Verbal analogy problem sets: An inventory of testing materials.

Analogical reasoning is an active topic of investigation across education, artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive psychology, and related fields. In all fields of inquiry, explicit analogy problems provide useful tools for investigating the mechanisms underlying analogical reasoning. Such sets have been developed by researchers working in the fields of educational testing, AI, and cognitive psychology. However, these analogy tests have not been systematically made accessible across all the relevant fields. The present paper aims to remedy this situation by presenting a working inventory of verbal analogy problem sets, intended to capture and organize sets from diverse sources

Ecological thresholds and large carnivores conservation: Implications for the Amur tiger and leopard in China

The ecological threshold concept describes how changes in one or more factors at thresholds can result in a large shift in the state of an ecosystem. This concept focuses attention on limiting factors that affect the tolerance of systems or organisms and changes in them. Accumulating empirical evidence for the existence of ecological thresholds has created favorable conditions for practical application to wildlife conservation. Applying the concept has the potential to enhance conservation of two large carnivores, Amur tiger and leopard, and the knowledge gained could guide the construction of a proposed national park. In this review, ecological thresholds that result from considering a paradigm of bottom-up control were evaluated for their potential to contribute to the conservation of Amur tiger and leopard. Our review highlights that large carnivores, as top predators, are potentially affected by ecological thresholds arising from changes in climate (or weather), habitat, vegetation, prey, competitors, and anthropogenic disturbances. What's more, interactions between factors and context dependence need to be considered in threshold research and conservation practice, because they may amplify the response of ecosystems or organisms to changes in specific drivers. Application of the threshold concept leads to a more thorough evaluation of conservation needs, and could be used to guide future Amur tiger and leopard research and conservation in China. Such application may inform the conservation of other large carnivores worldwide

An analysis of muon showers at large zenith angles

A theoretical model has been constructed in order to explain the known features of near vertical extensive air showers; the intention being to use this model to predict the features of showers at large zenith angles. The adopted model explains satisfactorily the longitudinal development of both the hard and soft components of the shower, but two discrepancies are found when comparison is made with the muon lateral distribution. The first is at small distances from the shower core where the model overestimates the muon density; a solution to this is found to be a reduction in the probability of transverse momentum transfers below 0.1 GeV/c, At large distances from the core and high threshold energies there is a considerable underestimate in the predicted muon densities. Many of the model parameters have been investigated in an effort to find a solution; apart from a drastic change in the model a fit between theory and experiment may be obtained by postulating an increase in the mean transverse momentum. The necessary values are = 0.6 ± 0.2 GeV/c for pion interactions of mean energy ~200 GeV and = 1.0 ± 0.3 GeV/c for interactions of mean energy ~4000 GeV. The Durham Horizontal Extensive Air Shower Array has been used to measure the zenith angle distribution of muon showers at large zenith angles (0 > 45º), and the muon number spectrum for 57.5º ~ 0.8 Gev/c; there is however a discrepancy between the expected frequency of >2 muon events and the observed rate. In order to find a solution to this problem changes are made in the primary flux; the best fit is obtained when the composition is such that protons are predominant for primary energies up to a few times 10(^15) eV, above this the effective mass of the primary flux increases with energy until 10(^17) eV is reached

"She's my best friend and I trust her with my life": A mixed-methods exploration of peer support for personal problems in adolescence and how schools can help.

Research has shown that when young people experience difficulties in their lives, they rely on their friends for support. In the context of an increasing awareness of young people’s mental health, this study examined the phenomenon of peer support among adolescents for personal problems, including serious problems relating to mental ill health. The aims of the study were to: • explore how adolescent peers support one another with personal problems, including mental illness; • explore why adolescents might prefer to disclose personal problems to peers; • explore adolescents’ perceptions of school-based peer support interventions (PSIs); and • inform the future development and implementation of a PSI which adolescents perceive to be useable and effective. The research comprised two phases. Taking a pragmatist approach, I used a combination of traditionally quantitative and qualitative research methods. Phase 1 comprised a confirmatory methodology, using a self-administered questionnaire delivered to 390 Year 9 students at three secondary schools in a local authority in the West Midlands. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and basic content analysis. Part A of the questionnaire elicited data to answer research questions relating to disclosures of personal problems that the participants had received from peers. The results showed that a high proportion of participants regularly discuss problems with peers across a range of domains. The participants had experienced disclosures of problems from friends both online and face-to-face, with females reporting a higher proportion of face-to-face disclosures than males. Part B of the questionnaire presented vignettes of a peer disclosing a difficulty relating to mental illness: depression, anxiety, or self-harm. Each vignette was followed by questions to elicit participants’ responses to the disclosure. Participants generally responded positively. Two thirds of the participants encouraged the friend to tell an adult about the problem, and half asked the friends experiencing depression or self-harm if they had considered suicide. The most commonly reported action was to tell an adult: Family members and school staff were the most frequently specified adults. Participants were moderately confident in responding to the vignettes. Phase 2 comprised an exploratory methodology, using a qualitative research approach: six focus groups with Year 9 students (N = 32) at three secondary schools. In the focus groups, the participants discussed the advantages and disadvantages of three types of PSI, facilitated by the researcher. They were also asked to discuss why they might choose to disclose a problem to a friend, rather than an adult. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants considered the following things when deciding in whom to confide a personal problem: confidentiality, motivation for listening to the problem, understanding of the problem, and feeling comfortable around the disclosee. They reported that PSIs should: be age-appropriate, confidential, and well-used; have a broad impact; involve a high quality of support; avoid unintended negative consequences; and respect the wishes of some young people not to share their problems. Links are made between the two phases, and implications for schools and educational psychologists are considered. The thesis concludes with future directions for study, and the relevance of the findings for the mental health of young people in secondary schools

Client’s Perception of Therapist’s Way-of-Being

The purpose of this research is to investigate how clients’ perception of their therapist’s way of being impacts client engagement during the therapeutic process. By utilizing a common factors perspective, which emphasizes the importance of a strong therapeutic alliance between clients and therapists, the researcher aims to provide empirical evidence supporting the Therapeutic Pyramid Meta-Model. The Meta-Model, which was created by Fife and colleagues (2014), lays the foundation of effective psychotherapy as a therapist’s way-of-being. The meta-model is concurrent with the common factors literature which accounts for almost 30 percent of therapeutic change to therapist-relationship factors. A phenomenological framework, in conjunction with a grounded theory analysis, will be utilized to better understand how clients’ perception of their therapist’s way-of-being effects client engagement during the process of therapy. Qualitative data was collected through participants’ answers to open-ended question during a semi-structured, face-to-face interview

Institutional Constraints Limiting Social Services for Immigrants

This study advances the literature by identifying the factors that constrain the resource provision activities of social service agencies for immigrants. We consider whether and how coercive, mimetic and normative constraints shape organizational practices in this field. Drawing on twenty-five in-depth interviews with social service providers in Utah, we find that despite providers\u27 commitment to serving immigrants, organizations remain significantly constrained due primarily to external coercive constraints including restrictive state laws and increasing competition over limited funding. We conclude by exploring the implications of our findings for policy and practice

Exponential Mixing for a Stochastic PDE Driven by Degenerate Noise

We study stochastic partial differential equations of the reaction-diffusion type. We show that, even if the forcing is very degenerate (i.e. has not full rank), one has exponential convergence towards the invariant measure. The convergence takes place in the topology induced by a weighted variation norm and uses a kind of (uniform) Doeblin condition.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Non-invasive genetic monitoring for the threatened valley elderberry longhorn beetle.

The valley elderberry longhorn beetle (VELB), Desmocerus californicus dimorphus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), is a federally threatened subspecies endemic to the Central Valley of California. The VELB range partially overlaps with that of its morphologically similar sister taxon, the California elderberry longhorn beetle (CELB), Desmocerus californicus californicus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). Current surveying methods are limited to visual identification of larval exit holes in the VELB/CELB host plant, elderberry (Sambucus spp.), into which larvae bore and excavate feeding galleries. Unbiased genetic approaches could provide a much-needed complementary approach that has more precision than relying on visual inspection of exit holes. In this study we developed a DNA sequencing-based method for indirect detection of VELB/CELB from frass (insect fecal matter), which can be easily and non-invasively collected from exit holes. Frass samples were collected from 37 locations and the 12S and 16S mitochondrial genes were partially sequenced using nested PCR amplification. Three frass-derived sequences showed 100% sequence identity to VELB/CELB barcode references from museum specimens sequenced for this study. Database queries of frass-derived sequences also revealed high similarity to common occupants of old VELB feeding galleries, including earwigs, flies, and other beetles. Overall, this non-invasive approach is a first step towards a genetic assay that could augment existing VELB monitoring and accurately discriminate between VELB, CELB, and other insects. Furthermore, a phylogenetic analysis of 12S and 16S data from museum specimens revealed evidence for the existence of a previously unrecognized, genetically distinct CELB subpopulation in southern California

High Performance, Continuously Tunable Microwave Filters using MEMS Devices with Very Large, Controlled, Out-of-Plane Actuation

Software defined radios (SDR) in the microwave X and K bands offer the promise of low cost, programmable operation with real-time frequency agility. However, the real world in which such radios operate requires them to be able to detect nanowatt signals in the vicinity of 100 kW transmitters. This imposes the need for selective RF filters on the front end of the receiver to block the large, out of band RF signals so that the finite dynamic range of the SDR is not overwhelmed and the desired nanowatt signals can be detected and digitally processed. This is currently typically done with a number of narrow band filters that are switched in and out under program control. What is needed is a small, fast, wide tuning range, high Q, low loss filter that can continuously tune over large regions of the microwave spectrum. In this paper we show how extreme throw MEMS actuators can be used to build such filters operating up to 15 GHz and beyond. The key enabling attribute of our MEMS actuators is that they have large, controllable, out-of-plane actuation ranges of a millimeter or more. In a capacitance-post loaded cavity filter geometry, this gives sufficient precisely controllable motion to produce widely tunable devices in the 4-15 GHz regime.Comment: 12 pages 14 figures 2 table