Take the best or look at the rest? Factors influencing "one-reason" decision making.

Aspects of an experimental environment were manipulated in 3 experiments to examine the parameters under which the "take-the-best" (TTB) heuristic (e.g., G. Gigerenzer & D. G. Goldstein, 1996) operates. Results indicated TTB use to be more prevalent when the cost of information was high, when validities of the cues were known, and when a deterministic environment was used. However, large individual variability in strategy use was observed as well as a significant proportion of behavior inconsistent with TTB, expecially its stopping rule. The results demarcate some of the heuristic's boundary conditions and also question the validity of TTB as a psychologically plausible and pervasive model of behavior

Changes in joint kinetics during learning the longswing on high bar

Biomechanics helps us understand the association between technique changes and performance improvement during learning. The aim of this research was to investigate joint kinetic characteristics of technique during learning of the longswing on the high bar. Twelve male, novice participants took part in the learning study. During swing attempts in 8 weekly testing sessions, kinematic data were collected. Inverse dynamics analysis was performed from known zero forces at the toes to quantify joint moments and power at the hips and shoulders. Key biomechanical constraints that limited performance outcome were identified based on changes in joint kinetics during learning. These constraints were the ability to perform a large shoulder power and to overcome passive kinetics acting during the downswing. Constraints to action at the level of joint kinetics differentially challenge learners and therefore could underpin more individual, specific learning interventions. Functional phases, defined by maximum hyperextension to flexion of the hips and maximum flexion to extension of the shoulders, did not describe the key joint kinetics of the hip and shoulder for novices. The functional phases may serve however to identify novices that were unable to overcome the passive kinetic constraint

Biomechanical energetic analysis of technique during learning the longswing on high bar

Biomechanical energetic analysis of technique can be performed to identify limits or constraints to performance outcome at the level of joint work, and to assess the mechanical efficiency of techniques. The aim of this study was to investigate the biomechanical energetic processes during learning the longswing on the high bar. Twelve male, novice participants took part in a training study. Kinematic and kinetics data were collected during swing attempts in eight weekly testing sessions. Inverse dynamics analysis was performed from known zero forces at the toes. Joint work, total energy, and bar energy were calculated. Biomechanical constraints to action, that is, limits to novice performance, were identified as “total work” and “shoulder work”. The most biomechanically efficient technique was associated with an onset of the hip functional phase and joint work that occurred between 10–45° before the bottom of the swing. The learning of gross motor skills is realised through the establishment of a set of techniques with task specific biomechanical constraints. Knowledge of the biomechanical constraints to action associated with more effective and efficient techniques will be useful for both assessing learning and establishing effective learning interventions

Investigation of Integrated Subsurface Processing of Landfill Gas and Carbon Sequestration, Johnson County, Kansas

The Johnson County Landfill in Shawnee, KS is operated by Deffenbaugh Industries and serves much of metropolitan Kansas City. Refuse, which is dumped in large plastic-underlined trash cells covering several acres, is covered over with shale shortly after burial. The landfill waste, once it fills the cell, is then drilled by Kansas City LFG, so that the gas generated by anaerobic decomposition of the refuse can be harvested. Production of raw landfill gas from the Johnson County landfill comes from 150 wells. Daily production is approximately 2.2 to 2.5 mmcf, of which approximately 50% is methane and 50% is carbon dioxide and NMVOCs (non-methane volatile organic compounds). Heating value is approximately 550 BTU/scf. A upgrading plant, utilizing an amine process, rejects the carbon dioxide and NMVOCs, and upgrades the gas to pipeline quality (i.e., nominally a heating value >950 BTU/scf). The gas is sold to a pipeline adjacent to the landfill. With coal-bearing strata underlying the landfill, and carbon dioxide a major effluent gas derived from the upgrading process, the Johnson County Landfill is potentially an ideal setting to study the feasibility of injecting the effluent gas in the coals for both enhanced coalbed methane recovery and carbon sequestration. To these ends, coals below the landfill were cored and then were analyzed for their thickness and sorbed gas content, which ranged up to 79 scf/ton. Assuming 1 1/2 square miles of land (960 acres) at the Johnson County Landfill can be utilized for coalbed and shale gas recovery, the total amount of in-place gas calculates to 946,200 mcf, or 946.2 mmcf, or 0.95 bcf (i.e., 985.6 mcf/acre X 960 acres). Assuming that carbon dioxide can be imbibed by the coals and shales on a 2:1 ratio compared to the gas that was originally present, then 1682 to 1720 days (4.6 to 4.7 years) of landfill carbon dioxide production can be sequestered by the coals and shales immediately under the landfill. Three coal--the Bevier, Fleming, and Mulberry coals--are the major coals of sufficient thickness (nominally >1-foot) that can imbibe carbon dioxide gas with an enhanced coalbed injection. Comparison of the adsorption gas content of coals to the gas desorbed from the coals shows that the degree of saturation decreases with depth for the coals

Are you a researcher as well as a medical illustrator?

When we list the areas of practice for medical illustrators we always include research, but how involved in research are we? The aim of this activity is to encourage your professional development not just as a medical illustrator but your involvement with research whether that is undertaking your own research, undertaking evidence based practice (1) , working as part of a research team, advising researchers on the value of medical illustration or supporting a student undertaking a research project for their degree or post-graduate qualification

Diagnosing students' difficulties in learning mathematics

This study considers the results of a diagnostic test of student difficulty and contrasts the difference in performance between the lower attaining quartile and the higher quartile. It illustrates a difference in qualitative thinking between those who succeed and those who fail in mathematics, illustrating a theory that those who fail are performing a more difficult type of mathematics (coordinating procedures) than those who succeed (manipulating concepts). Students who have to coordinate or reverse processes in time will encounter far greater difficulty than those who can manipulate symbols in a flexible way. The consequences of such a dichotomy and implications for remediation are then considered

Identification and characterization of an irreversible inhibitor of CDK2

Irreversible inhibitors that modify cysteine or lysine residues within a protein kinase ATP binding site offer, through their distinctive mode of action, an alternative to ATP-competitive agents. 4-((6-(Cyclohexylmethoxy)- 9H-purin-2-yl)amino)benzenesulfonamide (NU6102) is a potent and selective ATP-competitive inhibitor of CDK2 in which the sulfonamide moiety is positioned close to a pair of lysine residues. Guided by the CDK2/NU6102 structure, we designed 6-(cyclohexylmethoxy)-N-(4-(vinylsulfonyl)phenyl)-9H-purin-2-amine (NU6300), which binds covalently to CDK2 as shown by a co-complex crystal structure. Acute incubation with NU6300 produced a durable inhibition of Rb phosphorylation in SKUT-1B cells, consistent with it acting as an irreversible CDK2 inhibitor. NU6300 is the first covalent CDK2 inhibitor to be described, and illustrates the potential of vinyl sulfones for the design of more potent and selective compounds

Next-generation crossover-free quantum Hall arrays with superconducting interconnections

This work presents precision measurements of quantized Hall array resistance devices using superconducting, crossover-free and multiple interconnections as well as graphene split contacts. These new techniques successfully eliminate the accumulation of internal resistances and leakage currents that typically occur at interconnections and crossing leads between interconnected devices. As a result, a scalable quantized Hall resistance array is obtained with a nominal value that is as precise and stable as that from single-element quantized Hall resistance standards