Disentangling the individual and contextual effects of math anxiety: A global perspective

Math anxiety is a common affective disorder in students that is characterized by intrusive thoughts that disrupt critical cognitive resources required for math problem-solving. Consistent associations between math anxiety and math achievement have been observed across countries and age groups, placing math anxiety among other important correlates of math achievement, such as socioeconomic status and magnitude representation ability. However, studies examining math anxiety\u27s relation to achievement have largely focused on the effect of students\u27 own math anxiety (individual effect), while little is known regarding the effect of math anxiety in students\u27 educational context (contextual effect). Using three international studies of achievement (n = 1,175,515), we estimated both the individual and contextual effects of math anxiety across the globe. Results suggest that while there are consistent individual effects in virtually all countries examined, the contextual effects are varied, with only approximately half of the countries exhibiting a contextual effect. Additionally, we reveal that teacher confidence in teaching math is associated with a reduction of the individual effect, and country\u27s level of uncertainty avoidance is related to a lessening of the contextual effect. Finally, we uncovered multiple predictors of math anxiety; notably, student perception of teacher competence was negative related with math anxiety, and parental homework involvement was positively related with math anxiety. Taken together, these results suggest that there are significant between-country differences in how math anxiety may be related with math achievement and suggest that education and cultural contexts as important considerations in understanding math anxiety\u27s effects on achievement

Influence of Stokes number on the velocity and concentration distributions in particle-laden jets

The first measurement of the influence of the Stokes number on the distributions of particle concentration and velocity at the exit of a long pipe are reported, together with the subsequent influence on the downstream evolution of these distributions through a particle-laden jet in co-flow. The data were obtained by simultaneous particle image velocimetry (PIV) and planar nephelometry (PN), using four cameras to provide high resolution through the first 30 jet diameters and also correction for optical attenuation. These data provide much more detailed information than is available from previous measurements. From them, a new understanding is obtained of how the Stokes number influences the flow at the jet exit plane and how this influence propagates throughout the jet.Timothy C. W. Lau and Graham J. Natha

A method for identifying and characterising particle clusters in a two-phase turbulent jet

Abstract not availableTimothy C.W. Lau, Graham J. Natha

The effect of Stokes number on particle velocity and concentration distributions in a well-characterised, turbulent, co-flowing two-phase jet

Published online: 09 November 2016Simultaneous measurements of particle velocity and concentration (number density) in a series of mono-disperse, two-phase turbulent jets issuing from a long, round pipe into a low velocity co-flow were performed using planar nephelometry and digital particle image velocimetry. The exit Stokes number, SkD, was systematically varied over two orders of magnitude between 0.3 and 22.4, while the Reynolds number was maintained in the turbulent regime (10000⩽ReD⩽40000). The mass loading was fixed at ϕ=0.4, resulting in a flow that is in the two-way coupling regime. The results show that, in contrast to all previous work where a single Stokes number has been used to characterise fluid–particle interactions, the characteristic Stokes number in the axial direction is lower than that for the radial direction. This is attributed to the significantly greater length scales in the axial motions than in the radial ones. It further leads to a preferential response of particles to gas-phase axial velocity fluctuations, u′p, over radial velocity fluctuations, v′p. This, in turn, leads to high levels of anisotropy in the particle-phase velocity fluctuations, u′p/v′p>1, throughout the jet, with u′p/v′p increasing as SkD is increased. The results also show that the region within the first few diameters of the exit plane is characterised by a process of particle reorganisation, resulting in significant particle migration to the jet axis for SkD⩽2.8 and away from the axis for SkD⩾5.6. This migration, together with particle deceleration along the axis, causes local humps in the centreline concentration whose value can even exceed those at the exit plane.Timothy C. W. Lau and Graham J. Natha

Taiko: Its Past and Present in Japanese Society

The significance of Taiko in Japanese culture is far beyond being a percussion instrument. “Taiko” also refers to the art of drumming and is claimed to represent the spirit of Japanese people. Since ancient times, Taiko was used in the battlefield, Shinto and Buddhist religious ceremonies, festivals, royal courts, and theatrical arts performance. However, the origin of the Taiko remains unclear as well as its connection with Korean drum. The sacred power of Taiko for Japanese people is difficult to clarify in modern context. Japan is moving toward modernization, while promoting the importance of cultural preservation. It is important to understand the connection of the belief in Taiko that has been passed down since it first evidence appeared in the 6th century in Japan, from generation to generation, and how it survives in this modern Japanese society. To study the norm, performance practices, and its reception by musicians, religious leaders, and the public, an in-depth study of Taiko is necessary. The research, therefore aims to trace back its evolution, value, and its function in Japanese society. Results of the research display Taiko in relation to Japanese legend, development of Taiko, types of Taiko drum, and material used in Taiko manufacturing. More over, through research conducted, the connection of the past and present has provided Taiko with a new function in the modern society including of fusion music, contemporary music composition, and film music. Popular ensembles have brought Taiko to bridge the gap of traditional music of the past and Pop-Rock music of this modern world

The impact of parental migration on health status and health behaviours among left behind adolescent school children in China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One out of ten of China's population are migrants, moving from rural to urban areas. Many leave their families behind resulting in millions of school children living in their rural home towns without one or both their parents. Little is known about the health status of these left behind children (LBC). This study compares the health status and health-related behaviours of left behind adolescent school children and their counterparts in a rural area in Southern China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was conducted among middle school students in Fuyang Township, Guangdong, China (2007-2008). Information about health behaviours, parental migration and demographic characteristics was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Overweight/obesity and stunting were defined based on measurements of height and weight. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to estimate the differences in health outcomes between LBC and non-LBC.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>18.1% of the schoolchildren had one or both parents working away from home. Multivariate analysis showed that male LBC were at higher risk of skipping breakfast, higher levels of physical inactivity, internet addiction, having ever smoked tobacco, suicide ideation, and being overweight. LBC girls were more likely to drink excessive amounts of sweetened beverage, to watch more TV, to have ever smoked or currently smoke tobacco, to have ever drunk alcohol and to binge drinking. They were also more likely to be unhappy, to think of planning suicide and consider leaving home.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings suggest that parental migration is a risk factor for unhealthy behaviours amongst adolescent school children in rural China. Further research is required in addition to the consideration of the implications for policies and programmes to protect LBC.</p

Cross-Domain Association in Metacognitive Efficiency Depends on First-Order Task Types

An important yet unresolved question is whether or not metacognition consists of domain-general or domain-specific mechanisms. While most studies on this topic suggest a dissociation between metacognitive abilities at the neural level, there are inconsistent reports at the behavioral level. Specifically, while McCurdy et al. (2013) found a positive correlation between metacognitive efficiency for visual perception and memory, such correlation was not observed in Baird et al. (2013). One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that the former included two-alternative-forced choice (2AFC) judgments in both their visual and memory tasks, whereas the latter used 2AFC for one task and yes/no (YN) judgments for the other. To test the effect of task on cross-domain association in metacognitive efficiency, we conducted two online experiments to mirror McCurdy et al. (2013) and Baird et al. (2013) with considerable statistical power (n = 100), and replicated the main findings of both studies. The results suggest that the use of task could affect cross-domain association in metacognitive efficiency. In the third experiment with the same sample size, we used YN judgments for both tasks and did not find a significant cross-domain correlation in metacognitive efficiency. This suggests that the cross-domain correlation found in McCurdy et al. (2013) was not simply due to the same task being used for both domains, and the absence of cross-domain correlation in Baird et al. (2013) might be due to the use of YN judgments. Our results highlight the importance of avoiding confusion between 2AFC and YN judgments in behavioral tasks for metacognitive research, which is a common problem in many behavioral studies

Anti-CRISPR-mediated control of gene editing and synthetic circuits in eukaryotic cells.

Repurposed CRISPR-Cas molecules provide a useful tool set for broad applications of genomic editing and regulation of gene expression in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Recent discovery of phage-derived proteins, anti-CRISPRs, which serve to abrogate natural CRISPR anti-phage activity, potentially expands the ability to build synthetic CRISPR-mediated circuits. Here, we characterize a panel of anti-CRISPR molecules for expanded applications to counteract CRISPR-mediated gene activation and repression of reporter and endogenous genes in various cell types. We demonstrate that cells pre-engineered with anti-CRISPR molecules become resistant to gene editing, thus providing a means to generate "write-protected" cells that prevent future gene editing. We further show that anti-CRISPRs can be used to control CRISPR-based gene regulation circuits, including implementation of a pulse generator circuit in mammalian cells. Our work suggests that anti-CRISPR proteins should serve as widely applicable tools for synthetic systems regulating the behavior of eukaryotic cells