What drives design? Examining the influence of motivational factors on creative product output.

Willingness to begin, continue and complete a creative endeavor is a major factor related to output. On the motivational continuum are two stimuli affecting self-determined motivation: (1) intrinsic motivation – desire to involve oneself in a task solely for personal gratification or pleasure, and (2) extrinsic motivation – influence of outside factors on one’s desire to involve oneself in a task (Ryan & Deci, 2000)

The middle house or the middle floor: Bisecting horizontal and vertical mental number lines in neglect

Abstract This study explores the processing of mental number lines and physical lines in five patients with left unilateral neglect. Three tasks were used: mental number bisection (‘report the middle number between two numbers’), physical line bisection (‘mark the middle of a line’), and a landmark task (‘is the mark on the line to the left/right or higher/lower than the middle of the line?’). We manipulated the number line orientation purely by task instruction: neglect patients were told that the number-pairs represented either houses on a street (horizontal condition) or floors in a building (vertical condition). We also manipulated physical line orientation for comparison. All five neglect patients showed a rightward bias for horizontally oriented physical and number lines (e.g. saying ‘five’ is the middle house number between ‘two’ and ‘six’). Only three of these patients also showed an upward bias for vertically oriented number lines. The remaining two patients did not show any bias in processing vertical lines. Our results suggest that: (1) horizontal and vertical neglect can associate or dissociate among different patients; (2) bisecting number lines operates on internal horizontal and vertical representations possibly analogous to horizontal and vertical physical lines; (3) at least partially independent mechanisms may be involved in processing horizontal and vertical number lines

Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A Spontaneous Large Animal Model of Human HCM.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common disease in pet cats, affecting 10-15% of the pet cat population. The similarity to human HCM, the rapid progression of disease, and the defined and readily determined endpoints of feline HCM make it an excellent natural model that is genotypically and phenotypically similar to human HCM. The Maine Coon and Ragdoll cats are particularly valuable models of HCM because of myosin binding protein-C mutations and even higher disease incidence compared to the overall feline population. The cat overcomes many of the limitations of rodent HCM models, and can provide enhanced translation of information from in vitro and induced small animal models to human clinical trials. Physicians and veterinarians working together in a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach can accelerate the discovery of more effective treatments for this and other cardiovascular diseases affecting human and veterinary patients

Do Athletic Scholarships Impact Academic Success of Intercollegiate Student-Athletes: An Exploratory Investigation

The purpose of this study was to identify whether athletic scholarships play a role in academic success by determining if there was a difference in academic performance between male and female athletic scholarship student-athletes and non-athletic scholarship student-athletes as measured by cumulative collegiate GPA. A secondary purpose of the study was to compare male and female athletic scholarship student-athletes and non-athletic scholarship student-athletes as measured by cumulative collegiate GPA. The chi-square test of homogeneity was used to determine that a significant difference in GPA of scholarship and non-scholarship student-athletes does exist. The results also identified a significant difference existed in GPA of female student-athletes in both the scholarship and non-scholarship categories when compared to male student-athletes in the same categories. This study has several implications for the intercollegiate athletics department at this particular institution and perhaps upon further research on intercollegiate athletics

Individual and Contextual Factors Attributing to Teacher Stress Based on Academic Setting and Years of Experience

The current study sought to determine the relationship between individual and contextual factors and teacher stress. Through analysis of the individual factors of self-efficacy and personality combined with organizational justice, perceived supervisory support, and work-family conflict, one can evaluate how to effectively support teachers to negate the surmounting pressures of teachers. The mixed methods study utilized Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory and the JD-R model. The study specifically looked at the interplay between the individual and contextual factors addressing all teacher experience levels and school settings to uncover possible sources of stress perceived as factors preventing attrition. Current research has not revealed information about both factors in combination attributing to stress. Mid-year career teachers and middle school settings were neglected as literature often incorporated these settings under a secondary school label. Through explanatory-sequential research within the Yellow School District (pseudonym), 38 schools were initially surveyed through Qualtrics and analyzed using SPSS and SAS. Following the survey, participatory selection was used to analyze stress within the school with interviews. Teacher stress is a highly researched topic because of its importance in education. The quantitative findings of composite scores for each construct were in the moderate and neutral ranges. Personality and WFC were found as predictors of stress. Additionally, WFC and Personality interactions were statistically significant. The interviews of teacher perspectives of job demands included 1) an overload of tasks and responsibilities, 2) poor communication, 3) lack of consistency, and 4) student behaviors of management and apathy. A subtheme of lack of time appeared. Interviews reported stress could be alleviate in the areas of 1) teamwork and support 2) administrative leadership, and finally 3) teacher self-doubt. Mixed methods results further support the results found

Body Condition Scores and Evaluation of Feeding Habits of Dogs and Cats at a Low Cost Veterinary Clinic and a General Practice

This study assessed body condition scores (BCS) and feeding habits for dogs and cats. Eighty-six cats and 229 dogs (and their owners) were enrolled from 2 clinics: a low cost clinic (n=149) and a general practice (n=166). BCS and body weight were recorded. Owners completed a survey which included animal age, sex, and breed; owner demographics; and feeding practices (e.g., diet, rationale for feeding practices). Owners from the low cost clinic had a significantly lower income (P<0.001) and education (P<0.001) compared to those from the general practice. Animals from the low cost clinic were younger (P<0.001) and dogs were less likely to be neutered (P<0.001). Overweight prevalence was 55% overall (P=0.083), with a significantly higher prevalence in the general practice for cats (44% versus 66%; P=0.046), but not for dogs (58% versus 53%; P=0.230). Multivariate analysis showed that only neuter status was significantly associated with BCS (P=0.004). Veterinarians were the most common source of nutritional information, though lack of accurate nutrition knowledge was common among all participants. These findings support the need for enhanced communication about optimal BCS and nutrition regardless of socioeconomic status

Visual study of hydrodynamics in a two-dimensional gas-solid fluidized bed

Hydrodynamic effects play important roles in fluidized bed combustion processes. Since the motion of "bubbles" is an important influence on fluidized bed heat transfer, a better understanding of their behavior is necessary for improving the design of fluidized bed boilers. Using a two-dimensional bed, silica sand particles were fluidized with air at room conditions. The bubbling bed was videotaped, and both qualitative and quantitative information were gathered. Bubble characteristics such as size, rise velocity and frequency were studied while particle size and superficial gas velocity were varied. Results were compared with some existing theories and other similar research. The effect of internal surfaces at several heights in the bed was also studied. General bubble behavior agreed well with descriptions from previous research, and the expected spherical-cap bubble shape was observed. Both bubble size and rise velocity increased with particle size and with fluid velocity. Bubble frequency increased with fluid velocity, but decreased with increasing particle size and height in the bed. These results agree with previous work done using optical probes to measure bubble characteristics. Comparisons of data with empirical models showed general agreement. The presence of internal surfaces had the effect of reducing the bubble size, rise velocity, and frequency, and also of reducing the influence of changing particle size and superficial velocity on the bed behavior

Stochastic loads on horizontal axis wind turbine blades

The objective of this work was to develop a method for determining stochastic loads on horizontal axis wind turbine blades. Stochastic loads caused by wind turbulence are a major consideration in designing for long life, cost effective wind turbines. The rotor blades are of particular concern because the blades are usually designed especially for a particular wind turbine. The FAST code has been developed to predict these loads, and has been validated with test data. The FAST code simulates the structural response due to gravity and aerodynamic loads and is capable of modeling many geometries and up to 14 degrees of freedom. The wind applied to the turbine is made up of a deterministic portion and a stochastic portion. The mean wind is modified to include the effects of tower shadow, wind shear, and turbulence. Expressions for the accelerations and external forces are combined to form the equations of motion which are then solved numerically. The model was validated by comparing its predictions to test data from two different machines. Both the ESI-80 and the AWT-P1, are two-bladed, teetered-rotor horizontal axis wind turbines. Rather than simply comparing the code and data time series point by point, each time series is first analyzed for its overall characteristics and these are compared. The methods used to analyze the time series include a histogram, azimuth averaging, the power spectral density, and a rainflow cycle count. The results show good agreement between data and code predictions over a range of wind speeds for two different machines. The code was successful at predicting the response frequencies of the structure, and the cyclic loads the blades will undergo. Future work might include investigating other methods of representing turbulence, further validation of the code using other machines and a wider range of wind speeds, parametric studies to identify the model's sensitivity to certain parameters, and the design and design analysis of other machines

XMM-Newton Archival Study of the ULX Population in Nearby Galaxies

We present the results of an archival XMM-Newton study of the bright X-ray point sources (L_X > 10^38 erg/s) in 32 nearby galaxies. From our list of approximately 100 point sources, we attempt to determine if there is a low-state counterpart to the Ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) population, searching for a soft-hard state dichotomy similar to that known for Galactic X-ray binaries and testing the specific predictions of the IMBH hypothesis. To this end, we searched for "low-state" objects, which we defined as objects within our sample which had a spectrum well fit by a simple absorbed power law, and "high-state" objects, which we defined as objects better fit by a combined blackbody and a power law. Assuming that ``low-state'' objects accrete at approximately 10% of the Eddington luminosity (Done & Gierlinski 2003) and that "high-state" objects accrete near the Eddington luminosity we further divided our sample of sources into low and high state ULX sources. We classify 16 sources as low-state ULXs and 26 objects as high-state ULXs. As in Galactic black hole systems, the spectral indices, Gamma, of the low-state objects, as well as the luminosities, tend to be lower than those of the high-state objects. The observed range of blackbody temperatures for the high state is 0.1-1 keV, with the most luminous systems tending toward the lowest temperatures. We therefore divide our high-state ULXs into candidate IMBHs (with blackbody temperatures of approximately 0.1 keV) and candidate stellar mass BHs (with blackbody temperatures of approximately 1.0 keV). A subset of the candidate stellar mass BHs have spectra that are well-fit by a Comptonization model, a property similar of Galactic BHs radiating in the "very-high" state near the Eddington limit.Comment: 54 pages, submitted to ApJ (March 2005), accepted (May 2006); changes to organization of pape