Name Strategy: Its Existence and Implications

It is argued that colour name strategy, object name strategy, and chunking strategy in memory are all aspects of the same general phenomena, called stereotyping, and this in turn is an example of a know-how representation. Such representations are argued to have their origin in a principle called the minimum duplication of resources. For most the subsequent discussions existence of colour name strategy suffices. It is pointed out that the Berlin†- Kay† universal partial ordering of colours and the frequency of traffic accidents classified by colour are surprisingly similar; a detailed analysis is not carried out as the specific colours recorded are not identical. Some consequences of the existence of a name strategy for the philosophy of language and mathematics are discussed: specifically it is argued that in accounts of truth and meaning it is necessary throughout to use real numbers as opposed to bi-valent quantities; and also that the concomitant label associated with sentences should not be of unconditional truth, but rather several real-valued quantities associated with visual communication. The implication of real-valued truth quantities is that the Continuum Hypothesis of pure mathematics is side-stepped, because real valued quantities occur ab initio. The existence of name strategy shows that thought/sememes and talk/phonemes can be separate, and this vindicates the assumption of thought occurring before talk used in psycho-linguistic speech production models.

Factors affecting patients' trust and confidence in GPs: evidence from the English national GP patient survey.

OBJECTIVES: Patients' trust in general practitioners (GPs) is fundamental to effective clinical encounters. Associations between patients' trust and their perceptions of communication within the consultation have been identified, but the influence of patients' demographic characteristics on these associations is unknown. We aimed to investigate the relative contribution of the patient's age, gender and ethnicity in any association between patients' ratings of interpersonal aspects of the consultation and their confidence and trust in the doctor. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of English national GP patient survey data (2009). SETTING: Primary Care, England, UK. PARTICIPANTS: Data from year 3 of the GP patient survey: 5 660 217 questionnaires sent to patients aged 18 and over, registered with a GP in England for at least 6 months; overall response rate was 42% after adjustment for sampling design. OUTCOME MEASURES: We used binary logistic regression analysis to investigate patients' reported confidence and trust in the GP, analysing ratings of 7 interpersonal aspects of the consultation, controlling for patients' sociodemographic characteristics. Further modelling examined moderating effects of age, gender and ethnicity on the relative importance of these 7 predictors. RESULTS: Among 1.5 million respondents (adjusted response rate 42%), the sense of 'being taken seriously' had the strongest association with confidence and trust. The relative importance of the 7 interpersonal aspects of care was similar for men and women. Non-white patients accorded higher priority to being given enough time than did white patients. Involvement in decisions regarding their care was more strongly associated with reports of confidence and trust for older patients than for younger patients. CONCLUSIONS: Associations between patients' ratings of interpersonal aspects of care and their confidence and trust in their GP are influenced by patients' demographic characteristics. Taking account of these findings could inform patient-centred service design and delivery and potentially enhance patients' confidence and trust in their doctor

Qualitative Interview Questions: Guidance for Novice Researchers

This article, aimed at the novice researcher, is written to address the increased need to develop research protocols or interview guides to meet the requirements set by IRBs and human subjects review committees. When data collection involves conducting qualitative interviews, the instruments include the researcher and the interview questions. The value of the data collected during a qualitative interview depends on the competence of the researcher and the strength of the interview questions. For this reason, it is important to ensure that the interview questions used by novice researchers are appropriate and capable of supporting their efforts to reach their goal of acquiring a detailed answer to the research question. This article expands upon the ideas presented by various authors about the topic of developing robust qualitative interview questions. It provides guidelines that can be used to develop an interview guide that adds structure to the interview process, as well as provides transparency of methods to human subjects review committees and IRBs, while at the same time allows flexibility within the interview process. Various types of interview questions are described and working examples are included

Developing Essential Learning and Study Skills Among Students in STEM Courses at Higher Education Institutions

To prepare students for success in STEM courses it is often necessary to implement measures that assist them with the development of necessary concomitant learning and study skills. Fully engaging students in performance enhancing problem solving activities that promote the sound development of essential critical thinking and logical reasoning skills/abilities is a must. Getting them to incorporate a myriad of high impact learning and study strategies into their daily routines is equally urgent In this session a tried and effective method of accomplishing those objectives is explored and illustrated. Furthermore, post-secondary STEM instructors will be engaged in a cooperative learning activity that simulates desired pedagogical strategies that lead to successfully preparing students for performance excellence in STEM courses. Through an exploration of, and engagement with, suitable assessment methods, participants will also gain an understanding of ways of effectively performing both formative and summative evaluation of the overall process

THE ACUTE EFFECTS OF A GRIP-CONSTRAINT TOOL ON UPPER BODY AND RACKET KINEMATICS DURING TENNIS FOREHANDS

The purpose of this study was to compare the acute effect of a grip-constraint tool on upper body and racket kinematics during tennis single-handed forehand strokes. Upper-body and racket kinematics for two grip conditions, Preferred (self-selected) and Grip-constraint tool (fixed semi-western forehand grip) were captured for eleven tennis players using a 22-camera Vicon motion capture system (240 Hz). Using a grip-constraint tool resulted in a more closed racket face tilt (~4°) at ball impact while having variations in joint rotations across the shoulder, elbow and wrist. This possibly demonstrates the participant’s ability to self-organise compensatory angular rotations across the upper limb to achieve similar impact orientations. Collectively, these data demonstrate the acute responses to modifying grip technique using a grip-constraint tool during single-handed down-the-line forehands

Identification of differentially distributed gene expression and distinct sets of cancer-related genes identified by changes in mean and variability.

There is increasing evidence that changes in the variability or overall distribution of gene expression are important both in normal biology and in diseases, particularly cancer. Genes whose expression differs in variability or distribution without a difference in mean are ignored by traditional differential expression-based analyses. Using a Bayesian hierarchical model that provides tests for both differential variability and differential distribution for bulk RNA-seq data, we report here an investigation into differential variability and distribution in cancer. Analysis of eight paired tumour-normal datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas confirms that differential variability and distribution analyses are able to identify cancer-related genes. We further demonstrate that differential variability identifies cancer-related genes that are missed by differential expression analysis, and that differential expression and differential variability identify functionally distinct sets of potentially cancer-related genes. These results suggest that differential variability analysis may provide insights into genetic aspects of cancer that would not be revealed by differential expression, and that differential distribution analysis may allow for more comprehensive identification of cancer-related genes than analyses based on changes in mean or variability alone

Novel Cold-Adapted Lipase from Marine Plankton, Salpa thompsoni

Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full description