Sex Differences in Associative Structure

First, the history of the concept of associative structure was traced, and various methods of its assessment were reviewed. Included, also, was a survey of word association literature, with emphasis on the most recent studies. Three separate studies followed which were diverse techniques for the assessment of sex differences in associative structure, plus suggestions of some possible reasons--both proximate and remote--for these differences. The first procedure consisted of an investigation of the Jenkins and Palermo Word Association Norms with respect to sexually distinct responses. This revealed many significantly differing responses, and suggested that the differences were the result of a differential emphasis in associations rather than an absolute dissimilarity in the composition of their respective associative structures. The second experiment was characterized by the administration of a multiple choice questionnaire derived from the findings just mentioned. Three age groups of Ss were employed: elementary school (third grade), high school (freshmen), and college students. The differences anticipated by the results of the first study were generally confirmed with the added finding that such divergencies increased as a function of age. A third experiment was undertaken employing a procedure similar to the one used by the television game of Password. This is a word association game in which one member of a pair team is required to give associations to a clue word until his partner is able to identify the clue word. Ss were drawn from the same age levels as those recruited in the second experiment. Findings were: (1) same sexed pairs are more facile at achieving a solution in such a situation than are different sexed pairs, and (2) females are superior to males in arriving at correct responses in this context. The predicted age effects (to parallel the intensification of effect found with increasing age in Experiment II), oddly, did not occur, and potential reasons for this are discussed. A general overview is provided, along with suggestions for the direction(s) future research might take

An Investigation of Buyer Search in the Residential Real Estate Market under Different Market Conditions

The purpose of this research is to examine buyer search under different market conditions. We conduct a survival regression analysis of survey data generated by the National Association of Realtors for 1988, 1991 and 1993. We find, in all instances, that economic conditions are the dominant factor influencing search duration. Some evidence does indicate, however, that search is influenced by interest rates. Additionally, the evidence suggests that the probability of finding a home increases for broker-assisted search, while this is not the case for self-conducted search.

La enseñanza de la gravitación universal de Newton orientada por la historia y filosofía de la ciencia: una propuesta didáctica con un enfoque en la argumentación

Aquest treball presenta una proposta didàctica per ensenyar la gravitació universal de Newton (GU), orientada per la història i la filosofia de la ciència, per promoure millores en l'habilitat d'argumentació dels alumnes. Aquesta proposta és la culminació d'un treball més ampli que ja va produir alguns resultats (Teixeira et al., 2010a; Teixeira et al., 2010b). La proposta inclou alguns textos de referència per a la seva implementació, sent un d'ells presentat en la segona secció d'aquest treball que discuteix el layout d'argumentació de Toulmin (1958/2006), la referència sobre argumentació que subsidia el nostre treball. Presentem finalment una síntesi de la seqüència didàctica proposta i els instruments d'orientació i avaluació suggerits per a la seva implementació a la classe.This paper presents a didactical proposal to teach Newton’s universal gravitation (GU)guided by the history and philosophy of science (HPS) to promote improvements in students’ argumentation skills. This proposal is the culmination of a larger work that has already produced some results (Teixeira et al., 2010a; Teixeira et al., 2010b). The proposal includes some reference texts for implementation, one of which is presented in the second section of the paper that discusses the Toulmin’s layout of argument (Toulmin, 2006), which is the argumentation framework we have adopted in our work. Finally, this paper presents a synthesis of the didactical sequence and the tools for guidance and evaluation suggested for implementation in the classroom.Este trabajo presenta una propuesta didáctica para enseñar la gravitación universal de Newton (GU), orientada por la historia y la filosofía de la ciencia, para promover mejoras en la habilidad de argumentación de los alumnos. Esta propuesta es la culminación de un trabajo más amplio que ya produjo algunos resultados (Teixeira et al., 2010a; Teixeira et al., 2010b). La propuesta incluye algunos textos de referencia para su implementación, siendo uno de ellos presentado en la segunda sección de este trabajo que discute el layout de argumentación de Toulmin (1958/2006), la referencia sobre argumentación que subsidia nuestro trabajo. Presentamos finalmente una síntesis de la secuencia didáctica propuesta y los instrumentos de orientación y evaluación sugeridos para su implementación en la clase. 

The enigma of Oligocene climate and global surface temperature evolution.

Falling atmospheric CO2 levels led to cooling through the Eocene and the expansion of Antarctic ice sheets close to their modern size near the beginning of the Oligocene, a period of poorly documented climate. Here, we present a record of climate evolution across the entire Oligocene (33.9 to 23.0 Ma) based on TEX86 sea surface temperature (SST) estimates from southwestern Atlantic Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 516 (paleolatitude ∼36°S) and western equatorial Atlantic Ocean Drilling Project Site 929 (paleolatitude ∼0°), combined with a compilation of existing SST records and climate modeling. In this relatively low CO2 Oligocene world (∼300 to 700 ppm), warm climates similar to those of the late Eocene continued with only brief interruptions, while the Antarctic ice sheet waxed and waned. SSTs are spatially heterogenous, but generally support late Oligocene warming coincident with declining atmospheric CO2 This Oligocene warmth, especially at high latitudes, belies a simple relationship between climate and atmospheric CO2 and/or ocean gateways, and is only partially explained by current climate models. Although the dominant climate drivers of this enigmatic Oligocene world remain unclear, our results help fill a gap in understanding past Cenozoic climates and the way long-term climate sensitivity responded to varying background climate states

World War II Mobilization in Men’s Work Lives: Continuity or Disruption for the Middle Class?

The labor needs of World War II fueled a growing demand for both military and war industry personnel. This longitudinal study investigates mobilization into these competing activities and their work life effects among men from the middle class. Hazard estimates show significant differences in wartime activities across occupations, apart from other deferment criteria. By war’s end, critical employment, in contrast to military service, is positively associated with supervisory responsibility for younger men and with occupation change. This empoloyment does not predict postwar career advancement up to the 1970s. By comparison, men who were officers had a “pipeline” to advancement after the war, whereas other service men fared worse than nonveterans

Direct and indirect immunofluorescence

A imunofluorescência é um valioso instrumento auxiliar no diagnóstico das dermatoses bolhosas autoimunes e desordens inflamatórias, uma vez que seus achados clínicos e histopatológicos podem não ser determinantes. Consiste em um método laboratorial factível, que requer profissionais técnicos experientes, e detecta imunocomplexos in situ e/ou circulantes, que podem estar envolvidos na patogênese de tais enfermidades cutâneas.Immunofluorescence is a valuable auxiliary diagnostic tool for autoimmune bullous diseases and inflammatory disorders, since their clinical and histopathologic findings may be inconclusive. It is a feasible laboratory method that requires experienced technicians and detects in situ and circulating immune deposits that may be involved in the pathogenesis of such skin diseases.CNP

Concepções de estudantes de física sobre a natureza da ciência e sua transformação por uma abordagem contextual do ensino de ciências

Nós relatamos neste artigo uma pesquisa quali-quantitativa sobre as concepções de estudantes de Física da Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana sobre a natureza da ciência. Em particular, estamos interessados em levantar suas concepções prévias a este respeito e as mudanças produzidas por um curso informado por uma abordagem contextual do ensino de ciências, levando na devida conta as dimensões históricas e filosóficas da atividade científica. A metodologia envolveu a aplicação de um questionário desenvolvido por Lederman e colaboradores (VNOS-C) em duas etapas, antes e após o curso. Os dados foram analisados através da construção de categorias baseadas nas respostas dos estudantes, seguida por análise quantitativa e qualitativa. Os resultados mostraram que houve uma mudança significativa e favorável em vários aspectos das concepções dos estudantes sobre a natureza da ciência, a despeito da dificuldade de superação de algumas noções profundamente enraizadas em suas visões epistemológicas

On the well-posedness of the stochastic Allen-Cahn equation in two dimensions

White noise-driven nonlinear stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) of parabolic type are frequently used to model physical and biological systems in space dimensions d = 1,2,3. Whereas existence and uniqueness of weak solutions to these equations are well established in one dimension, the situation is different for d \geq 2. Despite their popularity in the applied sciences, higher dimensional versions of these SPDE models are generally assumed to be ill-posed by the mathematics community. We study this discrepancy on the specific example of the two dimensional Allen-Cahn equation driven by additive white noise. Since it is unclear how to define the notion of a weak solution to this equation, we regularize the noise and introduce a family of approximations. Based on heuristic arguments and numerical experiments, we conjecture that these approximations exhibit divergent behavior in the continuum limit. The results strongly suggest that a series of published numerical studies are problematic: shrinking the mesh size in these simulations does not lead to the recovery of a physically meaningful limit.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; accepted by Journal of Computational Physics (Dec 2011