Categories of insight and their correlates: An exploration of relationships among classic-type insight problems, rebus puzzles, remote associates and esoteric analogies.

A central question in creativity concerns how insightful ideas emerge. Anecdotal examples of insightful scientific and technical discoveries include Goodyear's discovery of the vulcanization of rubber, and Mendeleev's realization that there may be gaps as he tried to arrange the elements into the Periodic Table. Although most people would regard these discoveries as insightful, cognitive psychologists have had difficulty in agreeing on whether such ideas resulted from insights or from conventional problem solving processes. One area of wide agreement among psychologists is that insight involves a process of restructuring. If this view is correct, then understanding insight and its role in problem solving will depend on a better understanding of restructuring and the characteristics that describe it. This article proposes and tests a preliminary classification of insight problems based on several restructuring characteristics: the need to redefine spatial assumptions, the need to change defined forms, the degree of misdirection involved, the difficulty in visualizing a possible solution, the number of restructuring sequences in the problem, and the requirement for figure-ground type reversals. A second purpose of the study was to compare performance on classic spatial insight problems with two types of verbal tests that may be related to insight, the Remote Associates Test (RAT), and rebus puzzles. In doing so, we report on the results of a survey of 172 business students at the University of Waikato in New Zealand who completed classic-type insight, RAT and rebus problems

Using genotyping-by-sequencing to understand Musa diversity

Poster presented at Plant and Animal Genome, PAG XXII. San Diego (USA), 11-15 Jan 201

Utilization of Papaya Seeds as Natural Coagulant for Synthetic Textile Coloring Agent Wastewater Treatment

Textile wastewater contains a lot of pollutants which is hazardous if directly discharged. Coagulation and flocculation using inorganic salts were widely used to treat textile wastewater. However this method pose some drawbacks, such as high coagulant cost, large volume of sludge was produced, and potential health problems if the water is consumed. In this study we explore utilization of natural coagulant as an alternative to inorganic salts to treat textile wastewater. This study describes utilization of papaya seeds powder as a natural coagulant for synthetic textile wastewater of drimarene dark red (DDR) with initial concentration of 10 mg/L. The effect of coagulant dosage and pH to the %removal of colour in wastewater was studied using central composite design. The potential active functional groups in papaya seeds powder was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). It was found that papaya seeds powder contained –OH, -NH, C=O functional groups that indicate good potential as natural coagulant. The cubic model obtained was in good fit with experimental data, which was shown in R-squared value of 0.995. It was found that coagulant dosage, pH, and its interaction were significant to the removal of synthetic dye in wastewater. The decrease of pH gave higher %removal due to protonation of papaya seeds powder active coagulating agent resulting on better electrostatic interaction with dyes. The increase of dosage also gave increase in %removal until its optimum condition. After optimum condition, the %removal decreased due to colloid re-stabilization. The optimum condition was obtained at dosage of 0.57g/L and pH 1.97 with 84.77% of predicted colour removal and this result was in agreement with experimental response value

Evaluasi Pengelolaan Barang Milik Daerah Pada BPK-BMD Kabupaten Minahasa Utara

Pemendagri No. 19 Tahun 2016 tentang Pedoman Teknis Pengelolaan Barang Milik Daerah diharapkan pemerintah daerah agar segera menyusun dan menerapkan sistem penatausahaan untuk pembukuan, inventarisasi dan melaporkan sistem milik daerah dengan menghasilkan neraca daerah dan laporan realisasi anggaran, dan menjadi dasar untuk Badan Pengelola Keuangan dan Barang Milik Daerah Kabupaten Minahasa Utara. Tujuan yang ingin dicapai dalam penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui penerapan pengelolaan barang milik daerah pada Badan Pengelola Keuangan dan Barang Milik Daerah Kabupaten Minahasa Utara, apakah telah sesuai dengan Permendagri Nomor 19 Tahun 2016. Jenis penelitian dalam studi ini adalah Penelitian deskriptif. Hasil penelitian menyimpulkan bahwa Pengadaan, Penggunaan, Pemeliharaan, Pemindahtanganan, Penghapusan dan Pengendalian dan Pengawasan Barang Milik Daerah (BMD) pada (BPK-BMD) Kabupaten Minahasa Utara telah sesuai dengan Permendagri Nomor 19 Tahun 2016. (BPK-BMD) Kabupaten Minahasa Utara, pada tahun anggaran 2017 dan selanjutnya, dalam menjalankan prosedur Pengadaan, Penggunaan, Pemeliharaan, Pemindahtanganan, Penghapusan dan Pengendalian dan Pengawasan barang, tetap berpedoman pada Permendagri Nomor 19 Tahun 2016 dan pengguna barang tetap mempertahankan prosedur pemerintah mulai dari perencanaan hingga pelaporan

X-ray Properties of Intermediate-mass Black Holes in Active Galaxies

We present a pilot study of the X-ray properties of intermediate-mass (~10^5-10^6 M_sun) black holes in active galaxies using the Chandra X-ray telescope. Eight of the 10 active galaxies are detected with a significance of at least 3 sigma, with X-ray luminosities in the range L_(0.5-2 keV) ~ 10^41-10^43 ergs/s. The optical-to-X-ray flux ratios are consistent with expectations, given the known correlations between alpha_ox and ultraviolet luminosity, while a couple of objects appear to be anomalously X-ray weak. The range of 0.5--2 keV photon indices we measure, 1 < Gamma_s < 2.7, is entirely consistent with values found in samples of more luminous sources with more massive black holes. Black hole mass evidently is not a primary driver of soft X-ray spectral index. On the other hand, we do find evidence for a correlation between X-ray power-law slope and both X-ray luminosity and Eddington ratio, which may suggest that X-ray emission mechanisms weaken at high Eddington ratio. Such a weakening may explain the X-ray weakness of one of our most optically luminous objects.Comment: Submitted to ApJ on 7 April 2006, but still awaiting referee's report; 8 pages, 4 figures, uses emulateapj5.st

Comparison of β-Hydroxylase Enzyme 11 Serum in Obese, Overweight, and Normoweight Young Men

Background: Previous studies showed that cardiovascular risk factor was increased in obese and overweight subjects. Obesity and cardiovascular risk factor are associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hyperactivity that causes hypercortisolism, cortisol level is associated with cardiovascular risk factor on obesity. 11 β-hydroxylase is an enzyme that involved in cortisol synthesis. The aim of this study was to investigate 11 β-Hydroxylase concentration in obesity, overweight, and normal weight young men.Subjects and Method: This was analytic-observational study using cross-sectional design. The study was conducted at HKBP Nommensen University, Medan. The study subjects included by 76 young men aged 18-28 years old, consisting of 25 obese subjects, 25 overweight, and 25 normoweight. The concentration of 11 β-Hydroxylase was evaluated in blood sample after 10 hours fasting. The data was analyzed bivariately.Results: Mean of 11 β-Hydroxylase concentration was 52.76 ± 44.27 in obese subjects, 70.16 ± 46.83 in overweight subjects, and 43.42 ± 27.75 in normoweight subjects. The 11 β-Hydroxylase concentration in overweight subjects was statistically higher than normoweight subjects (p = 0.007), but the 11 β-Hydroxylase concentration on obese subjects statistically was not different from normoweight subjects (p = 0.362).Conclusion: The 11 β-Hydroxylase concentration on overweight subject is higher than normoweight subject. There is no difference of 11 β-Hydroxylase concentration on obese and normoweight subject. Mitochondrial stress and mitochondrial failure mechanism on overweight and obesity merit further investigation

The Influence of Ethnicity on the Development of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Women with Gestational Diabetes: A Prospective Study and Review of the Literature

As the worldwide prevalence of type 2 diabetes continues to rise at an alarming rate, the search for susceptible populations likely to benefit from preventative measures becomes more important. One such population is women with a previous history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). In this prospective study of 101 women who had GDM in Australia, ethnicity was a major risk factor for the development of diabetes following a diagnosis of GDM. With a mean followup of 5.5 years after GDM, South Asian women had a significantly higher risk of developing abnormal glucose tolerance (AGT) (69%) than women of all other ethnicities (P < 0.05). The prevalence of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance was also very high amongst other groups: South East and East Asian (11/27, 41%), Middle-Eastern (8/18, 44%), South European backgrounds (5/12, 42%), and Australian-born women 39% (11/28). A review of the literature supports the role of ethnicity in the development of diabetes amongst these women. These findings have implications for South Asian countries and countries such as Australia where there is a population from diverse ethnic backgrounds and where the implementation of targeted measures to stem the growing tide of diabetes is needed