The impact of sound field systems on learning and attention in elementary school classrooms

Purpose: An evaluation of the installation and use of sound field systems (SFS) was carried out to investigate their impact on teaching and learning in elementary school classrooms. Methods: The evaluation included acoustic surveys of classrooms, questionnaire surveys of students and teachers and experimental testing of students with and without the use of SFS. Students ’ perceptions of classroom environments and objective data evaluating change in performance on cognitive and academic assessments with amplification over a six month period are reported. Results: Teachers were positive about the use of SFS in improving children’s listening and attention to verbal instructions. Over time students in amplified classrooms did not differ from those in nonamplified classrooms in their reports of listening conditions, nor did their performance differ in measures of numeracy, reading or spelling. Use of SFS in the classrooms resulted in significantly larger gains in performance in the number of correct items on the nonverbal measure of speed of processing and the measure of listening comprehension. Analysis controlling for classroom acoustics indicated that students ’ listening comprehension score

Lucky or clever? From expectations to responsibility judgments

How do people hold others responsible for the consequences of their actions? We propose a computational model that attributes responsibility as a function of what the observed action reveals about the person, and the causal role that the person's action played in bringing about the outcome. The model first infers what type of person someone is from having observed their action. It then compares a prior expectation of how a person would behave with a posterior expectation after having observed the person's action. The model predicts that a person is blamed for negative outcomes to the extent that the posterior expectation is lower than the prior, and credited for positive outcomes if the posterior is greater than the prior. We model the causal role of a person's action by using a counterfactual model that considers how close the action was to having been pivotal for the outcome. The model captures participants' responsibility judgments to a high degree of quantitative accuracy across three experiments that cover a range of different situations. It also solves an existing puzzle in the literature on the relationship between action expectations and responsibility judgments. Whether an unexpected action yields more or less credit depends on whether the action was diagnostic for good or bad future performance

Investigating the physical properties of transiting hot Jupiters with the 1.5-m Kuiper Telescope

We present new photometric data of 11 hot Jupiter transiting exoplanets (CoRoT-12b, HAT-P-5b, HAT-P-12b, HAT-P-33b, HAT-P-37b, WASP-2b, WASP-24b, WASP-60b, WASP-80b, WASP-103b, XO-3b) in order to update their planetary parameters and to constrain information about their atmospheres. These observations of CoRoT-12b, HAT-P-37b and WASP-60b are the first follow-up data since their discovery. Additionally, the first near-UV transits of WASP-80b and WASP-103b are presented. We compare the results of our analysis with previous work to search for transit timing variations (TTVs) and a wavelength dependence in the transit depth. TTVs may be evidence of a third body in the system and variations in planetary radius with wavelength can help constrain the properties of the exoplanet's atmosphere. For WASP-103b and XO-3b, we find a possible variation in the transit depths that may be evidence of scattering in their atmospheres. The B-band transit depth of HAT-P-37b is found to be smaller than its near-IR transit depth and such a variation may indicate TiO/VO absorption. These variations are detected from 2-4.6$\sigma$, so follow-up observations are needed to confirm these results. Additionally, a flat spectrum across optical wavelengths is found for 5 of the planets (HAT-P-5b, HAT-P-12b, WASP-2b, WASP-24b, WASP-80b), suggestive that clouds may be present in their atmospheres. We calculate a refined orbital period and ephemeris for all the targets, which will help with future observations. No TTVs are seen in our analysis with the exception of WASP-80b and follow-up observations are needed to confirm this possible detection.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, 9 Tables. Light Curves available online. Accepted to MNRAS (2017 August 25

Access to AgriculturalInputs, Technology and Information, Communicating with Farmers,and the Role of Women in Agriculture: Perceptions of Iraqi Extension Agents

The goal of this study was to gain a more comprehensive understanding ofaccess to inputs,technology and information available toIraqi extension agents,and to ascertain current farmercommunication strategies and gender roles within the diverse Iraq agricultural extension system.The conflicts, government policies, and economic sanctions that have enveloped Iraq over thelast several decades have significantly impacted access to agricultural resources. Iraqi extensionpersonnel participating inthe Iraq AgriculturalExtension Revitalization (IAER)programprovided their perspective on the availability of agricultural supplies, technology and relatedinformation. About two-thirds of the extension agents indicated that the flow and availability ofagricultural supplies has become less restricted and generally felt that there was greater accessto basic agricultural information compared to the previous decade. Despite perceivingnoticeable improvement overall in access to agricultural supplies and technology, over 83% ofthe program attendees agreed that access to agricultural inputs was currently insufficient tosuccessfully promote productive agricultural practices. An overwhelming preference for face-to-face communication by both farmers and extension personnel also limits the extent to whichagricultural information can be disseminated. In addition, several regional and gender-baseddifferences emerged.Notably, it appears that farmers donot approachfemaleextensionpersonnel equally, wherein better educated farmers are more likely to interact with femaleextensionagents.We suggest that an approach based on a horizontal exchange of knowledgebetween extension personnel and local farmers, coupled with a better integration of womenextension personnel, will help a revitalized Iraqi extension system achieve greater agriculturalsustainabilit

Acceptability with general orderings

We present a new approach to termination analysis of logic programs. The essence of the approach is that we make use of general orderings (instead of level mappings), like it is done in transformational approaches to logic program termination analysis, but we apply these orderings directly to the logic program and not to the term-rewrite system obtained through some transformation. We define some variants of acceptability, based on general orderings, and show how they are equivalent to LD-termination. We develop a demand driven, constraint-based approach to verify these acceptability-variants. The advantage of the approach over standard acceptability is that in some cases, where complex level mappings are needed, fairly simple orderings may be easily generated. The advantage over transformational approaches is that it avoids the transformation step all together. {\bf Keywords:} termination analysis, acceptability, orderings.Comment: To appear in "Computational Logic: From Logic Programming into the Future

Sequence learning in the human brain: a functional neuroanatomical meta-analysis of serial reaction time studies

Sequence learning underlies numerous motor, cognitive, and social skills. Previous models and empirical investigations of sequence learning in humans and non-human animals have implicated cortico-basal ganglia-cerebellar circuitry as well as other structures. To systematically examine the functional neuroanatomy of sequence learning in humans, we conducted a series of neuroanatomical meta-analyses. We focused on the serial reaction time (SRT) task. This task, which is the most widely used paradigm for probing sequence learning in humans, allows for the rigorous control of visual, motor, and other factors. Controlling for these factors (in sequence-random block contrasts), sequence learning yielded consistent activation only in the basal ganglia, across the striatum (anterior/mid caudate nucleus and putamen) and the globus pallidus. In contrast, when visual, motor, and other factors were not controlled for (in a global analysis with all sequence-baseline contrasts, not just sequence-random contrasts), premotor cortical and cerebellar activation were additionally observed. The study provides solid evidence that, at least as tested with the visuo-motor SRT task, sequence learning in humans relies on the basal ganglia, whereas cerebellar and premotor regions appear to contribute to aspects of the task not related to sequence learning itself. The findings have both basic research and translational implications

Comparing feature matching for object categorization in video surveillance

In this paper we consider an object categorization system using local HMAX features. Two feature matching techniques are compared: the MAX technique, originally proposed in the HMAX framework, and the histogram technique originating from Bag-of-Words literature. We have found that each of these techniques have their own field of operation. The histogram technique clearly outperforms the MAX technique with 5-15% for small dictionaries up to 500-1,000 features, favoring this technique for embedded (surveillance) applications. Additionally, we have evaluated the influence of interest point operators in the system. A first experiment analyzes the effect of dictionary creation and has showed that random dictionaries outperform dictionaries created from Hessian-Laplace points. Secondly, the effect of operators in the dictionary matching stage has been evaluated. Processing all image points outperforms the point selection from the Hessian-Laplace operator

Validation of the spiritual and religious attitudes in dealing with illness (SpREUK) in Portuguese Alzheimer‘s patients

Literature shows that spirituality is a helpful resource for patients to cope with illness, having a positive impact on their quality of life. This study aimed to analyze the psychometric qualities of the Spiritual and Religious Attitudes in Dealing with Illness (SpREUK) using a sample of 128 Portuguese Alzheimer‘s patients. Results showed that the instrument kept its original factorial structure, with a good adjustment and reliability in all subscales, and associations with quality of life and mindfulness. Therefore, the Portuguese version of the SpREUK has appropriate psychometric properties and is an important resource to assess spirituality in Alzheimer’s patients

Inter-molecular structure factors of macromolecules in solution: integral equation results

The inter-molecular structure of semidilute polymer solutions is studied theoretically. The low density limit of a generalized Ornstein-Zernicke integral equation approach to polymeric liquids is considered. Scaling laws for the dilute-to-semidilute crossover of random phase (RPA) like structure are derived for the inter-molecular structure factor on large distances when inter-molecular excluded volume is incorporated at the microscopic level. This leads to a non-linear equation for the excluded volume interaction parameter. For macromolecular size-mass scaling exponents, $\nu$, above a spatial-dimension dependent value, $\nu_c=2/d$, mean field like density scaling is recovered, but for $\nu<\nu_c$ the density scaling becomes non-trivial in agreement with field theoretic results and justifying phenomenological extensions of RPA. The structure of the polymer mesh in semidilute solutions is discussed in detail and comparisons with large scale Monte Carlo simulations are added. Finally a new possibility to determine the correction to scaling exponent $\omega_{12}$ is suggested.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; to be published in Phys. Rev. E (1999