Preferences of sixth grade children for certain social studies activities.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

A study to determine the factors which influence primiparas to accept or reject breast feeding

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Stereoscopic distance perception

Limited cue, open-loop tasks in which a human observer indicates distances or relations among distances are discussed. By open-loop tasks, it is meant tasks in which the observer gets no feedback as to the accuracy of the responses. What happens when cues are added and when the loop is closed are considered. The implications of this research for the effectiveness of visual displays is discussed. Errors in visual distance tasks do not necessarily mean that the percept is in error. The error could arise in transformations that intervene between the percept and the response. It is argued that the percept is in error. It is also argued that there exist post-perceptual transformations that may contribute to the error or be modified by feedback to correct for the error

Estimates of persistent inward current in human motor neurons during postural sway

Persistent inward current (PIC) is a membrane property critical for increasing gain of motor neuron output. In humans, most estimates of PIC are made from plantarflexor or dorsiflexor motor units with the participant in a seated position with the knee flexed. This seated and static posture neglects the task-dependent nature of the monoaminergic drive that modulates PIC activation. Seated estimates may drastically underestimate the amount of PIC that occurs in human motor neurons during functional movement. The current study estimated PIC using the conventional paired motor unit technique which uses the difference between reference unit firing frequency at test unit recruitment and reference unit firing frequency at test unit de-recruitment (∆F) during triangular-shaped, isometric ramps in plantarflexion force as an estimate of PIC. Estimates of PIC were also made during standing anterior postural sway, a postural task that elicits a ramped increase and decrease in soleus motor unit activation similar to the conventional seated ramp contractions. For each motor unit pair, ∆F estimates of PIC made during conventional isometric ramps in the seated posture were compared to those made during standing postural sway. Baseline reciprocal inhibition (RI) was also measured in each posture using the post-stimulus time histogram (PSTH) technique. Hyperpolarizing input has been shown to have a reciprocal relationship with PIC in seated posture and RI was measured to examine if the same reciprocal relationship holds true during functional PIC estimation. It was hypothesized that an increase in ∆F would be seen during standing compared to sitting due to greater neuromodulatory input. We found that ∆F estimates during standing postural sway were equal (2.44 ± 1.17, p=0.44) to those in seated PIC estimates (2.73± 1.20) using the same motor unit pair. Reciprocal inhibition was significantly lower when measured in a standing posture (0.0031 ± 0.0251,

Using a game-like task as an assessment of emotion recognition in children.

Facial emotion recognition, the ability to interpret facial expression of emotion, is a core sociocognitive ability which supports successful social interactions and the development of more complex skills in social cognition such as empathy. Deficits in this area can have a negative impact upon children’s performance socially and in education. Despite the importance of this skill most tests of emotion recognition were designed for adults without adaption for children's developmental stage. This study is an exploratory, first phase development of a new test of emotion recognition for children; the Alien Quiz. This test includes two novel additions to emotion recognition assessment for children: a game-like format in the Guess the Alien subtest, and culturally neutral emotion stimuli. Twenty-five children from a mainstream primary school took part in the study to understand whether children apply similar strategies in the Alien Quiz and whether the Alien Quiz could be used as a measure of emotion recognition. Preliminary scoring was developed for allsubtests for the task, novel methods of scoring were developed for the game-like task, traditional scoring was adapted for the other subtests. Content analysis of the Guess the Alien subtest indicated that children used similar patterns of responding within the task and relied upon emotion as a means of categorisation. Descriptive statistics showed that children’s accuracy in identifying core emotions using novel cartoon stimuli was similar to accuracy reported in previous studies. Children expressed that they enjoyed the game-like task more than another task. With amendments noted in the limitations of this study, the Alien Quiz has potential to be used as a measure of emotion recognition for children. Continued research is required in order to assess validity, norms, and reliability of the task prior to its use clinically

The Role of Shrinkage Strains Causing Early-Age Cracking in Cast-in-Place Concrete Bridge Decks

Early-age cracking in cast-in-place reinforced concrete bridge decks is occurring more frequently now than three decades ago and principle factors that lead to early-age deck cracking are not fully understood. A finite element (FE) simulation methodology for assessing the role of shrinkage-induced strains in generating early-age bridge deck cracking is described. The simulations conducted indicate that drying shrinkage appears to be capable of causing transverse (and possibly longitudinal) bridge deck cracks as early as 9 to II days after bridge deck placement. The drying-shrinkage induced stresses would result in transverse cracking over interior pier supports in a typical bridge superstructure considered in the finite element simulations conducted

Ireland’s Rural Environment: Research Highlights from Johnstown Castle

ReportThis booklet gives a flavour of the current research in Teagasc Johnstown Castle Research Centre and introduces you to the staff involved. It covers the areas of Nutrient Efficiency, Gaseous emissions, Agricultural Ecology, Soils and Water quality

A project and competition to design and build a simple heat exchanger

To address a declining interest in process engineering, a project to design and build a compact heat exchanger was initiated in the second year of a four-year, multidisciplinary degree programme in biotechnology. The heat exchangers had a double-pipe configuration and employed plastic outer pipes and copper inner pipes of various diameters. Designs produced ranged from coiled inner pipes to various multi-pass arrangements and were assessed on the basis of heat transfer achieved per unit mean temperature difference per unit cost. The project, which also formed the basis of a competition, was very well received by students and gave them hands-on experience of engineering design and construction, as well as team work, problem solving, engineering drawing and the use of simple tools. Based on the success of this project, a similar problem based learning approach will be initiated in the third year of the same degree programme and will focus on bioethanol production