Exploring scientific creativity of eleventh grade students in Taiwan

textAlthough most researchers focus on scientists’ creativity, students’ scientific creativity should be considered, especially for high school and college students. It is generally assumed that most professional creators in science emerge from amateur creators. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between students’ scientific creativity and selected variables including creativity, problem finding, formulating hypotheses, science achievement, the nature of science, and attitudes toward science for finding significant predictors of eleventh grade students’ scientific creativity. A total of 130 male eleventh-grade students in three biology classes participated in this study. The main instruments included the Test of Divergent Thinking (TDT) for creativity measurement, the Creativity Rating Scale (CRS) and the Creative Activities and Accomplishments Check Lists (CAACL) for measurement of scientific creativity, the Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale (NSKS) for measurement of the nature of science, and the Science Attitude Inventory II (SAI II) for measurement of attitudes toward science. In addition, two instruments on measuring students’ abilities of problem finding and abilities of formulating hypotheses were developed by the researcher in this study. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations, and stepwise multiple regressions. The major findings suggested the following: (1) students’ scientific creativity significantly correlated with some of selected variables such as attitudes toward science, problem finding, formulating hypotheses, the nature of science, resistance to closure, originality, and elaboration; (2) four significant predictors including attitudes toward science, problem finding, resistance to closure, and originality accounted for 48 % of the variance of students’ scientific creativity; (3) there were big differences between students with a higher and a lower degree of scientific creativity on the variables of family support, career images, and readings about science; and (4) many students were confused about the creative and moral levels on NSKS and the concept of “almighty of science” and purposes of science on SAI II. The results of this study may provide a more holistic and integrative interpretation of students’ scientific creativity and propose better ways of evaluating students’ scientific creativity. In addition, the research results may encourage teachers to view scientific creativity as an ability that can be enhanced through various means in classroom science teaching.Science and Mathematics Educatio

Matter Power Spectra in Viable f(R)f(R) Gravity Models with Massive Neutrinos

We investigate the matter power spectra in the power law and exponential types of viable $f(R)$ theories along with massive neutrinos. The enhancement of the matter power spectrum is found to be a generic feature in these models. In particular, we show that in the former type, such as the Starobinsky model, the spectrum is magnified much larger than the latter one, such as the exponential model. A greater scale of the total neutrino mass, $\Sigma m_{\nu}$, is allowed in the viable $f(R)$ models than that in the $\Lambda$CDM one. We obtain the constraints on the neutrino masses by using the CosmoMC package with the modified MGCAMB. Explicitly, we get $\Sigma m_{\nu} < 0.451 \ (0.214)\ \mathrm{eV}$at 95the corresponding one for the$\Lambda$CDM model is$\Sigma m_{\nu} < 0.200\ \mathrm{eV}$. Furthermore, by treating the effective number of neutrino species$N_{\mathrm{eff}}$as a free parameter along with$\Sigma m_{\nu}$, we find that$N_{\mathrm{eff}} = 3.78^{+0.64}_{-0.84} (3.47^{+0.74}_{-0.60})$and$\Sigma m_{\nu} = 0.533^{+0.254}_{-0.411}$($< 0.386) \ \mathrm{eV}$ at 95% C.L. in the Starobinsky (exponential) model.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, updated version accepted by PL

Interaction between Thalamus and Hippocampus in Termination of Amygdala-Kindled Seizures in Mice

The thalamus and hippocampus have been found both involved in the initiation, propagation, and termination of temporal lobe epilepsy. However, the interaction of these regions during seizures is not clear. The present study is to explore whether some regular patterns exist in their interaction during the termination of seizures. Multichannel in vivo recording techniques were used to record the neural activities from the cornu ammonis 1 (CA1) of hippocampus and mediodorsal thalamus (MDT) in mice. The mice were kindled by electrically stimulating basolateral amygdala neurons, and Racine’s rank standard was employed to classify the stage of behavioral responses (stage 1~5). The coupling index and directionality index were used to investigate the synchronization and information flow direction between CA1 and MDT. Two main results were found in this study. (1) High levels of synchronization between the thalamus and hippocampus were observed before the termination of seizures at stage 4~5 but after the termination of seizures at stage 1~2. (2) In the end of seizures at stage 4~5, the information tended to flow from MDT to CA1. Those results indicate that the synchronization and information flow direction between the thalamus and the hippocampus may participate in the termination of seizures

Multi-beam miniaturized volumetric scanning microscopy with a single 1-dimensional actuation

Miniaturized optical imaging systems often use a 2-dimensional (2-D) actuator such as a piezoelectric tube or microelectromechanical system actuator for the acquisition of 2-D and higher dimensional images over an areal field of view (FOV). Piezoelectric tubes are the most compact, but usually produce impractical sub-millimetre FOVs and are difficult to fabricate at scale, leading to high costs. Planar piezoelectric bending actuators ('benders') are substantially lower cost and capable of much larger actuations, albeit 1-dimensional (1-D) and traditionally inadequate for 2-D steering tasks. We present a piezoelectric bender imaging system that exploits mechanical motion coupling to produce multi-millimetre scale 2-D scan coverage. Leveraging optical coherence tomography with a long coherence length laser, we further extend the FOV using three depth-multiplexed imaging beams from optical fibres resonating in synchronicity across the width of the bender. Each fibre had a FOV of ~2.1 x 1.5 mm, contributing to a stitched field of ~2.1 x 2.9 mm with a beam resolution of 12.6 um full-width at half-maximum. Imaging of biological samples including stomach tissue, an ant and cell spheroids was performed. This multi-fold improvement in imaging coverage and cost-effectiveness promises to accelerate the advent of piezoelectric scanning in compact devices such as endoscopes for biomedicine, and headsets for augmented/virtual reality and neuroscience

Induction of protective immunity in swine by recombinant bamboo mosaic virus expressing foot-and-mouth disease virus epitopes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Plant viruses can be employed as versatile vectors for the production of vaccines by expressing immunogenic epitopes on the surface of chimeric viral particles. Although several viruses, including tobacco mosaic virus, potato virus X and cowpea mosaic virus, have been developed as vectors, we aimed to develop a new viral vaccine delivery system, a bamboo mosaic virus (BaMV), that would carry larger transgene loads, and generate better immunity in the target animals with fewer adverse environmental effects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We engineered the BaMV as a vaccine vector expressing the antigenic epitope(s) of the capsid protein VP1 of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). The recombinant BaMV plasmid (pBVP1) was constructed by replacing DNA encoding the 35 N-terminal amino acid residues of the BaMV coat protein with that encoding 37 amino acid residues (T¹²⁸-N¹⁶⁴) of FMDV VP1.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The pBVP1 was able to infect host plants and to generate a chimeric virion BVP1 expressing VP1 epitopes in its coat protein. Inoculation of swine with BVP1 virions resulted in the production of anti-FMDV neutralizing antibodies. Real-time PCR analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from the BVP1-immunized swine revealed that they produced VP1-specific IFN-γ. Furthermore, all BVP1-immunized swine were protected against FMDV challenge.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Chimeric BaMV virions that express partial sequence of FMDV VP1 can effectively induce not only humoral and cell-mediated immune responses but also full protection against FMDV in target animals. This BaMV-based vector technology may be applied to other vaccines that require correct expression of antigens on chimeric viral particles.</p

Evaluation of SPARC as a candidate gene of juvenile-onset primary open-angle glaucoma by mutation and copy number analyses

Purpose: To investigate the involvement of SPARC (secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine) mutations and copy number variation in juvenile-onset primary open-angle glaucoma (JPOAG). Methods: This study involved the 27 family members from the GLC1M (glaucoma 1, open angle, M)-linked Philippine pedigree with JPOAG, 46 unrelated Chinese patients with JPOAG and 95 controls. Mutation screening of the SPARC sequence, covering the promoter, 5′-untranslated region (UTR), entire coding regions, exon-intron boundaries, and part of the 3′-UTR, was performed using polymerase chain reaction and direct DNA sequencing. Copy number of the gene was analyzed by three TaqMan copy number assays. Results: No putative SPARC mutation was detected in the Philippine family. In the Chinese participants, 11 sequence variants were detected. Two were novel: IVS2+8G>T and IVS2+32C>T. For the 9 known SNPs, one was synonymous (rs2304052, p.Glu22Glu) and the others were located in noncoding regions. No individual SNP was associated with JPOAG. Five of the most common SNPs, i.e., rs2116780, rs1978707, rs7719521, rs729853, and rs1053411, were contained in a LD (linkage disequilibrium) block. Haplotype-based analysis showed that no haplotype was associated with the disorder. Copy number analysis revealed that all study subjects had two copies of the gene, suggesting no correlation between the copy number of SPARC and JPOAG. Conclusions: We have excluded SPARC as the causal gene at the GLC1M locus in the Philippine pedigree and, for the first time, revealed that the coding sequences, splice sites and copy number of SPARC do not contribute to JPOAG. Further investigations are warranted to unravel the involvement of SPARC in the pathogenesis of other forms of glaucoma