6,672 research outputs found
VMEXT: A Visualization Tool for Mathematical Expression Trees
Mathematical expressions can be represented as a tree consisting of terminal
symbols, such as identifiers or numbers (leaf nodes), and functions or
operators (non-leaf nodes). Expression trees are an important mechanism for
storing and processing mathematical expressions as well as the most frequently
used visualization of the structure of mathematical expressions. Typically,
researchers and practitioners manually visualize expression trees using
general-purpose tools. This approach is laborious, redundant, and error-prone.
Manual visualizations represent a user's notion of what the markup of an
expression should be, but not necessarily what the actual markup is. This paper
presents VMEXT - a free and open source tool to directly visualize expression
trees from parallel MathML. VMEXT simultaneously visualizes the presentation
elements and the semantic structure of mathematical expressions to enable users
to quickly spot deficiencies in the Content MathML markup that does not affect
the presentation of the expression. Identifying such discrepancies previously
required reading the verbose and complex MathML markup. VMEXT also allows one
to visualize similar and identical elements of two expressions. Visualizing
expression similarity can support support developers in designing retrieval
approaches and enable improved interaction concepts for users of mathematical
information retrieval systems. We demonstrate VMEXT's visualizations in two
web-based applications. The first application presents the visualizations
alone. The second application shows a possible integration of the
visualizations in systems for mathematical knowledge management and
mathematical information retrieval. The application converts LaTeX input to
parallel MathML, computes basic similarity measures for mathematical
expressions, and visualizes the results using VMEXT.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, Intelligent Computer Mathematics - 10th
International Conference CICM 2017, Edinburgh, UK, July 17-21, 2017,
Proceeding
Developing a Sealant Program: the Massachusetts Approach *
This paper describes the program structure and strategies being used by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to promote the utilization of sealants. The program design includes four components: clinical demonstration, consumer education, professional education, and reimbursement. Eighteen Massachusetts neighborhood health centers and six local health departments are participating in the clinical demonstration component. Since March 1984, dental personnel from these sites have applied sealants to 4,398 schoolchildren. The promotional theme “Save Teeth: Seal Them” has been incorporated into brochures designed to increase knowledge and awareness of consumers. Curriculum materials have been developed to educate dentists and dental hygienists to apply sealants and understand the rationale and scientific basis for their use. Since January 1984, 18 sealant educational sessions have been conducted statewide for 630 dental providers. Information is being presented to third-party carriers, some of whom have subsequently adopted a policy to include reimbursement for sealants.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65721/1/j.1752-7325.1986.tb03128.x.pd
Enterocutaneous fistula due to mesh fixation in the repair of lateral incisional hernia: a case report
Enterocutaneous fistula following mesh repair of incisional hernia is usually due to mesh erosion of the underlying viscus and presents late. We describe an early enterocutaneous fistula due to an unusual but a potential mode of bowel injury during mesh fixation. This case is reported to emphasize the need for greater attention to the technique of mesh fixation. We suggest laparoscopic guidance to prevent this serious complication in lateral Incisional hernias with ill defined edges of the defect
Lack of trust in maternal support is associated with negative interpretations of ambiguous maternal behavior
Attachment theory assumes that children who lack trust in maternal availability for support are more inclined to interpret maternal behavior in congruence with their expectation that mother will remain unavailable for support. To provide the first test of this assumption, early adolescents (9-13 years old) were asked to assess whether ambiguous interactions with mother should be interpreted in a positive or a negative way. In our sample (n = 322), results showed that early adolescents' lack of trust in their mother's availability for support was related to more negative interpretations of maternal behavior. The associations remained significant after controlling for depressive mood. The importance of these findings for our understanding of attachment theory, attachment stability, and clinical practice are discussed
Does inter-vertebral range of motion increase after spinal manipulation? A prospective cohort study.
Background: Spinal manipulation for nonspecific neck pain is thought to work in part by improving inter-vertebral range of motion (IV-RoM), but it is difficult to measure this or determine whether it is related to clinical outcomes.
Objectives: This study undertook to determine whether cervical spine flexion and extension IV-RoM increases after a course of spinal manipulation, to explore relationships between any IV-RoM increases and clinical outcomes and to compare palpation with objective measurement in the detection of hypo-mobile segments.
Method: Thirty patients with nonspecific neck pain and 30 healthy controls matched for age and gender received quantitative fluoroscopy (QF) screenings to measure flexion and extension IV-RoM (C1-C6) at baseline and 4-week follow-up between September 2012-13. Patients received up to 12 neck manipulations and completed NRS, NDI
and Euroqol 5D-5L at baseline, plus PGIC and satisfaction questionnaires at follow-up. IV-RoM accuracy, repeatability and hypo-mobility cut-offs were determined. Minimal detectable changes (MDC) over 4 weeks were calculated
from controls. Patients and control IV-RoMs were compared at baseline as well as changes in patients over 4 weeks. Correlations between outcomes and the number of manipulations received and the agreement (Kappa) between palpated and QF-detected of hypo-mobile segments were calculated.
Results: QF had high accuracy (worst RMS error 0.5o) and repeatability (highest SEM 1.1o, lowest ICC 0.90) for
IV-RoM measurement. Hypo-mobility cut offs ranged from 0.8o to 3.5o. No outcome was significantly correlated with increased IV-RoM above MDC and there was no significant difference between the number of hypo-mobile segments in patients and controls at baseline or significant increases in IV-RoMs in patients. However, there was a modest and significant correlation between the number of manipulations received and the number of levels and directions whose IV-RoM increased beyond MDC (Rho=0.39, p=0.043). There was also no agreement between palpation and QF in identifying hypo-mobile segments (Kappa 0.04-0.06).
Conclusions: This study found no differences in cervical sagittal IV-RoM between patients with non-specific neck pain and matched controls. There was a modest dose-response relationship between the number of manipulations given and number of levels increasing IV-RoM - providing evidence that neck manipulation has a mechanical effect at segmental levels. However, patient-reported outcomes were not related to this
On passion and moral behavior in achievement settings: The mediating role of pride
The Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) distinguishes two types of passion: harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP) that predict adaptive and less adaptive outcomes, respectively. In the present research, we were interested in understanding the role of passion in the adoption of moral behavior in achievement settings. It was predicted that the two facets of pride (authentic and hubristic; Tracy & Robins, 2007) would mediate the passion-moral behavior relationship. Specifically, because people who are passionate about a given activity are highly involved in it, it was postulated that they should typically do well and thus experience high levels of pride when engaged in the activity. However, it was also hypothesized that while both types of passion should be conducive to authentic pride, only OP should lead to hubristic pride. Finally, in line with past research on pride (Carver, Sinclair, & Johnson, 2010; Tracy et al., 2009), only hubristic pride was expected to negatively predict moral behavior, while authentic pride was expected to positively predict moral behavior. Results of two studies conducted with paintball players (N=163, Study 1) and athletes (N=296, Study 2) supported the proposed model. Future research directions are discussed in light of the Dualistic Model of Passion
Psychological determinants of whole-body endurance performance
Background: No literature reviews have systematically identified and evaluated research on the psychological determinants of endurance performance, and sport psychology performance-enhancement guidelines for endurance sports are not founded on a systematic appraisal of endurance-specific research.
Objective: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify practical psychological interventions that improve endurance performance and to identify additional psychological factors that affect endurance performance. Additional objectives were to evaluate the research practices of included studies, to suggest theoretical and applied implications, and to guide future research.
Methods: Electronic databases, forward-citation searches, and manual searches of reference lists were used to locate relevant studies. Peer-reviewed studies were included when they chose an experimental or quasi-experimental research design, a psychological manipulation, endurance performance as the dependent variable, and athletes or physically-active, healthy adults as participants.
Results: Consistent support was found for using imagery, self-talk, and goal setting to improve endurance performance, but it is unclear whether learning multiple psychological skills is more beneficial than learning one psychological skill. The results also demonstrated that mental fatigue undermines endurance performance, and verbal encouragement and head-to-head competition can have a beneficial effect. Interventions that influenced perception of effort consistently affected endurance performance.
Conclusions: Psychological skills training could benefit an endurance athlete. Researchers are encouraged to compare different practical psychological interventions, to examine the effects of these interventions for athletes in competition, and to include a placebo control condition or an alternative control treatment. Researchers are also encouraged to explore additional psychological factors that could have a negative effect on endurance performance. Future research should include psychological mediating variables and moderating variables. Implications for theoretical explanations of endurance performance and evidence-based practice are described
Observation of contemporaneous optical radiation from a gamma-ray burst
The origin of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has been enigmatic since their
discovery. The situation improved dramatically in 1997, when the rapid
availability of precise coordinates for the bursts allowed the detection of
faint optical and radio afterglows - optical spectra thus obtained have
demonstrated conclusively that the bursts occur at cosmological distances. But,
despite efforts by several groups, optical detection has not hitherto been
achieved during the brief duration of a burst. Here we report the detection of
bright optical emission from GRB990123 while the burst was still in progress.
Our observations begin 22 seconds after the onset of the burst and show an
increase in brightness by a factor of 14 during the first 25 seconds; the
brightness then declines by a factor of 100, at which point (700 seconds after
the burst onset) it falls below our detection threshold. The redshift of this
burst, approximately 1.6, implies a peak optical luminosity of 5 times 10^{49}
erg per second. Optical emission from gamma-ray bursts has been generally
thought to take place at the shock fronts generated by interaction of the
primary energy source with the surrounding medium, where the gamma-rays might
also be produced. The lack of a significant change in the gamma-ray light curve
when the optical emission develops suggests that the gamma-rays are not
produced at the shock front, but closer to the site of the original explosion.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Nature. For
additional information see http://www.umich.edu/~rotse
The Hidden Curriculum of Veterinary Education: Mediators and Moderators of Its Effects
The “hidden curriculum” has long been supposed to have an effect on students' learning during their clinical education, and in particular in shaping their ideas of what it means to be a professional. Despite this, there has been little evidence linking specific changes in professional attitudes to the individual components of the hidden curriculum. This study aimed to recognize those components that led to a change in students' professional attitudes at a UK veterinary school, as well as to identify the attitudes most affected. Observations were made of 11 student groups across five clinical rotations, followed by semi-structured interviews with 23 students at the end of their rotation experience. Data were combined and analyzed thematically, taking both an inductive and deductive approach. Views about the importance of technical competence and communication skills were promoted as a result of students' interaction with the hidden curriculum, and tensions were revealed in relation to their attitudes toward compassion and empathy, autonomy and responsibility, and lifestyle ethic. The assessment processes of rotations and the clinical service organization served to communicate the messages of the hidden curriculum, bringing about changes in student professional attitudes, while student-selected role models and the student rotation groups moderated the effects of these influences
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