Have We Forgotten Just Who Controls Us?

Do we take full responsibility for our actions? Have we lost touch with whether or not we rely on our government, family, religion, profession, “boss” to control our actions? We should keep in mind that when we talk or think about control of our behavior we infer making a decision. There is a difference between influencing and controlling. Self-Control is an aspect of behavior that is independent of self-image; self-worth; self-value; self-esteem; and self-respect, even though all are frequently used interchangeably, and may influence each other

Commentary: Just Why Do We Eat What We Eat?

Mr. Smith presents with a complaint about his knee, and while solving his knee problem, you decide to tell him that his nutrition intake is wrong and he needs to change his eating habits. Mrs. Jones presents with upper respiratory congestion, and during the course of managing her problem, you decide that her blood workup shows some flaws that could be dealt with by changing her eating pattern. John J. comes into the office wanting you to help him overcome his weight problem, so you start the measurements: number of calories taken in, percent of protein taken in, types and amounts of fat taken in, etc., and wind up with a complex diet revolving around a bunch of numbers of different nutrients..

Research-Supported Professional Development Perceptions of K-12 Educators of Self-Determined Professional Development Needs

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree of involvement of K-12 educators in a Minnesota district in research-supported professional development (RSPD), to determine the perceived needs for future professional development of the same K-12 educators, and to determine whether recent participation in RSPD activities, areas, and approaches impacted the K-12 educators perceived professional development needs and/or wants. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine what differences existed in the recent involvement in RSPD activities, areas, and approaches compared by the variables; gender, years of experience as a classroom teacher, current teaching level, and current education level and what differences existed in the desired involvement in RSPD activities, areas, and approaches compared by the same variables. The Pearson Correlation was used to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between involvement in current RSPD activities and the desire to be involved in other RSPD activities, between involvement in current RSPD areas and the desire to be involved in other RSPD areas, and between involvement in current RSPD approaches and the desire to be involved in other RSPD approaches. The results suggested that for the K - 12 educators in the study gender influences current level and desired level of involvement in RSPD approaches; years of classroom experience influences involvement in current RSPD activities and approaches and the desired involvement in RSPD activities, areas, and approaches; current teaching level influences involvement in current RSPD approaches and the desired involvement in RSPD activities, areas, and approaches; and current educational level does not influence the choice of or desired involvement in RSPD activities, areas, or approaches. The results further suggested that for the K - 12 educators in the study, there is a negative correlation between current involvement in professional development activities and the desire to be involved in additional professional development activities. In addition the results suggested there is a positive correlation between involvement in RSPD areas and the desire to be involved in additional RSPD areas. Finally, the results suggested a positive correlation between involvement in professional development approaches and the desire to be involved in additional professional development approaches

EFFECTS INDUCED BY USING THE SPECIFIC CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING MATERIALS TOWARDS IMPROVING TECHNICAL COMPONENTS IN SKI JUMPING

The aim of the study is to identify and implement new methods in approaching sports training in ski jumping towards improving technical actions of the athletes in phase I. Practising phase I - the inrun and the takeoff with cross-country has contributed substantially to improving the technical performance of the subjects, which was reflected in the increased length of the jumps. The subjects were four athletes, members of the CSU Brasov jumping ski section, aged 18-20 years. Specific training methods on cross-country skis: adopting the inrun position, alternating the height of the start bar; adopting the inrun position, CM's controlled lifting and lowering during sliding; maintaining a steady inrun position while adopting different upper limbs actions; maintaining a stable position when passing through the transition curves R1 at different angles; adopting and maintaining the inrun position with eyes closed. The study results highlight the positive impact of using this means of sports training on the balance and skill education, on the formation of the sense of proprioception, with a positive motor transfer to the technical performance of the ski jumping execution itsel

DIALOGIC: A Core Natural-Language Processing System

The DIALOGIC system translates English sentences into representations of their literal meaning in the context of an utterance. These representations, or "logical forms," are intended to be a purely formal language that is as close as possible to the structure of natural language, while providing the semantic compositionality necessary for meaning-dependent computational processing. The design of DIALOGIC (and of its constituent modules) was influenced by the goal of using it as the core language-processing component in a variety of systems, some of which are transportable to new domains of application.Engineering and Applied Science

Driving Accidents, Driving Violations, Symptoms of Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity (ADHD) and Attentional Network Tasks

Iran has serious problems with traffic-related injuries and death. A major reason for traffic accidents is cognitive failure due to deficits in attention. In this study, we investigated the associations between traffic violations, traffic accidents, symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), age, and on an attentional network task in a sample of Iranian adults.; A total of 274 participants (mean age: 31.37 years; 80.7% males) completed questionnaires covering demographic information, driving violations, traffic accidents, and symptoms of ADHD. In addition, they underwent an objective attentional network task (ANT), based on Posner's concept of attentional networks.; More frequent traffic violations, correlated with lower age and poorer performance on the attentional network tasks. Higher symptoms of ADHD were associated with more accidents and more traffic violations, but not with the performance of the attentional tasks. Higher ADHD scores, a poorer performance on attentional network tasks, and younger age predicted traffic violations. Only higher symptoms of ADHD predicted more traffic accidents.; In a sample of Iranian drivers, self-rated symptoms of ADHD appeared to be associated with traffic violations and accidents, while symptoms of ADHD were unrelated to objectively assessed performance on an attentional network task. Poor attentional network performance was a significant predictor of traffic violations but not of accidents. To increase traffic safety, both symptoms of ADHD and attentional network performance appear to merit particular attention