Engaging Aspirations to Nurture Communities

For subsistence communities, the question is whether aspirations can be applied to motivate behavior that is, on the one hand consistent with people’s aspirations, but which might otherwise be difficult to elicit. Could poorer households be encouraged to save, to spend more on their children’s education, or to act against unhealthy social norms? A couple of examples suggest this is not only possible, but highly successful in contexts where other appeals fail

Confluence of Orthogonal Nominal Rewriting Systems Revisited

Nominal rewriting systems (Fernandez, Gabbay, Mackie, 2004; Fernandez, Gabbay, 2007) have been introduced as a new framework of higher-order rewriting systems based on the nominal approach (Gabbay, Pitts, 2002; Pitts, 2003), which deals with variable binding via permutations and freshness conditions on atoms. Confluence of orthogonal nominal rewriting systems has been shown in (Fernandez, Gabbay, 2007). However, their definition of (non-trivial) critical pairs has a serious weakness so that the orthogonality does not actually hold for most of standard nominal rewriting systems in the presence of binders. To overcome this weakness, we divide the notion of overlaps into the self-rooted and proper ones, and introduce a notion of alpha-stability which guarantees alpha-equivalence of peaks from the self-rooted overlaps. Moreover, we give a sufficient criterion for uniformity and alpha-stability. The new definition of orthogonality and the criterion offer a novel confluence condition effectively applicable to many standard nominal rewriting systems. We also report on an implementation of a confluence prover for orthogonal nominal rewriting systems based on our framework

Reinforcement Learning With Parsimonious Computation and a Forgetting Process

Decision-making is assumed to be supported by model-free and model-based systems: the model-free system is based purely on experience, while the model-based system uses a cognitive map of the environment and is more accurate. The recently developed multistep decision-making task and its computational model can dissociate the contributions of the two systems and have been used widely. This study used this task and model to understand our value-based learning process and tested alternative algorithms for the model-free and model-based learning systems. The task used in this study had a deterministic transition structure, and the degree of use of this structure in learning is estimated as the relative contribution of the model-based system to choices. We obtained data from 29 participants and fitted them with various computational models that differ in the model-free and model-based assumptions. The results of model comparison and parameter estimation showed that the participants update the value of action sequences and not each action. Additionally, the model fit was improved substantially by assuming that the learning mechanism includes a forgetting process, where the values of unselected options change to a certain default value over time. We also examined the relationships between the estimated parameters and psychopathology and other traits measured by self-reported questionnaires, and the results suggested that the difference in model assumptions can change the conclusion. In particular, inclusion of the forgetting process in the computational models had a strong impact on estimation of the weighting parameter of the model-free and model-based systems

Effects of integrating digital visual materials with textbook scans

ABSTRACT This work examines the effects of treating learners in a classroom to digital visual materials on a shared display, while interleaving such materials with scanned copies of relevant textbook pages. Forty-six ninth-grade students in a public school in Bangalore (India) were divided into two groups and given instruction in Science and Literature, the first group (control) being exposed to digital visual materials in both classes while the second (treatment) to the same materials interspersed with digitally-scanned copies of textbook pages. Students in the treatment group outperformed those in the control group on tasks involving recall and recognition of the visual materials (although the gap was significant only for recall-based tasks). Our results suggest that digitized versions of textbooks are useful in improving students" retention of visual materials utilized during classroom instruction

Pointing all around you : selection performance of mouse and ray-cast pointing in full-coverage displays

Funding: SurfNet (NSERC, Canada), EPSRC (Small Equipment Grant).As display environments become larger and more diverse - now often encompassing multiple walls and room surfaces - it is becoming more common that users must find and manipulate digital artifacts not directly in front of them. There is little understanding, however, about what techniques and devices are best for carrying out basic operations above, behind, or to the side of the user. We conducted an empirical study comparing two main techniques that are suitable for full-coverage display environments: mouse-based pointing, and ray-cast `laser' pointing. Participants completed search and pointing tasks on the walls and ceiling, and we measured completion time, path lengths and perceived effort. Our study showed a strong interaction between performance and target location: when the target position was not known a priori the mouse was fastest for targets on the front wall, but ray-casting was faster for targets behind the user. Our findings provide new empirical evidence that can help designers choose pointing techniques for full-coverage spaces.Postprin

A Report on Hydrographic Activities Following the Great East Japan Earthquake

The Great East Japan Earthquake (Mw9.0) on 11 March 2011 accompanied with a huge tsunami of more than 10 meters in height devastated many cities and ports along the Pacific coast of northeastern Japan, and claimed nearly 20,000 lives with many of them still missing. This report reviews actions taken by the Japan Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department (JHOD) after this unprecedented disaster. Immediately after the earthquake, the JHOD carried out hydrographic surveys for the urgent need to help clear the passage in ports due to sunken debris swept away by the tsunami. These surveys have enabled the vessels with relief supplies on board for the affected areas to enter the ports. The JHOD revisited the affected ports for the next stage of hydrographic surveys. These surveys will contribute to revised nautical charts based on new data collected after the earthquake, and includes the ongoing restoration and reconstruction work of quays and port facilities. This stage includes the re-determination of the datum level of the affected ports, which is necessary because of large subsidence being reported in the areas. All of these efforts by the JHOD clearly demonstrate the significance of the hydrographic activities in case of the post-quake emergency situation, not only for the safety of navigation but also for economic recovery

Computing technology in international development: who, what, where, when, why and how

Building on the successes of prior workshops at CHI and other HCI conferences on computing in international development, we propose a panel to engage with the broader CHI community. Topics to be discussed include why international development is important to HCI as a discipline, and how CHI researchers and practitioners who are not already involved in international development can contribute

Radiosynthesis and in vivo evaluation of two imidazopyridineacetamides, [11C]CB184 and [11C]CB190, as a PET tracer for 18 kDa translocator protein: direct comparison with [11C](R)-PK11195

Objective: We report synthesis of two carbon-11 labeled imidazopyridines TSPO ligands, [11C]CB184 and [11C]CB190, for PET imaging of inflammatory process along with neurodegeneration, ischemia or brain tumor. Biodistribution of these compounds was compared with that of [11C]CB148 and [11C](R)-PK11195. Methods: Both [11C]CB184 and [11C]CB190 having 11C-methoxyl group on an aromatic ring were readily prepared using [11C]methyl triflate. Biodistribution and metabolism of the compounds were examined with normal mice. An animal PET study using 6-hydroxydopamine treated rats as a model of neurodegeneration was pursued for proper estimation of feasibility of the radioligands to determine neuroinflammation process. Results: [11C]CB184 and [11C]CB190 were obtained via O-methylation of corresponding desmethyl precursor using [11C]methyl triflate in radiochemical yield of 73 % (decay-corrected). In vivo validation as a TSPO radioligand was carried out using normal mice and lesioned rats. In mice, [11C]CB184 showed more uptake and specific binding than [11C]CB190. Metabolism studies showed that 36 % and 25 % of radioactivity in plasma remained unchanged 30 min after intravenous injection of [11C]CB184 and [11C]CB190, respectively. In the PET study using rats, lesioned side of the brain showed significantly higher uptake than contralateral side after i.v. injection of either [11C]CB184 or [11C](R)-PK11195. Indirect Logan plot analysis revealed distribution volume ratio (DVR) between the two sides which might indicate lesion-related elevation of TSPO binding. The DVR was 1.15 ± 0.10 for [11C](R)-PK11195 and was 1.15 ± 0.09 for [11C]CB184. Conclusion: The sensitivity to detect neuroinflammation activity was similar for [11C]CB184 and [11C](R)-PK11195

Nuclear medicine practice in Japan: a report of the seventh nationwide survey in 2012

Objective The Subcommittee on the Survey of Nuclear Medical Practice in Japan has performed a nationwide survey of nuclear medicine practice every 5 years since 1982 to survey contemporary nuclear medicine practice and its changes over the years. Methods The subcommittee sent questionnaires, including the number and category of examinations as well as the kind and dose of the radiopharmaceuticals during the 30 days of June 2012, to all the nuclear medicine institutes. The total numbers for the year 2012 were then estimated. Results A total of 1,167 institutes responded to the survey, including the 14 in vitro assay institutes and 266 PET centers. The recovery rate was 92 %. The number of gamma cameras installed was 1,425 in total, with 9 % decrease in 5 years. Dual-head cameras and hybrid SPECT/CT scanners accounted for 84 and 10.5 %, respectively. The number of single-photon tracer studies in 2012 was 1.15 million which means decrease in 19 % in 5 years and 29 % in 10 years. All but cerebral perfusion study and sentinel lymphoscintigraphy have decreased. Bone scintigraphy was a leading examination (38.7 %), followed by cardiac studies (29.4 %) and cerebral perfusion study (18.5 %) in order. SPECT studies showed an increase from 42.3 to 47.2 %. PET centers have also increased from 212 to 295, as compared to the last survey. The 135 PET centers have installed one or two in-house cyclotrons. PET studies showed 25.5 % increase in 5 years, with oncology accounting for 96.3 %. 18F-FDG accounted for 98.2 % (505,990 examinations). PET examinations using 11C-methionine have been increasing, with 3,352 examinations in 2012. The number of new PET studies using 11C-PIB PET was 695. 131I-radioiodine targeted therapies showed an increase, including 3,644 patients (53.6 %) for thyroid cancer and 4,889 patients (17.9 %) for hyperthyroidism. Out-patient thyroid bed ablation therapy with 30 mCi of 131I accounted for 21.0 % of cancer patients. The number of admission rooms decreased from 158 to 135 in 5 years. In vitro radioassays have been declining continuously since 1992, with the number of studies of 9.0 million in 2012. Conclusions Single-photon examinations showed a continuous tendency toward a decline in the survey. In contrast, the number of hybrid SPECT/CT scanner examinations has increased. PET/CT study in the oncology field and radionuclide targeted therapy have steadily increased. © 2014 The Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine