2,320 research outputs found
Valentine Portable Typewriter and Case
Introduced on Valentine’s Day with a flurry of advertising, the Olivetti Company’s bright-red portable typewriter was an instant sensation of the Pop Art movement. Ettore Sottsass and Perry King designed valentine to be the “anti-machine machine,” meaning that it functioned as a typewriter but also had a humanized quality lacking in most office equipment. Sottsass noted that his seductive red typewriter was for use “in any place except an office … rather to keep amateur poets company on quiet Sundays.” To further differentiate valentine from workaday equipment, Sottsass’s early designs lacked both uppercase type and the bell signaling the end of a typewritten line. Understandably, Olivetti manufactured the typewriter with these necessary features, but the lowercase “v” in the logo above the keyboard recalls the designer’s original intention. 1969https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_channel/1035/thumbnail.jp
Beyond deficit-based models of learners' cognition: Interpreting engineering students' difficulties with sense-making in terms of fine-grained epistemological and conceptual dynamics
Researchers have argued against deficit-based explanations of students'
troubles with mathematical sense-making, pointing instead to factors such as
epistemology: students' beliefs about knowledge and learning can hinder them
from activating and integrating productive knowledge they have. In this case
study of an engineering major solving problems (about content from his
introductory physics course) during a clinical interview, we show that "Jim"
has all the mathematical and conceptual knowledge he would need to solve a
hydrostatic pressure problem that we posed to him. But he reaches and sticks
with an incorrect answer that violates common sense. We argue that his lack of
mathematical sense-making-specifically, translating and reconciling between
mathematical and everyday/common-sense reasoning-stems in part from his
epistemological views, i.e., his views about the nature of knowledge and
learning. He regards mathematical equations as much more trustworthy than
everyday reasoning, and he does not view mathematical equations as expressing
meaning that tractably connects to common sense. For these reasons, he does not
view reconciling between common sense and mathematical formalism as either
necessary or plausible to accomplish. We, however, avoid a potential "deficit
trap"-substituting an epistemological deficit for a concepts/skills deficit-by
incorporating multiple, context-dependent epistemological stances into Jim's
cognitive dynamics. We argue that Jim's epistemological stance contains
productive seeds that instructors could build upon to support Jim's
mathematical sense-making: He does see common-sense as connected to formalism
(though not always tractably so) and in some circumstances this connection is
both salient and valued.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of Engineering Educatio
Evaluation of Bovine chemerin (RARRES2) Gene Variation on Beef Cattle Production Traits1
A previous study in cattle based on >48,000 markers identified markers on chromosome 4 near the chemerin gene associated with average daily feed intake (ADFI) in steers (P < 0.008). Chemerin is an adipokine associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome in humans, representing a strong candidate gene potentially underlying the observed association. To evaluate whether the bovine chemerin gene is involved in feed intake, 16 markers within and around the gene were tested for association in the same resource population. Eleven were nominally significant for ADFI (P < 0.05) and two were significant after Bonferroni correction. Two and five SNP in this region were nominally significant for the related traits of average daily gain (ADG) and residual feed intake (RFI), respectively. All markers were evaluated for effects on meat quality and carcass phenotypes. Many of the markers associated with ADFI were associated with hot carcass weight (HCW), adjusted fat thickness (AFT), and marbling (P < 0.05). Marker alleles that were associated with lower ADFI were also associated with lower HCW, AFT, and marbling. Markers associated with ADFI were genotyped in a validation population of steers representing 14 breeds to determine predictive merit across populations. No consistent relationships for ADFI were detected. To determine whether cattle feed intake or growth phenotypes might be related to chemerin transcript abundance, the expression of chemerin was evaluated in adipose of 114 heifers that were siblings of the steers in the discovery population. Relative chemerin transcript abundance was not correlated with ADFI, ADG, or RFI, but associations with body condition score and yearling weight were observed. We conclude that variation in the chemerin gene may underlie observed association in the resource population, but that additional research is required to determine if this variation is widespread among breeds and to develop robust markers with predictive merit across breeds
Rich Situated Attitudes
We outline a novel theory of natural language meaning, Rich
Situated Semantics [RSS], on which the content of sentential utterances
is semantically rich and informationally situated. In virtue of its situatedness,
an utterance’s rich situated content varies with the informational
situation of the cognitive agent interpreting the utterance. In virtue of its
richness, this content contains information beyond the utterance’s lexically
encoded information. The agent-dependence of rich situated content
solves a number of problems in semantics and the philosophy of language
(cf. [14, 20, 25]). In particular, since RSS varies the granularity of utterance
contents with the interpreting agent’s informational situation, it
solves the problem of finding suitably fine- or coarse-grained objects for
the content of propositional attitudes. In virtue of this variation, a layman
will reason with more propositions than an expert
Online Hate: From the Far-Right to the ‘Alt-Right’, and from the Margins to the Mainstream
In the 1990s and early 2000s, there was much discussion about the democratic and anti-democratic implications of the Internet. The latter particularly focused on the ways in which the far-right were using the Internet to spread hate and recruit members. Despite this common assumption, the American far-right did not harness the Internet quickly, effectively or widely. More recently, however, they have experienced a resurgence and mainstreaming, benefitting greatly from social media. This chapter examines the history of their use of the Internet with respect to: (1) how this developed in response to political changes and emerging technologies; (2) how it reflected and changed the status of such movements and their brand of hate; and (3) the relationship between online activity and traditional methods of communication
Impaired decisional impulsivity in pathological videogamers
Abstract
Background
Pathological gaming is an emerging and poorly understood problem. Impulsivity is commonly impaired in disorders of behavioural and substance addiction, hence we sought to systematically investigate the different subtypes of decisional and motor impulsivity in a well-defined pathological gaming cohort.
Methods
Fifty-two pathological gaming subjects and age-, gender- and IQ-matched healthy volunteers were tested on decisional impulsivity (Information Sampling Task testing reflection impulsivity and delay discounting questionnaire testing impulsive choice), and motor impulsivity (Stop Signal Task testing motor response inhibition, and the premature responding task). We used stringent diagnostic criteria highlighting functional impairment.
Results
In the Information Sampling Task, pathological gaming participants sampled less evidence prior to making a decision and scored fewer points compared with healthy volunteers. Gaming severity was also negatively correlated with evidence gathered and positively correlated with sampling error and points acquired. In the delay discounting task, pathological gamers made more impulsive choices, preferring smaller immediate over larger delayed rewards. Pathological gamers made more premature responses related to comorbid nicotine use. Greater number of hours played also correlated with a Motivational Index. Greater frequency of role playing games was associated with impaired motor response inhibition and strategy games with faster Go reaction time.
Conclusions
We show that pathological gaming is associated with impaired decisional impulsivity with negative consequences in task performance. Decisional impulsivity may be a potential target in therapeutic management
Association, effects and validation of polymorphisms within the NCAPG - LCORL locus located on BTA6 with feed intake, gain, meat and carcass traits in beef cattle
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In a previously reported genome-wide association study based on a high-density bovine SNP genotyping array, 8 SNP were nominally associated (<it>P </it>≤ 0.003) with average daily gain (ADG) and 3 of these were also associated (<it>P </it>≤ 0.002) with average daily feed intake (ADFI) in a population of crossbred beef cattle. The SNP were clustered in a 570 kb region around 38 Mb on the draft sequence of bovine chromosome 6 (BTA6), an interval containing several positional and functional candidate genes including the bovine <it>LAP3, NCAPG</it>, and <it>LCORL </it>genes. The goal of the present study was to develop and examine additional markers in this region to optimize the ability to distinguish favorable alleles, with potential to identify functional variation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Animals from the original study were genotyped for 47 SNP within or near the gene boundaries of the three candidate genes. Sixteen markers in the <it>NCAPG-LCORL </it>locus displayed significant association with both ADFI and ADG even after stringent correction for multiple testing (P ≤ 005). These markers were evaluated for their effects on meat and carcass traits. The alleles associated with higher ADFI and ADG were also associated with higher hot carcass weight (HCW) and ribeye area (REA), and lower adjusted fat thickness (AFT). A reduced set of markers was genotyped on a separate, crossbred population including genetic contributions from 14 beef cattle breeds. Two of the markers located within the <it>LCORL </it>gene locus remained significant for ADG (P ≤ 0.04).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Several markers within the <it>NCAPG-LCORL </it>locus were significantly associated with feed intake and body weight gain phenotypes. These markers were also associated with HCW, REA and AFT suggesting that they are involved with lean growth and reduced fat deposition. Additionally, the two markers significant for ADG in the validation population of animals may be more robust for the prediction of ADG and possibly the correlated trait ADFI, across multiple breeds and populations of cattle.</p
Field Blue Stragglers and Related Mass Transfer Issues
This chapter contains my impressions and perspectives about the current state
of knowledge about field blue stragglers (FBS) stars, drawn from an extensive
literature that I searched. I conclude my review of issues that attend FBS and
mass transfer, by a brief enumeration of a few mildly disquieting observational
facts.Comment: Chapter 4, in Ecology of Blue Straggler Stars, H.M.J. Boffin, G.
Carraro & G. Beccari (Eds), Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springe
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