Assessing Introversion and Extroversion in a Second Language Setting

This study aims to create a useful tool for assessing personality in the language classroom by testing a newly created personality test and comparing it’s results to a previously used and well-known tool. Participants in this study were 51 international students enrolled in the English for Academic Purposes program at a Midwestern university. They came from various L2 backgrounds including Chinese and Nepali. The new personality testing too was created by simplifying the existing tool’s language and adding context to each question on the test, so that students are tapping into their personality as a language learner instead of their general personality traits. Students took this newly created test, named the Extroversion/Introversion in Language Learning Test (EILLT), and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) along with an oral language assessment. The researcher compared the results of the three tests looking for correlations. The study showed that the new tool was more effective at assessing personality in the language classroom because it provided statistically significant results when correlating with the language measure while the MBTI did not provide statistically significant results. It also confirmed that participants scored more introverted when they thought of their personality in the language classroom, than when they thought of their overall personality. The researcher recommends the EILLT be utilized by language teachers in the future who want to better understand their students’ personalities so as to best support their students in the classroom

Conditioning the Auditory System With Continuous Versus Interrupted Noise of Equal Acoustic Energy: Is Either Exposure More Protective?

Prior exposure to moderate-level acoustic stimulation (conditioning) can reduce and/or prevent the deleterious effects of subsequent higher level exposures (Canlon et al., 1988; Campo et al., 1991). Both continuous and interrupted schedules of moderate-level noise have been used as conditioning exposures, and both schedules have been effective in providing protection against subsequent noise trauma. However, there is evidence to suggest that continuous noise exposures are more damaging to the cochlea than interrupted exposures of equal acoustic energy (Bohne et al., 1985, 1987), and moderate-level continuous and interrupted noise exposures differ in the pattern of auditory sensitivity change that they produce over time (Carder and Miller, 1972; Miller et al., 1963). A question arises as to whether there are differences in the amount of protection afforded by prior conditioning of the auditory system with moderate-level continuous or interrupted noise. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that differences exist in the amount of protection provided by prior sound conditioning with continuous vs. interrupted, moderate-level noise. Differences were determined by monitoring the changes that occurred in distortion product otoacoustic emission amplitude growth functions subsequent to a traumatizing noise exposure in guinea pigs which had been conditioned with either continuous or interrupted noise of equal acoustic energy. Results suggest that there are significant differences in the degree of protection provided by prior sound conditioning with the continuous and interrupted schedules of moderate-level noise used in this study. Specifically, the interrupted conditioning protocol appears to afford some degree of protection against the damaging effects of the traumatizing noise exposure. However, the frequency region that is protected is limited to frequencies above the noise exposure band. Conversely, there is a lack of any consistent and sizable protective effect found across the entire test frequency range for the continuous sound conditioning protocol. Given the disparate findings of this and other studies, it appears that the protective role of sound conditioning with moderate-level noise is not a straightforward phenomenon and is highly dependent on the noise exposure conditions, animal species, and response measurements studied

Randomised crossover trial of rate feedback and force during chest compressions for paediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Objective: To determine the effect of visual feedback on rate of chest compressions, secondarily relating the forces used. / Design: Randomised crossover trial. / Setting: Tertiary teaching hospital. / Subjects: Fifty trained hospital staff. / Interventions: A thin sensor-mat placed over the manikin's chest measured rate and force. Rescuers applied compressions to the same paediatric manikin for two sessions. During one session they received visual feedback comparing their real-time rate with published guidelines. / Outcome measures: Primary: compression rate. Secondary: compression and residual forces. / Results: Rate of chest compressions (compressions per minute (compressions per minute; cpm)) varied widely (mean (SD) 111 (13), range 89–168), with a fourfold difference in variation during session 1 between those receiving and not receiving feedback (108 (5) vs 120 (20)). The interaction of session by feedback order was highly significant, indicating that this difference in mean rate between sessions was 14 cpm less (95% CI −22 to −5, p=0.002) in those given feedback first compared with those given it second. Compression force (N) varied widely (mean (SD) 306 (94); range 142–769). Those receiving feedback second (as opposed to first) used significantly lower force (adjusted mean difference −80 (95% CI −128 to −32), p=0.002). Mean residual force (18 N, SD 12, range 0–49) was unaffected by the intervention. / Conclusions: While visual feedback restricted excessive compression rates to within the prescribed range, applied force remained widely variable. The forces required may differ with growth, but such variation treating one manikin is alarming. Feedback technologies additionally measuring force (effort) could help to standardise and define effective treatments throughout childhood

A complex adaptive systems approach to the kinetic folding of RNA

The kinetic folding of RNA sequences into secondary structures is modeled as a complex adaptive system, the components of which are possible RNA structural rearrangements (SRs) and their associated bases and base pairs. RNA bases and base pairs engage in local stacking interactions that determine the probabilities (or fitnesses) of possible SRs. Meanwhile, selection operates at the level of SRs; an autonomous stochastic process periodically (i.e., from one time step to another) selects a subset of possible SRs for realization based on the fitnesses of the SRs. Using examples based on selected natural and synthetic RNAs, the model is shown to qualitatively reproduce characteristic (nonlinear) RNA folding dynamics such as the attainment by RNAs of alternative stable states. Possible applications of the model to the analysis of properties of fitness landscapes, and of the RNA sequence to structure mapping are discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, to be published in BioSystems (Note: updated 2 references