Geometry, working memory and intelligence

Geometry is a fundamental part of mathematical learning. Since ancient time the study of geometry was considered as one of the most important subjects in school. In the arcade of the famous school of Athens, where Plato taught, it was written that entry was not permitted to people who did not know geometry. In the Renaissance period, geometry was part of the 'quadrivium', which was considered a needed work preparatory for a serious study of philosophy. Nevertheless, despite geometry is one of the main areas of mathematical learning, the cognitive processes underlying geometry-related academic achievement have not been studied in detail. The present dissertation has three important aims. First, to investigate the relationship between various aspects of geometry and visuospatial working memory (VSWM). Second, to investigate whether the children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) symptoms present difficulties in various aspects of geometry. Third, to investigate the relationship between various aspect of geometry, working memory (WM) and intelligence (g). In the second chapter, a general overview of the relationship between geometry, WM and g is provided. Since geometry concerns the study of the space, it requires a particular involvement of spatial abilities. Thus, WM, and in particular VSWM should be crucially involved. In addition, solving geometrical problems requires to reason and to find out a solution among various alternatives. Thus, g should be crucially involved in solving geometrical problems. In the third chapter, the relationship between academic achievement in geometry, intuitive geometry (i.e., a part of geometry which seems to be independent from the culture), and VSWM will be examined. Two studies will be presented. In the first study, the involvement of VSWM in intuitive geometry and in school performance in geometry at secondary school was tested. A total of 166 pupils were administered: (1) six VSWM tasks, comprising simple storage and complex span tasks; (2) the intuitive geometry task devised by Dehaene, Izard, Pica, and Spelke (2006), which distinguishes between core, presumably independent form the culture, and culturally-mediated principles of geometry; and (3) a task measuring academic achievement in geometry. In the second study, VSWM and intuitive geometry were examined in two groups aged 1113; one with children displaying symptoms of NLD, and the other, a control group without learning disabilities. The two groups were matched for general verbal abilities, age, gender, and socioeconomic level. The children were presented with simple storage and complex-span tasks involving VSWM and with the intuitive geometry task devised by Dehaene and colleagues (Dehaene et al., 2006). In the fourth chapter, we report a study on the relationship between geometry, WM, and intelligence aimed to find out the model of WM which provided the best fit to the data and to examine the strength of the relations between WM and intelligence (part I) and the relationship between geometry (intuitive geometry and geometrical achievement), WM and g testing several models (part II). In the last chapter a general overview of the important theoretical and applied implications of the three studies will be discussed. The limits of the present dissertation and possible future researches will also be outline

A distinction between working memory components as unique predictors of mathematical components in 7–8 year old children

Despite evidence for the involvement of working memory in mathematics attainment, the understanding of its components relationship to individual areas of mathematics is somewhat restricted. This study aims to better understand this relationship. Two-hundred and fourteen year 3 children in the UK were administered tests of verbal and visuospatial working memory, followed by a standardised mathematics test. Confirmatory factor analyses and variance partitioning were then performed on the data to identify the unique variance accounted for by verbal and visuospatial working memory measures for each component of mathematics assessed. Results revealed contrasting patterns between components, with those typically visual components demonstrating a larger proportion of unique variance explained by visuospatial measures. This pattern reveals a level of specificity with regard to the component of working memory engaged depending on the component of mathematics being assessed. Implications for educators and further research are discussed

Trajectory Perturbation in Surrogate Safety Indicators

Abstract Traffic conflicts based surrogate safety indicators have been applied extensively on real trajectories and in simulation. Such indicators can be useful to assess the safety of a given scenario without the need to use real crash data (which in many cases may be unavailable). Unfortunately, all traffic conflict indicators that are commonly used have a structural limitation: they are not able to consider potential conflicts with roadside obstacles or barriers and conflicts between vehicles which are travelling on non-conflicting trajectories. This limitation is a serious limitation since crash data analy sis shows that at least 40% of fatal crashes are originated by single vehicle accidents against a fixed object or by vehicles travelling in opposite directions. This paper is intended as a concept paper that presents an alternative view on conflict safety indicators showing that new indicators can be generated by the perturbation of vehicle trajectories overcoming the above indicated limitations

Intermuscular pocket for subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator: Single-center experience

AbstractThe subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (S-ICD) is a novel device now accepted in clinical practice for treating ventricular arrhythmias. In 14 consecutive patients, S-ICD devices were placed in the virtual space between the anterior surface of the serratus anterior muscle and the posterior surface of the latissimus dorsi muscle. During a mean follow up of 9 months, no dislocations, infections, hematoma formations, or skin erosions were observed. Intermuscular implantation of the S-ICD could be a reliable, safe, and appealing alternative to the standard subcutaneous placement

Outside the classroom: the participatory design workshop on Healthy City, Mixco, Guatemala

[EN] The paper describes an innovative teaching experience held at the Faculty of Architecture the University of San Carlos of Guatemala as part of the  Professional Practice Program (EPS). 20 students and 9 professors, coordinated by 4 professors, carried out a workshop on the theme of Healthy City (HC) in the Municipality of Mixco, with the support of the same. Through active learning, a ‘deprivatization’ of the teaching activity and a participatory confrontation activity through interviews and questionnaires with citizens and stakeholders, the students and professors worked in 4 groups for seven days creating a community of practice. The results took the form of project proposals aimed at urban regeneration, in accordance with the principles of the HC, presented to the local community and to the Municipality of Mixco. The experience can be repeated in its methodology and has been positively evaluated by all the participants in terms of: acquisition of competences for dialogue with citizens and stakeholders for the identification of needs, increase in design skills and group work, as well as real service in the territory. The future urban planners and architects have also played a new role as mediators of participatory processes and facilitators.http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/HEAD/HEAD18Giofrè, F.; Ramírez De León, MR. (2018). Outside the classroom: the participatory design workshop on Healthy City, Mixco, Guatemala. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 213-220. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.7949OCS21322

mobile systems applied to traffic management and safety a state of the art

Abstract Mobile systems applied to traffic management and control and traffic safety have the potential to shape the future of road transportation. The following innovations, that will be deployed on a large scale, could reshape road traffic management practices: – the implementation of connected vehicles with global navigation satellite (GNSS) system receivers; – the autonomous car revolution; – the spreading of smartphone-based systems and the development of Mobile Cooperative Web 2.0 which is laying the base for future development of systems that will also incorporate connected and autonomous vehicles; – an increasing need for sustainability of transportation in terms of energy efficiency, traffic safety and environmental issues. This paper intends to provide a state of the art on current systems and an anticipation of how mobile systems applied to traffic management and safety could lead to a completely new transportation system in which safety and congestion issues are finally properly addressed

Entia Non Sunt Multiplicanda … Shall I look for clusters in my cognitive data?

Unsupervised clustering methods are increasingly being applied in psychology. Researchers may use such methods on multivariate data to reveal previously undetected sub-populations of individuals within a larger population. Realistic research scenarios in the cognitive science may not be ideally suited for a successful use of these methods, however, as they are characterized by modest effect sizes, limited sample sizes, and non-orthogonal indicators. This combination of characteristics even presents a high risk of detecting non-existing clusters. A systematic review showed that, among 191 studies published in 2016–2020 that used different clustering methods to classify human participants, the median sample size was only 322, and a median of 3 latent classes/clusters were detected. None of them concluded in favor of a one-cluster solution, potentially giving rise to an extreme publication bias. Dimensionality reduction techniques are almost never used before clustering. In a subsequent simulation study, we examined the performance of popular clustering techniques, including Gaussian mixture model, a partitioning, and a hierarchical agglomerative algorithm. We focused on their ability to detect the correct number of clusters, and on their classification accuracy. Under a reasoned set of scenarios that we considered plausible for the cognitive research, none of the methods adequately discriminates between one vs two true clusters. In addition, non-orthogonal indicators lead to a high risk of incorrectly detecting multiple clusters where none existed, even in the presence of only modest correlation (a frequent case in psychology). In conclusion, it is hard for researchers to be in a condition to achieve a valid unsupervised clustering for inferential purposes with a view to classifying individuals

A Review of the use of traffic simulation for the evaluation of traffic safety levels: can we use simulation to predict crashes?

Abstract This paper presents a literature review on the application of traffic simulation for the evaluation of traffic safety levels. The main aim is to identify, through the implementation of a multi-step methodology current research-trends, main gaps in the literature and possible future challenges. First, a bibliometric analysis is carried out to obtain a broad overview of the topic of interest. Subsequently, the most influential contributions are analysed in-depth, with specific attention to specific issues

The use of a Blockchain-based System in Traffic Operations to promote Cooperation among Connected Vehicles

Abstract This paper intends to present some ideas for the implementation of cooperative ITS systems based on the Blockchain Technology (BT) concept. Blockchain technology has been recently introduced and, in this paper, we discuss a system that is based on a dedicated blockchain, able to involve both drivers and city administrations in the adoption of promising and innovative technologies that will create cooperation among connected vehicles. The proposed blockchain-based system can allow city administrators to reward drivers when they are willing to share travel data. The system manages in a special way the creation of new coins which are assigned to drivers and institutions participating actively in the system. Moreover, the system allows keeping a complete track of all transactions and interactions between drivers and city management on a completely open and shared platform. The main idea is to combine connected vehicles with BT to promote Cooperative ITS use and a better use of infrastructures

A Review of Blockchain-Based Systems in Transportation

This paper presents a literature review about the application of blockchain-based systems in transportation. The main aim was to identify, through the implementation of a multi-step methodology: current research-trends, main gaps in the literature, and possible future challenges. First, a bibliometric analysis was carried out to obtain a broad overview of the topic of interest. Subsequently, the most influential contributions were analysed in depth, with reference to the following two areas: supply chain and logistics; road traffic management and smart cities. The most important result is that the blockchain technology is still in an early stage, but appears extremely promising, given its possible applications within multiple fields, such as food track and trace, regulatory compliance, smart vehicles' security, and supply-demand matching. Much effort is still necessary for reaching the maturation stage because several models have been theorized in recent years, but very few have been implemented within real contexts. Moreover, the link blockchain-sustainability was explored, showing that this technology could be the trigger for limiting food waste, reducing exhaust gas emissions, favouring correct urban development, and, in general, improving quality of life