The Probability of Winning at Solitaire: A Preliminary Description of a State-Transition Approach

This paper is the very beginning of a proposal of an approach that may offer a method for solving a currently unsolved problem - calculating the probability of winning at Solitaire. We describe the game as a series of state transitions, from an initial state to a winning state. The state variables and allowable transitions are described, and a list of “next steps” is given. It is hoped that this approach may prove fruitful

Contrasting the Relationships Between Teacher Immediacy, Teacher Credibility, and Student Motivation in Self-Contained and Mass Lecture Courses

Basic communication courses are increasingly taught in mass-lecture formats. Research on teacher verbal immediacy, teacher nonverbal immediacy, teacher credibility, and student motivation has failed to contrast the relationships between these four variables has failed to contrast the relationships between these four variables in different basic course formats. Respondents enrolled in self-contained (n =326) and mass-lecture (n =865) formats of basic communication courses completed surveys measuring these four classroom variables. Results showed that all variables were positively and significantly correlated in both formats. However, four of the six correlation coefficients between teacher verbal immediacy, nonverbal immediacy, teacher credibility, and student motivation were statistically higher in the self-contained format. Verbal immediacy, teacher credibility, and student motivation scores were statistically higher in self-contained formats. These results show that past research has produced some potentially misleading conclusions about these variables. Discussion of the results, suggestions for mass-lecture instructors, and research directions are proposed

Inclusive and adaptive business models for climate-smart value creation

Climate-smart business models target multiple Sustainable Development Goals by fostering agricultural productivity, supporting farm and farmer livelihood resilience, and encouraging climate mitigation. While many business models (cl)aiming to create climate-smart value already exist both in agricultural development and business practice, little scholarly attention has so far been directed toward their functioning. In this paper, we argue that business models need to be inclusive and adaptive to generate climate-smart value equitably for all stakeholders involved and sustainably over time. Inclusivity involves not only providing the poor at the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) with access to resources (e.g. finance, technology, access to markets) in business models but also, according to some scholars, with guaranteeing their representation in decision-making over the use of these resources. Adaptability entails the capacity to smoohtly adjust structures and processes of enterprise-BoP partnerships that underlie business models. We suggest that building inclusive and adaptive climate-smart business models is non-trivial work which, in the future, will require rapid cycles of collective experimentation and reflection between decision-makers in climate-smart business models and researchers studying them.</p

Assessing the Perceived Effectiveness of the Basic Communication Course: An Examination of the Mass-Lecture Format Versus the Self-Contained Format

This article evaluates the most effective and efficient instructional format for basic communication courses. The results of the analysis lend support to the use of the mass-lecture/laboratory format. Although B. Erikson and D. Strommer indicated that feelings of anonymity, common in the large lecture class, diminished motivation, commitment and personal responsibility of the students, this study did not find similar results. Students indicated, across both instructional formats, comparable perceptions of student motivation, teacher nonverbal immediacy and teacher credibility. It appears that the mass-lecture/laboratory format was perceived by students as being as effective as self-contained sections of basic courses

Laser Light Sheet Flow Visualization of the Space Launch System Booster Separation Test

Planar flow visualizations were obtained in a wind tunnel test in the NASA Langley Research Centers Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel using the laser-light-sheet method. This method uses a laser to illuminate fine particles generated in the wind tunnel to visualize flow structures. The test article was designed to simulate the separation of the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) from the core stage of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) at Mach 4 using a scale model. The test was run on of the SLS Block 1B Cargo (27005) configuration and the SLS Block 1B Crew (28005) configuration. Planar flow visualization was obtained only on the crew configuration. Air at pressures up to 1500 psi was used to simulate plumes from the booster separation motors (BSMs) located at the nose, and aft skirt of the two boosters. The facility free stream was seeded with water vapor, which condensed and froze into small ice crystals in the tunnel nozzle expansion. A continuous wave green (532 nm) laser sheet was used to illuminate the ice crystals, and the resulting Mie-scattered light was collected with a camera. The resulting images clearly identify shock waves and other flow features including BSM plume shapes. Measurements were acquired for different BSM pressures and booster separation locations

Computational evidence for an early, amplified systemic inflammation program in polytrauma patients with severe extremity injuries

Extremity and soft tissue injuries contribute significantly to inflammation and adverse in-hospital outcomes for trauma survivors; accordingly, we examined the complex association between clinical outcomes inflammatory responses in this setting using in silico tools. Two stringently propensity-matched, moderately/severely injured (Injury Severity Score > 16) patient sub-cohorts of ~30 patients each were derived retrospectively from a cohort of 472 blunt trauma survivors and segregated based on their degree of extremity injury severity (above or below 3 on the Abbreviated Injury Scale). Serial blood samples were analyzed for 31 plasma inflammatory mediators. In addition to standard statistical analyses, Dynamic Network Analysis (DyNA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used to model systemic inflammation following trauma. Patients in the severe extremity injury sub-cohort experienced longer intensive care unit length of stay (LOS), total LOS, and days on a mechanical ventilator, with higher Marshall Multiple Organ Dysfunction (MOD) Scores over the first 7 days post-injury as compared to the mild/moderate extremity injury sub-cohort. The higher severity cohort had statistically significant elevated lactate, base deficit, and creatine phosphokinase on first blood draw, along with significant changes in multiple circulating inflammatory mediators. DyNA pointed to a sustained role for type 17 immunity in both sub-cohorts, along with IFN-γ in the severe extremity injury group. DyNA network complexity increased over 7 days post-injury in the severe injury group, while generally decreasing over this same time period in the mild/moderate injury group. PCA suggested a more robust activation of multiple pathways in the severe extremity injury group as compared to the mild/moderate injury group. These studies thus point to the possibility of self-sustaining inflammation following severe extremity injury vs. resolving inflammation following less severe extremity injury

The Effect of Leadership Style on Sense of Community and Group Cohesion in Outdoor Pursuits Trip Groups

Outdoor pursuits trip programs are widely popular around the world (Attarian, 2001). Many of these programs are centered in colleges and universities, and may be either academic or extracurricular in nature. Participants in these programs engage in a variety of outdoor adventure recreation activities such as backpacking, canoeing, rock climbing, sea kayaking, and caving. Outcomes of participation in these programs include (among others): enhanced problem solving skills; appreciation of the natural environment; increased self-confidence; accomplishment of common goals and objectives; and the development of positive group experiences and interpersonal relationships (Ewert & McAvoy, 2000; Martin, Cashel, Wagstaff, & Breunig, 2006). These positive group experiences and interpersonal relationships can lead to an enhanced sense of community among group members (Mitten, 1999). Sense of community is characterized by sharing an awareness of group membership, influencing each other, fulfilling needs, and being emotionally connected (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Group cohesion, or sense of belonging, attraction, and unity a group has toward its members (Wilson, 2002), has been found to influence the creation of community, and vice versa (McMillan & Chavis). In essence, when feelings of cohesiveness are present in a group, members tend to feel a greater sense of community. At the same time, those feelings of community enhance group cohesion. Most outdoor pursuits trip groups have a designated leader or instructor. The leader is responsible for the protection of the natural environment, for the safety of the participants, and for enhancing the quality of the experience for the students or participants (Martin et al., 2006). Thus, the outdoor leader is in a unique position to influence the sense of community and group cohesion of that group. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of leadership style on the sense of community and group cohesion of outdoor pursuits trip groups

wuHMM: a robust algorithm to detect DNA copy number variation using long oligonucleotide microarray data

Copy number variants (CNVs) are currently defined as genomic sequences that are polymorphic in copy number and range in length from 1000 to several million base pairs. Among current array-based CNV detection platforms, long-oligonucleotide arrays promise the highest resolution. However, the performance of currently available analytical tools suffers when applied to these data because of the lower signal:noise ratio inherent in oligonucleotide-based hybridization assays. We have developed wuHMM, an algorithm for mapping CNVs from array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) platforms comprised of 385 000 to more than 3 million probes. wuHMM is unique in that it can utilize sequence divergence information to reduce the false positive rate (FPR). We apply wuHMM to 385K-aCGH, 2.1M-aCGH and 3.1M-aCGH experiments comparing the 129X1/SvJ and C57BL/6J inbred mouse genomes. We assess wuHMM's performance on the 385K platform by comparison to the higher resolution platforms and we independently validate 10 CNVs. The method requires no training data and is robust with respect to changes in algorithm parameters. At a FPR of <10%, the algorithm can detect CNVs with five probes on the 385K platform and three on the 2.1M and 3.1M platforms, resulting in effective resolutions of 24 kb, 2–5 kb and 1 kb, respectively