Are There Lasting Effects of a Schema Based Learning System in Interior Design Studio?

Gallini (1989) argues that, “the ability to combine a collection of problems into a meaningful representation, or schema facilitates learning” (p. 244). In a previous study, it was found that introducing a schema-based learning system in the design studio assisted novice designers in a structured, purposeful process, where they began to see patterns of information and use these patterns to develop and refine their design solutions. Their design solutions proved to be significantly better than the other students who did not utilize the instructional interventions. But, does this instructional intervention have any lasting effects with this same group of students? Do these skills transfer to new or novel tasks after a period of time ? The aim of this study is to measure the lasting effects of this learning tool by following this group of students through a new set of transfer tasks approximately one year after the original instructional intervention. Like the previous year study, the effectiveness characteristics were examined from four main areas of a design project: 1) organization of information, 2) categorization of information, 3) application of theory, and 4) overall design. The following research questions were addressed: 1. What are the lasting effects of the schema-based learning tools after one year from the initial implementation of the instructional intervention? Or, what are the problem solving transfer effects of the instructional intervention? 2. Do students, who use these schema-based learning tools, develop projects that are more organized, categorized, more theoretically-based, and have better overall designs, than students who do not use such learning tools

Extraction of incarcerated medial epicondyle from the elbow joint using conventional nerve stimulator:a case report

INTRODUCTION: Incarceration of the medial epicondyle is a well-recognised sequelae following closed reduction of the elbow. Manipulation for extraction is not usually successful and hence an incarcerated medial epicondyle is usually an indication for open reduction and fixation. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe a simple technique of closed reduction using a conventional nerve stimulator to extract an incarcerated medial epicondyle in a 13-year-old Caucasian boy. This technique uses contraction of the attached common flexor muscles to indirectly extract the trapped medial epicondyle. CONCLUSIONS: This is a simple technique using a commonly available nerve stimulator and may obviate the need for extensile open reduction for extraction of the incarcerated medial epicondyle. We would recommend this technique where closed reduction methods have failed

Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer with cavities: theory

We study the number of coincidences in a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer exit whose arms have been supplemented with the addition of one or two optical cavities. The fourth-order correlation function at the beam-splitter exit is calculated. In the regime where the cavity length are larger than the one-photon coherence length, photon coalescence and anti-coalescence interference is observed. Feynman's path diagrams for the indistinguishable processes that lead to quantum interference are presented. As application for the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer with two cavities, it is discussed the construction of an optical XOR gate

Riccati parameter modes from Newtonian free damping motion by supersymmetry

We determine the class of damped modes \tilde{y} which are related to the common free damping modes y by supersymmetry. They are obtained by employing the factorization of Newton's differential equation of motion for the free damped oscillator by means of the general solution of the corresponding Riccati equation together with Witten's method of constructing the supersymmetric partner operator. This procedure leads to one-parameter families of (transient) modes for each of the three types of free damping, corresponding to a particular type of %time-dependent angular frequency. %time-dependent, antirestoring acceleration (adding up to the usual Hooke restoring acceleration) of the form a(t)=\frac{2\gamma ^2}{(\gamma t+1)^{2}}\tilde{y}, where \gamma is the family parameter that has been chosen as the inverse of the Riccati integration constant. In supersymmetric terms, they represent all those one Riccati parameter damping modes having the same Newtonian free damping partner modeComment: 6 pages, twocolumn, 6 figures, only first 3 publishe

Atom laser dynamics in a tight-waveguide

We study the transient dynamics that arise during the formation of an atom laser beam in a tight waveguide. During the time evolution the density profile develops a series of wiggles which are related to the diffraction in time phenomenon. The apodization of matter waves, which relies on the use of smooth aperture functions, allows to suppress such oscillations in a time interval, after which there is a revival of the diffraction in time. The revival time scale is directly related to the inverse of the harmonic trap frequency for the atom reservoir.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 395th WE-Heraeus Seminar on "Time Dependent Phenomena in Quantum Mechanics ", organized by T. Kramer and M. Kleber (Blaubeuren, Germany, September 2007

Oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer metastasis to bone: inhibition by targeting the bone microenvironment in vivo

Clinical trials have shown that adjuvant Zoledronic acid (ZOL) reduces the development of bone metastases irrespective of ER status. However, post-menopausal patients show anti-tumour benefit with ZOL whereas pre-menopausal patients do not. Here we have developed in vivo models of spontaneous ER+ve breast cancer metastasis to bone and investigated the effects of ZOL and oestrogen on tumour cell dissemination and growth. ER+ve (MCF7, T47D) or ER−ve (MDA-MB-231) cells were administered by inter-mammary or inter-cardiac injection into female nude mice ± estradiol. Mice were administered saline or 100 μg/kg ZOL weekly. Tumour growth, dissemination of tumour cells in blood, bone and bone turnover were monitored by luciferase imaging, histology, flow cytometry, two-photon microscopy, micro-CT and TRAP/P1NP ELISA. Estradiol induced metastasis of ER+ve cells to bone in 80–100 % of animals whereas bone metastases from ER−ve cells were unaffected. Administration of ZOL had no effect on tumour growth in the fat pad but significantly inhibited dissemination of ER+ve tumour cells to bone and frequency of bone metastasis. Estradiol and ZOL increased bone volume via different mechanisms: Estradiol increased activity of bone forming osteoblasts whereas administration of ZOL to estradiol supplemented mice decreased osteoclast activity and returned osteoblast activity to levels comparable to that of saline treated mice. ER−ve cells require increased osteoclast activity to grow in bone whereas ER+ve cells do not. Zol does not affect ER+ve tumour growth in soft tissue, however, inhibition of bone turnover by ZOL reduced dissemination and growth of ER+ve breast cancer cells in bone

Optical analog of Rabi oscillation suppression due to atomic motion

The Rabi oscillations of a two-level atom illuminated by a laser on resonance with the atomic transition may be suppressed by the atomic motion through averaging or filtering mechanisms. The optical analogs of these velocity effects are described. The two atomic levels correspond in the optical analogy to orthogonal polarizations of light and the Rabi oscillations to polarization oscillations in a medium which is optically active, naturally or due to a magnetic field. In the later case, the two orthogonal polarizations could be selected by choosing the orientation of the magnetic field, and one of them be filtered out. It is argued that the time-dependent optical polarization oscillations or their suppression are observable with current technology.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

Inertial forces and the foundations of optical geometry

Assuming a general timelike congruence of worldlines as a reference frame, we derive a covariant general formalism of inertial forces in General Relativity. Inspired by the works of Abramowicz et. al. (see e.g. Abramowicz and Lasota, Class. Quantum Grav. 14 (1997) A23), we also study conformal rescalings of spacetime and investigate how these affect the inertial force formalism. While many ways of describing spatial curvature of a trajectory has been discussed in papers prior to this, one particular prescription (which differs from the standard projected curvature when the reference is shearing) appears novel. For the particular case of a hypersurface-forming congruence, using a suitable rescaling of spacetime, we show that a geodesic photon is always following a line that is spatially straight with respect to the new curvature measure. This fact is intimately connected to Fermat's principle, and allows for a certain generalization of the optical geometry as will be further pursued in a companion paper (Jonsson and Westman, Class. Quantum Grav. 23 (2006) 61). For the particular case when the shear-tensor vanishes, we present the inertial force equation in three-dimensional form (using the bold face vector notation), and note how similar it is to its Newtonian counterpart. From the spatial curvature measures that we introduce, we derive corresponding covariant differentiations of a vector defined along a spacetime trajectory. This allows us to connect the formalism of this paper to that of Jantzen et. al. (see e.g. Bini et. al., Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 6 (1997) 143).Comment: 42 pages, 7 figure

Performance Measures Using Electronic Health Records: Five Case Studies

Presents the experiences of five provider organizations in developing, testing, and implementing four types of electronic quality-of-care indicators based on EHR data. Discusses challenges, and compares results with those from traditional indicators