The Mediating Role of Cognitive Flexibility in the Influence of Counter-Stereotypes on Creativity

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between counter-stereotypes and creativity, and further explore the mechanism underlying the impact of priming counter-stereotypic information on individual creativity. More importantly, here we have proposed cognitive and emotional dual processing pathways, which may mediate the influences of counter-stereotypes on creativity. Two experiments examined how counter-stereotypes impacted creativity through the dual processing pathways. A total of 152 university students were recruited to test their creativity performance. In Experiment 1, we replicated results of past studies. Participants were randomly allocated to different priming conditions (stereotype or counter-stereotype), in which descriptions of male governors and female nurses served as priming of stereotypes, whereas descriptions of male nurses and female governors served as priming of counter-stereotypes. Measurements of creativity were based on the poster paradigm. The poster paradigm required participants to design a poster for a college fellowship party. In Experiment 2, we recruited 104 participants to examine the mediating roles of emotions and cognitive flexibility. The procedure of Experiment 2 was similar to that of Experiment 1, except for the measurement of creativity, which was Chinese idiom riddle test. Participants who selected more creative answers were more creative, based on the criteria of our experimental design. Also, we included measurements of emotions (i.e., surprise and delight) and cognitive flexibility (using the Cognitive Flexibility Scale) after priming of stereotypes and counter-stereotypes in Experiment 2. We also verified the credibility of our counter-stereotype measurements. The results of Experiment 1—which replicated previous studies—demonstrated that priming of counter-stereotypes promoted creative performance compared with priming of stereotypes in the poster paradigm. However, our proposed dual processing pathways were not fully verified by Experiment 2. The results of this experiment showed that neither surprising nor delighted emotion mediated the influence of counter-stereotypes on creativity, whereas cognitive flexibility did. In conclusion, our current study reveals a mechanism of creative performance in terms of cognitive flexibility, and further inspires us to focus on the positive influence of counter-stereotypes on creativity

Direct Neighborhood Discriminant Analysis for Face Recognition

Face recognition is a challenging problem in computer vision and pattern recognition. Recently, many local geometrical structure-based techiniques are presented to obtain the low-dimensional representation of face images with enhanced discriminatory power. However, these methods suffer from the small simple size (SSS) problem or the high computation complexity of high-dimensional data. To overcome these problems, we propose a novel local manifold structure learning method for face recognition, named direct neighborhood discriminant analysis (DNDA), which separates the nearby samples of interclass and preserves the local within-class geometry in two steps, respectively. In addition, the PCA preprocessing to reduce dimension to a large extent is not needed in DNDA avoiding loss of discriminative information. Experiments conducted on ORL, Yale, and UMIST face databases show the effectiveness of the proposed method

Poly[diaqua­bis(μ-4-carb­oxy-2-propyl-1H-imidazole-5-carboxyl­ato-κ3 N 3,O 4:O 5)calcium(II)]

In the title complex, [Ca(C8H9N2O4)2(H2O)2]n, the CaII atom is eight-coordinated in a distorted square-anti­prismatic environment. The water-coordinated Ca atom is N,O-chelated by the monocarboxyl­ate anion; the carboxyl –CO2 portion engaged in chelation bears an acid hydrogen. The free –CO2 portion engages in bonding to adjacent Ca atoms. The CaII centres are connected through the ligand, forming a layer structure; the layers are linked by hydrogen bonds into a three-dimensional network

Diaqua­bis(5-carb­oxy-2-propyl-1H-imidazole-4-carboxyl­ato-κ2 N 3,O 4)nickel(II) N,N-dimethyl­formamide disolvate

In the title complex, [Ni(C8H9N2O4)2(H2O)2]·2C3H7NO, the NiII atom is six-coordinated by two N,O-bidentate 5-carb­oxy-2-propyl-1H-imidazole-4-carboxyl­ate ligands and two water mol­ecules in a distorted octa­hedral environment. The methyl C and H atoms of the two ligands are disordered over two sets of sites in 0.74 (2):0.26 (2) and 0.57 (8):0.43 (8) ratios. A supra­molecular network is stabilized by intra- and inter­molecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds involving the ligands, coordinated water mol­ecules and dimethyl­formamide solvent mol­ecules

PBL teaching model on cultivating students' clinical thinking in clinical practice teaching of ophthalmology

AIM: To explore the teaching effect of problem-based learning(PBL)on cultivating students' clinical thinking in clinical practice teaching of ophthalmology. METHODS: A total of 141 clinical undergraduate students were selected to attend the ophthalmology course in the first semester of the 2017-2018 academic year, students were randomly assigned to the traditional lecture based learning(LBL)teaching group of 69 and the PBL model teaching group of 72 in the clinical practice class. The two groups of students studied the same courses at the early stage, and there was no statistically significant difference in college entrance examination scores, gender, age, and practice time of ophthalmology(P>0.05). At the end of the internship, the teaching effects of the two teaching methods were compared and analyzed by means of students' curriculum assessment questionnaire survey and the clinical examination results. RESULTS: The evaluation of students' satisfaction with the training of various abilities of the course showed that the satisfaction of each ability of the PBL teaching group was higher than that of the traditional teaching group(LBL). Among these abilities, there were statistically significant differences in learning interest improvement, knowledge expansion ability, problem-solving ability and doctor-patient communication ability(PPCONCLUSION: PBL teaching method is more effective in clinical practice teaching of ophthalmology, which is beneficial to train clinical thinking and improve teaching quality

Luteolin induces hippocampal neurogenesis in the Ts65Dn mouse model of Down syndrome

Studies have shown that the natural flavonoid luteolin has neurotrophic activity. In this study, we investigated the effect of luteolin in a mouse model of Down syndrome. Ts65Dn mice, which are frequently used as a model of Down syndrome, were intraperitoneally injected with 10 mg/kg luteolin for 4 consecutive weeks starting at 12 weeks of age. The Morris water maze test was used to evaluate learning and memory abilities, and the novel object recognition test was used to assess recognition memory. Immunohistochemistry was performed for the neural stem cell marker nestin, the astrocyte marker glial fibrillary acidic protein, the immature neuron marker DCX, the mature neuron marker NeuN, and the cell proliferation marker Ki67 in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Nissl staining was used to observe changes in morphology and to quantify cells in the dentate gyrus. Western blot assay was used to analyze the protein levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and phospho-extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (p-ERK1/2) in the hippocampus. Luteolin improved learning and memory abilities as well as novel object recognition ability, and enhanced the proliferation of neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Furthermore, luteolin increased expression of nestin and glial fibrillary acidic protein, increased the number of DCX+ neurons in the granular layer and NeuN+ neurons in the subgranular region of the dentate gyrus, and increased the protein levels of BDNF and p-ERK1/2 in the hippocampus. Our findings show that luteolin improves behavioral performance and promotes hippocampal neurogenesis in Ts65Dn mice. Moreover, these effects might be associated with the activation of the BDNF/ERK1/2 pathway

Diaqua­bis­(5-carb­oxy-2-propyl-1H-imidazole-4-carboxyl­ato-κ2 N 3,O 4)manganese(II) 3.5-hydrate

In the title complex, [Mn(C8H9N2O4)2(H2O)2]·3.5H2O, the MnII cation is six-coordinated by two N,O-bidentate H2pimda− ligands (H2pimda− = 5-carb­oxy-2-propyl-1H-imidazole-4-carboxyl­ate) and two water mol­ecules in a distorted octa­hedral environment. The complete solid-state structure can be described as a three-dimensional supra­molecular framework stabilized by a wide range of O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The propyl groups of H2pimda− are disordered over two sets of sites with refined occupancies of 0.759 (5):0.241 (5) and 0.545 (7):0.455 (7)

Embedded ZnO nanorods and gas-sensing properties

Regular hexagonal embedded ZnO nanorods were successfully prepared by a simple hydrothermal method. The addition of urea as a homogeneous precursor was found to play a vital role in the embedding of secondary nanorods. The nanostructures were characterized by XRD, SEM, and EDS. The gas-sensing properties of secondary grown embedded nanorods were reported for formaldehyde, ethanol, methanol, acetone, and ammonia at different concentrations and temperatures. A higher response and greater selectivity toward formaldehyde than other gases was observed. A sharp response with the best recovery time was achieved at an optimum temperature of 200 °C

Imaging antiferromagnetic antiphase domain boundaries using magnetic Bragg diffraction phase contrast

Manipulating magnetic domains is essential for many technological applications. Recent breakthroughs in Antiferromagnetic Spintronics brought up novel concepts for electronic device development. Imaging antiferromagnetic domains is of key importance to this field. Unfortunately, some of the basic domain types, such as antiphase domains, cannot be imaged by conventional techniques. Herein, we present a new domain projection imaging technique based on the localization of domain boundaries by resonant magnetic diffraction of coherent x rays. Contrast arises from reduction of the scattered intensity at the domain boundaries due to destructive interference effects. We demonstrate this approach by imaging antiphase domains in a collinear antiferromagnet Fe2Mo3O8, and observe evidence of domain wall interaction with a structural defect. This technique does not involve any numerical algorithms. It is fast, sensitive, produces large-scale images in a single-exposure measurement, and is applicable to a variety of magnetic domain types

Exploring the potential of blended learning to promote retention and achievement in higher education professional study programs

In this paper, we present a blended learning model designed for a university professional study program attended by full-time professional workers, i.e. in-service teachers studying in the field of School Administration. The model integrates four main instructional strategies at the program level: mentoring; participation in an online community of professional learning and practice; collaborative concept-mapping with an object-typed knowledge modeling software, and face-to-face seminars in a work setting. Based on interview and observation data collected during two successive small-scale experimentations of the model, we explored potential factors that could have had an impact on students’ academic retention and achievement. Four types of factors were identified: personal, professional, institutional and pedagogical. We found that pedagogical and professional factors, which are insufficiently considered in theoretical models of student retention, are of primary concern for students who work full-time as professionals. A blended learning model designed at the program level and strongly “situated” in the professional practice of the students is a promising avenue to adjust to their career constraints and aspirations and, thus, promoting their academic retention and achievement