Identification d’erreurs de calcul de moyenne chez des étudiants de Master 2 en Sciences humaines et sociales.

International audienceSomething as basic as the arithmetic mean can produce errors and cause difficulties with students in the humanities and social sciences. It is recognized this public feels aversion with statistics and has gained a negative opinion against this discipline (Gordon, 2004 p.46-47). So what are the recurring errors and the main difficulties encountered by students ? To answer this question we start from a broader survey questionnaire developed by Jean-Claude Régnier. In this work we restrict ourselves to responses collected during three academic years (2009-2011) with students enrolled in Learning sciences Master 2. We extrapolate a situation that describes an event of daily life and assess procedural knowledge (Anderson, 1976, 1990; Tardif, 1992) by calculating a weighted arithmetic mean. This study therefore aims to characterize the mistakes made by students. The analysis of the responses identifies a wide variety of errors. Students acknowledge awareness of the method of averaging, but when it comes to applying less than half of them succeeds.Errors found are of various kinds, they range from misunderstanding of the statement to surface errors like wrong reporting of data. It appears that the competence to read a statement or to extract the relevant information may not be sufficiently controlled, even in subjects who have reached university 5th year.Une notion aussi élémentaire que la moyenne arithmétique peut produire des erreurs et engendrer des difficultés auprès d'étudiants de sciences humaines et sociales. Il est admis que ce public dans sa majorité s’est forgé une opinion négative à l'encontre de la statistique et peut éprouver jusqu’à de l’aversion envers cette discipline (Gordon, 2004 p.46-47). Quelles sont alors les erreurs récurrentes et les principales difficultés rencontrées par les étudiants ? Pour répondre à cette question nous partons d’une enquête plus ample par questionnaire mise au point par Jean-Claude Régnier. De ces travaux nous nous limitons aux réponses récoltées durant trois années universitaires (2009 à 2011) auprès d'étudiants de Master 2 inscrits en sciences de l’éducation. Nous en extrapolons une situation qui décrit un événement de la vie quotidienne et évalue des connaissances procédurales (Anderson, 1976, 1990 ; Tardif, 1992) à travers le calcul d’une moyenne arithmétique pondérée. Cette étude a donc pour objectif de caractériser les erreurs commises par les étudiants. L’analyse des réponses obtenues permet d’identifier des erreurs très variées. Les étudiants attestent qu’ils connaissent la méthode de calcul de la moyenne mais lorsqu’il s’agit de l’appliquer moins de la moitié d’entre eux y parvient. Les erreurs relevées sont de divers ordres, elles vont de l’incompréhension de l’énoncé à des erreurs de surface comme le report erroné des données. Il apparait que la compétence de savoir lire un énoncé comme celle d’en extraire l’information pertinente ne soient pas suffisamment maîtrisées, même chez des sujets ayant atteint la 5ème année d’études universitaires

The Psychological Resilience of Spousal Caregivers of Multiple Sclerosis Family

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine an under-researched topic: the relationship between psychological resilience and personal growth with spousal caregivers of patients diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Chronic illnesses contribute to potentially stressful changes (i.e., lifestyle, quality of life, financial wellbeing, and interpersonal relationships) for the caregiver. The theoretical foundation for this study was Walsh\u27s family resilience theory, which contends that resilience is vital for coping with stressful life experiences and leading a more successful life. Three separate analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between the total scores of the RS and the PGIS, the SWLS, and the EMS along with the background variables to see if the covariates contributed information about the relationship between these variables while controlling for gender, marital satisfaction, time since partner diagnosis, age of caregiver, whether the participant had previous interventions, whether the couple had children, current health status, duration of marriage, and life satisfaction. Based on the findings of the multiple-regression analysis, a significant relationship was found between resilience and personal growth of 115 caregivers of MS spouses. Further analysis showed a significant relationship between resilience and satisfaction with life, with marital satisfaction being the only other variable that was significant in the model. The information gathered in this study could contribute to social change for program planners and policy makers by revealing a need for innovative support services

Workshop on Environmental Research Needs in Support of Potential Virginia Offshore Oil and Gas Activities

The MMS, a bureau within the Department of the Interior, sponsored a workshop on the environmental research needs in support of potential Virginia offshore oil and gas activities 3 and 4 December 2008, in Williamsburg, Virginia. The focus of the workshop was to assess the existing scientific knowledgebase along the Virginia Coast and the information gaps that need to 2 be addressed should a lease sale for oil and gas activities be held for the Virginia outer continental shelf. This report summarizes the outcome of the workshop

Ancient Maya Regional Settlement and Inter-Site Analysis: The 2013 West-Central Belize LiDAR Survey

During April and May 2013, a total of 1057 km2 of LiDAR was flown by NCALM for a consortium of archaeologists working in West-central Belize, making this the largest surveyed area within the Mayan lowlands. Encompassing the Belize Valley and the Vaca Plateau, West-central Belize is one of the most actively researched parts of the Maya lowlands; however, until this effort, no comprehensive survey connecting all settlement had been conducted. Archaeological projects have investigated at least 18 different sites within this region. Thus, a large body of archaeological research provides both the temporal and spatial parameters for the varied ancient Maya centers that once occupied this area; importantly, these data can be used to help interpret the collected LiDAR data. The goal of the 2013 LiDAR campaign was to gain information on the distribution of ancient Maya settlement and sites on the landscape and, particularly, to determine how the landscape was used between known centers. The data that were acquired through the 2013 LiDAR campaign have significance for interpreting both the composition and limits of ancient Maya political units. This paper presents the initial results of these new data and suggests a developmental model for ancient Maya polities

Using increased trust in medical researchers to increase minority recruitment: The RECRUIT cluster randomized clinical trial

While extensive literature exists on barriers and strategies to increase minority participation in clinical trials, progress is limited. Few strategies were evaluated in randomized trials. We studied the impact of RECRUIT, a trust-based, cluster randomized minority recruitment trial layered on top of four traditional NIH-funded parent trials (BMT CTN, CABANA, PACES, STEADY-PD III; fifty specialty sites). RECRUIT was conducted from July 2013 through April 2017. Intervention sites implemented trust-based approaches customized to individual sites, promoting relationships between physician-investigators and minority-serving physicians and their minority patients. Control sites implemented only parent trials\u27 recruitment procedures. Adjusting for within-site clustering, we detected no overall intervention effect, odds ratio 1.3 (95% confidence limits 0.7,2.4). Heterogeneity among parent trials may have obscured the effect. Of the four parent trials, three enrolled more minorities in intervention versus control sites. CABANA odds ratio = 4.2 (adjusted 95%CL 1.5,11.3). PACES intervention sites enrolled 63% (10/16) minorities; control sites enrolled one participant in total, a minority, yielding an incalculable odds ratio. STEADY-PD III odds ratio = 2.2 (adjusted 95%CL 0.6,8.5). BMT CTN odds ratio \u3c 1, 0.8 (adjusted 95%CL 0.4,1.8). In conclusion, RECRUIT findings suggest the unique trust-based intervention increased minority recruitment to intervention trials in (3/4) of studied trials. Physician-investigators\u27 participation was critical to recruitment success. Lack of commitment to minority recruitment remained a barrier for some physician-investigators, especially in control sites. We recommend prospective physician investigators commit to minority recruitment activities prior to selection as site investigators and trial funding include some compensation for minority recruitment efforts.TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.govNCT01911208

Моделирование формирования структуры металломатричных композитов в процессе синтеза с оценкой эффективных свойств

Работа посвящена моделированию процесса кристаллизации композита с металлической матрицей и твердыми включениями с учетом условий синтеза (давление, скорость охлаждения), моделированию процесса формирования переходной зоны между частицами и матрицей и расчету эффективных свойств получаемых композитов.The work is devoted to modeling the crystallization process of metal matrix composite with solid inclusions, taking into account the synthesis conditions (pressure, cooling rate), to modeling the formation of the transition zone between particles and matrix, and calculating the effective properties of the resulting composites

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected