Creativity across cultures: A comparison of cognitive creativity to creative achievement between the United States and India

Creativity is a topic that is relevant to everyday life. Research in this area has mainly focused on comparing creativity in work contexts and between Eastern and Western conceptualizations. The current study was designed to measure differences in creativity between students in the United States and India by comparing a measure of cognitive creativity, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults, to a measure of creative achievement, the Creative Achievement Questionnaire. The results from a linear regression showed that the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults was predictive of the Creative Achievement Questionnaire in the United States, but not in India. Results from independent samples t-tests showed that participants from the United States scored significantly higher on the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults than participants from India. Independent samples t-tests further showed that participants from India scored significantly higher on originality domain of the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults than participants from the United States. Independent samples t-tests showed there was no significant difference between the two countries in terms of overall creative achievement. However, participants in the United States scored significantly higher in the domain of creative writing, and marginally higher in the domain of music. Participants from India scored significantly higher in the domain of culinary arts. Part of the explanation for the results revolves around the idea that the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults is western-centric test. There is a need for a creativity test that takes into account Eastern conceptualizations of creativity. Based on the results the researcher recommends staying away from overgeneralizing East/West dichotomies, instead shifting the focus towards the uniqueness of individual cultures

Moral cognition in children an examination of the possible impact of school didactic philosophies

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effects that Montessori and public school environments have on the moral cognition of children and to assess the differences using modified moral dilemma stories. Through the analysis of these children\u27s responses on moral dilemma stories this thesis reveals that there are stark and statistically significant differences in the children\u27s responses on two of the three stories. The Montessori children scored higher on the morality level and the answers reflected altruism over authority on story one and story three. Through these results the researcher surmised that school environment can have an impact on moral cognition of children and that further research needs to be done in this field

Changes in nadph oxidase (nox) protein isoforms and downstream reactions as function of time and overpressure in blast TBI

Blast-induced Traumatic brain injury (bTBI) is a leading cause of morbidity in soldiers on the battlefield and training sites with long-term neurological and psychological pathologies. Among many pathological sequela of blast TBI, oxidative stress has been identified as a major factor contributing to the pathophysiology of bTBI. Recent studies have demonstrated activation of oxidative stress pathways following blast injury but their distribution among different brain regions as function of post injury time and Blast over pressure (BOP) have not been explored. The present study examines the protein expression of NADP oxidase (NOX) isoforms 1 & 2, corresponding superoxide production, a downstream event of NOX activation as well as the extent of lipid peroxidation adducts of 4-Hydroxynonenol (4-HNE). Based on these results, in the present study, we asked: 1) whether NOX protein levels change as a function of different overpressures in bTBI? 2) Whether such changes follow a temporal pattern? and 3) what are the consequences of NOX protein changes on the downstream events including superoxide production and lipid peroxidation of proteins. The Brain injury was evaluated at 4, 24 hours and 7 days and at 130, 180 and 240 kPa blast overpressures. Results showed that NOX isoform expression display a bi-phasic response wherein, its expression did not change at 130 kPa, whereas a significant increase was first detected in animals exposed to 180 kPa BOP which displayed a further increase at 240 kPa. Examination of temporal changes in NOX protein levels again displayed a biphasic response with a significant increase at 4h post- injury which peaked at 24 h and completely restored to that of control levels at 7 days post-injury. Blast exposure also resulted in increased superoxide levels in different brain regions as well as changes in lipidid peroxidation product 4hydroxynonenol (4HNE) protein adduct formation. Collectively, our results demonstrate that NOX isoforms are upregulated in different brain regions as a function of different overpressures in bTBI and temporally display a biphasic response. Oxidative stress therefore appears to be a higher risk factor in the pathogenesis of bTBI

Onychophasia - A case report

Body focused repetitive behaviors are frequently seen in individuals with obsessive compulsive disorders. These behaviors range from repetitive hand washing to more severe forms such as onychophagia. We report a case of severe onychophagia wherein the patient despite receiving pharmacological treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder was unable to control her impulse to compulsively bite her nails. Repetitive nail biting led to the patient being treated for bacterial infections, debridement and subsequent digital amputations. Cases of severe onychophagia are seldom seen in clinical practice therefore an awareness regarding early identification of the signs and symptoms and up to date management are crucial for practicing clinicians. As illustrated in this case report, pharmacotherapy as well as intense psychotherapy is essential for the long-term effective management of this chronic ailment that can gravely affect the quality of an individual's life

Study on Travel Application

Traveling to new city is always difficult. SoInMyCity is an application that helps users to keep track of Events, food joints, places of shopping and local tourist attractions in Mumbai. It will be used by users to look up everything from events in the city to restaurant reviews and is typically updated daily. The unique feature of this application."PING" which will notify users about the various events happening in the city. "FOLLOW BRANDS" Adds brands to your favourite stores via notifications. "ENGAGE" follow brands, rate brands, write reviews, share experience on social media and let’s create a community of shoppers around the country. "GET BOOKED" it will help the user to book restaurant table. AUTOTAXI which will provide the user to reach a destination from his location at a minimum cost. It will basically summarize everything a tourist and local residents need to know about the city

Data structures for storing small sets in the bitprobe model

We study the following set membership problem in the bit probe model: given a set S from a finite universe U, represent it in memory so that membership queries of the form "Is x in S?" can be answered with a small number of bitprobes. We obtain explicit schemes that come close to the information theoretic lower bound of Buhrman et al. [STOC 2000, SICOMP 2002] and improve the results of Radhakrishnan et al. [ESA 2001] when the size of sets and the number of probes is small. We show that any scheme that stores sets of size two from a universe of size m and answers membership queries using two bitprobes requires space Ω(m4/7). The previous best lower bound (shown by Buhrman et al. using information theoretic arguments) was Ω(√m). The same lower bound applies for larger sets using standard padding arguments. This is the first instance where the information theoretic lower bound is found to be not tight for adaptive schemes. We show that any non-adaptive three probe scheme for storing sets of size two from a universe of size m requires Ω(√m) bits of memory. This extends a result of Alon and Feige [SODA 2009] to small sets

Using 3D-printed Patient-optimized Surgical Tools (3D POST) for Complex Hip and Knee Arthroplasty

Planning is a key step in all surgeries. Well-planned cases have better outcomes than the unplanned ones. The conventional planning used to be done on radiographs and other imaging. Three-dimensional (3D) printing using additive manufacturing process has taken this a step further. The process involves converting the radiographic digital formats into machine-printable format. The three-dimensional model is typically made of a plastic material that allows surgical simulation

Investigations on flowering time genes from oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.)

In rapeseed (Brassica napus), flowering time is crucial for environmental adaptation and to maximize yield. I analyzed the transcriptome data of Ningyou7 leaf material harvested from vernalized and non-vernalized plants at different developmental stages and investigated the differentially expressed flowering time orthologs between different treatments and developmental stages. To further verify the functions of these differentially expressed genes (DEGs), I used the genome wide association study (GWAS) and QTL (quantitative trait loci) mapping data, which was generated by using Brassica Infinium 60K SNP Chip. I found 36 DEGs to be associated with flowering time, seed yield or both. Among the 36 genes, Bna.VIN3.A02 showed a DNA polymorphism between winter and spring rapeseed as well as winter and semi-winter rapeseed in a region encoding a functional protein domain. In another experiment, I investigated the phenotypic effect of mutations in a gene (Bna.AP1). For this, I analyzed three stop codon mutant families of Bna.AP1.A02 in the greenhouse. One mutant family ap1_1 showed altered plant architecture, floral morphology, and yield related traits. This data suggested that Bna.AP1.A02 has a pleiotropic effect on seed yield and plant architecture in rapeseed. For my last experiment, I hypothesized that Bna.FT gene in heterozygous stage affect heterosis in F1 hybrids. To study the effect of Bna.FT mutations, I performed field trials in two locations in Germany. Based on this preliminary data, it was evident that Bna.FT missense or splice site mutations have no effect on seed yield heterosis in rapeseed. However, the effect of background mutations on the phenotype of F1 hybrids was evident. From greenhouse data, I concluded that background mutations have a significant influence on flowering time and seed yield. Therefore, reduction of background mutations is necessary prior to phenotypic characterization of EMS induced mutants

Comparison of Some Improved Estimators for Linear Regression Model under Different Conditions

Multiple linear regression model plays a key role in statistical inference and it has extensive applications in business, environmental, physical and social sciences. Multicollinearity has been a considerable problem in multiple regression analysis. When the regressor variables are multicollinear, it becomes difficult to make precise statistical inferences about the regression coefficients. There are some statistical methods that can be used, which are discussed in this thesis are ridge regression, Liu, two parameter biased and LASSO estimators. Firstly, an analytical comparison on the basis of risk was made among ridge, Liu and LASSO estimators under orthonormal regression model. I found that LASSO dominates least squares, ridge and Liu estimators over a significant portion of the parameter space for large dimension. Secondly, a simulation study was conducted to compare performance of ridge, Liu and two parameter biased estimator by their mean squared error criterion. I found that two parameter biased estimator performs better than its corresponding ridge regression estimator. Overall, Liu estimator performs better than both ridge and two parameter biased estimator

RAPID CYCLING BIPOLAR DISORDER, PATHOGENESIS TO TREATMENT: A CASE REPORT AND REVIEW

In this paper, we discuss a case report along with literature review focusing on background information, pathogenesis, biomarkers and potential treatment options for Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder.Keywords: Rapid cycling (RC), Bipolar Disorder (BD), Pathophysiology