Endogenous fantasy and learning in digital games.

Many people believe that educational games are effective because they motivate children to actively engage in a learning activity as part of playing the game. However, seminal work by Malone (1981), exploring the motivational aspects of digital games, concluded that the educational effectiveness of a digital game depends on the way in which learning content is integrated into the fantasy context of the game. In particular, he claimed that content which is intrinsically related to the fantasy will produce better learning than that which is merely extrinsically related. However, this distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic (or endogenous and exogenous) fantasy is a concept that has developed a confused standing over the following years. This paper will address this confusion by providing a review and critique of the empirical and theoretical foundations of endogenous fantasy, and its relevance to creating educational digital games. Substantial concerns are raised about the empirical basis of this work and a theoretical critique of endogenous fantasy is offered, concluding that endogenous fantasy is a misnomer, in so far as the "integral and continuing relationship" of fantasy cannot be justified as a critical means of improving the effectiveness of educational digital games. An alternative perspective on the intrinsic integration of learning content is described, incorporating game mechanics, flow and representations

Space Station Facilities and Operations at the Kennedy Space Center

The Spaca Station Program potentially will a significant Impact on the Kennedy Space Canter Current and past programs have had their major Impact on KSC In the prelaunch and launch operations area with program support, subsequent to liftoff, generally performed at other locations. The Space Station Program also will Impact pre- launch and launch operations at KSC but, due to Its proposed 10-year operational lifetime, KSC also could have a significant role in support of the operational program. Support operations of the Space Station Program may be performed elsewhere; however, centralizing them at KSC has a number of attractive features which warrant study

Improved Electroformed Structural Copper and Copper Alloys

Electroforming offers a superior means for fabricating internally cooled heat exchangers and structures subjected to thermal environments. Copper is deposited from many such applications because of the good thermal conductivity. It suffers from mediocre yield strength as a structural material and loses mechanical strength at intermediate temperatures. Mechanical properties similar to those of electroformed nickel are desired. Phase 1 examined innovative means to improve deposited copper structural performance. Yield strengths as high as 483 MPa (70 ksi) were obtained with useful ductility while retaining a high level of purity essential to good thermal conductivity. Phase 2 represents a program to explore new additive combinations in copper electrolytes to produce a more fine, equiaxed grain which can be thermally stabilized by other techniques such as alloying in modest degrees and dispersion strengthening. Evaluation of new technology - such as the codeposition of fullerness (diamond-like) particles were made to enhance thermal conductivity in low alloys. A test fire quality tube-bundle engine was fabricated using these copper property improvement concepts to show the superiority of the new coppers and fabrications methods over competitive technologies such as brazing and plasma deposition

Modeling Surface and Subsurface Pesticide Transport Under Three Field Conditions Using PRZM-3 and GLEAMS

Contaminant transport models should be evaluated over a wide range of conditions to determine their limitations. The models PRZM and GLEAMS have been evaluated many times, but few studies are available in which predicted movement in runoff and percolate were simultaneously evaluated against field data. Studies of this type are essential because pesticide leaching and runoff are mutually dependent processes. For this reason, PRZM-3 and GLEAMS were evaluated for their ability to predict metribuzin concentrations in runoff, sediment, subsurface soil, and pan lysimeters under three field conditions (yard waste compost amended, no-till, and conventional-till) on a Lowell silt loam soil. Sensitive input parameters were either site specific (climatic, soil, and chemical) or calibrated (K-factor, C-factor, curve number). In general, both models under-predicted metribuzin concentration in runoff water, runoff sediment, subplow layer soil (15-75 cm), and pan lysimeter water (75 cm). Contrary to field data, both models predicted that a large percentage (\u3e 50%) of metribuzin would move below the “mixing zone” (top 1 cm) during the first rainfall event after application. Relatively little metribuzin was predicted to move beyond the plow layer (top 15 cm) into the pan lysimeters or subsurface soil throughout the simulation period, possibly due to the lack of a macropore component in the models. High metribuzin concentrations in sediment (field data) indicated that relatively little metribuzin moved below the “mixing zone”, possibly because of hysteresis but much of the metribuzin that did move was quickly transported into the pan lysimeters, probably due to macropore flow. GLEAMS more accurately predicted pesticide concentration in sediment and PRZM predicted subsurface soil concentration somewhat more accurately than GLEAMS. Little difference in accuracy was detected between models on metribuzin concentration in runoff or metribuzin concentration in percolate. Although both models generally under-predicted metribuzin concentration in runoff, runoff transport (mass of metribuzin in runoff) for the study period was over-predicted by both models which emphasizes the importance of accurately predicting herbicide concentration and runoff volume soon after application when the surface pesticide concentrations are highest

Developing an On-Line Interactive Health Psychology Module.

On-line teaching material in health psychology was developed which ensured a range of students could access appropriate material for their course and level of study. This material has been developed around the concept of smaller 'content chunks' which can be combined into whole units of learning (topics), and ultimately, a module. On the basis of the underlying philosophy that the medium is part of the message, we considered interactivity to be a key element in engaging the student with the material. Consequently, the key aim of this development was to stimulate and engage students, promoting better involvement with the academic material, and hence better learning. It was hoped that this was achieved through the development of material including linked programmes and supporting material, small Java Scripts and basic email, forms and HTML additions. This material is outlined as are some of the interactive activities introduced, and the preliminary student and tutor experience described

Accessibility and implementation in the UK NHS services of an effective depression relapse prevention programme: learning from mindfulness-based cognitive therapy through a mixed-methods study

ArticleThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme via the link in this record.Access to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for preventing depression relapse remains variable across the UK, but can be improved by individuals who champion implementation locally, often over many years, and in challenging contexts

The Effect of Pre-Diagnostic Alcohol Consumption on Survival after Breast Cancer in Young Women.

Background: Alcohol consumption has been comprehensively investigated as an etiologic risk factor for breast cancer but has received little attention in terms of its impact on prognosis after breast cancer, particularly for young women. Methods: 1286 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at or before 45 years of age from two population-based case-control studies in the Seattle-Puget Sound region were followed from their diagnosis of breast cancer (between January 1983 and December 1992) for survival through June 2002, during which time 364 women had died. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to assess the effect of pre-diagnostic alcohol consumption on the risk of dying. Results: After adjusting for age and diagnosis year, compared to non-drinkers, women who consumed alcohol in the 5 years prior to diagnosis had a decreased risk of death [>0 to <3 drinks per week: HR(hazard ratio) = 0.7 (95% CI: 0.6-0.95); 3 to <7 drinks per week: RR = 0.6 (95% CI: 0.4-0.8); ≥ 7 drinks per week: RR = 0.7 (95% CI: 0.5-0.9)]. This association was unchanged upon additional adjustment for potential confounders including most notably treatment, stage at diagnosis, and mammogram history. Conclusion: These results suggest that women who consume alcohol prior to a diagnosis of breast cancer have improved survival which does not appear to be attributable to differences in stage, screening or treatment

Social determinants of content selection in the age of (mis)information

Despite the enthusiastic rhetoric about the so called \emph{collective intelligence}, conspiracy theories -- e.g. global warming induced by chemtrails or the link between vaccines and autism -- find on the Web a natural medium for their dissemination. Users preferentially consume information according to their system of beliefs and the strife within users of opposite narratives may result in heated debates. In this work we provide a genuine example of information consumption from a sample of 1.2 million of Facebook Italian users. We show by means of a thorough quantitative analysis that information supporting different worldviews -- i.e. scientific and conspiracist news -- are consumed in a comparable way by their respective users. Moreover, we measure the effect of the exposure to 4709 evidently false information (satirical version of conspiracy theses) and to 4502 debunking memes (information aiming at contrasting unsubstantiated rumors) of the most polarized users of conspiracy claims. We find that either contrasting or teasing consumers of conspiracy narratives increases their probability to interact again with unsubstantiated rumors.Comment: misinformation, collective narratives, crowd dynamics, information spreadin