and P(R(t 0 ) less than 0.99999) equals 0.95, for some operating time t 0 . The report also includes graphs for selected percentiles which assist an engineer in applying the procedure. 28 figures, 16 tables

  4. How Primary Education students organize the planning of the written

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Luis Gallego Ortega

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available The present paper deals with a study aimed at providing an insight into how students with Primary Education plan their written expression. The exploratory and qualitative investigation resorts to the “collective case study” and it is used the “cognitive interview” to obtain the items, applying the “content analysis” in the interpretation of them. This research has allowed us to identify the process in content organization, how students make these operations and the main difficulties founded in it. The results of the research show that, although these students normally make the operations of this textual organization process, they have important difficulties regarding the general planning of the ideas in a text. Finally, this article gives some guidelines for the teaching of writing structure in Primary Education students.

  5. 25 CFR 171.305 - Will BIA provide leaching service to me?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Will BIA provide leaching service to me? 171.305 Section... OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE Water Use § 171.305 Will BIA provide leaching service to me? (a) We may provide you leaching service if: (1) You submit a written plan that documents how soil salinity limits your...

  6. The Relevance of Second Language Acquisition Theory to the Written Error Correction Debate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polio, Charlene

    2012-01-01

    The controversies surrounding written error correction can be traced to Truscott (1996) in his polemic against written error correction. He claimed that empirical studies showed that error correction was ineffective and that this was to be expected "given the nature of the correction process and "the nature of language learning" (p. 328, emphasis…

  7. Responding Effectively to Composition Students: Comparing Student Perceptions of Written and Audio Feedback

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bilbro, J.; Iluzada, C.; Clark, D. E.

    2013-01-01

    The authors compared student perceptions of audio and written feedback in order to assess what types of students may benefit from receiving audio feedback on their essays rather than written feedback. Many instructors previously have reported the advantages they see in audio feedback, but little quantitative research has been done on how the…

  8. Marginalia as the beginning of written culture: The Glosas Emilianensis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maja Šabec

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The Glosas emilianenses are notes in Latin and in a Romance language dating from the eleventh century, written by an anonymous monk between the lines and in the margins of a Latin manuscript known as Codex Aemilianensis 60 to explicate syntactic, morphological, and semantic difficulties in understanding the original. The document was named after its place of origin, a monastery in the village of San Millán de la Cogolla, known as “the cradle of Castilian.” The non-Latin Romance glosses are believed to be the first written accounts of the language that later evolved into present-day Castilian or Spanish; they are therefore invaluable historical, linguistic, literary, and cultural material. The place and time of the origin of the glosses are not a coincidence, but a consequence of particular historical circumstances in the Iberian Peninsula. The Moorish invasion in 711 AD destroyed the Visigothic Kingdom and constrained the development of Christian culture, confining it to two independent cores in the north. The ninth century therefore saw the establishment of the County of Castile emerging from the two cores as the predecessor of the Kingdom of Castile (1065. Due to turbulent historical events, the place was populated by people from various adjacent and rather distant countries, thus making the spoken language a mixture of several varieties of Vulgar Latin, Mozarabic, and Navarrian (Basque elements. All of these features are reflected in the glosses in the San Millán manuscript. Therefore, it is difficult for linguists to name the variant of the Romance language the glosses were written in: “the Riojan dialect,” “a vernacular Castilian-Riojan dialect of the second half of the eleventh century displaying tendencies towards learned Latin,” or “a Riojan dialect with elements more common to neighboring dialects (Aragon, Navarrian, Léon, and Mozarabic than to Castilian.” However, because the San Millán glosses also include elements

  9. 9 CFR 202.113 - Rule 13: Written hearing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Rule 13: Written hearing. 202.113 Section 202.113 Animals and Animal Products GRAIN INSPECTION, PACKERS AND STOCKYARDS ADMINISTRATION... waiver of the right to file such evidence. (g) Extension of time for depositions. If any party timely...

  10. Written Emotional Expression as an Intervention for Asthma

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bray, Melissa A.; Theodore, Lea A.; Patwa, Shamim S.; Margiano, Suzanne G.; Alric, Jolie M.; Peck, Heather L.

    2003-01-01

    This investigation employed a multiple baseline design across five participants to examine written emotional expression as an intervention to improve lung function in high school-aged students, college students, and adults with asthma. The predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV[subscript 1] measure of large airway functioning) and…

  11. On Bayesian reliability analysis with informative priors and censoring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coolen, F.P.A.

    1996-01-01

    In the statistical literature many methods have been presented to deal with censored observations, both within the Bayesian and non-Bayesian frameworks, and such methods have been successfully applied to, e.g., reliability problems. Also, in reliability theory it is often emphasized that, through shortage of statistical data and possibilities for experiments, one often needs to rely heavily on judgements of engineers, or other experts, for which means Bayesian methods are attractive. It is therefore important that such judgements can be elicited easily to provide informative prior distributions that reflect the knowledge of the engineers well. In this paper we focus on this aspect, especially on the situation that the judgements of the consulted engineers are based on experiences in environments where censoring has also been present previously. We suggest the use of the attractive interpretation of hyperparameters of conjugate prior distributions when these are available for assumed parametric models for lifetimes, and we show how one may go beyond the standard conjugate priors, using similar interpretations of hyper-parameters, to enable easier elicitation when censoring has been present in the past. This may even lead to more flexibility for modelling prior knowledge than when using standard conjugate priors, whereas the disadvantage of more complicated calculations that may be needed to determine posterior distributions play a minor role due to the advanced mathematical and statistical software that is widely available these days

  12. Evaluation of written patient educational materials in the field of diagnostic imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ryhaenen, A.M.; Johansson, K.; Virtanen, H.; Salo, S.; Salanterae, S.; Leino-Kilpi, H.

    2009-01-01

    Aim: To evaluate the quality of written educational materials for diagnostic imaging (radiological and nuclear medicine) patients. Materials and methods: Written educational materials (n = 70) for diagnostic imaging patients were analysed. The materials were evaluated based on their external appearance (9 criteria), instructiveness (7), content (7), language and structure (8) and readability (1). Deductive content analysis was used. Quantified parts of the analyses were analysed by SAS for Windows. Dependence between criteria (32) was tested by Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: The external appearance fulfilled almost completely the criteria of good written education materials. The instructiveness was addressed clearly, except for the purpose of the material. The contents of materials dealt with bio-physiological, functional and cognitive dimensions of knowledge, while financial dimensions of knowledge were hardly dealt with at all. The language and the structure were reasonably good, but the language was partly in passive voice and the text contained strange words. Most of the education material was moderately easy to read. Conclusions: The results show that the quality of material was quite good in all dimensions. Only a small number of criteria were unsatisfactory. The results can be used to further improve written patient education materials and patient education in the imaging unit.

  13. How Does Dissociation between Written and Oral Forms Affect Reading: Evidence from Auxiliary Verbs in Arabic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ibrahim, Raphiq

    2011-01-01

    In Arabic, auxiliary verbs are necessary in the written language, but absent from the oral language. This is contrary to languages such as English and French in which auxiliary verbs are mandatory in both written and oral languages. This fact was exploited to examine if dissociation between written and oral forms affects reading measures like…

  14. A qualitative analysis of student-written law and ethics cases: A snapshot of PY2 student experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karwaki, Tanya E; Hazlet, Thomas K

    2017-05-01

    This study was designed to better understand pharmacy students' experiences and recognition of legal and ethical tensions existing in pharmacy practice as demonstrated in student-written law and ethics cases. A qualitative analysis of 132 student-written cases representing the team efforts of 1053 students over a 12-year time period was conducted. Student-written cases were coded and analyzed thematically. Our results demonstrate the types of ethical and legal issues our students have experienced in pharmacy practice during the first five quarters of their professional education. Our data highlight three themes: 1) ethical dilemmas presented when the law is misapplied; 2) ethical dilemmas presented when an institutional policy or law was viewed as insufficient; and 3) ethical dilemmas presented as provider distress. The third theme was further subdivided into five subthemes. The themes that emerged from this study represent some of the ethical dilemmas that second professional year students have encountered and how these dilemmas may intersect with legal boundaries. Educators can use cases demonstrating these themes to reinforce law and ethics education in the curriculum, thus helping prepare students for pharmacy practice. This article recommends how and when to use case examples. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. A Theory of Developing Competence with Written Mathematical Symbols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hiebert, James

    1988-01-01

    Presented is a theory of how competence with written mathematical symbols develops, tracing a succession of cognitive processes that cumulate to yield competence. Arguments supporting the theory are drawn from the history, philosophy, and psychology of mathematics. (MNS)

  16. Assessing the suitability of written stroke materials: an evaluation of the interrater reliability of the suitability assessment of materials (SAM) checklist.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffmann, Tammy; Ladner, Yvette

    2012-01-01

    Written materials are frequently used to provide education to stroke patients and their carers. However, poor quality materials are a barrier to effective information provision. A quick and reliable method of evaluating material quality is needed. This study evaluated the interrater reliability of the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) checklist in a sample of written stroke education materials. Two independent raters evaluated the materials (n = 25) using the SAM, and ratings were analyzed to reveal total percentage agreements and weighted kappa values for individual items and overall SAM rating. The majority of the individual SAM items had high interrater reliability, with 17 of the 22 items achieving substantial, almost perfect, or perfect weighted kappa value scores. The overall SAM rating achieved a weighted kappa value of 0.60, with a percentage total agreement of 96%. Health care professionals should evaluate the content and design characteristics of written education materials before using them with patients. A tool such as the SAM checklist can be used; however, raters should exercise caution when interpreting results from items with more subjective scoring criteria. Refinements to the scoring criteria for these items are recommended. The value of the SAM is that it can be used to identify specific elements that should be modified before education materials are provided to patients.

  17. The Influence of Prior Knowledge on the Retrieval-Directed Function of Note Taking in Prior Knowledge Activation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wetzels, Sandra A. J.; Kester, Liesbeth; van Merrienboer, Jeroen J. G.; Broers, Nick J.

    2011-01-01

    Background: Prior knowledge activation facilitates learning. Note taking during prior knowledge activation (i.e., note taking directed at retrieving information from memory) might facilitate the activation process by enabling learners to build an external representation of their prior knowledge. However, taking notes might be less effective in…

  18. The Transformation of Higher Education through Prior Learning Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamenetz, Anya

    2011-01-01

    Providing college credit for prior learning is nothing new. The American Council on Education's Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT), the largest national program making credit recommendations for workplace and other training, dates to 1974. Several colleges that specialize in the practice--Excelsior and Empire State in New York, Thomas Edison…

  19. Written Formative Assessment and Silence in the Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee Hang, Desmond Mene; Bell, Beverley

    2015-01-01

    In this commentary, we build on Xinying Yin and Gayle Buck's discussion by exploring the cultural practices which are integral to formative assessment, when it is viewed as a sociocultural practice. First we discuss the role of assessment and in particular oral and written formative assessments in both western and Samoan cultures, building on the…

  20. Shortcomings of the written survey questionnaire for discovering ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In this article I describe my reflections on using a written survey questionnaire to investigate, on a large-scale, students' perceptions of studying Xhosa as a first language in high schools. I describe the aims of the project, how the questionnaire was designed, and the problems I encountered with the analysis of the data.

  1. THE PHONOLOGICAL BASIS OF MISSPELLINGS IN THE WRITTEN ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Misspellings have been a common error in the written English of non-native speakers. ... The study was done with a view to investigating whether the phonology of Kikuyu as a learner's first language and pronunciation of words in English as the second language, based on the influence of the phonology of Kikuyu affects ...

  2. Fabrication of self-written waveguide in photosensitive polyimide resin by controlling photochemical reaction of photosensitizer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamashita, K.; Kuro, T.; Oe, K.; Mune, K.; Tagawa, K.; Naitou, R.; Mochizuki, A.

    2004-01-01

    We have investigated optical properties of photosensitive polyimide appropriating for long self-written waveguide fabrication. From systematic measurements of absorption properties, it was found that photochemical reaction of photosensitizer dissolved in the photosensitive polyimide resins relates to transparency after the exposure, which limits the length of the fabricated self-written waveguide. By controlling the photochemical reaction, in which the photosensitive polyimide resin has sufficient transparency during exposure, four times longer self-written waveguide core was fabricated

  3. Sports metaphors in Polish written commentaries on politics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jarosław Wiliński

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper seeks to investigate what sports metaphors are used in Polish written commentaries on politics and what special purpose they serve. In particular, the paper examines structural metaphors that come from the lexicon of popular sports, such as boxing, racing, track and field athletics, sailing, etc. The language data, derived from English Internet websites, has been grouped and discussed according to source domains. Applying George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s approach to metaphor, the paper attempts to determine both the kind of source domains from which common metaphors are drawn and to what degree structural metaphors are used. The data suggests that many structural metaphors can be found in the language of politics. They are drawn from a wide variety of sports source domains, although the domains of boxing, racing, sailing, and soccer are of particular prominence. It seems that the primary function of structural metaphors in written commentaries is to facilitate the interpretation of facts in a way that is enormously appealing to the reader.

  4. Using the Van Hiele theory to analyze primary school teachers' written work on geometrical proof problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jupri, A.

    2018-05-01

    The lack of ability of primary school teachers in deductive thinking, such as doing geometrical proof, is an indispensable issue to be dealt with. In this paper, we report on results of a three-step of the field document study. The study was part of a pilot study for improving deductive thinking ability of primary school teachers. First, we designed geometrical proof problems adapted from literature. Second, we administered an individual written test involving nine master students of primary education program, in which they are having experiences as primary school mathematics teachers. Finally, we analyzed the written work from the view of the Van Hiele theory. The results revealed that even if about the half of the teachers show ability in doing formal proof, still the rest provides inappropriate proving. For further investigation, we wonder whether primary school teachers would show better deductive thinking if the teaching of geometry is designed in a systematic and appropriate manner according to the Van Hiele theory.

  5. 'What is not written does not exist': the importance of proper documentation of medication use history.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silvestre, Carina Carvalho; Santos, Lincoln Marques Cavalcante; de Oliveira-Filho, Alfredo Dias; de Lyra, Divaldo Pereira

    2017-10-01

    Medications are perceived as health risk factors, because they might cause damage if used improperly. In this context, an adequate assessment of medication use history should be encouraged, especially in transitions of care to avoid unintended medication discrepancies (UMDs). In a case-controlled study, we investigated potential risk factors for UMDs at hospital admission and found that 150 (42%) of the 358 patients evaluated had one or more UMDs. We were surprised to find that there was no record of a patient and/or relative interview on previous use of medication in 117 medical charts of adult patients (44.8%). Similarly, in the medical charts of 52 (53.6%) paediatric patients, there was no record of parents and/or relatives interviews about prior use of medications. One hundred thirty-seven medical charts of adult patients (52.4%) and seventy-two medical charts of paediatric patients (74.2%) had no record about medication allergies and intolerances. In other words, there was a lack of basic documentation regarding the patient's medication use history. As patients move between settings in care, there is insufficient tracking of verbal and written information related to medication changes, which results in a progressive and cumulative loss of information, as evidenced by problems associated with clinical transfers and medication orders. Proper documentation of medication information during transfer is a key step in the procedure; hence, it should be rightly performed. It remains unclear whether interviews, and other investigations about medication use history have been performed but have not been recorded as health-care data. Therefore, it is crucial to the improvement of medication use safety that documentation of all drug-related information-even if not directly related to the actual event-become routine practice in health-care organizations, since 'what is not written does not exist'.

  6. Varying prior information in Bayesian inversion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Walker, Matthew; Curtis, Andrew

    2014-01-01

    Bayes' rule is used to combine likelihood and prior probability distributions. The former represents knowledge derived from new data, the latter represents pre-existing knowledge; the Bayesian combination is the so-called posterior distribution, representing the resultant new state of knowledge. While varying the likelihood due to differing data observations is common, there are also situations where the prior distribution must be changed or replaced repeatedly. For example, in mixture density neural network (MDN) inversion, using current methods the neural network employed for inversion needs to be retrained every time prior information changes. We develop a method of prior replacement to vary the prior without re-training the network. Thus the efficiency of MDN inversions can be increased, typically by orders of magnitude when applied to geophysical problems. We demonstrate this for the inversion of seismic attributes in a synthetic subsurface geological reservoir model. We also present results which suggest that prior replacement can be used to control the statistical properties (such as variance) of the final estimate of the posterior in more general (e.g., Monte Carlo based) inverse problem solutions. (paper)

  7. Designing student peer assessment in higher education: Analysis of written and oral peer feedback

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Berg, I.; Admiraal, W.; Pilot, A.

    2006-01-01

    Designing student peer assessment in higher education: analysis of written and oral peer feedback Relating it to design features, the present article describes the nature of written and oral peer feedback as it occurred in seven writing courses, each with a different PA design. Results indicate that

  8. THE ORTHOGRAPHIC NORM IN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivana Đorđev

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the results of research conducted with the primary objective to determine in which areas secondary school students usually make orthographic mistakes when writing (official written assignments. Starting from the hypothesis that the punctuation writing of whole and split words are areas in which secondary school students (regardless of age and school orientation achieved the weakest achievements an (exploratory research was conducted on a corpus of 3,135 written assignments written in the school year of 2010/11. The research sample was intentional, descriptive and analytical methods were used for the description and the analysis of the results. The results showed the following (1 secondary school students usually make mistakes in punctuation of written assignments - we recorded 4,487 errors in the use of signs to denote intonation and meaning of a text (errors of this type make 53.93% of the total number of spelling errors reported in the corpus of research; by frequency of errors the second are errors related to writing whole and split words (11.02%, the third error is in the use of the capital letter (9.34%; (2 most problems in orthography have second grade students, quantum of mistakes is almost the same with first graders and seniors, but in all grades the most frequent errors are in punctuation, writing of whole and split words and the use of capital letters; (3 Although school orientation affects the spelling skills of pupils, the weakest orthographic achievements are also recorded in punctuation, writing of whole and split words and capitalization, so those are areas that need to be thoroughly addressed in teaching and methodology literature. The results are, on the one hand, a picture of the current status of teaching orthography and grammar knowledge of secondary school students. On the other hand, the research results can be applied in all phases of methodical practical work in teaching orthography, the upgrading the

  9. The Prior Internet Resources 2017

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Engerer, Volkmar Paul; Albretsen, Jørgen

    2017-01-01

    The Prior Internet Resources (PIR) are presented. Prior’s unpublished scientific manuscripts and his wast letter correspondence with fellow researchers at the time, his Nachlass, is now subject to transcription by Prior-researchers worldwide, and form an integral part of PIR. It is demonstrated...

  10. Cracking the code: residents' interpretations of written assessment comments

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ginsburg, S.; Vleuten, C.P.M. van der; Eva, K.W.; Lingard, L.

    2017-01-01

    CONTEXT: Interest is growing in the use of qualitative data for assessment. Written comments on residents' in-training evaluation reports (ITERs) can be reliably rank-ordered by faculty attendings, who are adept at interpreting these narratives. However, if residents do not interpret assessment

  11. Prior indigenous technological species

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Jason T.

    2018-01-01

    One of the primary open questions of astrobiology is whether there is extant or extinct life elsewhere the solar system. Implicit in much of this work is that we are looking for microbial or, at best, unintelligent life, even though technological artefacts might be much easier to find. Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) work on searches for alien artefacts in the solar system typically presumes that such artefacts would be of extrasolar origin, even though life is known to have existed in the solar system, on Earth, for eons. But if a prior technological, perhaps spacefaring, species ever arose in the solar system, it might have produced artefacts or other technosignatures that have survived to present day, meaning solar system artefact SETI provides a potential path to resolving astrobiology's question. Here, I discuss the origins and possible locations for technosignatures of such a prior indigenous technological species, which might have arisen on ancient Earth or another body, such as a pre-greenhouse Venus or a wet Mars. In the case of Venus, the arrival of its global greenhouse and potential resurfacing might have erased all evidence of its existence on the Venusian surface. In the case of Earth, erosion and, ultimately, plate tectonics may have erased most such evidence if the species lived Gyr ago. Remaining indigenous technosignatures might be expected to be extremely old, limiting the places they might still be found to beneath the surfaces of Mars and the Moon, or in the outer solar system.

  12. Penalised Complexity Priors for Stationary Autoregressive Processes

    KAUST Repository

    Sø rbye, Sigrunn Holbek; Rue, Haavard

    2017-01-01

    The autoregressive (AR) process of order p(AR(p)) is a central model in time series analysis. A Bayesian approach requires the user to define a prior distribution for the coefficients of the AR(p) model. Although it is easy to write down some prior, it is not at all obvious how to understand and interpret the prior distribution, to ensure that it behaves according to the users' prior knowledge. In this article, we approach this problem using the recently developed ideas of penalised complexity (PC) priors. These prior have important properties like robustness and invariance to reparameterisations, as well as a clear interpretation. A PC prior is computed based on specific principles, where model component complexity is penalised in terms of deviation from simple base model formulations. In the AR(1) case, we discuss two natural base model choices, corresponding to either independence in time or no change in time. The latter case is illustrated in a survival model with possible time-dependent frailty. For higher-order processes, we propose a sequential approach, where the base model for AR(p) is the corresponding AR(p-1) model expressed using the partial autocorrelations. The properties of the new prior distribution are compared with the reference prior in a simulation study.

  13. Penalised Complexity Priors for Stationary Autoregressive Processes

    KAUST Repository

    Sørbye, Sigrunn Holbek

    2017-05-25

    The autoregressive (AR) process of order p(AR(p)) is a central model in time series analysis. A Bayesian approach requires the user to define a prior distribution for the coefficients of the AR(p) model. Although it is easy to write down some prior, it is not at all obvious how to understand and interpret the prior distribution, to ensure that it behaves according to the users\\' prior knowledge. In this article, we approach this problem using the recently developed ideas of penalised complexity (PC) priors. These prior have important properties like robustness and invariance to reparameterisations, as well as a clear interpretation. A PC prior is computed based on specific principles, where model component complexity is penalised in terms of deviation from simple base model formulations. In the AR(1) case, we discuss two natural base model choices, corresponding to either independence in time or no change in time. The latter case is illustrated in a survival model with possible time-dependent frailty. For higher-order processes, we propose a sequential approach, where the base model for AR(p) is the corresponding AR(p-1) model expressed using the partial autocorrelations. The properties of the new prior distribution are compared with the reference prior in a simulation study.

  14. A Structure Analysis of English Argumentative Writings Written by Chinese and Korean EFL Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Cui

    2013-01-01

    This study employed Kamimura and Oi (1996)'s classification of the organizational patterns of the argumentative essay structure: Thesis Statement (TS), Background Information (BI), Reservation (R), Hesitation (H), Rational Appeals (RA), Affective Appeals (AA) and Conclusion (C). 178 essays, 84 written by Chinese EFL learners, 84 written by Korean…

  15. Discourse Features of Written Mexican Spanish: Current Research in Contrastive Rhetoric and Its Implications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montano-Harmon, Maria Rosario

    1991-01-01

    Analyzes discourse features of compositions written in Spanish by secondary school students in Mexico, draws comparisons with those written in English by Anglo-American students in the United States, and discusses the implications of the results for teaching and evaluating composition skills in Spanish language programs. (29 references) (GLR)

  16. Advance Planning of Form Properties in the Written Production of Single and Multiple Words

    Science.gov (United States)

    Damian, Markus F.; Stadthagen-Gonzalez, Hans

    2009-01-01

    Three experiments investigated the scope of advance planning in written production. Experiment 1 manipulated phonological factors in single word written production, and Experiments 2 and 3 did the same in the production of adjective-noun utterances. In all three experiments, effects on latencies were found which mirrored those previously…

  17. Spatially adapted augmentation of age-specific atlas-based segmentation using patch-based priors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Mengyuan; Seshamani, Sharmishtaa; Harrylock, Lisa; Kitsch, Averi; Miller, Steven; Chau, Van; Poskitt, Kenneth; Rousseau, Francois; Studholme, Colin

    2014-03-01

    One of the most common approaches to MRI brain tissue segmentation is to employ an atlas prior to initialize an Expectation- Maximization (EM) image labeling scheme using a statistical model of MRI intensities. This prior is commonly derived from a set of manually segmented training data from the population of interest. However, in cases where subject anatomy varies significantly from the prior anatomical average model (for example in the case where extreme developmental abnormalities or brain injuries occur), the prior tissue map does not provide adequate information about the observed MRI intensities to ensure the EM algorithm converges to an anatomically accurate labeling of the MRI. In this paper, we present a novel approach for automatic segmentation of such cases. This approach augments the atlas-based EM segmentation by exploring methods to build a hybrid tissue segmentation scheme that seeks to learn where an atlas prior fails (due to inadequate representation of anatomical variation in the statistical atlas) and utilize an alternative prior derived from a patch driven search of the atlas data. We describe a framework for incorporating this patch-based augmentation of EM (PBAEM) into a 4D age-specific atlas-based segmentation of developing brain anatomy. The proposed approach was evaluated on a set of MRI brain scans of premature neonates with ages ranging from 27.29 to 46.43 gestational weeks (GWs). Results indicated superior performance compared to the conventional atlas-based segmentation method, providing improved segmentation accuracy for gray matter, white matter, ventricles and sulcal CSF regions.

  18. Assessment of Written Expression Skills of University Students in Terms of Text Completion Technique

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdulkadir KIRBAŞ

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Writing is to transfer the visualised ideas on the paper. Writing, one of the language skills, is a significant tool of communication which provides the permanency of information conveying emotions and thoughts. Since writing has both cognitive and physical aspects, it makes writing the hardest and the latest language skill to improve. The studies show that writing activity is the most difficult skill students have difficulty. In higher education, in order to improve writing skills of students and give basic information and skills about writing skills written expression, composition and writing education lessons are taught both in the department of Turkish Language and Literature and in the departments of Turkish Language in the Faculties of Education. One of the aims of these lessons is to teach students written expression techniques together with the purposes and practices. One of the written expression techniques is text completion skill that improves student’s creativity and enhances her/his imaginary world. The purpose of this study is to assess students’ skills of using text completion technique with reference to the writing studies of students in higher education. the sample of the study consists of 85 college students studying in the department of Turkish Language and Literature in Gümüşhane University in 2016-2017 academic year. The data of the study were obtained from the written expression studies of the students. The introduction part of the article ‘On Reading’ by F. Bacon was given to the students and they were required to complete the text. ‘Text Completion Rating Scale in Writing Expression’ was developed to assess the data of the study by taking opinions of lecturers and Turkish education experts. The data of the study were presented with percentage and frequency rates. At the end of the study, it was concluded that students had weakness in some skills such as writing an effective body part about the topic given

  19. Written and spoken narratives about health and cancer decision making: a novel application of photovoice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Tracey L; Owens, Otis L; Friedman, Daniela B; Torres, Myriam E; Hébert, James R

    2013-11-01

    Photovoice is a community-based participatory research method that researchers have used to identify and address individual and community health needs. We developed an abbreviated photovoice project to serve as a supplement to a National Cancer Institute-funded pilot study focusing on prostate cancer (PrCA) that was set in a faith-based African American community in South Carolina. We used photovoice for three reasons: (a) to enhance communication between study participants and researchers, (b) to empower African American men and women to examine their health decisions through photographs, and (c) to better understand how participants from this community make health-related decisions. The 15 individuals participating in the photovoice project were asked to photograph aspects of their community that informed their health-related decisions. Participants provided written and oral narratives to describe the images in a small sample of photographs. Four primary themes emerged in participants' photographs and narratives: (a) food choices, (b) physical activity practices, (c) community environment and access to care, and (d) influences of spirituality and nature on health. Although written and audio-recorded narratives were similar in content, the audio-recorded responses were more descriptive and emotional. Results suggest that incorporating audio-recorded narratives in community photovoice presentations may have a greater impact than written narratives on health promotion, decision making, and policy makers because of an increased level of detail and personalization. In conclusion, photovoice strengthened the parent study and empowered participants by making them more aware of factors influencing their health decisions.

  20. Oral and Written Picture Description in Individuals with Aphasia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vandenborre, Dorien; Visch-Brink, Evy; van Dun, Kim; Verhoeven, Jo; Mariën, Peter

    2018-01-01

    Background: Aphasia is characterized by difficulties in connected speech/writing. Aims: To explore the differences between the oral and written description of a picture in individuals with chronic aphasia (IWA) and healthy controls. Descriptions were controlled for productivity, efficiency, grammatical organization, substitution behaviour and…

  1. 42 CFR 456.80 - Individual written plan of care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... (CONTINUED) MEDICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS UTILIZATION CONTROL Utilization Control: Hospitals Plan of Care § 456.80 Individual written plan of care. (a) Before admission to a hospital or before authorization for... and rehabilitative services; (iv) Activities; (v) Social services; (vi) Diet; (4) Plans for continuing...

  2. Generalized Bayesian inference with sets of conjugate priors for dealing with prior-data conflict : course at Lund University

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Walter, G.

    2015-01-01

    In the Bayesian approach to statistical inference, possibly subjective knowledge on model parameters can be expressed by so-called prior distributions. A prior distribution is updated, via Bayes’ Rule, to the so-called posterior distribution, which combines prior information and information from

  3. Attitudes of second language students towards self-editing their own written texts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Kasule

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Recognizing students’ deliberate e!orts to minimize errors in their written texts is valuable in seeing them as responsible active agents in text creation. This paper reports on a brief survey of the attitudes towards self-editing of seventy university students using a questionnaire and class discussion. The context of the study is characterized by its emphasis on evaluating the finished written product. Findings show that students appreciate the role of self-editing in minimizing errors in their texts and that it helps in eventually producing well-written texts. Conceptualizing writing as discourse and therefore as social practice leads to an understanding of writers as socially-situated actors; repositions the student writer as an active agent in text creation; and is central to student-centred pedagogy. We recommend the recognition of self-editing as a vital element in the writing process and that additional error detection mechanisms namely peers, the lecturer, and the computer, increase student autonomy.

  4. Enhancing the benefits of written emotional disclosure through response training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Konig, Andrea; Eonta, Alison; Dyal, Stephanie R; Vrana, Scott R

    2014-05-01

    Writing about a personal stressful event has been found to have psychological and physical health benefits, especially when physiological response increases during writing. Response training was developed to amplify appropriate physiological reactivity in imagery exposure. The present study examined whether response training enhances the benefits of written emotional disclosure. Participants were assigned to either a written emotional disclosure condition (n=113) or a neutral writing condition (n=133). Participants in each condition wrote for 20 minutes on 3 occasions and received response training (n=79), stimulus training (n=84) or no training (n=83). Heart rate and skin conductance were recorded throughout a 10-minute baseline, 20-minute writing, and a 10-minute recovery period. Self-reported emotion was assessed in each session. One month after completing the sessions, participants completed follow-up assessments of psychological and physical health outcomes. Emotional disclosure elicited greater physiological reactivity and self-reported emotion than neutral writing. Response training amplified physiological reactivity to emotional disclosure. Greater heart rate during emotional disclosure was associated with the greatest reductions in event-related distress, depression, and physical illness symptoms at follow-up, especially among response trained participants. Results support an exposure explanation of emotional disclosure effects and are the first to demonstrate that response training facilitates emotional processing and may be a beneficial adjunct to written emotional disclosure. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  5. Enhancing the Benefits of Written Emotional Disclosure through Response Training

    Science.gov (United States)

    Konig, Andrea; Eonta, Alison; Dyal, Stephanie R.; Vrana, Scott R.

    2014-01-01

    Writing about a personal stressful event has been found to have psychological and physical health benefits, especially when physiological response increases during writing. Response training was developed to amplify appropriate physiological reactivity in imagery exposure. The present study examined whether response training enhances the benefits of written emotional disclosure. Participants were assigned to either a written emotional disclosure condition (n = 113) or a neutral writing condition (n = 133). Participants in each condition wrote for 20 minutes on three occasions and received response training (n = 79), stimulus training (n = 84) or no training (n = 83). Heart rate and skin conductance were recorded throughout a 10-minute baseline, 20-minute writing, and a 10-minute recovery period. Self-reported emotion was assessed in each session. One month after completing the sessions, participants completed follow-up assessments of psychological and physical health outcomes. Emotional disclosure elicited greater physiological reactivity and self-reported emotion than neutral writing. Response training amplified physiological reactivity to emotional disclosure. Greater heart rate during emotional disclosure was associated with the greatest reductions in event-related distress, depression, and physical illness symptoms at follow-up, especially among response trained participants. Results support an exposure explanation of emotional disclosure effects and are the first to demonstrate that response training facilitates emotional processing and may be a beneficial adjunct to written emotional disclosure. PMID:24680230

  6. The emotional importance of key: do Beatles songs written in different keys convey different emotional tones?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whissel, R; Whissel, C

    2000-12-01

    Lyrics from 155 songs written by the Lennon-McCartney team were scored using the Dictionary of Affect in Language. Resultant scores (pleasantness, activation, and imagery of words) were compared across key signatures using one way analyses of variance. Words from songs written in minor keys were less pleasant and less active than those from songs written in major keys. Words from songs written in the key of F scored extremely low on all three measures. Lyrics from the keys of C, D, and G were relatively active in tone. Results from Dictionary scoring were compared with assignments of character to keys made more than one century ago and with current musicians' opinions.

  7. Integrating Technology Tools for Students Struggling with Written Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fedora, Pledger

    2015-01-01

    This exploratory study was designed to assess the experience of preservice teachers when integrating written language technology and their likelihood of applying that technology in their future classrooms. Results suggest that after experiencing technology integration, preservice teachers are more likely to use it in their future teaching.

  8. 2 CFR 182.100 - How is this part written?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 2 Grants and Agreements 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false How is this part written? 182.100 Section 182.100 Grants and Agreements OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET GOVERNMENTWIDE GUIDANCE FOR GRANTS AND AGREEMENTS Reserved GOVERNMENTWIDE REQUIREMENTS FOR DRUG-FREE WORKPLACE (FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE) Purpose and...

  9. A Large-Scale Analysis of Variance in Written Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johns, Brendan T; Jamieson, Randall K

    2018-01-22

    The collection of very large text sources has revolutionized the study of natural language, leading to the development of several models of language learning and distributional semantics that extract sophisticated semantic representations of words based on the statistical redundancies contained within natural language (e.g., Griffiths, Steyvers, & Tenenbaum, ; Jones & Mewhort, ; Landauer & Dumais, ; Mikolov, Sutskever, Chen, Corrado, & Dean, ). The models treat knowledge as an interaction of processing mechanisms and the structure of language experience. But language experience is often treated agnostically. We report a distributional semantic analysis that shows written language in fiction books varies appreciably between books from the different genres, books from the same genre, and even books written by the same author. Given that current theories assume that word knowledge reflects an interaction between processing mechanisms and the language environment, the analysis shows the need for the field to engage in a more deliberate consideration and curation of the corpora used in computational studies of natural language processing. Copyright © 2018 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  10. Savings for visuomotor adaptation require prior history of error, not prior repetition of successful actions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leow, Li-Ann; de Rugy, Aymar; Marinovic, Welber; Riek, Stephan; Carroll, Timothy J

    2016-10-01

    When we move, perturbations to our body or the environment can elicit discrepancies between predicted and actual outcomes. We readily adapt movements to compensate for such discrepancies, and the retention of this learning is evident as savings, or faster readaptation to a previously encountered perturbation. The mechanistic processes contributing to savings, or even the necessary conditions for savings, are not fully understood. One theory suggests that savings requires increased sensitivity to previously experienced errors: when perturbations evoke a sequence of correlated errors, we increase our sensitivity to the errors experienced, which subsequently improves error correction (Herzfeld et al. 2014). An alternative theory suggests that a memory of actions is necessary for savings: when an action becomes associated with successful target acquisition through repetition, that action is more rapidly retrieved at subsequent learning (Huang et al. 2011). In the present study, to better understand the necessary conditions for savings, we tested how savings is affected by prior experience of similar errors and prior repetition of the action required to eliminate errors using a factorial design. Prior experience of errors induced by a visuomotor rotation in the savings block was either prevented at initial learning by gradually removing an oppositely signed perturbation or enforced by abruptly removing the perturbation. Prior repetition of the action required to eliminate errors in the savings block was either deprived or enforced by manipulating target location in preceding trials. The data suggest that prior experience of errors is both necessary and sufficient for savings, whereas prior repetition of a successful action is neither necessary nor sufficient for savings. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

  11. Tailored silver grid as transparent electrodes directly written by femtosecond laser

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhao, Yuan-Yuan; Ren, Xue-Liang [Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interface Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing 100190 (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing 100190 (China); Zheng, Mei-Ling, E-mail: zhengmeiling@mail.ipc.ac.cn, E-mail: xmduan@mail.ipc.ac.cn; Dong, Xian-Zi; Jin, Feng; Liu, Jie; Zhao, Zhen-Sheng [Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interface Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing 100190 (China); Duan, Xuan-Ming, E-mail: zhengmeiling@mail.ipc.ac.cn, E-mail: xmduan@mail.ipc.ac.cn [Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interface Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing 100190 (China); Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 266 Fangzheng Ave., Shuitu Technology Development Zone, Beibei District, Chongqing 400714 (China)

    2016-05-30

    We present the design and realization of silver grid transparent electrodes (SGTEs) easily fabricated by femtosecond laser direct writing of silver aqueous solution. The fabricated SGTEs with a sheet resistance down to 47 Ω/□ and optical transmittance up to 93% are demonstrated. These sheet resistance and transmittance values are comparable to commercially available indium tin oxide. High uniform morphology of the directly written SGTEs results in the ultra-stable tailored performance parameter at electronic and optical fields. The sheet resistance and transmittance can be tailored precisely by manipulating the filling fraction of the uniform SGTEs. This study provides an approach for creating SGTEs in a controllable fashion, and the SGTEs exhibit high transmittance and low sheet resistance, which could open up new avenues towards widespread application in electronics, photovoltaics, and optoelectronics.

  12. Prior Knowledge Facilitates Mutual Gaze Convergence and Head Nodding Synchrony in Face-to-face Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thepsoonthorn, C; Yokozuka, T; Miura, S; Ogawa, K; Miyake, Y

    2016-12-02

    As prior knowledge is claimed to be an essential key to achieve effective education, we are interested in exploring whether prior knowledge enhances communication effectiveness. To demonstrate the effects of prior knowledge, mutual gaze convergence and head nodding synchrony are observed as indicators of communication effectiveness. We conducted an experiment on lecture task between lecturer and student under 2 conditions: prior knowledge and non-prior knowledge. The students in prior knowledge condition were provided the basic information about the lecture content and were assessed their understanding by the experimenter before starting the lecture while the students in non-prior knowledge had none. The result shows that the interaction in prior knowledge condition establishes significantly higher mutual gaze convergence (t(15.03) = 6.72, p < 0.0001; α = 0.05, n = 20) and head nodding synchrony (t(16.67) = 1.83, p = 0.04; α = 0.05, n = 19) compared to non-prior knowledge condition. This study reveals that prior knowledge facilitates mutual gaze convergence and head nodding synchrony. Furthermore, the interaction with and without prior knowledge can be evaluated by measuring or observing mutual gaze convergence and head nodding synchrony.

  13. 21 CFR 316.14 - Refusal to provide written recommendations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... and marketing history of the drug to determine the scope and type of investigations that have already... marketing application for any of the following reasons: (1) The information required to be submitted by...

  14. Modeling and validating Bayesian accrual models on clinical data and simulations using adaptive priors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Yu; Simon, Steve; Mayo, Matthew S; Gajewski, Byron J

    2015-02-20

    Slow recruitment in clinical trials leads to increased costs and resource utilization, which includes both the clinic staff and patient volunteers. Careful planning and monitoring of the accrual process can prevent the unnecessary loss of these resources. We propose two hierarchical extensions to the existing Bayesian constant accrual model: the accelerated prior and the hedging prior. The new proposed priors are able to adaptively utilize the researcher's previous experience and current accrual data to produce the estimation of trial completion time. The performance of these models, including prediction precision, coverage probability, and correct decision-making ability, is evaluated using actual studies from our cancer center and simulation. The results showed that a constant accrual model with strongly informative priors is very accurate when accrual is on target or slightly off, producing smaller mean squared error, high percentage of coverage, and a high number of correct decisions as to whether or not continue the trial, but it is strongly biased when off target. Flat or weakly informative priors provide protection against an off target prior but are less efficient when the accrual is on target. The accelerated prior performs similar to a strong prior. The hedging prior performs much like the weak priors when the accrual is extremely off target but closer to the strong priors when the accrual is on target or only slightly off target. We suggest improvements in these models and propose new models for future research. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  15. 22 CFR 208.50 - How is this part written?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false How is this part written? 208.50 Section 208.50 Foreign Relations AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT GOVERNMENTWIDE DEBARMENT AND SUSPENSION... for the general public and business community to use. The section headings and text, often in the form...

  16. Argumentation Schema and the Myside Bias in Written Argumentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolfe, Christopher R.; Britt, M. Anne; Butler, Jodie A.

    2009-01-01

    This article describes a cognitive argumentation schema for written arguments and presents three empirical studies on the "myside" bias--the tendency to ignore or exclude evidence against one's position. Study 1 examined the consequences of conceding, rebutting, and denying other-side information. Rebuttal led to higher ratings of…

  17. Airline Transport Pilot-Airplane (Air Carrier) Written Test Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Federal Aviation Administration (DOT), Washington, DC. Flight Standards Service.

    Presented is information useful to applicants who are preparing for the Airline Transport Pilot-Airplane (Air Carrier) Written Test. The guide describes the basic aeronautical knowledge and associated requirements for certification, as well as information on source material, instructions for taking the official test, and questions that are…

  18. Readability of Written Materials for CKD Patients: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morony, Suzanne; Flynn, Michaela; McCaffery, Kirsten J; Jansen, Jesse; Webster, Angela C

    2015-06-01

    The "average" patient has a literacy level of US grade 8 (age 13-14 years), but this may be lower for people with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Current guidelines suggest that patient education materials should be pitched at a literacy level of around 5th grade (age 10-11 years). This study aims to evaluate the readability of written materials targeted at patients with CKD. Systematic review. Patient information materials aimed at adults with CKD and written in English. Patient education materials designed to be printed and read, sourced from practices in Australia and online at all known websites run by relevant international CKD organizations during March 2014. Quantitative analysis of readability using Lexile Analyzer and Flesch-Kincaid tools. We analyzed 80 materials. Both Lexile Analyzer and Flesch-Kincaid analyses suggested that most materials required a minimum of grade 9 (age 14-15 years) schooling to read them. Only 5% of materials were pitched at the recommended level (grade 5). Readability formulas have inherent limitations and do not account for visual information. We did not consider other media through which patients with CKD may access information. Although the study covered materials from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, all non-Internet materials were sourced locally, and it is possible that some international paper-based materials were missed. Generalizability may be limited due to exclusion of non-English materials. These findings suggest that patient information materials aimed at patients with CKD are pitched above the average patient's literacy level. This issue is compounded by cognitive decline in patients with CKD, who may have lower literacy than the average patient. It suggests that information providers need to consider their audience more carefully when preparing patient information materials, including user testing with a low-literacy patient population. Copyright © 2015 National Kidney Foundation, Inc. Published by

  19. Morphosyntactic correctness of written language production in adults with moderate to severe congenital hearing loss

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huysmans, Elke; de Jong, Jan; Festen, Joost M.; Coene, Martine M.R.; Goverts, S. Theo

    2017-01-01

    Objective To examine whether moderate to severe congenital hearing loss (MSCHL) leads to persistent morphosyntactic problems in the written language production of adults, as it does in their spoken language production. Design Samples of written language in Dutch were analysed for morphosyntactic

  20. Divergent Priors and well Behaved Bayes Factors

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    R.W. Strachan (Rodney); H.K. van Dijk (Herman)

    2011-01-01

    textabstractDivergent priors are improper when defined on unbounded supports. Bartlett's paradox has been taken to imply that using improper priors results in ill-defined Bayes factors, preventing model comparison by posterior probabilities. However many improper priors have attractive properties

  1. Characterization of UV written waveguides with luminescence microscopy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Svalgaard, Mikael; Harpøth, Anders; Rosbirk, Tue

    2005-01-01

    Luminescence microscopy is used to measure the refractive index profile and molecular defect distribution of UV written waveguides with a spatial resolution of ~0.4 mm and high signal-to-noise ratio. The measurements reveal comlex waveguide formation dynamics with significant topological changes...... in the core profile. In addition, it is observed that thewaveguide formation process requires several milliseconds of UV exposure before starting....

  2. A History of Oral and Written Storytelling in Nigeria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edosomwan, Simeon; Peterson, Claudette M.

    2016-01-01

    Storytelling is a powerful process in adult education as a useful instructional approach in facilitating adult instruction and learning, especially during preliterate eras. What began as oral tradition has evolved to include written literature. A popular Eurocentric perspective in the early 19th century was that before the arrival of Europeans…

  3. Students' Written Arguments in General Chemistry Laboratory Investigations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Aeran; Hand, Brian; Greenbowe, Thomas

    2013-01-01

    This study aimed to examine the written arguments developed by college freshman students using the Science Writing Heuristic approach in inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory classrooms and its relationships with students' achievement in chemistry courses. Fourteen freshman students participated in the first year of the study while 19…

  4. Reconsidering Written Language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gopal P. Sarma

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available A number of elite thinkers in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries pursued an agenda which historian Paolo Rossi calls the “quest for a universal language,” a quest which was deeply interwoven with the emergence of the scientific method. From a modern perspective, one of the many surprising aspects of these efforts is that they relied on a diverse array of memorization techniques as foundational elements. In the case of Leibniz’s universal calculus, the ultimate vision was to create a pictorial language that could be learned by anyone in a matter of weeks and which would contain within it a symbolic representation of all domains of contemporary thought, ranging from the natural sciences, to theology, to law. In this brief article, I explore why this agenda might have been appealing to thinkers of this era by examining ancient and modern memory feats. As a thought experiment, I suggest that a society built entirely upon memorization might be less limited than we might otherwise imagine, and furthermore, that cultural norms discouraging the use of written language might have had implications for the development of scientific methodology. Viewed in this light, the efforts of Leibniz and others seem significantly less surprising. I close with some general observations about cross-cultural origins of scientific thought.

  5. L2 writing and L2 written feedback in upper secondary schools as experienced by teachers

    OpenAIRE

    Manousou, Angeliki

    2015-01-01

    L2 written feedback is a multi-faceted issue and this is the reason behind the big number of studies that have been conducted on it. However, the majority of studies deal with learners’ opinions of teachers’ feedback or several types of feedback and their advantages and disadvantages. There are no studies that could have addressed teachers’ opinions of their L2 written feedback. This study attempts to describe how L2 teachers view their written feedback on learners’ essays. ...

  6. 'I will never ever go back': patients' written narratives of health care communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denniston, Charlotte; Molloy, Elizabeth; Rees, Charlotte E

    2018-07-01

    Although communication with patients is essential to health care, education designed to develop patient-centred communication often ignores patients' voices. Patient stories may offer a means to explore patient experiences to inform patient-centred communication skills education design. Our research questions were: (i) What are the features of patients' health care communication narratives? (ii) What differences exist between patient narratives evaluated as positive and those evaluated as negative? (iii) How do patients narrate emotion in their narratives? This interpretivist research was underpinned by social constructionism. We employed a narrative approach to design an online questionnaire that was advertised to patients in the community. Analysis of the stories that were generated involved analysis of what was written (i.e. framework analysis) and of how it was written (i.e. attending to linguistic features). Participants shared 180 written narratives about previous health care professional (HCP) communication interactions. Narratives commonly included those of female patients seeking help for musculoskeletal or psychological concerns, which most frequently had occurred within the previous 6 months with male general practitioners in community settings. Framework analysis revealed four key themes: (i) patient actions during consultations; (ii) patient actions afterwards; (iii) lasting legacy, and (iv) interpersonal factors. Patients in narratives evaluated as positive actively engaged during and after interactions, had ongoing positive relationships with HCPs and felt valued in these relationships. Patients in narratives evaluated as negative were either passive or active during the interaction, but mostly failed to return to the HCP and felt devalued in their interaction. Further analysis of the linguistic features of select narratives revealed rich constructions of positive and negative emotions emphasising the lasting legacies of these interactions. Analysis

  7. A Descriptive Study of Registers Found in Spoken and Written Communication (A Semantic Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nurul Hidayah

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This research is descriptive study of registers found in spoken and written communication. The type of this research is Descriptive Qualitative Research. In this research, the data of the study is register in spoken and written communication that are found in a book entitled "Communicating! Theory and Practice" and from internet. The data can be in the forms of words, phrases and abbreviation. In relation with method of collection data, the writer uses the library method as her instrument. The writer relates it to the study of register in spoken and written communication. The technique of analyzing the data using descriptive method. The types of register in this term will be separated into formal register and informal register, and identify the meaning of register.

  8. Combined student ratings and self-assessment provide useful feedback for clinical teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolmans, Diana H. J. M.; Wolfhagen, Ineke H. A. P.; Peters, Wim G.; van Coppenolle, Lieve; Scherpbier, Albert J. J. A.

    2009-01-01

    Many evaluation instruments have been developed to provide feedback to physicians on their clinical teaching but written feedback alone is not always effective. We explored whether feedback effectiveness improved when teachers’ self-assessment was added to written feedback based on student ratings. 37 physicians (10 residents, 27 attending physicians) from different specialties (Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Pediatrics, Neurology, Dermatology, Ophthalmology, ENT, and Psychiatry) were invited to fill out a self-assessment questionnaire on their teaching skills. Students completed an almost identical questionnaire to evaluate the same teachers based on their experiences during clerkships. After receiving written feedback incorporating their self-assessment and the student ratings, the teachers indicated their perceptions of the self-assessment exercise and the written feedback in a questionnaire (five-point Likert scale items) and next, in more detail, in semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 12 of the participating teachers. 25 physicians participated (67%). The results showed that self-assessment and student feedback were both perceived as useful (3.7, SD 1.0) but the latter was considered more effective. The physicians we interviewed considered the combination of self-assessment with student ratings more effective than either self-assessment or written feedback alone. Notably, discrepancies between student ratings and self-assessment were deemed a strong incentive for change. We conclude that self-assessment can be a useful tool to stimulate improvement of clinical teaching when it is combined with written feedback based on student ratings. Future research among larger groups is needed to confirm our findings and examine whether these combined tools actually lead to improved teaching. PMID:19779976

  9. Written Corrective Feedback: The Perception of Korean EFL Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Bohyon

    2015-01-01

    This paper reports on the perception of Korean EFL learners toward feedback types on their written errors. The survey was administered using an adopted questionnaire from previous studies (Ishii 2011; Leki, 1991). This further allows a comparison of Korean EFL learners' attitudes with the responses to an identical questionnaire by Japanese EFL…

  10. Speech recognition training for enhancing written language generation by a traumatic brain injury survivor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manasse, N J; Hux, K; Rankin-Erickson, J L

    2000-11-01

    Impairments in motor functioning, language processing, and cognitive status may impact the written language performance of traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors. One strategy to minimize the impact of these impairments is to use a speech recognition system. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of mild dysarthria and mild cognitive-communication deficits secondary to TBI on a 19-year-old survivor's mastery and use of such a system-specifically, Dragon Naturally Speaking. Data included the % of the participant's words accurately perceived by the system over time, the participant's accuracy over time in using commands for navigation and error correction, and quantitative and qualitative changes in the participant's written texts generated with and without the use of the speech recognition system. Results showed that Dragon NaturallySpeaking was approximately 80% accurate in perceiving words spoken by the participant, and the participant quickly and easily mastered all navigation and error correction commands presented. Quantitatively, the participant produced a greater amount of text using traditional word processing and a standard keyboard than using the speech recognition system. Minimal qualitative differences appeared between writing samples. Discussion of factors that may have contributed to the obtained results and that may affect the generalization of the findings to other TBI survivors is provided.

  11. Health literacy demands of written health information materials: an assessment of cervical cancer prevention materials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helitzer, Deborah; Hollis, Christine; Cotner, Jane; Oestreicher, Nancy

    2009-01-01

    Health literacy requires reading and writing skills as well as knowledge of health topics and health systems. Materials written at high reading levels with ambiguous, technical, or dense text, often place great comprehension demands on consumers with lower literacy skills. This study developed and used an instrument to analyze cervical cancer prevention materials for readability, comprehensibility, suitability, and message design. The Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) was amended for ease of use, inclusivity, and objectivity with the encouragement of the original developers. Other novel contributions were specifically related to "comprehensibility" (CAM). The resulting SAM + CAM was used to score 69 materials for content, literacy demand, numeric literacy, graphics, layout/typography, and learning stimulation variables. Expert reviewers provided content validation. Inter-rater reliability was "substantial" (kappa = .77). The mean reading level of materials was 11th grade. Most materials (68%) scored as "adequate" for comprehensibility, suitability, and message design; health education brochures scored better than other materials. Only one-fifth were ranked "superior" for ease of use and comprehensibility. Most written materials have a readability level that is too high and require improvement in ease of use and comprehensibility for the majority of readers.

  12. The missing foundation in teacher education: Knowledge of the structure of spoken and written language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moats, L C

    1994-01-01

    Reading research supports the necessity for directly teaching concepts about linguistic structure to beginning readers and to students with reading and spelling difficulties. In this study, experienced teachers of reading, language arts, and special education were tested to determine if they have the requisite awareness of language elements (e.g., phonemes, morphemes) and of how these elements are represented in writing (e.g., knowledge of sound-symbol correspondences). The results were surprisingly poor, indicating that even motivated and experienced teachers typically understand too little about spoken and written language structure to be able to provide sufficient instruction in these areas. The utility of language structure knowledge for instructional planning, for assessment of student progress, and for remediation of literacy problems is discussed.The teachers participating in the study subsequently took a course focusing on phonemic awareness training, spoken-written language relationships, and careful analysis of spelling and reading behavior in children. At the end of the course, the teachers judged this information to be essential for teaching and advised that it become a prerequisite for certification. Recommendations for requirements and content of teacher education programs are presented.

  13. Exploring Management Strategies to Reduce Cheating in Written Examinations: Case Study of Midlands State University

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taderera, Ever; Nyikahadzoi, Loveness; Matamande, Wilson; Mandimika, Elinah

    2014-01-01

    This study was concerned about cheating in written examinations at Midlands State University (MSU). The study revealed that both male and female students cheat in written examination; business studies students cheat more than other faculties, and younger (lower class) students cheat more than (upper class) older students. Factors influencing…

  14. A Case Study in Business Writing: An Examination of Documents Written by Executives and Managers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gallion, Leona M.; Kavan, C. Bruce

    1994-01-01

    Examines the types of documents written by 23 executives/managers in 2 different companies, finding that the most frequently written documents are memorandums and letters. Notes implications for business writing courses. Suggests that students be required to prepare a wide variety of documents in business writing courses. (SR)

  15. Low literacy and written drug information: information-seeking, leaflet evaluation and preferences, and roles for images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Beusekom, Mara M; Grootens-Wiegers, Petronella; Bos, Mark J W; Guchelaar, Henk-Jan; van den Broek, Jos M

    2016-12-01

    Background Low-literate patients are at risk to misinterpret written drug information. For the (co-) design of targeted patient information, it is key to involve this group in determining their communication barriers and information needs. Objective To gain insight into how people with low literacy use and evaluate written drug information, and to identify ways in which they feel the patient leaflet can be improved, and in particular how images could be used. Setting Food banks and an education institution for Dutch language training in the Netherlands. Method Semi-structured focus groups and individual interviews were held with low-literate participants (n = 45). The thematic framework approach was used for analysis to identify themes in the data. Main outcome measure Low-literate people's experience with patient information leaflets, ideas for improvements, and perceptions on possible uses for visuals. Results Patient information leaflets were considered discouraging to use, and information difficult to find and understand. Many rely on alternative information sources. The leaflet should be shorter, and improved in terms of organisation, legibility and readability. Participants thought images could increase the leaflet's appeal, help ask questions, provide an overview, help understand textual information, aid recall, reassure, and even lead to increased confidence, empowerment and feeling of safety. Conclusion Already at the stages of paying attention to the leaflet and maintaining interest in the message, low-literate patients experience barriers in the communication process through written drug information. Short, structured, visual/textual explanations can lower the motivational threshold to use the leaflet, improve understanding, and empower the low-literate target group.

  16. Prior knowledge in recalling arguments in bioethical dilemmas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiemke Katharina Schmidt

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Prior knowledge is known to facilitate learning new information. Normally in studies confirming this outcome the relationship between prior knowledge and the topic to be learned is obvious: the information to be acquired is part of the domain or topic to which the prior knowledge belongs. This raises the question as to whether prior knowledge of various domains facilitates recalling information. In this study 79 eleventh-grade students completed a questionnaire on their prior knowledge of seven different domains related to the bioethical dilemma of prenatal diagnostics. The students read a text containing arguments for and arguments against prenatal diagnostics. After one week and again 12 weeks later they were asked to write down all the arguments they remembered. Prior knowledge helped them recall the arguments one week (r = .350 and 12 weeks (r = .316 later. Prior knowledge of three of the seven domains significantly helped them recall the arguments one week later (correlations between r = .194 to r = .394. Partial correlations with interest as a control item revealed that interest did not explain the relationship between prior knowledge and recall. Prior knowledge of different domains jointly supports the recall of arguments related to bioethical topics.

  17. Short message service (SMS) language and written language skills ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    SMS language is English language slang, used as a means of mobile phone text messaging. This practice may impact on the written language skills of learners at school. The main aim of this study was to determine the perspectives of Grade 8 and 9 English (as Home Language) educators in Gauteng regarding the ...

  18. Papa Pig Just Left for Pigtown: Children's Oral and Written Picture Descriptions under Varying Instructions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Temple, Jeanne M.; And Others

    1991-01-01

    Investigates the extent of variation in children's language performance in a picture description task arising from mode (oral or written) versus degree of demand for decontextualization. Finds that children manipulated the wide range of the oral form of the contextualized/decontextualized continuum more skillfully than the written form. Finds no…

  19. Text cohesion by the deaf as seen by the hearer: the use of oral cues in written texts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wagner Teobaldo Lopes de Andrade

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available The use of sign language by the deaf, though a means of providing access to knowledge, offers some specific difficulties on reading/writing due to the impossibility on acquiring the written code of the official spoken language. Taking into account that some oral cues favor textual cohesion, the question this paper is mainly concerned with is whether the use of oral cues in writing favors comprehension as well. The aim of this research was to offer written texts produced by the deaf to the non deaf to see how the text was understood by these speakers. Some written fragments contained two or more oral cues, some with just one cue or with no cues produced by the deaf and some texts produced by the non deaf were offered to university hearing students who were asked to score the texts by means of levels of comprehension. The results showed that the answers favored the texts produced by the non deaf people followed by those with more than two oral cues produced by the deaf; the texts that offered difficulty for comprehension were those with no oral cues produced by the deaf. This paper suggests that the oral cues bring cohesion to the texts produced by the deaf thus favoring the hearer text comprehension.   Keywords: deafness; oral cues; writing; text cohesion.

  20. Testability evaluation using prior information of multiple sources

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Wang Chao; Qiu Jing; Liu Guanjun; Zhang Yong

    2014-01-01

    Testability plays an important role in improving the readiness and decreasing the life-cycle cost of equipment. Testability demonstration and evaluation is of significance in measuring such testability indexes as fault detection rate (FDR) and fault isolation rate (FIR), which is useful to the producer in mastering the testability level and improving the testability design, and helpful to the consumer in making purchase decisions. Aiming at the problems with a small sample of testabil-ity demonstration test data (TDTD) such as low evaluation confidence and inaccurate result, a test-ability evaluation method is proposed based on the prior information of multiple sources and Bayes theory. Firstly, the types of prior information are analyzed. The maximum entropy method is applied to the prior information with the mean and interval estimate forms on the testability index to obtain the parameters of prior probability density function (PDF), and the empirical Bayesian method is used to get the parameters for the prior information with a success-fail form. Then, a parametrical data consistency check method is used to check the compatibility between all the sources of prior information and TDTD. For the prior information to pass the check, the prior credibility is calculated. A mixed prior distribution is formed based on the prior PDFs and the corresponding credibility. The Bayesian posterior distribution model is acquired with the mixed prior distribution and TDTD, based on which the point and interval estimates are calculated. Finally, examples of a flying control system are used to verify the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method is feasible and effective.

  1. Can prior learning experience serve as a catalyst in the paradigm ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This developmental programme in the fields of mathematics, science, technology and engineering education provides the teachers with an Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) with 120 credits. This article outlines how prior learning experience helped to smooth the transition from traditional to OBE practice.

  2. Speech-language therapy for adolescents with written-language difficulties: The South African context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danel Erasmus

    2013-11-01

    Method: A survey study was conducted, using a self-administered questionnaire. Twenty-two currently practising speech-language therapists who are registered members of the South African Speech-Language-Hearing Association (SASLHA participated in the study. Results: The respondents indicated that they are aware of their role regarding adolescents with written-language difficulties. However, they feel that South-African speech-language therapists are not fulfilling this role. Existing assessment tools and interventions for written-language difficulties are described as inadequate, and culturally and age inappropriate. Yet, the majority of the respondents feel that they are adequately equipped to work with adolescents with written-language difficulties, based on their own experience, self-study and secondary training. The respondents feel that training regarding effective collaboration with teachers is necessary to establish specific roles, and to promote speech-language therapy for adolescents among teachers. Conclusion: Further research is needed in developing appropriate assessment and intervention tools as well as improvement of training at an undergraduate level.

  3. Prose Checklist: Strategies for Improving School-to-Home Written Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagro, Sarah A.

    2015-01-01

    Effective communication enhances school-family partnerships. Written communication is a common, efficient way of communicating with families, but potential barriers to effective communication include readability level, clarity of presentation, complexity of format, and structural components. The PROSE Checklist presented in this article can…

  4. Effect of the Level of Inquiry of Lab Experiments on General Chemistry Students' Written Reflections

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Haozhi; Talanquer, Vincente

    2013-01-01

    The central goal of this exploratory study was to characterize the effects of experiments involving different levels of inquiry on the nature of college students' written reflections about laboratory work. Data were collected in the form of individual lab reports written using a science writing heuristic template by a subset of the students…

  5. Relationship between Legible Handwriting and Level of Success of Third Grade Students in Written Expression

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bayat, Seher; Küçükayar, Hasan

    2016-01-01

    This study aims to identify third-grade students' performance levels for written expression and handwriting and to find the relationship between these performances. The study is based on relational screening model. It is carried out with 110 third grade students. Students' levels of success in handwriting and in written expression are evaluated…

  6. A Comparison between Written and Spoken Narratives in Aphasia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Behrns, Ingrid; Wengelin, Asa; Broberg, Malin; Hartelius, Lena

    2009-01-01

    The aim of the present study was to explore how a personal narrative told by a group of eight persons with aphasia differed between written and spoken language, and to compare this with findings from 10 participants in a reference group. The stories were analysed through holistic assessments made by 60 participants without experience of aphasia…

  7. THE WRITTEN DISCOURSE OF INTERVIEWING STYLE FOR A MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jessie Barrot

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: This paper examines the written discourse of interviewing style for the purpose of print publication. Specifically, this paper sought to describe and explain the phases of interviewing procedures, the typology of the questions, and the transitional strategies executed by Oprah Winfrey during her interviews for O Magazine. One hundred and ten (110 response-soliciting statements were subjected to discourse analytic procedure to determine the features of such utterances. The results showed that her interview procedure follows a certain pattern that contributes to her ability to maintain the intimacy, familiarity, and dynamics of conversation. Further, results revealed that the interviewer employs a variety of response-soliciting strategies and transitional strategies that unconsciously put the control and authority in the conversation to the interviewees. Finally, some pedagogical implications were also presented for classroom use. Keywords: discourse analysis, interviewing style, interview questions, written discourse

  8. Can natural selection encode Bayesian priors?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramírez, Juan Camilo; Marshall, James A R

    2017-08-07

    The evolutionary success of many organisms depends on their ability to make decisions based on estimates of the state of their environment (e.g., predation risk) from uncertain information. These decision problems have optimal solutions and individuals in nature are expected to evolve the behavioural mechanisms to make decisions as if using the optimal solutions. Bayesian inference is the optimal method to produce estimates from uncertain data, thus natural selection is expected to favour individuals with the behavioural mechanisms to make decisions as if they were computing Bayesian estimates in typically-experienced environments, although this does not necessarily imply that favoured decision-makers do perform Bayesian computations exactly. Each individual should evolve to behave as if updating a prior estimate of the unknown environment variable to a posterior estimate as it collects evidence. The prior estimate represents the decision-maker's default belief regarding the environment variable, i.e., the individual's default 'worldview' of the environment. This default belief has been hypothesised to be shaped by natural selection and represent the environment experienced by the individual's ancestors. We present an evolutionary model to explore how accurately Bayesian prior estimates can be encoded genetically and shaped by natural selection when decision-makers learn from uncertain information. The model simulates the evolution of a population of individuals that are required to estimate the probability of an event. Every individual has a prior estimate of this probability and collects noisy cues from the environment in order to update its prior belief to a Bayesian posterior estimate with the evidence gained. The prior is inherited and passed on to offspring. Fitness increases with the accuracy of the posterior estimates produced. Simulations show that prior estimates become accurate over evolutionary time. In addition to these 'Bayesian' individuals, we also

  9. Phantom experiments using soft-prior regularization EIT for breast cancer imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Ethan K; Mahara, Aditya; Wu, Xiaotian; Halter, Ryan J

    2017-06-01

    A soft-prior regularization (SR) electrical impedance tomography (EIT) technique for breast cancer imaging is described, which shows an ability to accurately reconstruct tumor/inclusion conductivity values within a dense breast model investigated using a cylindrical and a breast-shaped tank. The SR-EIT method relies on knowing the spatial location of a suspicious lesion initially detected from a second imaging modality. Standard approaches (using Laplace smoothing and total variation regularization) without prior structural information are unable to accurately reconstruct or detect the tumors. The soft-prior approach represents a very significant improvement to these standard approaches, and has the potential to improve conventional imaging techniques, such as automated whole breast ultrasound (AWB-US), by providing electrical property information of suspicious lesions to improve AWB-US's ability to discriminate benign from cancerous lesions. Specifically, the best soft-regularization technique found average absolute tumor/inclusion errors of 0.015 S m -1 for the cylindrical test and 0.055 S m -1 and 0.080 S m -1 for the breast-shaped tank for 1.8 cm and 2.5 cm inclusions, respectively. The standard approaches were statistically unable to distinguish the tumor from the mammary gland tissue. An analysis of false tumors (benign suspicious lesions) provides extra insight into the potential and challenges EIT has for providing clinically relevant information. The ability to obtain accurate conductivity values of a suspicious lesion (>1.8 cm) detected from another modality (e.g. AWB-US) could significantly reduce false positives and result in a clinically important technology.

  10. Example-driven manifold priors for image deconvolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ni, Jie; Turaga, Pavan; Patel, Vishal M; Chellappa, Rama

    2011-11-01

    Image restoration methods that exploit prior information about images to be estimated have been extensively studied, typically using the Bayesian framework. In this paper, we consider the role of prior knowledge of the object class in the form of a patch manifold to address the deconvolution problem. Specifically, we incorporate unlabeled image data of the object class, say natural images, in the form of a patch-manifold prior for the object class. The manifold prior is implicitly estimated from the given unlabeled data. We show how the patch-manifold prior effectively exploits the available sample class data for regularizing the deblurring problem. Furthermore, we derive a generalized cross-validation (GCV) function to automatically determine the regularization parameter at each iteration without explicitly knowing the noise variance. Extensive experiments show that this method performs better than many competitive image deconvolution methods.

  11. Testability evaluation using prior information of multiple sources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Chao

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Testability plays an important role in improving the readiness and decreasing the life-cycle cost of equipment. Testability demonstration and evaluation is of significance in measuring such testability indexes as fault detection rate (FDR and fault isolation rate (FIR, which is useful to the producer in mastering the testability level and improving the testability design, and helpful to the consumer in making purchase decisions. Aiming at the problems with a small sample of testability demonstration test data (TDTD such as low evaluation confidence and inaccurate result, a testability evaluation method is proposed based on the prior information of multiple sources and Bayes theory. Firstly, the types of prior information are analyzed. The maximum entropy method is applied to the prior information with the mean and interval estimate forms on the testability index to obtain the parameters of prior probability density function (PDF, and the empirical Bayesian method is used to get the parameters for the prior information with a success-fail form. Then, a parametrical data consistency check method is used to check the compatibility between all the sources of prior information and TDTD. For the prior information to pass the check, the prior credibility is calculated. A mixed prior distribution is formed based on the prior PDFs and the corresponding credibility. The Bayesian posterior distribution model is acquired with the mixed prior distribution and TDTD, based on which the point and interval estimates are calculated. Finally, examples of a flying control system are used to verify the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method is feasible and effective.

  12. ICDTag: a prototype for a web-based system for organizing physician-written blog posts using a hybrid taxonomy-folksonomy approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batch, Yamen; Yusof, Maryati Mohd; Noah, Shahrul Azman

    2013-02-27

    Medical blogs have emerged as new media, extending to a wider range of medical audiences, including health professionals and patients to share health-related information. However, extraction of quality health-related information from medical blogs is challenging primarily because these blogs lack systematic methods to organize their posts. Medical blogs can be categorized according to their author into (1) physician-written blogs, (2) nurse-written blogs, and (3) patient-written blogs. This study focuses on how to organize physician-written blog posts that discuss disease-related issues and how to extract quality information from these posts. The goal of this study was to create and implement a prototype for a Web-based system, called ICDTag, based on a hybrid taxonomy-folksonomy approach that follows a combination of a taxonomy classification schemes and user-generated tags to organize physician-written blog posts and extract information from these posts. First, the design specifications for the Web-based system were identified. This system included two modules: (1) a blogging module that was implemented as one or more blogs, and (2) an aggregator module that aggregated posts from different blogs into an aggregator website. We then developed a prototype for this system in which the blogging module included two blogs, the cardiology blog and the gastroenterology blog. To analyze the usage patterns of the prototype, we conducted an experiment with data provided by cardiologists and gastroenterologists. Next, we conducted two evaluation types: (1) an evaluation of the ICDTag blog, in which the browsing functionalities of the blogging module were evaluated from the end-user's perspective using an online questionnaire, and (2) an evaluation of information quality, in which the quality of the content on the aggregator website was assessed from the perspective of medical experts using an emailed questionnaire. Participants of this experiment included 23 cardiologists and

  13. RECOGNITION METHOD FOR CURSIVE JAPANESE WORD WRITTEN IN LATIN CHARACTERS

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maruyama, K.; Nakano, Y.

    2004-01-01

    This paper proposes a recognition method for cursive Japanese words written in Latin characters. The method integrates multiple classifiers using duplicated can­ didates in multiple classifiers and orders of classifiers to improve the word recog­ nition rate combining their results. In experiments

  14. Rapid sampling of molecular motions with prior information constraints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raveh, Barak; Enosh, Angela; Schueler-Furman, Ora; Halperin, Dan

    2009-02-01

    Proteins are active, flexible machines that perform a range of different functions. Innovative experimental approaches may now provide limited partial information about conformational changes along motion pathways of proteins. There is therefore a need for computational approaches that can efficiently incorporate prior information into motion prediction schemes. In this paper, we present PathRover, a general setup designed for the integration of prior information into the motion planning algorithm of rapidly exploring random trees (RRT). Each suggested motion pathway comprises a sequence of low-energy clash-free conformations that satisfy an arbitrary number of prior information constraints. These constraints can be derived from experimental data or from expert intuition about the motion. The incorporation of prior information is very straightforward and significantly narrows down the vast search in the typically high-dimensional conformational space, leading to dramatic reduction in running time. To allow the use of state-of-the-art energy functions and conformational sampling, we have integrated this framework into Rosetta, an accurate protocol for diverse types of structural modeling. The suggested framework can serve as an effective complementary tool for molecular dynamics, Normal Mode Analysis, and other prevalent techniques for predicting motion in proteins. We applied our framework to three different model systems. We show that a limited set of experimentally motivated constraints may effectively bias the simulations toward diverse predicates in an outright fashion, from distance constraints to enforcement of loop closure. In particular, our analysis sheds light on mechanisms of protein domain swapping and on the role of different residues in the motion.

  15. Rapid sampling of molecular motions with prior information constraints.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barak Raveh

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available Proteins are active, flexible machines that perform a range of different functions. Innovative experimental approaches may now provide limited partial information about conformational changes along motion pathways of proteins. There is therefore a need for computational approaches that can efficiently incorporate prior information into motion prediction schemes. In this paper, we present PathRover, a general setup designed for the integration of prior information into the motion planning algorithm of rapidly exploring random trees (RRT. Each suggested motion pathway comprises a sequence of low-energy clash-free conformations that satisfy an arbitrary number of prior information constraints. These constraints can be derived from experimental data or from expert intuition about the motion. The incorporation of prior information is very straightforward and significantly narrows down the vast search in the typically high-dimensional conformational space, leading to dramatic reduction in running time. To allow the use of state-of-the-art energy functions and conformational sampling, we have integrated this framework into Rosetta, an accurate protocol for diverse types of structural modeling. The suggested framework can serve as an effective complementary tool for molecular dynamics, Normal Mode Analysis, and other prevalent techniques for predicting motion in proteins. We applied our framework to three different model systems. We show that a limited set of experimentally motivated constraints may effectively bias the simulations toward diverse predicates in an outright fashion, from distance constraints to enforcement of loop closure. In particular, our analysis sheds light on mechanisms of protein domain swapping and on the role of different residues in the motion.

  16. 38 CFR 21.8072 - Authorizing training, services, and assistance beyond the initial individualized written plan of...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... Authorizing training, services, and assistance beyond the initial individualized written plan of vocational... 38 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Authorizing training, services, and assistance beyond the initial individualized written plan of vocational rehabilitation. 21...

  17. 75 FR 19978 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Web Based Training for Pain Management Providers

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-16

    ... Based Training for Pain Management Providers, via the Web site PainAndAddictionTreatment.com , to... addiction co-occurring in the provider's patients. In order to evaluate the effectives of the program... technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. Direct Comments to OMB: Written...

  18. Data-Driven Learning and Awareness-Raising: An Effective Tandem to Improve Grammar in Written Composition?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Luisa Pérez Cañado

    2006-09-01

    Full Text Available The present paper, framed within the ECTS scheme currently being piloted at the University of Jaén, reports on a study carried out in the second semester of the academic year 2004-5 with English Philology freshmen at this University. One of its aims, described in an initial section of the paper, was to determine whether the use of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL, and Data-Driven Learning (DDL, could help raise awareness of and thus remediate the grammar weaknesses of such pupils under four categories (articles, verb tenses, verbal complementation, and prepositions. The procedure, outlined subsequently, involved using DDL to raise awareness of the main grammar mistakes in these headings, which had been previously identified in first year students’ production through the use of an UCLEE-error-tagged written learner corpus. Two one-hour seminars were employed weekly, each one with a group of 40 students, to raise awareness of these mistakes with the help of web-based resources. Four were the steps undertaken: initial attempts on the part of the students to identify the mistakes in the seven headings; a session provided by the authors on CALL as a means to raise awareness of, identify, and solve written mistakes; use of these electronic resources to contrast their initial error identification; and explicit correction of the mistakes in each category. The results and implications, discussed in a final section, highlight that DDL and awareness-raising – albeit in some categories more than in others – indeed constitute an effective tandem when it comes to improving grammatical aspects in written composition at University level.

  19. Directing Focus and Enabling Inquiry with Representations of Practice: Written Cases, Storyboards, and Teacher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herbst, Patricio; Boileau, Nicolas; Clark, Lawrence; Milewski, Amanda; Chieu, Vu Minh; Gürsel, Umut; Chazan, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    We discuss affordances and liabilities of using a storyboard to depict a written case of a teacher's dilemma that involves race, opportunity to learn, and student community. We rely on reflections by the teacher educator who authored the written case and later depicted it as a storyboard to use it with his preservice teachers (PSTs). The analysis…

  20. Total Variability Modeling using Source-specific Priors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shepstone, Sven Ewan; Lee, Kong Aik; Li, Haizhou

    2016-01-01

    sequence of an utterance. In both cases the prior for the latent variable is assumed to be non-informative, since for homogeneous datasets there is no gain in generality in using an informative prior. This work shows in the heterogeneous case, that using informative priors for com- puting the posterior......, can lead to favorable results. We focus on modeling the priors using minimum divergence criterion or fac- tor analysis techniques. Tests on the NIST 2008 and 2010 Speaker Recognition Evaluation (SRE) dataset show that our proposed method beats four baselines: For i-vector extraction using an already...... trained matrix, for the short2-short3 task in SRE’08, five out of eight female and four out of eight male common conditions, were improved. For the core-extended task in SRE’10, four out of nine female and six out of nine male common conditions were improved. When incorporating prior information...

  1. Teaching And Learning Writing Using Teacher’s Written Feedback And Conference

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iisrohli Irawati

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this study is to find out whether there is a significant difference in terms of writing skills improvements between the 8th grade students of SMP N 1 Prambanan Sleman who are given teacher’s written feedback and conference and those who are not in the academic year of 2011/2012. This study involved 71 students from two groups, Class VIII B (35 students as the experimental group and Class VIII A (36 students as the control group. The experimental group was given teacher’s written feedback and conference in the writing learning process, whereas the control group was given peer’s feedback. The data were obtained by using two essay writing tests. They were administered to the two groups as the pre-test and post-test. The pre-test was given to both groups before the treatment was given and the post-test was given after the treatment finished. The data of the pre-test and post-test of both groups were analyzed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics. After the data were tested and found to be homogeneous and normal, the hypothesis was tested using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA. The results show that there is a significant difference in the writing ability between the students who are given teacher’s written feedback and conference and those who were not. It can be seen in the result of the hypothesis testing using ANCOVA. The significant value of 0.001 is less than the significance level of 0.05 (0.001 < 0.05, which means that the data of this study are considered to have a significant difference. Therefore, the hypothesis of this study is accepted. It means that the technique of giving teacher’s written feedback and conference significantly improves the students’ writing ability in the English teaching and learning process in SMP N 1 Prambanan Sleman.

  2. Sports metaphors in Polish written commentaries on politics

    OpenAIRE

    Jarosław Wiliński

    2015-01-01

    This paper seeks to investigate what sports metaphors are used in Polish written commentaries on politics and what special purpose they serve. In particular, the paper examines structural metaphors that come from the lexicon of popular sports, such as boxing, racing, track and field athletics, sailing, etc. The language data, derived from English Internet websites, has been grouped and discussed according to source domains. Applying George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s approach to metaphor, the p...

  3. Written Composition Performance of Students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casas, Ana Miranda; Ferrer, Manuel Soriano; Fortea, Inmaculada Baixauli

    2013-01-01

    Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is frequently associated with learning disabilities. The present study examined the written composition of children with ADHD, which depends to a large degree on continuous self-regulation and attentional control skills for organizing information and maintaining the level of effort. Fifty children…

  4. Pathways to the Oral and Written Language Competence Among Young Vietnamese English Language Learners

    OpenAIRE

    Duong, Thao Michelle

    2011-01-01

    This case study, drawing upon the ecological perspectives (Kramsch, 2002; van Lier, 2004) as a theoretical framework, described the learning experiences of two second generation and first grade Vietnamese English Language Learners navigating between home and school to develop oral and written L1 Vietnamese and L2 English competence for one school year. In the second school year, the focal students' oral and written language samples were collected without classroom observations or interviews....

  5. Recruiting for Prior Service Market

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-06-01

    perceptions, expectations and issues for re-enlistment • Develop potential marketing and advertising tactics and strategies targeted to the defined...01 JUN 2008 2. REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED - 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Recruiting for Prior Service Market 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT...Command First Handshake to First Unit of Assignment An Army of One Proud to Be e e to Serve Recruiting for Prior Service Market MAJ Eric Givens / MAJ Brian

  6. 75 FR 57826 - Notice of Public Meeting and Opportunity To Submit Written Comments Concerning the Administration...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-22

    ... soliciting written comments and will hold a public meeting concerning the Administration's review of the U.S... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice 7175] Notice of Public Meeting and Opportunity To Submit Written Comments Concerning the Administration's Review of the U.S. National Contact Point for the OECD...

  7. Prior adversities predict posttraumatic stress reactions in adolescents following the Oslo Terror events 2011

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nordanger, Dag Ø.; Breivik, Kyrre; Haugland, Bente Storm; Lehmann, Stine; Mæhle, Magne; Braarud, Hanne Cecilie; Hysing, Mari

    2014-01-01

    Background Former studies suggest that prior exposure to adverse experiences such as violence or sexual abuse increases vulnerability to posttraumatic stress reactions in victims of subsequent trauma. However, little is known about how such a history affects responses to terror in the general adolescent population. Objective To explore the role of prior exposure to adverse experiences as risk factors for posttraumatic stress reactions to the Oslo Terror events. Method We used data from 10,220 high school students in a large cross-sectional survey of adolescents in Norway that took place seven months after the Oslo Terror events. Prior exposure assessed was: direct exposure to violence, witnessing of violence, and unwanted sexual acts. We explored how these prior adversities interact with well-established risk factors such as proximity to the events, perceived life threat during the terror events, and gender. Results All types of prior exposure as well as the other risk factors were associated with terror-related posttraumatic stress reactions. The effects of prior adversities were, although small, independent of adolescents’ proximity to the terror events. Among prior adversities, only the effect of direct exposure to violence was moderated by perceived life threat. Exposure to prior adversities increased the risk of posttraumatic stress reactions equally for both genders, but proximity to the terror events and perceived life threat increased the risk more in females. Conclusions Terror events can have a more destabilizing impact on victims of prior adversities, independent of their level of exposure. The findings may be relevant to mental health workers and others providing post-trauma health care. PMID:24872862

  8. Prior adversities predict posttraumatic stress reactions in adolescents following the Oslo Terror events 2011.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nordanger, Dag Ø; Breivik, Kyrre; Haugland, Bente Storm; Lehmann, Stine; Mæhle, Magne; Braarud, Hanne Cecilie; Hysing, Mari

    2014-01-01

    Former studies suggest that prior exposure to adverse experiences such as violence or sexual abuse increases vulnerability to posttraumatic stress reactions in victims of subsequent trauma. However, little is known about how such a history affects responses to terror in the general adolescent population. To explore the role of prior exposure to adverse experiences as risk factors for posttraumatic stress reactions to the Oslo Terror events. We used data from 10,220 high school students in a large cross-sectional survey of adolescents in Norway that took place seven months after the Oslo Terror events. Prior exposure assessed was: direct exposure to violence, witnessing of violence, and unwanted sexual acts. We explored how these prior adversities interact with well-established risk factors such as proximity to the events, perceived life threat during the terror events, and gender. All types of prior exposure as well as the other risk factors were associated with terror-related posttraumatic stress reactions. The effects of prior adversities were, although small, independent of adolescents' proximity to the terror events. Among prior adversities, only the effect of direct exposure to violence was moderated by perceived life threat. Exposure to prior adversities increased the risk of posttraumatic stress reactions equally for both genders, but proximity to the terror events and perceived life threat increased the risk more in females. Terror events can have a more destabilizing impact on victims of prior adversities, independent of their level of exposure. The findings may be relevant to mental health workers and others providing post-trauma health care.

  9. AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITTEN PRODUCTION. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF EFL SCHOOL LEARNERS'

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Luz Celaya

    2001-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to analyse the development of the written production of two groups of EFL leamers (N = 63 in a school context. The two groups started instruction at different ages (8 and 11, respectively. Their written production was measured afier 200 and 416 hours of instruction. and analysed longitudinally. Both intragroup and intergroup analyses were carried out a to analyse the development of the participants' written production as measured by three indicators of writing proficiency (fluency, complexity and accuracy; and b to ascertain whether the differences observed (both in terms of attainment and rate of development could be attributed to the age at which the groups of participants initiated their contact with the L2. Results show that not all the areas of writing proficiency (fluency, complexity and accuracy develop in parallel and that an earlier start does not seem to show clear advantages in the development of EFL written production.

  10. 9 CFR 202.111 - Rule 11: Hearing, oral or written.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Rule 11: Hearing, oral or written. 202.111 Section 202.111 Animals and Animal Products GRAIN INSPECTION, PACKERS AND STOCKYARDS... for oral hearing, timely filed. Declining to make such withdrawal shall not affect the rights or...

  11. The Written Literacy Forum: An Analysis of Teacher/Researcher Collaboration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Florio-Ruane, Susan

    1990-01-01

    Describes the Written Literacy Forum, a collaborative research effort between Michigan State University's Institute for Research on Teaching and the East Lansing, Michigan Public Schools, which attempted to identify ways that research on writing could be applied to instructional problems. Depicts the first year's experience and offers sample…

  12. Clarity Versus Accuracy and Objectivity in Written Legal English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Violeta Janulevičienė

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper is an attempt to analyse the most important grammatical and, specifically, syntactic features and to point out some prominent lexical ones, which aim at accuracy and objectivity of a written legal document, and to discuss how these features influence clarity and transparency of the legal documents. The study covers the analysis of some EU, UK, US legislative acts alongside with some extracts from contract samples. The analysis reveals that written legal English is distinguished by long compound sentences, often with inverted word order and numerous embeddings, passive constructions and nominalisations, specific use of personal pronouns and collocations of synonyms (doublets and triplets, etc. These means allow to achieve the most possible accuracy and objectivity in legal texts but make them complicated and difficult to comprehend at once. Formality, achieved by the mentioned means, makes legal English distant from everyday language and often becomes a reason for criticism. Plain English supporters encourage simplifying legal language; however, long traditions of legal English make changes slow and difficult. Therefore, comprehension and usage of legal English still requires special knowledge of its lexical and grammatical features.

  13. The Effect of Prior Knowledge on Price Acceptability and the Type of Information Examined.

    OpenAIRE

    Rao, Akshay R; Sieben, Wanda A

    1992-01-01

    This article assesses whether differences in prior knowledge result in differences in (1) price acceptability and (2) the extent to which different types of information are examined. Using a personal computer-based methodology, subjects who varied in their prior product knowledge provided price responses, and the time they spent examining various kinds of information was measured. Acceptable price-range and points (price limits) were found to be lowest for low-knowledge subjects. Further, the...

  14. The influence of prior knowledge on the retrieval-directed function of note taking in prior knowledge activation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wetzels, Sandra; Kester, Liesbeth; Van Merriënboer, Jeroen; Broers, Nick

    2010-01-01

    Wetzels, S. A. J., Kester, L., Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Broers, N. J. (2011). The influence of prior knowledge on the retrieval-directed function of note taking in prior knowledge activation. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81(2), 274-291. doi: 10.1348/000709910X517425

  15. What Comes First, What Comes Next: Information Packaging in Written and Spoken Language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vladislav Smolka

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The paper explores similarities and differences in the strategies of structuring information at sentence level in spoken and written language, respectively. In particular, it is concerned with the position of the rheme in the sentence in the two different modalities of language, and with the application and correlation of the end-focus and the end-weight principles. The assumption is that while there is a general tendency in both written and spoken language to place the focus in or close to the final position, owing to the limitations imposed by short-term memory capacity (and possibly by other factors, for the sake of easy processibility, it may occasionally be more felicitous in spoken language to place the rhematic element in the initial position or at least close to the beginning of the sentence. The paper aims to identify differences in the function of selected grammatical structures in written and spoken language, respectively, and to point out circumstances under which initial focus is a convenient alternative to the usual end-focus principle.

  16. DOUBLE PARTICIPLES: STANDARD LANGUAGE, EVALUATION AND WRITTEN DATA

    OpenAIRE

    Fernanda Lima Jardim Miara; Izete Lehmkuhl Coelho

    2016-01-01

    This research aims to investigate the variation in the regular and irregular past participle forms, in active sentences and in passive sentences, based on a synchronic analysis of four verbs: salvar (to save), pegar (to take), abrir (to open) and chegar (to arrive). The sample is formed by a corpus, extracted from the online newspaper Diário Catarinense online. The results of this work show that irregular participles are best evaluated forms and they are the most frequent forms in written dat...

  17. Examining Elementary Students' Development of Oral and Written Argumentation Practices Through Argument-Based Inquiry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Ying-Chih; Hand, Brian; Park, Soonhye

    2016-05-01

    Argumentation, and the production of scientific arguments are critical elements of inquiry that are necessary for helping students become scientifically literate through engaging them in constructing and critiquing ideas. This case study employed a mixed methods research design to examine the development in 5th grade students' practices of oral and written argumentation from one unit to another over 16 weeks utilizing the science writing heuristic approach. Data sources included five rounds of whole-class discussion focused on group presentations of arguments that occurred over eleven class periods; students' group writings; interviews with six target students and the teacher; and the researcher's field notes. The results revealed five salient trends in students' development of oral and written argumentative practices over time: (1) Students came to use more critique components as they participated in more rounds of whole-class discussion focused on group presentations of arguments; (2) by challenging each other's arguments, students came to focus on the coherence of the argument and the quality of evidence; (3) students came to use evidence to defend, support, and reject arguments; (4) the quality of students' writing continuously improved over time; and (5) students connected oral argument skills to written argument skills as they had opportunities to revise their writing after debating and developed awareness of the usefulness of critique from peers. Given the development in oral argumentative practices and the quality of written arguments over time, this study indicates that students' development of oral and written argumentative practices is positively related to each other. This study suggests that argumentative practices should be framed through both a social and epistemic understanding of argument-utilizing talk and writing as vehicles to create norms of these complex practices.

  18. Combining symbolic cues with sensory input and prior experience in an iterative Bayesian framework

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frederike Hermi Petzschner

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Perception and action are the result of an integration of various sources of information, such as current sensory input, prior experience, or the context in which a stimulus occurs. Often, the interpretation is not trivial hence needs to be learned from the co-occurrence of stimuli. Yet, how do we combine such diverse information to guide our action?Here we use a distance production-reproduction task to investigate the influence of auxiliary, symbolic cues, sensory input, and prior experience on human performance under three different conditions that vary in the information provided. Our results indicate that subjects can (1 learn the mapping of a verbal, symbolic cue onto the stimulus dimension and (2 integrate symbolic information and prior experience into their estimate of displacements.The behavioral results are explained by to two distinct generative models that represent different structural approaches of how a Bayesian observer would combine prior experience, sensory input, and symbolic cue information into a single estimate of displacement. The first model interprets the symbolic cue in the context of categorization, assuming that it reflects information about a distinct underlying stimulus range (categorical model. The second model applies a multi-modal integration approach and treats the symbolic cue as additional sensory input to the system, which is combined with the current sensory measurement and the subjects’ prior experience (cue-combination model. Notably, both models account equally well for the observed behavior despite their different structural assumptions. The present work thus provides evidence that humans can interpret abstract symbolic information and combine it with other types of information such as sensory input and prior experience. The similar explanatory power of the two models further suggest that issues such as categorization and cue-combination could be explained by alternative probabilistic approaches.

  19. Compositional-prior-guided image reconstruction algorithm for multi-modality imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Qianqian; Moore, Richard H.; Kopans, Daniel B.; Boas, David A.

    2010-01-01

    The development of effective multi-modality imaging methods typically requires an efficient information fusion model, particularly when combining structural images with a complementary imaging modality that provides functional information. We propose a composition-based image segmentation method for X-ray digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) and a structural-prior-guided image reconstruction for a combined DBT and diffuse optical tomography (DOT) breast imaging system. Using the 3D DBT images from 31 clinically measured healthy breasts, we create an empirical relationship between the X-ray intensities for adipose and fibroglandular tissue. We use this relationship to then segment another 58 healthy breast DBT images from 29 subjects into compositional maps of different tissue types. For each breast, we build a weighted-graph in the compositional space and construct a regularization matrix to incorporate the structural priors into a finite-element-based DOT image reconstruction. Use of the compositional priors enables us to fuse tissue anatomy into optical images with less restriction than when using a binary segmentation. This allows us to recover the image contrast captured by DOT but not by DBT. We show that it is possible to fine-tune the strength of the structural priors by changing a single regularization parameter. By estimating the optical properties for adipose and fibroglandular tissue using the proposed algorithm, we found the results are comparable or superior to those estimated with expert-segmentations, but does not involve the time-consuming manual selection of regions-of-interest. PMID:21258460

  20. Written and Computer-Mediated Accounting Communication Skills: An Employer Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Christopher G.

    2011-01-01

    Communication skills are a fundamental personal competency for a successful career in accounting. What is not so obvious is the specific written communication skill set employers look for and the extent those skills are computer mediated. Using survey research, this article explores the particular skills employers desire and their satisfaction…

  1. The Effects of Social Relationships, Writing Media, and Microgenetic Development on First-Grade Students' Written Narratives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Ithel; Pellegrini, A. D.

    1996-01-01

    Studied effects of social relationships, writing media, and microgenetic development on written narratives with 20 first graders in a within-subjects design. Results show that narratives composed with a word processor are lexically denser and more cohesive than those written in pencil. The facilitative effects of computer-supported writing are…

  2. Moves Analysis on Abstracts Written by the Students in Academic Writing Class

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ajeng Setyorini

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper contains analysis results on abstracts written by students in Academic Writing course. The analysis includes analyses on moves and linguistic features. The analysis aims at finding out how the abstract writing structures of the English Education students are in the Academic Writing course. The abstract analysis also includes the analysis on the use of the linguistic features in the abstracts. The analysis uses a qualitative research approach. There are totally 10 abstracts that are analyzed. These are then called as the data. Data obtained is analyzed using genre analysis approach. Results of analysis on the 10 abstracts showed that some of the abstracts are written using 5 kinds of moves. All of the abstracts are found using Purpose Move and Method Move. Meanwhile, Situation Move is found in 5 abstracts. 8 abstracts are identified using Result Move. Conclusion Move is found in 5 abstracts. The results also show that all of the abstract writers use pronouns ‘the writer’ and ‘the researcher’. The use of personal pronoun ‘she’ is also found in 1 abstract. Hedges used in abstracts written by students in Academic Writing course vary from modal auxiliary verbs, adjectival, adverbial, nominal to Approximates of degree.

  3. Femtosecond laser-written double line waveguides in germanate and tellurite glasses

    Science.gov (United States)

    S. da Silva, Diego; Wetter, Niklaus U.; de Rossi, Wagner; Samad, Ricardo E.; Kassab, Luciana R. P.

    2018-02-01

    The authors report the fabrication and characterization of passive waveguides in GeO2-PbO and TeO2-ZnO glasses written with a femtosecond laser delivering pulses with 3μJ, 30μJ and 80fs at 4kHz repetition rate. Permanent refractive index change at the focus of the laser beam was obtained and waveguides were formed by two closely spaced laser written lines, where the light guiding occurs between them. The refractive index change at 632 nm is around 10-4 . The value of the propagation losses was around 2.0 dB/cm. The output mode profiles indicate multimodal guiding behavior. Raman measurements show structural modification of the glassy network. The results show that these materials are potential candidates for passive waveguides applications as low-loss optical components.

  4. 45 CFR 402.12 - Use of SLIAG Funds for Costs Incurred Prior to October 1, 1987.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Use of SLIAG Funds for Costs Incurred Prior to... STATE LEGALIZATION IMPACT ASSISTANCE GRANTS Use of Funds § 402.12 Use of SLIAG Funds for Costs Incurred... funds provided under this part of costs incurred prior to October 1, 1987. (b) A State may use funds...

  5. Problems of an Emergent Written Language of the Global System for ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    written language of the GSM' via the lexemes, morphemes, syntax, and mechanics of ... Most important, is the overall chaotic effect of this language on formal teaching and learning in English in an ESL (English as a Second Language) situation.

  6. Prior adversities predict posttraumatic stress reactions in adolescents following the Oslo Terror events 2011

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dag Ø. Nordanger

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Background: Former studies suggest that prior exposure to adverse experiences such as violence or sexual abuse increases vulnerability to posttraumatic stress reactions in victims of subsequent trauma. However, little is known about how such a history affects responses to terror in the general adolescent population. Objective: To explore the role of prior exposure to adverse experiences as risk factors for posttraumatic stress reactions to the Oslo Terror events. Method: We used data from 10,220 high school students in a large cross-sectional survey of adolescents in Norway that took place seven months after the Oslo Terror events. Prior exposure assessed was: direct exposure to violence, witnessing of violence, and unwanted sexual acts. We explored how these prior adversities interact with well-established risk factors such as proximity to the events, perceived life threat during the terror events, and gender. Results: All types of prior exposure as well as the other risk factors were associated with terror-related posttraumatic stress reactions. The effects of prior adversities were, although small, independent of adolescents’ proximity to the terror events. Among prior adversities, only the effect of direct exposure to violence was moderated by perceived life threat. Exposure to prior adversities increased the risk of posttraumatic stress reactions equally for both genders, but proximity to the terror events and perceived life threat increased the risk more in females. Conclusions: Terror events can have a more destabilizing impact on victims of prior adversities, independent of their level of exposure. The findings may be relevant to mental health workers and others providing post-trauma health care.

  7. Comparing Written Competency in Core French and French Immersion Graduates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lappin-Fortin, Kerry

    2014-01-01

    Few studies have compared the written competency of French immersion students and their core French peers, and research on these learners at a postsecondary level is even scarcer. My corpus consists of writing samples from 255 students from both backgrounds beginning a university course in French language. The writing proficiency of core French…

  8. The impact of written information and counseling (WOMAN-PRO II Program) on symptom outcomes in women with vulvar neoplasia: A multicenter randomized controlled phase II study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raphaelis, Silvia; Mayer, Hanna; Ott, Stefan; Mueller, Michael D; Steiner, Enikö; Joura, Elmar; Senn, Beate

    2017-07-01

    To determine whether written information and/or counseling based on the WOMAN-PRO II Program decreases symptom prevalence in women with vulvar neoplasia by a clinically relevant degree, and to explore the differences between the 2 interventions in symptom prevalence, symptom distress prevalence, and symptom experience. A multicenter randomized controlled parallel-group phase II trial with 2 interventions provided to patients after the initial diagnosis was performed in Austria and Switzerland. Women randomized to written information received a predefined set of leaflets concerning wound care and available healthcare services. Women allocated to counseling were additionally provided with 5 consultations by an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) between the initial diagnosis and 6months post-surgery that focused on symptom management, utilization of healthcare services, and health-related decision-making. Symptom outcomes were simultaneously measured 5 times to the counseling time points. A total of 49 women with vulvar neoplasia participated in the study. Symptom prevalence decreased in women with counseling by a clinically relevant degree, but not in women with written information. Sporadically, significant differences between the 2 interventions could be observed in individual items, but not in the total scales or subscales of the symptom outcomes. The results indicate that counseling may reduce symptom prevalence in women with vulvar neoplasia by a clinically relevant extent. The observed group differences between the 2 interventions slightly favor counseling over written information. The results justify testing the benefit of counseling thoroughly in a comparative phase III trial. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Written Exposure Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wisco, Blair E.; Sloan, Denise M.; Marx, Brian P.

    2014-01-01

    We examined the extent to which cognitive emotion-regulation (ER) strategies moderated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment outcome among 40 motor vehicle accident survivors. Participants were randomly assigned to either a brief written exposure therapy (WET) condition or a waitlist condition and were assessed pre- and posttreatment and at a 3-month follow-up. Positive-reappraisal and putting-into-perspective strategies at baseline interacted with condition to predict symptom change over time. Both strategies predicted greater reductions in PTSD in the waitlist group, suggesting facilitation of natural recovery. However, positive reappraisal was associated with smaller reductions in PTSD in the WET group, suggesting that this strategy may interfere with treatment. Treatment also reduced use of the maladaptive ER strategy of rumination. These results provide evidence that putting-into-perspective and positive-reappraisal strategies are beneficial in the absence of treatment and that certain types of ER strategies may reduce response to WET, highlighting the importance of future research examining ER during treatment. PMID:24482755

  10. Bayesian inference from count data using discrete uniform priors.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Federico Comoglio

    Full Text Available We consider a set of sample counts obtained by sampling arbitrary fractions of a finite volume containing an homogeneously dispersed population of identical objects. We report a Bayesian derivation of the posterior probability distribution of the population size using a binomial likelihood and non-conjugate, discrete uniform priors under sampling with or without replacement. Our derivation yields a computationally feasible formula that can prove useful in a variety of statistical problems involving absolute quantification under uncertainty. We implemented our algorithm in the R package dupiR and compared it with a previously proposed Bayesian method based on a Gamma prior. As a showcase, we demonstrate that our inference framework can be used to estimate bacterial survival curves from measurements characterized by extremely low or zero counts and rather high sampling fractions. All in all, we provide a versatile, general purpose algorithm to infer population sizes from count data, which can find application in a broad spectrum of biological and physical problems.

  11. Offending prior to first psychiatric contact

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stevens, H; Agerbo, E; Dean, K

    2012-01-01

    There is a well-established association between psychotic disorders and subsequent offending but the extent to which those who develop psychosis might have a prior history of offending is less clear. Little is known about whether the association between illness and offending exists in non-psychot......-psychotic disorders. The aim of this study was to determine whether the association between mental disorder and offending is present prior to illness onset in psychotic and non-psychotic disorders.......There is a well-established association between psychotic disorders and subsequent offending but the extent to which those who develop psychosis might have a prior history of offending is less clear. Little is known about whether the association between illness and offending exists in non...

  12. Glimpses into the transition world: New graduate nurses' written reflections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walton, Jo Ann; Lindsay, Natalie; Hales, Caz; Rook, Helen

    2018-01-01

    This study was born out of our reflections as educators responsible for helping new graduate nurses transition into their first year of professional practice through a formal education programme. Finding ourselves wondering about many of the questions the students raised with us, we set about looking more closely at what could be gleaned from the students' experience, captured in their written work over the course of a year. To identify the challenges and learning experiences revealed in reflective assignments written by new graduate nurses undertaking a postgraduate course as part of their transition to registered nurse practice. Data consisted of the written work of two cohorts of students who had completed a postgraduate university course as part of their transition to new graduate practice in New Zealand. Fifty four reflective essays completed by twenty seven participating students were collected and their contents analysed thematically. Five key themes were identified. The students' reflections noted individual attributes - personal and professional strengths and weaknesses; professional behaviour - actions such as engaging help and support, advocating for patients' needs and safety and putting their own feelings aside; situational challenges such as communication difficulties, both systemic and interpersonal, and the pressure of competing demands. Students also identified rewards - results they experienced such as achieving the nursing outcomes they desired, and commented on reflection as a useful tool. The findings shed light on the experiences of new graduates, and how they fare through this critical phase of career development. Challenges relating to the emotional labour of nursing work are particularly evident. In addition the reflective essay is shown to be a powerful tool for assisting both new graduate nurses and their lecturers to reflect on the learning opportunities inherent in current clinical practice environments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

  13. Disentangling the Impact of Semantic and Formal Factors in the Acquisition of Number Inflections: Noun, Adjective and Verb Agreement in Written French

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fayol, M.; Totereau, Corinne; Barrouillet, Pierre

    2006-01-01

    In written French, the acquisition of the nominal plural ("-s") occurs earlier and faster than the acquisition of the verbal plural ("-nt") (Totereau, Thevenin & Fayol, 1997, "Learning to Spell"). The reasons for this difference are not well known. The objective of the present research is to test two alternative hypotheses, which may provide an…

  14. 16 CFR 303.40 - Use of terms in written advertisements that imply presence of a fiber.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Use of terms in written advertisements that imply presence of a fiber. 303.40 Section 303.40 Commercial Practices FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION REGULATIONS UNDER SPECIFIC ACTS OF CONGRESS RULES AND REGULATIONS UNDER THE TEXTILE FIBER PRODUCTS IDENTIFICATION ACT § 303.40 Use of terms in written...

  15. Hedging to save face: a linguistic analysis of written comments on in-training evaluation reports.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ginsburg, Shiphra; van der Vleuten, Cees; Eva, Kevin W; Lingard, Lorelei

    2016-03-01

    Written comments on residents' evaluations can be useful, yet the literature suggests that the language used by assessors is often vague and indirect. The branch of linguistics called pragmatics argues that much of our day to day language is not meant to be interpreted literally. Within pragmatics, the theory of 'politeness' suggests that non-literal language and other strategies are employed in order to 'save face'. We conducted a rigorous, in-depth analysis of a set of written in-training evaluation report (ITER) comments using Brown and Levinson's influential theory of 'politeness' to shed light on the phenomenon of vague language use in assessment. We coded text from 637 comment boxes from first year residents in internal medicine at one institution according to politeness theory. Non-literal language use was common and 'hedging', a key politeness strategy, was pervasive in comments about both high and low rated residents, suggesting that faculty may be working to 'save face' for themselves and their residents. Hedging and other politeness strategies are considered essential to smooth social functioning; their prevalence in our ITERs may reflect the difficult social context in which written assessments occur. This research raises questions regarding the 'optimal' construction of written comments by faculty.

  16. Meeting the Demands of the Workplace: Science Students and Written Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, F. Elizabeth; Emerson, Lisa; Mackay, Bruce

    2005-12-01

    Over the last 15 years, surveys in a range of English-speaking countries, from North America and the United Kingdom, to New Zealand and Australia, have consistently shown that employers rank oral and written communication skills as highly as or more highly than any technical or quantitative skills. However, in New Zealand there has been very little research into determining exactly what is meant by the "written communication skills" employers state they desire. A further issue in this research to date has been a lack of differentiation between employers—no study has specifically targeted the requirements of employers of science graduates. This article reports the findings of ongoing research into the expectations of science students and of employers of science graduates, and centers around several key questions: What do New Zealand employers of science graduates specifically want in terms of their new hires' writing skills?

  17. On the use of prior information in modelling metabolic utilization of energy in growing pigs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Strathe, Anders Bjerring; Jørgensen, Henry; Fernández, José Adalberto

    2011-01-01

    Construction of models that provide a realistic representation of metabolic utilization of energy in growing animals tend to be over-parameterized because data generated from individual metabolic studies are often sparse. In the Bayesian framework prior information can enter the data analysis......, PD and LD) made on a given pig at a given time followed a multivariate normal distribution. Two different equation systems were adopted from Strathe et al. (2010), generating the expected values in the multivariate normal distribution. Non-informative prior distributions were assigned for all model......, kp and kf, respectively. Utilizing both sets of priors showed that the maintenance component was sensitive to the statement of prior belief and, hence, that the estimate of 0.91 MJkg0.60d1 (95% CI: 0.78; 1.09) should be interpreted with caution. It was shown that boars were superior in depositing...

  18. DOUBLE PARTICIPLES: STANDARD LANGUAGE, EVALUATION AND WRITTEN DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernanda Lima Jardim Miara

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This research aims to investigate the variation in the regular and irregular past participle forms, in active sentences and in passive sentences, based on a synchronic analysis of four verbs: salvar (to save, pegar (to take, abrir (to open and chegar (to arrive. The sample is formed by a corpus, extracted from the online newspaper Diário Catarinense online. The results of this work show that irregular participles are best evaluated forms and they are the most frequent forms in written data in PB (cf. MIARA, 2013.

  19. Distribution of Articles in Written Composition among Malaysian ESL Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahim, Mia Emily Abdul; Rahim, Emma Marini Abdul; Ning, Chia Han

    2013-01-01

    The study aimed to investigate the distribution patterns of the English grammar articles (a, an, and the) as well as the distributions of their colligation patterns in written compositions of English among Malaysian ESL learners. This paper reports the results of a corpus-based study on articles used by these learners. The method used in this…

  20. Language Parameters in Written Compositions of Nine Year Old Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rubin, Rosalyn; Buium, Nissan

    The purpose of this study was to develop a foundation for reliable and effective measurement of significant parameters in the development of written language skills in school age children. The subjects for the study were 25 nine-year-old children, 12 boys and 13 girls, who were randomly selected from among 1,559 participants. The findings…

  1. Development and Application of Assessment Standards to Advanced Written Assignments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miihkinen, Antti; Virtanen, Tuija

    2018-01-01

    This study describes the results of a project that focused on developing an assessment rubric to be used as the assessment criteria for the written thesis of accounting majors and the quality of the coursework during the seminar. We used descriptive analysis and the survey method to collect information for the development work and to examine the…

  2. Hysteresis as an Implicit Prior in Tactile Spatial Decision Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thiel, Sabrina D.; Bitzer, Sebastian; Nierhaus, Till; Kalberlah, Christian; Preusser, Sven; Neumann, Jane; Nikulin, Vadim V.; van der Meer, Elke; Villringer, Arno; Pleger, Burkhard

    2014-01-01

    Perceptual decisions not only depend on the incoming information from sensory systems but constitute a combination of current sensory evidence and internally accumulated information from past encounters. Although recent evidence emphasizes the fundamental role of prior knowledge for perceptual decision making, only few studies have quantified the relevance of such priors on perceptual decisions and examined their interplay with other decision-relevant factors, such as the stimulus properties. In the present study we asked whether hysteresis, describing the stability of a percept despite a change in stimulus property and known to occur at perceptual thresholds, also acts as a form of an implicit prior in tactile spatial decision making, supporting the stability of a decision across successively presented random stimuli (i.e., decision hysteresis). We applied a variant of the classical 2-point discrimination task and found that hysteresis influenced perceptual decision making: Participants were more likely to decide ‘same’ rather than ‘different’ on successively presented pin distances. In a direct comparison between the influence of applied pin distances (explicit stimulus property) and hysteresis, we found that on average, stimulus property explained significantly more variance of participants’ decisions than hysteresis. However, when focusing on pin distances at threshold, we found a trend for hysteresis to explain more variance. Furthermore, the less variance was explained by the pin distance on a given decision, the more variance was explained by hysteresis, and vice versa. Our findings suggest that hysteresis acts as an implicit prior in tactile spatial decision making that becomes increasingly important when explicit stimulus properties provide decreasing evidence. PMID:24587045

  3. About the psycholinguistic models of the writing process for a didactics of written production1

    OpenAIRE

    Garcia-Debanc, Claudine; Fayol, Michel

    2013-01-01

    This article problematises the possible areas of cooperation between psycholinguists and specialists in didactics by underlining both the interests of an interaction between them and the specific and complementary mission of both fields.After a historic overview of how references to psycholinguistic works emerged in the research on the didactics of written production, the main models of verbal production, especially of written verbal production, published during the 1980s and1990s are present...

  4. 5 CFR 2638.706 - Agency's written plan for annual ethics training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Agency's written plan for annual ethics training. 2638.706 Section 2638.706 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS GOVERNMENT ETHICS OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS AND EXECUTIVE AGENCY ETHICS PROGRAM RESPONSIBILITIES Executive Agency Ethics...

  5. The Composer's Program Note for Newly Written Classical Music: Content and Intentions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blom, Diana M; Bennett, Dawn; Stevenson, Ian

    2016-01-01

    In concerts of western classical music the provision of a program note is a widespread practice dating back to the 18th century and still commonly in use. Program notes tend to inform listeners and performers about historical context, composer biographical details, and compositional thinking. However, the scant program note research conducted to date reveals that program notes may not foster understanding or enhance listener enjoyment as previously assumed. In the case of canonic works, performers and listeners may already be familiar with much of the program note information. This is not so in the case of newly composed works, which formed the basis of the exploratory study reported here. This article reports the views of 17 living contemporary composers on their writing of program notes for their own works. In particular, the study sought to understand the intended recipient, role and the content of composer-written program notes. Participating composers identified three main roles for their program notes: to shape a performer's interpretation of the work; to guide, engage or direct the listener and/or performer; and as collaborative mode of communication between the composer, performer, and listener. For some composers, this collaboration was intended to result in "performative listening" in which listeners were actively engaged in bringing each composition to life. This was also described as a form of empathy that results in the co-construction of the musical experience. Overall, composers avoided giving too much personal information and they provided performers with more structural information. However, composers did not agree on whether the same information should be provided to both performers and listeners. Composers' responses problematize the view of a program note as a simple statement from writer to recipient, indicating instead a more complex set of relations at play between composer, performer, listener, and the work itself. These relations are

  6. Improved compressed sensing-based cone-beam CT reconstruction using adaptive prior image constraints

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Ho; Xing, Lei; Davidi, Ran; Li, Ruijiang; Qian, Jianguo; Lee, Rena

    2012-04-01

    Volumetric cone-beam CT (CBCT) images are acquired repeatedly during a course of radiation therapy and a natural question to ask is whether CBCT images obtained earlier in the process can be utilized as prior knowledge to reduce patient imaging dose in subsequent scans. The purpose of this work is to develop an adaptive prior image constrained compressed sensing (APICCS) method to solve this problem. Reconstructed images using full projections are taken on the first day of radiation therapy treatment and are used as prior images. The subsequent scans are acquired using a protocol of sparse projections. In the proposed APICCS algorithm, the prior images are utilized as an initial guess and are incorporated into the objective function in the compressed sensing (CS)-based iterative reconstruction process. Furthermore, the prior information is employed to detect any possible mismatched regions between the prior and current images for improved reconstruction. For this purpose, the prior images and the reconstructed images are classified into three anatomical regions: air, soft tissue and bone. Mismatched regions are identified by local differences of the corresponding groups in the two classified sets of images. A distance transformation is then introduced to convert the information into an adaptive voxel-dependent relaxation map. In constructing the relaxation map, the matched regions (unchanged anatomy) between the prior and current images are assigned with smaller weight values, which are translated into less influence on the CS iterative reconstruction process. On the other hand, the mismatched regions (changed anatomy) are associated with larger values and the regions are updated more by the new projection data, thus avoiding any possible adverse effects of prior images. The APICCS approach was systematically assessed by using patient data acquired under standard and low-dose protocols for qualitative and quantitative comparisons. The APICCS method provides an

  7. SOCIOLINGUISTIC FACTORS OF THE WRITTEN SPEECH NORMS APPROXIMATION IN LABOR MIGRANTS’ TEXTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Utesheva Altynay Pazylovna

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The article focuses on the features of written Russian speech of labor migrants from different countries considering the norms of written speech. The empirical basis of the research is represented by the handwritten CVs of unemployed migrants from Vietnam and Uzbekistan, that were presented to the departments of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation in the city of Volgograd. Written speech violations are classified according to the age groups which migrants belong to. The following sociolinguistic characteristics of the migrants are also taken into account: nationality, period of school education, higher education, document writing competence. Group 1 combined informants aged from 20 to 30, without higher education, who studied the Russian language at school in the new period of the collapse of the Soviet Union procedures or on their own. It is an educational institution with no experience compiling official documents and communication skills in Russian. Group 2 combined informants aged from 30 to 50, without higher education, who studied Russian at school by Soviet methods with experience of drawing up official documents and possessing basic communication skills to communicate in Russian. Group 3 combined informants aged 50 and older with secondary special education, who studied Russian at school by Soviet methods and actively developed communicative competence at the expense of everyday communication, reading books, listening to the radio and watching programs in Russian, with experience in drafting official documents. The features of migrants' written speech are manifested in specific language and speech mistakes, particularly in graphic, phonetic and genre rules violations. The general patterns of mistakes are registered. The mistakes are caused not only by language transfer and the Russian language competence, but also by sociolinguistic factors. The particular cross-language differences of migrants writing are

  8. Extraction of microseismic waveforms characteristics prior to rock burst using Hilbert-Huang transform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xuelong; Li, Zhonghui; Wang, Enyuan; Feng, Junjun; Chen, Liang; Li, Nan; Kong, Xiangguo

    2016-09-01

    This study provides a new research idea concerning rock burst prediction. The characteristics of microseismic (MS) waveforms prior to and during the rock burst were studied through the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT). In order to demonstrate the advantage of the MS features extraction based on HHT, the conventional analysis method (Fourier transform) was also used to make a comparison. The results show that HHT is simple and reliable, and could extract in-depth information about the characteristics of MS waveforms. About 10 days prior to the rock burst, the main frequency of MS waveforms transforms from the high-frequency to low-frequency. What's more, the waveforms energy also presents accumulation characteristic. Based on our study results, it can be concluded that the MS signals analysis through HHT could provide valuable information about the coal or rock deformation and fracture.

  9. Inter-Rater Reliability of Provider Interpretations of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Food and Symptom Journals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zia, Jasmine; Chung, Chia-Fang; Xu, Kaiyuan; Dong, Yi; Schenk, Jeanette M; Cain, Kevin; Munson, Sean; Heitkemper, Margaret M

    2017-11-04

    There are currently no standardized methods for identifying trigger food(s) from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) food and symptom journals. The primary aim of this study was to assess the inter-rater reliability of providers' interpretations of IBS journals. A second aim was to describe whether these interpretations varied for each patient. Eight providers reviewed 17 IBS journals and rated how likely key food groups (fermentable oligo-di-monosaccharides and polyols, high-calorie, gluten, caffeine, high-fiber) were to trigger IBS symptoms for each patient. Agreement of trigger food ratings was calculated using Krippendorff's α-reliability estimate. Providers were also asked to write down recommendations they would give to each patient. Estimates of agreement of trigger food likelihood ratings were poor (average α = 0.07). Most providers gave similar trigger food likelihood ratings for over half the food groups. Four providers gave the exact same written recommendation(s) (range 3-7) to over half the patients. Inter-rater reliability of provider interpretations of IBS food and symptom journals was poor. Providers favored certain trigger food likelihood ratings and written recommendations. This supports the need for a more standardized method for interpreting these journals and/or more rigorous techniques to accurately identify personalized IBS food triggers.

  10. Reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of Gaussian priors

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vaart, van der A.W.; Zanten, van J.H.; Clarke, B.; Ghosal, S.

    2008-01-01

    We review definitions and properties of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces attached to Gaussian variables and processes, with a view to applications in nonparametric Bayesian statistics using Gaussian priors. The rate of contraction of posterior distributions based on Gaussian priors can be described

  11. Harnessing Reddit to Understand the Written-Communication Challenges Experienced by Individuals With Mental Health Disorders: Analysis of Texts From Mental Health Communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Albert; Conway, Mike

    2018-04-10

    online health communities. Our results also suggest that participating in these platforms has the potential to improve members' written communication. For example, members of all three mental health communities showed statistically significant improvement in both lexical diversity and readability compared with members of the OHC focusing on positive emotion. We provide new insights into the written communication challenges faced by individuals suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. A comparison with three other online health communities suggests that written communication in mental health communities is significantly more difficult to read, while also consisting of a significantly less diverse lexicon. We contribute practical suggestions for utilizing our findings in Web-based communication settings to enhance members' communicative experience. We consider these findings to be an important step toward understanding and addressing everyday written communication challenges among individuals suffering from mental disorders. ©Albert Park, Mike Conway. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 10.04.2018.

  12. Prior Knowledge Assessment Guide

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-12-01

    assessment in a reasonable amount of time. Hands-on assessments can be extremely diverse in makeup and administration depending on the subject matter...DEVELOPING AND USING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENTS TO TAILOR TRAINING D-3 ___ Brush and scrub ___ Orchards ___ Rice

  13. [The evaluation of nursing graduates' scientific reasoning and oral and written communication].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demandes, Ingrid; Latrach, Cecilia A; Febre, Naldy Pamela; Muñoz, Claudia; Torres, Pamela; Retamal, Jessica

    2012-08-01

    This descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed in Santiago de Chile, with the objective to evaluate the scientific reasoning and the oral and written communication of nursing graduates. The sample consisted of 37 nursing graduates who participated in the three stages of the study: I) creation and validation of the instrument; II) training the faculty participating in the study to apply the instrument uniformly; and III) application of the instrument and data analysis. The data show different percentages regarding this competency, with the predominance of scientific reasoning (83.16%), followed by oral and written communication (78.37%). In conclusion, this study demonstrates the value for nursing schools to implement a formal evaluation that allows for determining the profile of nursing graduates, guaranteeing the quality of their training and education.

  14. Testing knowledge of whole English collocations available for use in written production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Revier, Robert Lee

    2014-01-01

    Testing knowledge of whole English collocations available for use in written production: Developing tests for use with intermediate and advanced Danish learners (dansk resume nedenfor) The present foreign language acquisition research derives its impetus from four assumptions regarding knowledge...... of English collocations. These are: (a) collocation knowledge can be conceptualized as an independent knowledge construct, (b) collocations are lexical items in their own right, (c) testing of collocation knowledge should also target knowledge of whole collocations, and (d) the learning burden of a whole...... the development of Danish EFL learners’ productive knowledge of whole English collocations. Five empirical studies were designed to generate information that would shed light on the reliability and validity of the CONTRIX as a measure of collocation knowledge available for use in written production. Study 1...

  15. The relationship between oral and written narratives: A three-year longitudinal study of narrative cohesion, coherence, and structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinto, Giuliana; Tarchi, Christian; Bigozzi, Lucia

    2015-12-01

    The relationship between oral language and the writing process at early acquisition stages and the ways the former can enhance or limit the latter has not been researched extensively. The predictive relationship between kindergarten oral narrative competence and the first- and second-grade written narrative competence was explored in a 3-year longitudinal study. Among the first and second graders, the relationship between orthographic competence and narrative competence in written productions was also analysed. One hundred and nine Italian children participated in this study. Kindergarteners produced an oral narrative, whereas the first and second graders produced a written narrative. The oral and written narratives were analysed in terms of cohesion, coherence, and structure. The first-grade orthographic competence was assessed via a dictation task. Multiple linear regression and mediational analyses were performed. Kindergarten oral narrative competence affected the first- and second-grade written narrative competence via a mediational effect of orthographic competence. The results suggest the importance of practicing oral narrative competence in kindergarten and first grade and the value of composition quality independent of orthographic text accuracy. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

  16. 75 FR 21297 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request Web Based Training for Pain Management Providers

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-23

    ... Based Training for Pain Management Providers, via the Web site PainAndAddictionTreatment.com , to... addiction co-occurring in the provider's patients. In order to evaluate the effectives of the program... technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. Direct Comments to OMB: Written...

  17. Individual Differences in the "Myside Bias" in Reasoning and Written Argumentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolfe, Christopher R.

    2012-01-01

    Three studies examined the "myside bias" in reasoning, evaluating written arguments, and writing argumentative essays. Previous research suggests that some people possess a fact-based argumentation schema and some people have a balanced argumentation schema. I developed reliable Likert scale instruments (1-7 rating) for these constructs…

  18. Written Expression in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finnegan, Elizabeth; Accardo, Amy L.

    2018-01-01

    Although studies exist measuring the effectiveness of writing interventions for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research assessing the writing skills for this group is sparse. The present study identified differences in the written expression of individuals with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) peers, using variables…

  19. 10 CFR 35.41 - Procedures for administrations requiring a written directive.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... identity is verified before each administration; and (2) Each administration is in accordance with the... identity of the patient or human research subject; (2) Verifying that the administration is in accordance with the treatment plan, if applicable, and the written directive; (3) Checking both manual and...

  20. Text Comprehension Mediates Morphological Awareness, Syntactic Processing, and Working Memory in Predicting Chinese Written Composition Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guan, Connie Qun; Ye, Feifei; Wagner, Richard K.; Meng, Wanjin; Leong, Che Kan

    2014-01-01

    The goal of the present study was to test opposing views about four issues concerning predictors of individual differences in Chinese written composition: (a) Whether morphological awareness, syntactic processing, and working memory represent distinct and measureable constructs in Chinese or are just manifestations of general language ability; (b) whether they are important predictors of Chinese written composition, and if so, the relative magnitudes and independence of their predictive relations; (c) whether observed predictive relations are mediated by text comprehension; and (d) whether these relations vary or are developmentally invariant across three years of writing development. Based on analyses of the performance of students in grades 4 (n = 246), 5 (n = 242) and 6 (n = 261), the results supported morphological awareness, syntactic processing, and working memory as distinct yet correlated abilities that made independent contributions to predicting Chinese written composition, with working memory as the strongest predictor. However, predictive relations were mediated by text comprehension. The final model accounted for approximately 75 percent of the variance in Chinese written composition. The results were largely developmentally invariant across the three grades from which participants were drawn. PMID:25530630

  1. The impact of computer-based feedback on students’ written work

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khaled El Ebyary

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available A pesar de que la investigación sobre escritura en segundas lenguas sugiere que los comentarios de los profesores pueden tener una influencia positiva sobre el trabajo escrito de los estudiantes, el proporcionar con regularidad tales comentarios puede ser problemático, especialmente en clases muy numerosas. Sin embargo, existen en el mercado una serie de programas informáticos que garantizan poder proporcionar tanto evaluaciones integrales de carácter automático como comentarios informatizados sobre trabajos escritos y que, por lo tanto, tienen cierto potencial para tratar este problema. Criterion es una de estas herramientas y, como tal, proporciona información automatizada a nivel de palabra, oración, párrafo y texto. En el presente trabajo analizamos el valor práctico que ofrece en la producción de comentarios para la escritura en L2 y, a este respecto, recogimos datos cuantitativos y cualitativos de 31 instructores y 616 profesores en formación de inglés como lengua extranjera de origen egipcio por medio de cuestionarios previos, entrevistas y discusiones en grupo. 24 de los profesores recibieron comentarios informatizados producidos por medio de Criterion sobre dos borradores de redacciones realizadas acerca de 4 temas diferentes. La información registrada en el software indica un efecto positivo sobre la calidad de los segundos borradores realizados por los estudiantes, así como de escritos posteriores. Asimismo, tanto los cuestionarios administrados después de la aplicación, como las entrevistas y las discusiones en grupo revelan un efecto positivo sobre la actitud de los estudiantes hacia los comentarios de los profesorWhile research in second language writing suggests that instructor feedback can have a positive influence on students’ written work, the provision of such feedback on a regular basis can be problematic, especially with larger student numbers. A number of computer programs that claim to provide both

  2. Fractional Gaussian noise: Prior specification and model comparison

    KAUST Repository

    Sørbye, Sigrunn Holbek

    2017-07-07

    Fractional Gaussian noise (fGn) is a stationary stochastic process used to model antipersistent or persistent dependency structures in observed time series. Properties of the autocovariance function of fGn are characterised by the Hurst exponent (H), which, in Bayesian contexts, typically has been assigned a uniform prior on the unit interval. This paper argues why a uniform prior is unreasonable and introduces the use of a penalised complexity (PC) prior for H. The PC prior is computed to penalise divergence from the special case of white noise and is invariant to reparameterisations. An immediate advantage is that the exact same prior can be used for the autocorrelation coefficient ϕ(symbol) of a first-order autoregressive process AR(1), as this model also reflects a flexible version of white noise. Within the general setting of latent Gaussian models, this allows us to compare an fGn model component with AR(1) using Bayes factors, avoiding the confounding effects of prior choices for the two hyperparameters H and ϕ(symbol). Among others, this is useful in climate regression models where inference for underlying linear or smooth trends depends heavily on the assumed noise model.

  3. Fractional Gaussian noise: Prior specification and model comparison

    KAUST Repository

    Sø rbye, Sigrunn Holbek; Rue, Haavard

    2017-01-01

    Fractional Gaussian noise (fGn) is a stationary stochastic process used to model antipersistent or persistent dependency structures in observed time series. Properties of the autocovariance function of fGn are characterised by the Hurst exponent (H), which, in Bayesian contexts, typically has been assigned a uniform prior on the unit interval. This paper argues why a uniform prior is unreasonable and introduces the use of a penalised complexity (PC) prior for H. The PC prior is computed to penalise divergence from the special case of white noise and is invariant to reparameterisations. An immediate advantage is that the exact same prior can be used for the autocorrelation coefficient ϕ(symbol) of a first-order autoregressive process AR(1), as this model also reflects a flexible version of white noise. Within the general setting of latent Gaussian models, this allows us to compare an fGn model component with AR(1) using Bayes factors, avoiding the confounding effects of prior choices for the two hyperparameters H and ϕ(symbol). Among others, this is useful in climate regression models where inference for underlying linear or smooth trends depends heavily on the assumed noise model.

  4. Rhetorical Use of Inscriptions in Students' Written Arguments About Socioscientific Issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Sihan

    2018-05-01

    Educators expect that students be able to make informed decisions about science-related problems in their everyday lives. Engaging science in such problems often entails evaluating available evidence for given arguments. This study explores how students use inscriptions as evidence to argue about socioscientific issues. Fifth- and sixth-grade students (N = 102) in two intact classrooms completed written argument tasks in which they were asked to cite given inscriptions to support their decisions about energy use or genetically modified organisms. Qualitative content analyses of these written arguments, which focused on the coordination between inscriptions and claims, show three patterns of rhetorical use of inscriptions: seeing is believing, believing is seeing, and asserting is inferring. What counts as evidence was not the inscriptions per se, but the rhetorical functions they performed in particular arguments. These findings suggest that justifying socioscientific decisions is functionally different from explaining scientific phenomena. Linking these two activities in school may help students more productively engage with science in their everyday lives.

  5. Evaluating a Collaborative Approach to Improve Prior Authorization Efficiency in the Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunn, Emily E; Vranek, Kathryn; Hynicka, Lauren M; Gripshover, Janet; Potosky, Darryn; Mattingly, T Joseph

    A team-based approach to obtaining prior authorization approval was implemented utilizing a specialty pharmacy, a clinic-based pharmacy technician specialist, and a registered nurse to work with providers to obtain approval for medications for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The objective of this study was to evaluate the time to approval for prescribed treatment of HCV infection. A retrospective observational study was conducted including patients treated for HCV infection by clinic providers who received at least 1 oral direct-acting antiviral HCV medication. Patients were divided into 2 groups, based on whether they were treated before or after the implementation of the team-based approach. Student t tests were used to compare average wait times before and after the intervention. The sample included 180 patients, 68 treated before the intervention and 112 patients who initiated therapy after. All patients sampled required prior authorization approval by a third-party payer to begin therapy. There was a statistically significant reduction (P = .02) in average wait time in the postintervention group (15.6 ± 12.1 days) once adjusted using dates of approval. Pharmacy collaboration may provide increases in efficiency in provider prior authorization practices and reduced wait time for patients to begin treatment.

  6. An Analysis of Written Feedback on a PhD Thesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Vijay; Stracke, Elke

    2007-01-01

    This paper offers an interim analysis of written feedback on a first draft of a PhD thesis. It first looks at two sources of data: in-text feedback and overall feedback. Looking at how language is used in its situational context, we then coded the feedback and developed a model for analysis based on three fundamental functions of speech:…

  7. 5 CFR 890.1069 - Information the debarring official must consider in deciding a provider's contest of proposed...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL... deciding a provider's contest of proposed penalties and assessments. (a) Documentary material and written...

  8. Improving Bayesian credibility intervals for classifier error rates using maximum entropy empirical priors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gustafsson, Mats G; Wallman, Mikael; Wickenberg Bolin, Ulrika; Göransson, Hanna; Fryknäs, M; Andersson, Claes R; Isaksson, Anders

    2010-06-01

    Successful use of classifiers that learn to make decisions from a set of patient examples require robust methods for performance estimation. Recently many promising approaches for determination of an upper bound for the error rate of a single classifier have been reported but the Bayesian credibility interval (CI) obtained from a conventional holdout test still delivers one of the tightest bounds. The conventional Bayesian CI becomes unacceptably large in real world applications where the test set sizes are less than a few hundred. The source of this problem is that fact that the CI is determined exclusively by the result on the test examples. In other words, there is no information at all provided by the uniform prior density distribution employed which reflects complete lack of prior knowledge about the unknown error rate. Therefore, the aim of the study reported here was to study a maximum entropy (ME) based approach to improved prior knowledge and Bayesian CIs, demonstrating its relevance for biomedical research and clinical practice. It is demonstrated how a refined non-uniform prior density distribution can be obtained by means of the ME principle using empirical results from a few designs and tests using non-overlapping sets of examples. Experimental results show that ME based priors improve the CIs when employed to four quite different simulated and two real world data sets. An empirically derived ME prior seems promising for improving the Bayesian CI for the unknown error rate of a designed classifier. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Statin Eligibility and Outpatient Care Prior to ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miedema, Michael D; Garberich, Ross F; Schnaidt, Lucas J; Peterson, Erin; Strauss, Craig; Sharkey, Scott; Knickelbine, Thomas; Newell, Marc C; Henry, Timothy D

    2017-04-12

    The impact of the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association cholesterol guidelines on statin eligibility in individuals otherwise destined to experience cardiovascular disease (CVD) events is unclear. We analyzed a prospective cohort of consecutive ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients from a regional STEMI system with data on patient demographics, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, CVD risk factors, medication use, and outpatient visits over the 2 years prior to STEMI. We determined pre-STEMI eligibility according to American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines and the prior Third Report of the Adult Treatment Panel guidelines. Our sample included 1062 patients with a mean age of 63.7 (13.0) years (72.5% male), and 761 (71.7%) did not have known CVD prior to STEMI. Only 62.5% and 19.3% of individuals with and without prior CVD were taking a statin before STEMI, respectively. In individuals not taking a statin, median (interquartile range) low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in those with and without known CVD were low (108 [83, 138]  mg/dL and 110 [87, 133] mg/dL). For individuals not taking a statin, only 38.7% were statin eligible by ATP III guidelines. Conversely, 79.0% would have been statin eligible according to American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines. Less than half of individuals with (49.2%) and without (41.1%) prior CVD had seen a primary care provider during the 2 years prior to STEMI. In a large cohort of STEMI patients, application of American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines more than doubled pre-STEMI statin eligibility compared with Third Report of the Adult Treatment Panel guidelines. However, access to and utilization of health care, a necessity for guideline implementation, was suboptimal prior to STEMI. © 2017 The Authors. Published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wiley.

  10. Cultural-historical and cognitive approaches to understanding the origins of development of written speech

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L.F. Obukhova

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available We present an analysis of the emergence and development of written speech, its relationship to the oral speech, connections to the symbolic and modeling activities of preschool children – playing and drawing. While a child's drawing is traditionally interpreted in psychology either as a measure of intellectual development, or as a projective technique, or as a criterion for creative giftedness of the child, in this article, the artistic activity is analyzed as a prerequisite for development of written speech. The article substantiates the hypothesis that the mastery of “picture writing” – the ability to display the verbal content in a schematic picturesque plan – is connected to the success of writing speech at school age. Along with the classical works of L.S. Vygotsky, D.B. Elkonin, A.R. Luria, dedicated to finding the origins of writing, the article presents the current Russian and foreign frameworks of forming the preconditions of writing, based on the concepts of cultural-historical theory (“higher mental functions”, “zone of proximal development”, etc.. In Western psychology, a number of pilot studies used the developmental function of drawing for teaching the written skills to children of 5-7 years old. However, in cognitive psychology, relationship between drawing and writing is most often reduced mainly to the analysis of general motor circuits. Despite the recovery in research on writing and its origins in the last decade, either in domestic or in foreign psychology, the written speech is not a sufficiently studied problem.

  11. Device of Definition of Hand-Written Documents Belonging to One Executor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. D. Kulik

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Results of working out of the device of definition of hand-written documents belonging to the executor of the text in Russian are presented. The device is intended for automation of work of experts and allows to solve problems of information security and search of criminals.

  12. Long period gratings written in large-mode area photonic crystal fiber

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nodop, D.; Linke, S.; Jansen, F.

    2008-01-01

    We report for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, on the fabrication and characterization of CO2-laser written long-period gratings in a large-mode area photonic crystal fiber with a core diameter of 25 mu m. The gratings have low insertion losses ( 10 d...

  13. Learning priors for Bayesian computations in the nervous system.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Max Berniker

    Full Text Available Our nervous system continuously combines new information from our senses with information it has acquired throughout life. Numerous studies have found that human subjects manage this by integrating their observations with their previous experience (priors in a way that is close to the statistical optimum. However, little is known about the way the nervous system acquires or learns priors. Here we present results from experiments where the underlying distribution of target locations in an estimation task was switched, manipulating the prior subjects should use. Our experimental design allowed us to measure a subject's evolving prior while they learned. We confirm that through extensive practice subjects learn the correct prior for the task. We found that subjects can rapidly learn the mean of a new prior while the variance is learned more slowly and with a variable learning rate. In addition, we found that a Bayesian inference model could predict the time course of the observed learning while offering an intuitive explanation for the findings. The evidence suggests the nervous system continuously updates its priors to enable efficient behavior.

  14. Incorporation prior belief in the general path model: A comparison of information sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coble, Jamie; Hines, Wesley

    2014-01-01

    The general path model (GPM) is one approach for performing degradation-based, or Type III, prognostics. The GPM fits a parametric function to the collected observations of a prognostic parameter and extrapolates the fit to a failure threshold. This approach has been successfully applied to a variety of systems when a sufficient number of prognostic parameter observations are available. However, the parametric fit can suffer significantly when few data are available or the data are very noisy. In these instances, it is beneficial to include additional information to influence the fit to conform to a prior belief about the evolution of system degradation. Bayesian statistical approaches have been proposed to include prior information in the form of distributions of expected model parameters. This requires a number of run-to-failure cases with tracked prognostic parameters; these data may not be readily available for many systems. Reliability information and stressor-based (Type I and Type II, respectively) prognostic estimates can provide the necessary prior belief for the GPM. This article presents the Bayesian updating framework to include prior information in the GPM and compares the efficacy of including different information sources on two data sets.

  15. Valid MR imaging predictors of prior knee arthroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Discepola, Federico; Le, Huy B.Q.; Park, John S.; Clopton, Paul; Knoll, Andrew N.; Austin, Matthew J.; Resnick, Donald L.

    2012-01-01

    To determine whether fibrosis of the medial patellar reticulum (MPR), lateral patellar reticulum (LPR), deep medial aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (MDH), or deep lateral aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (LDH) is a valid predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. Institutional review board approval and waiver of informed consent were obtained for this HIPPA-compliant study. Initially, fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH in MR imaging studies of 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 100 patients without was recorded. Subsequently, two additional radiologists, blinded to clinical data, retrospectively and independently recorded the presence of fibrosis of the MPR in 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 50 without. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy for detecting the presence of fibrosis in the MPR were calculated. κ statistics were used to analyze inter-observer agreement. Fibrosis of each of the regions examined during the first portion of the study showed a significant association with prior knee arthroscopy (p < 0.005 for each). A patient with fibrosis of the MPR, LDH, or LPR was 45.5, 9, or 3.7 times more likely, respectively, to have had a prior knee arthroscopy. Logistic regression analysis indicated that fibrosis of the MPR supplanted the diagnostic utility of identifying fibrosis of the LPR, LDH, or MDH, or combinations of these (p ≥ 0.09 for all combinations). In the second portion of the study, fibrosis of the MPR demonstrated a mean sensitivity of 82%, specificity of 72%, PPV of 75%, NPV of 81%, and accuracy of 77% for predicting prior knee arthroscopy. Analysis of MR images can be used to determine if a patient has had prior knee arthroscopy by identifying fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH. Fibrosis of the MPR was the strongest predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. (orig.)

  16. Valid MR imaging predictors of prior knee arthroscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Discepola, Federico; Le, Huy B.Q. [McGill University Health Center, Jewsih General Hospital, Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology, Montreal, Quebec (Canada); Park, John S. [Annapolis Radiology Associates, Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology, Annapolis, MD (United States); Clopton, Paul; Knoll, Andrew N.; Austin, Matthew J.; Resnick, Donald L. [University of California San Diego (UCSD), Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology, San Diego, CA (United States)

    2012-01-15

    To determine whether fibrosis of the medial patellar reticulum (MPR), lateral patellar reticulum (LPR), deep medial aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (MDH), or deep lateral aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (LDH) is a valid predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. Institutional review board approval and waiver of informed consent were obtained for this HIPPA-compliant study. Initially, fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH in MR imaging studies of 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 100 patients without was recorded. Subsequently, two additional radiologists, blinded to clinical data, retrospectively and independently recorded the presence of fibrosis of the MPR in 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 50 without. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy for detecting the presence of fibrosis in the MPR were calculated. {kappa} statistics were used to analyze inter-observer agreement. Fibrosis of each of the regions examined during the first portion of the study showed a significant association with prior knee arthroscopy (p < 0.005 for each). A patient with fibrosis of the MPR, LDH, or LPR was 45.5, 9, or 3.7 times more likely, respectively, to have had a prior knee arthroscopy. Logistic regression analysis indicated that fibrosis of the MPR supplanted the diagnostic utility of identifying fibrosis of the LPR, LDH, or MDH, or combinations of these (p {>=} 0.09 for all combinations). In the second portion of the study, fibrosis of the MPR demonstrated a mean sensitivity of 82%, specificity of 72%, PPV of 75%, NPV of 81%, and accuracy of 77% for predicting prior knee arthroscopy. Analysis of MR images can be used to determine if a patient has had prior knee arthroscopy by identifying fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH. Fibrosis of the MPR was the strongest predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. (orig.)

  17. Written reflection in an eHealth intervention for adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lie, Silje S; Karlsen, Bjørg; Niemiec, Christopher P; Graue, Marit; Oftedal, Bjørg

    2018-01-01

    Individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are responsible for the daily decisions and actions necessary to manage their disease, which makes self-management the cornerstone of diabetes care. Many patients do not reach recommended treatment goals, and thus it is important to develop and evaluate innovative interventions that facilitate optimal motivation for adequate self-management of T2DM. The aim of the current study was to explore how adults with T2DM experience using reflection sheets to stimulate written reflection in the context of the Guided Self-Determination (GSD) eHealth intervention and how written reflection might affect their motivation for self-management of T2DM. We used a qualitative design in which data were collected through individual interviews. The sample consisted of 10 patients who completed the GSD eHealth intervention, and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The qualitative content analysis yielded 2 main themes. We labeled the first theme as "Written reflection affects awareness and commitment in diabetes self-management", which reflects 2 subthemes, namely, "Writing creates space and time for autonomous reflection" and "Writing influences individuals' focus in diabetes self-management". We labeled the second theme as "Written reflection is perceived as inapplicable in diabetes self-management", which reflects 2 subthemes, namely, "Responding in writing is difficult" and "The timing of the writing is inappropriate". Our findings indicate that written reflection in the context of the GSD eHealth intervention may be conducive to motivation for diabetes self-management for some patients. However, it seems that in-person consultation with the diabetes nurse may be necessary to achieve the full potential benefit of the GSD as an eHealth intervention. We advocate further development and examination of the GSD as a "blended" approach, especially for those who consider written reflection to be difficult or unfamiliar.

  18. Inter-Rater Reliability of Provider Interpretations of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Food and Symptom Journals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jasmine Zia

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available There are currently no standardized methods for identifying trigger food(s from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS food and symptom journals. The primary aim of this study was to assess the inter-rater reliability of providers’ interpretations of IBS journals. A second aim was to describe whether these interpretations varied for each patient. Eight providers reviewed 17 IBS journals and rated how likely key food groups (fermentable oligo-di-monosaccharides and polyols, high-calorie, gluten, caffeine, high-fiber were to trigger IBS symptoms for each patient. Agreement of trigger food ratings was calculated using Krippendorff’s α-reliability estimate. Providers were also asked to write down recommendations they would give to each patient. Estimates of agreement of trigger food likelihood ratings were poor (average α = 0.07. Most providers gave similar trigger food likelihood ratings for over half the food groups. Four providers gave the exact same written recommendation(s (range 3–7 to over half the patients. Inter-rater reliability of provider interpretations of IBS food and symptom journals was poor. Providers favored certain trigger food likelihood ratings and written recommendations. This supports the need for a more standardized method for interpreting these journals and/or more rigorous techniques to accurately identify personalized IBS food triggers.

  19. Generalized multiple kernel learning with data-dependent priors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mao, Qi; Tsang, Ivor W; Gao, Shenghua; Wang, Li

    2015-06-01

    Multiple kernel learning (MKL) and classifier ensemble are two mainstream methods for solving learning problems in which some sets of features/views are more informative than others, or the features/views within a given set are inconsistent. In this paper, we first present a novel probabilistic interpretation of MKL such that maximum entropy discrimination with a noninformative prior over multiple views is equivalent to the formulation of MKL. Instead of using the noninformative prior, we introduce a novel data-dependent prior based on an ensemble of kernel predictors, which enhances the prediction performance of MKL by leveraging the merits of the classifier ensemble. With the proposed probabilistic framework of MKL, we propose a hierarchical Bayesian model to learn the proposed data-dependent prior and classification model simultaneously. The resultant problem is convex and other information (e.g., instances with either missing views or missing labels) can be seamlessly incorporated into the data-dependent priors. Furthermore, a variety of existing MKL models can be recovered under the proposed MKL framework and can be readily extended to incorporate these priors. Extensive experiments demonstrate the benefits of our proposed framework in supervised and semisupervised settings, as well as in tasks with partial correspondence among multiple views.

  20. Font size matters--emotion and attention in cortical responses to written words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bayer, Mareike; Sommer, Werner; Schacht, Annekathrin

    2012-01-01

    For emotional pictures with fear-, disgust-, or sex-related contents, stimulus size has been shown to increase emotion effects in attention-related event-related potentials (ERPs), presumably reflecting the enhanced biological impact of larger emotion-inducing pictures. If this is true, size should not enhance emotion effects for written words with symbolic and acquired meaning. Here, we investigated ERP effects of font size for emotional and neutral words. While P1 and N1 amplitudes were not affected by emotion, the early posterior negativity started earlier and lasted longer for large relative to small words. These results suggest that emotion-driven facilitation of attention is not necessarily based on biological relevance, but might generalize to stimuli with arbitrary perceptual features. This finding points to the high relevance of written language in today's society as an important source of emotional meaning.

  1. Roy Reider (1914-1979) selections from his written and spoken words

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paxton, H.C.

    1980-01-01

    Comments by Roy Reider on chemical criticality control, the fundamentals of safety, policy and responsibility, on written procedures, profiting from accidents, safety training, early history of criticality safety, requirements for the possible, the value of enlightened challenge, public acceptance of a new risk, and on prophets of doom are presented

  2. Graduate Students' Needs and Preferences for Written Feedback on Academic Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this research is to examine graduate students' needs and preferences for written feedback on academic writing from their lecturers and thesis supervisors. Quantitative method via survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 21 respondents. The data collection involved Master and Doctorate students at a tertiary level institution…

  3. Gene regulatory network inference by point-based Gaussian approximation filters incorporating the prior information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Bin; Wang, Xiaodong

    2013-12-17

    : The extended Kalman filter (EKF) has been applied to inferring gene regulatory networks. However, it is well known that the EKF becomes less accurate when the system exhibits high nonlinearity. In addition, certain prior information about the gene regulatory network exists in practice, and no systematic approach has been developed to incorporate such prior information into the Kalman-type filter for inferring the structure of the gene regulatory network. In this paper, an inference framework based on point-based Gaussian approximation filters that can exploit the prior information is developed to solve the gene regulatory network inference problem. Different point-based Gaussian approximation filters, including the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), the third-degree cubature Kalman filter (CKF3), and the fifth-degree cubature Kalman filter (CKF5) are employed. Several types of network prior information, including the existing network structure information, sparsity assumption, and the range constraint of parameters, are considered, and the corresponding filters incorporating the prior information are developed. Experiments on a synthetic network of eight genes and the yeast protein synthesis network of five genes are carried out to demonstrate the performance of the proposed framework. The results show that the proposed methods provide more accurate inference results than existing methods, such as the EKF and the traditional UKF.

  4. Genomic inferences of domestication events are corroborated by written records in Brassica rapa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qi, Xinshuai; An, Hong; Ragsdale, Aaron P; Hall, Tara E; Gutenkunst, Ryan N; Chris Pires, J; Barker, Michael S

    2017-07-01

    Demographic modelling is often used with population genomic data to infer the relationships and ages among populations. However, relatively few analyses are able to validate these inferences with independent data. Here, we leverage written records that describe distinct Brassica rapa crops to corroborate demographic models of domestication. Brassica rapa crops are renowned for their outstanding morphological diversity, but the relationships and order of domestication remain unclear. We generated genomewide SNPs from 126 accessions collected globally using high-throughput transcriptome data. Analyses of more than 31,000 SNPs across the B. rapa genome revealed evidence for five distinct genetic groups and supported a European-Central Asian origin of B. rapa crops. Our results supported the traditionally recognized South Asian and East Asian B. rapa groups with evidence that pak choi, Chinese cabbage and yellow sarson are likely monophyletic groups. In contrast, the oil-type B. rapa subsp. oleifera and brown sarson were polyphyletic. We also found no evidence to support the contention that rapini is the wild type or the earliest domesticated subspecies of B. rapa. Demographic analyses suggested that B. rapa was introduced to Asia 2,400-4,100 years ago, and that Chinese cabbage originated 1,200-2,100 years ago via admixture of pak choi and European-Central Asian B. rapa. We also inferred significantly different levels of founder effect among the B. rapa subspecies. Written records from antiquity that document these crops are consistent with these inferences. The concordance between our age estimates of domestication events with historical records provides unique support for our demographic inferences. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  5. Calibrated birth-death phylogenetic time-tree priors for bayesian inference.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heled, Joseph; Drummond, Alexei J

    2015-05-01

    Here we introduce a general class of multiple calibration birth-death tree priors for use in Bayesian phylogenetic inference. All tree priors in this class separate ancestral node heights into a set of "calibrated nodes" and "uncalibrated nodes" such that the marginal distribution of the calibrated nodes is user-specified whereas the density ratio of the birth-death prior is retained for trees with equal values for the calibrated nodes. We describe two formulations, one in which the calibration information informs the prior on ranked tree topologies, through the (conditional) prior, and the other which factorizes the prior on divergence times and ranked topologies, thus allowing uniform, or any arbitrary prior distribution on ranked topologies. Although the first of these formulations has some attractive properties, the algorithm we present for computing its prior density is computationally intensive. However, the second formulation is always faster and computationally efficient for up to six calibrations. We demonstrate the utility of the new class of multiple-calibration tree priors using both small simulations and a real-world analysis and compare the results to existing schemes. The two new calibrated tree priors described in this article offer greater flexibility and control of prior specification in calibrated time-tree inference and divergence time dating, and will remove the need for indirect approaches to the assessment of the combined effect of calibration densities and tree priors in Bayesian phylogenetic inference. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists.

  6. 26 CFR 1.668(a)-1 - Amounts treated as received in prior taxable years; inclusion in gross income.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Amounts treated as received in prior taxable years; inclusion in gross income. 1.668(a)-1 Section 1.668(a)-1 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE... treated as received in prior taxable years; inclusion in gross income. (a) Section 668(a) provides that...

  7. A Psycholinguistic Description of the Oral and Written Language of a Selected Group of Middle School Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martellock, Helen Anna

    Six highly skilled middle school readers read aloud a story from a basal reader, then orally retold the story in their own words, wrote a version of the story, and finally read their own version aloud. Typescripts made from audio tape were compared with typescripts of the written compositions. The oral and written retellings were analyzed for…

  8. A Two-Stage Maximum Entropy Prior of Location Parameter with a Stochastic Multivariate Interval Constraint and Its Properties

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hea-Jung Kim

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a two-stage maximum entropy prior to elicit uncertainty regarding a multivariate interval constraint of the location parameter of a scale mixture of normal model. Using Shannon’s entropy, this study demonstrates how the prior, obtained by using two stages of a prior hierarchy, appropriately accounts for the information regarding the stochastic constraint and suggests an objective measure of the degree of belief in the stochastic constraint. The study also verifies that the proposed prior plays the role of bridging the gap between the canonical maximum entropy prior of the parameter with no interval constraint and that with a certain multivariate interval constraint. It is shown that the two-stage maximum entropy prior belongs to the family of rectangle screened normal distributions that is conjugate for samples from a normal distribution. Some properties of the prior density, useful for developing a Bayesian inference of the parameter with the stochastic constraint, are provided. We also propose a hierarchical constrained scale mixture of normal model (HCSMN, which uses the prior density to estimate the constrained location parameter of a scale mixture of normal model and demonstrates the scope of its applicability.

  9. What Is Normal, True, and Right: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Students' Written Resistance Strategies on LGBTQ Topics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaekel, Kathryn

    2016-01-01

    This study examines how students perform resistance to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer topics in their written reflections in a higher education diversity course. Using a three-tiered critical discourse analysis , this article maps students' resistant textual devices in their written reflections, analyzes the institutional setting…

  10. Comparing definitions in guidelines and written standards - a case study: 'Trueness'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pavese, F

    2010-01-01

    This paper describes the structure of a repository initiated by IMEKO TC21 to allow the comparison of different definitions and use of the same term or concept in written standards and guidelines available internationally. The method used is illustrated for a case study: the critical concept of 'trueness' and its definitions.

  11. A Corpus-Based View of Lexical Gender in Written Business English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuertes-Olivera, Pedro A.

    2007-01-01

    This article investigates lexical gender in specialized communication. The key method of analysis is that of forms of address, professional titles, and "generic man" in a 10 million word corpus of written Business English. After a brief introduction and literature review on both gender in specialized communication and similar corpus-based views of…

  12. Use of spoken and written Japanese did not protect Japanese-American men from cognitive decline in late life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crane, Paul K; Gruhl, Jonathan C; Erosheva, Elena A; Gibbons, Laura E; McCurry, Susan M; Rhoads, Kristoffer; Nguyen, Viet; Arani, Keerthi; Masaki, Kamal; White, Lon

    2010-11-01

    Spoken bilingualism may be associated with cognitive reserve. Mastering a complicated written language may be associated with additional reserve. We sought to determine if midlife use of spoken and written Japanese was associated with lower rates of late life cognitive decline. Participants were second-generation Japanese-American men from the Hawaiian island of Oahu, born 1900-1919, free of dementia in 1991, and categorized based on midlife self-reported use of spoken and written Japanese (total n included in primary analysis = 2,520). Cognitive functioning was measured with the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument scored using item response theory. We used mixed effects models, controlling for age, income, education, smoking status, apolipoprotein E e4 alleles, and number of study visits. Rates of cognitive decline were not related to use of spoken or written Japanese. This finding was consistent across numerous sensitivity analyses. We did not find evidence to support the hypothesis that multilingualism is associated with cognitive reserve.

  13. Use of Spoken and Written Japanese Did Not Protect Japanese-American Men From Cognitive Decline in Late Life

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gruhl, Jonathan C.; Erosheva, Elena A.; Gibbons, Laura E.; McCurry, Susan M.; Rhoads, Kristoffer; Nguyen, Viet; Arani, Keerthi; Masaki, Kamal; White, Lon

    2010-01-01

    Objectives. Spoken bilingualism may be associated with cognitive reserve. Mastering a complicated written language may be associated with additional reserve. We sought to determine if midlife use of spoken and written Japanese was associated with lower rates of late life cognitive decline. Methods. Participants were second-generation Japanese-American men from the Hawaiian island of Oahu, born 1900–1919, free of dementia in 1991, and categorized based on midlife self-reported use of spoken and written Japanese (total n included in primary analysis = 2,520). Cognitive functioning was measured with the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument scored using item response theory. We used mixed effects models, controlling for age, income, education, smoking status, apolipoprotein E e4 alleles, and number of study visits. Results. Rates of cognitive decline were not related to use of spoken or written Japanese. This finding was consistent across numerous sensitivity analyses. Discussion. We did not find evidence to support the hypothesis that multilingualism is associated with cognitive reserve. PMID:20639282

  14. Grammatical Deviations in the Spoken and Written Language of Hebrew-Speaking Children With Hearing Impairments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tur-Kaspa, Hana; Dromi, Esther

    2001-04-01

    The present study reports a detailed analysis of written and spoken language samples of Hebrew-speaking children aged 11-13 years who are deaf. It focuses on the description of various grammatical deviations in the two modalities. Participants were 13 students with hearing impairments (HI) attending special classrooms integrated into two elementary schools in Tel Aviv, Israel, and 9 students with normal hearing (NH) in regular classes in these same schools. Spoken and written language samples were collected from all participants using the same five preplanned elicitation probes. Students with HI were found to display significantly more grammatical deviations than their NH peers in both their spoken and written language samples. Most importantly, between-modality differences were noted. The participants with HI exhibited significantly more grammatical deviations in their written language samples than in their spoken samples. However, the distribution of grammatical deviations across categories was similar in the two modalities. The most common grammatical deviations in order of their frequency were failure to supply obligatory morphological markers, failure to mark grammatical agreement, and the omission of a major syntactic constituent in a sentence. Word order violations were rarely recorded in the Hebrew samples. Performance differences in the two modalities encourage clinicians and teachers to facilitate target linguistic forms in diverse communication contexts. Furthermore, the identification of linguistic targets for intervention must be based on the unique grammatical structure of the target language.

  15. How to Verify Plagiarism of the Paper Written in Macedonian and Translated in Foreign Language?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spiroski, Mirko

    2016-03-15

    The aim of this study was to show how to verify plagiarism of the paper written in Macedonian and translated in foreign language. Original article "Ethics in Medical Research Involving Human Subjects", written in Macedonian, was submitted as an assay-2 for the subject Ethics and published by Ilina Stefanovska, PhD candidate from the Iustinianus Primus Faculty of Law, Ss Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje (UKIM), Skopje, Republic of Macedonia in Fabruary, 2013. Suspected article for plagiarism was published by Prof. Dr. Gordana Panova from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University Goce Delchev, Shtip, Republic of Macedonia in English with the identical title and identical content in International scientific on-line journal "SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGIES", Publisher "Union of Scientists - Stara Zagora". Original document (written in Macedonian) was translated with Google Translator; suspected article (published in English pdf file) was converted into Word document, and compared both documents with several programs for plagiarism detection. It was found that both documents are identical in 71%, 78% and 82%, respectively, depending on the computer program used for plagiarism detection. It was obvious that original paper was entirely plagiarised by Prof. Dr. Gordana Panova, including six references from the original paper. Plagiarism of the original papers written in Macedonian and translated in other languages can be verified after computerised translation in other languages. Later on, original and translated documents can be compared with available software for plagiarism detection.

  16. Improving Open Access through Prior Learning Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yin, Shuangxu; Kawachi, Paul

    2013-01-01

    This paper explores and presents new data on how to improve open access in distance education through using prior learning assessments. Broadly there are three types of prior learning assessment (PLAR): Type-1 for prospective students to be allowed to register for a course; Type-2 for current students to avoid duplicating work-load to gain…

  17. Computer-Assisted Learning for the Hearing Impaired: An Interactive Written Language Enviroment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, R. D.; Rostron, A. B.

    1983-01-01

    To help hearing-impaired children develop their linguistic competence, a computer system that can process sentences and give feedback about their acceptability was developed. Suggestions are made of ways to use the system as an environment for interactive written communication. (Author/CL)

  18. Obtaining value prior to pulping with diethyl oxalate and oxalic acid

    Science.gov (United States)

    W.R. Kenealy; E. Horn; C.J. Houtman; J. Laplaza; T.W. Jeffries

    2007-01-01

    Pulp and paper are converted to paper products with yields of paper dependent on the wood and the process used. Even with high yield pulps there are conversion losses and with chemical pulps the yields approach 50%. The portions of the wood that do not provide product are either combusted to generate power and steam or incur a cost in waste water treatment. Value prior...

  19. Technology supporting written productivity in children with learning disabilities: a critical review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batorowicz, Beata; Missiuna, Cheryl A; Pollock, Nancy A

    2012-10-01

    Occupational therapists working with school-aged children are often in the position of recommending technology to enhance written productivity. The outcome of using technology on the writing of children with learning disabilities has not been reviewed critically, and this knowledge is necessary for evidence-based practice. To review evidence regarding the use of technology to support written productivity in children with learning disabilities. A systematic search of seven databases, plus a manual search, retrieved 864 papers published between 1985 and March 2012. Twenty-seven papers (28 studies) met inclusion criteria. The evidence is of a moderately low level and results are inconclusive; however, trends suggest a positive influence of some technology on children's performance and behaviour. Methodological limitations exist in most studies and the description of specific technology intervention is often combined with teaching instructions. The available research is encouraging, but high-quality investigations with newer technologies are needed.

  20. Training shortest-path tractography: Automatic learning of spatial priors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kasenburg, Niklas; Liptrot, Matthew George; Reislev, Nina Linde

    2016-01-01

    Tractography is the standard tool for automatic delineation of white matter tracts from diffusion weighted images. However, the output of tractography often requires post-processing to remove false positives and ensure a robust delineation of the studied tract, and this demands expert prior...... knowledge. Here we demonstrate how such prior knowledge, or indeed any prior spatial information, can be automatically incorporated into a shortest-path tractography approach to produce more robust results. We describe how such a prior can be automatically generated (learned) from a population, and we...

  1. Acquisition of multiple prior distributions in tactile temporal order judgment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasuhito eNagai

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available The Bayesian estimation theory proposes that the brain acquires the prior distribution of a task and integrates it with sensory signals to minimize the effect of sensory noise. Psychophysical studies have demonstrated that our brain actually implements Bayesian estimation in a variety of sensory-motor tasks. However, these studies only imposed one prior distribution on participants within a task period. In this study, we investigated the conditions that enable the acquisition of multiple prior distributions in temporal order judgment (TOJ of two tactile stimuli across the hands. In Experiment 1, stimulation intervals were randomly selected from one of two prior distributions (biased to right hand earlier and biased to left hand earlier in association with color cues (green and red, respectively. Although the acquisition of the two priors was not enabled by the color cues alone, it was significant when participants shifted their gaze (above or below in response to the color cues. However, the acquisition of multiple priors was not significant when participants moved their mouths (opened or closed. In Experiment 2, the spatial cues (above and below were used to identify which eye position or retinal cue position was crucial for the eye-movement-dependent acquisition of multiple priors in Experiment 1. The acquisition of the two priors was significant when participants moved their gaze to the cues (i.e., the cue positions on the retina were constant across the priors, as well as when participants did not shift their gazes (i.e., the cue positions on the retina changed according to the priors. Thus, both eye and retinal cue positions were effective in acquiring multiple priors. Based on previous neurophysiological reports, we discuss possible neural correlates that contribute to the acquisition of multiple priors.

  2. The beginnings of the written culture in Antiquity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Isabel Panosa

    2004-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes an analysis of writing as a system for communication, since its origins, in terms of its uses and socio-cultural context. We shall also look to review and comment on the way in which it has evolved in time and space and its primordial domains for expression. Likewise, we shall look at the current state of affairs with respect to graphic communication, which includes the alphabet, logographic systems and symbols. From a more global point of view, the relationship between the concept of writing and the concept of civilisation is studied and two dimensions are set out: the oral culture and the written culture.

  3. Synergistic relationships between Analytical Chemistry and written standards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valcárcel, Miguel; Lucena, Rafael

    2013-07-25

    This paper describes the mutual impact of Analytical Chemistry and several international written standards (norms and guides) related to knowledge management (CEN-CWA 14924:2004), social responsibility (ISO 26000:2010), management of occupational health and safety (OHSAS 18001/2), environmental management (ISO 14001:2004), quality management systems (ISO 9001:2008) and requirements of the competence of testing and calibration laboratories (ISO 17025:2004). The intensity of this impact, based on a two-way influence, is quite different depending on the standard considered. In any case, a new and fruitful approach to Analytical Chemistry based on these relationships can be derived. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. [Written and pictorial content in magazines and their possible relationship to eating disorders].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szabó, Kornélia; Túry, Ferenc

    2012-02-01

    In the current study we reviewed the literature on studies exploring the magazine reading frequency, written and pictorial contents appearing in magazines and their connection to eating disorders. Reading different fashion and fitness magazines has effect on readers through several indirect and direct factors and through trustable and false information. They affect readers' body satisfaction, self-esteem, eating habits and more generally their health behavior. Different theories have been explained to account for these associations and several other studies examined empirically the connection between the frequency of magazine reading and eating disorders, as well as the symptoms leading to eating disorders. We analyzed and summarized articles between 1975 and 2009 from online databases. We used the following sources: Science Direct (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), Springer-Verlag GmbH (http://www.springerlink.com/) and SAGE Publications Ltd (http://online.sagepub. com/). The pictorial and written magazine contents were associated with the development and maintenance of eating disorders or with symptoms that might lead to eating disorders. The publications compared to previous years featured an increased number of advertisements for unhealthy foods, for unhealthy radical diet plans and exercise programs. Furthermore the magazines contained conflicting messages about nutrition, body functions and eating disorders. Written and pictorial magazine contents, messages might increase the risk for development of eating disorders, especially in vulnerable individuals.

  5. 50 CFR 665.816 - American Samoa longline limited entry program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ..., provided that the person or business provided to NMFS or the Council, prior to March 22, 2002, a written... may be transferred (by sale, gift, bequest, intestate succession, barter, or trade) to the following... transferred (by sale, gift, bequest, intestate succession, barter, or trade) to the following persons only: (i...

  6. How to Stop Biting Your Nails

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... prohibited without prior written permission. AAD logo Advertising, marketing and sponsorships Legal notice Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Dermatology. All rights reserved. Reproduction or republication strictly prohibited without prior written permission.

  7. The composer’s program note for newly-written classical music: content and intentions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana Mary Blom

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available In concerts of western classical music the provision of a program note is a widespread practice dating back to the 18th century and still commonly in use. Program notes tend to inform listeners and performers about historical context, composer biographical details and compositional thinking. However, the scant program note research conducted to date reveals that program notes may not foster understanding or enhance listener enjoyment as previously assumed. In the case of canonic works, performers and listeners may already be familiar with much of the program note information. This is not so in the case of newly composed works, which formed the basis of the exploratory study reported here. This article reports the views of 17 living contemporary composers on their writing of program notes for their own works. In particular the study sought to understand the intended recipient, intended role and the content of composer-written program notes. Participating cComposers identified three main roles for their program notes: to shape a performer’s interpretation of the work; to guide, engage or direct the listener and/or performer; and as collaborative mode of communication between the composer, performer and listener. For some composers this collaboration was intended to result in performative listening in which listeners were actively engaged in bringing each composition to life. This was also described as a form of empathy that results in the co-construction of the musical experience. Overall, composers avoided giving too much personal information and they provided performers with more structural information. However, composers did not agree on whether the same information should be provided to both performers and listeners. Composers’ responses problematize the view of a program note as a simple statement from writer to recipient, indicating instead a more complex set of relations at play between composer, performer, listener and the work itself

  8. Meeting the Demands of the Workplace: Science Students and Written Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, F. Elizabeth; Emerson, Lisa; MacKay, Bruce

    2005-01-01

    Over the last 15 years, surveys in a range of English-speaking countries, from North America and the United Kingdom, to New Zealand and Australia, have consistently shown that employers rank oral and written communication skills as highly as or more highly than any technical or quantitative skills. However, in New Zealand there has been very…

  9. Short Message Service (SMS) Language and Written Language Skills: Educators' Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geertsema, Salomé; Hyman, Charene; van Deventer, Chantelle

    2011-01-01

    SMS language is English language slang, used as a means of mobile phone text messaging. This practice may impact on the written language skills of learners at school. The main aim of this study was to determine the perspectives of Grade 8 and 9 English (as Home Language) educators in Gauteng regarding the possible influence of SMS language on…

  10. 37 CFR 251.44 - Filing and service of written cases and pleadings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... OF CONGRESS COPYRIGHT ARBITRATION ROYALTY PANEL RULES AND PROCEDURES COPYRIGHT ARBITRATION ROYALTY PANEL RULES OF PROCEDURE Procedures of Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels § 251.44 Filing and service of written cases and pleadings. (a) Filing of pleadings. In a royalty fee distribution proceeding or...

  11. Fundaments for the study of orality in written language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Gaston Hilgert

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we put forth some reflections upon the production of effects of orality in written texts in light of the fundaments of enunciation. In this theoretical context, we show that the study of orality in written language should not depart from the random identification of lexical and syntactic, figurative and thematic, stylistic or rhetoric resources. What matters is the identification of the interactive scenario in which these linguistic resources are manifested. The interactive scenario is configured by the relationship between narrator/narratee revealed in the text. If this relation takes place by means of the interaction between an I (narrator and a you (narratee, either explicit or implicit, then it is instituted, in this scenario, the basic principle of dialog, of conversation, which defines the proximity condition of the interlocutors and, therefore, the interactive scenario favorable to the use of orality resources. When this relation, however, takes place in the form of a third person narrator who addresses him/herself to an implicit reader, the scenario of distancing is installed, in which orality resources may be unfit or, if they occur, they may have specific functions. This text addresses special attention to the interactive scenario set by the interaction between I/you, showing, in different examples, traits of orality determined by such interaction, and also the various degrees of proximity that this interaction may reveal in its various manifestations.

  12. [A workshop to improve written communication skills of medical students].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bitran, Marcela; Zúñiga, Denisse; Flotts, Paulina; Padilla, Oslando; Moreno, Rodrigo

    2009-05-01

    Despite being among the best academically prepared of the country, many medical students have difficulties to communicate in writing. In 2005, the School of Medicine at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile introduced a writing workshop in the undergraduate curriculum, to enhance the students' writing skills. To describe the workshop and its impact on the writing skills of 3 cohorts of students. This 30-h workshop used a participative methodology with emphasis on deliberate practice and feedback. Students worked in small groups with a faculty member specially trained in writing. The qualities of the essays written before and after the workshop were compared. Essays were rated by a professional team that used an analytic rubric to measure formal aspects of text writing as well as more complex thinking processes. There was a significant improvement in the quality of the texts written after the workshop; the main changes occurred in argumentation, and in paragraph and text structure. This improvement was inversely proportional to the initial level of performance, and independent of gender. A writing workshop based on deliberate practice and personalized feedback is effective to enhance the writing proficiency of medical students. Due to its design, this workshop could be useful for students of other careers and universities.

  13. Network analysis of named entity co-occurrences in written texts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amancio, Diego Raphael

    2016-06-01

    The use of methods borrowed from statistics and physics to analyze written texts has allowed the discovery of unprecedent patterns of human behavior and cognition by establishing links between models features and language structure. While current models have been useful to unveil patterns via analysis of syntactical and semantical networks, only a few works have probed the relevance of investigating the structure arising from the relationship between relevant entities such as characters, locations and organizations. In this study, we represent entities appearing in the same context as a co-occurrence network, where links are established according to a null model based on random, shuffled texts. Computational simulations performed in novels revealed that the proposed model displays interesting topological features, such as the small world feature, characterized by high values of clustering coefficient. The effectiveness of our model was verified in a practical pattern recognition task in real networks. When compared with traditional word adjacency networks, our model displayed optimized results in identifying unknown references in texts. Because the proposed representation plays a complementary role in characterizing unstructured documents via topological analysis of named entities, we believe that it could be useful to improve the characterization of written texts (and related systems), specially if combined with traditional approaches based on statistical and deeper paradigms.

  14. Prior-based artifact correction (PBAC) in computed tomography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heußer, Thorsten; Brehm, Marcus; Ritschl, Ludwig; Sawall, Stefan; Kachelrieß, Marc

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Image quality in computed tomography (CT) often suffers from artifacts which may reduce the diagnostic value of the image. In many cases, these artifacts result from missing or corrupt regions in the projection data, e.g., in the case of metal, truncation, and limited angle artifacts. The authors propose a generalized correction method for different kinds of artifacts resulting from missing or corrupt data by making use of available prior knowledge to perform data completion. Methods: The proposed prior-based artifact correction (PBAC) method requires prior knowledge in form of a planning CT of the same patient or in form of a CT scan of a different patient showing the same body region. In both cases, the prior image is registered to the patient image using a deformable transformation. The registered prior is forward projected and data completion of the patient projections is performed using smooth sinogram inpainting. The obtained projection data are used to reconstruct the corrected image. Results: The authors investigate metal and truncation artifacts in patient data sets acquired with a clinical CT and limited angle artifacts in an anthropomorphic head phantom data set acquired with a gantry-based flat detector CT device. In all cases, the corrected images obtained by PBAC are nearly artifact-free. Compared to conventional correction methods, PBAC achieves better artifact suppression while preserving the patient-specific anatomy at the same time. Further, the authors show that prominent anatomical details in the prior image seem to have only minor impact on the correction result. Conclusions: The results show that PBAC has the potential to effectively correct for metal, truncation, and limited angle artifacts if adequate prior data are available. Since the proposed method makes use of a generalized algorithm, PBAC may also be applicable to other artifacts resulting from missing or corrupt data

  15. Estimating Functions with Prior Knowledge, (EFPK) for diffusions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nolsøe, Kim; Kessler, Mathieu; Madsen, Henrik

    2003-01-01

    In this paper a method is formulated in an estimating function setting for parameter estimation, which allows the use of prior information. The main idea is to use prior knowledge of the parameters, either specified as moments restrictions or as a distribution, and use it in the construction of a...... of an estimating function. It may be useful when the full Bayesian analysis is difficult to carry out for computational reasons. This is almost always the case for diffusions, which is the focus of this paper, though the method applies in other settings.......In this paper a method is formulated in an estimating function setting for parameter estimation, which allows the use of prior information. The main idea is to use prior knowledge of the parameters, either specified as moments restrictions or as a distribution, and use it in the construction...

  16. Dandruff: How to Treat

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... strictly prohibited without prior written permission. AAD logo Advertising, marketing and sponsorships Legal notice Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Dermatology. All rights reserved. Reproduction or republication strictly prohibited without prior written permission.

  17. Written reflection in an eHealth intervention for adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a qualitative study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lie SS

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Silje S Lie,1 Bjørg Karlsen,1 Christopher P Niemiec,2 Marit Graue,3 Bjørg Oftedal1 1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway; 2Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA; 3Center for Evidence-Based Practice, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway Background: Individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM are responsible for the daily decisions and actions necessary to manage their disease, which makes self-management the cornerstone of diabetes care. Many patients do not reach recommended treatment goals, and thus it is important to develop and evaluate innovative interventions that facilitate optimal motivation for adequate self-management of T2DM. Objective: The aim of the current study was to explore how adults with T2DM experience using reflection sheets to stimulate written reflection in the context of the Guided Self-Determination (GSD eHealth intervention and how written reflection might affect their motivation for self-management of T2DM. Methods: We used a qualitative design in which data were collected through individual interviews. The sample consisted of 10 patients who completed the GSD eHealth intervention, and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The qualitative content analysis yielded 2 main themes. We labeled the first theme as “Written reflection affects awareness and commitment in diabetes self-management”, which reflects 2 subthemes, namely, “Writing creates space and time for autonomous reflection” and “Writing influences individuals’ focus in diabetes self-management”. We labeled the second theme as “Written reflection is perceived as inapplicable in diabetes self-management”, which reflects 2 subthemes, namely, “Responding in writing is difficult” and “The timing of the writing is inappropriate”. Conclusion: Our findings

  18. Radiology Online Patient Education Materials Provided by Major University Hospitals: Do They Conform to NIH and AMA Guidelines?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prabhu, Arpan V; Donovan, Ashley L; Crihalmeanu, Tudor; Hansberry, David R; Agarwal, Nitin; Beriwal, Sushil; Kale, Hrishikesh; Heller, Matthew

    The internet creates opportunities for Americans to access medical information about imaging tests and modalities to guide them in their medical decision-making. Owing to health literacy variations in the general population, the American Medical Association and National Institutes of Health recommend patient education resources to be written between the third and seventh grade levels. Our purpose is to quantitatively assess the readability levels of online radiology educational materials, written for the public, in 20 major university hospitals. In September and October 2016, we identified 20 major university hospitals with radiology residency-affiliated hospital systems. On each hospital׳s website, we downloaded all radiology-related articles written for patient use. A total of 375 articles were analyzed for readability level using 9 quantitative readability scales that are well validated in the medical literature. The 375 articles from 20 hospital systems were collectively written at an 11.4 ± 3.0 grade level (range: 8.4-17.1). Only 11 (2.9%) articles were written at the recommended third to seventh grade levels. Overall, 126 (33.6%) were written above a full high-school reading level. University of Washington Medical Center׳s articles were the most readable with a reading level corresponding to 7.9 ± 0.9. The vast majority of websites at major academic hospitals with radiology residencies designed to provide patients with information about imaging were written above the nationally recommended health literacy guidelines to meet the needs of the average American. This may limit the benefit that patients can derive from these educational materials. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Arthur Prior and 'Now'

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blackburn, Patrick Rowan; Jørgensen, Klaus Frovin

    2016-01-01

    ’s search led him through the work of Castañeda, and back to his own work on hybrid logic: the first made temporal reference philosophically respectable, the second made it technically feasible in a modal framework. With the aid of hybrid logic, Prior built a bridge from a two-dimensional UT calculus...

  20. Self-prior strategy for organ reconstruction in fluorescence molecular tomography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Yuan; Chen, Maomao; Su, Han; Luo, Jianwen

    2017-10-01

    The purpose of this study is to propose a strategy for organ reconstruction in fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) without prior information from other imaging modalities, and to overcome the high cost and ionizing radiation caused by the traditional structural prior strategy. The proposed strategy is designed as an iterative architecture to solve the inverse problem of FMT. In each iteration, a short time Fourier transform (STFT) based algorithm is used to extract the self-prior information in the space-frequency energy spectrum with the assumption that the regions with higher fluorescence concentration have larger energy intensity, then the cost function of the inverse problem is modified by the self-prior information, and lastly an iterative Laplacian regularization algorithm is conducted to solve the updated inverse problem and obtains the reconstruction results. Simulations and in vivo experiments on liver reconstruction are carried out to test the performance of the self-prior strategy on organ reconstruction. The organ reconstruction results obtained by the proposed self-prior strategy are closer to the ground truth than those obtained by the iterative Tikhonov regularization (ITKR) method (traditional non-prior strategy). Significant improvements are shown in the evaluation indexes of relative locational error (RLE), relative error (RE) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). The self-prior strategy improves the organ reconstruction results compared with the non-prior strategy and also overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional structural prior strategy. Various applications such as metabolic imaging and pharmacokinetic study can be aided by this strategy.

  1. Coping with Rosacea: Managing Psychosocial Aspects of Rosacea

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... on this widespread but little-known disorder. The information the Society provides should not be considered medical advice, nor ... is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from the National Rosacea Society. Disclaimer information. | Site Map For Patients All About Rosacea Faces ...

  2. Other Skin Conditions Often Present in Rosacea Patients

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... on this widespread but little-known disorder. The information the Society provides should not be considered medical advice, nor ... is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from the National Rosacea Society. Disclaimer information. | Site Map For Patients All About Rosacea Faces ...

  3. Examination of why some community pharmacists do not provide 72-hour emergency prescription drugs to Medicaid patients when prior authorization is not available.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepherd, Marvin D

    2013-09-01

    Existing federal law requires that a 72-hour emergency supply of a prescription drug be dispensed to Medicaid patients when prior authorization (PA) is not available and the medication is needed without delay. The pharmacist's role is to contact prescribers and inform them that PA is needed. If the prescriber cannot be reached, the pharmacist can dispense a 72-hour emergency supply. To determine (a) the reasons why some community pharmacy owners/managers, staff pharmacists, and technicians are not compliant with the law; (b) how often the decision is made; and (c) estimate how often pharmacies do not dispense the 72-hour emergency supply when PA is not available. A questionnaire was mailed to selected Texas community pharmacies. The instrument was developed by the researcher and reviewed by the Texas Medicaid Vendor Drug Program staff. The University of Texas, Office of Survey Research collected the data in September and October of 2011 by mail and online. The data were forwarded to the researcher for analyses. A total of 788 identified community pharmacies were mailed a packet containing 3 questionnaires to be completed by the pharmacist-in-charge, a staff pharmacist, and a pharmacy technician. There were 2 mailings of the questionnaire packet and follow-up telephone calls to nonrespondents. A total of 653 questionnaires were completed and returned from 288 community pharmacies (36.7%) out of 788 pharmacies that were mailed the questionnaire packets. A total of 368 (57.5%) completed questionnaires came from chain store pharmacy respondents and 272 (42.5%) questionnaires from independent pharmacy respondents. A total of 21.3% (n = 134) of the respondents indicated that they were not aware of the federal and state requirement to dispense a 72-hour emergency supply of a prescription drug to Medicaid patients when prior authorization (PA) is not available. A greater proportion of the chain store respondents (26.6%) were unaware of the requirement compared with the

  4. Heuristics as Bayesian inference under extreme priors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parpart, Paula; Jones, Matt; Love, Bradley C

    2018-05-01

    Simple heuristics are often regarded as tractable decision strategies because they ignore a great deal of information in the input data. One puzzle is why heuristics can outperform full-information models, such as linear regression, which make full use of the available information. These "less-is-more" effects, in which a relatively simpler model outperforms a more complex model, are prevalent throughout cognitive science, and are frequently argued to demonstrate an inherent advantage of simplifying computation or ignoring information. In contrast, we show at the computational level (where algorithmic restrictions are set aside) that it is never optimal to discard information. Through a formal Bayesian analysis, we prove that popular heuristics, such as tallying and take-the-best, are formally equivalent to Bayesian inference under the limit of infinitely strong priors. Varying the strength of the prior yields a continuum of Bayesian models with the heuristics at one end and ordinary regression at the other. Critically, intermediate models perform better across all our simulations, suggesting that down-weighting information with the appropriate prior is preferable to entirely ignoring it. Rather than because of their simplicity, our analyses suggest heuristics perform well because they implement strong priors that approximate the actual structure of the environment. We end by considering how new heuristics could be derived by infinitely strengthening the priors of other Bayesian models. These formal results have implications for work in psychology, machine learning and economics. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Webster's word power better English grammar improve your written and spoken English

    CERN Document Server

    Kirkpatrick, Betty

    2014-01-01

    With questions and answer sections throughout, this book helps you to improve your written and spoken English through understanding the structure of the English language. This is a thorough and useful book with all parts of speech and grammar explained. Used by ELT self-study students.

  6. How to Stop Biting Your Nails

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... 2018 American Academy of Dermatology. All rights reserved. Reproduction or republication strictly prohibited without prior written permission. ... 2017 American Academy of Dermatology. All rights reserved. Reproduction or republication strictly prohibited without prior written permission.

  7. Dandruff: How to Treat

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... 2018 American Academy of Dermatology. All rights reserved. Reproduction or republication strictly prohibited without prior written permission. ... 2017 American Academy of Dermatology. All rights reserved. Reproduction or republication strictly prohibited without prior written permission.

  8. Bug bites and stings: When to see a dermatologist

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... 2018 American Academy of Dermatology. All rights reserved. Reproduction or republication strictly prohibited without prior written permission. ... 2017 American Academy of Dermatology. All rights reserved. Reproduction or republication strictly prohibited without prior written permission.

  9. The effect of written text on comprehension of spoken English as a foreign language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diao, Yali; Chandler, Paul; Sweller, John

    2007-01-01

    Based on cognitive load theory, this study investigated the effect of simultaneous written presentations on comprehension of spoken English as a foreign language. Learners' language comprehension was compared while they used 3 instructional formats: listening with auditory materials only, listening with a full, written script, and listening with simultaneous subtitled text. Listening with the presence of a script and subtitles led to better understanding of the scripted and subtitled passage but poorer performance on a subsequent auditory passage than listening with the auditory materials only. These findings indicated that where the intention was learning to listen, the use of a full script or subtitles had detrimental effects on the construction and automation of listening comprehension schemas.

  10. Quantitative utilization of prior biological knowledge in the Bayesian network modeling of gene expression data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gao Shouguo

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Bayesian Network (BN is a powerful approach to reconstructing genetic regulatory networks from gene expression data. However, expression data by itself suffers from high noise and lack of power. Incorporating prior biological knowledge can improve the performance. As each type of prior knowledge on its own may be incomplete or limited by quality issues, integrating multiple sources of prior knowledge to utilize their consensus is desirable. Results We introduce a new method to incorporate the quantitative information from multiple sources of prior knowledge. It first uses the Naïve Bayesian classifier to assess the likelihood of functional linkage between gene pairs based on prior knowledge. In this study we included cocitation in PubMed and schematic similarity in Gene Ontology annotation. A candidate network edge reservoir is then created in which the copy number of each edge is proportional to the estimated likelihood of linkage between the two corresponding genes. In network simulation the Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithm is adopted, and samples from this reservoir at each iteration to generate new candidate networks. We evaluated the new algorithm using both simulated and real gene expression data including that from a yeast cell cycle and a mouse pancreas development/growth study. Incorporating prior knowledge led to a ~2 fold increase in the number of known transcription regulations recovered, without significant change in false positive rate. In contrast, without the prior knowledge BN modeling is not always better than a random selection, demonstrating the necessity in network modeling to supplement the gene expression data with additional information. Conclusion our new development provides a statistical means to utilize the quantitative information in prior biological knowledge in the BN modeling of gene expression data, which significantly improves the performance.

  11. Education, Sociability and Written Culture : the case of the Society of Jesus in France

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stéphane Van Damme

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available In a special Issue of the journal Annales, the historian Roger Chartier could draw up a review of the written culture history and underlined the role played by certain social groups in the diffusion of written culture in the cities. He distinguished two major elements in this evolution  : one hand “ The use of writing as an instrument of self-government and administration ” and on the other hand “ the link between religious experience and use of writting ”. In this tension, it has been intere...

  12. Prospective regularization design in prior-image-based reconstruction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dang, Hao; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H; Stayman, J Webster

    2015-01-01

    Prior-image-based reconstruction (PIBR) methods leveraging patient-specific anatomical information from previous imaging studies and/or sequences have demonstrated dramatic improvements in dose utilization and image quality for low-fidelity data. However, a proper balance of information from the prior images and information from the measurements is required (e.g. through careful tuning of regularization parameters). Inappropriate selection of reconstruction parameters can lead to detrimental effects including false structures and failure to improve image quality. Traditional methods based on heuristics are subject to error and sub-optimal solutions, while exhaustive searches require a large number of computationally intensive image reconstructions. In this work, we propose a novel method that prospectively estimates the optimal amount of prior image information for accurate admission of specific anatomical changes in PIBR without performing full image reconstructions. This method leverages an analytical approximation to the implicitly defined PIBR estimator, and introduces a predictive performance metric leveraging this analytical form and knowledge of a particular presumed anatomical change whose accurate reconstruction is sought. Additionally, since model-based PIBR approaches tend to be space-variant, a spatially varying prior image strength map is proposed to optimally admit changes everywhere in the image (eliminating the need to know change locations a priori). Studies were conducted in both an ellipse phantom and a realistic thorax phantom emulating a lung nodule surveillance scenario. The proposed method demonstrated accurate estimation of the optimal prior image strength while achieving a substantial computational speedup (about a factor of 20) compared to traditional exhaustive search. Moreover, the use of the proposed prior strength map in PIBR demonstrated accurate reconstruction of anatomical changes without foreknowledge of change locations in

  13. Bayesian Prior Probability Distributions for Internal Dosimetry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Miller, G.; Inkret, W.C.; Little, T.T.; Martz, H.F.; Schillaci, M.E

    2001-07-01

    The problem of choosing a prior distribution for the Bayesian interpretation of measurements (specifically internal dosimetry measurements) is considered using a theoretical analysis and by examining historical tritium and plutonium urine bioassay data from Los Alamos. Two models for the prior probability distribution are proposed: (1) the log-normal distribution, when there is some additional information to determine the scale of the true result, and (2) the 'alpha' distribution (a simplified variant of the gamma distribution) when there is not. These models have been incorporated into version 3 of the Bayesian internal dosimetric code in use at Los Alamos (downloadable from our web site). Plutonium internal dosimetry at Los Alamos is now being done using prior probability distribution parameters determined self-consistently from population averages of Los Alamos data. (author)

  14. 26 CFR 1.668(a)-1A - Amounts treated as received in prior taxable years; inclusion in gross income.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Amounts treated as received in prior taxable years; inclusion in gross income. 1.668(a)-1A Section 1.668(a)-1A Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE... treated as received in prior taxable years; inclusion in gross income. (a) Section 668(a) provides that...

  15. 75 FR 19662 - Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel; Meeting

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-15

    ... in addition to providing the following information no less than 10 working days prior to the meeting... least 48 hours in advance. Any member of the public is permitted to file a written statement with the..., attendees with U.S. citizenship can provide identifying information 3 working days in advance by contacting...

  16. Clay Modeling versus Written Modules as Effective Interventions in Understanding Human Anatomy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bareither, Mary Lou; Arbel, Vered; Growe, Meghan; Muszczynski, Emily; Rudd, Adam; Marone, Jane R.

    2013-01-01

    The effectiveness of clay modeling to written modules is examined to determine the degree of improvement in learning and retention of anatomical 3D relationships among students with different learning preferences. Thirty-nine undergraduate students enrolled in a cadaver dissection course completed a pre-assessment examination and the VARK…

  17. Determining Appropriate Accommodations for Postsecondary Students with Reading and Written Expression Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindstrom, Jennifer H.

    2007-01-01

    One of the most significant barriers facing postsecondary students with reading and written expression disorders who are eligible to receive specific accommodations is the lack of professional knowledge pertaining to issues surrounding accommodations. Though guided by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with…

  18. Special Education in Saudi Arabia: A Synthesis of Literature Written in English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altamimi, Ahmed A.; Lee, Lay Wah; Sayed-Ahmed, Al-sayed A.; Kassem, Mostafa M.

    2015-01-01

    Special education in Saudi Arabia was formally established in 1962. The earliest cited literature on special education written in English was a 1970 government report. This article presents results from the first synthesis of internationally published Saudi special education literature over a 44-year period. This synthesis yielded information…

  19. Spectrally Consistent Satellite Image Fusion with Improved Image Priors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Aanæs, Henrik; Jensen, Thomas B.S.

    2006-01-01

    Here an improvement to our previous framework for satellite image fusion is presented. A framework purely based on the sensor physics and on prior assumptions on the fused image. The contributions of this paper are two fold. Firstly, a method for ensuring 100% spectrally consistency is proposed......, even when more sophisticated image priors are applied. Secondly, a better image prior is introduced, via data-dependent image smoothing....

  20. Subordinated clauses usage and assessment of syntactic maturity: A comparison of oral and written retellings in beginning writers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Verónica Sánchez Abchi

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available The present longitudinal study aims to explore possible syntactic complexity differences between oral and written story retellings produced by Spanish speaking children at the end of the 1st and 2nd grades of primary education. It is assumed that differences between oral and written modalities can be found due in part to the cognitive demands of low level writing skills. Indeed, it has been observed that written texts produced by children are shorter and of lower quality than oral ones (Berninger, et al., , 1992; Berninger & Swanson,1994. However, how the transcription skills might constrain the syntactic complexity of children’s written texts is not well established.The children (N=163 that participated in this study were attending three different schools located in Córdoba Province, Argentina. The children were examined at the end of the 1st and 2nd year of primary education. The oral and written retellings were analyzed using Length, T- unit number and Syntactic Complexity Index (SCI (Hunt, 1965; 1970. The analysis of children’s productions showed differences between grades and modalities. The differences between modalities were found in text Length and T-unit, but not in SCI. These results suggest that transcription skills do not affect syntactic performance. Nevertheless, a more detailed analysis revealed differences between groups. Possible restrictions of the original text on children’s performance were also observed. The implications and the scope of the SCI and units used for the analysis are furthered discussed.

  1. Bayesian Inference for Structured Spike and Slab Priors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Michael Riis; Winther, Ole; Hansen, Lars Kai

    2014-01-01

    Sparse signal recovery addresses the problem of solving underdetermined linear inverse problems subject to a sparsity constraint. We propose a novel prior formulation, the structured spike and slab prior, which allows to incorporate a priori knowledge of the sparsity pattern by imposing a spatial...

  2. How Should the History of Education Be Written? Some Reflections about the Nature of the Discipline from the Perspective of the Reception of Our Work

    Science.gov (United States)

    Depaepe, Marc

    2004-01-01

    How should history of education be written? To put the question is far more easier than to provide a concrete answer. In contemporary research, there continue to be pedagogistic complaints about finding answers to present-day educational problems via history. In our view, such an ahistorical utilitarianism as well as the legitimizing and/or…

  3. A fortran code CVTRAN to provide cross-section file for TWODANT by using macroscopic file written by SRAC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamane, Tsuyoshi; Tsuchihashi, Keichiro

    1999-03-01

    A code CVTRAN provides the macroscopic cross-sections in the format of XSLIB file which is one of Standard interface files for a two-dimensional Sn transport code TWODANT by reading a macroscopic cross section file in the PDS format which is prepared by SRAC execution. While a two-dimensional Sn transport code TWOTRAN published by LANL is installed as a module in the SRAC code system, several functions such as alpha search, concentration search, zone thickness search and various edits are suppressed. Since the TWODANT code was released from LANL, its short running time, stable convergence and plenty of edits have attracted many users. The code CVTRAN makes the TWODANT available to the SRAC user by providing the macroscopic cross-sections on a card-image file XSLIB. The CVTRAN also provides material dependent fission spectra into a card-image format file CVLIB, together with group velocities, group boundary energies and material names. The user can feed them into the TWODANT input, if necessary, by cut-and-paste command. (author)

  4. PET reconstruction via nonlocal means induced prior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hou, Qingfeng; Huang, Jing; Bian, Zhaoying; Chen, Wufan; Ma, Jianhua

    2015-01-01

    The traditional Bayesian priors for maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction methods usually incorporate local neighborhood interactions that penalize large deviations in parameter estimates for adjacent pixels; therefore, only local pixel differences are utilized. This limits their abilities of penalizing the image roughness. To achieve high-quality PET image reconstruction, this study investigates a MAP reconstruction strategy by incorporating a nonlocal means induced (NLMi) prior (NLMi-MAP) which enables utilizing global similarity information of image. The present NLMi prior approximates the derivative of Gibbs energy function by an NLM filtering process. Specially, the NLMi prior is obtained by subtracting the current image estimation from its NLM filtered version and feeding the residual error back to the reconstruction filter to yield the new image estimation. We tested the present NLMi-MAP method with simulated and real PET datasets. Comparison studies with conventional filtered backprojection (FBP) and a few iterative reconstruction methods clearly demonstrate that the present NLMi-MAP method performs better in lowering noise, preserving image edge and in higher signal to noise ratio (SNR). Extensive experimental results show that the NLMi-MAP method outperforms the existing methods in terms of cross profile, noise reduction, SNR, root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (CORR).

  5. Hand hygiene knowledge and perceptions among anesthesia providers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez, Patrick G; Loftus, Randy W; Dodds, Thomas M; Koff, Matthew D; Reddy, Sundara; Heard, Stephen O; Beach, Michael L; Yeager, Mark P; Brown, Jeremiah R

    2015-04-01

    Health care worker compliance with hand hygiene guidelines is an important measure for health care-associated infection prevention, yet overall compliance across all health care arenas remains low. A correct answer to 4 of 4 structured questions pertaining to indications for hand decontamination (according to types of contact) has been associated with improved health care provider hand hygiene compliance when compared to those health care providers answering incorrectly for 1 or more questions. A better understanding of knowledge deficits among anesthesia providers may lead to hand hygiene improvement strategies. In this study, our primary aims were to characterize and identify predictors for hand hygiene knowledge deficits among anesthesia providers. We modified this previously tested survey instrument to measure anesthesia provider hand hygiene knowledge regarding the 5 moments of hand hygiene across national and multicenter groups. Complete knowledge was defined by correct answers to 5 questions addressing the 5 moments for hand hygiene and received a score of 1. Incomplete knowledge was defined by an incorrect answer to 1 or more of the 5 questions and received a score of 0. We used a multilevel random-effects XTMELOGIT logistic model clustering at the respondent and geographic location for insufficient knowledge and forward/backward stepwise logistic regression analysis to identify predictors for incomplete knowledge. The survey response rates were 55.8% and 18.2% for the multicenter and national survey study groups, respectively. One or more knowledge deficits occurred with 81.6% of survey respondents, with the mean number of correct answers 2.89 (95% confidence interval, 2.78- 2.99). Failure of providers to recognize prior contact with the environment and prior contact with the patient as hand hygiene opportunities contributed to the low mean. Several cognitive factors were associated with a reduced risk of incomplete knowledge including providers responding

  6. Cascaded Processing in Written Naming: Evidence from the Picture-Picture Interference Paradigm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roux, Sebastien; Bonin, Patrick

    2012-01-01

    The issue of how information flows within the lexical system in written naming was investigated in five experiments. In Experiment 1, participants named target pictures that were accompanied by context pictures having phonologically and orthographically related or unrelated names (e.g., a picture of a "ball" superimposed on a picture of…

  7. PRAGMATIC AND RHETORICAL STRATEGIES IN THE ENGLISH-WRITTEN JOKES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dyah Rochmawati

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Understanding verbal jokes in English is problematic for English as Foreign Language (EFL readers since understanding the jokes requires understanding their linguistic, cultural and social elements. Since a joke constitutes a complex and paradoxical phenomenon, it needs multiple approaches of analyses—such as pragmatic and rhetorical analyses—in order to investigate the multiple layers of meanings it carries. Recently there has been a shift in humor studies, emphasizing linguistic humors and involving the field of rhetoric. These studies, however, have mostly addressed the connection between rhetoric and spoken jokes in persuasion. The present study therefore applied Austin’s Speech Act Theory (1975 and Grice’s Cooperative Principles (1957, and Berger’s rhetorical techniques (1993 to crack the funniness of the written jokes. Specifically, the study aims at describing: how the (1 rhetorical and (2 pragmatic strategies are used in the jokes, and (3 how the pragmatic and rhetorical strategies complement to create humor. The study employed a qualitative research method. Some jokes were purposively selected from the Reader’s Digest and two online sources: http://jokes.cc.com/, and http://www.ajokeaday.com/. Document studies were the means of data collection. The collected data were then analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. The results showed that that there was a relationship between the two pragmatic theories, i.e., Speech Act Theory and Cooperative Principles, and Berger’s rhetorical techniques. The results offered an alternative reading and richer understanding of how written jokes employed pragmatic and rhetorical strategies to advance their rhetorical objectives and humor functions.

  8. Large 3D direct laser written scaffolds for tissue engineering applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trautmann, Anika; Rüth, Marieke; Lemke, Horst-Dieter; Walther, Thomas; Hellmann, Ralf

    2018-01-01

    We report on the fabrication of three-dimensional direct laser written scaffolds for tissue engineering and the seeding of primary fibroblasts on these structures. Scaffolds are realized by two-photon absorption induced polymerization in the inorganic-organic hybrid polymer OrmoComp using a 515 nm femtosecond laser. A nonstop single-line single-pass writing process is implemented in order to produce periodic reproducible large scaled structures with a dimension in the range of several millimeters and reduce process time to less than one hour. This method allows us to determine optimized process parameters for writing stable structures while achieving pore sizes ranging from 5 μm to 90 μm and a scanning speed of up to 5 mm/s. After a multi-stage post-treatment, normal human dermal fibroblasts are applied to the scaffolds to test if these macroscopic structures with large surface and numerous small gaps between the pores provide nontoxic conditions. Furthermore, we study the cell behavior in this environment and observe both cell growth on as well as ingrowth on the three-dimensional structures. In particular, fibroblasts adhere and grow also on the vertical walls of the scaffolds.

  9. Bayesian Image Restoration Using a Large-Scale Total Patch Variation Prior

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Chen

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Edge-preserving Bayesian restorations using nonquadratic priors are often inefficient in restoring continuous variations and tend to produce block artifacts around edges in ill-posed inverse image restorations. To overcome this, we have proposed a spatial adaptive (SA prior with improved performance. However, this SA prior restoration suffers from high computational cost and the unguaranteed convergence problem. Concerning these issues, this paper proposes a Large-scale Total Patch Variation (LS-TPV Prior model for Bayesian image restoration. In this model, the prior for each pixel is defined as a singleton conditional probability, which is in a mixture prior form of one patch similarity prior and one weight entropy prior. A joint MAP estimation is thus built to ensure the iteration monotonicity. The intensive calculation of patch distances is greatly alleviated by the parallelization of Compute Unified Device Architecture(CUDA. Experiments with both simulated and real data validate the good performance of the proposed restoration.

  10. Estimating security betas using prior information based on firm fundamentals

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cosemans, M.; Frehen, R.; Schotman, P.C.; Bauer, R.

    2010-01-01

    This paper proposes a novel approach for estimating time-varying betas of individual stocks that incorporates prior information based on fundamentals. We shrink the rolling window estimate of beta towards a firm-specific prior that is motivated by asset pricing theory. The prior captures structural

  11. Language Learners' Writing Task Representation and Its Effect on Written Performance in an EFL Context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zarei, Gholam Reza; Pourghasemian, Hossein; Jalali, Hassan

    2017-06-01

    The present study attempts to give an account of how students represent writing task in an EAP course. Further, the study is intended to discover if learners' mental representation of writing would contribute to their written performance. During a 16-week term, students were instructed to practice writing as a problem solving activity. At almost the end of the term, they were prompted to write on what they thought writing task was like and also an essay on an argumentative topic. The results revealed that students could conceptualize the instructed recursive model of writing as a process-based, multi-dimensional and integrated activity inducing self-direction and organization while holding in low regard the product view of writing. The findings also demonstrated that task representation was related to the students' writing performance, with process oriented students significantly outperforming the product-oriented ones. Also, it was found that task representation components (ideational, linguistic, textual, interpersonal) had a significant relationship with the written performance ([Formula: see text]; Sig.: 0.006). The study can have both theoretical and practical implications with regard to the factors involving the students' writing internal processes and their effects on written performance.

  12. Oral and Written Expression in Children With Reading Comprehension Difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carretti, Barbara; Motta, Eleonora; Re, Anna Maria

    2016-01-01

    Several studies have highlighted that children with reading comprehension difficulties also have problems in tasks that involve telling a story, in writing or verbally. The main differences identified regard poor comprehenders' lower level of coherence in their productions by comparison with good comprehenders. Only one study has compared poor and good comprehenders' performance in both modalities (oral and written), however, to see whether these modalities differently influence poor comprehenders' performance. We qualitatively and quantitatively compared the performance of good and poor comprehenders in oral and written narrative tasks with the aim of shedding light on this issue. Regression analyses were also used to explore the role of working memory and vocabulary in explaining individual differences. Our results showed that the two groups produced narratives of comparable length, with similar percentages of spelling mistakes, whereas they differed in terms of the quality of their narratives, regardless of the modality. These differences were qualified by analyzing the children's use of connective devices, and poor comprehenders were found to use a higher proportion of additive devices than good comprehenders. Regression analyses showed that working memory (particularly the intrusion errors measure) explained a modest part of the qualitative differences in narrative production. Implications for our theoretical understanding of poor comprehenders' profiles and education are discussed. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

  13. 34 CFR 303.403 - Prior notice; native language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prior notice; native language. 303.403 Section 303.403... TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards General § 303.403 Prior notice; native language. (a... file a complaint and the timelines under those procedures. (c) Native language. (1) The notice must be...

  14. Cognitive Levels and Approaches Taken by Students Failing Written Examinations in Mathematics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roegner, Katherine

    2013-01-01

    A study was conducted at the Technical University Berlin involving students who twice failed the written examination in the first semester course Linear Algebra for Engineers in order to better understand the reasons behind their failure. The study considered student understanding in terms of Bloom's taxonomy and the ways in which students…

  15. Generalizability Theory Reliability of Written Expression Curriculum-Based Measurement in Universal Screening

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller-Margulis, Milena A.; Mercer, Sterett H.; Thomas, Erin L.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of written expression curriculum-based measurement (WE-CBM) in the context of universal screening from a generalizability theory framework. Students in second through fifth grade (n = 145) participated in the study. The sample included 54% female students, 49% White students, 23% African…

  16. Recognition of prior learning candidates’ experiences in a nurse training programme

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nomathemba B. Mothokoa

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Recognition of prior learning (RPL in South Africa is critical to the development of an equitable education and training system. Historically, nursing has been known as one of the professions that provides access to the training and education of marginalised groups who have minimal access to formal education. The advent of implementing RPL in nursing has, however, not been without challenges. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of RPL nursing candidates related to a 4-year comprehensive nursing training programme at a nursing education institution in Gauteng. An exploratory, descriptive and contextual qualitative research design was undertaken. The research sample comprised 13 purposefully selected participants. Face-to-face individual interviews, using open-ended questions, were used to collect data, which were analysed using Tesch’s approach. Recognition of prior learning candidates experienced a number of realities as adult learners. On a positive note, their prior knowledge and experience supported them in their learning endeavours. Participants, however, experienced a number of challenges on personal, interpersonal and socialisation, and educational levels. It is important that opportunities are created to support and assist RPL candidates to complete their nursing training. This support structure, among others, should include the provision of RPL-related information, giving appropriate advice, coaching and mentoring, effective administration services, integrated curriculum design, and a variety of formative and summative assessment practices.

  17. Integration of prior knowledge into dense image matching for video surveillance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Menze, M.; Heipke, C.

    2014-08-01

    Three-dimensional information from dense image matching is a valuable input for a broad range of vision applications. While reliable approaches exist for dedicated stereo setups they do not easily generalize to more challenging camera configurations. In the context of video surveillance the typically large spatial extent of the region of interest and repetitive structures in the scene render the application of dense image matching a challenging task. In this paper we present an approach that derives strong prior knowledge from a planar approximation of the scene. This information is integrated into a graph-cut based image matching framework that treats the assignment of optimal disparity values as a labelling task. Introducing the planar prior heavily reduces ambiguities together with the search space and increases computational efficiency. The results provide a proof of concept of the proposed approach. It allows the reconstruction of dense point clouds in more general surveillance camera setups with wider stereo baselines.

  18. Shared written case formulations and weight change in outpatient therapy for anorexia nervosa: a naturalistic single case series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gladwin, Alice M; Evangeli, Michael

    2013-01-01

    The therapeutic effects of written shared case formulations are underexplored and have not been examined in anorexia nervosa. This study explored the relationship between (a) the delivery (b) the quality of a shared written case formulation and weight in outpatient psychological therapy for anorexia nervosa. A naturalistic single case series approach was used to examine the case notes of women who had attended a specialist eating disorders service over a 2-year period. The case notes of 15 adult women who had undergone outpatient psychological therapy for anorexia nervosa with a shared written case formulation component were reviewed. The impact of the quality of the case formulation on weekly weight was examined for 14 of the clients where the case formulation was available. The nature of the relationship between the delivery of the written shared case formulation and weight was examined for all 15 clients. There was some evidence to support an association between delivery of the shared written case formulation and weight changes (both weight gain [five out of 15 clients] and weight loss [three out of 15 clients]) in individual cases. Higher case formulation quality was related to cases where weight change did not occur. The delivery of case formulations can be associated with important therapeutic change (both beneficial and potentially harmful) in anorexia nervosa. Future research into the causal mechanisms associated with sharing formulations will face the challenge of adopting strategies that allow for an in-depth exploration of complex therapy variables whilst overcoming methodological challenges. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  19. Computerized Writing and Reading Instruction for Students in Grades 4 to 9 With Specific Learning Disabilities Affecting Written Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanimoto, Steven; Thompson, Rob; Berninger, Virginia W.; Nagy, William; Abbott, Robert D.

    2015-01-01

    Computer scientists and educational researchers evaluated effectiveness of computerized instruction tailored to evidence-based impairments in specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in students in grades 4 to 9 with persisting SLDs despite prior extra help. Following comprehensive, evidence-based differential diagnosis for dysgraphia (impaired handwriting), dyslexia (impaired word reading and spelling), and oral and written language learning disability (OWL LD), students completed 18 sessions of computerized instruction over about 3 months. The 11 students taught letter formation with sequential, numbered, colored arrow cues with full contours who wrote letters on lines added to iPAD screen showed more and stronger treatment effects than the 21 students taught using only visual motion cues for letter formation who wrote on an unlined computer monitor. Teaching to all levels of language in multiple functional language systems (by ear, eye, mouth, and hand) close in time resulted in significant gains in reading and writing skills for the group and in diagnosed SLD hallmark impairments for individuals; also, performance on computerized learning activities correlated with treatment gains. Results are discussed in reference to need for both accommodations and explicit instruction for persisting SLDs and the potential for computers to teach handwriting, morphophonemic orthographies, comprehension, and composition. PMID:26858470

  20. Investigating the impact of SMS speak on the written work of English first language and English second language high school learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Winzker, Kristy

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available This study examined the impact of SMS speak on the written work of English first language (L1 and English second language (L2 grade 8s and 11s. The aim was to establish whether these learners make use of features of SMS speak in their English written work. The participants, 88 learners from an English-Afrikaans dual medium school, completed questionnaires from which the frequency and volume of their SMS use were determined, as well as the features of SMS speak they reportedly use while SMSing. In addition, samples of their English essays were examined for the following features of SMS speak: (deliberate spelling errors; lack of punctuation; over-punctuation; omission of function words; and use of abbreviation, acronyms, emoticons and rebus writing. The questionnaires indicated that these learners are avid users of the SMS. All participants reported using features of SMS speak in their SMSes, and more than 40% reported using SMS speak in their written school work. Despite this, features of SMS speak infrequently occurred in the written work of the learners, which could indicate that the learners are able to assess when it is and is not appropriate to use a certain variety of language. That said, a number of SMS speak features were indeed present in the samples, which indicates that SMS speak had some impact on the written work of these learners. Not all of the nonstandard features of their written English could, however, necessarily be attributed to the influence of SMS speak; specifically some of the spelling and punctuation errors could have occurred in the written English of high school learners from before the advent of cell phones.

  1. [Examination of relationship between level of hearing and written language skills in 10-14-year-old hearing impaired children].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turğut, Nedim; Karlıdağ, Turgut; Başar, Figen; Yalçın, Şinasi; Kaygusuz, İrfan; Keleş, Erol; Birkent, Ömer Faruk

    2015-01-01

    This study aims to review the relationship between written language skills and factors which are thought to affect this skill such as mean hearing loss, duration of auditory deprivation, speech discrimination score, and pre-school education attendance and socioeconomic status of hearing impaired children who attend 4th-7th grades in primary school in inclusive environment. The study included 25 hearing impaired children (14 males, 11 females; mean age 11.4±1.4 years; range 10 to 14 years) (study group) and 20 children (9 males, 11 females; mean age 11.5±1.3 years; range 10 to 14 years) (control group) with normal hearing in the same age group and studying in the same class. Study group was separated into two subgroups as group 1a and group 1b since some of the children with hearing disability used hearing aid while some used cochlear implant. Intragroup comparisons and relational screening were performed for those who use hearing aids and cochlear implants. Intergroup comparisons were performed to evaluate the effect of the parameters on written language skills. Written expression skill level of children with hearing disability was significantly lower than their normal hearing peers (p=0.001). A significant relationship was detected between written language skills and mean hearing loss (p=0.048), duration of auditory deprivation (p=0.021), speech discrimination score (p=0.014), and preschool attendance (p=0.005), when it comes to socioeconomic status we were not able to find any significant relationship (p=0.636). It can be said that hearing loss affects written language skills negatively and hearing impaired individuals develop low-level written language skills compared to their normal hearing peers.

  2. Students' Engagement with a Collaborative Wiki Tool Predicts Enhanced Written Exam Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stafford, Tom; Elgueta, Herman; Cameron, Harriet

    2014-01-01

    We introduced voluntary wiki-based exercises to a long-running cognitive psychology course, part of the core curriculum for an undergraduate degree in psychology. Over 2 yearly cohorts, students who used the wiki more also scored higher on the final written exam. Using regression analysis, it is possible to account for students' tendency to score…

  3. "I Feel if I Say This in My Essay It's Not Going to Be as Strong": Multi-Voicedness, "Oral Rehearsal" and Year 13 Students' Written Arguments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, James Edward

    2017-01-01

    Jim Carroll was concerned that A-level textbooks failed to provide his students with a model of the multi-voicedness that characterises written history. In order to show his students that historians constantly engage in argument as they write, Carroll turned to academic scholarship for models of multi-voiced history. Carroll explains here how he…

  4. 42 CFR 424.516 - Additional provider and supplier requirements for enrolling and maintaining active enrollment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... on the type of services or supplies the provider or supplier type will furnish and bill Medicare. (3... the HHS Common Rule at 45 CFR part 76. (b) Reporting requirements Independent Diagnostic Testing... documentation includes written and electronic documents (including the NPI of the physician who ordered the home...

  5. 12 CFR 551.90 - How do I provide a written notice?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... request. (g) That you are not a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, if that is the... redeem the debt security in whole or in part before maturity, that the redemption could affect the... concerning the factors that affect yield (including at a minimum estimated yield, weighted average life, and...

  6. 30 CFR 872.29 - What are prior balance replacement funds?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What are prior balance replacement funds? 872... § 872.29 What are prior balance replacement funds? “Prior balance replacement funds” are moneys we must... general funds of the United States Treasury that are otherwise unappropriated. Under section 411(h)(1) of...

  7. Introduction to the Atari Computer. A Program Written in the Pilot Programming Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlenker, Richard M.

    Designed to be an introduction to the Atari microcomputers for beginners, the interactive computer program listed in this document is written in the Pilot programing language. Instructions are given for entering and storing the program in the computer memory for use by students. (MES)

  8. Prior opportunities to identify abuse in children with abusive head trauma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Letson, Megan M; Cooper, Jennifer N; Deans, Katherine J; Scribano, Philip V; Makoroff, Kathi L; Feldman, Kenneth W; Berger, Rachel P

    2016-10-01

    Infants with minor abusive injuries are at risk for more serious abusive injury, including abusive head trauma (AHT). Our study objective was to determine if children with AHT had prior opportunities to detect abuse and to describe the opportunities. All AHT cases from 7/1/2009 to 12/31/2011 at four tertiary care children's hospitals were included. A prior opportunity was defined as prior evaluation by either a medical or child protective services (CPS) professional when the symptoms and/or referral could be consistent with abuse but the diagnosis was not made and/or an alternate explanation was given and accepted. Two-hundred-thirty-two children with AHT were identified; median age (IQR) was 5.40 (3.30, 14.60) months. Ten percent (22/232) died. Of the 232 patients diagnosed with AHT, 31% (n=73) had a total of 120 prior opportunities. Fifty-nine children (25%) had at least one prior opportunity to identify abuse in a medical setting, representing 98 prior opportunities. An additional 14 (6%) children had 22 prior opportunities through previous CPS involvement. There were no differences between those with and without a prior opportunity based on age, gender, race, insurance, mortality, or institution. Children with prior opportunities in a medical setting were more likely to have chronic subdural hemorrhage (48 vs. 17%, p<0.01) and healing fractures (31 vs. 19%, p=0.05). The most common prior opportunities included vomiting 31.6% (38/120), prior CPS contact 20% (24/120), and bruising 11.7% (14/120). Improvements in earlier recognition of AHT and subsequent intervention might prevent additional injuries and reduce mortality. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Variational segmentation problems using prior knowledge in imaging and vision

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fundana, Ketut

    This dissertation addresses variational formulation of segmentation problems using prior knowledge. Variational models are among the most successful approaches for solving many Computer Vision and Image Processing problems. The models aim at finding the solution to a given energy functional defined......, prior knowledge is needed to obtain the desired solution. The introduction of shape priors in particular, has proven to be an effective way to segment objects of interests. Firstly, we propose a prior-based variational segmentation model to segment objects of interest in image sequences, that can deal....... Many objects have high variability in shape and orientation. This often leads to unsatisfactory results, when using a segmentation model with single shape template. One way to solve this is by using more sophisticated shape models. We propose to incorporate shape priors from a shape sub...

  10. Participation in Written Government Consultations in Denmark and the UK

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Anne

    2015-01-01

    Despite the proliferation of instruments of public consultation in liberal democracies, little is known of how the design and use of these instruments affect stakeholder participation in practice. The article examines participation in written government consultations in an analysis of approximately...... 5,000 responses to consultations in Denmark and the UK in the first half of 2008. It shows that participation is highly conditional upon system-and actor-level characteristics in practice. Our findings indicate that, even if liberal democracies have adopted similar procedures for actor consultation...

  11. Prior storm experience moderates water surge perception and risk.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gregory D Webster

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: How accurately do people perceive extreme water speeds and how does their perception affect perceived risk? Prior research has focused on the characteristics of moving water that can reduce human stability or balance. The current research presents the first experiment on people's perceptions of risk and moving water at different speeds and depths. METHODS: Using a randomized within-person 2 (water depth: 0.45, 0.90 m ×3 (water speed: 0.4, 0.8, 1.2 m/s experiment, we immersed 76 people in moving water and asked them to estimate water speed and the risk they felt. RESULTS: Multilevel modeling showed that people increasingly overestimated water speeds as actual water speeds increased or as water depth increased. Water speed perceptions mediated the direct positive relationship between actual water speeds and perceptions of risk; the faster the moving water, the greater the perceived risk. Participants' prior experience with rip currents and tropical cyclones moderated the strength of the actual-perceived water speed relationship; consequently, mediation was stronger for people who had experienced no rip currents or fewer storms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide a clearer understanding of water speed and risk perception, which may help communicate the risks associated with anticipated floods and tropical cyclones.

  12. Prior and present evidence: how prior experience interacts with present information in a perceptual decision making task.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhsin Karim

    Full Text Available Vibrotactile discrimination tasks have been used to examine decision making processes in the presence of perceptual uncertainty, induced by barely discernible frequency differences between paired stimuli or by the presence of embedded noise. One lesser known property of such tasks is that decisions made on a single trial may be biased by information from prior trials. An example is the time-order effect whereby the presentation order of paired stimuli may introduce differences in accuracy. Subjects perform better when the first stimulus lies between the second stimulus and the global mean of all stimuli on the judged dimension ("preferred" time-orders compared to the alternative presentation order ("nonpreferred" time-orders. This has been conceptualised as a "drift" of the first stimulus representation towards the global mean of the stimulus-set (an internal standard. We describe the influence of prior information in relation to the more traditionally studied factors of interest in a classic discrimination task.Sixty subjects performed a vibrotactile discrimination task with different levels of uncertainty parametrically induced by increasing task difficulty, aperiodic stimulus noise, and changing the task instructions whilst maintaining identical stimulus properties (the "context".The time-order effect had a greater influence on task performance than two of the explicit factors-task difficulty and noise-but not context. The influence of prior information increased with the distance of the first stimulus from the global mean, suggesting that the "drift" velocity of the first stimulus towards the global mean representation was greater for these trials.Awareness of the time-order effect and prior information in general is essential when studying perceptual decision making tasks. Implicit mechanisms may have a greater influence than the explicit factors under study. It also affords valuable insights into basic mechanisms of information

  13. The Prior Can Often Only Be Understood in the Context of the Likelihood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew Gelman

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available A key sticking point of Bayesian analysis is the choice of prior distribution, and there is a vast literature on potential defaults including uniform priors, Jeffreys’ priors, reference priors, maximum entropy priors, and weakly informative priors. These methods, however, often manifest a key conceptual tension in prior modeling: a model encoding true prior information should be chosen without reference to the model of the measurement process, but almost all common prior modeling techniques are implicitly motivated by a reference likelihood. In this paper we resolve this apparent paradox by placing the choice of prior into the context of the entire Bayesian analysis, from inference to prediction to model evaluation.

  14. Quantum steganography using prior entanglement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mihara, Takashi

    2015-01-01

    Steganography is the hiding of secret information within innocent-looking information (e.g., text, audio, image, video, etc.). A quantum version of steganography is a method based on quantum physics. In this paper, we propose quantum steganography by combining quantum error-correcting codes with prior entanglement. In many steganographic techniques, embedding secret messages in error-correcting codes may cause damage to them if the embedded part is corrupted. However, our proposed steganography can separately create secret messages and the content of cover messages. The intrinsic form of the cover message does not have to be modified for embedding secret messages. - Highlights: • Our steganography combines quantum error-correcting codes with prior entanglement. • Our steganography can separately create secret messages and the content of cover messages. • Errors in cover messages do not have affect the recovery of secret messages. • We embed a secret message in the Steane code as an example of our steganography

  15. Quantum steganography using prior entanglement

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mihara, Takashi, E-mail: mihara@toyo.jp

    2015-06-05

    Steganography is the hiding of secret information within innocent-looking information (e.g., text, audio, image, video, etc.). A quantum version of steganography is a method based on quantum physics. In this paper, we propose quantum steganography by combining quantum error-correcting codes with prior entanglement. In many steganographic techniques, embedding secret messages in error-correcting codes may cause damage to them if the embedded part is corrupted. However, our proposed steganography can separately create secret messages and the content of cover messages. The intrinsic form of the cover message does not have to be modified for embedding secret messages. - Highlights: • Our steganography combines quantum error-correcting codes with prior entanglement. • Our steganography can separately create secret messages and the content of cover messages. • Errors in cover messages do not have affect the recovery of secret messages. • We embed a secret message in the Steane code as an example of our steganography.

  16. Formulating informative, data-based priors for failure probability estimation in reliability analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guikema, Seth D.

    2007-01-01

    Priors play an important role in the use of Bayesian methods in risk analysis, and using all available information to formulate an informative prior can lead to more accurate posterior inferences. This paper examines the practical implications of using five different methods for formulating an informative prior for a failure probability based on past data. These methods are the method of moments, maximum likelihood (ML) estimation, maximum entropy estimation, starting from a non-informative 'pre-prior', and fitting a prior based on confidence/credible interval matching. The priors resulting from the use of these different methods are compared qualitatively, and the posteriors are compared quantitatively based on a number of different scenarios of observed data used to update the priors. The results show that the amount of information assumed in the prior makes a critical difference in the accuracy of the posterior inferences. For situations in which the data used to formulate the informative prior is an accurate reflection of the data that is later observed, the ML approach yields the minimum variance posterior. However, the maximum entropy approach is more robust to differences between the data used to formulate the prior and the observed data because it maximizes the uncertainty in the prior subject to the constraints imposed by the past data

  17. The emotions of graduating medical students about prior patient care experiences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clay, Alison S; Ross, Elizabeth; Chudgar, Saumil M; Grochowski, Colleen O'Connor; Tulsky, James A; Shapiro, Dan

    2015-03-01

    To determine the emotional responses to patient care activities described by fourth year medical students. Qualitative content analysis for emerging themes in letters written by graduating medical students to patients during a Capstone Course. The patient need not be alive and the letter would never be sent. Six themes emerged from student letters: (1) Sorrow for the depths of patient suffering; (2) Gratitude towards patients and their families; (3) Personal responsibility for care provided to patients; (4) Regret for poor care provided by the student or student's team; (5) Shattered expectations about medicine and training; and (6) Anger towards patients. Students expressed sensitivity to vulnerable patients, including those who were alone, unable to communicate, or for whom care was biased. Students' expressed powerlessness (inability to cure, managing a work-life balance, and challenges with hierarchy) in some essays. At graduation, medical students describe strong emotions about previous patient care experiences, including difficulty witnessing suffering, disappointment with medicine, and gratitude to patients and their families Providing regular opportunities for writing throughout medical education would allow students to recognize their emotions, reflect upon them and promote wellness that would benefit students and their patients. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Are Written Instructions Enough? Efficacy of Male Condom Packaging Leaflets among College Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindemann, Dana F.; Harbke, Colin R.

    2013-01-01

    Objective: To evaluate whether or not written condom use instructions successfully inform correct condom use skills. Design: Between-subjects, two-group design. Setting: Public university located in rural Midwestern region of the United States. Method: Participants were randomly assigned to either a control condition (read physical exercise…

  19. Problems of culture of written expression in primary school

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zlatić Marina V.

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates the issue of the culture of written expression in primary school students. Starting from the fact that teaching practices increasingly points to the fact that knowledge of rules of writing in primary school students presents the weakest link in teaching Serbian language, we sought to describe the problem, point to the possible causes, propose measures and illustrate all this on concrete examples of students' essays. Our microinvestigation showed that primary school students display considerably poorer mastery of rules of writing than previously thought, to the extent that it presents a serious obstacle in language teaching as well as in other areas of educational process.

  20. The students’ use of written and internet sources and electronic media for assessment in slovene

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petra Hromin

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the frequency of using written and online sources as well as of electronic media during preparation of secondary school students for in-class examinations in Slovene language and literature. Within the scope of the above mentioned aspects we have controlled the of age and type of secondary school programmes. In the first part of the article the concept of information and communication technology/multimedia, the concept of e-learning and the concept of student activity are defined. In the second half of the article I present the results of the research, which show the frequency of use of written and web sources as well as of electronic media. These results have shown that with the oral examination of knowledge of grammar and literature the use of the notebook is prevalent, while with the written examination of knowledge of grammar and literature the use of the course book is predominant. The frequency of use of World Wide Web sources and electronic media increases with age and according to the level of difficultness of education programme. Thus the use of the notebook is the most prevalent in vocational schools whereas the use of the course book is predominant at the level of technical gimnazija and general gimnazija programmes.