Perspective on Coarse-Graining, Cognitive Load, and Materials Simulation

The predictive capabilities of computational materials science today derive from overlapping advances in simulation tools, modeling techniques, and best practices. We outline this ecosystem of molecular simulations by explaining how important contributions in each of these areas have fed into each other. The combined output of these tools, techniques, and practices is the ability for researchers to advance understanding by efficiently combining simple models with powerful software. As specific examples, we show how the prediction of organic photovoltaic morphologies have improved by orders of magnitude over the last decade, and how the processing of reacting epoxy thermosets can now be investigated with million-particle models. We discuss these two materials systems and the training of materials simulators through the lens of cognitive load theory. For students, the broad view of ecosystem components should facilitate understanding how the key parts relate to each other first, followed by targeted exploration. In this way, the paper is organized in loose analogy to a coarse-grained model: The main components provide basic framing and accelerated sampling from which deeper research is better contextualized. For mentors, this paper is organized to provide a snapshot in time of the current simulation ecosystem and an on-ramp for simulation experts into the literature on pedagogical practice

Cognitive demands of face monitoring: Evidence for visuospatial overload

Young children perform difficult communication tasks better face to face than when they cannot see one another (e.g., Doherty-Sneddon & Kent, 1996). However, in recent studies, it was found that children aged 6 and 10 years, describing abstract shapes, showed evidence of face-to-face interference rather than facilitation. For some communication tasks, access to visual signals (such as facial expression and eye gaze) may hinder rather than help children’s communication. In new research we have pursued this interference effect. Five studies are described with adults and 10- and 6-year-old participants. It was found that looking at a face interfered with children’s abilities to listen to descriptions of abstract shapes. Children also performed visuospatial memory tasks worse when they looked at someone’s face prior to responding than when they looked at a visuospatial pattern or at the floor. It was concluded that performance on certain tasks was hindered by monitoring another person’s face. It is suggested that processing of visual communication signals shares certain processing resources with the processing of other visuospatial information

General psychology

xxi, 625 hlm; 25 c

P3P: Peer-to-peer + mobile peer: API for developing P2P applications for desktop computers and mobile devices

Peer-to-Peer computing is a computing paradigm wherein computers share both information and resources with each other. Unlike server-based applications, Peer-to-Peer systems treat all nodes equally in that it allows all nodes to host information. Unfortunately, Peer-to-Peer systems are still limited to desktops, and very little support is being given to the addition of mobile devices for such systems to make it more pervasive. Given that these mobile devices are extremely portable and can increase convenience for users over a wide array of applications, it is advantageous if a study is conducted to explore the feasibility of such addition. In particular, a number of issues will have to be addressed in order to ensure that the system can overcome the limitations of such mobile devices. Availability issues will have to be addressed, due to the rather volatile connections mobile devices have, and a wider definition of information defined, since mobile devices can store information aside from typical files. These and other issues, as well as the requirements for developing such a pervasive Peer-to-Peer system, will be discussed in this paper

Greater post-Neolithic wealth disparities in Eurasia than in North America and Mesoamerica

How wealth is distributed among households provides insight into the fundamental characters of societies and the opportunities they afford for social mobility. However, economic inequality has been hard to study in ancient societies for which we do not have written records, which adds to the challenge of placing current wealth disparities into a long-term perspective. Although various archaeological proxies for wealth, such as burial goods or exotic or expensive-to-manufacture goods in household assemblages, have been proposed, the first is not clearly connected with households, and the second is confounded by abandonment mode and other factors. As a result, numerous questions remain concerning the growth of wealth disparities, including their connection to the development of domesticated plants and animals and to increases in sociopolitical scale. Here we show that wealth disparities generally increased with the domestication of plants and animals and with increased sociopolitical scale, using Gini coefficients computed over the single consistent proxy of house-size distributions. However, unexpected differences in the responses of societies to these factors in North America and Mesoamerica, and in Eurasia, became evident after the end of the Neolithic period. We argue that the generally higher wealth disparities identified in post-Neolithic Eurasia were initially due to the greater availability of large mammals that could be domesticated, because they allowed more profitable agricultural extensification, and also eventually led to the development of a mounted warrior elite able to expand polities (political units that cohere via identity, ability to mobilize resources, or governance) to sizes that were not possible in North America and Mesoamerica before the arrival of Europeans. We anticipate that this analysis will stimulate other work to enlarge this sample to include societies in South America, Africa, South Asia and Oceania that were under-sampled or not included in this study