Examines comprehension of students provided with relevant background knowledge and then tested on two versions of a text. Finds that students who read the revised text recalled significantly more ...material and answered more questions correctly than students who read the original text. Discusses the importance of the teacher's role in mediating learning from social studies text. (MG)
Synthetic speech, which is generated by a computer, is widely used in both everyday situations (e.g. GPS devices; weather alerts) and the military (e.g. aviation). Synthetic speech is not identical ...to spoken speech, as it has a different pacing and varying pronunciations. Participants engaged in a Dichotic Listening Task in which they actively repeated information that was being presented in one ear, while ignoring their other (unattended) ear. The task was adapted and used both synthetic and spoken speech in the attended and unattended ears. It was found that when the unattended information was Spoken participants were more likely to hear an alert word (“fire”) and familiar character names when engaging in a difficult task. When unattended information was in the form of Synthetic Speech less of these low-threshold words were reported by the participants. This research has important implications for the development and use of synthetic speech in high workload situations, and in alerts.
The purpose of the present study was to examine the differences in component processing skills of students of different ages and the developmental changes that occurred over 1 year. The subjects in ...Experiment 1 were 112 students in Grades 2-5 from a school district in western Massachusetts. They were administered a computer battery of tasks designed to measure speed and accuracy of processing on a number of component reading skills. The component skills measured were letter processing, word naming, pseudoword naming, concept activation, and syntactic and semantic processing. Of the original 112 students, 59 were located 1 year later and were given parental permission to participate in a follow-up experiment. The 2 experiments trace the development of component processing skills and discuss the implications for a theory of development of component skills.
Visual capacity and Prader-Willi syndrome Fox, R; Sinatra, R B; Mooney, M A ...
Journal of pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus,
11/1999, Letnik:
36, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) refers to a genetic disorder induced by an anomaly on chromosome 15 occurring with a frequency of one in 10,000 to 20,000. It is characterized by a unique set of features ...including infantile hypotonia, obesity in childhood, small hands and feet, hypogonadism, and mental retardation. Reported here are the results of ophthalmic examinations of persons with PWS, together with results from controls comparable in age, percentage of body fat, and intelligence. These data bear on the hypothesis that the ocular anomalies in PWS are unique to this syndrome.
A comprehensive investigation of PWS brought children and adults to Vanderbilt University for extended testing, which included an ophthalmic examination. Genetic analysis determined unequivocally the PWS diagnosis and identified subgroups-deletion and maternal disomy. A group of persons without PWS but generally comparable in age, body composition, and intelligence served as controls.
Significant differences between the deletion and disomy subgroups were not found for the clinical ophthalmic measures. The incidence of anomalies in the combined PWS was similar to those reported in previous studies. A similar pattern was present in the control group except for myopia and stereopsis. An effect of genetic subgroup, however, was observed for random element stereopsis with the maternal disomy group having a greater degree of impairment.
The overall similarity between the PWS and control groups on all measures except myopia and stereopsis suggest that many of the anomalies in PWS found in prior studies are due to factors inherent in a general dysfunctional population, rather than reflective of an ocular signature unique to PWS.
Refutation texts are designed to facilitate the revision of inaccurate knowledge; however, studies have documented backfire effects wherein respondents become less accurate when exposed to a factual ...correction compared to another. Here, we explored whether epistemic emotions mediated knowledge revision or backfire processes when reading experimental refutation texts that varied by supporting information. We asked 294 online readers to report their knowledge and attitudes about genetically modified foods before randomly assigning them to one of three refutation text conditions which varied in type of supporting information. We documented relatively low knowledge (19.7%) and attitude (14%) backfire across conditions and found no evidence of backfire effects among types of supporting information. All texts facilitated knowledge revision regardless of the type of supporting information but did not differentially elicit epistemic emotions. For those who revised their inaccurate knowledge, hope and surprise mediated the knowledge revision process. However, those who demonstrated a backfire effect reported significantly more anger and confusion than readers who revised their inaccurate knowledge. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Atomically precise thiolate-protected noble metal molecular nanoparticles are a promising class of model nanomaterials for catalysis, optoelectronics, and the bottom-up assembly of true molecular ...crystals. However, these applications have not fully materialized due to a lack of ligand exchange strategies that add functionality, but preserve the properties of these remarkable particles. Here we present a method for the rapid (<30 s) and complete thiolate-for-thiolate exchange of the highly sought after silver molecular nanoparticle Ag44(SR)30−4. Only by using this method were we able to preserve the precise nature of the particles and simultaneously replace the native ligands with ligands containing a variety of functional groups. Crucially, as a result of our method we were able to process the particles into smooth thin films, paving the way for their integration into solution-processed devices.
Across four countries (Canada, USA, UK, and Italy), we explored the effects of persuasive messages on intended and actual preventive actions related to COVID-19, and the role of emotions as a ...potential mechanism for explaining these effects.
One thousand seventy-eight participants first reported their level of concern and emotions about COVID-19 and then received a positive persuasive text, negative persuasive text, or no text. After reading, participants reported their emotions about the pandemic and their willingness to take preventive action. One week following, the same participants reported the frequency with which they engaged in preventive action and behaviors that increased the risk of contracting COVID-19.
Results revealed that the positive persuasive text significantly increased individuals' willingness to and actual engagement in preventive action and reduced risky behaviors 1 week following the intervention compared to the control condition. Moreover, significant differences were found between the positive persuasive text condition and negative persuasive text condition whereby individuals who read the positive text were more willing and actually engaged in more preventive action compared to those who read the negative text. No differences were found, however, at the 1-week follow-up for social distancing and isolation behaviors. Results also revealed that specific discrete emotions mediated relations between the effects of the texts and preventive action (both willing and actual).
This research highlights the power of educational interventions to prompt behavioral change and has implications for pandemic-related interventions, government policy on health promotion messages, and future research.
Surgical treatment of aortic root aneurysm in Marfan syndrome (MFS) patients.
To compare results of total root replacement versus valve-sparing aortic root replacement in MFS patients.
PubMed, Embase ...and Cochrane library were searched from January 1966 until February 2010 looking for papers reporting on aortic root operations in MFS patients. 530 studies were retrieved.
Finally, 11 publications were enrolled. Inclusion criteria were observational studies reporting valve-related morbidity and mortality after total root replacement (TTR) and/or valve-sparing root replacement (VSRR) in patients with MFS and study size n≥30, reflecting the centre's experience.
Data obtained from papers reporting both TRR and VSRR cohorts were analysed separately. In case of multiple publications, the most recent and complete report was selected. If the total number of patient-years was not provided, we calculated it by multiplying the number of hospital survivors with the mean follow-up duration of that study.
Overall, 1,385 patients were analysed (972 patients had TTR and 413 patients had VSRR). Reintervention rate was 0.3%/year (95% CI 0.1 to 0.5) versus 1.3%/year (95% CI 0.3 to 2.2) (p=0.02) and thromboembolic events rate was 0.7%/year (95% CI 0.5 to 0.9) versus 0.3%/year (95% CI 0.1 to 0.6) (p=0.01) after TRR and VSRR, respectively. When composite valve-related events were compared, no difference existed between the two surgical strategies (p=0.41). Among patients undergoing VSRR, reimplantation was associated with a reduced rate of reintervention compared with remodelling (0.7%/year vs 2.4%/year, p=0.02).
VSRR may represent a valuable option for patients with MFS with aortic aneurysm. However, this technique should be used with caution in patients with valve characteristics at risk for decreased durability.
