Low-cost electrochemical impedance spectroscopy system for corrosion monitoring of metallic antiquities and works of art

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is recognized to be a powerful and noninvasive technique to test the integrity of protective coatings on memorials, but commercial EIS systems are rather costly though versatile devices. This paper describes a low cost and portable EIS system that is based on a compact digital signal processor (DSP) board and embeds the potentiostatic function so that it can be used without requiring an external potentiostat. The software that runs on the DSP is designed to analyze the electrochemical impedance only in a reduced frequency range in order to produce a simple corrosion alert result. The device is equipped with a digital interface and can be connected to a personal computer to carry out a complete frequency analysis and perform a more complex data processing

Context effects on second-language learning of tonal contrasts.

Studies of lexical tone  learning generally focus on monosyllabic contexts, while reports of phonetic learning benefits associated with input variability are based largely on experienced learners. This study trained inexperienced learners on Mandarin tonal contrasts to test two hypotheses regarding the influence of context and variability on tone  learning. The first hypothesis was that increased phonetic variability of tones in disyllabic contexts makes initial tone  learning more challenging in disyllabic than monosyllabic words. The second hypothesis was that the learnability of a given tone varies across contexts due to differences in tonal variability. Results of a word learning experiment supported both hypotheses: tones were acquired less successfully in disyllables than in monosyllables, and the relative difficulty of disyllables was closely related to contextual tonal variability. These results indicate limited relevance of monosyllable-based data on Mandarin learning for the disyllabic majority of the Mandarin lexicon. Furthermore, in the short term, variability can diminish learning; its effects are not necessarily beneficial but dependent on acquisition stage and other learner characteristics. These findings thus highlight the importance of considering contextual variability and the interaction between variability and type of learner in the design, interpretation, and application of research on phonetic learning

The Use of Scilab-Cloud for Teaching Digital Signal Processing Concepts in Electrical Engineering Curricula

The digital signal processing (DSP) is a relevant area in the electrical/computer engineering field, since several applications have been observed during the past decades. On the other hand, students have demonstrated difficulties to understand not only the eventual applications, but also its mathematical concepts and theory. Actually, open source packages are available and increasing, but the use of these tools are not very widespread in electrical engineering curriculum. This paper presents the use of Scilab-Cloud software platform for teaching some fundamentals of digital signal processing in undergraduate level, particularly for electrical engineering curriculum. Therefore, some experiments have carried out with undergraduate electrical engineering students and a questionnaire answered by them evidenced the potential of Scilab-Cloud as an interesting alternative tool to foster and motivate students for learning DSP skills

STAFF DEVELOPMENT FOR DIRECT SUPPORT PROFESSIONALS: PERSPECTIVES ON THE USEFULNESS OF A LITERACY-BASED SOCIAL SKILL STRATEGY

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to discover Direct Support Professionals’ (DSPs) perceptions of a staff development session for creating a literacy-based social skills strategy known as social stories or story-based instruction. The participants in this study were six DSPs employed by a non-profit agency in the Mid-Hudson Region of New York State which provides community-based residential services to children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities. Three data collection methods were used in this study: a questionnaire, written reflections, and two in-depth interviews. This study was guided by four research questions exploring the perceived self-efficacy of DSPs, their perceptions of how the staff development session influenced their skills as teaching professionals, and the impact of the social story strategy on the adult learners they support. Interview data were collected and analyzed using the steps from Giorgi’s (1997) descriptive phenomenological method. The findings indicated a consensus among participants that the literacy-based social skill strategy was highly beneficial for teaching COVID-19 mitigation skills. Findings also indicated that DSPs perceived that the usefulness of the literacy-based social skill strategy would be dependent on a person centered instructional approach. Additional findings indicated that participants perceived their lack of professional development opportunities as a direct obstacle to their growth as teaching professionals which they further believed could influence the quality of life of the individuals they support. The implications of this study indicate that DSPs would benefit greatly from staff development that employs evidenced based strategies with a person centered approach in a collaborative learning environment

Learning and Production of Movement Sequences: Behavioral, Neurophysiological, and Modeling Perspectives

A growing wave of behavioral studies, using a wide variety of paradigms that were introduced or greatly refined in recent years, has generated a new wealth of parametric observations about serial order behavior. What was a mere trickle of neurophysiological studies has grown to a more steady stream of probes of neural sites and mechanisms underlying sequential behavior. Moreover, simulation models of serial behavior generation have begun to open a channel to link cellular dynamics with cognitive and behavioral dynamics. Here we summarize the major results from prominent sequence learning and performance tasks, namely immediate serial recall, typing, 2XN, discrete sequence production, and serial reaction time. These populate a continuum from higher to lower degrees of internal control of sequential organization. The main movement classes covered are speech and keypressing, both involving small amplitude movements that are very amenable to parametric study. A brief synopsis of classes of serial order models, vis-à-vis the detailing of major effects found in the behavioral data, leads to a focus on competitive queuing (CQ) models. Recently, the many behavioral predictive successes of CQ models have been joined by successful prediction of distinctively patterend electrophysiological recordings in prefrontal cortex, wherein parallel activation dynamics of multiple neural ensembles strikingly matches the parallel dynamics predicted by CQ theory. An extended CQ simulation model-the N-STREAMS neural network model-is then examined to highlight issues in ongoing attemptes to accomodate a broader range of behavioral and neurophysiological data within a CQ-consistent theory. Important contemporary issues such as the nature of working memory representations for sequential behavior, and the development and role of chunks in hierarchial control are prominent throughout.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409); National Institute of Mental Health (R01 DC02852

EMPOWER: An Online Staff Training Focused on Person-Centered Supports for Direct Support Professionals

Background: Direct support professionals (DSPs) for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is one of the most rapidly growing professions in the United States. However, there is a gap in recruiting, training, and retraining DSPs to provide appropriate and effective person-centered supports. Method: The aim of this pilot study was to measure the effectiveness of a staff training program conducted by an occupational therapy doctoral candidate, focused on improving DSPs’ confidence and competence when providing services to adults with IDD. A pretest/posttest quantitative design was used to test changes in the DSPs’ confidence from the beginning to end of the training and competence from the beginning to end of each weekly module. Results: As a result of the training, the DSPs improved both their confidence and competence in providing person-centered supports with statistically significant (with Bonferroni correction applied) and positive clinical outcomes (reported Cohen’s d large effect). Conclusions: While preliminary, this study shows that training programs for DSPs implemented through an occupational therapy lens have the potential to improve the confidence and competence of DSPs for providing person-centered supports for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Impact of dysphagia assessment and management on risk of stroke-associated pneumonia: A systematic review

Background Patients with dysphagia are at increased risk of stroke-associated pneumonia. There is wide variation in the way patients are screened and assessed during the acute phase. The aim of this review was to identify which methods of assessment and management in acute stroke influence the risk of stroke-associated pneumonia. Studies of stroke patients that reported dysphagia screening, assessment or management and occurrence of pneumonia during acute phase stroke were screened for inclusion after electronic searches of multiple databases from inception to November 2016. The primary outcome was association with stroke-associated pneumonia. Summary Twelve studies of 87824 patients were included. The type of dysphagia screening protocol varied widely across and within studies. There was limited information on what comprised a specialist swallow assessment and alternative feeding was the only management strategy, which was reported for association with stroke-associated pneumonia. Use of a formal screening protocol, early dysphagia screening and assessment by a speech and language pathologist (SLP) was associated with a reduced risk of stroke-associated pneumonia. There was marked heterogeneity between the included studies, which precluded meta-analysis. Key Messages There is variation in assessment and management of dysphagia in acute stroke. There is increasing evidence that early dysphagia screening and specialist swallow assessment by a SLP may reduce the odds of stroke-associated pneumonia. There is the potential for other factors to influence incidence of stroke-associated pneumonia during the acute phase