Problems in Solution

In practically all ages and times, man's ability to think and solve problems has been measured solely by the products of such thinking and solving. Many scholars have thought that it would be a good idea to set down the mental processes which are typically useful in solving problems of all kinds. This study is a brief survey and discussion of present and past attempts at systematic approaches to problem solving. People who have studied the subject report with surprising unanimity that problem solving can be taught, and agree also on the general outlines of the procedure. Since the processes have been fairly well delineated and agreed upon, it would seem very valuable for a high school teacher will not only improve his own abilities as a problem solver, but also will be able to assist his students to a greater understanding of the process by which a solution is reached. No claims are made for absoluteness; none were expected. Assistance only is the goal.Natural Scienc

Applications of Modular Synthesis in Music & Sound Design for Video Games

Project Objective: Score one minute of gameplay footage and produce fifteen sound effects for a video game solely utilizing the virtual modular synthesizer Reaktor Blocks

Parent Involvement in Young Adults’ Intercollegiate Athletic Careers: Developmental Considerations and Applied Recommendations

Student-athletes have to balance their sport, academic, and social lives during the transition to college and parent involvement is an integral, but potentially problematic, aspect of this transition. The present study investigated how key parent involvement factors may be associated with positive developmental outcomes in NCAA Division I student-athletes. Student-athlete participants (N = 514) were 46% male, ranged in age from 18 to 25 years (M = 19.76, SD = 1.43), and were recruited from athletic departments at two NCAA Division I member-institutions. Participants completed online surveys with items assessing their perceptions of parent involvement (support from parents, contact with parents, academic engagement, athletic engagement) and student-athlete development (academic self-efficacy, athletic satisfaction, well-being, individuation). After controlling for individual and family demographic factors, parent academic and athletic engagement positively predicted student-athlete academic self-efficacy and athletic satisfaction; parent athletic engagement negatively predicted student-athlete depressive symptoms; all aspects of parent involvement were strong negative predictors of emotional independence; support from parents and parent academic engagement were strong negative predictors of functional independence; and support from parents was a negative predictor and athletic engagement a strong positive predictor of student-athletes’ attainment of adult criteria. The present research enhances understanding of the role parent involvement may play in student-athlete development and thus may inform the creation of evidence-based policy and programming at NCAA Division I member-institutions

Effects of climate on occurence and size of large fires in a northern hardwood landscape: historical trends, forecasts, and implications for climate change in Témiscamingue, Québec

Questions: What climate variables best explain fire occurrence and area burned in the Great Lakes-St Lawrence forest of Canada? How will climate change influence these climate variables and thereby affect the occurrence of fire and area burned in a deciduous forest landscape in Témiscamingue, Québec, Canada?\ud Location: West central Québec and the Great Lakes-St Lawrence forest of Canada.\ud Methods: We first used an information-theoretic framework to evaluate the relative role of different weather variables in explaining occurrence and area burned of large fires (4200 ha, 1959-1999) across the Great Lakes- St Lawrence forest region. Second, we examined how these weather variables varied historically in Témiscamingue and, third, how they may change between the present and 2100 according to different scenarios of climate change based on two Global Circulation Models.\ud Results: Mean monthly temperature maxima during the fire season (Apr-Oct) and weighted sequences of dry spells best explained fire occurrence and area burned. Between 1910 and 2004, mean monthly temperature maxima in Témiscamingue showed no apparent temporal trend, while dry spell sequences decreased in frequency and length. All future scenarios show an increase in mean monthly temperature maxima, and one model scenario forecasts an increase in dry spell sequences, resulting in a slight increase in forecasted annual area burned.\ud Conclusion: Despite the forecasted increase in fire activity, effects of climate change on fire will not likely affect forest structure and composition as much as natural succession or harvesting and other disturbances, principally because of the large relative difference in area affected by these processes

Sit-to-Stand Symmetry in Individuals with Hip Pathology

Hip fractures occur approximately in 300K individuals aged 65+ annually post-fall 53.3% will sustain another fall; Mortality rate \u3e 25% The sit-to-stand (STS) task is impacted by hip fractures. vGRF asymmetry with STS post-hip fracture (Houck et al.) Hip fracture side \u3c non-fractured side Asymmetry not fully explained by LE strength in hip fracture nor CV

Linker histone epitopes are hidden by in situ higher-order chromatin structure

Background. Histone H1 is the most mobile histone in the cell nucleus. Defining the positions of H1 on chromatin in situ, therefore, represents a challenge. Immunoprecipitation of formaldehyde-fixed and sonicated chromatin, followed by DNA sequencing (xChIP-seq), is traditionally the method for mapping histones onto DNA elements. But since sonication fragmentation precedes ChIP, there is a consequent loss of information about chromatin higher-order structure. Here we present a new method, xxChIP-seq, employing antibody binding to fixed intact in situ chromatin, followed by extensive washing, a second fixation, sonication and immunoprecipitation. The second fixation is intended to prevent the loss of specifically bound antibody during washing and subsequent sonication and to prevent antibody shifting to epitopes revealed by the sonication process. In many respects, xxChIP-seq is comparable to immunostaining microscopy, which also involves interaction of the primary antibody with fixed and permeabilized intact cells. The only epitopes displayed after immunostaining are the “exposed” epitopes, not “hidden” by the fixation of chromatin higher-order structure. Comparison of immunoprecipitated fragments between xChIP-seq versus xxChIP-seq, should indicate which epitopes become inaccessible with fixation and identify their associated DNA elements. Results. We determined the genomic distribution of histone variants H1.2 and H1.5 in human myeloid leukemia cells HL-60/S4 and compared their epitope exposure by both xChIP-seq and xxChIP-seq, as well as high-resolution microscopy, illustrating the influences of preserved chromatin higher-order structure in situ. We found that xChIP and xxChIP H1 signals are in general negatively correlated, with differences being more pronounced near active regulatory regions. Among the intriguing observations, we find that transcription-related regions and histone PTMs (i.e., enhancers, promoters, CpG islands, H3K4me1, H3K4me3, H3K9ac, H3K27ac and H3K36me3) exhibit significant deficiencies (depletions) in H1.2 and H1.5 xxChIP-seq reads, compared to xChIP-seq. These observations suggest the existence of in situ transcription-related chromatin higher-order structures stabilized by formaldehyde. Conclusion. Comparison of H1 xxChIP-seq to H1 xChIP-seq allows the development of hypotheses on the chromosomal localization of (stabilized) higher-order structure, indicated by the generation of "hidden" H1 epitopes following formaldehyde crosslinking. Changes in H1 epitope exposure surrounding averaged chromosomal binding sites or epigenetic modifications can also indicate whether these sites have chromatin higher-order structure. For example, comparison between averaged active or inactive promoter regions suggests that both regions can acquire stabilized higher-order structure with hidden H1 epitopes. However, the H1 xChIP-seq comparison cannot define their differences. Application of the xxChIP-seq versus H1 xChIP-seq method is particularly relevant to chromatin-associated proteins, such as linker histones, that play dynamic roles in establishing chromatin higher-order structure

Rapid Production of Accurate Embedded-Atom Method Potentials for Metal Alloys

A critical limitation to the wide-scale use of classical molecular dynamics for alloy design is the limited availability of suitable interatomic potentials. Here, we introduce the Rapid Alloy Method for Producing Accurate General Empirical Potentials or RAMPAGE, a computationally economical procedure to generate binary embedded-atom model potentials from already-existing single-element potentials that can be further combined into multi-component alloy potentials. We present the quality of RAMPAGE calibrated Finnis-Sinclair type EAM potentials using binary Ag-Al and ternary Ag-Au-Cu as case studies. We demonstrate that RAMPAGE potentials can reproduce bulk properties and forces with greater accuracy than that of other alloy potentials. In some simulations, it is observed the quality of the optimized cross interactions can exceed that of the original off-the-shelf elemental potential inputs

Parental Involvement Among Collegiate Student-Athletes: An Analysis Across NCAA Divisions

Despite emerging evidence of a link between parental involvement and student-athletes’ (SA) experiences, and the desire for educational programming for parents of these SAs, previous research has been limited to the Division I level. This has prevented the ability to inform, develop, and deliver parent programming across the NCAA’s diverse membership. The present study was designed to descriptively assess SA reports of parental involvement (i.e., support, contact, academic engagement, athletic engagement) across NCAA Division I, II, and III member institutions and examine the potential impact of this involvement on SAs’ experiences (i.e., academic self-efficacy, athletic satisfaction, well-being, individuation). Participants were 455 SAs (53% female; 81% Caucasian; Mage = 19.81, SD = 1.65) from DI (30%), DII (37%), and DIII (33%) institutions, who completed an online survey with items assessing parental involvement and SA experiences. Regarding academic classification, 32% were freshmen, 24% sophomores, 22% juniors, and 22% seniors. Results provide novel evidence for an absence of division-wide differences in average levels of involvement and no variability in links between involvement and SA experiences across divisions. Results complement and extend previous research by offering a clearer understanding of differential associations between involvement and SAs’ experiences regardless of division, notably that involvement bolstered well-being but also strongly detracted from individuation. Findings highlight the importance of developing programs to promote positive and developmentally-appropriate parental involvement across the spectrum of intercollegiate athletics, especially given the absence of evidence-based resources presently offered by the NCAA

Expression of poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) in endometrial adenocarcinoma: Prognostic potential

© 2020 Background: In the United States endometrial carcinoma is the most common female gynecologic malignancy. An average of more than 60,000 new cases of endometrial carcinomas have been diagnosed yearly over the past 5 years, with a higher incidence occurring in the central Appalachian states of Ohio and West Virginia. In the U.S., the national average of newly diagnosed endometrial carcinomas is 26.8 in every 100,000 women, while in the states of Ohio and West Virginia the average is 30.5 and 31.1 in every 100,000 women, respectively. This notable increase in the incidence of endometrial carcinomas may be due a variety of elevated risk factors including but not limited to: tobacco use, obesity, and genetic predisposition of the predominant demographic. The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 55,000 new cases of endometrial carcinoma will be diagnosed in 2020 yet, this disease is widely considered understudied and under-represented in mainstream cancer research circles. Methods: The aim of this study was to quantitate the co-expression of two DNA repair proteins poly-ADP-ribose polymerase 1 and 2 (Parp-1 and Parp-2) by enzyme- linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) in 60 endometrioid endometrial tumor samples and compare their expression to matched non-malignant endometrial tissue from the same corresponding donors from central Appalachia. Results: We found that Parp-1 was significantly overexpressed in endometrial carcinoma relative to corresponding normal tissue. This overexpression implicates Parp inhibition therapy as a possible treatment for the disease. Our results also found a protective effect of native Parp-2 expression in non-malignant endometrial tissue with each 1 ng/mL increase in PARP-2 concentration in normal tissue was associated with a 10 % reduction in the hazard of tumor progression (HR = 0.90; p = 0.039) and a 21 % reduction in the hazard of death (HR = 0.79; p = 0.044). Conclusions: This study demonstrated the over-expression of the druggable target Parp-1 in endometrial adenocarcinoma and observed a strong negative correlation of native Parp-2 expression and disease progression via the quantification of the Parp proteins using enzyme- linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) assays