text
stringlengths 305
469k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 16
1.04k
| file_path
stringlengths 125
126
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.66
1
| token_count
int64 67
108k
| score
float64 2.52
4.91
| int_score
int64 3
5
| __index_level_0__
int64 0
3.75k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
All artists experience times when they yearn to create yet find themselves unable. Writers, in particular, seem to struggle with this. They even have a term for it in the OED – and it isn’t called “Dancer’s Block”.
From a scientific standpoint, why might accessing creativity be harder for writers? Recent studies in neuroscience posit an answer: The tension termed “writer’s block” arises, in part, from the paradox of needing sensory stimuli to evoke and sustain the brain wave state conducive to (and required for) creativity and innovation. The tools and rituals surrounding writing do not, in themselves, evoke this. Therein lies the rub.
Emotions reside in the senses, and it is via the senses the brain wave state conducive to creativity gets accessed, yet the act of writing takes place primarily in the head. Blowing into an Ecuadorian flute or twirling in toe shoes are, by contrast, embodied activities that engage more of the senses.
Language, the writer’s primary tool, is abstract. The phrase “a blade of grass” may call to mind an image, but the phrase is not an actual blade of grass; you cannot smell it or feel its texture. Translating the sensory into the abstract may be a writer’s job, yet words remain once removed.
Since writers use language to converse and keyboards to compose everything from texts to grocery lists, it makes it harder for the brain to associate these tools exclusively with the act of creative writing. And, since it’s challenging to leave such ubiquitous tools behind, there’s no equivalent of walking away from a studio or canvas at the end of the day.
Dancers warm their bodies with stretches and pliés. Musicians tune instruments and practice scales. In many disciplines, such preparatory rituals are associated exclusively with one creative act and serve to activate a mindset conducive to creativity. The ramp-up process to writing does not automatically do so, especially when it consists of little more than sitting down and telling yourself: “Now, write!”
It isn’t called dancer’s block because a dancer dances herself out of being blocked via the sensory rhythmic nature of the activity itself. Dancing sustains creativity’s optimum brain wave frequency in much the way painting does. Writing doesn’t require as much physical activity; therefore, it does not perpetuate itself as easily.
Composers, filmmakers and choreographers must externalize ideas quickly so collaborators can begin working with them. Solitude can prolong the gestation period for projects. If a deadline and audience are not in place, writers risk tinkering endlessly while their counterparts in different disciplines refine realized visions.
Writers tend to favor verbal and analytical approaches to solving creative challenges, writer’s block chief among them. Yet fear responds poorly to logic. In order to work optimally as a survival mechanism, our limbic system must trigger a freeze, flight or fight response before the brain has had the opportunity to process what triggered the fear in the first place.
Breakthroughs in brain imaging have delivered hard evidence of what writers have long suspected: different brain wave frequencies inhibit or facilitate different cognitive behaviors such as focus, creativity or relaxation. The tension termed “writer’s block” results from an incompatibility between brain wave state and desired activity.
|Brain Wave States
|STATE: FREQUENCY (cycles/second): ASSOCIATED WITH:
|High Beta (20-28+ Hz): second-guessing, over-analysis, vigilance, fear.
|Beta (16.5 – 20 Hz): focus, concentration, problem-solving.
|SMR (12.5-15 Hz): creativity, innovation, connection, flow.
|Alpha (8-12.5 Hz): relaxation, creativity without loss of awareness.
|Theta (4-7 Hz): daydream, pre-sleep, deep meditation.
|Delta State: (1-4 Hz): loss of consciousness, sleep.
Few things induce a high beta state in writers more reliably than sitting down and saying, “Now, create!” Yet once in this state, writers experience decreased activity in areas of the brain conducive to creative writing and increased activity in areas of the brain that inhibit innovation. Even when they follow the butt-in-chair advice of mentors, the resulting experience may be unpleasant enough for the brain to associate writing with stress, sabotaging future attempts.
So, how can individuals overcome writer’s block? The ideal frequency for creative thought is referred to as SMR – an alpha state activated by sensory motor rhythm. Writers can drop into this from a high beta state via any sensory activity practiced for as little as two minutes. Since writing rituals either feed a high-beta state or build a bridge to SMR, a writer should not skip sensory activities any more than a dancer should skip stretching prior to a performance.
Creativity guru Jeffrey Davis hits the yoga mat prior to writing sessions. Classic and contemporary authors from William Wordsworth to Stephen King have considered long walks as much a part of their process as time spent at the page. Nancy C. Andreasen, a neuroscientist who has spent decades studying creativity in writers, notes in her Atlantic feature “Secrets of the Creative Brain” that writers reported their most innovative ideas tended to strike when the mind was relaxed.
Whether it’s weeding the garden or walking the dog . . . learn what activates idea flow for you.
Need a title? Visit a gallery to see how paintings are titled. Wish to bring characters more fully to life? Note how choreographers position actors on stage at the start and end of scenes. Some writing professors go so far as to have students build architectural models to visually represent the structure of novels. Exploring ways to make drafting more visual, auditory or kinesthetic aids unblocking.
Writing longhand is an easy method of establishing a better mind-body connection. Studies confirm handwriting engages different parts of the brain than does typing, improving idea generation. For die-hard techies, a program called OM Writer incorporates background colors and sound into a word processing application, while Hanx Writer replicates the clickety-clack of keystrokes and “ding!” of the carriage return, like an old manual typewriter.
Jennifer Egan composed her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit From the Goon Squad longhand on legal pads, in an upholstered chair far from her computer, which she reserves for revision. If you typically work in an office, head outdoors. If you do business on a laptop, try drafting in a journal. If handwriting isn’t an option, employ a different colored font – anything to set creative work apart from other types of writing.
If you light an orange-blossom candle or brew a pot of Café Verona prior to each writing session, and never at other times, neuroscience suggests that within three weeks, the scent of orange blossoms or taste of coffee will trigger the urge to write, much like the conditioned response to eat that turning on the TV triggers in those who habitually dine in front of the screen. Since you’re creating rituals around your writing, consciously or not, why not put association to work on your behalf?
Set aside a block of time in which to write (say, 30 minutes) and tackle no more than one specific task per session. The writer Robert Boswell outlines a system of transitional drafting doing exactly this. A task might be: go through and make Billy’s ten lines of dialogue sound more like he’s from Kentucky. Not: revise this piece so it’s ready for The New Yorker. Use your phone timer timer as a means of concluding, and allow yourself the gift of feeling satisfied if you show up. Remember: the goal is to create a positive association in the brain that you can get writing tasks done in half an hour.
Brain science confirms we’re more likely to perform a task if it is for someone other than ourselves. A deadline and audience work wonders for turning a dream into a completed draft. Join a workshop, hire a writing coach or editor or partner with a buddy to whom you report and from whom can receive compassionate support.
While getting out of the head and into the body may be more challenging for writers than for artists in other disciplines, it is the most rewarding practice we can undertake to improve our writing within the shortest period. Given that the human brain’s response to stress is unconscious, the most effective route around writer’s block might be a circuitous one.
Ready to achieve your writing goals?
Explore our one-on-one coaching services that provide accountability, expert feedback and encouragement through each stage of the writing process.
– For an in-depth look at how brain science impacts writing, explore Rosanne Bane’s Around the Writer’s Block.
– For a thoughtful examination of how writers might access flow more easily, pick up Robert Olen Butler’s From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction.
an Arizona-based editor who turns ideas into art. Need to get your book publication-ready? | <urn:uuid:d4e1234a-739c-4f5d-9517-810d1c193edc> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://writingcycle.com/the-writing-process/neuroscience-on-writers-block/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474746.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228211701-20240229001701-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.923378 | 1,910 | 2.53125 | 3 | 200 |
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini’s Story
Frances Xavier Cabrini was the first United States citizen to be canonized. Her deep trust in the loving care of her God gave her the strength to be a valiant woman doing the work of Christ.
Refused admission to the religious order which had educated her to be a teacher, she began charitable work at the House of Providence Orphanage in Cadogno, Italy. In September 1877, she made her vows there and took the religious habit.
When the bishop closed the orphanage in 1880, he named Frances prioress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Seven young women from the orphanage joined her.
Since her early childhood in Italy, Frances had wanted to be a missionary in China but, at the urging of Pope Leo XIII, Frances went west instead of east. She traveled with six sisters to New York City to work with the thousands of Italian immigrants living there.
She found disappointment and difficulties with every step. When she arrived in New York, the house intended to be her first orphanage in the United States was not available. The archbishop advised her to return to Italy. But Frances, truly a valiant woman, departed from the archbishop’s residence all the more determined to establish that orphanage. And she did.
In 35 years, Frances Xavier Cabrini founded 67 institutions dedicated to caring for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick. Seeing great need among Italian immigrants who were losing their faith, she organized schools and adult education classes.
As a child, she was always frightened of water, unable to overcome her fear of drowning. Yet, despite this fear, she traveled across the Atlantic Ocean more than 30 times. She died of malaria in her own Columbus Hospital in Chicago.
The compassion and dedication of Mother Cabrini is still seen in hundreds of thousands of her fellow citizens who care for the sick in hospitals, nursing homes, and state institutions. We complain of increased medical costs in an affluent society, but the daily news shows us millions who have little or no medical care, and who are calling for new Mother Cabrinis to become citizen-servants of their land.
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini is a Patron Saint of:
Hospital Administrators Immigrants Impossible Causes | <urn:uuid:a8461b6f-35f3-4656-aba9-b62db8e43020> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.usacatholickid.com/post/saint-of-the-day-11-13-21-saint-frances-xavier-cabrini-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474746.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228211701-20240229001701-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.970551 | 474 | 2.859375 | 3 | 201 |
If the Human Genome Project has taught us anything, it is that we humans are, genetically, virtually identical: our DNA is more than 99.9 percent the same. Yet despite this underlying sameness, each of us is different—in appearance, in chemistry, and, most importantly, in our minds. In the same way that rows of houses built from the same basic plan can differ in details, furnishings and decorations, so human similarity must give way to individuality, to each of us having a mind of our own.
How does this occur? What is the process that makes each human a unique individual—largely the same, yet different from every other? Speculations arise from all corners, running the gamut from physics to metaphysics. Some search the commonly accepted view of our evolutionary history for an answer. Did something unusual happen to Homo sapiens between the days of hunting and gathering across the plains and the ordering of take-out meals via the office telephone?
Or does the answer lie within the equally mystifying “soul,” thought by many to be a self-existent and self-conscious essence imparted by God at man’s creation? While the Bible doesn’t attempt to provide a scientific explanation for human individuality, it does supply a vital dimension to our understanding of the subject. The apostle Paul, writing to the first-century followers of Christ in Corinth, also used the analogy of buildings as he pointed out a key aspect of our individuality: “You are God’s building. . . . As a wise master builder I have laid the foundation. . . . But let each one take heed how he builds on it” (1 Corinthians 3:9–10, emphasis added).
Personal responsibility for building your “house” on a right foundation? The idea seems a million miles removed from the science of the mind and the brain. The two are actually much more closely related, however, than one might expect. A closer look at the science may help shed light on a key spiritual concept.
There is ample reason to believe that the physical structure of the brain is important in human individuality. Although research has not yet found any cellular, molecular or physiological difference between human and animal brain structure, neurobiologists are making significant headway into the question of consciousness and human uniqueness.
Of course, science is foremost a materialist enterprise and is therefore limited to exploring the physical, observable aspects of mental function. A spiritual dimension is not within the realm of scientific hypothesis. What neuroscience is revealing, however, is that the physical brain possesses the unique capacity to integrate information in a way that generates self-awareness and individuality. Who we are, it is telling us, is more a matter of the choices we make than of whatever instincts we possess.
Professor Joseph LeDoux of New York University’s Center for Neural Sciences outlines much of our current understanding in Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are (2002). He believes brain research is showing that the physiology of the brain itself, the synergy of synaptic connections between neurons, produces human self-awareness, the awareness of being a person.
In this LeDoux is amplifying an “astonishing hypothesis” postulated a decade ago by Nobel laureate Francis Crick and his colleague, Christof Koch; namely, that human behavior and consciousness seem to find their physiological foundation within the network of connections between brain cells. Writing in The Astonishing Hypothesis, Crick extrapolated from research concerning human visual perception to conclude that human individuality is found in the “complex, ever-changing pattern of interactions of billions of [nerve cells], connected together in ways that, in their details, are unique to each one of us.”
While acknowledging that consciousness is an unexplained property, Crick anticipated that further research would pinpoint the physiological seat of free will, possibly in neural tissue located just behind the forehead. In keeping with his materialist viewpoint—that everything stems from matter and is therefore physical—he found it astonishing that anyone would think otherwise. The idea that science would not ultimately dispel what he called “fuzzy folk notions” created by nonscientific thinking was, to him, ridiculous.
It comes as no surprise, then, that Crick would pronounce a person to be “no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”
Wonders of Self-Awareness
While the anticipated tissue or “module” of free will remains undiscovered, a more accurate understanding of how information is integrated throughout the brain is emerging. Taking the familiar “I think, therefore I am” statement from René Descartes to its logical next step, LeDoux seeks to explore the complexities of “How do I know I think?” At the heart of this elusive quest is the concept of “self.” All animals have a self, but only some are self-aware, says LeDoux. “The existence of a self is a fundamental concomitant of being an animal,” he believes. “All animals, in other words, have a self, regardless of whether they have the capacity for self-awareness.”
Taking the familiar “I think therefore I am” statement from René Descartes to its logical next step, LeDoux seeks to explore the complexities of “How do I know I think?”
LeDoux describes this capacity for self-awareness as the integration of what he calls the implicit self, the inner, unconscious workings of the brain; and the explicit self, our conscious knowledge of self.
Through heredity and experience, every human brain becomes uniquely “wired.” This wiring allows our minds to physically function; we perceive, integrate, store and retrieve, all without realizing we are doing it. Because the actual processing of these myriad synaptic connections and the memory they store is unconscious, LeDoux calls it implicit, a hidden process. It is the “self” LeDoux believes is found in all animals.
How we consciously describe or see ourselves, on the other hand (our understanding of who we are), is our explicit self. It is our personal vision of self, created through what LeDoux labels “working memory.” It is here that sensory information is integrated and analyzed in conjunction with memory—where the implicit mind meets the world. The result is conscious awareness and the capacity to connect the present with the past, which is what defines human decision making.
The synaptic chatter that results in our conscious view of self is bewilderingly complex. Imagine the neurons of the brain as all the cell phones across the planet. Then think of each phone sending a tone to every other one at the same time and the result being not an atonal squawk but a symphony.
Research concerning the processing of sensory input in conjunction with short- and long-term memory—all linked through synaptic space—shows that all areas of the brain are engaged simultaneously. Averaging 1,400 cubic centimeters, the volume of the human brain is only about 1.4 liters (the equivalent of six or seven cups of coffee). Yet the amount of synaptic traffic constantly traversing that space is enormous. Like the imagined symphony, we are truly greater than the sum of our (mental) parts.
How the explicit self actually arises from the implicit remains a mystery, but LeDoux offers his best estimate: “Life requires many brain functions, functions require systems, and systems are made of synaptically connected neurons. We all have the same brain systems, and the number of neurons in each brain system is more or less the same in each of us as well. However, the particular way those neurons are connected is distinct, and that uniqueness, in short, is what makes us who we are.”
You Are What You Think
As complex as the science is, the conclusion is rather obvious: we are the product of our thoughts. “If a thought is a pattern of neural activity in a network,” explains LeDoux, “not only can it cause another network to be active, it can also cause another network to change, to be plastic.”
As complex as the science is, the conclusion is rather obvious: we are the product of our thoughts.
This plasticity can be both a frightening and a heartening scenario. How we choose to behave and think, and what we choose to view and take into our mind, affects not only our present reality but also (implicitly) the wiring of our brain. We have the capacity to condition ourselves: our character is under our own control. “With thoughts empowered this way,” notes LeDoux, “we can begin to see how the way we think about ourselves can have powerful influences on the way we are, and who we become.” In other words, science is beginning to recognize that we are, to a greater or lesser extent, personally responsible for who we are and what we become. This is reminiscent of something Solomon said nearly 3,000 years ago: “As [a person] thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
A Curse or a Blessing?
LeDoux notes that “one’s self-image is self-perpetuating.” Some, however, find danger in this self-perpetuation: when things go wrong, people often go from bad to worse. Some feel that our individuality is what has led to the strife and conflict that is evident throughout human history, and they labor under a sense of hopelessness as a result. Is the uniqueness of “self” effectively a curse? Will it serve only to create barriers between people and all other life?
Such is the opinion voiced by Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard. In discussing the unique features of human consciousness, LeDoux quotes from Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: “It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator—our very self-consciousness—is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures.”
This is an unfortunate and mistaken conclusion, however. Even as science delves more deeply into determining what it is to be human physiologically, a greater question remains: Is there purpose in this unique human malleability that makes us so different from the animals? Although the materialist approach assures us that evolutionary processes are responsible for our mental structure, many biologists find no satisfactory Darwinian explanation for how the human mind became unique among mammals. Why did these functions evolve? This is a question that LeDoux recognizes “concerns historical facts that are not easily verified scientifically.”
Is there purpose in this unique human malleability that makes us so different from the animals?
The answer requires rethinking Dillard’s lament. Are the differences and unique qualities that separate humankind from the rest of creation actually a curse? Or is our conflicted existence the result of something else? The truly astonishing hypothesis is that these qualities of consciousness, self-awareness and plasticity in fact make it possible for humans to form a right relationship both with the rest of creation and with the Creator.
It is heartening to understand that the human mind has the capacity to change. We are not fated to a hard-wired future or inescapably doomed to a downhill run. We experience, learn and act. We have the capacity to evaluate the consequences of our behavior. LeDoux recognizes that our physiology does not condemn us. “[It] doesn’t mean that we’re simply victims of our brains and should just give in to our urges,” he says. “It means that downward causation [the cascade from thought to action] is sometimes hard work. Doing the right thing doesn’t always flow naturally from knowing what the right thing to do is.”
While the unconscious processes underlying change may be unknown to science (and may well occur in ways that lie beyond the ability of the sciences to dissect), the inescapable conclusion is that we are not organisms that live by instinct. We are born not knowing who we are; we learn. And in learning, we begin to make choices that will establish our character and our values. Indeed, a successful future hinges on the development of sound character. But this can be done only on an individual basis.
The God-given capacity to change our character from the inside out is not divisive. It is not a curse. It is, in fact, our Creator’s greatest gift. The Bible refers to this kind of change as repentance: recognizing where we are wrong and choosing, with God’s help, to behave differently. The apostle Paul wrote that it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).
God long ago gave humanity a set of laws to act as a regulatory system against which to evaluate our choices. Those laws were intended to be internalized in each human mind (Deuteronomy 6:6–8), enabling us to be individually responsible for our actions. And we each will reap the results of the choices we make. As the prophet Ezekiel wrote, “The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:20).
Writers of the Bible were not neuroscientists; indeed, they had little if any physiological understanding at all. But they conveyed a powerful message regarding how the moral framework of the mind was to be established. When we, as individuals, begin using the standards of our Creator in measuring and aligning the foundation of our character, we will find a contentment that is otherwise elusive. Adherence to those standards will result in the building and maintaining of well-furnished and harmonious mental homes, each individual and unique, yet each compatible and at peace with all others. | <urn:uuid:933b095e-733e-4ac0-8b37-5097421bc7a5> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.vision.org/rethinking-our-mental-framework-677 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475203.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301062009-20240301092009-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.950779 | 2,914 | 3.109375 | 3 | 202 |
Emotions are ubiquitous in the conduct of military strategy. Although strategic studies scholarship has increasingly emphasized the importance of emotions, their treatment in the field lacks a clear research focus. This paper offers a basis for thinking about the role of emotions in military strategy. More specifically, there are three main areas that lie at the intersection of emotions and military strategy that deserve our attention. These areas include the character of war and emotional stimuli, emotional influence on strategic choices, and the relationship between emotional manipulation and the pursuit of victory. By directing the attention of scholars to the salient role of emotions in strategic practice, this paper provides a stepping stone for systematic research in this area that will contribute to improvements in the conduct of strategy.
Emotions are integral to all human endeavor, although this has not always been accepted. As late as the 1980s, philosopher Jerome Shaffer observed that “from a rational and moral point of view, I can see no possibility of a general justification of emotion. And it is easy enough to imagine individual lives and even a whole world in which things would be much better if there were no emotion.”1 The subsequent decades of psychological research have proven him wrong.2 We now know that emotions are necessary for people to navigate the uncertainty and complexity of the world. Emotions make us care about things that are relevant to our well-being and survival. Even more, they enable us to choose between competing values and objectives at any given moment. They help us to construct our temporary objectives and to pursue them in ways appropriate to a given situation. There is now strong evidence available that people without the capacity to experience emotions are unable to run their lives effectively.3 In the words of the primatologist Frans de Waal, “emotions may be slippery, but they are also by far the most salient aspect of our lives. They give meaning to everything.”4 Emotions clearly provide meaning to various aspects of our social activities, including war.
Several academic fields concerned with the study of war have increasingly relied on emotion sciences to correct their assumptions and enhance the real-world relevance of their work. The field of international relations, for example, experienced a significant “emotion turn” two decades ago.5 The initial forays were soon followed by a stream of special journal issues, edited volumes, and monographs on empirical, theoretical, and methodological issues related to the study of emotions and international relations.6 Meanwhile, political psychologists have enhanced our knowledge about the role of emotions in domestic politics, which is the mainspring of war.7 Critical security studies scholars have incorporated emotion research into their research on deterrence and securitization, both salient aspects of security in the contemporary world.8 Peace and conflict studies scholars have also emphasized the relevance of emotions to war termination.9 The field of emotion history has gained much attention recently, even among military historians.10 Simultaneously, lively interdisciplinary debates have been raging about the phenomenon of collective emotions.11 These trends demonstrate how recent research on emotions from the fields of psychology and neuroscience can significantly contribute to academic progress in other fields.
Despite this progress, we know little about how emotions matter with regard to the practice of military strategy, which is the pursuit of victory through military power.12 The little that we do know about the role of emotions in military strategy comes from classical strategy scholars, most of them diligent followers of Carl von Clausewitz, who considered emotions to be integral to strategic practice.13 Colin Gray, an irredeemable Clausewitzean, emphasized that emotions are part and parcel of strategic conduct. However, due to his broad research scope, he rarely went beyond vague assertions about the importance of emotions to the human dimension of strategy.14 More in-depth investigations of the issue have only occurred in the last few years. For example, Kenneth Payne explored the topic in several works. In particular, he shed light on how emotions affect decision-making in war and how the gradual integration of AI into militaries may limit the role of emotions in war.15 From a different perspective, Michael Rainsborough has shown how differently the West and the East think about manipulating emotions for strategic purposes.16 From yet another angle, my own work has explored the relationship between specific emotions and the adversary’s will to fight and theorized ways in which these emotions can be elicited in strategic practice.17 Most recently, Lukas Milevski studied how the conduct of battle, or its imminent prospect, can elicit different emotions in commanding generals and how these emotions then affect decision-making and behavior.18 Meanwhile, Isabelle Duyvesteyn and James E. Worrall have argued that the field of strategic studies has to incorporate the study of emotions if it is to remain relevant.19 All these treatments have revealed important insights about the role of emotions in military strategy, but they were piecemeal efforts rather than systematic approaches. Since military strategy tends to be a highly emotional phenomenon, the role of emotions in strategic practice requires more disciplined attention. | <urn:uuid:a72ecc32-dc25-4409-a2f9-91fa89bc8080> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://mikewasimos.medium.com/emotions-and-ration-69cfc42bef4a?source=author_recirc-----1f5f52853e8e----2---------------------79a928ea_190d_40ad_9370_16fb560336a2------- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707948234904.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20240305092259-20240305122259-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.948566 | 1,013 | 2.71875 | 3 | 203 |
Trauma's Rewrite: How Traumatic Experiences Reshape the Brain
The human brain, an intricate tapestry of neurons and synapses, is the epicenter of our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. But what happens when the threads of this delicate fabric are subjected to traumatic experiences? Over the years, there has been a growing interest in understanding how trauma, whether stemming from a single event or prolonged exposure, can reshape the very structure and function of the brain.
Trauma comes in many forms – from the acute shock of a car accident to the enduring pain of childhood abuse, from the horrors witnessed in combat to the silent scars of emotional neglect. Regardless of its origin, trauma has the potential to leave an indelible mark on the brain's landscape, altering the way we perceive the world, process information, and even regulate our basic physiological responses.
The intersection of neuroscience and psychology has brought about a remarkable shift in our understanding of trauma's impact on the brain. With advancements in neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), researchers have been able to peer into the intricate web of neural connections and observe how trauma can potentially disrupt this delicate balance.
Neural Plasticity and Trauma: Rewiring the Brain
Neural plasticity, the brain's remarkable ability to adapt and rewire itself, lies at the heart of how traumatic experiences leave a lasting impact on our minds. This phenomenon underscores the brain's capacity to forge new neural pathways, strengthen connections, and even weaken existing circuits based on our life experiences. In the aftermath of trauma, this process takes center stage, both as a mechanism for healing and as a potential source of distress.
Adaptive and Maladaptive Plasticity: Responses to Trauma
The brain's response to trauma involves a delicate dance between adaptive and maladaptive forms of plasticity. Adaptive plasticity allows the brain to reorganize itself in an effort to cope with new circumstances, which can include traumatic events. This can manifest as the formation of new neural connections, the reinforcement of existing ones, and changes in the efficiency of synapses – the tiny gaps between neurons. However, alongside these adaptive changes, the brain can sometimes undergo maladaptive plasticity, leading to unintended alterations in neural circuits that give rise to dysfunctional responses to trauma.
Neurotransmitters and Synaptic Changes: Chemical Basis of Plasticity
At the core of neural plasticity's influence after trauma are neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that facilitate communication between neurons. Trauma-related events can trigger the release of neurotransmitters such as glutamate and norepinephrine, which play significant roles in strengthening neural connections, especially in regions like the amygdala. Consequently, changes in neurotransmitter levels can set the stage for lasting modifications in synaptic strength and the excitability of neurons.
Synaptic Pruning and Structural Modifications: Adapting to Traumatic Experiences
Similar to the way neural circuits undergo changes during brain development, traumatic experiences can lead to a phenomenon known as synaptic pruning. In this process, some synapses are strengthened while others are eliminated, resulting in the rewiring and optimization of neural pathways. Structural changes, including dendritic growth or retraction, further shape how information is processed and emotions are regulated in response to trauma.
Experience-Dependent Plasticity: The Role of Traumatic Memories
Traumatic memories play a pivotal role in experience-dependent plasticity – the brain's adaptation based on specific experiences. This involves intricate interactions between the amygdala and hippocampus, where memories are encoded and consolidated. Changes in these regions, stemming from trauma, can heighten emotional responses and lead to the persistence of intrusive memories, contributing to the complex aftermath of traumatic events.
Fear Conditioning and Fear Extinction: Manipulating Plasticity
Fear conditioning is a process through which the brain learns to associate stimuli with traumatic events. Conversely, fear extinction involves unlearning these associations. Both processes heavily rely on neural plasticity and are targeted in therapeutic approaches such as exposure therapy. By controlled and gradual exposure to trauma-related cues, fear responses can be rewired, promoting recovery.
Habituation vs. Sensitization: Divergent Trauma Responses
Two divergent responses to trauma-driven neural plasticity are habituation and sensitization. Habituation refers to a decrease in response to a repeated stimulus over time. Sensitization, on the other hand, involves intensified responses with repeated exposure. Trauma can induce either of these responses, contingent upon factors like the type of trauma and individual susceptibility.
Neuroplasticity and Treatment Approaches: Harnessing the Brain's Potential
Therapeutic interventions capitalize on the brain's neuroplastic potential for healing. Cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBT) aim to rewire maladaptive thought patterns and behaviors by fostering adaptive plasticity. Exposure therapies guide the brain to unlearn fear responses through gradual confrontation with trauma-related triggers, illustrating how the interplay between neural plasticity and treatment strategies is pivotal for recovery.
Neurogenesis and Trauma: Creating New Neurons Amidst Challenges
Continuing throughout life, neurogenesis – the birth of new neurons – occurs primarily in the hippocampus. However, trauma-related stress hormones like cortisol can impact neurogenesis, potentially influencing memory and mood regulation. Factors such as regular exercise, social interaction, and enriched environments can bolster neurogenesis after trauma, providing avenues for promoting recovery.
In understanding the dynamic relationship between neural plasticity and trauma, we gain insights into both the brain's capacity for adaptation and its vulnerabilities. By appreciating the potential for both constructive and adverse plasticity, researchers and therapists can tailor interventions to guide the brain toward healing, resilience, and a renewed sense of mental well-being.
Navigating Trauma's Impact on Memory, Emotions, and Thinking
Trauma leaves an indelible mark on the brain, affecting not only how we remember events but also how we experience emotions and engage in cognitive processes. This intricate interplay involves the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex, each contributing to our response to traumatic experiences.
- Hippocampus and Memory Processing: Making Sense of Traumatic Events
The hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure nestled deep within the brain, holds a crucial role in encoding, consolidating, and retrieving memories. When confronted with trauma, the hippocampus can undergo alterations that impact memory processes. Some traumatic memories may be etched with intense clarity, resulting in vivid flashbacks that intrude upon daily life. Paradoxically, others might become fragmented or challenging to access, leading to gaps in the narrative of the traumatic event.
These changes can influence how individuals interpret and recount their traumatic experiences. Fragmented memories may blur the sequence of events or even cause confusion about the exact details. In contrast, highly vivid memories can lead to the re-experiencing of trauma through intrusive thoughts, nightmares, and emotional distress. This complex interplay between memory and trauma highlights the hippocampus's central role in shaping our understanding of and emotional responses to traumatic events.
- Amygdala and Emotional Responses: Amplifying Fear and Anxiety
The amygdala, situated deep within the brain's temporal lobe, is responsible for processing emotions, particularly fear and anxiety. In the wake of trauma, the amygdala can become hyperactive, leading to heightened emotional responses. This can result in an increased sensitivity to trauma-related cues, as well as a heightened state of alertness even in non-threatening situations.
Individuals who have experienced trauma might find themselves on high alert, interpreting innocuous situations as potential threats. This hyperarousal can lead to persistent anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and even physical symptoms like a racing heart or rapid breathing. The amygdala's role in amplifying emotional responses underscores the challenges faced by those dealing with trauma-related emotional dysregulation.
- Prefrontal Cortex and Executive Functions: Navigating Life Post-Trauma
The prefrontal cortex, situated at the brain's frontal lobes, oversees executive functions – cognitive processes that enable us to plan, make decisions, regulate emotions, and control impulses. Trauma's impact on this region can disrupt these vital functions, leading to difficulties in navigating daily life.
Individuals who have experienced trauma might struggle with decision-making, finding it hard to assess risks and benefits accurately. Emotion regulation can become challenging, leading to heightened emotional reactions or difficulty managing distress. Impulse control may be compromised, potentially resulting in risky behaviors or substance use as maladaptive coping mechanisms.
The intricate dance between these brain regions – the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex – highlights how trauma's impact extends beyond mere memory recall. The emotional and cognitive consequences of trauma underscore the need for comprehensive therapeutic approaches that address these interconnected challenges. By understanding how trauma shapes memory, emotions, and thinking, clinicians and individuals can work together to foster healing and resilience in the face of adversity.
Developmental Trauma: Shaping the Young Brain
Childhood, a time of innocence and exploration, lays the foundation for the rest of our lives. Yet, when traumatic experiences punctuate this crucial phase, the developing brain can undergo lasting alterations that shape emotional, cognitive, and social functioning. This phenomenon, known as developmental trauma, sheds light on the profound impact adverse experiences can have on the young brain's intricate architecture.
Vulnerability during Critical Periods
During childhood, the brain exhibits remarkable plasticity, adapting and refining its neural circuits in response to experiences. However, this period of heightened plasticity also makes young brains particularly vulnerable to the effects of trauma. Traumatic events during crucial developmental stages can disrupt the establishment of healthy neural pathways, potentially leading to enduring difficulties in emotional regulation, social interaction, and cognitive processing.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Brain Development
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which encompass abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, and other traumas, can have far-reaching consequences on brain development. The developing brain might wire itself to cope with a hostile or unpredictable environment, leading to hypervigilance, heightened stress responses, and impaired trust in others.
Neural circuits responsible for emotional regulation might be disrupted, contributing to mood disorders like depression and anxiety. Additionally, ACEs can impact the developing brain's stress response system, potentially leading to an exaggerated fight-or-flight response that persists into adulthood.
Attachment and Social Functioning
Attachment, the deep emotional bond formed between children and caregivers, is pivotal for healthy brain development. Developmental trauma can disrupt this attachment, leading to insecure attachments that affect relationships throughout life. The young brain's wiring for trust, empathy, and social cues might be altered, influencing interpersonal interactions and emotional intimacy.
Long-Term Consequences and Resilience
Developmental trauma's impact can extend into adulthood, affecting mental health, substance abuse tendencies, and even physical health outcomes. However, the brain's plasticity also opens windows of opportunity for healing and resilience. Therapeutic interventions, supportive relationships, and positive experiences can promote the rewiring of neural pathways, aiding in the reestablishment of healthier brain functions.
Early Interventions for Lasting Impact
Recognizing the vulnerabilities of young brains to developmental trauma underscores the importance of early interventions. Providing children who have experienced trauma with safe environments, stable relationships, and therapeutic support can mitigate the long-term effects of trauma. By addressing trauma's impact on brain development early, society can break the cycle of adversity and pave the way for healthier futures.
In understanding developmental trauma's influence on the young brain, we gain insights into the complexities of childhood experiences. By nurturing safe and supportive environments, we can help shape the trajectories of young lives, fostering resilience and ensuring that trauma need not define the course of a child's development.
Healing from Trauma: Navigating the Path to Recovery
Recovery from trauma is a journey that often requires professional guidance and support. Therapeutic approaches provide individuals with effective tools to process trauma, reframe experiences, and rebuild their lives.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Restructuring Thoughts and Behaviors
CBT helps individuals identify and challenge distorted thoughts related to trauma, replacing them with more balanced perspectives.
Gradual and controlled exposure to trauma-related cues helps desensitize emotional responses, allowing individuals to confront and process their fears.
CBT equips individuals with coping strategies to manage anxiety, triggers, and negative emotions stemming from trauma.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Processing Traumatic Memories
EMDR utilizes rhythmic eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation to facilitate the brain's processing of traumatic memories.
Through EMDR, distressing memories are gradually desensitized, leading to reduced emotional charge and enhanced emotional regulation.
The therapy aids in reprocessing traumatic memories, transforming them into more adaptive narratives that alleviate emotional distress.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT): Tailoring CBT for Trauma
TF-CBT educates individuals about trauma, its effects, and coping strategies to normalize their responses and reduce self-blame.
Creating a coherent narrative of the traumatic experience fosters understanding and acceptance, reducing avoidance behaviors.
Like CBT, TF-CBT incorporates exposure techniques to confront and process trauma-related memories and emotions.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Emotion Regulation and Coping Skills
DBT emphasizes mindfulness techniques to promote present-moment awareness, reducing rumination and emotional reactivity.
Individuals learn to identify, understand, and manage intense emotions triggered by trauma, fostering emotional stability.
DBT equips individuals with healthy coping mechanisms to tolerate distressing emotions without resorting to maladaptive behaviors.
Group Therapy and Peer Support: Building Connections
Group therapy provides a safe space for individuals to share their trauma experiences and connect with others who can relate.
Being part of a supportive group validates individuals' feelings, reducing isolation and fostering a sense of belonging.
Group members can share coping strategies, offering practical tools for managing trauma-related challenges.
These therapy modalities exemplify the multifaceted approaches available to individuals seeking healing from trauma. By engaging in therapy tailored to their needs, individuals can embark on a journey of recovery, transforming their relationship with trauma, fostering resilience, and regaining control over their lives.
Discover your inner resilience and rewrite your narrative through therapy. Embrace a nurturing environment to heal, grow, and overcome life's obstacles. Experience the MindPeers app, offering over 100 therapists and more, to support you on your journey through life's challenges. Begin your path to well-being today. | <urn:uuid:3385f8ad-15cf-4df3-8553-3c1f17311c08> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://blog.mindpeers.co/traumas-rewrite-how-traumatic-experiences-reshape-the-brain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473690.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222030017-20240222060017-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.902989 | 3,011 | 2.96875 | 3 | 204 |
Antioxidants were introduced in the early 1990s when scientists discovered the role of free radicals in the early stage of atherosclerosis. They explored the beneficial effects of antioxidants in other diseases like cancer, vision loss, and other chronic conditions.
Normal cellular functions result in the production of free radicals. Antioxidants detoxify endogenous and exogenous free radicals. Antioxidants scavenge free radicals and detoxify them by promoting their decomposition.
This article reviews the role of antioxidants in tissue damage caused by free radicals, the antioxidant defense system, the biochemical functions of Antioxidants, and their clinical role.
What Are Antioxidants?
Antioxidants are a group of substances in a low concentration that inhibit the oxidation of oxidizable substances. Antioxidants prevent cellular damage from free radicals (including reactive oxygen species ROS and reactive nitrogen species RNS) by deactivating and destabilizing them to maintain optimal health. Oxygen is a highly reactive atom that forms potentially threatening free radicals.
Production of free radicals increases from exposure to smoke, pollution, cigarette, stress, and exercise, contributing to oxidative stress. Antioxidants neutralize oxidative stress to maintain a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle and homeostasis. They have anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties. Antioxidants provide a wide range of protection against chronic diseases, including aging, anemia, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, heart diseases, and inflammation.
There are hundreds of Antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids, selenium, manganese, glutathione, lipoic acid, phenols, phytoestrogen, flavonoids, polyphenols, and coenzyme Q10.
Sources of Antioxidants:
Antioxidants are classified as endogenous and exogenous antioxidants, natural and synthetic antioxidants, water-soluble or lipid-soluble, and enzymatic or non-enzymatic antioxidants.
Natural antioxidants are present in plant-derived foods, animals, and microorganisms. Orange, red, and purple-colored fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants. These include lemons, blueberries, red beans, plums, Broccoli, prunes, and oranges.
Vitamins C and E are natural antioxidants. Vitamin C contains ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid. These vitamins are present in fruits and vegetables. Carotenoids are present in carrot juice and carrot sauce.
Role of Antioxidants in the maintenance of Health:
Ascorbic acid in vitamin C has the ability to neutralize superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. It can also regenerate α tocopherol, collagen, neurotransmitters, and carnitine. Vitamin E is a lipid-soluble vitamin that prevents lipid peroxidation and neutralizes ROS. Vitamin E contains tocopherols, mainly α tocopherol, that removes peroxyl radicals.
Carotenoids, especially lycopene, quench singlet oxygen and peroxy radicals. It protects against prostate cancer.
Phenolic compounds possess anticarcinogenic properties. Flavonoids play a critical role in cell signaling pathways. They have high redox potential. They protect against UV light, oxidative stress damage, pathogens, fungal parasites, and herbivores. Flavonoids prevent cancer and heart diseases and decrease their incidence.
Therapeutic potential of Antioxidants
Antioxidants have several significant therapeutic benefits. A few of them are as follows:
Cardiovascular Health Benefits:
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are responsible for atherosclerosis, cardiomyopathy, ischemia, heart failure, and ventricular remodeling. Antioxidants play a critical role in “redox homeostasis.” Several antioxidants, such as CoQ10, vitamin C, beta carotene, vitamin E, lycopene, resveratrol, and quercetin, possess numerous preventive and therapeutic benefits. They decrease the incidence of cardiovascular diseases.
Antioxidants and Cancer:
During radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer treatment, free radicals and reactive oxygen species are produced. Radiotherapy leads to lesions and DNA damage. Antioxidants reduce the adverse effects and toxicity of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This improves the efficacy of cancer treatment.
Several chemotherapeutic agents target cell signaling pathways and generate reactive oxygen species. Several antioxidants like glutathione, melatonin, vitamins, selenium, and carotenes increase the efficacy of anticancer drugs like cisplatin and oxaliplatin.
Antioxidants and Neurodegenerative diseases:
Antioxidants like polyphenols decrease oxidative stress in neural cells. Oxidative stress is responsible for development of neurodegenerative disease. These neurodegenerative diseases include Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson’s disease.
Role of Antioxidants in Endometriosis:
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) affect normal physiological functions and lead to problems like endometriosis and infertility. Oxidative stress promotes the development of endometriosis. Antioxidants detoxify reactive oxygen species and other free radicals to reduce the severity of endometriosis.
How Do ANF Antioxidant Devices Help Patients?
ANF Antioxidant devices include a Glutathione device, a carnosine device, and a melatonin device. Glutathione device keeps the liver healthy and functional. Applying AGL to our liver in holistic or orthopedic practices is necessary. Its effect on the liver is similar to its effect on the bronchi and respiratory systems. Combining the glutathione device with the melatonin device doubles its effect. Melatonin is the mother of glutathione. Melatonin deficiency leads to low levels of glutathione. The highest glutathione production occurs until 20 years of age, so that you can help your patients with glutathione devices.
Carnosine is a component of the immune system. It is the only oxidant that repairs nerves, increases cell division, and repairs muscles and tissues after the resolution of inflammation. Carnosine device prevents premature aging and shortens healing time. Low carnosine can cause stomach problems. Carnosine device breaks down arthrosis, prevents skeletal problems, and renews skeletal cells. It helps grow muscles and tissues and removes lactic acid from muscles.
How to Get Started with ANF As a Healthcare Professional?
ANF therapy®️ does not use any drugs, machines, or instruments. You can regulate your patient’s nervous system by applying ANF devices directly on the skin and initiating a self-healing and automated process.
ANF therapy®️ is a holistic approach integrated with the knowledge of the human body’s anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, and neuroscience.
ANF Academy offers access to the FREE Pain Mastery Webinar to all healthcare professionals eager to grow their knowledge and practice!
Take this quiz to find out if you are qualified to join: | <urn:uuid:3ef7f874-57cb-4a34-a1e0-4a1e38b0801f> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.anfacademy.com/clinical-importance-of-antioxidants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474653.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20240226062606-20240226092606-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.873207 | 1,456 | 3.78125 | 4 | 205 |
This lesson describes the principles underlying functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), tractography, and parcellation. These tools and concepts are explained in a broader context of neural connectivity and mental health.
In this lesson, you will hear about some of the open issues in the field of neuroscience, as well as a discussion about whether neuroscience works, and how can we know?
This lesson characterizes different types of learning in a neuroscientific and cellular context, and various models employed by researchers to investigate the mechanisms involved.
In this lesson, you will learn about different approaches to modeling learning in neural networks, particularly focusing on system parameters such as firing rates and synaptic weights impact a network.
This lesson describes the fundamentals of genomics, from central dogma to design and implementation of GWAS, to the computation, analysis, and interpretation of polygenic risk scores.
This lesson contains the slides (pptx) of a lecture discussing the necessary concepts and tools for taking into account population stratification and admixture in the context of genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The free-access software Tractor and its advantages in GWAS are also discussed.
This lesson is an overview of transcriptomics, from fundamental concepts of the central dogma and RNA sequencing at the single-cell level, to how genetic expression underlies diversity in cell phenotypes.
This is the first of two workshops on reproducibility in science, during which participants are introduced to concepts of FAIR and open science. After discussing the definition of and need for FAIR science, participants are walked through tutorials on installing and using Github and Docker, the powerful, open-source tools for versioning and publishing code and software, respectively. | <urn:uuid:d22c2093-3b64-4cf6-8d7a-99cd2101fa34> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://training.incf.org/search?f%5B0%5D=difficulty_level%3Aadvanced&f%5B1%5D=difficulty_level%3Aintermediate&f%5B2%5D=lesson_type%3A26&f%5B3%5D=topics%3A21&f%5B4%5D=topics%3A34&f%5B5%5D=topics%3A39&f%5B6%5D=topics%3A60&f%5B7%5D=topics%3A63&f%5B8%5D=topics%3A72&f%5B9%5D=topics%3A75&f%5B10%5D=topics%3A77&f%5B11%5D=topics%3A196&f%5B12%5D=topics%3A275&%3Bf%5B1%5D=topics%3A63&%3Bpage=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474676.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227153053-20240227183053-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.910725 | 352 | 2.78125 | 3 | 206 |
While online and remote education may not be synonymous, today's new remote educators can benefit from the "lessons learned" by experienced online educators to provide high-quality, engaging learning experiences for their students.
As faculty have endeavored to get traditional campus-based courses up and running remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, the immediate needs of sharing course content with students, delivering lectures, and providing access to course materials were likely the top priorities. This approach makes sense, especially in the preparatory period before a class begins or when an instructor is getting ready to shift from on-campus to remote instruction. However, it's important not to stop there. Providing access to content is a great first step, but access on its own does not make for a quality learning experience. Engaging students is essential for promoting a deep understanding of course content. But how can we engage students in remote learning environments?
There has already been discussion in the higher education community about how online education and remote instruction are not synonymous. Online educators, sensitive to skepticism about the efficacy of online education, are concerned that faculty who have negative perceptions of online education will associate problems with emergency remote education with non-emergency online course design and teaching. Higher education professionals have cautioned against equating remote and online delivery methods.1
While online and remote education may not be synonymous, today's new remote educators can benefit from the "lessons learned" by experienced online educators who are providing high-quality, engaging learning experiences for their students. The one "lesson learned" I see as the most significant for faculty as they begin to teach from a distance is to consider the new learning environment from a student-centered perspective.
Many online educators have found that a helpful way to think about teaching in a student-centered fashion is to focus on creating three forms of interaction for students in the online environment:
- Student-content interaction, where instructors provide active learning experiences for students (meaningful learning activity plus reflection)
- Student-student interaction, where instructors structure the learning community and make it clear to students how they should interact with others in the class
- Student-instructor interaction, where instructors create a framework for how they will interact with students during the learning experience
These three forms of interaction don't happen spontaneously. They require planning, intention, and instructional design. Furthermore, these three types of interaction aren't prescriptive—they do not require the use of a particular type of learning activity or assessment. Through these interactions, we are reaching for broad goals that can be achieved in many different ways.
Finally, it's important to recognize that the three forms of interaction do not require a specific set of enterprise-wide educational technologies. To put a student-centered approach to teaching into action, educators need to take stock of the tools and technologies they have available and then ask themselves three questions about how to use them.
Three Questions to Consider in Student-Centered Remote Teaching
To take a student-centered approach to remote teaching, consider the tools you have at your disposal, and ask three questions about your course:
- How will my students interact with the course content? Beyond reading, listening to/viewing lectures, what will students actually DO with the course content? And how can they do so in their homes?
- How will my students interact with other students? Beyond completing assignments and assessments independently, how will students work together to ensure that they feel like they are part of a learning community and have the opportunity to collaborate, think critically, be intellectually challenged, and make meaning with others? And how can students work with others while they are isolated in their homes?
- How will my students interact with me, their instructor? Now that you aren't in the classroom with your students, how will students be able to interact with you? How might you guide student learning while also being flexible and trying to accommodate different student needs? What assignment expectations do you need to convey? What information do you need to clarify for students?
Asking these questions can help you see the course from the student's point of view and think about remote instruction in a new way. When preparing a course for remote delivery, sharing course content online can feel overwhelming. It can be helpful to extend your thinking beyond content delivery to these three forms of student interaction.
In online course design, a lot of time and effort is invested in creating an architecture of engagement where these three forms of interaction can take place. The current health crisis has not allowed for the amount of development time any of us would have preferred, but there are some easy-to-implement instructional methods that you can use to help encourage student engagement when delivering courses remotely.
Student-content interaction is all about having students DO something with the course content or topic. Reading and listening to lectures will be part of many classes, but the passive receipt of information isn't sufficient to help students engage with the course and meet course learning outcomes. Instead, we should create opportunities for active learning, which is when students DO something meaningful related to the course content and then reflect on their learning.
After students complete a course reading, ask them to do a follow-up assignment. Here are a few examples:
- Write a summary.
- Create an annotated visual on a PowerPoint slide that shows your key take-away from the reading.
- List five of your take-aways and one question you have based on the reading.
- Identify what you as a reader find to be the clearest point in the reading and the muddiest point
- Diagram a process.
- Make an infographic.
- Write an op-ed based on the content.
After students attend a synchronous lecture via web conference, ask them to complete a follow-up activity:
- Participate in a "think-pair-share" activity: The instructor poses a question, asks students to jot some notes down independently to form initial thoughts, distributes students into breakout rooms to discuss, and then pulls the class back together as a group to discuss and synthesize.
- Complete a poll to check comprehension.
- Illustrate ideas on the web conference whiteboard.
- Flip the web conference "lecture" by asking students to come prepared to discuss topics they have already read up on.
- Give students the opportunity to lead a discussion.
Other learning activities will vary by discipline and level of study. Consider these examples for inspiration:
- Completing kitchen lab experiments and lab reports
- Doing backyard or video "field" observations and field reports
- Analyzing data sets and creating data visualizations
- Preparing and giving multimedia presentations, including Q&As from classmates
- Creating infographics, web pages, blog posts, collages, memes, or digital images related to course content
When students interact with each other, they feel like they are part of a learning community, but this interaction also helps students engage in higher-order thinking that would be more challenging to accomplish if they were studying alone. Through collaboration, students brainstorm, deliberate, disagree, compromise, and achieve consensus—all ways of thinking that are difficult to do singly.
When you are remote teaching, consider employing some of the following strategies to encourage effective student-student interaction:
- Discussion forums in a learning management system
- Ask students to participate in a role-play or debate activity using online forums or web conference tools.
- Peer review activities for writing assignments and projects
- Group projects
- Group presentations
- Study groups
- Individual projects
- Ask students to create a resource guide for future students.
- Ask students to design a board game based on course content.
- To facilitate this project, you could suggest that students adapt or create a trivia game, board game, etc.).
Students can arrange their own meetings, or they may choose to use other video conference solutions such as Skype. They can collaborate using Google Drive, Box, or other web-based tools.
The third form of interaction is student-instructor interaction, which should involve more than just answering student questions. For fully online classes, the US Department of Education requires that instructors provide regular, substantive, and instructor-led interactions to distinguish online classes from correspondence courses. These guidelines help online instructors provide strong student-instructor interaction. Remote instructors can use these guidelines to help engage students, too.
Some examples of how to facilitate student-instructor interaction when remote teaching follow:
- Participate and engage with students about the course content via discussion forums in a learning management system.
- Record and post a short video to introduce a major assignment and then hold a Q&A session.
- Provide detailed feedback on assignments (written and/or recorded).
- Use voice-over screen recordings using tools such as Screencast-O-Matic to provide demonstrations, discussions of diagrams/graphs, slides, and illustrations.
- Hold writing conferences to discuss draft assignments.
- Hold open or by-appointment office hours by web conference, phone, or text message.
- Create a video (with your pets, family, etc.) in your home or a safe outdoor environment to provide social presence.
While remote instruction during an emergency pandemic is not the same as carefully designed online education, remote educators can take some notes from experienced online colleagues about how to bridge the distance. Thinking of the learning experience from a student-centered perspective is one valuable take-away. There are many, many others.
An earlier version of this blog post was published on the OSU CTL blog.
For more insights about advancing teaching and learning through IT innovation, please visit the EDUCAUSE Review Transforming Higher Ed blog as well as the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative and Student Success web pages.
The Transforming Higher Ed blog welcomes submissions. Please contact us at [email protected].
- See, for example, A. Sasha Thackaberry, "Remote in a Time of Pandemic: Six Consideration As We Adapt to COVID-19," The Evolution, March 20, 2020; Deb Adair, "Open Letter to the QM Community," March 23, 2020; and Cynthia Golden, "Remote Teaching: The Glass Half-Full," Transforming Higher Ed (blog), EDUCAUSE Review, March 23, 2020. ↩
Thanks to Clare Creighton, Dorothy Loftin, Deborah Mundorff, Meghan Naxer, and Weiwei Zhang for their contributions to this blog post.
Shannon Riggs is the Executive Director of Academic Programs and Learning Innovation at Oregon State University Ecampus.
© 2020 Shannon Riggs. The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 International License. | <urn:uuid:eeb33c81-31f8-46d5-a165-af892d977acc> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/4/student-centered-remote-teaching-lessons-learned-from-online-education?utm_source=Selligent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=er_content_alert_newsletter&utm_content=01-13-2021&utm_term=_&m_i=zsA4eVgV6%2BDlkHUsGDMYpMeQIrLUduRVhBnOUiJbLpNucenPjwx8WCyIMdgWte4E1eOYS_YIXZKhIdHBDV3v9EsMqBrWzW&M_BT=19572152 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474775.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229003536-20240229033536-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.938392 | 2,197 | 2.765625 | 3 | 207 |
National Specificities of the Education System
In the Federal Republic of Germany responsibility for the education system is divided between the Federation and the Länder. The scope of the Federal Government's responsibilities in the field of education is defined in the Basic Law (Grundgesetz). Unless the Basic Law awards legislative powers to the Federation, the Länder have the right to legislate. Within the education system, this applies to the school sector, the higher education sector, adult education and continuing education. Administration of the education system in these areas is almost exclusively a matter for the Länder.
In addition to the division of responsibilities described above, the Basic Law also provides for particular forms of cooperation between the Federation and the Länder within the scope of the so-called joint tasks (Gemeinschaftsaufgaben).
Early childhood education and care is not part of the state-organised school system in Germany but almost exclusively assigned to the child and youth welfare sector. On the federal level, within the framework of public welfare responsibility lies with the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend – BMFSFJ), on the level of the Länder, the Ministries of Youth and Social Affairs and, in part, also the Ministries of Education and Cultural Affairs, are the competent authorities.
Following the primary school stage, after grade 4 (in Berlin and Brandenburg after grade 6), an early division into the educational pathways leading to different qualifications (Erster Schulabschluss, Mittlerer Schulabschluss, Allgemeine Hochschulreife) takes place.
Vocational education and training takes place in the duales System. Training is carried out in two places of learning: at the workplace and in a Berufsschule (vocational school).
Stages of the Education System
Early Childhood Education and Care
Early childhood education is provided by institutions catering for children until the age of six at which they usually start school. Children of school age who have not yet attained a sufficient level of development to attend a school have a further option in some Länder, namely Schulkindergärten and Vorklassen. These institutions are either assigned to the early childhood or the primary sector according to the particular Land.
As a rule, general compulsory schooling begins for all children in the Federal Republic of Germany in the year in which they reach the age of six and involves nine years of full-time schooling. Those young people who do not attend a full-time general education school or vocational school at upper secondary level once they have completed their period of compulsory general schooling must still attend part-time schooling (compulsory Berufsschule attendance – Berufsschulpflicht). This usually lasts three years.
As a rule, in the year in which children reach the age of six, they are obliged to attend primary school. All pupils in Germany enter the Grundschule which in almost all Länder covers grades 1 to 4 (in Berlin and Brandenburg grades 1 to 6).
Following the primary school stage, secondary education in the Länder is characterised by division into the various educational paths with their respective leaving certificates and qualifications for which different school types are responsible. Once pupils have completed compulsory schooling they move into upper secondary education. The range of courses on offer includes full-time general education and vocational schools, as well as vocational training within the duales System (dual system).
At school types offering one course of education all teaching is channelled to a specific qualification. These have traditionally been the Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium. Schularten mit mehreren Bildungsgängen (schools offering more than one type of course of education) bring two or three courses of education under one umbrella. In most of the Länder they have meanwhile led to the abolition of the Hauptschule and Realschule.
For pupils with sonderpädagogischer Förderbedarf (special educational needs), additionally various types of sonderpädagogische Bildungseinrichtungen (special schools), have been set up within the organisational framework of general and vocational education.
Once pupils have completed compulsory schooling – generally when they reach the age of 15 – they move into upper secondary education. The type of school entered depends on the qualifications and entitlements obtained at the end of lower secondary education. The range of courses on offer includes full-time general education and vocational schools, as well as vocational education and training within the duales System (dual system).
The tertiary sector encompasses institutions of higher education (universities, Fachhochschulen/Hochschulen für angewandte Wissenschaften, colleges of art and music) and other establishments that offer study courses qualifying for entry into a profession to students who have completed the upper secondary level and obtained a higher education entrance qualification.
Additionally there are a number of special higher education institutions which only admit certain groups, e.g. higher education institutions of the Federal Armed Forces and Verwaltungsfachhochschulen, and are not considered below.
Those with a higher education entrance qualification may also choose to enter a Berufsakademie offered by some Länder as an alternative to higher education. At state or state-recognised Studienakademien (study institutions) and in companies students receive academic but, at the same time, practical career training.
The Fachschulen and the Fachakademien in Bayern are institutions of continuing vocational education that, as a rule, call for the completion of relevant vocational education and training in a anerkannter Ausbildungsberuf (recognised occupation requiring formal training) and relevant employment. The qualification level achieved here is comparable to the first level of the tertiary sector in accordance with the International Standard Classification of Education ISCED.
Adult Education and Lifelong Learning
The activities of the state in the field of continuing education are, for the most part, restricted to laying down principles and to issuing regulations relating to organisation and financing. Such principles and regulations are enshrined in the legislation of the Federal Government and the Länder. State regulations are aimed at establishing general conditions for the optimum development of the contribution of continuing education to lifelong learning.
As part of lifelong learning, continuing education is assuming greater importance and is increasingly becoming a field of education in its own right. In response to the vast range of demands made on continuing education, a differentiated structure has been developed. Continuing education is offered by municipal institutions, in particular Volkshochschulen, as well as by private institutions, church institutions, the trade unions, the various chambers of industry and commerce, political parties and associations, companies and public authorities, family education centres, academies, Fachschulen, institutions of higher education and distance learning institutions. Radio and television companies also provide continuing education programmes.
It is usually possible to acquire school-leaving qualifications later in life at evening classes (Abendhauptschulen, Abendrealschulen, Abendgymnasien) and in what is called Kollegs.
Structure of the National Education System
While the Eurydice Description of National Education Systems provides comprehensive and comparable information, further information may also be found on the websites of the Secretariat of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (Ständige Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland – KMK) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – BMBF).
Common European Reference Tools Provided by the Eurydice Network
- National Student Fee and Support Systems
- Organisation of the Academic Year in Higher Education
- Organisation of School Time in Europe (Primary and general secondary education)
- Recommended Annual Instruction Time in Full-Time Compulsory Education in Europe (Presented by grades/stages for full time compulsory education as well as by subject and country.)
- Teachers and School Heads Salaries and Allowances in Europe (Salaries and allowances of teachers and school heads at pre-primary, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education levels.) | <urn:uuid:515e17a2-d09f-42bc-ac1e-4f8dd2eaf791> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/germany/overview | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474775.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229003536-20240229033536-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.912521 | 1,767 | 3.296875 | 3 | 208 |
DUNMORE, Pa. — Kristin E.C. Green, acting head librarian and reference librarian at Penn State Worthington Scranton, was a presenter at The Innovative Library Classroom Conference (TILC) at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, in May.
Her session, titled “Dust off those Encyclopedias: Using Reference Sources to Teach the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy,” was formulated around the question, "What if the ideal tools for teaching undergraduate students the most critical information literacy concepts have been sitting in the stacks all along collecting dust, or wading out in digital space unencountered?
Reference sources are an optimal medium to introduce all six of the ACRL Framework’s central concepts for information literacy, Green explains. Additionally, by understanding a reference source’s place in the information search process, students learn to consciously avoid the common pitfall of neglecting exploratory research before specifying their research topics. Thus, incorporating reference sources thoughtfully into instructional design contributes to the development of both information literacy and metacognition.
The innovation in this session lies not in the advocacy of using reference materials as instructional tools for information literacy education, but in using reference materials through the lens of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, Green said. It is in this combination of the newer theoretical model with the traditional aspects of the information search process and correlating the optimal resources of reference materials that will provide participants with a fresh perspective on their own lesson planning.
While a portion of the session was presented in a lecture style, the goal was to also foster and solicit discussion throughout the session, so all attendees could share personal experiences of teaching about reference sources and interacting with teaching faculty.
Green’s session concluded with an interactive learning activity in which participants worked in groups to design their own learning objectives for either genuine or hypothetical instructional scenarios, incorporating the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education with the use of reference sources.
The Innovative Library Classroom Conference is a daylong conference dedicated to the exploration of innovative practices related to teaching and learning in libraries.
TILC is an experience that has grown out of the regional LEO (Libraries Exchange Observation) project. LEO was originally created by instruction librarians from three southwest Virginia institutions: Radford University, Hollins University, and Virginia Tech. The goal of the group was to promote cross-institutional peer-observation, and now includes group meetings and workshops that take place each semester.
Green earned a bachelor of arts in social science with a concentration in cultural studies from the Ramapo College of New Jersey. Following graduation, she was certified by the New Jersey State Department of Education as a secondary teacher of social studies and served as educational director of a learning center.
She earned her master of science in information and library science at the University of Buffalo and was the social sciences reference and instruction librarian at SUNY Geneso before joining the Penn State Worthington Scranton campus | <urn:uuid:b2486b29-21c1-49e5-8665-22335949acdc> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://scranton.psu.edu/story/5089/2017/06/05/worthington-scranton-librarian-presents-national-conference | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474775.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229003536-20240229033536-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.934328 | 634 | 2.515625 | 3 | 209 |
Introduction to EAL Assessment MOOC (Webinar)
- 29 February 2024
Explore our policy recommendations for breaking down language barriers
in schools, adult education, and the criminal justice system.
Flashcards are picture cards and can be used on their own or with word cards. There are various different types:
Flashcards can be used for any age group. They are particularly useful for learners at the New to English and Early Acquisition stages. They are very flexible and can be used across the curriculum for a range of activities, for example:
Use a set of flashcards with images and a set with matching words to play pairs (also known as Pelmanism). This is the game where players place the cards face down on the table and take it in turn to pick up two. When they find a matching pair, they keep it and have another turn. The person who collects the most pairs wins. Learners could do a simple matching activity before they play, to consolidate understanding, with the cards placed face up. See the matching activity on Learning about Magnetism, where learners are asked to match a word with the corresponding image.
2. Sorting activities:
Learners sort the cards into categories/groups and explain their choices, their reasoning and the connections between the items. The items could then be sorted into groups, a table, Venn diagram or flow diagram for example. See the activity in Rich and Poor Tudors where learners sort word and image flashcards according to whether they depict rich or poor people.
Choose a grid size e.g. 3x3, 3x4, 4x4. Fill the grid with picture cards, word cards, or a mixture. Either select cards for the learners or allow them to choose themselves. Put the remaining cards in a bag or pile and take it in turn to select. The winner is the first player to complete a line/the whole grid. Learners could do a simple matching activity before they play, to consolidate understanding. It is a good idea to model a relevant structure that the learners should say correctly in order to be allowed to put a card in the grid, e.g. ‘It’s a river’ / ‘They’re cliffs’, or ‘I like…’ / ‘I don’t like…’ See the bingo game in A Balanced Diet.
4. Connect 4:
A bit like Bingo, but for two players, played on one board of 8x8. Players have a set of cards each, of different colours so it is clear who has placed each card onto the board, and have to make a line of four. See The Tempest Connect 4 where players match pictures of characters to information about them.
With cards in two piles, players take it in turns to turn over a card. If the cards match, the player who shouts ‘snap’ (or the word / phrase being practised) first keeps the cards in the pile.
6. Odd one out:
Sort the cards into groups, with one ‘odd one out’. Groups identify the ‘odd ones out’ and explain their reasoning.
7. Barrier games:
Put a barrier between two learners (an A4 folder on its side works well) and they take it in turn to pick a flashcard and describe what is on it without using the word, while the other person guesses what it is. E.g. ‘It’s a four-sided shape with four right angles. All the sides are the same length.’
Top tip: Think about the language learners should use as they play and provide models. For example, when sorting flashcards into a table, learners can also be given cards with prompts on:
I think _____ goes in this column because…
__________ is the odd one out because the others…
Flashcards are great for introducing memorising, revising and consolidating vocabulary. Research suggests that re-visiting vocabulary is important to aid acquisition (Schmitt 2008), and flashcards provide a natural way for learners to increase the number of times they encounter target words and phrases.
Flashcards are also useful for stimulating discussion through collaborative activities. The importance for language development of collaborative group work and providing real opportunities for communication has been established by many researchers, including Michael Halliday, Neil Mercer and Mikail Bakhtin. Working with a partner or in a small group allows learners to feel more confident, and the language is being used for a meaningful purpose rather than out of context, as recommended by Swain and Lapkin (1995). Gardner (2012) argues that collaborative learning is a feature of inclusive classrooms, and the benefits of group work are also supported by Cordon (2000). Kotler et al (2001) and Wong Fillmore and Snow (2005) also highlight the importance of social interaction and active participation in language acquisition.
Flashcards with pictures that the EAL learner can recognise help to provide a rich context which enables the EAL learner to access the curriculum and to build on their prior knowledge. This is based on research by Jim Cummins, particularly the Cummins Matrix, when he suggested that this enables the language demands of an activity to be reduced without reducing the cognitive demand. Flashcards can be used to turn a learning activity into a game, and increase the multimodality of the lesson.
Cordon, R., 2000, Literacy and learning through talk: strategies for the primary classroom, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Gardner, P., 2012, Strategies and Resources for Teaching and Learning in Inclusive Classrooms (2nd edition), Oxford: Routledge.
Kotler, A., Wegerif, R. and Le Voi, M. 2001, Oracy and the educational achievement of pupils with English as an additional language: the impact of bringing ‘Talking Partners’ into Bradford schools, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 4 (6), 403-419.
Schmitt, N., 2008, Instructed Second Language Vocabulary Learning. Language Teaching Research 12, 3: 329-363.
Swain, M. and Lapkin, S., 1995, Problems in output and the cognitive processes they generate: a step towards second language learning, Applied Linguistics 16 (3), 371-391.
Wong Fillmore, L. and Snow, C., 2005, What teachers need to know about language, Washington DC: Centre for Applied Linguistics. | <urn:uuid:7fc4a4c4-231f-497a-a5c0-81a5f0bb280d> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/eal-programme/guidance/classroom-guidance/great-ideas/flashcards/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474775.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229003536-20240229033536-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.921825 | 1,340 | 4.6875 | 5 | 210 |
Sometimes a discovery is right in front of your eyes. Scientists found a new class of cells in the eye that are sensitive to light responsible for regulating the body's circadian clock.
The eye's retina contains light receptors known as cones and rods. These receptors receive light, convert it to chemical energy, and activate the nerves that send messages to the brain. They were thought to be the only photoreceptors in the retina of the eye.
"When we began to do our work, we knew there might have been a missing photoreceptor,” said David Berson, professor of neuroscience at Brown University.
"We asked ourselves if there is a third class, and the answer turned out to be yes.”
The discovery was made with mice, whose eyes are thought to function similarly to humans. It was recently published in the journal Neuron.
Inside the Eye
Berson's suspicion about the unknown photoreceptor class came from the knowledge that blind mice still adjusted their circadian clocks to day and night. Three years ago, Berson and his team discovered a complimentary system in the eye with photosensitive retinal cells. The full capability of the cells was not apparent, however.
These cells, numbering about 2,000 in the eye, send electrical messages to the brain, which constricts the pupil and gives the brain information about circadian rhythms.
They are called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, or ipRGCs.
"Until now, we didn't know if these cells were adaptive to lighting conditions,” said Kwoon Wong, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Berson lab and the lead author of the Neuron paper. "Now we know that they are. Compared with rods and cones, they're glacially slow and they don't adjust their sensitivity as completely.”
Whereas rods and cones rapidly communicate changes in brightness and are responsible for coloring our world, the new class of cells send signals about overall brightness, somewhat like the light meter of a camera, telling the brain when it is night and when it is day.
"What's peculiar about these cells is that [unlike the rods and the cones] they are output cells, meaning they communicate directly with the brain,” Berson explained. "Rods and cones on the other hand communicate only with other retinal cells and have to go through two or three levels before they communicate with the brain.”
This new understanding of how the eye works may be helpful in those who are blind and have degenerated rods and cones.
"Certain people who are blind and have no conscious perception of light may still have components of a functioning visual system,” Berson told LiveScience. "This new recognition suggests being careful about procedures such as removing an eye [when deemed ineffective].”
The work also helps in understanding how biological clocks work with the rising and setting of the sun and the mechanisms involved in recovery from jetlag.
Berson and his colleagues are now hot on the question of how these cells work.
"We have this well in hand for rod and cone photoreceptors; now we have to do it all over again for this new class of photoreceptors,” Berson said. "We also need to find out how these cells interact with one another.”
Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now
Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. | <urn:uuid:4c8ff34c-05e6-4046-a9e5-99fc10deeb99> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.livescience.com/529-newfound-eye-cells-sense-night-day.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475897.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20240302184020-20240302214020-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.960193 | 708 | 4.0625 | 4 | 211 |
# Human Performance Modeling in Aviation Human performance modeling (HPM) is a technique that uses computer simulations to represent and predict how humans interact with complex systems, such as aviation. HPM can help researchers and designers to evaluate new concepts, identify potential problems, and optimize human-system integration. In this article, we will introduce the basic concepts of HPM, its applications and benefits in aviation, and some of the challenges and limitations of this approach. ## What is Human Performance Modeling? Human performance modeling (HPM) is a branch of human factors engineering that aims to understand and improve human performance in complex systems. HPM uses computational models that capture the cognitive processes, behaviors, and interactions of human operators in various scenarios and environments. HPM models can simulate how humans perceive, process, remember, decide, act, communicate, and collaborate with other humans and machines. HPM models are based on theories and empirical data from various disciplines, such as psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and engineering. HPM models can be classified into different types according to their level of detail, scope, and purpose. Some examples of HPM types are: - Task network models: These models represent the sequence and structure of tasks that humans perform in a system. They can capture the temporal aspects, such as duration, frequency, and concurrency of tasks, as well as the logical aspects, such as dependencies, constraints, and goals of tasks. Task network models can be used to analyze workload, efficiency, and error rates of human operators. - Cognitive architectures: These models represent the general mechanisms and structures of human cognition that underlie task performance. They can capture the mental processes, such as attention, memory, learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making that humans use in various domains. Cognitive architectures can be used to explain and predict human behavior and performance across different tasks and situations. - Agent-based models: These models represent the individual characteristics and interactions of human operators in a system. They can capture the personality traits, preferences, motivations, emotions, attitudes, beliefs, and social norms that influence human behavior and performance. Agent-based models can be used to simulate how humans adapt to changing conditions, cooperate or compete with others, and influence or are influenced by group dynamics. ## Why is Human Performance Modeling Useful for Aviation? Aviation is a complex socio-technical system that involves multiple human operators (such as pilots, air traffic controllers, maintenance technicians), multiple machines (such as aircrafts, radars, navigation systems), and multiple environmental factors (such as weather conditions, traffic density). Aviation also involves high levels of uncertainty, risk, and time pressure that can affect human performance and safety. HPM can help researchers and designers to understand how humans perform in aviation systems, and how they can be supported by better design, training, and procedures. Some of the benefits of HPM for aviation are: - Evaluating new concepts: HPM can be used to test new ideas for aviation displays, automation, operations, and procedures before they are implemented in real systems. HPM can help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different design alternatives, and to compare their effects on human performance and safety. - Identifying potential problems: HPM can be used to uncover latent design flaws or hidden hazards that may induce human error or reduce system performance under some low-probability or unexpected situations. HPM can help to anticipate and prevent adverse outcomes before they occur in real systems. - Optimizing human-system integration: HPM can be used to optimize the fit between humans and machines in aviation systems. HPM can help to balance the workload, situation awareness, and trust among human operators and automated agents, and to enhance the communication, coordination, and collaboration among different roles and teams. ## How is Human Performance Modeling Applied in Aviation? HPM has been applied in various domains and aspects of aviation, such as flight deck design, air traffic management, maintenance operations, and remote operations. Some examples of HPM applications in aviation are: - Flight deck design: HPM has been used to evaluate different flight deck displays, such as head-up displays, head-down displays, synthetic vision systems, and augmented reality systems. HPM has also been used to assess different levels and modes of automation, such as adaptive automation, cognitive automation, and authority management. HPM has helped to determine how these design features affect pilot performance, workload, situation awareness, and error management. - Air traffic management: HPM has been used to evaluate different air traffic control systems, such as conflict detection and resolution systems, trajectory-based operations, and free flight. HPM has also been used to assess different air traffic control procedures, such as arrival and departure management, sectorization and delegation, and dynamic airspace configuration. HPM has helped to determine how these system features and procedures affect controller performance, workload, situation awareness, and communication. - Maintenance operations: HPM has been used to evaluate different maintenance tools and methods, such as electronic technical manuals, smart glasses, and virtual reality. HPM has also been used to assess different maintenance factors, such as fatigue, stress, and team coordination. HPM has helped to determine how these tools, methods, and factors affect maintenance performance, workload, error rates, and safety. - Remote operations: HPM has been used to evaluate different remote operation systems, such as remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) and remote towers. HPM has also been used to assess different remote operation factors, such as latency, reliability, and trust. HPM has helped to determine how these systems and factors affect remote operator performance, workload, situation awareness, and communication. ## What are the Challenges and Limitations of Human Performance Modeling? HPM is a powerful and promising technique for aviation research and design, but it also faces some challenges and limitations that need to be addressed. Some of these challenges and limitations are: - Data availability and quality: HPM requires a large amount of data to build, validate, and calibrate the models. These data include human performance measures, system parameters, environmental variables, and human-system interactions. However, obtaining such data can be difficult, costly, or unethical in some aviation domains or situations. Moreover, the data may be incomplete, inconsistent, or noisy, which can affect the accuracy and reliability of the models. - Model complexity and scalability: HPM involves modeling multiple aspects of human performance, such as cognition, behavior, emotion, and social interaction. These aspects are often interrelated, nonlinear, and dynamic, which makes the modeling process challenging and computationally intensive. Moreover, the models need to be scalable to handle large-scale and realistic scenarios that involve multiple human operators, machines, and environmental factors. - Model validation and verification: HPM requires rigorous methods to validate and verify the models against empirical data and theoretical expectations. These methods include comparing the model outputs with human performance data from experiments or observations, checking the model assumptions and logic with domain experts or literature reviews, and testing the model robustness and sensitivity with different inputs or conditions. However, these methods can be time-consuming, resource-intensive, or subjective, which can limit the applicability and generalizability of the models. - Model interpretation and communication: HPM produces a large amount of output data that need to be interpreted and communicated to the relevant stakeholders, such as researchers, designers, regulators, or operators. These output data include model predictions, explanations, recommendations, or warnings. However, these output data can be complex, ambiguous, or uncertain, which can make them difficult to understand and use. Moreover, the output data need to be presented in an appropriate format and language that suit the needs and preferences of the stakeholders. ## Conclusion Human performance modeling (HPM) is a technique that uses computer simulations to represent and predict how humans interact with complex systems, such as aviation. HPM can help researchers and designers to evaluate new concepts, identify potential problems, and optimize human-system integration in aviation. However, HPM also faces some challenges and limitations that need to be addressed by further research and development. ## FAQs - What is human performance modeling (HPM)? - Human performance modeling (HPM) is a technique that uses computer simulations to represent and predict how humans interact with complex systems. - What are some benefits of HPM for aviation? - Some benefits of HPM for aviation are evaluating new concepts, identifying potential problems, and optimizing human-system integration. - What are some types of HPM? - Some types of HPM are task network models, cognitive architectures, and agent-based models. - What are some domains of aviation where HPM has been applied? - Some domains of aviation where HPM has been applied are flight deck design, air traffic management, maintenance operations, and remote operations. - What are some challenges and limitations of HPM? - Some challenges and limitations of HPM are data availability quality, model complexity scalability, model validation verification, model interpretation communication. | <urn:uuid:c3e08746-d7ee-48e5-ad53-cdae06751c5b> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.astrophotographybydanbeggs.com/forum/astrophotography-forum/an-introduction-to-human-performance-modeling-and-its-applications-in-aviation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707948235171.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20240305124045-20240305154045-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.936422 | 1,823 | 3.015625 | 3 | 212 |
The University of Iowa Aging Mind and Brain Initiative (AMBI) will partner with Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) to study how older drivers interact with in-vehicle technology that’s designed to help improve driver safety.
These technologies, including advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS), aim to help improve car safety by assisting drivers with various aspects of driving, including navigation and wayfinding, handling the car, and negotiating traffic situations.
The UI team will explore whether these systems help older drivers who may be at risk of impaired driving because of declines in attention, cognitive skills, and reaction time that can occur as we age.
”The issue is these systems, which are intended to help drivers, do so by providing the driver with additional information. This extra information input has the potential to distract or confuse a driver, or to be misunderstood by the driver,” says Matthew Rizzo, M.D., AMBI director and UI professor of neurology in the Carver College of Medicine. “We want to know how people with different cognitive capabilities interact with these systems so that we can help improve their design.”
The three-year project will use a high-fidelity driving simulator called SIREN (simulator for interdisciplinary research in ergonomics and neuroscience), which is housed at UI Hospitals and Clinics, to evaluate how older drivers react to and interact with various types of ADAS. The study will also investigate the learning curve for older drivers as they acclimate to ADAS.
“We are interested in studying the human/machine interface for drivers of all ages, although this study will focus specifically on older drivers,” Rizzo says. “We want to know if these systems can be designed better so that drivers understand the system and are not overwhelmed by the information.”
In addition to guiding the development of new technologies, especially ADAS, to make them helpful to senior drivers, the study findings also will inform educational interventions aimed at improving driver safety.
The program is one of seven new partnerships between Toyota CSRC and research institutions across North America. The UI is one of 14 research institutions and agencies that currently partner with the CSRC to conduct auto-safety research. For more information about the new and existing projects, visit the redesigned Toyota.com/csrc.
In addition to Rizzo, the UI research team includes Steven Anderson, Ph.D., associate professor of neurology; Nazan Aksan, Ph.D., associate research scientist; Shaun Vecera, Ph.D., professor of psychology; and Jeff Dawson, Sc.D., professor of biostatistics.
The UI Aging Mind and Brain Initiative is a multidisciplinary collaboration of neuroscientists, biologists, behavioral scientists, engineers, computer scientists, social scientists, public health researchers, pubic policy experts, and others at the UI that aims to explore and improve mind and brain health across the lifespan.For more information about the AMBI, visit http://ambi.uiowa.edu/ | <urn:uuid:ba629d84-3fe6-489d-8c49-4e04369550a1> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://now.uiowa.edu/news/2012/09/can-vehicle-technologies-help-improve-driver-safety-seniors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473347.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20240220211055-20240221001055-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.944979 | 627 | 2.53125 | 3 | 213 |
About The Project
“Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and culture and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits”.
Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.
The fundamental right of all people to participate in the arts and culture and of access to heritage, have become central in the latest acts adopted by the European Union and the Council of Europe.
The idea has emerged that citizens should not only participate in artistic and cultural activities, but also in their management and curation. Many countries have identified the arts, cultural and heritage as a strategic resource for a sustainable development, acknowledging their social dimension and underlining the importance of engaging with different stakeholders. They also recognize the importance of transparent governance and participatory systems to be shared with the people to whom arts, culture and heritage ultimately belong.
Active Citizens Exploring Culture - ‘ACE Culture’ - has the objective of extending and developing the competences of educators and other personnel such as archivists, artists, museum, and heritage professionals. The aim is to support adult education in Community Learning Environments, working with local people with an interest in gaining new skills on influencing inclusion in their community.
The project has a starting point in examples of social and educational value of arts, cultural and heritage. We want to encourage members of the public to engage as “Mediators” for their local community to act as a bridge between the “expert” and the neighbourhood.
The project is supported by an online platform based upon the value of local knowledge, containing rich media artefacts created and curated by members of the community. To support this educational process a selection of toolkits will introduce both educators and mediator to the training material.
Adults will be trained as Cultural Mediators for their community in order to recognise, explore, document and display their local artistic, cultural and heritage assets.
The Project team will explore methods of cultural inclusion with a particular focus on inner city and outer city neighbourhoods and develop practical tools to be used in Adult Education that can provide a link between the public and neighbourhood planners to shape holistic and sustainable change.
- Informal adult education programmes - members of the public who would like to get involved as Cultural Mediators.
- Formal adult education programs - front-line workers such as; artists, museum and heritage personnel, librarians, archivists and others who have direct contact with the public.
- Continuous Professional Development course - adult educators working directly with front-line workers.
- Other beneficiaries include professionals working in city planning; architects, policy makers, decision makers, local government staff. | <urn:uuid:ac9b5e4c-6df9-40fc-a382-b3d9768794b5> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://aceculture.eu/en/about/about-the-project | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474440.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223153350-20240223183350-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.947111 | 560 | 2.859375 | 3 | 214 |
We continue to see media reports describing how pharmaceutical companies are cutting or altogether halting investment in neuroscience, thereby eliminating the possibility of innovative treatments for devastating brain disorders such as depression and Alzheimer’s disease. These reports are both right and wrong. Although some pharmaceutical companies have indeed reduced spending in neuroscience, others are not only thriving, but on the cusp of making important new discoveries.
It should be noted that some of the coverage is exaggerated or inaccurate. Certainly, most of it fails to report progress being made in neuroscience or the continued commitment by some pharmaceutical companies to develop innovative and potentially valuable new treatments. The negative view may stem from a report published several years ago by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
, which noted that neurologic and psychiatric disorders account for more than one-third of the disease burden in Europe, which is true, and that public and corporate research and development funding is being cut, which is only partially true.
Some pharmaceutical companies have reduced basic science and other discovery platforms in neuroscience. They have chosen to get out of the business for many reasons, but largely because the science is complicated and difficult and because they have chosen to invest resources on other diseases. This occurred despite the fact that unmet needs in neuroscience are as great as those in any other disease area. In fact, in the UK, mental illness is the single largest cause of disability, and the wider costs of mental illness in England are estimated to be about £105.2bn each year
There is a small silver lining, however. This mental health crisis, while discouraging and devastating for patients and their families, can help drive the field of neuroscience forward. This is because the continuing mental health crisis, combined with fewer pharmaceutical companies working on developing novel treatments, has clearly pointed out that “business as usual”, whereby industry, government, academia, independent research organisations, and advocacy groups all continue to work in isolation, simply will not bring about major breakthroughs. Thus, the financial pressures, in combination with the human need, have actually helped to focus attention on the vital importance of continuing brain research in all of its forms. The short-term goal is to understand better these devastating diseases and find new approaches to treatment and cure. The long-term goal — now within reach — is to get new treatments and cures into the hands of those who need them most.
Seminal advances have occurred in genomics, biomarkers, and non-invasive tools for imaging the brain. We now have an impressive — although still rapidly growing — suite of technologies to study the structure and function of large-scale neural circuitry with precision. For instance, a Nature Neuroscience article
noted that ongoing genome-wide association studies can potentially lead to hundreds of new findings for common genetic variants across nine psychiatric disorders. The same paper said that “there are 183 clinical trials [in psychiatry] under way or registered, showing considerable investment in the field”.
Janssen is aiming to move from a ‘diagnose-and-treat’ approach to a more flexible and effective ‘predict-and-preempt’ paradigm. New tools, new ideas, and new collaborations make it the ideal time to study brain illness. Cutting edge technologies are revolutionising the way we think about, study, and approach the development of novel treatments in neuroscience. We are conducting late-stage clinical development programmes exploring a promising investigational medicine for depression, which is thought to work differently from any currently approved therapies. We are also studying new approaches to treating Alzheimer’s disease. We are involved in collaborative models of research that bring together rich and varied sources of data gathered from diverse partners and investors in order to create computational models of disease or “virtual patients”, in order to explore all possible avenues leading to the next great discovery or approach to treatment.
There are many other companies that also remain committed to developing life-saving, much-needed therapeutics in neuroscience. There needs to be more investment from both public and private sectors. Also, concerns about pharmaceutical companies withdrawing from this research area are well founded. But this does not mean the world has abandoned neuroscience, nor does it mean that promising therapeutics are not currently being developed.
The pharmaceutical industry will continue to invest in neuroscience in order to clarify our understanding of the brain and of neuropsychiatric illnesses, and, ultimately, develop more effective and urgently needed treatments. This work is more than research or a financial goal; this work is an investment in humanity.
Husseini K Manji
Global head, neuroscience
Janssen Research and Development | <urn:uuid:fd045364-12bf-4e92-9e43-63769b6c66cc> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/letters/why-there-is-evidence-to-be-hopeful-about-neuroscience-and-drug-development | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474659.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20240226094435-20240226124435-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.956718 | 933 | 2.703125 | 3 | 215 |
Consciousness isn't something scientists like to talk about much. You can't see it, you can't touch it, and despite the best efforts of certain researchers, you can't quantify it. And in science, if you can't measure something, you're going to have a tough time explaining it.
But consciousness exists, and it's one of the most fundamental aspects of what makes us human. And just like dark matter and dark energy have been used to fill some otherwise gaping holes in the standard model of physics, researchers have also proposed that it's possible to consider consciousness as a new state of matter.
To be clear, this is just a hypothesis, and one to be taken with a huge grain of salt, because we're squarely in the realm of the hypothetical here, and there's plenty of room for holes to be poked.
But it's part of a quietly bubbling movement within theoretical physics and neuroscience to try and attach certain basic principles to consciousness in order to make it more observable.
The hypothesis was first put forward in 2014 by cosmologist and theoretical physicist Max Tegmark from MIT, who proposed that there's a state of matter - just like a solid, liquid, or gas - in which atoms are arranged to process information and give rise to subjectivity, and ultimately, consciousness.
The name of this proposed state of matter? Perceptronium, of course.
As Tegmark explains in his paper, published in the journal Chaos, Solitons & Fractals:
"Generations of physicists and chemists have studied what happens when you group together vast numbers of atoms, finding that their collective behaviour depends on the pattern in which they are arranged: the key difference between a solid, a liquid, and a gas lies not in the types of atoms, but in their arrangement.
In this paper, I conjecture that consciousness can be understood as yet another state of matter. Just as there are many types of liquids, there are many types of consciousness.
However, this should not preclude us from identifying, quantifying, modelling, and ultimately understanding the characteristic properties that all liquid forms of matter (or all conscious forms of matter) share."
In other words, Tegmark isn't suggesting that there are physical clumps of perceptronium sitting somewhere in your brain and coursing through your veins to impart a sense of self-awareness.
Rather, he proposes that consciousness can be interpreted as a mathematical pattern - the result of a particular set of mathematical conditions.
Just as there are certain conditions under which various states of matter - such as steam, water, and ice - can arise, so too can various forms of consciousness, he argues.
Figuring out what it takes to produce these various states of consciousness according to observable and measurable conditions could help us get a grip on what it actually is, and what that means for a human, a monkey, a flea, or a supercomputer.
The idea was inspired by the work of neuroscientist Giulio Tononi from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who proposed in 2008 that if you wanted to prove that something had consciousness, you had to demonstrate two specific traits.
According to his integrated information theory (IIT), the first of these traits is that a conscious being must be capable of storing, processing, and recalling large amounts of information.
"And second," explains the arXiv.org blog, "this information must be integrated in a unified whole, so that it is impossible to divide into independent parts."
This means that consciousness has to be taken as a whole, and cannot be broken down into separate components. A conscious being or system has to not only be able to store and process information, but it must do so in a way that forms a complete, indivisible whole, Tononi argued.
If it occurred to you that a supercomputer could potentially have these traits, that's sort of what Tononi was getting at.
As George Johnson writes for The New York Times, Tononi's hypothesis predicted - with a whole lot of maths - that "devices as simple as a thermostat or a photoelectric diode might have glimmers of consciousness - a subjective self".
In Tononi's calculations, those "glimmers of consciousness" do not necessarily equal a conscious system, and he even came up with a unit, called phi or Φ, which he said could be used to measure how conscious a particular entity is.
Six years later, Tegmark proposed that there are two types of matter that could be considered according to the integrated information theory.
The first is 'computronium', which meets the requirements of the first trait of being able to store, process, and recall large amounts of information. And the second is 'perceptronium', which does all of the above, but in a way that forms the indivisible whole Tononi described.
In his paper, Tegmark explores what he identifies as the five basic principles that could be used to distinguish conscious matter from other physical systems such as solids, liquids, and gases - "the information, integration, independence, dynamics, and utility principles".
He then spends 30 pages or so trying to explain how his new way of thinking about consciousness could explain the unique human perspective on the Universe.
As the arXiv.org blog explains, "When we look at a glass of iced water, we perceive the liquid and the solid ice cubes as independent things even though they are intimately linked as part of the same system. How does this happen? Out of all possible outcomes, why do we perceive this solution?"
It's an incomplete thought, because Tegmark doesn't have a solution. And as you might have guessed, it's not something that his peers have been eager to take up and run with. But you can read his thoughts as they stand in the journal Chaos, Solitons & Fractals.
That's the problem with something like consciousness - if you can't measure your attempts to measure it, how can you be sure you've measured it at all?
More recently, scientists have attempted to explain how human consciousness could be transferred into an artificial body - seriously, there's a start-up that wants to do this - and one group of Swiss physicists have suggested consciousness occurs in 'time slices' that are hundreds of milliseconds apart.
As Matthew Davidson, who studies the neuroscience of consciousness at Monash University in Australia, explains over at The Conversation, we still don't know much about what consciousness actually is, but it's looking more and more likely that it's something we need to consider outside the realm of humans.
"If consciousness is indeed an emergent feature of a highly integrated network, as IIT suggests, then probably all complex systems - certainly all creatures with brains - have some minimal form of consciousness," he says.
"By extension, if consciousness is defined by the amount of integrated information in a system, then we may also need to move away from any form of human exceptionalism that says consciousness is exclusive to us."
Here's Tegmark's TED talk on consciousness as a mathematical pattern: | <urn:uuid:23946869-6462-4e12-b747-eeb3a4a0b7a0> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.sciencealert.com/this-physicist-is-arguing-that-consciousness-is-a-new-state-of-matter?fbclid=IwAR3jrYGGWLNf62ni7NuNFpEjzwyrvs7QEezqALCJ8TtGLC4bS6cGPEi4Y5I | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474659.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20240226094435-20240226124435-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.965386 | 1,454 | 3.015625 | 3 | 216 |
Last year Karl Deisseroth, a Stanford professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, announced a new way of peering into a brain – removed from the body – that provided spectacular fly-through views of its inner connections. Since then laboratories around the world have begun using the technique, called CLARITY, with some success, to better understand the brain's wiring.
However, Deisseroth said that with two technological fixes CLARITY could be even more broadly adopted. The first problem was that laboratories were not set up to reliably carry out the CLARITY process. Second, the most commonly available microscopy methods were not designed to image the whole transparent brain. "There have been a number of remarkable results described using CLARITY," Deisseroth said, "but we needed to address these two distinct challenges to make the technology easier to use."
In a Nature Protocols paper published June 19, Deisseroth presented solutions to both of those bottlenecks. "These transform CLARITY, making the overall process much easier and the data collection much faster," he said. He and his co-authors, including postdoctoral fellows Raju Tomer and Li Ye and graduate student Brian Hsueh, anticipate that even more scientists will now be able to take advantage of the technique to better understand the brain at a fundamental level, and also to probe the origins of brain diseases.
This paper may be the first to be published with support of the White House BRAIN Initiative, announced last year with the ambitious goal of mapping the brain's trillions of nerve connections and understanding how signals zip through those interconnected cells to control our thoughts, memories, movement and everything else that makes us us.
"This work shares the spirit of the BRAIN Initiative goal of building new technologies to understand the brain – including the human brain," said Deisseroth, who is also a Stanford Bio-X affiliated faculty member.
When you look at the brain, what you see is the fatty outer covering of the nerve cells within, which blocks microscopes from taking images of the intricate connections between deep brain cells. The idea behind CLARITY was to eliminate that fatty covering while keeping the brain intact, complete with all its intricate inner wiring.
The way Deisseroth and his team eliminated the fat was to build a gel within the intact brain that held all the structures and proteins in place. They then used an electric field to pull out the fat layer that had been dissolved in an electrically charged detergent, leaving behind all the brain's structures embedded in the firm water-based gel, or hydrogel. This is called electrophoretic CLARITY.
The electric field aspect was a challenge for some labs. "About half the people who tried it got it working right away," Deisseroth said, "but others had problems with the voltage damaging tissue." Deisseroth said that this kind of challenge is normal when introducing new technologies. When he first introduced optogenetics, which allows scientists to control individual nerves using light, a similar proportion of labs were not initially set up to easily implement the new technology, and ran into challenges.
To help expand the use of CLARITY, the team devised an alternate way of pulling out the fat from the hydrogel-embedded brain – a technique they call passive CLARITY. It takes a little longer, but still removes all the fat, is much easier and does not pose a risk to the tissue. "Electrophoretic CLARITY is important for cases where speed is critical, and for some tissues," said Deisseroth, who is also the D.H. Chen Professor. "But passive CLARITY is a crucial advance for the community, especially for neuroscience." Passive CLARITY requires nothing more than some chemicals, a warm bath and time.
Many groups have begun to apply CLARITY to probe brains donated from people who had diseases like epilepsy or autism, which might have left clues in the brain to help scientists understand and eventually treat the disease. But scientists, including Deisseroth, had been wary of trying electrophoretic CLARTY on these valuable clinical samples with even a very low risk of damage. "It's a rare and precious donated sample, you don't want to have a chance of damage or error," Deisseroth said. "Now the risk issue is addressed, and on top of that you can get the data very rapidly."
Fast CLARITY imaging in color
The second advance had to do this rapidity of data collection. In studying any cells, scientists often make use of probes that will go into the cell or tissue, latch onto a particular molecule, then glow green, blue, yellow or other colors in response to particular wavelengths of light. This is what produces the colorful cellular images that are so common in biology research. Using CLARITY, these colorful structures become visible throughout the entire brain, since no fat remains to block the light.
But here's the hitch. Those probes stop working, or get bleached, after they've been exposed to too much light. That's fine if a scientist is just taking a picture of a small cellular structure, which takes little time. But to get a high-resolution image of an entire brain, the whole tissue is bathed in light throughout the time it takes to image it point by point. This approach bleaches out the probes before the entire brain can be imaged at high resolution.
The second advance of the new paper addresses this issue, making it easier to image the entire brain without bleaching the probes. "We can now scan an entire plane at one time instead of a point," Deisseroth said. "That buys you a couple orders of magnitude of time, and also efficiently delivers light only to where the imaging is happening." The technique is called light sheet microscopy and has been around for a while, but previously didn't have high enough resolution to see the fine details of cellular structures. "We advanced traditional light sheet microscopy for CLARITY, and can now see fine wiring structures deep within an intact adult brain," Deisseroth said. His lab built their own microscope, but the procedures are described in the paper, and the key components are commercially available. Additionally, Deisseroth's lab provides free training courses in CLARITY, modeled after his optogenetics courses, to help disseminate the techniques.
Brain imaging to help soldiers
The BRAIN Initiative is being funded through several government agencies including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funded Deisseroth's work through its new Neuro-FAST program. Deisseroth said that like the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, another major funder of the new paper), DARPA "is interested in deepening our understanding of brain circuits in intact and injured brains to inform the development of better therapies." The new methods Deisseroth and his team developed will accelerate both human- and animal-model CLARITY; as CLARITY becomes more widely used, it will continue to help reveal how those inner circuits are structured in normal and diseased brains, and perhaps point to possible therapies.
Other arms of the BRAIN Initiative are funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A working group for the NIH arm was co-led by William Newsome, professor of neurobiology and director of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, and also included Deisseroth and Mark Schnitzer, associate professor of biology and of applied physics. That group recently recommended a $4.5 billion investment in the BRAIN Initiative over the next 12 years, which NIH Director Francis Collins approved earlier this month.
In addition to funding by DARPA and NIMH, the work was funded by the NSF, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Simons Foundation and the Wiegers Family Fund. | <urn:uuid:0e0d747d-e34a-4202-8a2a-d4146ce62b8e> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/607032 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474686.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227184934-20240227214934-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.962998 | 1,629 | 3.203125 | 3 | 217 |
Trades Hall History
The Sydney Trades and Labour Council was formed in 1871 with plans to find a meeting place for Australia’s budding trade movement.
What is Trades Hall?
A Trades Hall would “bring us into closer contact, by which means we would have a better opportunity of understanding each other’s wants, and of cultivating that feeling of fellowship which is at all times desirable”. It is in this spirit that Trades Hall continues today – as a meeting place for unionists, workers and activists who seek to understand each other and improve conditions for all. Trades Hall as it stands today, began with just £3.00. The Trades Hall Committee quickly secured £6,000 from the conservative government and an offer of land near Circular Quay. But the site was deemed unsuitable as there was no hotel on adjacent land, which would serve alcohol. The Temperance Movement was at its peak in Sydney, and Trades Hall prohibited alcohol for many years, saying it was the source of ruin for many workers. Eventually, a block on the corner of Goulburn and Dixon Street, as suggested by Henry Copeland MLA, was settled on for a Trades and Industrial Hall and Literary Institute Association of Sydney.
Original union shareholders included the Ironmoulders’, Shipwrights, Bricklayers, Boilermakers, Stonemasons, Journeymen Tailors, Carpenters and Joiners, Typographers, Plumbers, Gas Fitters, Ironworkers, Coachmakers’, Journeymen Farriers, Drapers, Coopers and Saddle, Harness and Collar Makers. Construction began in 1888, and despite weathering an economic depression and various hurdles, Hon. Jacob Garrard officially opened the Trades Hall in 1895. A boost in union membership and saw the association purchase adjacent land in 1902 and 1907. The Hall was extended in 1909, and the auditorium was completed in 1917.
The literary and adult education function also developed in this period as the reading room on the ground floor and barbers’ shop were central to the day’s discussions and gossip. Over 40 newspapers were available, and the reading room’s Australian Red Cedar bookcases completed in 1914 remain today. In 1925 the Labor Council of NSW gained a radio licence and the new station, later known as 2KY, began broadcasting from the tower room.The Labor Council became a neighbour, at 377-383 Sussex street with the buildings eventually connected by a corridor that was once the banner room. Trades Hall became subject to a Heritage Preservation Order in 1983. Following the sale of 2KY in 2001, Trades Hall underwent restoration and refurbishment. It reopened with a new central atrium in November 2005.
The Trades Hall building architecture
The origin of the Trades Hall building type lies in the English Guild Hall, a building type dating from the Middle Ages, when individual trades established guilds to protect their profession. Because Australian Trades Halls were not built until the late nineteenth century, their architectural styles were generally High Victorian in character, and not in the Georgian style of their earlier counterparts in Scotland. The Sydney Trades Hall was designed in the Victorian Commercial Italianate style, a particular form of the Italianate developed for use on commercial buildings in Great Britain and the colonies.
Because the pressure for land in Sydney, it is the only multi-storied Trades Hall constructed in Australia. The design for the building arose from an architectural competition. The winner of the competition was John Smedley, with a design he titled “Pro Bono Publico” – For the Public Good. Externally the building is of load bearing masonry construction, with sandstone detailing and face brickwork to the Goulburn and Dixon Street facades. Internally the construction is also load bearing masonry, with plaster encased steel beams providing clear spans in all the rooms, which in turn support timber floor joists. All stages of the building contained lodge room, halls and banquet rooms, designed to provide meeting spaces for trades and union related activities. was provided at the northern end of the ground floor.
This room was refurbished as part of the 2005 redevelopment works. any original internal architectural features of the building remain and have been preserved and conserved as part of these works. These include the stairwells; the lift; toilets in the basement and on other floors; early tenant signage; marbling to columns and pilasters in the corridors and foyers; floor and wall tiling at ground floor entries; glass fanlights over doorways; glass bookcases in the Library; plaster ceiling detailing in many rooms including the Auditorium, and the pressed metal ceiling in the foyer of level 3.
In 2001 it was proposed by the Labor Council of NSW to redevelop the site to provide modern office and retail space for use by the Labor Council as well as other tenants. A defining characteristic of the Trades Hall building was the series of lightwells common to all stages of the building that provided natural light to the interiors. The refurbishment continued this design principle with the construction of a glass roofed atrium at the rear of the building. Respecting the heritage significance of the original building was paramount. The Sydney Trades Hall, as the centre of the Trade Union Movement of NSW is recognised by the State Heritage Register as an item of state significance. It is one of two major such buildings in Australia, the other being the older and larger Melbourne Trades Hall.
The Sydney Trades Hall is a fine example of a High Victorian building, which retains many of its decorative features intact. The significance of the building lies primarily in the rarity of the overall form, its use and its original internal planning that reflects the range of intended uses, and in the range of activities that have occurred within the building. This significance is not just contained in the built fabric, it also rests with the moveable collection, in particular the collection of union banners.
Stay Up To Date
To keep up to date on all Trades Hall content, follow us on our social channels | <urn:uuid:491db047-a193-48f0-9a78-9153d59c2e39> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://unionsnsw.org.au/about-us/trades-hall-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475701.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301193300-20240301223300-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.970046 | 1,248 | 2.90625 | 3 | 218 |
Learning A-Z products blend teacher-led instruction with technology-enabled resources to make teaching more effective, practice more personalized, and learning more informed. Our products are based on research and backed by efficacy studies. Find out more! Browse our Research library.
Read about McREL International's rigorous study of the effects of Raz-Plus on reading skills and motivation to read.
This independent study in a large urban school district compared reading abilities in two student groups: one with Raz-Plus, one without.
Read about second-grade students in rural schools who used Raz-Plus as part of their tutoring in this study.
This study examines how a school with 78% ELLs used Learning A-Z to improve performance and close achievement gaps.
This study asks whether at-risk students using Raz-Kids and Reading A-Z can overcome the “summer slide.”
What happens when a large urban school district implements Reading A-Z and Raz-Kids for supplemental and intervention literacy instruction?
By including students with low pre-literacy skills, this study informs the field of potential prevention for future reading difficulties.
This case study examined how Raz-Kids impacted reading scores in first-grade students from economically disadvantaged families.
This case study addresses an implementation of Reading A-Z in a Title I school where two-thirds of students were English language learners.
Examining Raz-Plus effects on economically disadvantaged students, this study compared reading proficiency in cohorts four years apart.
To be skilled writers, students need explicit instruction in foundational writing skills and strategies to communicate their ideas and understand a text. Writing A-Z provides explicit, evidence-based instruction and practice opportunities that enable students to develop strong foundational writing skills.
This guide highlights the research base and instructional design on which the Foundations A-Z literacy program was built, ensuring acquisition of foundational skills by students in Grades K-5.
This white paper addresses research on foundational literacy areas, including key areas identified as critical for emergent readers.
To help students learn from complex informational text, the focus of instruction shifts toward comprehension and analysis of text.
Scientific literacy requires learning fundamental scientific concepts and practices, terms that this white paper defines and explores.
Dr. Rasinski recommends improvements to typical vocabulary teaching methods, with principles for effective, engaging vocabulary instruction.
Vocabulary acquisition is a key component of literacy. This white paper describes several attributes of effective vocabulary instruction.
Raz-Plus ELL helps English language learners develop speaking, listening, reading, writing, and grammar skills in English.
Discussing research on giftedness, RtI, and special education, this paper also describes best practices for teaching exceptional students.
Learning A-Z resources promote critical thinking and teamwork, also addressing the crucial 21st century skills described in this white paper.
This peer-reviewed article distinguishes between programs claiming to be research-based and those following systematic research protocols.
Learn how task analysis, content analysis, and concept analysis informed the design and development of Headsprout Reading Comprehension.
Find out about fundamental principles (garnered from the learning sciences) behind the design of Headsprout Reading Comprehension.
The analysis of learning types, based on Tiemann and Markle’s categories of learning, is applied to reading comprehension in this paper.
Read this paper for real-life examples of how Headsprout teaches investigative repertoires to answer inferential and vocabulary questions.
Find out whether Raz-Plus affected motivation to read in these fifth-grade students learning English.
This experiment examined reading comprehension and reading fluency in students with learning disabilities who used Raz-Kids.
Elementary school students with learning disabilities in rural communities worked to improve reading fluency.
Second-grade students used Raz-Kids for independent reading practice in this study.
Do students using Raz-Kids show increased reading comprehension and higher motivation to read? Find out in this master's thesis! | <urn:uuid:4c20fef7-fa04-4ace-84a0-edaf5b08b908> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.learninga-z.com/site/resources/research-and-efficacy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475701.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301193300-20240301223300-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.90911 | 813 | 3.21875 | 3 | 219 |
Take a moment and check out our Albert Bandura quotes and find out why he was regarded as one of the world’s most influential psychologists.
Alberty Bandura left an indelible mark on the world of psychology.
If you are a fan of psychology or want to learn more about self-efficacy, you will enjoy our Albert Bandura quotes.
Who was Albert Bandura?
Albert Bandura was a social cognitive psychologist known for his social learning theory, the concept of self-efficacy, and his Bobo doll experiments.
He was Professor Emeritus at Standford University and is considered a powerful figure in the world of psychology.
Check out these Albert Bandura quotes below:
- Bandura was born in Canada.
- Until he died in 2021, Bandura was the most widely cited living psychologist.
- A 2002 survey ranked Bandura as the fourth most influential psychologist of the 20th century.
What is the Bobo Doll Study?
Bandura’s most famous experiment occurred in 1961 and was called the Bobo doll study.
In the experiment, he made a film where an adult model was shown shouting at and beating a Bobo doll, or inflatable plastic clown.
The film was shown to an audience of children.
Afterward, the kids were allowed to play in the room with the Bobo doll.
Bandura found that the students who saw the violent film were much more likely to beat the doll, yell aggressively, and imitate the actions of the adults from the film clip.
Before this experiment, behaviorist theory was popular in psychology.
The Bobo doll was groundbreaking because it departed from the behaviorist insistence that all behavior is directed by reinforcement or rewards.
Since the kids received no encouragement to beat up the doll, it proved that they were imitating what they had observed.
What did Bandura contribute to psychology?
Bandura’s work is considered part of a new wave of thought that revolutionized psychology.
His theories have impacted many fields of study, including education, personality psychology, cognitive psychology, and psychotherapy.
In 1974 he was elected as the president of the America Psychological Association.
The APA awarded him for his distinguished scientific contributions in 1980 and 2004.
To learn more, check out our Albery Bandura quotes below.
Short Albert Bandura quotes about the nature of humanity
Bandura has been studying human behavior and has discovered some interesting things about us.
1. “Very often we developed a better grasp of the subjects than the overworked teachers.” — Albert Bandura
2. “Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling from others.” — Albert Bandura
3. “Most of the images of reality on which we base our actions are really based on vicarious experience.” — Albert Bandura
4. “Some of the most important determinants of life paths arise through the most trivial of circumstances.” — Albert Bandura
5. “Given appropriate social conditions, decent, ordinary people can be led to do extraordinarily cruel things.” — Albert Bandura
Albert Bandura quotes and sayings about success, failure, and reputation
Bandura believed that failure was a self-defined principle in our lives.
6. “Once established, reputations are not easily changed.”— Albert Bandura Encyclopedia of Human Behavior
7. “Success and failure are largely self-defined in terms of personal standards.” — Albert Bandura, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social-Cognitive Theory
8. “Gaining insight into one’s underlying motives, it seems, is more like a belief conversion than a self-discovery process.” — Albert Bandura, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social-Cognitive Theory
9. “The higher the self-standards, the more likely will given attainments be viewed as failures, regardless of what others might think.” — Albert Bandura, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social-Cognitive Theory
10. “Psychology cannot tell people how they ought to live their lives. It can, however, provide them with the means for effecting personal and social change.”— Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory
The top Albert Bandura quotes about ability and performance
Bandura reminds us that our capabilities often go overlooked.
11. “Ability is not a fixed property; there is huge variability in how you perform.” — Albert Bandura
12. “People’s beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities.” — Albert Bandura
13. “As we develop the moral aspect of our lives, we often adapt standards of right and wrong that serve as guides and deterrents for our conduct.” — Albert Bandura
14. “In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” — Albert Bandura
15. “It’s in our ability to selectively engage and disengage our moral standards, and it helps explain how people can be barbarically cruel in one moment and compassionate the next.” — Albert Bandura
The best Albert Bandura quotes about self-efficacy and managing your life
Bandura was a fan of the power of self-efficacy, and these quotes remind us why.
16. “Self-belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self-disbelief assuredly spawns failure.” — Albert Bandura, Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control
17. “By sticking it out through tough times, people emerge from adversity with a stronger sense of efficacy.”— Albert Bandura, Encyclopedia of Human Behavior
18. “Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the sources of action required to manage prospective situations.” — Albert Bandura, Self-Efficacy in Changing Societies
19. “If efficacy beliefs always reflected only what people can do routinely, they would rarely fail, but they would not set aspirations beyond their immediate reach nor mount the extra effort needed to surpass their ordinary performances.” — Albert Bandura, Encyclopedia of Human Behavior
20. “People’s beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities. Ability is not a fixed property; there is a huge variability in how you perform. People who have a sense of self-efficacy bounce back from failure; they approach things in terms of how to handle them rather than worrying about what can go wrong.” — Albert Bandura, Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control
Famous Albert Bandura quotes about social cognition
21. “We are more heavily invested in the theories of failure than we are in the theories of success.” — Albert Bandura, APA address, 1998
22. “People not only gain understanding through reflection, they evaluate and alter their own thinking.”— Albert Bandura, Social Foundations of Thought and Action
23. “A theory that denies that thoughts can regulate actions does not lend itself readily to the explanation of complex human behavior.” — Albert Bandura, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory
24. “People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided.” — Albert Bandura, Encyclopedia of Human Behavior
25. “People who perceive themselves as a highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it.” — Albert Bandura, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory
How do Bandura’s studies on observational learning impact us?
Classical and operant conditioning are two psychological theories suggesting direct experiences, reinforcement, and punishment drive our learning.
Bandura’s work emphasizes that much learning occurs indirectly.
A classic example is how a child observes adults waving goodbye to one another and immediately copies the behavior.
At the moment when the child copies the behavior, an impressive amount of learning occurs.
Psychologists refer to this process as observational learning.
Observational learning is also referred to as shaping, modeling, or vicarious reinforcement.
It can occur at any time in our lives, but it is essential during childhood.
Bandura’s experiments and research revolutionized how psychologists understand observational learning.
Children learn how to behave and respond by observing their parents or caregivers.
Observational learning plays a vital role in socializing, understanding the world around us, or even creating an identity.
Do you have a favorite Albert Bandura quote?
Please, be sure to let us know in the comments section below. | <urn:uuid:ca3c14c4-8a36-4b5d-85f4-fa34faf40326> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://everydaypower.com/albert-bandura-quotes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476205.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20240303043351-20240303073351-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.949817 | 1,863 | 2.71875 | 3 | 220 |
Stuck at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rachel Cali wanted a constructive way to take her mind off of things after work. With businesses and restaurants closed down, the Southern California resident suddenly had more time on her hands than she knew what to do with.
So, she turned to an old hobby.
“I had been trying to learn Mandarin for several years since I got engaged to my now-husband, as it’s the primary language that his family speaks together,” Cali said. “So, as we’ve been staying at home, I’ve been trying to get back into studying.”
Cali was not alone in her linguistic pursuit. Over the last few months, Duolingo, a popular language learning app that has over 300 million users worldwide, saw its global traffic reach an all-time high. During the month of March, the company saw a 101 percent growth in new users.
This spike didn’t surprise Lisa Davidson, a professor and chair of the Department of Linguistics at New York University. She saw plenty of folks on social media say that for them, a stay at home order was the perfect opportunity to try to master another language for many reasons.
“It’s something that you can do, and it’s easily accessible now, so you don’t have to sign up with a school or go to a school,” Davidson said. “Why not use this time to learn another language?”
But, learning a new language as an adult is challenging – no matter the circumstances. It’s not as simple as just dusting off an old textbook from high school. And even for the most enthusiastic learners, age plays a factor. As she began learning Mandarin, Cali noticed these certain challenges when it came to her language retention.
“I definitely find that I’m very self-conscious, in terms of making sure that I’m speaking correctly in a way that I think I wouldn’t have been as a child,” Cali said. “I know that as a child, your brain is still sort of prepped to learn new words and new tones and things like that in a way that mine isn’t anymore.”
According to Davidson, there are neurological reasons backing this idea. There are certain changes in the brain that occur during puberty for most people that make it more difficult to learn a new language, and it only gets harder from there. It’s one of the reasons why most linguists say that the best and easiest time to learn a new language is as young as possible.
“If you can raise a child bilingually, that is by far the best way to do it,” Davidson said. “Even if your child isn’t raised bilingually in the home, but they can do a dual-language program starting in elementary school or pre-k, that is also going to be an amazing way to do it.”
For adults, though, there are also some other key factors when it comes to language retention, including the actual teaching method used. While language apps are convenient, in some cases, they aren’t the most realistic.
“I do use Duolingo a lot, and I found it to be very helpful for vocabulary, but there’s definitely been drawbacks,” Cali said. “Even just talking to my husband just now about the way that words are pronounced – and of course, that’s an AI stringing a sentence together, and it’s not very fluid, and it isn’t exactly how you’d use language in real life.”
Communicating and practicing those new language skills are crucial, Davidson said. It’s one of the reasons why an adult learning French, for example, might learn the language more quickly if he or she moved to Paris.
“So just speak it with as many people as you can because it’s like a muscle, right? This is kind of the cliché that we use,” Davidson said. “The more you use it, the more beefy it’ll be.”
Since most people aren’t jet-setting anytime soon to other countries during the pandemic, turning the internet into a global teacher, for now, is also a solid option when it comes to language studies.
“You can practice by watching YouTube, you can practice by reading blog posts or whatever, or listening to songs in another language,” Davidson said. “So if we’re sitting here in quarantine, we can also take advantage of the world that’s out there to really put in place the lessons that we’re learning.”
For Cali, her Southern California apartment has turned into an educational hub with some added cultural benefits. Aside from her lockdown language studies, she and her husband have watched Chinese movies together, and they’ve cooked some of the traditional cuisine he grew up enjoying as a kid.
“It’s actually been a great time for me to learn about the culture,” Cali said.
As for her language skills? It’s still a work in progress.
“I don’t think I’ll ever probably fully master Mandarin,” she said, “but I’m certainly hopeful to just keep getting more comfortable every day, and I’m confident that I can keep learning and keep building those skills.” | <urn:uuid:49c7ab93-fef2-44f7-957d-790595747b78> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.lx.com/science-tech/natl-lx-why-is-it-so-hard-to-learn-a-new-language-as-an-adult/13105/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476205.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20240303043351-20240303073351-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.970214 | 1,171 | 3.078125 | 3 | 221 |
Summary: For those with a genetic predisposition to obesity, partaking in six specific types of exercise can help combat weight gain. Jogging, yoga, power walking, certain types of dancing and mountain climbing can help reduce BMI in those with a predisposition to obesity. Surprisingly, cycling, swimming, and games like Dance Dance Revolution did not counteract the genetic effects on obesity.
For people who inherited genes that increase their chance of becoming obese, there is hope for keeping the weight off. A study by Wan-Yu Lin of National Taiwan University and colleagues published 1st August in PLOS Genetics, identified the types of exercise that are especially effective at combatting genetic effects that contribute to obesity.
Worldwide, obesity is a challenging condition to control because it results from interactions between a person’s genetics and lifestyle. Doctors often recommend exercise, but it is not clear which kinds are best for curbing weight gain in individuals whose genetics make them more likely to become obese. A new study of 18,424 Han Chinese adults, aged 30 to 70 years, examined the interactions between the individuals’ genetics and their self-reported exercise routines. The researchers looked specifically at five measures of obesity, such as body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage and waist-to-hip ratio. They found that regular jogging was the best type of exercise for managing obesity, according to the five measures. Moreover, mountain climbing, walking, power walking, certain types of dancing, and long yoga practices also reduce BMI in individuals predisposed to obesity. Surprisingly, cycling, stretching exercises, swimming and Dance Dance Revolution did not counteract the genetic effects on obesity.
Overall, the study suggests that when it comes to obesity, genetics are not destiny, and the effects can be lessened by several kinds of regular exercise. Previous research has shown that frequent physical activity blunts the genetic effects on obesity, but these studies focused only on BMI. The new study also considers four other measures of obesity that are more closely linked to metabolic problems. As obesity continues to be a serious public health challenge, the benefits of exercise cannot be overstated.
Funding: This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (grant number MOST 107-2314-B-002-195-MY3 to Wan-Yu Lin). The acquisition of TWB data was supported by a MOST grant (grant number MOST 102-2314-B-002-117-MY3 to Po-Hsiu Kuo) and a collaboration grant (National Taiwan University Hospital: grant number UN106-050 to Shyr-Chyr Chen and Po-Hsiu Kuo). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
About this neuroscience research article
Source: PLOS Media Contacts: Po-Hsiu Kuo – PLOS Image Source: The image is credited to Bill McConkey, Wellcome Collection.
The gradual development of the preference for natural environments
Obesity is a worldwide health problem that is closely linked to many metabolic disorders. Regular physical exercise has been found to attenuate the genetic predisposition to obesity. However, it remains unknown what kinds of exercise can modify the genetic risk of obesity. This study included 18,424 unrelated Han Chinese adults aged 30–70 years who participated in the Taiwan Biobank (TWB). A total of 5 obesity measures were investigated here, including body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage (BFP), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Because there have been no large genome-wide association studies on obesity for Han Chinese, we used the TWB internal weights to construct genetic risk scores (GRSs) for each obesity measure, and then test the significance of GRS-by-exercise interactions. The significance level throughout this work was set at 0.05/550 = 9.1×10-5 because a total of 550 tests were performed. Performing regular exercise was found to attenuate the genetic effects on 4 obesity measures, including BMI, BFP, WC, and HC. Among the 18 kinds of self-reported regular exercise, 6 mitigated the genetic effects on at least one obesity measure. Regular jogging blunted the genetic effects on BMI, BFP, and HC. Mountain climbing, walking, exercise walking, international standard dancing, and a longer practice of yoga also attenuated the genetic effects on BMI. Exercises such as cycling, stretching exercise, swimming, dance dance revolution, and qigong were not found to modify the genetic effects on any obesity measure. Across all 5 obesity measures, regular jogging consistently presented the most significant interactions with GRSs. Our findings show that the genetic effects on obesity measures can be decreased to various extents by performing different kinds of exercise. The benefits of regular physical exercise are more impactful in subjects who are more predisposed to obesity. | <urn:uuid:2bce5159-61af-4802-ab3b-046e84310beb> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://neurosciencenews.com/obesity-genetics-exercise-14645/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473738.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222093910-20240222123910-00301.warc.gz | en | 0.95029 | 1,023 | 3.140625 | 3 | 222 |
In a recent video segment for the New York Times called, “The Monolinguist’s Crutch,” assistant technology editor Sam Grobart gleefully divulges that he can’t remember any of the Spanish he learned during six years of taking it in school.
Does this concern him? No, he says, because “now, thanks to technology, I don’t have to!”
Grobart goes on to demonstrate the capabilities of several new smartphone applications, including UN Translator, which can understand dozens of languages. “All I have to do is type in the words I don’t know,” he said. The app gives a passable translation that allows him to at least get the gist.
The Google Translate app takes this a step further. It can “hear and speak more than 50 different languages,” Grobart said. He tests it with a Spanish-speaking colleague, asking his device whether he may ask her a question. But the Google Translate app mistranslates this, speaking it as “where is the question?”
Such hiccups aside, the new translation apps are impressive. They take machine translation, a field with a decades-old pedigree, including the Georgetown-IBM experiment in Russian-English translation that made headlines in 1954, and deliver it to the smartphone-wielding masses. More than a diversion, these translation apps can actually help people who don’t share a common language to communicate, given the right situation.
While Google Translate and related tools are sure to benefit many people, and not only “monolinguists,” they will not satisfy those for whom foreign language learning, more than a technological challenge, is a pathway to cultural exploration, a social activity and a vehicle for professional advancement, among many other things.
And in a city as multicultural as Washington, D.C., being multilingual can be a badge of honor. Sometimes it’s also prerequisite, especially for diplomats and specifically for ambassadors, for whom understanding different languages is often part of the job description.
To gain an overview of local language learning options, The Diplomat interviewed several institutions that offer classes for children and adults in Washington. Not surprisingly for a city full of embassies, international organizations and cultural institutes, the city’s offerings are extensive — far greater than could be featured in a single article.
But more than being great in number, language learning programs in the nation’s capital stand out for their international affiliations and unique educational approaches. They are all united by a passion for the intense adventure that learning a foreign language can provide.
This journey begins at an early age — as young as 12 months — at Isabella & Ferdinand Spanish Language Adventures, headquartered in the Palisades neighborhood of Northwest Washington. The program’s co-founders, Pilar O’Leary and Alexandra Migoya, believe that Spanish is best learned while young, and with as much cultural exposure as possible.
The duo — both of whom have roots in Latin America and share a passion for languages, as well as Georgetown law degrees — created Isabella & Ferdinand in 2008 after realizing they could not find a Spanish immersion program for their own daughters that united “the teaching of high-caliber Spanish, taught the way it is at the highest levels in Spain and Latin America, combined with rich history and culture.”
O’Leary and Migoya found they were not alone and that other parents wanted their children to be raised bilingually, with the high standards of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the Madrid-based Instituto Cervantes. They developed a curriculum in partnership with the Georgetown Spanish Department, embassies of Spain and various Latin American countries, along with other institutions to teach children Spanish “free of Spanglish, Anglicisms or slang,” as they put it.
In addition to this focus on proper Spanish, the Isabella & Ferdinand program takes advantage of its D.C. location, with excursions for children and parents to Spanish and Latin cultural events at venues such as GALA Hispanic Theatre and the National Gallery of Art, where students recently went on a treasure hunt to find works by Catalan artist Joan Miró.
The program has also brought in actors to personify the cultural heroes it teaches about, including Christopher Columbus, O’Leary said. In addition, it has had clinics on flamenco dancing and taken children to the Mexican Cultural Institute to see the Day of the Dead displays. “We’re always on the lookout for new things to expose kids and families to,” she said.
While the program is relatively small, with a total of four teachers and classes of eight students on average, O’Leary foresees its expansion as the demographic makeup of the United States continues to shift toward Spanish speakers and more parents realize the value of starting their children’s language learning while they are still very young. In the next five to 10 years, she says, they would like to have a presence in several “attractive markets” beyond D.C., including Miami, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
In the meantime, Isabella & Ferdinand is gearing up for the launch of a children’s music record in Spanish, “Olé and Play!” on April 19 at the Library of Congress to raise awareness of the nationwide launch of the Isabella & Ferdinand curriculum.
Another new entrant to the Washington market, by way of Chicago, is Language Stars, which opened its new language immersion center for children in Reston, Va., last month. Founded in 1998, the company has served more than 20,000 students through its center-based foreign language programs as well as school-partnership programs.
So far, Language Stars is mostly based in Chicago, though it’s been expanding its presence in the D.C. region with locations in Bethesda, Md., and Alexandria, Va., in addition to the new Reston center. There, nearly 100 students — ranging in age from one to 10 years old — are being taught Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and French by a team representing more than 21 nations.
Even if one is not lucky enough to learn a foreign tongue at such a young age, adult education opportunities in widely used languages such as Spanish and, more recently, Mandarin abound. If you want to learn a language such as Turkish, however, your options are more limited.
This lack of opportunities, combined with increased interest in the language due to Turkey’s growing importance as a pivotal global player in a combustible region, inspired the Rumi Forum to start offering Turkish classes last year.
The Rumi Forum, a D.C.-based organization dedicated to interfaith and intercultural dialogue, was founded in 1999 and inspired by the ideas of Turkish Islamic scholar and spiritual leader Fethullah Gülen. Rumi Forum executives had heard that numerous people in the D.C. area were interested in learning Turkish and decided to fill that niche, said the forum’s president, Emre Celik.
“Basically we recognized a demand, and we thought with our background and the fact this organization was founded by Turkish Americans, we could play a part in bringing that to the Washington, D.C., area,” Celik explained. “Turkey is on the rise in terms of global attention so a lot of people are wanting to improve their understanding of Turkey. And the best way to do that is through Turkish language and culture.”
So far, around 40 to 50 students have completed the intensive program, which includes eight four-hour classes per month, over a two-month span. Currently, 20 students are enrolled in classes held at the Rumi Forum offices in downtown D.C.
Though it’s still small, with a single teacher, Celik is optimistic that more people will be attracted to the classes once word gets out. He points out that learning Turkish at the Rumi Forum focuses on more than just the language — it teaches about traditions, norms, etiquette and even food.
“I think they really appreciate that — it’s more than just pen and paper classroom. We really do encourage students to pick up on all aspects of Turkish culture as that’s what will help them,” Celik said, noting the forum recently organized a Turkish dinner for its students.
Another organization dedicated to languages not commonly taught in the United States is the Global Language Network, or GLN, a unique nonprofit institution founded by polyglot George Washington University student Andrew Brown in 2005 and formally established as a nonprofit three years later.
The GLN is probably best known for offering language instruction free of charge, but its educational philosophy goes beyond teaching uncommon languages at little cost to the general public. As assistant director, Bulgarian native Svetozar Palankov explained that the GLN is as much about language learning as it is about the social interaction that accompanies it.
The GLN model works because both teachers and students are highly self-motivated, Palankov said. To enroll in a class, students pay just a $25 processing fee, plus a $100 deposit that is fully refundable, provided they miss no more than one quarter of all class meetings. The instructors are volunteers who are native speakers of the language they teach and who are motivated by the chance to share that language. They also enjoy the perk of first choice of other language classes, for which demand can far exceed supply. Palankov points to this unique aspect of GLN: that it is a learning place for teachers as well as students.
Another striking feature: The network is highly multicultural. Out of 650 students this semester, more than 100 are native speakers of a language other than English, Palankov says. The students, though averaging in their mid-20s, are extremely diverse in background and range from “VPs at Bank of America to taxi drivers.”
Though the GLN has a full-time staff of just two, it is able to serve hundreds of students thanks to its community of some 40 teachers per semester and around 25 to 30 organizational volunteers, who help to ensure the operation runs smoothly. Palankov hopes that the success of the GLN model — more than 2,000 people expressed interest in taking classes this semester — can allow it to expand out of the classroom space it occupies on the George Washington University campus to sites around D.C. and beyond.
The GLN has already partnered with organizations such as Deloitte and the International Food Policy Research Institute. Step two, Palankov says, provided the group can establish itself in D.C. and raise sufficient funds, is to expand to other cities on the East Coast. Looking ahead, he sees the model working across the country and around the world. “We have to live up to our name,” Palankov said.
The GLN, though a relatively new, unconventional endeavor, has already taught languages to thousands of students. But in terms of total number of language learners “served,” few if any D.C. institutions can match the Graduate School, founded in 1921 and formerly affiliated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In over 30 years of language classes, the Graduate School has educated more than 100,000 students and taught nearly 50 different languages. As Timothy Keating, chair of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Department, points out, despite the recent proliferation of translation technologies and technology-enabled distance learning, these tools remain at best supplemental. Demand for classroom-centered education remains strong.
“It’s not impossible to learn another language online or via audio CDs, as the many products of that sort on the market suggest,” Keating said. “But speaking a language is social interaction, and a classroom is a good place to get that. Immediate feedback from an instructor is also a very positive feature of face-to-face instruction.”
According to Keating, people choose to take language classes at the Graduate School for a variety of reasons, beyond the convenient location at L’Enfant Plaza and the breadth of languages offered, which include Farsi, Urdu and Korean in addition to the most popular languages (which are, in order: Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French and Italian).
Some enroll in language courses to enhance skills needed for their job, and others because they plan to travel to the country where that language is spoken. A third reason Keating cited is the fact that some people are “heritage speakers of a ‘home language,’ so called because they have been raised in the U.S., educated in English, but have lived in a home where a language other than English is spoken.” According to Keating, there are 55 million heritage language speakers in the United States.
Asked what trends can be discerned in the popularity of languages, Keating said that perhaps for geopolitical reasons, enrollment has shown a growing interest in Arabic and Chinese. “It is not uncommon to find that people have a kind of ‘to-do list’ for personal development, and that list includes learning another language,” he said.
Yet another longtime presence in the Washington adult language education world, the Middle East Institute has been offering courses in languages spoken in that region since 1953. With recent front-page attention to the uprisings convulsing the Arab world, the institute has seen interest in its language classes and other programs soar.
Though the Middle East Institute (MEI), located two blocks from Dupont Circle on N Street, offers courses in Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Hebrew, Pashto and Turkish, program assistant Ankit Sheth said that “Arabic is definitely the most popular, hands down.”
Around 70 percent of the institute’s students take Arabic, with Farsi becoming more popular in recent years, according to Sheth. His colleague Cameron Mackenzie noted that the institute’s language department had seen a rise in beginner Arabic, especially after all the revolutions in the Middle East.
“We tend to have a lot of Arabic 101, but this time around classes filled up prior to any others filling up. We have three sections of Arabic 101, and they filled up weeks before beginning of term. It’s a 30 percent increase in students at the 101 level,” he said.
The students who take classes at the institute tend to choose it for the unique enrichment opportunities it offers as part of a leading think tank on the region.
“I think because of the history of MEI as the oldest think tank focused on the Mideast, and because of the language department being so integrated in MEI as a good source of funding for the agency, we’ve developed a round-table philosophy — where there are small classes, all our students together with teacher who is from the region mostly, and exchanging love of learning,” Mackenzie explained.
Sheth highlighted the fact that the institute’s casual yet intensive atmosphere draws students with a strong interest in the region who seek an intimate learning environment.
“It’s the small classes. You get more face-to-face time with the teacher … and it helps you network a little bit better with people interested in the same career field,” he said. “We allow students to come in early before class, so they can converse amongst themselves … it’s more of a relaxed atmosphere, to a certain extent. You’re still very much immersed in the language while you’re here.”
The resurgent interest in the Middle East Institute’s language classes is additional proof that traditional language education, far from being supplanted by new technologies, is alive and well in Washington. Because as much as an app or online learning tool can help people speak the same language, without person-to-person contact, things can still get lost in translation.
About the Author
Jacob Comenetz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. | <urn:uuid:4abe1a19-982c-49aa-b2b9-649880749201> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://washdiplomat.com/despite-high-tech-translation-tools-local-multilingual-learning-thrives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474581.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225035809-20240225065809-00301.warc.gz | en | 0.959648 | 3,340 | 2.671875 | 3 | 223 |
Digital literacy is the ability to find, create, and share information using a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
It is becoming essential to be digitally literate in the United States of America no matter who you are or where you came from.
As refugees and immigrants build new lives, they often need to complete tasks requiring technology and the internet. Tasks such as:
- Searching and applying for jobs
- Accessing government materials and services
- Looking and signing up for community-based services
- Connecting with their or their child’s school
- Learning and practicing English
- Workforce training/On-the-job responsibilities
- Managing finances
Being digitally literate also makes it easier to stay connected with family and friends whether it be through email, social media, or video chat.
These types of self-sufficiency positively affect everyone, not just the individual. According to National Immigration Forum, building digital literacy and other basic skills through adult education
…have economic and social public benefits. For example, states’ return on investment studies show that adult education programs can lead to increases in tax revenue, business productivity and consumer spending as well as decreased reliance on public assistance programs and government health care spending. Public social benefits include the increased ability to adapt to and use technology, and appreciation of diversity.*
Yet, many immigrants and refugees lack basic computer skills. This is where Literacy Rochester’s Digital Literacy program comes into play. Our trained volunteers work with individuals to improve their digital skills.
We teach adults computer skills and assist with completing computer-based tasks for free on a drop-in basis at various locations in and around Rochester, NY (click here for a full list of sites and schedules).
We would not be able to help create a connected, digitally literate community on our own – partnerships are key. Digital Literacy is grateful to partner with OACES as well as collaborate with other organizations such as Refugees Helping Refugees and Mary’s Place Refugee Outreach to help immigrants and refugees develop digital competency.
*Source: National Immigration Forum (2016, November 4). SKILLS AND TRAINING FOR NEW AMERICANS: CREATING A THRIVING ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR ALL OF US (pg. 3). Retrieved from https://immigrationforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Skills-and-Training-for-New-Americans.pdf | <urn:uuid:1773913a-7a41-4bda-b215-d1342a3652ea> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://literacyrochester.org/refugees-and-immigrants-with-digital-literacy-skills-benefit-the-community-and-local-resources/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00301.warc.gz | en | 0.93247 | 504 | 3.3125 | 3 | 224 |
Local Action for the Global Goals: A Case Study of Bristol
In 2019, Bristol was the first city in the UK to publish a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) to assess local progress in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2022 report provides updated data and information about Bristol’s progress, examines how other UK cities have approached sustainable development – especially considering recent challenges – and reflects on how national government could better partner with local governments to deliver that development.
Bristol Voluntary Local Review 2022
Contact the researchers
Foreword - APPG UN Global Goals
Rt Hon Lord Jack McConnell
Chair, APPG UN Global Goals
Since 2015, the All Party Parliamentary Group on the UN Global Goals has championed the Sustainable Development Goals as the universal framework to leave no-one behind. However, delivering on the Global Goals is not only about our actions abroad, but also what we choose to do here at home.
Bristol is a diverse, creative and internationally connected city in South West England with a strong commitment to sustainable development. The city and many of its organisations are committed to delivering the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In 2019, Bristol was the first city in the UK to publish a Voluntary Local Review to assess local progress in meeting the SDGs.
Bristol has achieved much progress since the last report. Some areas of education, particularly early years’ attainment and higher education, have seen improvements although due to the COVID pandemic not all data is recent. Since declaring a climate and ecological emergency in 2018, Bristol has made some important gains, with citywide carbon emissions falling every year and the share of renewables in Bristol’s energy mix growing. Progress against economic growth measures is harder to determine given the impact of COVID-19 on data collection. However, unemployment rates have generally fallen, earnings for men and women have increased and the pay gap between men and women has decreased.
Unfortunately, progress against other measures has been less advanced. There are a growing number of children under 16 living in low-income families. According to our analysis, violent and sexual crime, domestic abuse, fear of crime and mental health issues have also risen. An increasing number of households are using food banks, with wards on the edges of the city boundaries most severely impacted.
Bristol’s One City Plan is an example of how collaborative, cross-sectoral approaches can help achieve the SDGs.
Some indicators were missing due to a lack of reporting during the pandemic on issues like education results and public transport usage, and the COVID-19 pandemic clearly impacted others results, such as community engagement with green spaces.
The growing engagement and adoption of the SDGs at a local level in the UK has occurred while local authorities (LAs) have faced smaller budgets and growing needs. For the past decade and through the pandemic and now an escalating cost-of-living crisis, LAs have been asked to maintain services while spending less and less money. But the financial challenges go far beyond shrinking local budgets. The many short-term, competitive funding mechanisms that LAs increasingly rely upon undermine long-term financial planning and take up time and effort that could be devoted to delivering services rather than fundraising undermining local stability.
It was in this context that Bristol’s localised approach to sustainable development emerged, and the strong partnerships that have formed between public, private, civil society organisations, unions and academia have been crucial in delivering the SDGs: Bristol’s One City Plan is an example of how collaborative, cross-sectoral approaches can help achieve them.
Looking forward, establishing a more stable financial environment for local authorities, deepening devolution, resourcing partnership coordinators, supporting community action and investing in national and international collaborations would all help amplify local action to address our shared global challenges.
Foreword - VLR Report 2022
Mayor of Bristol
Professor Evelyn Welch
Vice-Chancellor, University of Bristol
In 2019, Bristol was the first UK city to produce a Voluntary Local Review of progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals reflect a holistic view of sustainability, recognising the importance of reducing our collective impact on the planet while tackling poverty and addressing entrenched inequalities within and between nations.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOCAL ACTION
Bristol faces several financial and institutional challenges, that are also shared by other UK local authorities, in its ambition to accelerate local action in pursuit of sustainable development. The city has responded innovatively to these challenges through initiatives such as the One City model, Bristol City Funds and collaborative efforts to improve data sharing and integration.
Bristol’s first Voluntary Local Review highlighted the challenge of jurisdictional complexity. It is often the case that the functional urban areas of UK cities do not correspond with local authority boundaries. In Bristol, for example, the City Council local authority area only contains about 70% of the total population of the Bristol Built-Up Area and less than half of the city-region population of 1.1 million. But critical social, economic and environmental challenges do not disappear at the edge of local authority borders. Flows of people, goods, money and pollution cross the council borders daily. The local authorities within the city region are interdependent with one another.
While the devolution deals that brought about mayoral combined authorities have brought new local powers in adult education, transport and housing, they have been criticised for not going far enough.
There are also complexities brought about by the newly forming Integrated Care Systems (ICS). Across England, these systems are being developed jointly by local authorities and the NHS. While many local authorities consulted for this report appreciate this new approach to meaningful devolution, smaller or less proactive local authorities stand to lose out considerably if they are unable to participate in the consultations being carried out as these regional healthcare bodies form. In the case of Bristol, the local authority is one of three in a single system. The Bristol Health and Wellbeing Board acts as an effective bridge between local authorities and the ICS, whereas the formation of the Kent and Medway ICS demands the engagement of 26 borough councils. Conversely, Cornwall County Council has just one council and one ICS, making it far easier for the local government to align its priorities with the ICS as it develops. This contrast between different systems will make it harder for some local authorities to focus on tackling issues of health and, consequently, the SDG agenda. Engaging meaningfully with the ICS formation process requires capacity within local authorities, which has become more difficult to resource post-COVID in the face of significant financial pressures, exacerbated by COVID and the requirement workforce pressures.
In sum, devolution has been piecemeal, undermining coherent and ambitious local and regional action. These challenges have been significantly compounded by fiscal constraints.
AN UNSTABLE FISCAL CONTEXT
Finance is a critical barrier to accelerated local action. Since the introduction of a programme of austerity beginning in 2009, local authorities have been in a persistent state of fiscal triage. The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (now known as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) estimates that national funding for local authorities fell by 49.1% in real terms between 2011 and 2018. As the austerity programme was spatially blind to the varying socio-economic conditions of each local authority, its effects have been experienced unevenly. Cities in the North were particularly affected by the cuts, with Newcastle City Council currently facing a £94 million spending gap in addition to the £305 million reduction in their budget since 2010.
Immediate social and economic issues are prioritised over longer-range challenges, including sustainable development.
Increased funding for local government will be essential to accelerate sustainable development.
However, limited funding is not the only fiscal challenge. Our research revealed widespread frustration with the way critical resources – particularly for investment – are allocated through competitive, time-bound and ringfenced funding mechanisms. Councils are required to bid for funding from Westminster or negotiate a deal to address critical local priorities, which one policy officer deemed a “waste of time and resources,”especially for unsuccessful bids and negotiations The increasing reliance on “bidding and deal-making rather than capacity building” for local government in the UK undermines the strategic planning that sustainable local development demands.
For example, in 2017, Bristol was awarded funding from Feeding Britain for Feeding Bristol, a pilot to tackle food poverty in the city. However, the city was unsuccessful in its follow-up bid and the project paused. Eventually new funding was secured, but the fundraising activity itself diverted valuable resource from getting on with the work. This model of competitive funding also means that successful pots of funding for one local authority come at the detriment of others, exacerbating regional inequalities. Under-resourced authorities grappling with protracted austerity have simply been unable to access certain funding opportunities due to capacity constraints (ibid). Such inequalities are compounded by universal reductions in grant funding. Consequently, many of the most deprived local authorities, which relied more heavily on grant funding, faced greater reductions, resulting in local authority budgetary changes ranging from –1.6% to –46% (Gray and Bradford, 2018).
This model of competitive funding also means that successful pots of funding for one local authority come at the detriment of others, exacerbating regional inequalities.
Funding mechanisms are also often ringfenced for particular types of investment, or service improvements dictated by central government, rather than driven by locally defined priorities. For example, the recent Household Support Fund ringfenced spending percentages such that a proportion of the funding had to spent on pensioners. While not an issue in itself, the funding allocations created complexity. By ringfencing the funds to be spent on pensioners receiving Pension Credit, the local demographics were not considered. In Greater Bristol, falling within the administrative boundary of the West of England Combined Authority, fewer pensioners claim Pension Credit than in many surrounding local authorities. As a result, Bristol’s pensioners received disproportionately more funding per person than pensioners in surrounding local areas. It also meant that other vulnerable groups in Bristol received a lower level of support than they would have if the local authority had been able to choose how the finance was spent.
The need for further devolution and increasing council capacity to raise finances independently of Westminster were repeated themes when speaking to council policy leads. Representatives from the Core Cities also stressed the importance of building private-public partnerships.
- In Glasgow, the SDGs were seen as a key hook for engaging businesses in positive social and environmental action – a message that resonates with Bristol’s experience.
- Similarly, Newcastle shared its commitment to increasing stakeholder engagement, while Belfast is also investigating the opportunities presented by public-private partnerships to deliver its SDG-related ambitions.
Funding mechanisms are also often ringfenced for particular types of investment, or service improvements dictated by central government, rather than driven by locally defined priorities.
The need for further devolution and increasing council capacity to raise finances independently of Westminster were repeated themes when speaking to council policy leads.
Giving local authorities greater autonomy over how regional finance is spent and providing longer-term, less competitive sources of funding would allow local authorities to better target their work to support the most vulnerable. It would also allow for better recognition of the specific challenges of each local authority and improve equity of funding for areas across the UK that face the greatest deprivation.
A ground breaking initiative to transform Bristol’s energy infrastructure
The City Leap partnership is a new approach to providing low-carbon infrastructure for a city. Bristol City Council has partnered with Ameresco and Vattenfall to leverage over £1billion of investment in the city’s low-carbon infrastructure across 20 years As part of this commitment, Vattenfall and Ameresco will help deliver district heat networks and retrofit the city’s social housing stock. During the first five years of the twenty-year partnership, the private sector will invest at least £424 million in a range of large infrastructure projects to reduce Bristol’s carbon footprint by 140,000 tonnes.
Access to the data required to report on the SDGs remains problematic. Local authorities in the UK are fortunate to have support from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), but not all relevant data is held by the ONS. Some government departments do not share data or do not geographically disaggregate data to the level required for local monitoring. A lack of disaggregated data, or a lack of access to data, can make targeted interventions by local authorities difficult to justify, deliver and monitor. This is particularly true for issues around biodiversity where a lack of concrete data for most local authorities and a lack of resourcing to record new data makes it difficult to target action.
Addressing data deficits and mapping local data onto the SDG monitoring framework across UK local authorities could enhance intercity communication, coordination and the monitoring of progress.
THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP COORDINATORS
COMMUNITY CLIMATE ACTION PLANS
- Belfast City Council described the pandemic as a ‘reset moment’ for the city with hopes that priorities can be reassessed to guarantee a future in which no one is left behind.
- A representative from Glasgow City Council highlighted improvements made to active travel infrastructure using COVID-response funding.
- Over the next three years,Liverpool City Council has pledged £10 million to make the city greener by investing in parks and green spaces, with £3 million set aside for retrofitting public buses to reduce nitrogen dioxide levels and air pollution in congested areas of the city.
- In Nottingham, local councillors found that the reduction of mowing during lockdown helped change attitudes to rewilding. Greater numbers of wildflowers and more natural green spaces showed citizens the benefits of protecting biodiversity.
- An innovative partnership in Bristol, City Leap, will provide low-carbon infrastructure for the city.
The covid crisis has propelled innovation through cross-sectoral collaborations and laid the foundations for long-term change.
- In Bristol, many communities organised food deliveries, prescription pick-ups and neighbourhood befriending. These groups serve as critical social infrastructure, often filling gaps in local authority and voluntary, community and social enterprise provision.
- The Community Champions scheme introduced in Newcastle in response to COVID has focused on improving community education on healthcare and mitigating lower vaccine uptake in some demographic groups. | <urn:uuid:9334091e-1aab-442a-9d4e-26b681919207> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/policybristol/policy-engagement-projects/bristol-sdg-vlr/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00301.warc.gz | en | 0.942865 | 2,959 | 2.53125 | 3 | 225 |
This article is part of a series in which OECD experts and thought leaders—from around the world and all parts of society—discuss and develop solutions now and for the future. Aiming to foster the fruitful exchange of expertise and perspectives across fields to help us rise to this critical challenge, opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the OECD.
As 2022 has progressed, the costs of daily living have increased—everything from the 159% increase for canola oil to the 18.3% increase for gasoline. As economists quip, costs shoot up like a rocket and fall like a feather, so even if we weren’t living in a time of COVID-19 subvariants, failing supply chains and conflict in Europe, the price of daily living will remain high for the foreseeable future. While increased costs have had an impact on daily life across the income spectrum, the pains and challenges have not been distributed equally.
It is education more than the size of one’s paycheck that offers better protection against unemployment. It is education that enables occupational choice.
On the surface this seems like a pure economics story, but actually it isn’t. Yes, high-wage workers have been better able to weather the economic downturn while low-wage workers have borne the brunt of job losses spurred by the pandemic and hardships with rising costs. However, following the 2007–2009 Great Recession, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis published a study revealing that, “Contrary to expectations, high-wage workers are not spared job loss during recessions; their unemployment rate rises substantially, largely mirroring those of medium- and low-wage workers”. The differentiator between those who were spared and those who weren’t was education. While education and wages are closely correlated, according to the study’s authors they aren’t “joined the hip.” In fact, it is education more than the size of one’s paycheck that offers better protection against unemployment. It is education that enables occupational choice.
While we are squarely situated in an economic downturn, the job market has remained resilient—for example, the United States added 528,000 jobs in July, Australia had 480,100 job vacancies in May, and vacancies in Netherlands increased to 479,800 in the second quarter. There are jobs to be had, but not enough individuals have the education that enables choice when it comes to pursuing the current opportunities. In the first two months of the pandemic, we experienced two years’ worth of digital transformation. Further, “The pace of technology adoption is expected to remain unabated and may accelerate in some areas. The adoption of cloud computing, big data and e-commerce remain high priorities for business leaders”. As such, more and more jobs require digital and technical skills. It is not only education but also the right skills that enable occupational choice and protect against unemployment.
In a shift to skills-based hiring employers are resetting degree requirements, thereby reversing the years of degree inflation that followed the Great Recession.
By 2025 it is anticipated that the global workforce will absorb 149 million new technology-oriented jobs. These roles will be found in all parts of the workforce, from food production (324,000 new jobs) to healthcare (2 million) to the auto industry (6 million). Digital and technical skills aren’t only for those looking to become software engineers or cybersecurity specialists. Rather, individuals are expected to arrive on their first day of work with the digital skills needed to thrive in the post-2020 working environment—one that takes place more often through a virtual meeting than it does across a conference room table.
It is no longer enough to earn a degree or leave university with good qualification to get a “good job”—60% of IT managers say job applications with industry-recognised certifications are significantly more likely to be reviewed than those without. Further, in a shift to skills-based hiring employers are resetting degree requirements, thereby reversing the years of degree inflation that followed the Great Recession. This shift makes sense when you consider that 66% of IT managers said that employees with industry-recognised technical credentials produce higher quality work. Additionally, 28% of employees reported salary or wage increases while 21% received a job promotion after earning a certification. Were the 2010 Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis study focused on education written today, I suspect that the language would be different as we face an educational landscape made up not only of B.A.s, A.B.s, M.Litt.s, and Ph.D.s but certifications, certificates, micro-credentials and more.
Micro-credentials: The new frontier of adult education and training by James Robson, Deputy Director of Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance, Oxford University
To this end, at Microsoft we have been working to ensure that everyone has opportunities to learn digital skills and earn industry-recognised technical credentials. We work with communities, nonprofits, and governments to help people excluded from the digital economy gain the foundational, role-based and technical skills to gain jobs and livelihoods through our Skills for Jobs programme; we support making fundamentals certifications and the resources to learn, prepare and get certified free to all eligible students; our Microsoft Learn for Educators programme in partnernership with higher education institutions—whether universities or vocational schools—ensures that students who graduate today are both broadly educated and deeply, technically skilled as they enter the workforce; and we connect skilled individuals with Microsoft customers and partners in need of their talents.
While the pains and challenges of the current higher costs and job losses aren’t distributed equally, and access to educational opportunities have been out of reach for many low-income families, we at Microsoft are working to democratise access to skills-based education to ensure that everyone has greater access to occupational choice. | <urn:uuid:2023d239-e100-4627-ae81-df92b1c933e2> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.oecd-forum.org/posts/the-great-differentiator-democratising-access-to-skills-based-education-means-better-occupational-choices?room_id=the-school-to-work-transition | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00301.warc.gz | en | 0.953811 | 1,205 | 2.84375 | 3 | 226 |
Open or distance learning, correspondence courses, multiple learning platforms, VLE’s, blended learning: all of these go some way to describe that you as students are working ‘somewhere else’. Between them they represent a different era or aspect of what is basically the same thing, of a ‘Smart’ access to learning, from where you are. Sound good? Well, much of it is.
None of this is new. It’s 150 years or so (!!) since this sort of thing started. In that time lots of things have changed, and lots has been ‘learned’ about distance learning. Can you imagine doing a course in 1850? With hardly any of our modern technology? The University of London was the first university to do this and now has students in 180 countries. And did you know that just under 100 years ago the BBC took on education on as one of its roles? The OU started in 1971. Nowadays TV, mobile phones, post, and computers all help.
So what are the benefits? Obviously the whole point is to have flexible access, to learn at the speed you want – within reason! Getting support and materials from a distance so that you”re not restricted in your movements and sharing in the development of technologies. MOOCS ( really! ) are providing increasing access to many top level courses. And there seems to be no limit to the speed of innovation for interactions on your mobile phone. Try and look up the article ‘MOOCS and the man leading the UK charge’ on the ‘Guardian’ newspaper website, 19/8/14. He says with ‘Future Learn’ all kinds of interaction will be key.
But what are the disadvantages? Isolation? A sense of being out of your depth? Fear of having difficulties with your course with no teacher to help in the traditional way? Well, it is a different ‘world’ and one which is moving fast. We’re all becoming familiar with the rapidly changing technologies and we must learn to use them for our benefit. So we come to the next question: what to look for when you’re making your choices?
Firstly, you must choose the right course (s). OOL provides a wide range of these and provides support to go with them. Similarly, MOOCS offer a range of HE courses.
Second: support. A big choice now is either personal support, and again, OOL does this. Or electronic support. The OU seems to be moving towards this.
Finally: quality. What universities provide ( MOOCS ) is probably going to be okay, and OOL is a member of ABCC ( a good website too! ).
These are big, important changes. Let’s exploit them.
I'm semi-retired after a successful and much enjoyed career in education. Funnily enough, my last job was as a tutor for OOL. I taught on courses providing professional training for school support staff, as well as A level English Literature and English Literature GCSE. I've had an interesting career, in schools, colleges, adult education, the Arts and a few other bits and bobs. At one stage I was also a local authority inspector. Now I'm a school governor, and am enjoying watching my young grandchildren go through their own first experiences of school. Through these articles I hope to keep you up to date with different aspects of education news – and also to keep you interested! | <urn:uuid:97d5b096-14dc-4176-9b8b-7b87c548a3d5> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.ool.co.uk/blog/distance-learning-now-future/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00301.warc.gz | en | 0.972715 | 724 | 2.578125 | 3 | 227 |
Different cultures from around the world have described emotions and feelings you never thought about. In this article, you will learn some of them.
We live in an age where science is at its peak and we are making more amazing discoveries than ever before. This is especially true of neuroscience, which in recent years has advanced dramatically.
Scientists have conducted extensive research into brain imaging and can now locate with exact precision where in our brains certain emotions and feelings originate from.
One such researcher is Tiffany Watt-Smith from the Centre for the History of the Emotions and Queen Mary University in London.
“It’s this idea that what we mean by ‘emotion’ has evolved,” Smith says. “It’s now a physical thing — you can see a location of it in the brain.”
In fact, Smith has published a fascinating and eye-opening book on this topic titled ‘The Book of Human Emotions’. In this book, she gives 154 words used in different cultures from around the world that describe very specific emotions and feelings that either were impossible for you to describe before or perhaps you never even realised you had them.
According to Smith, naming a feeling makes it more manageable to deal with.
“It’s a long-held idea that if you put a name to a feeling, it can help that feeling become less overwhelming,” she said. “All sorts of stuff that’s swirling around and feeling painful can start to feel a bit more manageable.”
Here is a selection of ten of those words about emotions and feelings.
This is a word used by the Dusun Baguk people of Indonesia, and according to Smith it is described as
“the sudden experience of feeling constricted, inferior and awkward around people of higher status.”
Although we may view this as a negative feeling, it is in fact perceived by this culture as good manners and as an appropriate sign of respect.
A French word for “the ‘strange excitement’ of wanton destruction,” according to Smith’s description. Borrowing her phrasing from sociologist Roger Caillois, she says
“Caillois traced ilinx back to the practices of ancient mystics who by whirling and dancing hoped to induce rapturous trance states and glimpse alternative realities,” Smith writes. “Today, even succumbing to the urge to create a minor chaos by kicking over the office recycling bin should give you a mild hit.”
A term coined by sociologist Fred Goldner, this word means the complete opposite of paranoia – in Smith’s words, the “strange, creeping feeling that everyone’s out to help you.”
A Japanese word, in Smith’s definition, meaning “leaning on another person’s goodwill”. In other words, feeling a deep and fulfilling trust in any close relationship, comparable to a childish type of selfish love.
As the Japanese psychoanalyst, Takeo Doi puts it,
“an emotion that takes the other person’s love for granted.”
This is a Finnish word describing feeling homesick for a place you have never been to. It can also be described as an inherent wanderlust, a “craving for a distant land” – a feeling that will resonate with any travel lover.
A literal translation from German meaning “gate-closing panic,” this word perfectly describes the sensation that time is running out, or that life is passing you by.
This is a fun and playful word for teasing or annoying someone on purpose, to see how far you can go until they snap. Akin to pushing someone’s buttons, many of us with siblings will relate to this.
L’appel du vide
An interesting French word meaning “the call of the void.” Sometimes our emotions and feelings can be unpredictable and unreliable, which is a big reason why we shouldn’t let them dictate our behavior.
In the words of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre this emotion
“creates an unnerving, shaky sensation of not being able to trust one’s own instincts.”
Literal French for decountrification (being without a country) and the feeling of being an outsider. The actual emotion itself is a “kind of giddiness, only ever felt when far away from home” which can sometimes make people do crazy and ‘yolo’ antics that they may not be so inclined to do back at home.
A word originating from the culture of the Baining people of Papua New Guinea, Smith describes this as the unconventional emotion as the “emptiness after a visitor’s depart.” Most people usually feel relief when a visitor departs, but the Baining people are so used to it that they have come up with a way of removing this feeling.
“Once their guests have left, the Baining fill a bowl with water and leave it overnight to absorb the festering air. The next day, the family rises very early and ceremonially flings the water into the trees, whereupon ordinary life resumes.”
Copyright © 2012-2024 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us. | <urn:uuid:6c821351-f2de-4e0f-bc0f-567ba9864533> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.learning-mind.com/words-indescribable-emotions-and-feelings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476442.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20240304101406-20240304131406-00301.warc.gz | en | 0.935353 | 1,115 | 2.90625 | 3 | 228 |
Explore Redwater & District Museum’s rich history, intriguing exhibits, and educational workshops. Experience community events that celebrate our collective heritage.Nestled in the heart of a vibrant community, the Redwater & District Museum stands as a testament to the rich tapestry of local history, culture, and heritage. With its unique and carefully curated collection, the museum offers a window into the past, allowing visitors to explore the days gone by and their continuing significance today. From the deep historical roots that shaped the town of Redwater to the dynamic exhibits that engage both young and old, the museum is a focal point for learning and connection. In this blog post, we’ll unearth the fascinating history of the Redwater & District Museum, delve into the treasures housed within its walls, explore the interactive and educational experiences it offers, and celebrate the ways in which it fosters community spirit through a range of events and programs. Join us on a journey of discovery into a cultural gem that’s much more than just a repository of artifacts—it’s a living, breathing center of community pride.
History of Redwater & District Museum
The Redwater & District Museum stands as a symbolism of the rich cultural and historical lineage of the Redwater area, its establishment being a pivotal moment for the preservation of the region’s storied past. In the annals of history, it’s significant to note that this museum was not just spontaneously formed but is a culmination of the collective efforts of local historians, community leaders, and passionate individuals who recognized the imperative need to capture the essence of a bygone era for generations to appreciate. It’s fascinating to delve into the origins of the museum, which can be traced back to humble beginnings that burgeoned over the years into the remarkable repository it is today.
Upon its inception, the Redwater & District Museum embarked upon a continuous journey of acquiring and cataloging a plethora of artifacts, each with its own unique backstory and intrinsic historic value. These artifacts collectively form a narrative tapestry that weaves together the various facets of the local areas – its indigenous history, the arrival of pioneers and settlers, the impact of railway expansion, and the subsequent economic and social transformations. It is important to acknowledge the profound significance of each object within the museum’s diverse collection, as they serve not just as silent testimonials to history, but also as educational tools that invite inquiry and exploration.
The evolution of the museum’s infrastructure and the enhancement of its exhibits are testaments to the dedication to maintain an engaging space where history is not just stored but vibrantly showcased. The concerted efforts of the museum’s supporters have ensured that the necessary resources have been allocated to preserve and even rejuvenate treasured artifacts, ensuring their integrity and the ability for the public to engage with history in a meaningful way. This development from its modest initial setup to the current state is a tribute to the community’s acknowledgment of its past and its enthusiasm to keep that history alive and accessible.
It is also worth mentioning the diverse range of educational programs and workshops that the Redwater & District Museum conducts, fostering a love for local history among all age groups. Substantial importance is given to creating interactive experiences that resonate with visitors, molding the museum into an invaluable tool for education and engagement. These programs are meticulously designed to reflect the museum’s commitment to historical stewardship and public education, leading to a strengthened relationship between the museum and the community it serves.
Lastly, the emphasis on community involvement and events highlights the role of the Redwater & District Museum as a central figure in communal activities, bringing together people from all walks of life to celebrate their shared heritage. Be it annual celebrations, special commemorations, or temporary exhibitions dedicated to notable local figures and events, the museum has cemented its position as a beacon of culture and history within the district, making it a cherished landmark for both residents and visitors alike.
Significance of the Museum’s Collection
The Redwater & District Museum houses a vast and diverse collection that serves as a critical repository of the region’s heritage, manifesting the multitude of narratives woven into the area’s historical tapestry. Within the walls of this esteemed institution rest artifacts and ephemera that span multiple generations, each contributing a unique voice to the chorus of stories that constitute the local community’s collective memory.
Delving into the museum’s collection, one finds a deliberate emphasis on objects and documents that elucidate the socio-economic developments pivotal to Redwater’s evolution. From agricultural implements that recall the dawn of the town’s settlement to industrial relics that reflect the subsequent waves of economic change, the museum’s curatorial choices lay bare the intersection of human toil and technological progress that propelled the district forward.
Moreover, the museum’s collection holds in its care an array of personal mementos that bring a poignant intimacy to our understanding of the past. These items, ranging from letters and diaries to photographs and clothing, reveal the nuanced everyday experiences of the individuals who once called Redwater home, thus underscoring the significance of personal histories in the broader narrative of regional development.
Integral too to the collection’s distinction is its dedication to preserving the intangible heritage of the Redwater district. Through oral histories and recordings, the museum captures the ephemeral nature of storytelling and folklore, providing an auditory dimension to the area’s heritage that complements the tangible remnants of its past, all in pursuit of a more comprehensive documentation of the district’s rich cultural legacy.
Incorporating both the mundane and the extraordinary, the Redwater & District Museum’s collection stands not only as a testament to the region’s journey through time but also as an educational resource of immeasurable value. It is through these collected pieces of history that the museum fulfills its mission to educate, engage, and inspire current and future generations about the indelible imprint of their forebears on the landscape of today’s community.
Engaging Exhibits and Displays
The Redwater & District Museum is a treasure trove of history, where engaging exhibits and displays breathe life into the stories of the past. Its exhibits are thoughtfully curated to foster an interactive environment, ensuring that visitors of all ages leave with enriched knowledge and a vivid memory of their experience. With its diverse range of themes, the museum serves as a cultural hub that captivates the imaginations of both residents and travelers alike.
One cannot help but be drawn into the museum’s wide array of displays that meticulously outline the significant moments in the region’s history. Each exhibit is an amalgamation of detailed research and creative presentation, which facilitates an understanding of the development and the cultural heartbeat of the community. The exhibits are not just mere showpieces; they are sensory and intellectual encounters, designed to evoke an emotional connection and foster a sense of belonging.
Moreover, the museum takes pride in its use of state-of-the-art technology to create interactive experiences. Through the incorporation of touch screens, virtual reality, and multimedia presentations, visitors are offered an opportunity to engage with history in a manner that is both innovative and educational. This tech-savvy approach ensures that the Redwater & District Museum stands at the forefront of modern museology, keeping pace with current trends in display and information sharing.
In addition, themed temporary exhibits punctuate the museum’s calendar, providing fresh perspectives and reasons for repeat visits. These carefully crafted displays delve into specific topics, shedding light on lesser-known stories or commemorating significant anniversaries. It is this dynamic and ever-evolving approach to exhibition that maintains the museum’s reputation as an institution that both preserves history and propels it forward.
The Redwater & District Museum’s commitment to providing engaging exhibits and displays is a testament to its role as a custodian of local heritage. The museum stands as a beacon of learning, where every item on display is a dialogue between the past and the present, an invitation extended to all to come and partake in the ongoing narrative of the community’s rich history.
Educational Programs and Workshops
The Redwater & District Museum not only archives the past but also serves as a vibrant educational hub, offering a variety of Educational Programs and Workshops designed to enrich the community’s knowledge and appreciation of their heritage. Such initiatives are crucial in perpetuating the museum’s role as a dynamic educational resource, engaging individuals of all ages in the preservation and understanding of local history.
Among the most lauded programs are the museum’s historical workshops, where participants can immerse themselves in the crafting techniques of yore, from blacksmithing to traditional textile creation, thereby gaining a hands-on understanding of the ingenuity and resourcefulness that characterized the lives of their ancestors. These workshops aim to bridge the gap between past and present, demonstrating the unbroken thread of human creativity and adaptation.
The museum also offers a variety of tailored educational programs that align with school curricula, giving students the unique opportunity to supplement their academic knowledge with authentic historical experiences. These educational excursions enable students to transcend the boundaries of the classroom and step directly into the past, fostering a tangible connection with the curriculum through live demonstrations and interactive participation.
Additionally, the Redwater & District Museum recognizes the importance of lifelong learning and hence includes programs for adult education and senior engagement. These workshops and seminars cover a vast array of topics, from genealogical research to the preservation of personal archives, thus empowering community members to become active participants in the preservation of their own histories.
To demonstrate the scope and diversity of the educational offerings, below is a summarized table:
|Blacksmithing, Textile Creation
|Curriculum-based tours, Interactive History Lessons
|Adult & Senior Education
|Adults and Seniors
|Genealogy, Archive Preservation Workshops
In sum, the Redwater & District Museum actively contributes to the community’s educational enrichment through its outstanding Educational Programs and Workshops, ensuring that the wisdom of the past is preserved and passed down through engaging and informative experiences, crafted for all age groups and interest levels.
Community Involvement and Events
The Redwater & District Museum has long been weaving the vibrant threads of community engagement into its fabric, ensuring that the history and stories encapsulated within its walls do not merely whisper to the present, but rather, echo through the active participation of the local populace. The illustrious progression of community involvement in the museum’s activities has established it not just as a repository of the past, but as a dynamic hub for social gatherings, cultural enrichment, and educational development.
Through a variety of events ranging from historical commemorations to festive gatherings, the Redwater & District Museum has honed its role as a beacon of cultural heritage, encouraging residents and visitors alike to immerse themselves in the cultural tapestry of the area. The events designed by the museum often celebrate the unique milestones and seasons, thereby perpetuating the rich local traditions and fostering an enduring sense of community.
The museum’s calendar is punctuated with diverse happenings, with each event carefully curated to involve community members of all ages. From workshops for the eager hands of youth, intent on crafting their own understanding of history, to educational talks that draw in those who carry a torch for lifelong learning, these programs reflect the museum’s adaptability to serve its community’s thirst for knowledge and its zeal for participation.
Moreover, the museum often stands as a ground for volunteerism, allowing the heritage-enthusiastic individuals of the district to contribute directly to the success of these events. This collaborative effort invigorates the museum experience, investing it with the spirit and perspectives of those who hold the region close to their hearts.
In summary, the Redwater & District Museum’s enduring vision to involve the community in its continuum of events has not simply made it a custodian of artifacts, but also an invaluable orchestrator of collective memory, identity, and engagement within the community it so diligently serves.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Redwater & District Museum focuses on the local history and heritage of Redwater and the surrounding district. It aims to preserve and showcase artifacts, photographs, and stories that reflect the community's cultural and historical development.The Redwater & District Museum is located in the town of Redwater, which is situated in the province or state relevant to your location. It is a key cultural hub for the local community and visitors interested in the area's history.Yes, visitors are often encouraged to contribute to the museum's collection by donating artifacts, sharing stories, or providing historical information that can help enrich the museum's exhibits and archives.Most local museums like the Redwater & District Museum offer educational programs, including guided tours, workshops, and school group activities, designed to educate visitors about the local history and culture.The entry fee policy varies. Many small museums have a suggested donation or a small entry fee, but it is best to check the museum's official website or contact them directly for the most up-to-date information regarding admission fees.The operating hours can vary seasonally or depending on the museum's schedule of events. It is recommended to check the museum's official website or to reach out to the museum staff for the latest information on opening times and days.Many local museums like Redwater & District Museum host special events throughout the year, ranging from holiday celebrations and historical anniversaries to special exhibits. These events are typically listed on the museum's website or social media channels. | <urn:uuid:77b8946f-a9cd-4f3a-81b7-a1535fea5138> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://dearcanada.net/redwater-district-museum/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473370.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221034447-20240221064447-00401.warc.gz | en | 0.928384 | 2,792 | 2.609375 | 3 | 229 |
Recent advancements in microfluidics have revolutionized the research on the model organisms. Model organisms are exceptional species that are employed in laboratories to study biological phenomena. Despite being simple, these organisms can provide insight into other species. One of the model organisms that has benefited significantly from microfluidic technology is the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans known as C. elegans. Microfluidic devices that are used for studying nematodes such as C. elegans are commonly referred to as worm-on-a-chips. These microfluidics biochips are used as strong tools for manipulation of these worms as well as the precise behavioural and developmental assays at unprecedented resolutions.
Since its emergence as a model organism in the early 1960s, C. elegans, has appeared as a powerful means for studying a broad range of topics ranging from developmental biology to neuroscience. Its body is made up of approximately 1000 cells, a third of which are nerve cells. Having many genes with functional counterparts in humans, a transparent body, the short life cycle of two weeks, small size, and being easy to mutate are among the advantages of using C. elegans as a model organism. While remaining a primitive and simple model organism, C. elegans carries some complex circuits such as the insulin signalling pathway.
C. elegans research can be arduous and time-consuming due to many steps that need to be carried out manually. This can increase the cross-contamination risk as well as reducing the repeatability of the experiments due to its dependency on the operator’s skills. Moreover, in some cases, such as picking up the worms at a particular stage, manual selection of the worms can take hours that in turn reduces the efficiency and throughput. Furthermore, it is typical to read out the measurements from the average of a population. However, for many applications, such as drug screening, mechanosensory and chemosensory assays, the single worm response can be of crucial importance. There are differences from worm to worm that can affect the average response. Single organisms’ studies are much more comprehensive and can provide a better understanding of the organism’s behaviour. The birth stage of the worm, body size, etc. can affect the results to a high extent. Also, working with a population rather than individual worms requires more reagents and increases the cost of the tests.
Microfluidic chips made of PDMS, called worm-on-a-chips, have been very promising in automating various aspects of C. elegans research omitting the aforementioned issues. Microfluidic technology has solutions for both routine lab procedures as well as case-specific experiments. For example, using glue and anesthetics for immobilizing C. elegans is low-throughput, time-consuming, and irreversible but a microfluidic chip can immobilize the worms at high-throughput without damaging the worms and with the possibility of releasing them for further analysis. Learn more about how microfluidic technology provides tools for rapid immobilization, positioning, sorting, synchronization, and neural and behavioural study of C. elegans in the following microfluidics articles.
Here, at uFluidix, we have accrued years of experience in design and manufacturing PDMS biochips for C. elegans research. Do not hesitate to contact us to discuss your C. elegans research project and purchase your chips fabricated affordably.
Read more on how microfluidic technology is employed for microfluidics sorting and synchronization of C. elegans
Explore the various microfluidics techniques developed for immobilizing and positioning C. elegans in microfluidic chips | <urn:uuid:758291b8-31af-4678-a629-fc48aadeec3d> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.ufluidix.com/microfluidics-applications/c-elegans-research/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474470.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223221041-20240224011041-00401.warc.gz | en | 0.947474 | 762 | 3.6875 | 4 | 230 |
Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic approach that utilizes literature, books, and reading as a means of promoting personal growth, self-reflection, and emotional well-being. It involves the intentional use of specific texts or reading materials to address psychological and emotional challenges.
Emotional Exploration: Reading books that depict characters going through similar experiences or challenges can provide a safe space for individuals to explore their emotions and gain insights into their own struggles. It allows readers to connect with the characters' journeys, fostering empathy, and understanding.
Self-Reflection and Insight: Through reading, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of themselves. Books can offer different perspectives, dilemmas, and life lessons that encourage self-reflection. They provide an opportunity to explore personal values, beliefs, and aspirations, fostering personal growth and self-awareness.
Validation and Normalization: Many people find comfort in realizing that their experiences, thoughts, and emotions are shared by others. Books can validate one's feelings and struggles, providing a sense of normalcy and reassurance that they are not alone. This validation can be particularly valuable when dealing with mental health issues or challenging life circumstances.
Stress Reduction and Relaxation: Engaging with literature can serve as an effective form of relaxation and stress reduction. It offers an escape from daily pressures by immersing readers in engaging narratives, transporting them to different worlds, and allowing them to temporarily detach from their own worries.
Coping Strategies and Resilience: Books often present characters overcoming challenges, demonstrating resilience, and employing various coping strategies. By reading about these examples, individuals can learn new ways to manage difficulties, problem-solve, and navigate their own lives with greater resilience and adaptability.
Expanded Perspective: Books expose readers to diverse perspectives, cultures, and experiences. They broaden horizons, challenge assumptions, and promote open-mindedness. This expanded perspective can enhance empathy, foster tolerance, and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the richness of human diversity.
Inspiration and Motivation: Books can inspire and motivate individuals to pursue personal goals, dreams, and aspirations. By reading about the triumphs and achievements of characters, readers can find motivation to overcome their own obstacles and strive for personal excellence.
Bibliotherapy harnesses the power of literature to promote self-reflection, emotional exploration, and personal growth. The benefits of bibliotherapy range from gaining insight and validation to stress reduction and expanded perspectives. By engaging with carefully selected books, individuals can embark on a journey of self-discovery, find solace, and gain inspiration for positive change in their lives.
Many of us crave more fulfillment in life, but we don't know how to find it. We try everything to feel better, from changing jobs and dating new people, to attending therapy and taking pills. We grasp at the superficial, and externally overcompensate for our internal voids and self-doubts. What we don't realize is that avoiding responsibility only postpones the inevitable—that nothing about our life changes until we change.
The Biology of Belief: Unleashing The Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles
Dr Bruce Lipton
Through the research of Dr. Lipton and other leading-edge scientists, stunning new discoveries have been made about the interaction between your mind and body and the processes by which cells receive information. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology, that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our thoughts.
Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment for Depression & Anxiety
Dr David Burns
The goal is not just a rapid and complete elimination of negative feelings, but the development of joy and enlightenment.
In Feeling Great, Dr. David Burns reveals that our negative moods do not result from what’s wrong with us, but rather—what’s right with us. And when you listen and suddenly “hear” what your negative thoughts and feelings are trying to tell you, suddenly you won’t need them anymore, and recovery will be just a stone’s throw away.
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind. He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present. The journey is thrilling, and along the way, the author shows how to connect to the indestructible essence of our Being, "the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death."
A New Earth: Awakening Your Lifes Purpose
In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.
Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization
Scott Barry Kaufman
When psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman first discovered Maslow's unfinished theory of transcendence, sprinkled throughout a cache of unpublished journals, lectures, and essays, he felt a deep resonance with his own work and life. In this groundbreaking book, Kaufman picks up where Maslow left off, unraveling the mysteries of his unfinished theory, and integrating these ideas with the latest research on attachment, connection, creativity, love, purpose and other building blocks of a life well lived.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Legendary Record Executive and Producer Rick Rubin has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.
Breath: The New Science of A Lost Art
There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.
Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.
The Practice of Groundedness
Playing into the always-on, never enough hustle culture ultimately takes a serious toll. While the high of occasional wins can keep you going for a while, angst, restlessness, frayed relationships, exhaustion, and even substance abuse can be the unwanted side effects of an obsession with outward performance.
In The Practice of Groundedness, bestselling author Brad Stulberg offers a path from which peak performance and well-being and fulfillment can emerge and prevail for a lifetime.
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
Dr. Anna Lembke
In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain . . . and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check.
Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon
Dr Joe Dispenza
Readers will learn that we are, quite literally supernatural by nature if given the proper knowledge and instruction, and when we learn how to apply that information through various meditations, we should experience a greater expression of our creative abilities; that we have the capacity to tune in to frequencies beyond our material world and receive more orderly coherent streams of consciousness and energy; that we can intentionally change our brain chemistry to initiate profoundly mystical transcendental experiences; and how, if we do this enough times, we can develop the skill of creating a more efficient, balanced, healthy body, a more unlimited mind, and greater access to the realms of spiritual truth.
Our African Unconscious: The Black Origins of Mysticism and Psychology
Edward Bruce Bynum
In this extensive look at the unfolding of human history and culture, Edward Bruce Bynum reveals how our collective unconscious is African. Drawing on archaeology, DNA research, depth psychology, and the biological and spiritual roots of religion and science, he demonstrates how all modern human beings, regardless of ethnic or racial categorizations, share a common deeper identity, both psychically and genetically--a primordial African unconscious.
12 Rules for Life
Jordan B Peterson
Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure and responsibility, distilling the world's wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life.
What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant and vengeful?
The Art of Impossible: A Primer for Peak Performance
What does it take to accomplish the impossible? What does it take to shatter our limitations, exceed our expectations, and turn our biggest dreams into our most recent achievements?
We are capable of so much more than we know—that’s the message at the core of The Art of Impossible. Building upon cutting-edge neuroscience and over twenty years of research, bestselling author, peak performance expert and Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective, Steven Kotler lays out a blueprint for extreme performance improvement.
The Kybalion: Centenary Edition
The Three Initiates
For generations, readers have debated the origins and studied the knowledge of this mysterious exploration of Hermetic wisdom, attributed to "Three Initiates."
Now in its second century, The Kybalion is restored to hardcover in a commemorative volume that evokes the appearance of the occult landmark's first edition.
The Daily Stoic
Why have history's greatest minds—from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with today's top performers from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities—embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise.
The practice of hatha yoga, as we commonly know it, is but one of eight branches of the body of knowledge that is yoga. In fact, yoga is a sophisticated system of self-empowerment that is capable of harnessing and activating inner energies in such a way that your body and mind function at their optimal capacity. It is a means to create inner situations exactly the way you want them, turning you into the architect of your own joy.
Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
What does drug withdrawal have in common with a broken heart? Why is the enemy of memory not time but other memories? How can a blind person learn to see with her tongue, or a deaf person learn to hear with his skin? Might we someday control a robot with our thoughts, just as we do our fingers and toes? Why do we dream at night, and what does that have to do with the rotation of the earth? The answers to these questions are right behind our eyes. The greatest technology we have ever discovered on our planet is the three-pound organ carried in the vault of the skull.
The GOD Equation: The Quest for A Theory of Everything
When Newton discovered the law of gravity, he unified the rules governing the heavens and the Earth. Since then, physicists have been placing new forces into ever-grander theories. But perhaps the ultimate challenge is achieving a monumental synthesis of the two remaining theories—relativity and the quantum theory. This would be the crowning achievement of science, a profound merging of all the forces of nature into one beautiful, magnificent equation to unlock the deepest mysteries in science: What happened before the Big Bang? What lies on the other side of a black hole? Are there other universes and dimensions? Is time travel possible? Why are we here?
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
Everyone knows that high IQ is no guarantee of success, happiness, or virtue, but until Emotional Intelligence, we could only guess why. Daniel Goleman's brilliant report from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience offers startling new insight into our “two minds”—the rational and the emotional—and how they together shape our destiny.
Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions
A guide to all kinds of addiction from a star who has struggled with heroin, alcohol, sex, fame, food and eBay, that will help addicts and their loved ones make the first steps into recovery
“This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud...My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse.” ―Russell Brand | <urn:uuid:18775563-02bd-40d4-8441-986bd5e9c584> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.theartofmentalalchemy.com/copy-of-expanding-the-mind | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474594.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225071740-20240225101740-00401.warc.gz | en | 0.926373 | 2,733 | 3.796875 | 4 | 231 |
We are living through the datafication of our society and its impacts are broad and deep. Everything from how much credit we can access, to how doctors diagnose and treat us, to what we pay for airline tickets, to our dating website matches, are influenced by our growing ability to draw conclusions from raw data. The rise of supercomputers, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and web-enabled devices dramatically improve how we capture, analyze, share and make inferences from large, complex data sets. The value proposition for organizations is massive, which is why more and more are racing to embrace data-driven decision-making to stay competitive.
Over the last decade, several universities across Canada have invested significant resources into studying and applying the principles and processes of data science, and preparing students for what Harvard Business Review called “the sexiest job of the 21st century.”
One example is the University of British Columbia’s Data Science Institute (DSI), which is conducting leading-edge data science research with a particular focus on biomedicine. Of the 16 studies that have emerged from the DSI across its almost five-year history, 11 have focused on various aspects of understanding, diagnosing and treating human illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and autism.
The biomedical focus was influenced by the expertise of its founding director, Raymond Ng, who has studied data mining for the last two decades, much of it focused on health informatics. Dr. Ng, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Data Science and Analytics at UBC, says the DSI funds each project for 18 months, and then investigators are typically able to attract additional funding from external sources such as the federal research granting councils and healthcare-focused agencies and foundations.
Read also: Making sense of Big Data
In one DSI project, two UBC professors – one in statistics, one in medicine – and a DSI postdoctoral fellow sought to better understand tuberculosis transmission in B.C. The province sees about 250 cases of TB per year. In 2018, they began collaborating with the BC Centre for Disease Control, gaining access to centralized epidemiological, demographic and clinical data for every individual diagnosed with TB in the province from 2005 to 2014 – approximately 2,300 cases. The goal of this study is to explore how to better predict outbreaks and undiagnosed infections.
The researchers have already developed a computer algorithm that can correctly flag positive TB results in lab reports more than 90 percent of the time. “It can be argued that that’s better than a human. … We’re just testing the water to see how good the natural language processing techniques are,” says Dr. Ng, referring to the ability of their computer program to understand human language.
Data science for the social good
Another side of the DSI’s work involves applying data science methods to solve societal problems. For the last three summers it has run Data Science for Social Good, a 14-week program in which 16 selected undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines work together in small groups in partnership with public organizations, applying data analysis techniques to social and environmental issues. Past projects have focused on helping energy regulators be more responsive to Indigenous communities, informing municipal strategy on electric vehicles, and making biodiversity data more accessible.
At the University of Waterloo, conducting data science for social good is the priority of Lukasz Golab, director of the Data Science Lab in the department of management sciences, and a Waterloo professor since 2011 who is cross-appointed to the school of computer science. Dr. Golab, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Data Analytics for Sustainability, is exploring how we can employ intelligent infrastructure and data analytics to reduce our use of water and energy, and adopt more green technologies. Since he established the lab in 2015, he has expanded its definition of social good beyond the parameters of sustainability to include gender equity and public health.
“There have been many success stories for using data to solve business problems and monetize applications, so why can’t we create new success stories about using data for social good?” says Dr. Golab. “To me, it’s an interesting challenge to take problems affecting society and understand the role of data science in solving them.”
One subject that has long interested Dr. Golab is the persistent gender gap in engineering programs. Women currently make up just 19 percent of engineering undergraduates in Canada, and most universities in the country are aiming to boost those numbers, including U of Waterloo. Dr. Golab saw that he could use data science to help advance the university’s efforts to attract and retain female engineering students.
In a study completed in 2018 involving four student researchers, Dr. Golab used data science methods to analyze more than 30,000 applications to U of Waterloo’s undergraduate engineering programs – particularly the section where they explain why they want to study engineering. The researchers used syntactic and semantic analysis software to identify differences between the male and female applicants in their motivation, interests and background. “Hopefully, the university can use these results to make our outreach programs more effective,” says Dr. Golab.
Queen’s University, in partnership with McGill University, is investigating another side of data science through the Conflict Analytics Lab, a research-based consortium applying data science and machine learning to dispute resolution. According to an article on the Queen’s website, the lab “brings together more than 30 lawyers, technology experts and the business community to provide both citizens and businesses with the tools they need to resolve small cases in a fair way,” says Samuel Dahan, a Queen’s law professor and director of the lab.
A particular project has acquired the data from 3,000 employment law cases, with the aim of creating an application to help laid-off Canadian employees receive fair severance from their employer. “This is an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration, harnessing big data to help these individuals better understand their rights and determine their next steps,” says Dr. Dahan.
Of course, the immense power of data science also holds much potential for the world of business. Companies of all stripes are partnering with universities to help them make sense of their vast amounts of data so that they can operate more efficiently, identify business trends, and better anticipate and respond to their customers’ needs. In Quebec, Université de Montréal, HEC Montréal and Polytechnique Montréal joined together in 2016 to establish the Institute for Data Valorization (known by its French acronym, IVADO). Supported by $94 million in funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, the institute helps create connections between data science researchers and industry partners.
IVADO research projects – which usually involve the participation of undergraduate and graduate students – are large in number and variety. There are 43 projects focused on fundamental research in areas such as the links between AI and neuroscience, energy efficiency and personalized medicine. There are a further 250 collaborative research endeavours solving the problems and supporting the operations of organizations in four main sectors: energy, transportation and logistics, business and finance, and health.
Since its founding, IVADO has evolved into a prime mover in Montreal’s dynamic artificial intelligence research cluster. It links six world-class research centres and some 20 academic partners with more than 100 companies, institutions and government agencies, leading to partnerships that have facilitated the research of 1,400 scientists globally in data analytics, machine learning and operations research. The institute is run by a staff of 40 and manages a quarter billion dollars in funds made available by the federal and provincial governments, industry members and the three founding universities. In addition to being a research broker, IVADO also offers multiple scholarships, funds three research chairs in diversity and equity in data science, and delivers accessible community workshops and online courses in data science.
“Our society is undergoing a digital transformation, and we need to know how to extract value from data,” says Gilles Savard, CEO of IVADO. “We need a lot of people who are fluent in digital algorithms, because that’s what will be required by the market.” | <urn:uuid:ac63ade6-5b3d-4b44-9a93-2299d0f24b7d> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/universities-are-diving-deep-into-data-science/?_ga=2.154293944.1435901335.1587932904-583884442.1587932904 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475701.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301193300-20240301223300-00401.warc.gz | en | 0.945556 | 1,688 | 2.625 | 3 | 232 |
Occipital lobe - definition
the lobe that makes up the rearmost area of the brain. The primary visual cortex is located here and thus the occipital lobe is considered the visual center of the brain.
NEUROSCIENCE MADE SIMPLER
Sleep. Memory. Pleasure. Fear. Language. We experience these things every day, but how do our brains create them? Your Brain, Explained is a personal tour around your gray matter. Building on neuroscientist Marc Dingman’s popular YouTube series, 2-Minute Neuroscience, this is a friendly, engaging introduction to the human brain and its quirks using real-life examples and Dingman’s own, hand-drawn illustrations.
An informative, accessible and engaging book for anyone who has even the slightest interest in how the brain works, but doesn’t know where to begin.
Reading like a collection of detective stories, Your Brain, Explained combines classic cases in the history of neurology with findings stemming from the latest techniques used to probe the brain’s secrets.
Dingman weaves classic studies with modern research into easily digestible sections, to provide an excellent primer on the rapidly advancing field of neuroscience.
...a highly readable and accessible introduction to the operation of the brain and current issues in neuroscience... a wonderful introduction to the field.
This book shows a whole other side of how brains work by examining the most unusual behavior to emerge from the human brain. In it, you'll meet a woman who is afraid to take a shower because she fears her body will slip down the drain, a man who is convinced he is a cat, a woman who compulsively snacks on cigarette ashes, and many other unusual cases. As uncommon as they are, each of these cases has something important to teach us about everyday brain function.
Dingman brings the history of neuroscience back to life and weaves in contemporary ideas seamlessly. Readers will come along for the ride of a really interesting read and accidentally learn some neuroscience along the way.
Through case studies of both exceptional people as well as those with disorders, Bizarre takes us on a fascinating journey in which we learn more about what is going on in our skull.
Bizarre is a collection of stories of how the brain can create zombies, cult members, extra limbs, instant musicians, and overnight accents, to name a few of the mind-scratching cases. After reading this book, you will walk away with a greater appreciation for this bizarre organ. If you are a fan of Oliver Sacks' books, you're certain to be a fan of Dingman's Bizarre.
A unique combination of storytelling and scientific explanation that appeals to the brain novice, the trained neuroscientist, and everyone in between. Dingman explores some of the most fascinating and mysterious expressions of human behavior in a style that is case study, dramatic novel, and introductory textbook all rolled into one. | <urn:uuid:5706d896-01fb-4508-a18b-255afa708c91> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://neuroscientificallychallenged.com/glossary/occipital-lobe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476452.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20240304133241-20240304163241-00401.warc.gz | en | 0.914184 | 600 | 2.9375 | 3 | 233 |
Discovered helplessness, the failure to flee shock induced by uncontrollable aversive events, was uncovered half of a century ago. control. We speculate that default passivity as well as the compensating recognition and expectation of control may possess significant implications for how exactly to treat depression. sensation and we started to make an effort to understand it. After fifty many years of study we believe we finally perform understand it which paper presents the development and destination of our theory. Right from the start we idea the phenomenon appeared 1093403-33-8 supplier as if helplessness, as 1st recommended by Overmier and Seligman in 1967. But what, we puzzled, could helplessness contain? How achieved it happen? How could we check for it? Determining Helplessness The user-friendly idea of helplessness entails, we reasoned, the fact that nothing one will issues. This decomposes into objective and subjective helplessness. Even more formally, an pet has been respect to a significant outcome (O) such as for example surprise offset if the likelihood of (O), provided a reply (R) isn’t different from the likelihood of (O) provided the lack of that response (notR). When that is true of most responses, goal helplessness is present. But being is definitely another matter. We theorized that helplessness was cognitive which it was discovered. The pet must detect having less contingency as described above therefore must have Rabbit Polyclonal to ACHE anticipated that in the 1093403-33-8 supplier foreseeable future surprise would be self-employed of its reactions. This is a radical recommendation for the 1960s. The training theories of this era kept that microorganisms could only find out organizations or pairings, for instance a response combined with surprise strengthened this association (acquisition) or a reply paired without 1093403-33-8 supplier surprise weakened this association (extinction). The explanation for the thin associationistic look at stemmed from behaviorists’ shunning cognitions in pets and it appeared the integration of two conditional probabilitiesthe possibility of surprise provided a reply integrated with the likelihood of surprise in the lack of that response and generalized across all responsesmust become highly cognitive. 1093403-33-8 supplier Significantly we called the idea learned helplessness, instead of conditioned helplessness, because integrating both of these conditional probabilities didn’t seem appropriate for the associationistic idea that both Pavlovian fitness and instrumental learning kept dear. Emblematic of the strain between learning theory and cognitive theory was an encounter in the Princeton meeting where we 1st laid the idea out 1093403-33-8 supplier to the main learning theorists (Maier, Seligman & Solomon, 1969): Richard Herrnstein, a prominent Harvard Skinnerian, retorted, You are proposing that pets learn responding is definitely ineffective. Animals find out anything. Operationalizing Discovered Helplessness The look to be explained operationalizes this description of objective and subjective discovered helplessness. To be able to know that it’s the non-contingency between responding and surprise rather than the surprise itself that generates later on passivity, the non-contingency must be isolated from your surprise. Therefore three organizations are required. One group gets escapable surprise (ESC) where surprise offset is definitely contingent within the animal’s response. Therefore in the initial stressor controllability test (Seligman & Maier, 1967), this band of canines discovered in the hammock to press a -panel using their noses to carefully turn off each surprise. The next group is definitely yoked towards the ESC group. With this preliminary test, on each trial the yoked group topics received the common duration of surprise the ESC group created on each trial. Nevertheless, in most following experiments explained below the yoking was carried out on each trial for every pair of topics (ESC and yoked), so the 2 groupings receive a similar duration, strength, and design of shocks, but also for the yoked topics their responses haven’t any influence on the surprise. Within this inescapable surprise group (INESC) surprise offset and every one of the animal’s response are non-contingently related. Another group (0) gets. | <urn:uuid:a637678f-05ef-411a-9306-8dcd80fb03ea> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | http://www.biongenex.com/discovered-helplessness-the-failure-to-flee-shock-induced-by-uncontrollable-aversive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473401.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221070402-20240221100402-00501.warc.gz | en | 0.943515 | 875 | 2.671875 | 3 | 234 |
Watered-down graduation requirements, mistaken calculations, and push-outs of unsuccessful students may have falsely boosted high school graduation rates in a few states, but are not widespread enough to have inflated the national graduation rate, which is at an all-time high of 83.2 percent, according to a new study.
The, released last week, took on the skepticism that surrounded of the national graduation-rate milestone.
Statistics in the report capture the persistent disparities in graduation rates that lie just beneath the record overall high of 83 percent. The report urges state policymakers to pay better attention to low-income and minority students, students with disabilities, and students learning English, since larger shares of those groups tend not to earn their diplomas in four years.
The nation’s 83.2 percent graduation rate masks some differences among subgroups of students. For example, African-Americans, who comprise 15.9 percent of the overall school population, had a 74.6 percent graduation rate. The rate topped 90 percent, though, for Asian/Pacific Islander students, a much smaller slice of enrollment.
Source: Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University
A unique feature of this year’s report is its attempt to address doubts about the validity of the country’s high graduation rate. Even though states are now required to use the same method to calculate graduation rates—the “adjusted cohort graduation rate,” which tracks the percentage of 9th graders who earn diplomas four years later—states have wiggle room that can affect their calculations.
For instance: How do states count students who become home schoolers toward the end of high school? How do they count diplomas from alternative schools that also confer GEDs? If states don’t count some students, researchers would expect to see more shrinkage in the size of each class than could be explained by enrollment declines.
Few Signs of Shrinkage
Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, which produce the “Grad Nation” report, examined cohort data and, in most states, didn’t find evidence of such disproportionate shrinkage. But it did find that pattern in six states, but didn’t name them. It only noted that “while inappropriately removing students from cohorts may be a cause of inflated graduation in some individual school districts, it is likely not an issue for the national trend of rising graduation rates.”
Another source of skepticism about the U.S. graduation rate stems from schools’ increasing use of credit-recovery programs, which typically use computer-based, self-paced programs to help students complete work they need for their diplomas.
Other doubts center on the way some schools get students who could be dropout risks off their books: They persuade those students to home school, or. The “Grad Nation” report said that “fears” of push-outs to alternative schools are “legitimate,” but are more likely to affect school- or district-level graduation rates than state or national numbers. In most cases, the study said, state rates count the transferred students in their new schools.
Convincing low-performing students to home school, however, can indeed inflate states’ graduation rates, the report said, because it means students are removed from their class cohort, and not counted in the graduation rate. The same goes for a practice that’s been uncovered in some alternative schools: getting likely-to-fail students off their books by assigning them a code that suggests that they’ve enrolled in adult education.
Right now, the home schooling and alternative-school sectors aren’t a big enough slice of the national landscape to affect the U.S. graduation rate, the report says, but practices designed to shift low-performing students into those sectors warrant “careful monitoring.”
Is the Bar Lower?
Many have argued that the graduation rate has lost meaning because it’s gotten easier to graduate. They point out that some states. The “Grad Nation” researchers concluded that offering multiple kinds of diplomas doesn’t, by itself, raise questions about the graduation rate. It can support students’ blending college-prep classes with career-and-technical education courses, a mixture that has been shown to boost college- and career-readiness.
If states were lowering standards for diplomas, the report says, there would likely be declines in scores on tests such as the ACT and the SAT, and Advanced Placement exams. More students are taking and passing AP exams, the study says, and scores on college-entrance exams have held steady or risen slightly even as the pool of test-takers expands.
High schools that enroll 100 or more students and graduate fewer than two-thirds in four years are considered low-graduation-rate schools under the, and must get special support. In 2015, 2,249 high schools—12 percent of all high schools—fit that definition, the report says. Six in 10 of the students in those schools are low-income. Two-thirds are nonwhite.
This year’s report again raises a particular flag about graduation rates in certain types of schools.
Charter virtual schools account for less than 1 percent of all schools, but 9.2 percent of those with low graduation rates. District-operated virtual schools are an even smaller slice of the pie: .2 percent, and yet they account for 2.6 percent of the low-graduation-rate schools. Alternative schools, which serve large populations of at-risk students, comprise 6 percent of all high schools, but 30 percent of schools with low graduation rates.
A version of this article appeared in the May 10, 2017 edition of Education Week as Record U.S. Graduation Rate Not Seen as Inflated | <urn:uuid:b5ac06d2-d37b-43da-99f8-a9dba839e7f6> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/record-u-s-graduation-rate-not-seen-as-inflated/2017/05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473401.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221070402-20240221100402-00501.warc.gz | en | 0.964614 | 1,215 | 2.703125 | 3 | 235 |
The importance of a multi-method approach in infant behavior research
The study of infant behavior provides incredible insight into the field of psychology, developmental biology, neuroscience, and other social and life sciences. A primary method of conducting infant behavior research is observation. Various research tools are available to improve the quality and efficiency of behavioral data acquisition and analysis.
The Observer XT behavioral research tool is one such example that helps researchers gain insight into infant behavior and includes data integration options to take a lab to the next level.
Advantages of combining research methods for infant behavior studies
Various methods exist for studying infant behavior, including recording videos, measuring physiological markers, and analyzing facial expressions. Often, researchers choose to combine these methods .
Combining research methods gives researchers the opportunity to gain a more comprehensive view of infant behavior. For example, using multiple methods ensures that the collected data is not limited to participant interviews, as this is typically just parents giving an account of how they think their infant is behaving.
Acquiring different types of information
Supplementing interviews with direct observations of the infant and measuring physiological markers can help strengthen the data being collected. Thus helping researchers to get their research questions answered. By acquiring different types of information on infant behavior, researchers can obtain a more holistic understanding, compare different data types, analyze relationships, and combine the outcomes to come to valid and strongly supported conclusions.
Behavior is a multifaceted and complex topic to study, especially in infants who cannot articulate emotions; therefore, using a combination of research methods ensures a more objective, representative approach to both collecting and interpreting data.
Analyzing and integrating data on infant behavior using The Observer XT
Behavioral research is a valuable way to better understand humans by helping to understand connections between disorders or conditions and behavior. For example, research conducted by The University of South Carolina involved early behavioral and physiological markers of social anxiety in infants with fragile X syndrome.
The researchers used a multi-method approach to identify markers like behavioral inhibition, increased attention toward a stranger, and a blunted respiratory sinus arrhythmia response in infants with fragile X syndrome . While data from the parent interviews did not signify a large difference between control and fragile X infant behavior, direct observation identified several behavioral and physiological markers.
Code observation videos
In The Observer XT the video recordings of in this case the Stranger Kneel task were coded for escape behaviors, distress vocalizations, bodily fear, and visual attention. The software enabled the researchers to code the direct observation videos in a structured and reliable way (Cohen’s kappa of 0.81-0.90).
Study authors Black and colleagues concluded that the multimodal approach of both interviews and direct observation is integral to helping the researchers understand the complex early characteristics of social anxiety in infants with fragile X syndrome . This knowledge can then be used to address the challenges of the syndrome that can negatively impact infants later in life if left untreated.
Thus, taking a research approach in which data from different data sources can be easily combined in advanced software is crucial in analyzing infant behavior.
Using The Observer XT to make sense of data
As a previous blogpost mentioned, researchers are amplifying their observations with tools that measure criteria such as pupil reactions, blood pulse, heart rate, and brain activity . To make sense of all the different types of data, robust coding and analysis software for infant behavior research are required.
The Observer XT - behavioral research software from Noldus - provides a complete software solution for studying behavior. The Observer XT can conduct behavior coding in a quantitative way with easy timeline visualization, synchronized data streams, and reliable statistical calculations .
References and further reading
- Psychology research | Noldus. (2022). Psychology Research | Noldus. https://www.noldus.com/psychology
- Black, C. J.; Hogan, A. L.; Smith, K. D.; Roberts, J. E. (2021). Early behavioral and physiological markers of social anxiety in infants with fragile X syndrome. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s11689-021-09356-3
- Martinali, J. (2022, January 4). How to easily apply multimodal measurement during research with children. How to Easily Apply Multimodal Measurement during Research with Children | Noldus Information Technology. https://www.noldus.com/blog/integrating-multiple-data-streams
- Behavioral coding - Event logging software | The Observer XT. (2022). Behavioral Coding - Event Logging Software | the Observer XT. https://www.noldus.com/observer-xt | <urn:uuid:dba83fa3-69a6-49b9-8271-297f6623dfcc> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.noldus.com/blog/multi-method-approach-infant-behavior | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473824.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222161802-20240222191802-00501.warc.gz | en | 0.877398 | 967 | 2.9375 | 3 | 236 |
As a keynote speaker on the topics of leadership, connection, resilience, and relationships, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about empathy versus compassion over the past year. In fact, in my virtual presentations on personal connection, I quickly became aware of the buzzwords associated with the COVID-19 lockdown; authenticity, mindfulness, empathy and compassion.
During the worst of the pandemic, executive leaders and their managers doled out a great deal of empathetic advice to their co-workers and subordinates.
An example of one such response might be: “Susan, wow! I truly don’t know what to say as I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it must be to home-school your children on top of all the social unrest in your community, all while trying to do your job. Thank you for trusting me with this information and being transparent about your struggles.”
At this point, Susan’s leader acknowledged her pain, made her feel heard, and even showed gratitude for her willingness to open up and share. So far, so good. But what happens next will determine whether Susan’s leader goes beyond empathy and chooses compassion.
Empathy Gets in the Way of Compassion
Mary DeForest, PhD is a Denver-based author, distinguished college professor, linguist and an Ancient Greek and Latin expert. Mary knows her words! I recently asked Dr. DeForest to explain the difference between empathy and compassion.
She said that the origin of the word empathy was from the Ancient Greek. When we listen to someone with empathy, we try to become that person. The empathetic person reflects “There but for the Grace of God go I.” They want to feel what you’re experiencing.
The empathy stuff sounds impressive, doesn’t it? However, it is not that simple.
Compassion is from the Latin word “Com” and means with or together, and “Passion” more literally means suffering alongside of someone else in need of us. Compassion can be defined as empathic concern plus the willingness to take action to help. It is not enough to feel someone’s pain, you must help them cope.
In other words, if Susan’s leader closed the conversation with a quick fix of encouragement such as, “Things will get better,” or “You are strong, and I’m sure you will get through this,” they have shown zero compassion.
Psychologists seem to indicate that empathy without compassion may be one way to lose dear friends or valued employees.
Veronika Tait, Ph.D. writing for Psychology Today in an article entitled “Turn Empathy Into Compassion Without the Empathic Distress…” states: “While the benefits of empathy are clear, humans are much more likely to empathize with people they view as a part of their in-group. We are prone to create groups of us versus them. For example, neuroscience researchers have found that people experience greater vicarious empathic responses for people of their own ethnicity compared to other-ethnicity members.”
Dr. Tait also tells us that using empathy instead of compassion sets us up for bias. We stop connecting with the people who need us, and instead, we start dividing people into them and us.
Rasmus Hougaard writing for Forbes magazine reflected this very point in his article entitled “Why Compassion is Better for Humanity than Empathy”: “Empathy is an important, foundational emotion for human connection…but on its own, without compassion, empathy is a danger for leaders…and when we empathize with those close to us, those who are not close are different and seem threatening. When unchecked, empathy can create more division than unity.”
The last thing any leader should desire is division.
Connect Through Compassion
If we accept the ancient Roman thought that compassion is “suffering alongside of someone else in need of us,” we quickly understand that the compassionate and truly connected leader strives to offer guidance or resources or direction to the employee to help available within the organization. If we care as leaders, then we must suffer just a bit alongside of those we lead.
Interestingly, the compassionate leader does not need heavy doses of empathy, but rather needs to understand that a valued employee within the organization may require their nurturing, problem solving and support.
In Susan’s case, if her leader determined and implemented solutions to offer support through employee resource groups or temporarily lightened her current workload, adjusted her hours or removed daily meeting expectations, they moved beyond empathy toward compassionate leadership. As always, actions speak louder than words.
Compassion demands connection. Compassion is a call for all of us to help those around us. It is also a statement of reciprocity. Those of us in a position to help may one day need help. We are, after-all, interconnected in our humanity. Compassion revels in that connection and is strengthened by it. The most compassionate of people are often the most deeply human.
At the heart of every sale, every interaction between a leader and a team member, every conversation with a customer…. is a connection. And most importantly, connection begins within. How to make those connections effective, and leverage them for greater success, is the thread that is woven into every one of Colette Carlson’s presentations. For more information on Colette’s customized, virtual or in-person programs, give us a call. | <urn:uuid:881436a6-2050-46c6-a140-650dc977ce82> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://colettecarlson.com/why-leaders-must-choose-compassion-over-empathy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474482.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20240224012912-20240224042912-00501.warc.gz | en | 0.949703 | 1,149 | 2.75 | 3 | 237 |
Best deep learning books to examine the foundations of machine learning and neural networks
Deep Learning is a new area of Machine Learning research, which has been introduced with the objective of moving Machine Learning closer to one of its original goals: Artificial Intelligence. Its goal is to learn complex functions using special neural network architectures that are "deep" (consist of many layers).
Deep learning (also known as deep structured learning or hierarchical learning) is a part of a broader family of machine learning methods based on learning data representations, as opposed to task-specific algorithms. Learning can be supervised, partially supervised or unsupervised.read more To help you learn and work with deep learning you should read books and here we will suggest you some best deep learning books.
Through a series of recent breakthroughs, deep learning has boosted the entire field of machine learning. Now, even programmers who know close to nothing about this technology can use simple, efficient tools to implement programs capable of learning from data. You’ll learn a range of techniques, starting with simple linear regression and progressing to deep neural networks. With exercises in each chapter to help you apply what you’ve learned, all you need is programming experience to get started.
What You Will Learn
- Explore the machine learning landscape, particularly neural nets
- Use scikit-learn to track an example machine-learning project end-to-end
- Explore several training models, including support vector machines, decision trees, random forests, and ensemble methods
- Use the TensorFlow library to build and train neural nets
- Dive into neural net architectures, including convolutional nets, recurrent nets, and deep reinforcement learning
- Learn techniques for training and scaling deep neural nets
- Apply practical code examples without acquiring excessive machine learning theory or algorithm details
"Written by three experts in the field, Deep Learning is the only comprehensive book on the subject." -- Elon Musk, co-chair of OpenAI; co-founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX
Deep learning is a form of machine learning that enables computers to learn from experience and understand the world in terms of a hierarchy of concepts. Because the computer gathers knowledge from experience, there is no need for a human computer operator to formally specify all the knowledge that the computer needs.
It describes deep learning techniques used by practitioners in industry, including deep feedforward networks, regularization, optimization algorithms, convolutional networks, sequence modeling, and practical methodology; and it surveys such applications as natural language processing, speech recognition, computer vision, online recommendation systems, bioinformatics, and video games.
Deep Learning can be used by undergraduate or graduate students planning careers in either industry or research, and by software engineers who want to begin using deep learning in their products or platforms. A website offers supplementary material for both readers and instructors.
With the reinvigoration of neural networks in the 2000s, deep learning has become an extremely active area of research, one that’s paving the way for modern machine learning. In this practical book, author Nikhil Buduma provides examples and clear explanations to guide you through major concepts of this complicated field. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are actively growing in-house deep-learning teams. For the rest of us, however, deep learning is still a pretty complex and difficult subject to grasp.
What You Will Learn
- Examine the foundations of machine learning and neural networks
- Learn how to train feed-forward neural networks
- Use TensorFlow to implement your first neural network
- Manage problems that arise as you begin to make networks deeper
- Build neural networks that analyze complex images
- Perform effective dimensionality reduction using autoencoders
- Dive deep into sequence analysis to examine the language
- Understand the fundamentals of reinforcement learning
Neural networks have been a mainstay of artificial intelligence since its earliest days. Now, exciting new technologies such as deep learning and convolution are taking neural networks in bold new directions.
In this book, we will demonstrate the neural networks in a variety of real-world tasks such as image recognition and data science. We examine current neural network technologies, including ReLU activation, stochastic gradient descent, cross-entropy, regularization, dropout, and visualization.
Roughly inspired by the human brain, deep neural networks trained with large amounts of data can solve complex tasks with unprecedented accuracy. This practical book provides an end-to-end guide to TensorFlow, the leading open source software library that helps you build and train neural networks for computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), speech recognition, and general predictive analytics.
What You Will Learn
- Get up and running with TensorFlow, rapidly and painlessly
- Learn how to use TensorFlow to build deep learning models from the ground up
- Train popular deep learning models for computer vision and NLP
- Use extensive abstraction libraries to make development easier and faster
- Learn how to scale TensorFlow, and use clusters to distribute model training
- Deploy TensorFlow in a production setting
Although interest in machine learning has reached a high point, lofty expectations often scuttle projects before they get very far. How can machine learning—especially deep neural networks—make a real difference in your organization? This hands-on guide not only provides the most practical information available on the subject but also helps you get started building efficient deep learning networks.
What You Will Learn
- Dive into machine learning concepts in general, as well as deep learning in particular
- Understand how deep networks evolved from neural network fundamentals
- Explore the major deep network architectures, including Convolutional and Recurrent
- Learn how to map specific deep networks to the right problem
- Walk through the fundamentals of tuning general neural networks and specific deep network architectures
- Use vectorization techniques for different data types with DataVec, DL4J’s workflow tool
- Learn how to use DL4J natively on Spark and Hadoop
The abundance of data and demand for superior products/services have driven the development of advanced computer science techniques, among them image and speech recognition. Introduction to Deep Learning Using R provides a theoretical and practical understanding of the models that perform these tasks by building upon the fundamentals of data science through machine learning and deep learning.What You'll Learn
- Understand the intuition and mathematics that power deep learning models
- Utilize various algorithms using the R programming language and its packages
- Use best practices for experimental design and variable selection
- Practice the methodology to approach and effectively solve problems as a data scientist
- Evaluate the effectiveness of algorithmic solutions and enhance their predictive power.
About This Book
- Learn Theano basics and evaluate your mathematical expressions faster and in an efficient manner
- Learn the design patterns of deep neural architectures to build efficient and powerful networks on your datasets
- Apply your knowledge to concrete fields such as image classification, object detection, chatbots, machine translation, reinforcement agents, or generative models.
What You Will Learn
- Get familiar with Theano and deep learning
- Provide examples in supervised, unsupervised, generative, or reinforcement learning.
- Discover the main principles for designing efficient deep learning nets: convolutions, residual connections, and recurrent connections.
- Use Theano on real-world computer vision datasets, such as for digit classification and image classification.
- Extend the use of Theano to natural language processing tasks, for chatbots or machine translation
- Cover artificial intelligence-driven strategies to enable a robot to solve games or learn from an environment
- Generate synthetic data that looks real with generative modeling
- Become familiar with Lasagne and Keras, two frameworks built on top of Theano
The advent of deep learning has been transformative for many difficult problems in machine learning, often delivering breakthrough performance compared with previous techniques. This paradigm shift has swept the field of natural language processing, where an emerging deep-learning approach has set the state of the art in text categorization, information extraction, recommendations, and more.
Deep Learning with Text is the first practitioner’s guide to deep learning with text. With it, you’ll learn how to use "batteries-included" libraries in Python—including spaCy, genism, and Keras—to apply this modern, deep-learning approach to solve real-world problems with natural language text.
Until now, much of the published material about deep learning has been sequestered in research papers and graduate-level academic textbooks. This practical book will enable software developers and data scientists to build new products and systems that have only become possible in the past couple of years.
Machine learning, and specifically deep learning, has been hugely disruptive in many fields of computer science. The success of deep learning techniques in solving notoriously difficult classification and regression problems has resulted in their rapid adoption in solving real-world problems.
This text serves as a primer for computer architects in a new and rapidly evolving field. We review how machine learning has evolved since its inception in the 1960s and track the key developments leading up to the emergence of the powerful deep learning techniques that emerged in the last decade.
The remainder of the book is dedicated to the design and optimization of hardware and architectures for machine learning. As high-performance hardware was so instrumental in the success of machine learning becoming a practical solution, this chapter recounts a variety of optimizations proposed recently to further improve future designs.
- Develop your skills to implement advance techniques in deep learning using Google's Tensorflow 1.x
- Implement real-world and practical examples to illustrate deep learning techniques.
- Hands-on recipes to learn how to design and train a multi-layer neural network with TensorFlow 1.x
What you will learn
- Install Tensorflow and use it for CPU and GPU options.
- Implement DNNs and apply the knowledge to solve different AI-driven problems.
- Use Tensorflow to implement DNNs and apply the knowledge to solve different AI-driven problems.
- Peek into different data sets available with the Tensorflow, how to access them and use them in your code.
- Learn the use of Tensorboard to understand the architecture, optimize the learning process and peek inside the neural network black box.
- Use different regression techniques for the task of prediction and classification. You will apply them for predicting house prices and identification of handwritten digits.
- Implement single and multilayer Perceptrons in Tensorflow and use them for the identification of handwritten digits
- Implement CNN in Tensorflow, and use it to classify CIFAR-10 images.
- Process images and use CNN to differentiate between cats and Dogs.
- Understand RNN and implement it to perform the task of text generation.
- Learn about restricted Boltzmann Machines, implement them in Tensorflow and use it for recommending movies.
- Understand the implementation of Autoencoders, and deep belief networks, use them for emotion detection.
- Different Reinforcement Learning methods and their implementation. Use them for making a game playing agent.
- GANs and its implementation in Tensorflow
About This Book
- Develop a sound strategy to solve predictive modelling problems using the most popular machine learning Java libraries.
- Explore a broad variety of data processing, machine learning, and natural language processing through diagrams, source code, and real-world applications
- This step-by-step guide will help you solve real-world problems and links neural network theory to their application
What You Will Learn
- Get a practical deep dive into machine learning and deep learning algorithms
- Explore neural networks using some of the most popular Deep Learning frameworks
- Dive into Deep Belief Nets and Stacked Denoising Autoencoders algorithms
- Apply machine learning to fraud, anomaly, and outlier detection
- Experiment with deep learning concepts, algorithms, and the toolbox for deep learning
- Select and split data sets into training, test, and validation, and explore validation strategies
- Apply the code generated in practical examples, including weather forecasting and pattern recognition.
About This Book
- Master intricacies of R deep learning packages such as mxnet & tensorflow
- Learn application on deep learning in different domains using practical examples from text, image and speech
- Guide to set-up deep learning models using CPU and GPU
What You Will Learn
- Build deep learning models in different application areas using TensorFlow, H2O, and MXnet.
- Analyzing a Deep boltzmann machine
- Setting up and Analysing Deep belief networks
- Building supervised model using various machine learning algorithms
- Set up variants of basic convolution function
- Represent data using Autoencoders.
- Explore generative models available in Deep Learning.
- Discover sequence modeling using Recurrent nets
- Learn fundamentals of Reinforcement Leaning
- Learn the steps involved in applying Deep Learning in text mining
- Explore application of deep learning in signal processing
- Utilize Transfer learning for utilizing pre-trained model
- Train a deep learning model on a GPU.
The deep learning revolution has brought us driverless cars, the greatly improved Google Translate, fluent conversations with Siri and Alexa, and enormus profits from automated trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Deep learning networks can play poker better than professional poker players and defeat a world champion at Go.
Sejnowski played an important role in the founding of deep learning, as one of a small group of researchers in the 1980s who challenged the prevailing logic-and-symbol based version of AI. The new version of AI Sejnowski and others developed, which became deep learning, is fueled instead by data.
Learning algorithms extract information from raw data; information can be used to create knowledge; knowledge underlies understanding; understanding leads to wisdom. Someday a driverless car will know the road better than you do and drive with more skill; a deep learning network will diagnose your illness; a personal cognitive assistant will augment your puny human brain. | <urn:uuid:fd2dfb6d-d02c-4300-a10c-e7bd5d199085> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.onlinebooksreview.com/articles/best-deep-learning-books | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473472.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221102433-20240221132433-00601.warc.gz | en | 0.903012 | 2,887 | 2.96875 | 3 | 238 |
A new study conducted by a pair of researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia suggests that young people are developing “a hook or hornlike feature” jutting out from the skull, just above the neck, citing excessive phone usage to be blamed.
According to a report by The Washington Post, researchers David Shahar and Mark Sayers found that the shifting body posture brought about by handheld devices such as smartphones which require users to bend their heads forward causes the bone growth.
Such growth which was previously attributed to older people suffering from prolonged strain was later observed by the researchers to appear prominently on X-rays of younger subjects.
According to Shahar, the formation could fit to people’s imagination and can e compared to “a bird’s beak, a horn, a hook.”
But apart from its look, he noted that the formation is a sign of a serious posture deformity which can cause chronic headaches and pain in the upper back and neck.
“What we need are coping mechanisms that reflect how important technology has become in our lives,” Sayers said.
However, Michael Nitabach, a professor of physiology, genetics and neuroscience at Yale University, was not convinced by the findings.
“Without knowing about the cell phone use of any of the people whose head X-rays were analyzed, it is impossible to draw conclusions about correlation between cell phone use and skull morphology,” Nitabach said.
In order to check if one might have the hornlike formation, Shahar suggested reaching ah hand around to the lower rear of the skull. He said that those who have could probably feel it.
(Photo source: news.com.au/ washingtonpost.com) | <urn:uuid:3842e94a-7c65-469f-9b1e-857b1c4712b4> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://infochat.com.ph/research-says-children-grow-horns-on-their-skull-due-to-excessive-phone-usage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473824.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222193722-20240222223722-00601.warc.gz | en | 0.970291 | 363 | 3.21875 | 3 | 239 |
Summary: Disruptions in the Atk protein can lead to brain changes that are characteristic of bipolar disorder.
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Bipolar disorder affects millions of Americans, causing dramatic swings in mood and, in some people, additional effects such as memory problems.
While bipolar disorder is linked to many genes, each one making small contributions to the disease, scientists don’t know just how those genes ultimately give rise to the disorder’s effects.
However, in new research, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found for the first time that disruptions to a particular protein called Akt can lead to the brain changes characteristic of bipolar disorder.
The results offer a foundation for research into treating the often-overlooked cognitive impairments of bipolar disorder, such as memory loss, and add to a growing understanding of how the biochemistry of the brain affects health and disease.
The Cahill lab and their colleagues at Michigan State University published their findings March 24 in Neuron.
Akt is a kinase, a type of protein that adds tags of the molecule phosphate to other proteins. These phosphate tags can act as on or off switches, changing how other proteins work, ultimately influencing vital functions. In neurons, those functions can include how cells signal to one another, which can affect thinking and mood. When the Akt pathway is revved up, a lot of other proteins get phosphate tags. When it’s quieter, those phosphate tags are absent.
The researchers discovered that men with bipolar disorder have reduced activity of this pathway, known at Akt-mTOR, in a brain region crucial for attention and memory. And when the researchers disrupted the pathway in mice, the rodents developed memory problems and crucial brain connections withered away, simulating changes in humans with bipolar disorder.
“This loss of Akt pathway function in people with bipolar disorder is probably contributing to cognitive impairment,” says Michael Cahill, a professor of neuroscience in the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, who led the research. “The idea is that maybe we can target pathways like this one pharmacologically to help alleviate core symptoms of bipolar disorder.”
To assess activity of the Akt pathway, the Cahill lab acquired brain tissue samples from deceased donors who had schizophrenia, bipolar disorder without psychosis, and bipolar disorder with psychosis, as well as healthy donors. The tissue samples came from the prefrontal cortex, known to control high-level functions, which is affected by bipolar disorder and the related disorder schizophrenia.
By measuring the number and variety of phosphate tags on proteins controlled by Akt in the tissue samples, the researchers could get a sense of the overall activity of the Akt-mTOR pathway.
Although they were originally expecting to see the biggest changes in patients with schizophrenia — which has the strongest genetic links to the Akt gene among the three related disorders — the researchers found that activity of the Akt-mTOR pathway was diminished in just one group of patients: men with bipolar disorder without psychosis.
“It was very different than we thought, which is kind of a good example of how in science you don’t really know what you’re going to get,” says Cahill.
After seeing this correlation between bipolar disorder and a quieter Akt pathway, Cahill’s group then asked what effect this diminished Akt pathway would have in the brain. To answer that question, they used viruses to deliver broken Akt proteins to the prefrontal cortexes of mice. The broken Akt proteins would override working ones, gumming up the Akt pathway.
In behavioral tests, the mice with gummed up Akt pathways demonstrated memory problems, no longer exploring changes to familiar environments.
Spending a lot of time investigating objects or other features that have changed their location is “their way of telling us that they recognize something is different,” says Cahill. “That was impaired when we disrupted the Akt pathway.”
But mice with less active Akt pathways still showed typical social behaviors, suggesting that the pathway wasn’t responsible for other high-level brain functions.
When the scientists looked in the brains of mice with diminished Akt pathways, they found that the connections that neurons use to interact with other neurons, known as dendritic spines, had withered.
Dendritic spines are like intersections between the roads that information in the brain travels on. “With the number of intersections being reduced, it’s harder to get where you want to go,” Cahill says.
That disrupting the Akt pathway in mice seemed to replicate aspects of bipolar disorder that also occur in humans — memory problems, weaker neuron connections –provides the first clear link from this gene to the effects of bipolar disorder.
Yet, many questions remain. Women with bipolar disorder did not show the same changes in Akt-mTOR activity as men did. Nor did people with bipolar disorder with psychosis or those with schizophrenia, despite similar genetic links between the Akt pathway and these disorders.
Untangling these differences and fleshing out the path from genes to disease will require much more research. For instance, many other genes contribute to bipolar disorder, and those genes may play a larger role in these groups.
Going forward, Cahill’s lab plans to follow individual circuits in the brain to discover just how the Akt pathway influences memory. That additional research should help unravel some of the enduring riddles surrounding bipolar disorder and how subtle genetic changes can lead to big differences in how people experience the world.
Funding: This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (grants R21MH125227 and R01MH111604).
Akt-mTOR hypoactivity in bipolar disorder gives rise to cognitive impairments associated with altered neuronal structure and function
•A reduction in Akt-mTOR signaling occurs in the PFC of male bipolar disorder subjects
•Akt hypofunction reduces synaptic structural and functional plasticity in the PFC
•Akt hypofunction is sufficient to impair PFC-mediated cognition
The Akt family of kinases exerts many of its cellular effects via the activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) kinase through a series of intermediary proteins. Multiple lines of evidence have identified Akt-family kinases as candidate schizophrenia and bipolar disorder genes. Although dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a key feature of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, no studies have comprehensively assessed potential alterations in Akt-mTOR pathway activity in the PFC of either disorder.
Here, we examined the activity and expression profile of key proteins in the Akt-mTOR pathway in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia homogenates from two different PFC subregions.
Our findings identify reduced Akt-mTOR PFC signaling in a subset of bipolar disorder subjects. Using a reverse-translational approach, we demonstrated that Akt hypofunction in the PFC is sufficient to give rise to key cognitive phenotypes that are paralleled by alterations in synaptic connectivity and function. | <urn:uuid:c14e837b-00cf-4492-8bbf-035544ac65ac> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://neurosciencenews.com/akt-bipolar-disorder-18162/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474669.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20240226225941-20240227015941-00601.warc.gz | en | 0.931724 | 1,462 | 3.21875 | 3 | 240 |
- This event has passed.
Core Concepts for Teaching Sustainability: Using “Tips” to Deepen Learning across the Disciplines, Grade Levels and Cultures
September 27, 2017 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDTFree
Sustainability is one of those big, complex concepts that defy easy definition or simple responses yet demand attention to our collective well-being. Some Native Americans would judge the worth of an idea by considering its potential impact on a seventh generation in the future. Some environmentalists want to reference the carrying capacity of the planet. Others insist that we factor in social well-being and economic fairness. If you accept all this, then teaching about sustainability can be truly transformative, challenging people of all ages and backgrounds to think and act in very new ways. Join us in exploring a range of concise, practical tips for rethinking tough problems and considering creative new solutions, for communicating honestly and navigating difficult emotions, for balancing losses with a realistic optimism about finding the will to move in new directions. We believe that it is essential that people from every walk of life understand this urgency. Our new edition of “147 Tips for Teaching Sustainability” can help anyone draw from the principles of effective instruction about the challenges of learning about sustainability.
William Timpson, Professor, Colorado State University
Dr. William M. Timpson is a professor in the School of Education at Colorado State University. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in American History from Harvard University, he went on to teach junior and senior high school in the inner city of Cleveland, Ohio before completing his Ph.D. in educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since then he has directed faculty development efforts at three different research universities and written extensively on K-20+ instructional effectiveness, improvement and innovation as well as how complex and compelling issues can best be taught and learned.
Along with numerous articles, chapters and grants, he has written or co-authored thirteen books including several that address issues of sustainability, diversity, peace and reconciliation: | <urn:uuid:2d34fee4-46e3-4906-b585-29befc286b72> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.aashe.org/calendar/teaching-sustainability/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474669.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20240226225941-20240227015941-00601.warc.gz | en | 0.953345 | 417 | 3.546875 | 4 | 241 |
The principle of dialogue in organizing, engagement, and equity work refers to intentional forms of conversation that are used to improve mutual understanding, appreciation, and respect among individuals and groups, often for the purpose of facilitating a collaboration or decision-making process. While dialogue techniques may be used in informal social interactions, the term is most commonly applied to small-group or large-group conversations that are purposefully designed and facilitated to achieve specific goals, such as helping people work together to solve a problem, develop a plan, execute a project, or resolve a conflict.
In practice, dialogue can take a wide variety of forms in schools and communities. For example, dialogue may be used to solicit feedback on a proposed school policy, involve the public in district decisions, initiate a strategic-planning process, reflect on the progress or shortcomings of an initiative, improve workplace relationships, establish a collaborative partnership between two or more organizations, respond to a pressing crisis, or reduce cross-cultural tensions and misunderstanding in a community.
A dialogue may occur over multiple hours on a single day, or it may unfold as a series of conversations that take place over several weeks or months—although the duration of a dialogue should be sufficient enough to allow participants to engage in sustained, in-depth discussions of the given topic. While many forms of dialogue occur in-person and through “face-to-face” interactions, telecommunication technologies have created opportunities for online platforms and mobile applications to mediate dialogue among individuals and groups who may be located anywhere in the world.
Discussion: Dialogue vs. Deliberation
It is important to note that there is no universally accepted definition of dialogue, and the term may be used in more or less precise ways in different contexts. That said, scholars and practitioners have developed a variety of specific technical definitions of the concept and practice, and they typically distinguish dialogue from other forms of conversation. For example, dialogue is often contrasted with discussion (informal and unstructured social conversations that are not intended to achieve specific outcomes) or debate (argumentation in which two or more opposing sides on an issue make a case for their position).
In fact, dialogue is often used as an antidote to social, cultural, and civic problems that arise when casual discussion or debate are the only forms of conversation taking place in an organization or community. For example, dialogue can help to address difficult problems—such as racial stereotyping or political polarization—that tend to occur when people either avoid discussing these uncomfortable topics or only discuss them to argue for a particular viewpoint. Dialogue has also been a central feature in conflict-resolution movements across the globe, including the “truth and reconciliation commissions” conducted in post-apartheid South Africa and other countries recovering from civil war or violent conflict.
While the terms dialogue and deliberation are often used interchangeably, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, along with many scholars and practitioners, makes a useful distinction between the two concepts. The organization defines dialogue as “a process that allows people, usually in small groups, to share their perspectives and experiences with one another about difficult issues we tend to just debate about or avoid entirely,” while deliberation “emphasizes the importance of examining options and trade-offs to make better decisions,” particularly “decisions about important public issues like health care and immigration [that] are too often made through the use of power or coercion rather than a sound decision-making process that involves all parties and explores all options.”
Although dialogue strategies can—and often are—used in a group decision-making process, dialogues do not necessarily have to result in a specific outcome or action—they can simply be a collective act of sharing and listening. Deliberation, on the other hand, is generally used to make decisions. In a “deliberative dialogue” process, participants may consider competing ideas and options, discuss the pros and cons of different approaches, and work toward a decision, proposal, plan, or outcome that everyone has contributed to, understands, accepts, and supports.
While dialogue is a nuanced concept that can take many different forms in practice, the following descriptions illustrate a few common characteristics of dialogue:
- Storytelling: In a dialogue, participants are often encouraged to talk about their personal experiences and histories. When participants share personal stories, it helps other participants develop a stronger understanding and appreciation of how those experiences shaped their values, priorities, or perspectives, particularly when participants come from different racial, cultural, or socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Discovery: Dialogues allow participants to explore and discover new insights, ideas, or perspectives. Rather than predetermining outcomes, a dialogue process typically starts with unanswered questions, unresolved problems, or decisions that need to be made. While a dialogue is typically designed to achieve specific objectives—such as the development of a plan or the resolution of a conflict, for example—a dialogue only provides the structure for participants to discuss, deliberate, decide, or collaborate. Participants typically determine the outcomes of a dialogue, not the organizers and facilitators.
- Inquiry: Dialogues help participants consider different viewpoints, weigh competing options, examine unfamiliar information, understand complex issues, and reflect on their own beliefs, opinions, values, or biases. In a dialogue, participants develop new insights, perspectives, and knowledge that they did not have at the outset of the process, which can generate better ideas, proposals, or solutions, including surprising or counterintuitive ideas that were not being considered before the dialogue occurred.
- Civility: In a dialogue, participants are generally required to speak and act in ways that are respectful to other participants, and to listen and ask questions rather than argue a particular point of view. Respectful discussions and interactions can help participants dispel the misperceptions, assumptions, stereotypes, or labeling that often make it difficult for diverse groups of people to converse or collaborate productively. Dialogues allow participants to disagree in respectful and constructive ways, which helps diverse groups avoid the contentiousness, conflicts, and biased outcomes that often result from argumentation and debate. However, civility does not mean that free speech is suppressed or that certain viewpoints are silenced—participants are encouraged to express their honest opinions, but to do so in ways that are not disrespectful, intimidating, hostile, or shaming to other participants or groups. Facilitators generally help dialogue groups to maintain civil conversations using shared agreements, polite reminders, and other strategies. For example, facilitators may ask participants to speak only for themselves and not for others.
- Empathy: Dialogues provide opportunities for participants to hear viewpoints that are different from their own, ask questions, and reflect on their own experiences, values, or opinions from a new perspective. The act of listening, questioning, and reflecting can help build greater compassion, appreciation, and mutual respect among participants, particularly between individuals and groups who have different beliefs or come from different cultural backgrounds, which can then increase trust and strengthen relationships.
- Non-Consensus: In a deliberative dialogue process, group consensus may not be achieved. In fact, universal consensus is rarely attained at the end of a deliberative process—and it shouldn’t be the desired goal. Because group decisions typically require some form of compromise or trade-off, it is more important that participants understand why a decision was made, that they feel their viewpoints were heard and considered, that they perceive the process to have been fair and unbiased, and that they accept and support the outcome even if they still disagree or feel disappointment.
To learn more about how principles can be applied in education organizing, engagement, and equity work, see HOW PRINCIPLES WORK →
This section describes a selection of representative dialogue strategies that may be used in education organizing, engagement, and equity work:
- Providing an intentional structure
- Sharing essential information and context
- Establishing rules and group agreements
- Designing for inclusivity and safety
- Ensuring equity of voice, participation, and power
- Providing skilled facilitation
- Listening intentionally to understand
- Using open-ended questions
- Co-creating agendas and solutions
- Reflecting on the process and outcomes
1. Providing an intentional structure
Dialogues are generally a planned and organized process that is designed and facilitated in intentional ways to achieve specific goals.
- The structure of a dialogue is usually based on insights from social psychology, adult learning, conflict resolution, civic participation, and other fields that have suggested methods for helping people avoid unproductive forms of interaction so they can converse or collaborate in more civil and constructive ways.
- The planned elements of a dialogue—its agenda, process, rules, activities, questions, and facilitation—are essential to its success. Because many forms of social conversation or public discourse can be disrespectful, negative, or contentious, dialogues are structured to help participants avoid conversational habits and social conventions that may be problematic or unproductive.
- In some cases, community members may never have participated in a highly structured and facilitated conversation before, and the unfamiliar format and conventions of a dialogue process might initially feel unnatural, uncomfortable, or forced. In these cases, facilitators will usually remind participants that the structure, even if it seems awkward, is intentional, and each element of the process is purposeful.
2. Sharing essential information and context
In a dialogue, participants are often given explanations, data, or other forms of information to contextualize an issue or problem, or to explain the rationale behind the process.
- By providing essential information, dialogue organizers help participants base their deliberations on statistics, evidence, and facts, rather than on assumptions, hearsay, misinformation, and other potentially inaccurate or misleading sources of information.
- In some cases, a steering committee, composed of a representative cross-section of community members, will identify and select the information provided to participants to ensure that it is objective, factual, or represents a balance of different perspectives.
- The personal stories and explanations shared in a dialogue generally give participants the information they need to develop a more nuanced and informed understanding of their community, different cultural groups, or another participant’s perspective.
3. Establishing rules and group agreements
Dialogue organizers nearly always establish a set of guidelines, agreements, rules, or “norms” at the outset of the conversation that participants agree to follow.
- Ground rules articulate the kinds of behaviors that will not be allowed, such as disrespectful or derogatory comments, and the kinds of behaviors that are expected and encouraged, such as respectful listening and questioning.
- Depending on the format or goals of a dialogue, ground rules may be provided or recommended by organizers, or they are developed in collaboration with participants. When organizers “co-develop” ground rules with participants, the process serves to model how a diverse group of people can engage in a productive discussion that results in a decision everyone can understand, accept, and support. Yet because co-developing group agreements takes time, facilitators often provide a set of recommended ground rules when available time is short.
4. Designing for inclusivity and safety
Dialogues create a forum in which each participant is welcome and encouraged to participate, and in which diverse viewpoints can be shared without fear of social intimidation or repercussions. In many cases, dialogues are open to the public and any community member is welcome to attend, particularly when the topics being discussed affect a community or public institutions such as schools.
- Dialogue organizers will often break up participants into smaller groups so that each person has an opportunity to speak up and be heard in the time available, and ground rules may establish the expectation that participants are expected to refrain from talking too much so that others have the opportunity to speak.
- Organizers generally attempt to invite and recruit participants who are culturally and demographically representative of the larger community or school population to ensure that the viewpoints, priorities, and concerns of different groups are included and heard.
5. Ensuring equity of voice, participation, and power
Many forms for public discussion are “one-way” conversations in which public officials, school administrators, experts, and others in positions of power, authority, or influence dictate the terms, topics, and outcomes of the conversation. Unlike these forms of public discussion—such as a school-board meeting in which public officials may do most of the talking and a small number of residents are given only a few minutes to speak—dialogues are generally structured to encourage equal or equitable participation.
- A variety of strategies will be used to ensure that all participants are treated as fairly as possible. For example, ground rules will be applied equally to everyone, public officials and administrators will participate like any other community member, translators will be on hand for those who cannot speak English, complimentary bus passes or ride-sharing will be provided to those who don’t have a vehicle, or facilitators will ask outspoken participants to talk less so that others who may be less accustomed to speaking in public or in large groups have an opportunity to contribute and be heard.
- Dialogue is based on a few fundamental premises: the belief that (1) participant has important information, perspectives, and insights to share, and that the viewpoints of authority figures, professionals, or experts are not necessarily more accurate or valuable than those of students, families, and community members; (2) decisions, proposals, solutions, or actions that result from dialogues and deliberative processes will be more creative, more effective, and more representative of the diverse values and perspectives in a given organization or community; and (3) group power dynamics need to be equalized to ensure that all participants have an opportunity to be heard in a safe and non-threating environment, that all contributions are equally and fairly considered, and that group decisions are as unbiased or unprejudiced as possible.
6. Providing skilled facilitation
Skilled facilitation is essential to the success of a dialogue process. Facilitators provide the conversational structure, establish ground rules, promote equitable participation, and ensure that the process and discussions remain on topic and productive. Dialogue facilitators make sure that participants follow the ground rules, behave respectfully toward one another, and feel safe and welcomed.
- When necessary, facilitators may intervene with prompting questions to keep the conversation going, redirect discussions when they get off-topic, invite quiet participants to contribute their thoughts, and remind outspoken participants when they may be talking too much.
- While some dialogues are organized and run by professional facilitators, dialogues may also be facilitated by community members who have trained in basic facilitation techniques. In these cases, the trained local facilitators often become assets to a school or community whenever facilitation skills are needed, such as when conflicts or crises arise.
→ For a related discussion, see the Facilitation Principle of organizing, engagement, and equity
7. Listening intentionally to understand
While all conversations require some form of listening, people are generally asked to listen in very specific ways when they participate in a dialogue process.
- For example, dialogue facilitators may ask participants to listen respectfully and attentively, refrain from interruption or rudeness, ask questions when a statement is unclear or confusing, and express appreciation when another participant makes an insightful comment or shares an emotionally difficult personal experience.
- Facilitators may also establish group agreements such as “listen to understand, not to respond.” In this case, facilitators may use the ground rule to point out that people often give more attention to thinking up responses and counter-arguments in a casual conversation than they do to making a sincere attempt to understand someone else’s viewpoint.
8. Using open-ended questions
On many public issues, community members may base their viewpoints on partial information, preexisting beliefs, unconscious bias, political affiliations, and other factors that may obscure important considerations. In a dialogue, participants are invited to explore and ask questions.
- In many cases, dialogues will be framed around a question that is central to a community problem or opportunity: How can we address bias and discrimination in our school? How can we strengthen relationships between teachers and parents? How do we want to work together in this partnership? By posing and discussing open-ended questions—rather than arguing about competing proposals, for example—participants in a dialogue typically develop a more informed understanding of the nuances and complexity of a given issue, problem, or opportunity.
9. Co-creating agendas and solutions
Dialogues create opportunities for participants to collaboratively explore options, generate ideas, propose solutions, and—importantly—own the outcomes and decisions that result from the process. When stakeholders are left out of important school or community decisions that affect them and their families, they are more likely to question the decisions, be skeptical of motives, or resent being left out of the process.
- A dialogue presents opportunities for community-involved problem solving and decision making, which can not only produce better ideas, proposals, and results, but it can also build support and enthusiasm for the outcome, as well as greater trust and confidence in school and community leaders.
10. Reflecting on the process and outcomes
In a dialogue, participants typically engage in multiple forms of facilitated reflection: they reflect on the question, issue, problem, or opportunity under discussion; they reflect on their own ideas, perspectives, opinions, and experiences, as well as those of others; and they reflect on the conversation, process, and results.
- Because opportunities for focused and sustained reflection are uncommon in everyday life, dialogues can help participants develop new insights and understandings they might not have acquired otherwise, or they may cause participants to reconsider previously held positions, assumptions, or beliefs. During reflective debriefing at the conclusion of the dialogue or a small-group discussion, participants also provide useful feedback to organizers and facilitators that will help them improve the dialogue process going forward.
Organizing Engagement thanks Kip Holley, Jon Martinez, and Quixada Moore-Vissing for their contributions to developing and improving this resource.
This work by Organizing Engagement is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. When excerpting, adapting, or republishing content from this resource, users should reference and link to Organizing Engagement. | <urn:uuid:b0762353-6b55-443a-9a65-c3ac049fbdbf> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://organizingengagement.org/principles/dialogue/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474700.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228080245-20240228110245-00601.warc.gz | en | 0.930864 | 3,744 | 3.96875 | 4 | 242 |
Curiosity and exploration: A conceptual overview and structural modeling
Many attempts have been made to measure curiosity or intrinsic motivation. However, there is no consensus on what curiosity is. In the present study, five previously constructed curiosity inventories were translated to Finnish and modified to be convenient for fifth-graders. The main purpose of the study was to clarify the concept of curiosity. Using conceptual analysis and the results of previous studies, it was possible to construct nine alternative conceptual models of curiosity. The corresponding statistical models were expected to account for the covariances among 15 subscales measuring curiosity-related exploratory behavior. However, before proceeding to the subscale level, the structures of the inventories were tested at the item level. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to investigate the fit of the alternative models. The four-step logic suggested by Stanley A. Mulaik was used in testing the models. A sample of 529 Finnish fifth-graders from southern Finland was used. This sample was divided according to sex (263 girls and 277 boys). The best-fitting model was a three-factor model with two trait factors and one method factor. The trait factors were termed Curiosity and Sensation Seeking. Several mild moderation effe cts were found. The theme "What to do when an unrestricted model fails?" was also discussed. ...
uteliaisuus curiosity oppilaat school children peruskoulun yläaste upper level of comprehensive school käsiteanalyysi concept analysis motivaatio motivation (mental objects) oppiminen learning faktorianalyysi tiedonhaku factor analysis information retrieval persoonallisuuden psykologia personality psychology kasvatuspsykologia educational psychology
MetadataShow full item record
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
Jaatinen, Päivi-Maria (University of Jyväskylä, 2015)This study examines how the concepts related to visual art practice and well-being have been used in the arts and academic sectors. Furthermore, it studies whether it is possible to create a new theoretical and ...
Exploring Frequency-Dependent Brain Networks from Ongoing EEG Using Spatial ICA During Music Listening Zhu, Yongjie; Zhang, Chi; Poikonen, Hanna; Toiviainen, Petri; Huotilainen, Minna; Mathiak, Klaus; Ristaniemi, Tapani; Cong, Fengyu (Springer, 2020)Recently, exploring brain activity based on functional networks during naturalistic stimuli especially music and video represents an attractive challenge because of the low signal-to-noise ratio in collected brain data. ...
Searching for the human factor : psychology, power and ideology in Hungary during the early Kádár period Laine-Frigren, Tuomas (University of Jyväskylä, 2016)
Peruskoulun yläasteen eriyttämisratkaisusta sekä opiskelun ja peruskoulutuksen tasoon vaikuttavista tekijöistä = The system of differentiation of teaching in the upper stage of the comprehensive school and factors influencing the level of the study programme Kangasniemi, Erkki (1979)The report describes differentiation from the viewpoint of the curriculum, the social system and decision making. In addition in aims at causal theory formation about the choice of the level of studies and participation ...
Pietikäinen, Sampo (2020)Asiakirjojen käsittely manuaalisesti kuluttaa paljon tietotyöntekijän resursseja. Tämä koskee myös liiketoimintaprossien johtamisen asiantuntijoita, joiden työ voi vaatia useiden liiketoimintaprosessien kuvausten lukemista. ... | <urn:uuid:a0bfd3f2-6bb9-421d-a582-39d3aebe3eb8> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/74080 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474852.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229170737-20240229200737-00601.warc.gz | en | 0.784367 | 824 | 3.015625 | 3 | 243 |
Understanding How We Learn
Prior to engaging in this discussion, read Introduction: Understanding How We Learn, in your required text and review the instructor guidance.
- Identify areas within at least three of the theories that are summarized (behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and humanism) that you do not have prior knowledge about.
- Discuss your previous knowledge (what you do know) about this content and how it supports, or does not support, the things you read about for which you had no previous knowledge (part a.).
- For example, did you know there are multiple sub-theories within behaviorism? Cognitivism? Do you have previous knowledge about the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model suggested by constructivism?
Save your time - order a paper!
Get your paper written from scratch within the tight deadline. Our service is a reliable solution to all your troubles. Place an order on any task and we will take care of it. You won’t have to worry about the quality and deadlinesOrder Paper Now
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
Describe how understanding how we learn can be applied in a real-world setting with self and others.
Explain the basic premises of behaviorism as applied to learning theory.
Explain the basic premises of cognitivism as applied to learning theory.
Explain the basic premises of constructivism as applied to learning theory.
Explain the basic premises of humanism as applied to learning theory.
Identify evolving frameworks of learning theory that expand upon our understanding of how we learn.
· TOC/Annotation menu
i.1 Understanding How We Learn
i.1 Understanding How We Learn
Have you ever
· tried to help someone with a task, but the more you encouraged him or her, the worse the process became?
· studied all night for an exam but received an F on the test?
· heard a song from 20 years ago on the radio but still knew the lyrics? (Maybe you even wondered how you could possibly still know the old melody but not remember the name of the classmate you met less than 24 hours ago.)
· ignored someone because his or her beliefs differed from your beliefs?
· felt frustrated because your child was struggling in school?
· needed to train a group of employees but had no idea how to begin the process?
· assumed that the people around you should learn something as easily as you do?
· looked back on a decision and recognized that you were not thinking logically when that decision was made?
· had someone dear to you pass away and, afterwards, found it difficult to focus on tasks for any length of time?
If you have ever experienced any of these situations, then the psychology of learning could potentially be one of the most important areas that you will ever study. Understanding how humans learn, based on the psychological principles of learning and educational psychologies, can have profound results on productivity, success, and the search for self-actualization. Such knowledge is applicable in your personal and professional lives. It can empower you to know yourself better. Your knowledge about learning can help you teach and support others better, too. Learning, in essence, is something that you do and that affects you every day (Curran, Harrison, & Mackinnon, 2013).
Understanding how you learn enables you to teach and support others.
Before you can successfully apply such information in your daily life, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the theories, models, and conceptual frameworks associated with learning. A theory is a set of principles used to explain, predict, and understand why a phenomenon occurs. Theories are supported by research but may not be valid in all situations; theories are propositions, not facts. For example, cognitive load theory (CLT), which is discussed further in Chapter 3, proposes that learning is more effective when it is designed to support the brain’s processing structure. A model is much like a theory, but it explains how something may occur. Models often include visual representations of a theory. For example, Baddeley’s model of working memory, which is discussed in Chapter 3, can be explained using an illustration that depicts the core components of working memory and how different elements affect memory development. A conceptual framework (or theoretical framework) is a structure that supports a theory by providing clear connections to all aspects of a research problem. For example, a conceptual framework could be used when studying the association between cognitive load and working memory. Shields and Rangarjan (2013) noted that conceptual frameworks are “the way ideas are organized to achieve a research project’s purpose” (p. 24). (For more information about theories, models, and conceptual frameworks, see Research Skills for Psychology Majors , written by W. K. Gabrenya Jr.)
Psychologists have studied different aspects of learning from different perspectives over time. Their research continues to explore knowledge acquisition, the process of absorbing and storing new information in one’s memory. Researchers seek to explain how and when knowledge acquisition occurs and to identify the properties or characteristics in the environment that can affect it, also known as variables. The age of technology also provides researchers with new ways to better understand the mind and the variables that influence learning and memory (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, & Crismond, 2008; Willis, 2006).
There are numerous theoretical frameworks, and the lines that separate one perspective from another are blurred, although introductory textbooks often present the perspectives as definitively distinct (Abramson, 2013; Watrin & Darwich, 2012). Four foundational theories will be presented in this text: behaviorism (also called behavioral analysis), cognitivism, constructivism, and humanism. These areas will help you develop an understanding of how learning can occur and how to increase the likelihood of successful knowledge acquisition. Although many ideas about these theories have occurred throughout the course of history (see Figure i.1), behaviorism and cognitivism propose specific viewpoints for understanding how learning takes place. These two theories are addressed first in this text. As the understanding of knowledge acquisition broadened, additional attention was placed on discovering practical strategies and variables that affect knowledge acquisition (e.g., past and vicarious experiences, culture, and motivation). Hence, constructivism and humanism, which tend to suggest such strategies, will be addressed after behaviorism and constructivism, with an emphasis on their importance, especially when aligned with the previous theoretical models.
Figure i.1: Timeline of milestones in learning theory
This timeline provides context for the theoretical frameworks surrounding the psychology of learning. Understanding when viewpoints developed and experiments occurred throughout history is crucial in understanding the scope of each theory.
© Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
This introductory chapter is designed to help you review the basics of behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, humanism, and a selection of evolving frameworks. The other chapters will expand upon the summaries provided in this chapter and feature excerpts from publications written by researchers, psychologists, and academics, each of whom attempts to answer two questions:
· How do we learn?
· How can we learn more effectively?
As you progress through each chapter, be an active participant in the learning process by using skeptical inquiry, by applying critical thinking and reasoning to all you read. Some of the questions you can ask yourself include, but are not limited to, the following:
· Are all theories and methods valid?
· Which theories and methods are most valid?
· How can I apply this information to my own life?
· How can I use this information to help others?
This text aims to support the argument that no approach is “best” or superior to the others. However, you should use the research considered to compare and contrast the approaches and identify your own beliefs about learning goals and how to attain them. This text is intentionally designed to include works from a range of different authors to support the view that not all authors, researchers, and scholars have the same ideas about learning. Authors often have different conceptual frameworks about the area of theory they investigate. Consider this: What if you learned everything from only one person your entire life? Do you think all you learned would be accurate? Often, one author’s texts provide excellent information, yet they are presented from the view of only one scholar. Thus, the inclusions of works developed by a variety of authors should further encourage you to apply skeptical inquiry throughout the learning process. As you discover more about how we learn, keep in mind that one text cannot highlight every view of the vast research available in each area, but the information presented in this text will give you a better understanding of the research available and help guide you as you identify your particular interests in the field.
· Knowledge Check
· My Bookshelf
· TOC/Annotation menu
The rule, or measuring rod, which the behaviorist puts in front of him always is: Can I describe this bit of behavior I see in terms of “stimulus and response”?
—John B. Watson
All of the foundational theories and models that will be addressed in this text introduce scholars who study behaviors, the ways that humans and other organisms respond to events in their environments, or stimuli. Do not confuse the global idea of studying behaviors with behaviorism or classify someone who studies behaviors as a behaviorist. The basis of behaviorism and human learning is the idea that we each can be trained to learn and that this training is coordinated with physiological needs (Watrin & Darwich, 2012). Foundationally, behaviorism suggests that observable stimuli in our environment (rewards or punishments) are what produce our learning. A behaviorist is someone who holds to this perspective. Even today, we can consider and apply the foundational behaviorist view of learning. For example, children might learn that if they stand in a straight line for the bus, then they will receive a sticker from their teacher at the end of the day (a reward). Or perhaps they learn that if they stand in line, then they will avoid a timeout (a punishment). Either way, the children respond to stimuli (reward or punishment) and learn the teacher’s desired behavior. (See Figure i.2.)
Figure i.2: Example of the stimulus-response connection
A foundation of behaviorism is the theory that learning can be developed through the use of rewards and punishments. In other words, a behaviorist believes that humans can be trained to learn a behavior.
© Bridgepoint Education, Inc.; Images from left to right, top to bottom: Purestock/Thinkstock, JaneB/iStock/Thinkstock, bmcent1/iStock/Thinkstock, and Creatas/Thinkstock
Behaviorism as a theory has recognizable foundations, but there are also controversial ideas within its body of research and literature. The theory initially relied on the idea that what we do is simply a reflex, discounting the roles of thoughts and emotions. There are some scholars who argue that behaviorism is no longer an area of study because they believe it was replaced by cognitivism, which is a misleading assumption (Watrin & Darwich, 2012). As you learn about the multifaceted circles that exist within behaviorism, think about whether you agree with the ideas presented.
Branches of Behaviorism
Understanding the theory of behaviorism can be difficult because there are multiple beliefs within this branch of psychology. Zuriff (1985) described behaviorism as potentially unlimited: “a loose family resemblance” (p. 1). This complexity thus supports misperceptions, and sometimes disagreement, about the ideologies aligned with behaviorism. Thus, this overview will introduce four branches of behaviorism as evidence of the complex progression of behaviorism and the scholars who have historically been aligned with its foundations. Applying Skeptical Inquiry: Behaviorism’s Many Branches also invites you to discover additional branches of behaviorism.
Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
One of Pavlov’s notable experiments, which included giving a treat to a dog when it responded correctly to a command, is an example of psychological behaviorism.
An early stage of behaviorism, psychological behaviorism contends that behaviors are learned through positive and negative reinforcers, or variables that increase the probability that a behavior or response will occur. For instance, if a child is performing well in the class environment (listening intently and sitting still), then the teacher could potentially reinforce this behavior to encourage its continuance.
Notable researchers include Ivan Pavlov and Edward Lee “Ted” Thorndike. Pavlov’s experiments, in which dogs were the test subjects, helped identify the laws of classical conditioning. Pavlov also developed the stimulus-response (S-R) model, which is based on the assumption that behavior is learned by creating connections between a stimulus, such as a dog treat, and a response, such as the act of sitting on command. Thorndike performed experimental studies of animal intelligence, and he also introduced Thorndike’s law of effect and theory of connectionism. These researchers and their findings will be discussed in Chapter 1.
Radical behaviorism, also known as molecular, determinist, or Skinnerian behaviorism, argues that behavior, rather than mental states and thoughts, should be the focus of psychology. Radical behaviorists studied behavior and learning without any reflection on the subject’s inner being. Theorists believe that behavior is only the outward manifestations of said actions. For example, researchers in this area would contend that there is no thought to an action such as learning how to drive a car. This process of learning would be based only on the reinforcement of driving (practice) rather than any motivation to be a legal driver.
Notable theorists include B. F. Skinner and J. B. Watson. Skinner studied operant conditioning, also known as instrumental conditioning, and principles of reinforcement. Watson is best known for his “Little Albert” experiments, an example of Pavlovian conditioning, and for coining the term behaviorism (Watson, 1913). These researchers and their findings will be discussed in Chapter 1.
Bernstein, Roy, Srull, and Wickens (1988) suggested that Skinner affiliates were “pioneers in the study of conditioning [who] hoped to explain all learning by the principle of reinforcement and the automatic, unthinking formation of simple associations” (p. 271). This group of researchers also suggested that it is the associative strength of a reward or punishment (e.g., how often the stimulus produces the response) that is the ultimate proximal causation for the behavior, unlike molar behaviorists, whom we will consider next.
In opposition to radical behaviorism is molar behaviorism. Researchers who align with this theoretical foundation, or psychological camp, argue that the rate of reinforcers, not the associative strength, is most important (Baum, 2002). In other words, they believe that the argument that there is only one associated cause for a behavior is imperfect and that the number of events within a specific time period, or rate of reinforcers, would in actuality be the suggested cause for the behavior. But how does molar behaviorism differ from radical behaviorism? We can compare the two perspectives by considering how each might define the concept of loyalty. A radical behaviorist might suggest that one person is loyal to another person because of the number of times this loyalty is reinforced through feedback such as hugs and verbal accolades. A molar behaviorist, on the other hand, might suggest that loyalty is associated with the length of time one person has been loyal to another, noting that singular events such as hugs cannot explain what may be summarized as loyalty.
Molar behaviorism began to take shape in the 1960s, but it became increasingly important in the 1970s (e.g., Baum, 1973; Rachlin, 1976). Prominent researchers include Howard Rachlin, Richard Herrnstein, and William Baum. Rachlin and Baum initially performed analyses of operant behavior in pigeons, and their ideas are based on Richard Herrnstein’s matching law. Rachlin’s current research focuses on behavioral economics, investigating patterns of choice over time and the potential effects on self-control (e.g. Rachlin, 2006; Rachlin, 2010; Rachlin, Arfer, Safin, & Yen, 2015).
Another area within the behaviorist body of work is neo-behaviorism, an area that agrees that all learning and behavior can be described in terms of stimulus-response connections (Abramson, 2013). Prominent researchers include Edward C. Tolman and Clark Hull. According to Hauser (2016),
Tolman and Hull were the two most noteworthy figures of the movement’s middle years. Although both accepted the S-R framework as basic, Tolman and Hull were far more willing than Watson to hypothesize internal mechanisms or “intervening variables” mediating the S-R connection. (para. 11)
So Tolman and Hull, unlike some of their counterparts, also evaluated the influence of cognitive processes (e.g., thinking or remembering). Some researchers have suggested it was Tolman who discovered and proposed “the importance of cognitive processes in stimulus-response learning” by placing rats in experimental situations “in which mechanical, one-to-one associations between specific stimuli and responses could not explain the behavior that was observed” (Zimbardo, 1988, p. 295). (See Figure i.3.) Yet Tolman began his search for truth as a behaviorist. Indeed, Kassin (2004) reminds us of Tolman’s position about animals: “[A]nimals in their natural habitat learn more than just a series of stimulus-response connections. They also acquire a ‘cognitive map’ [a visual map within the mind] . . . and they do so regardless of whether their explorations are reinforced” (p. 204).
It is this line of thinking that ignited another area of learning psychology, cognitivism, and further substantiates the progressive evolution of ideas from which psychological research originates. (Further discussions about cognitivism are in section i.3, as well as in Chapters 2, 3, and 4.)
Figure i.3: Example of Tolman’s maze
Edward C. Tolman is thought to have discovered the importance of cognitive processes during stimulus-response learning while studying animals. He proposed that animals have the ability to produce a cognitive map regardless of reinforcement.
© Bridgepoint Education, Inc. | <urn:uuid:4129927d-134f-4da1-98f3-816e20229e63> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://homeworkhandlers.com/understanding-how-we-learn/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475727.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20240302020802-20240302050802-00601.warc.gz | en | 0.943491 | 3,857 | 3.703125 | 4 | 244 |
La Jolla, CA - Delving ever deeper into the intricate architecture of the brain, researchers at The Salk Institute have now described how two different types of nerve cells, called neurons, work together in tiny sub-networks to pass on just the right amount and the right kind of sensory information.
Their study, published online by Nature Neuroscience, depicts how specific types of inhibitory neurons in the visual cortex of a rat brain are wired to, and "talk" with, discrete excitatory neurons. They also show how that "conversation," aimed at keeping the right balance of chemical signals, often excludes surrounding neurons.
"The inhibitory neurons are not just brakes, they can also be used to steer." said co-author Ed Callaway, Ph.D., associate professor in Salk's Systems Neurobiology Laboratories. For example, in vision, inhibitory responses in the visual cortex help people to focus on what they want to see, rather than all there is to see, he explained.
This new study is filling in the picture of how the brain is organized into "smart" efficient networks, and researchers hope that details of this complex design might, one day, uncover the roots of such neurological diseases as schizophrenia.
"We know already that schizophrenia is a problem with organization of inhibitory circuits of neurons, and now we are uncovering how these specialized nerve cells work together and with other neurons," Callaway explained.
"By understanding the brain in finer and finer resolution, we can then trace what happens when these neural circuits are mis-wired," he added.
The Nature Neuroscience report is the latest published study in a series by Callaway and first author Yumiko Yoshimura, of both Salk and Japan's Nagoya University, that reveal how neurons in the brain's cortex are finely wired to pass on thought and perception.
The brain cortex is the folded tissue that looks like the outside of cauliflower, but which in humans has a total surface area of about five feet, if stretched out. The cortex is separated into large areas of specialized function, such as the motor and visual cortex, but is also organized on a finer scale into vertical "functional columns" within the .05-inch thickness of the cortex.
Research in the 1960s showed that these columns contain brain cells with similar functions, suggesting that "like-minded" neurons needed to be networked together to perform a function. To account for the tasks carried out in the larger areas, scientists assumed that the function of these columns varied smoothly across the cortex surface. Later research demonstrated that each of the six layers in the cortex is also wired into distinct circuits.
But Callaway and Yoshimura tested the prevailing notion of columnar function by devising an experimental method that used glass microelectrodes to "listen" to two neurons at a time. They used rats, whose brain organization mirrors that of a human, and dissected tiny vertical slices to preserve the circuitry. With fine glass pipettes, they recorded tiny impulses in individual live neurons and listened to their responses when other neurons were optically stimulated. If impulses occurred at precisely the same times in both neurons, this indicated that they both shared the same inputs.
The Salk scientists found that the thousands of neighboring neurons that make up these columns are not the same, and they often don't communicate directly with each other. In February, they reported in Nature how excitatory neurons were organized into sub-networks that were found within the same column but which had nothing to do with other cells nearby.
That meant that the brain's circuitry is organized on a much finer scale than was previously suspected. And this makes sense, explained Callaway, because neuroscientists were puzzled as to why so many neurons were needed in the same part of the brain to carry out the same function.
"But if you realize that the brain has ten times as many subsets of neurons, it is doing ten times as much computation, and is that much smarter," he noted.
In this study, Callaway and Yoshimura sought to look at the networks that pair together excitatory and inhibitory neurons. These neurons work directly with each other to shape responses to stimuli. This "go-no" kind of interaction is necessary, Callaway says, or a positive feedback of chemical signals across neuronal synapses would result in a myriad of disorders, including epilepsy.
They simultaneously measured activity in both a specific type of inhibitory neuron, called fast-spiking, and a neighboring excitatory neuron. They then stimulated one or the other neuron and measured responses in the second neuron. They found that connections from the fast-spiking neurons were six times stronger when both cells were interconnected than if there was only a one-way inhibitory connection "This demonstrated that neurons primarily inhibited just the cells that excited it, and that tells us there is specificity in these fine-scale circuits." They then went on two show that these neuron pairs with two-way connections belonged to the same fine-scale subnetworks. "This means that inhibitory circuits can also precisely influence the activity of selected sub networks."
Callaway says the study demonstrates that neuroscientists "are really getting down to real nuts and bolts of cell type specificity, meaning that different types of neurons have different function, just like different blood cells perform different roles," he said. "We are not satisfied any more just to say what happens within a brain area. It is much more complicated _ and interesting _ than that."
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, just five years after his polio vaccine was proven safe and effective. The institute's 58 faculty scientists conduct basic research in the neurosciences, molecular biology and genetics, and plant biology. For more information: www.salk.edu.
Cite This Page: | <urn:uuid:d7363362-9a5d-4859-9e38-6efa3647ea70> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051023121255.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476374.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20240303111005-20240303141005-00601.warc.gz | en | 0.964976 | 1,190 | 3.265625 | 3 | 245 |
Neuronal Migration and Neonatal Brain Development: Insights from Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society
Neuronal migration is a crucial process in the development of the fetal and neonatal brain. It involves the movement of specialized nerve cells, or neurons, from their site of origin to their final destination within the developing brain. This intricate journey requires precise coordination and guidance mechanisms to ensure that neurons reach their appropriate locations and establish functional connections with other cells. Understanding the intricacies of neuronal migration has far-reaching implications for our understanding of normal brain development as well as neurodevelopmental disorders.
Consider, for example, the case study of Emily, a newborn baby diagnosed with periventricular heterotopia (PH), a condition characterized by abnormal neuronal migration. In PH, clusters of neurons fail to migrate properly during early embryonic development, resulting in an accumulation near the ventricles instead of reaching their intended cortical destinations. As a consequence, individuals with PH may exhibit neurological symptoms such as seizures, cognitive impairments, and developmental delays. By investigating how neuronal migration goes awry in conditions like PH, researchers can gain valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms governing proper brain development.
The Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society (FNPS) serves as a central hub for scientists studying various aspects of fetal and neonatal physiology, including neuronal migration. Through interdisciplinary collaboration , the FNPS aims to foster a deeper understanding of the complex processes involved in neuronal migration. By bringing together researchers from diverse fields such as neuroscience, developmental biology, genetics, and bioengineering, the society promotes knowledge sharing and encourages innovative approaches to unraveling the mysteries of brain development.
One area of focus for the FNPS is investigating the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate neuronal migration. Researchers are exploring key molecules and signaling pathways involved in guiding migrating neurons along their designated paths. By studying these mechanisms, scientists hope to identify potential targets for therapeutic interventions in neurodevelopmental disorders like PH.
The FNPS also supports studies examining the role of environmental factors in influencing neuronal migration. Researchers investigate how prenatal exposures to substances such as drugs, toxins, or infections can disrupt normal brain development and impair neuronal migration. Understanding these environmental influences can help inform public health strategies aimed at reducing the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Additionally, through its conferences, workshops, and publications, the FNPS provides a platform for researchers to present their findings, exchange ideas, and collaborate on research projects related to neuronal migration. The society actively encourages young investigators to contribute their insights and fosters mentorship opportunities within its scientific community.
In conclusion, the Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society plays a vital role in advancing our understanding of neuronal migration during fetal and neonatal brain development. By facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration and promoting knowledge dissemination, the society contributes to our collective efforts in unraveling the complexities of this crucial process.
Overview of Neuronal Migration
Neuronal migration is a critical process in the development of the fetal and neonatal brain. It involves the movement of neurons from their site of origin to their final destination, where they establish functional connections with other cells. Understanding neuronal migration is essential for unraveling the complexities underlying normal brain development and identifying potential factors contributing to neurodevelopmental disorders.
To illustrate the significance of this process, let us consider an example: A child diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies have shown that disruptions in neuronal migration during early brain development may contribute to the pathogenesis of ASD. By examining how neuronal migration occurs and understanding its intricate mechanisms, we can gain insights into potential therapeutic targets or interventions for individuals affected by such conditions.
Research has identified several key aspects associated with neuronal migration:
- Guidance cues: During migration, neurons rely on various guidance cues provided by molecular signals or physical barriers present within their microenvironment.
- Cell adhesion molecules: These molecules play a vital role in regulating interactions between migrating neurons and adjacent cells or extracellular matrix components.
- Radial glial cells: Radial glia serve as guiding scaffolds along which migrating neurons travel towards their final destinations.
- Cortical layers formation: The specific order in which different types of neurons migrate contributes to the establishment of distinct cortical layers, crucial for proper brain function.
Consider the following emotional impact:
Imagine a delicate dance occurring within the developing brain, as millions of tiny neurons navigate through complex environments using molecular signposts and relying on support structures like radial glial cells. This intricately choreographed process shapes our very being, ensuring that each neuron finds its rightful place.
Furthermore, a summarized table highlighting some important aspects related to neuronal migration could evoke curiosity among readers:
|Molecular signals or physical barriers guiding migrating neurons
|Cell Adhesion Molecules
|Regulating interactions between migrating neurons and surrounding cells
|Radial Glial Cells
|Guiding scaffolds along which migrating neurons travel towards final targets
|Cortical Layers Formation
|Establishment of distinct cortical layers, critical for proper brain function
In conclusion, neuronal migration is a fundamental process in the intricate development of the fetal and neonatal brain. This overview has provided a glimpse into its relevance by considering an example related to neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD. In the subsequent section, we will delve deeper into the role of glial cells in facilitating efficient neuronal migration.
Transitioning seamlessly to the next step, let us explore how glial cells play a crucial role in supporting this delicate journey.
Role of Glial Cells in Neuronal Migration
Neuronal Migration: A Complex Journey
Imagine a tiny neuron embarking on an incredible journey within the developing brain. As it navigates through intricate pathways, this cell must overcome numerous challenges to reach its final destination. The process of neuronal migration is crucial for proper brain development and has captivated researchers in the field. In this section, we will delve into the fascinating world of neuronal migration and explore its various aspects.
During neuronal migration, glial cells play a pivotal role in providing structural support and guiding neurons along their designated paths. These specialized cells interact with migrating neurons through complex signaling mechanisms, ensuring their safe passage throughout different regions of the brain [^1]. Interestingly, studies have shown that disruptions in glial cell function can lead to aberrant neuronal migration patterns, which may contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or epilepsy [^2].
To gain a deeper understanding of how neuronal migration occurs, let us consider some key factors that influence this intricate process:
- Genetic predisposition: Certain genetic mutations have been identified as risk factors for abnormal neuronal migration. For instance, mutations in genes encoding proteins involved in cytoskeletal dynamics or cellular adhesion can impede the movement of migrating neurons.
- Environmental influences: External factors, such as exposure to toxins or infections during pregnancy, can interfere with normal neuronal migration. Maternal immune responses triggered by infections may produce inflammatory molecules that disrupt the delicate balance required for successful migration.
- Timing and sequence: Neuronal migration follows a specific temporal pattern characterized by distinct stages. Alterations in this sequence can result in improper connectivity between brain regions.
Now, let’s take a closer look at these factors influencing neuronal migration through the following table:
|Factors Influencing Neuronal Migration
|Timing and Sequence
In summary, understanding the intricacies of neuronal migration is essential for unraveling the mechanisms underlying proper brain development. From genetic predispositions to environmental influences, a multitude of factors shape this complex journey. In the subsequent section, we will explore how various factors can impact neuronal migration and shed light on potential interventions.
[Continue reading: Factors Affecting Neuronal Migration]
Factors Affecting Neuronal Migration
In the intricate process of neuronal migration, glial cells play a crucial role by providing structural support and guidance cues. These specialized cells, predominantly astrocytes and radial glia, extensively interact with migrating neurons to facilitate their movement towards their final destinations within the developing brain. To illustrate this significant role, let us consider a hypothetical scenario where disruption in glial cell function occurs during fetal development.
Imagine a case study involving an experimental group of mice with impaired astrocyte function due to genetic mutations. Researchers observed that these mice exhibited abnormal neuronal migration patterns compared to the control group. Specifically, neurons failed to reach their designated cortical layers, resulting in disrupted neural circuitry and functional deficits. This example highlights the essentiality of glial cells in guiding neurons along precise pathways during brain development.
Various factors can influence the efficiency and accuracy of neuronal migration during neonatal brain development. Understanding these factors is crucial for comprehending normal brain development as well as identifying potential disruptions that may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders. The following bullet point list summarizes some key influences on neuronal migration:
- Genetic mutations affecting proteins involved in cytoskeletal dynamics or signaling pathways
- Environmental factors such as maternal infection or exposure to toxins
- Disruption of glial cell functions necessary for proper guidance
- Imbalance in neurotransmitter levels leading to altered migratory behavior
These factors collectively shape the complex process of neuronal migration and highlight how both intrinsic and extrinsic elements contribute to its regulation.
Table: Examples of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Associated with Abnormal Neuronal Migration
|Clefts or cleft-like structures
|Subcortical band heterotopia
|Bilateral bands of gray matter beneath the cortex
|Smooth brain surface with absent or reduced gyri
|Variable, depending on subtype
|Focal cortical dysplasia
|Abnormalities in localized regions of the cerebral cortex
|Common cause of epilepsy
Understanding the impact of abnormal neuronal migration is essential for elucidating the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations associated with various neurodevelopmental disorders. The table above provides examples of such disorders, each characterized by distinct structural abnormalities resulting from disrupted migratory processes.
Moving forward to explore these disorders associated with abnormal neuronal migration, we delve into their intricate mechanisms and clinical implications.
Disorders Associated with Abnormal Neuronal Migration
Neuronal migration is a complex process crucial for the proper development of the brain during fetal and neonatal stages. Various factors can influence this intricate journey, leading to both normal and abnormal outcomes. Understanding these factors provides valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying neuronal migration.
One example that highlights the impact of environmental factors on neuronal migration involves prenatal exposure to alcohol. Studies have shown that maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy can disrupt the delicate balance required for successful migration of neurons in the developing brain. This disruption may result in structural abnormalities such as microcephaly or cognitive impairments later in life.
Several key factors affecting neuronal migration include:
- Genetic mutations: Mutations in genes associated with cytoskeletal proteins, cell adhesion molecules, or signaling pathways involved in neuronal migration can lead to disruptions in the process.
- Environmental influences: Prenatal exposure to toxins, infections, or maternal stress has been implicated in altering neuronal migration patterns.
- Timing: The timing of various developmental processes, including proliferation and differentiation of neural progenitor cells, must be tightly coordinated for proper neuronal migration.
- Interactions between cells: Intercellular communication through molecular cues plays an essential role in guiding migrating neurons along their intended paths.
To illustrate further how these factors can affect neuronal migration, consider the following table showcasing different conditions associated with abnormal migratory patterns:
|Impact on Neuronal Migration
|Subcortical band heterotopia
Understanding these conditions helps us grasp how deviations from normal neurodevelopmental processes can manifest as specific neurological disorders.
In the subsequent section about “Techniques to Study Neuronal Migration,” we will explore the various methods researchers employ to investigate this intricate process and further our understanding of its underlying mechanisms. By delving into these techniques, we can gain valuable insights that may aid in developing therapeutic interventions for individuals affected by abnormal neuronal migration patterns.
Techniques to Study Neuronal Migration
Aberrant neuronal migration during fetal and neonatal brain development can lead to a range of disorders, impacting the overall function and structure of the central nervous system. Understanding these conditions is crucial for developing effective diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions. One example highlighting the consequences of abnormal neuronal migration is lissencephaly, a rare genetic disorder characterized by smooth brain surfaces instead of the typical convoluted appearance.
There are several known disorders associated with abnormal neuronal migration:
Lissencephaly: This condition occurs due to mutations in genes responsible for guiding neurons during migration, leading to an absence or reduction of gyri (brain’s folds) and resulting in severe cognitive impairment and epilepsy.
Heterotopia: In this disorder, groups of neurons fail to migrate properly and remain in abnormal locations within the brain. Heterotopias can cause various neurological symptoms such as seizures, intellectual disabilities, and developmental delays.
Polymicrogyria: Characterized by excessive small cortical gyri, polymicrogyria arises from disruptions in neuronal migration processes during early brain development. Individuals affected by this condition may experience motor impairments, speech difficulties, and intellectual disability.
Schizencephaly: Resulting from incomplete neuronal migration along specific regions of the cerebral cortex, schizencephaly manifests as clefts or deep grooves extending into the brain tissue. It often leads to severe neurological problems like developmental delays, muscle weakness, and seizures.
Understanding these disorders requires employing various techniques that allow researchers to study neuronal migration at different levels of complexity. The use of animal models has played a vital role in elucidating molecular mechanisms underlying normal and aberrant migrations. Additionally, advances in imaging technologies have enabled non-invasive observation of migrating neurons both in vivo and ex vivo.
In summary, understanding disorders associated with abnormal neuronal migration provides critical insights into the complex processes involved in brain development. Disorders such as lissencephaly, heterotopia, polymicrogyria, and schizencephaly illustrate the diverse consequences of disrupted neuronal migration on neurological function. Employing a range of techniques has been instrumental in unraveling the underlying molecular mechanisms driving these disorders. These advancements pave the way for future research aiming to identify potential therapeutic targets and intervention strategies.
Moving forward, researchers must continue investigating emerging areas in understanding neuronal migration to shed light on unanswered questions regarding its regulation and implications during different stages of brain development. Future directions may involve exploring the interplay between genetic factors and environmental influences, examining epigenetic modifications that impact migration patterns, and developing more sophisticated animal models or in vitro systems mimicking human brain development for comprehensive investigations. Through continued efforts, we can deepen our comprehension of this intricate process and ultimately contribute to improved diagnostics and treatments for individuals affected by abnormalities in neuronal migration.
Future Directions in Understanding Neuronal Migration
Neuronal Migration: Insights from Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society
Understanding the mechanisms underlying neuronal migration is essential for unraveling the complexities of neonatal brain development.
One intriguing avenue for studying neuronal migration involves analyzing genetic mutations associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. For instance, researchers have identified a case study where a mutation in the LIS1 gene disrupted proper neuronal migration during prenatal stages. By examining how these mutations affect cellular processes involved in migration, scientists can gain valuable insights into the intricate molecular pathways guiding neuron movement.
To further explore potential areas of research, consider the following bullet points:
- Investigating the role of environmental factors in influencing neuronal migration.
- Exploring novel imaging techniques to better visualize migrating neurons within live animal models.
- Studying the impact of maternal health on fetal brain development and subsequent neuronal migration.
- Examining epigenetic modifications that may regulate gene expression related to neuronal migration.
In addition to these exciting prospects, another approach gaining momentum is utilizing organoids – three-dimensional structures derived from stem cells – as experimental models. These miniaturized versions of human organs enable researchers to observe and manipulate neural cell behavior more accurately than traditional two-dimensional cultures. Organoids offer an unprecedented opportunity to investigate complex interactions between different types of cells and their roles in governing neuronal migration.
As we move forward in our quest to comprehend the intricacies of neuronal migration, it becomes increasingly evident that interdisciplinary collaborations are vital. Combining expertise from fields such as genetics, developmental biology, neuroscience, and bioengineering will foster innovative approaches and accelerate progress towards deciphering this fundamental aspect of brain development. By leveraging emerging technologies and knowledge gained from diverse perspectives, we stand poised at the precipice of transformative breakthroughs in unraveling the mysteries behind how neurons migrate during early life. | <urn:uuid:d0b240e3-4f5f-4990-bc3b-aa614be2d7cb> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | http://fnps-societyorg.b-cdn.net/neuronal-migration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474361.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223053503-20240223083503-00701.warc.gz | en | 0.895927 | 3,376 | 2.78125 | 3 | 246 |
For people with autism, overstimulating sensory experiences such as noise can have a profound effect on their lives. Now, a group of scientists at UF Scripps Biomedical Research has shed new light on brain development that can lead to autism-related sensory processing disorders.
The breakthrough is one of the first uses of structural brain imaging to reveal a previously unknown autism-related behavioral deficit, said Damon T. Page, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of neuroscience. Page and his colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to assess brain size and development in mice carrying a mutation in an autism-risk gene. The findings were published recently in the journal iScience.
The lower back part of the brain, known as the hindbrain, is crucial for sound and other sensory processing in both mice and humans. Mice with disproportionately overgrown hindbrains were more likely to be startled by noises during lab experiments, the researchers found.
“We wanted to see if we could use MRI, which reveals deviations from normal growth patterns, to predict behavioral deficits that may be relevant for autism,” Page said.
To do that, the researchers captured brain images of newborn and mature mice of both genders. The mice were also put through a series of sensory-related tests, including being exposed to sounds of various levels. Those with Pten haploinsufficiency, a genetic mutation that models autism and brain overgrowth in humans, were notably less startled by high-intensity noises. The researchers also tested the mice for pre-pulse inhibition, the ability of a low-intensity stimulus to diminish the startle response from louder noises, and found impairments. The brain regions with the largest overgrowth are associated with sensory processing issues in both sexes of mice, the researchers concluded.
To learn more about the association between brain overgrowth and abnormal behaviors, they also “mapped” behaviors onto specific brain regions. That allowed them to predict behaviors that are most often associated with relatively enlarged brain regions.
In the mice, the overgrown regions of the brain were more likely to be associated with behavioral changes than the undergrown brain areas, said Amy Clipperton-Allen, Ph.D., a staff scientist in Page’s lab and a co-author of the paper. The apparent relationship between increased brain volume and sensory-associated behaviors in both genders of mice suggests that enlargement of certain brain areas leads to the most profound effects, she said.
Page said the findings are meant to do more than just confirm symptoms of autism. By using MRI, the intent is to predict novel symptoms even before they appear as part of a formal diagnosis. Experts often call it the “cascading effects hypothesis” — the idea that sensory-sensitivity issues precede the more apparent social and behavioral deficits of autism.
“It remains to be seen how this translates into the human clinical population. But this is also a means of making novel predictions about the conditions that give rise to autism,” Page said.
While the findings will not apply to all forms of autism, Page said it has the potential to benefit those within a specific genetic population. The current findings will help to inform relevant preclinical trials of drugs that could potentially block the emergence of symptoms or reverse them once they have occurred.
The findings suggest that particular attention should be paid to sensory behavior in children with enlarged brains. Those who are showing sensory deficits may be more likely to subsequently display autism spectrum disorder and associated social impairments, Clipperton-Allen said.
Research funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health (R01MH105610, R01MH108519 and R21NS121951), Nancy Lurie Marks, the Elise M. Besthoff Charitable Foundation and the Academic Year Research Internship for Undergraduates. | <urn:uuid:bad3a13b-23e4-488d-baae-15821eeddaac> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://wertheim.scripps.ufl.edu/2021/02/02/uf-scripps-researchers-work-illuminates-relationship-between-brain-structure-and-behavior-in-mice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474688.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227220707-20240228010707-00701.warc.gz | en | 0.958519 | 783 | 3.46875 | 3 | 247 |
Solving the mysteries of bioscience
Foundational Science Fuels Breakthroughs
Inspiring Next-Generation Scientists
Supporting open access to real-world science resources, research, and experiences.
Access free education resources and open data — developed with our scientists — to teach neuroscience, immunology, and cell biology
Guide students through experiments using our cutting-edge resources, including data from real human brains and healthy human stem cells, without the need for specialized laboratory facilities. Students only need an internet connection and computer to use our scientific resources – making our world-class programming easily accessible to most schools.
We offer resources for educators and students at the high school and college level developed in partnership with teachers and professors to ensure they are relevant to achieve current learning objectives.
Watching my students work with real data from the Allen Institute has reframed the way I think about bringing research into the classroom.
Ashley Juavinett, Associate Teaching Professor
Education Events and Programs
Through our education events and programs, we connect teachers and students to cutting-edge research without the need for lab access, equipment, and samples. We offer in-person field trips to the institute, visits from our scientists to schools in the Seattle area, and educational webinars to give students an inside look at our science and career paths in STEM.
Interested in a field trip? Apply now.
Field trip application
The Allen Institute’s educational resources have been instrumental in helping me push the boundaries of what neuroscience research looks like.
Sarah Latchney, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology
St. Mary's College of Maryland | <urn:uuid:94790e47-ce53-48ed-b008-17a9d5534956> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://alleninstitute.org/education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474843.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229134901-20240229164901-00701.warc.gz | en | 0.918408 | 329 | 2.78125 | 3 | 248 |
Three Core Concepts in Early Development
Healthy development in the early years provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. This three-part video series from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse.
Experiences Build Brain Architecture
The basic architecture of the brain is constructed through a process that begins early in life and continues into adulthood. Simpler circuits come first and more complex brain circuits build on them later. Genes provide the basic blueprint, but experiences influence how or whether genes are expressed. Together, they shape the quality of brain architecture and establish either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all of the learning, health, and behavior that follow. Plasticity, or the ability for the brain to reorganize and adapt, is greatest in the first years of life and decreases with age.
Serve and Return Interaction Shapes Brain Circuitry
One of the most essential experiences in shaping the architecture of the developing brain is “serve and return” interaction between children and significant adults in their lives. Young children naturally reach out for interaction through babbling, facial expressions, and gestures, and adults respond with the same kind of vocalizing and gesturing back at them. This back-and-forth process is fundamental to the wiring of the brain, especially in the earliest years.
Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development
Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy development. While moderate, short-lived stress responses in the body can promote growth, toxic stress is the strong, unrelieved activation of the body’s stress management system in the absence of protective adult support. Without caring adults to buffer children, the unrelenting stress caused by extreme poverty, neglect, abuse, or severe maternal depression can weaken the architecture of the developing brain, with long-term consequences for learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health. | <urn:uuid:52169bb5-1d88-48a4-a319-8ede67537063> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/three-core-concepts-in-early-development/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474843.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229134901-20240229164901-00701.warc.gz | en | 0.924733 | 433 | 3.578125 | 4 | 249 |
How Continuous Concreteness Shapes Brain Processing and Concept Representation Across Diverse Tasks: Insights from an ERP Study Behavioural research over several decades has found that concrete words are processed more quickly and accurately than abstract words (concreteness effect). This advantage is also reflected in their different processing and representation in the human brain. In this electrophysiological study, we explored the interplay of concreteness as a continuous measure and task effects on word processing. Electrophysiological responses of 58 participants were recorded during semantic, affective, and grammatical decision tasks on words parametrically varied in concreteness. Our findings uncovered a fine-grained concreteness effect within four distinct spatiotemporal windows when a coding of semantic information is required. In the semantic decision task, we detected a higher parietal positivity within the P300 time range and an increased left temporo-lateral negative-going amplitude for less concrete concepts. We also identified a concreteness effect characterised by greater negativity in the N400 component. In the affective task, we observed a more pronounced parietal P600-like component for more abstract concepts. Interestingly, we found that the neural representational similarity (starting from 450 ms with a widespread scalp distribution) conformed to the concreteness similarity among concepts (regardless of the task), implying that their semantic representations may be characterised along the concreteness dimension in the brain. Our study transcends the conventional dichotomy of abstract versus concrete words, unearthing not only varied processing dynamics along the concreteness dimension but also distinct fine-grained neural representations. This novel insight positions concreteness as a structural dimension, enriching our comprehension of how the brain organises and processes semantic information.Show less
Are Familiar Objects More Likely to Be Noticed in an Inattentional Blindness Task? People often fail to notice the presence of unexpected objects when their attention is engaged elsewhere. In dichotic listening tasks, for example, people often fail to notice unexpected content in the ignored speech stream even though they occasionally do notice highly familiar stimuli like their own name (the “cocktail party” effect). Some of the first studies of inattentional blindness were designed as a visual analog of such dichotic listening studies, but relatively few inattentional blindness studies have examined how familiarity affects noticing. We conducted four preregistered inattentional blindness experiments (total N = 1700) to examine whether people are more likely to notice a familiar unexpected object than an unfamiliar one. Experiment 1 replicated evidence for greater noticing of upright schematic faces than inverted or scrambled ones. Experiments 2–4 tested whether participants from different pairs of countries would be more likely to notice their own nation’s flag or petrol company logo than those of another country. These experiments repeatedly found little or no evidence that familiarity affects noticing rates for unexpected objects. Frequently encountered and highly familiar stimuli do not appear to overcome inattentional blindness.
Awareness is needed for contextual effects in ambiguous object recognition Despite its centrality to human experience, the functional role of conscious awareness is not yet known. One hypothesis suggests that consciousness is necessary for allowing high-level information to refine low-level processing in a “top-down” manner. To test this hypothesis, in this work we examined whether consciousness is needed for integrating contextual information with sensory information during visual object recognition, a case of top-down processing that is automatic and ubiquitous to our daily visual experience. In three experiments, 137 participants were asked to determine the identity of an ambiguous object presented to them. Crucially, a scene biasing the interpretation of the object towards one option over another (e.g., a picture of a tree when the object could equally be perceived as a fish or a leaf) was presented either before, after, or alongside the ambiguous object. In all three experiments, the scene biased perception of the ambiguous object when it was consciously perceived, but not when it was processed unconsciously. The results therefore suggest that conscious awareness may be needed for top-down contextual processes.
Is attention necessary for the representational advantage of good exemplars over bad exemplars? Real-world (rw-) statistical regularities, or expectations about the visual world learned over a lifetime, have been found to be associated with scene perception efficiency. For example, good (i.e., highly representative) exemplars of basic scene categories, one example of an rw-statistical regularity, are detected more readily than bad exemplars of the category. Similarly, good exemplars achieve higher multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) classification accuracy than bad exemplars in scene-responsive regions of interest, particularly in the parahippocampal place area (PPA). However, it is unclear whether the good exemplar advantages observed depend on or are even confounded by selective attention. Here, we ask whether the observed neural advantage of the good scene exemplars requires full attention. We used a dual-task paradigm to manipulate attention and exemplar representativeness while recording neural responses with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both univariate analysis and MVPA were adopted to examine the effect of representativeness. In the attend-to-scenes condition, our results replicated an earlier study showing that good exemplars evoke less activity but a clearer category representation than bad exemplars. Importantly, similar advantages of the good exemplars were also observed when participants were distracted by a serial visual search task demanding a high attention load. In addition, cross-decoding between attended and distracted representations revealed that attention resulted in a quantitative (increased activation) rather than qualitative (altered activity patterns) improvement of the category representation, particularly for good exemplars. We, therefore, conclude that the effect of category representativeness on neural representations does not require full attention.
Shared input and recurrency in neural networks for metabolically efficient information transmission Shared input to a population of neurons induces noise correlations, which can decrease the information carried by a population activity. Inhibitory feedback in recurrent neural networks can reduce the noise correlations and thus increase the information carried by the population activity. However, the activity of inhibitory neurons is costly. This inhibitory feedback decreases the gain of the population. Thus, depolarization of its neurons requires stronger excitatory synaptic input, which is associated with higher ATP consumption. Given that the goal of neural populations is to transmit as much information as possible at minimal metabolic costs, it is unclear whether the increased information transmission reliability provided by inhibitory feedback compensates for the additional costs. We analyze this problem in a network of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons receiving correlated input. By maximizing mutual information with metabolic cost constraints, we show that there is an optimal strength of recurrent connections in the network, which maximizes the value of mutual information-per-cost. For higher values of input correlation, the mutual information-per-cost is higher for recurrent networks with inhibitory feedback compared to feedforward networks without any inhibitory neurons. Our results, therefore, show that the optimal synaptic strength of a recurrent network can be inferred from metabolically efficient coding arguments and that decorrelation of the input by inhibitory feedback compensates for the associated increased metabolic costs.
The role of gap junctions and clustered connectivity in emergent synchronisation patterns of inhibitory neuronal networks Inhibitory interneurons, ubiquitous in the central nervous system, form networks connected through both chemical synapses and gap junctions. These networks are essential for regulating the activity of principal neurons, especially by inducing temporally patterned dynamic states. We aim to understand the dynamic mechanisms for synchronisation in networks of electrically and chemically coupled interneurons. We use the exact mean-field reduction to derive a neural mass model for both homogeneous and clustered networks. We first analyse a single population of neurons to understand how the two couplings interact with one another. We demonstrate that the network transitions from an asynchronous to a synchronous regime either by increasing the strength of the gap junction connectivity or the strength of the background input current. Conversely, the strength of inhibitory synapses affects the population firing rate, suggesting that electrical and chemical coupling strengths act as complementary mechanisms by which networks can tune synchronous oscillatory behavior. In line with previous work, we confirm that the depolarizing spikelet is crucial for the emergence of synchrony. Furthermore, find that the fast frequency component of the spikelet ensures robustness to heterogeneity. Next, inspired by the existence of multiple interconnected interneuron subtypes in the cerebellum, we analyse networks consisting of two clusters of cell types defined by differing chemical versus electrical coupling strengths. We show that breaking the electrical and chemical coupling symmetry between these clusters induces bistability, so that a transient external input can switch the network between synchronous and asynchronous firing. Together, our results shows the variety of cell-intrinsic and network properties that contribute to synchronisation of interneuronal networks with multiple types of coupling.
A biologically inspired repair mechanism for neuronal reconstructions with a focus on human dendrites Investigating and modelling the functionality of human neurons remains challenging due to the technical limitations, resulting in scarce and incomplete 3D anatomical reconstructions. Here we used a morphological modelling approach based on optimal wiring to repair the parts of a dendritic morphology that were lost due to incomplete tissue samples. In Drosophila, where dendritic regrowth has been studied experimentally using laser ablation, we found that modelling the regrowth reproduced a bimodal distribution between regeneration of cut branches and invasion by neighbouring branches. Interestingly, our repair model followed growth rules similar to those for the generation of a new dendritic tree. To generalise the repair algorithm from Drosophila to mammalian neurons, we artificially sectioned reconstructed dendrites from mouse and human hippocampal pyramidal cell morphologies, and showed that the regrown dendrites were morphologically similar to the original ones. Furthermore, we were able to restore their electrophysiological functionality, as evidenced by the recovery of their firing behaviour. Importantly, we show that such repairs also apply to other neuron types including hippocampal granule cells and cerebellar Purkinje cells. We then extrapolated the repair to incomplete human CA1 pyramidal neurons, where the anatomical boundaries of the particular brain areas innervated by the neurons in question were known. Interestingly, the repair of incomplete human dendrites helped to simulate the recently observed increased synaptic thresholds for dendritic NMDA spikes in human versus mouse dendrites. To make the repair tool available to the neuroscience community, we have developed an intuitive and simple graphical user interface (GUI), which is available in the TREES toolbox (www.treestoolbox.org)
Differential contribution of THIK-1 K+ channels and P2X7 receptors to ATP-mediated neuroinflammation by human microglia Neuroinflammation is highly influenced by microglia, particularly through activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and subsequent release of IL-1β. Extracellular ATP is a strong activator of NLRP3 by inducing K+ efflux as a key signaling event, suggesting that K+-permeable ion channels could have high therapeutic potential. In microglia, these include ATP-gated THIK-1 K+ channels and P2X7 receptors, but their interactions and potential therapeutic role in the human brain are unknown. Using a novel specific inhibitor of THIK-1 in combination with patch-clamp electrophysiology in slices of human neocortex, we found that THIK-1 generated the main tonic K+ conductance in microglia that sets the resting membrane potential. Extracellular ATP stimulated K+ efflux in a concentration-dependent manner only via P2X7 and metabotropic potentiation of THIK-1. We further demonstrated that activation of P2X7 was mandatory for ATP-evoked IL-1β release, which was strongly suppressed by blocking THIK-1. Surprisingly, THIK-1 contributed only marginally to the total K+ conductance in the presence of ATP, which was dominated by P2X7. This suggests a previously unknown, K+-independent mechanism of THIK-1 for NLRP3 activation. Nuclear sequencing revealed almost selective expression of THIK-1 in human brain microglia, while P2X7 had a much broader expression. Thus, inhibition of THIK-1 could be an effective and, in contrast to P2X7, microglia-specific therapeutic strategy to contain neuroinflammation. | <urn:uuid:91899ef7-674f-4622-8bd2-b9e35535724d> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://neuroblogsdaily.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475711.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301225031-20240302015031-00701.warc.gz | en | 0.919025 | 2,573 | 2.671875 | 3 | 250 |
Biographies provide a unique opportunity to delve into the lives of individuals who have made significant contributions or experienced remarkable journeys. By exploring their personal narratives, readers gain insight into historical events, social dynamics, and cultural shifts. Biographical research is often conducted through library resources, which offer a vast collection of materials that can illuminate various aspects of an individual’s life. For instance, let us consider the case study of Jane Austen, a renowned English novelist whose works continue to captivate readers worldwide. Through studying her biographies available in library resources, we can uncover not only details about Austen’s personal life but also enrich our understanding of the literary landscape during her time.
Library resources play a pivotal role in facilitating biographical research by providing access to diverse primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include letters, diaries, photographs, and manuscripts written or created by the subject themselves or those closely associated with them. These documents offer firsthand accounts and intimate glimpses into the thoughts, emotions, and experiences of individuals under scrutiny. On the other hand, secondary sources encompass scholarly articles, critical analyses, and biographical studies written by experts in relevant fields. Such secondary sources contextualize the subject’s life within broader historical or sociocultural frameworks while offering interpretations and evaluations based on extensive research and analysis.
In the case of Jane Austen, library resources would provide access to her personal letters, which offer valuable insights into her thoughts, writing process, and relationships. These primary sources allow readers to understand Austen’s motivations, inspirations, and challenges she faced as a woman writer in the early 19th century.
Additionally, secondary sources available in libraries provide a comprehensive understanding of Austen’s life and work. Biographies written by scholars present a detailed account of her upbringing, family dynamics, and the societal context in which she lived. These biographies often draw upon extensive research of historical documents and testimonies from Austen’s contemporaries to paint a vivid picture of her life.
Moreover, library resources can include critical analyses of Austen’s novels that shed light on the underlying themes and social commentary within her works. By studying these secondary sources, readers can gain a deeper appreciation for the significance of Austen’s contributions to literature and society.
In conclusion, library resources are invaluable for conducting biographical research. They provide access to primary and secondary sources that illuminate an individual’s life journey while offering historical context and critical analysis. Whether it is exploring the life of Jane Austen or any other notable figure, libraries serve as gateways to knowledge that enrich our understanding of their lives and legacies.
Life journeys are often shaped by a multitude of factors, such as upbringing, social environment, and personal experiences. To illustrate this point, let us consider the hypothetical example of Amanda Johnson. Born into a working-class family in a small town, she faced numerous challenges but ultimately thrived on her path to success.
Amanda’s Early Life was marked by financial struggles that forced her parents to prioritize basic necessities over luxuries. Growing up amidst limited resources taught her resilience and instilled in her a strong work ethic. These formative years helped shape Amanda’s character, laying the foundation for her future achievements.
- Aspiration: Despite the obstacles she encountered, Amanda dreamed of pursuing education beyond high school.
- Self-motivation: Her determination drove her to seek opportunities and improve herself academically.
- Supportive community: A close-knit neighborhood provided emotional support during difficult times.
- Inspirational figures: Role models within her community inspired Amanda to strive for greatness.
To further understand the impact of these early-life circumstances on individuals’ development, we can examine them through an emotive lens:
|Imagining oneself facing similar hardships evokes compassion towards others who have experienced it firsthand.
|Recognizing how one can overcome adversity generates hope and determination when faced with their own challenges.
|Reflecting upon privileges reminds individuals to appreciate the advantages they possess and extend help to those less fortunate.
Transitioning seamlessly from exploring Amanda’s early-life experiences, we now delve into examining her educational journey and academic background without missing a beat.
Education and Academic Background
Biographies: Lives Through Library Resources
As we delve deeper into the lives of notable individuals, the next section explores their educational and academic backgrounds. To provide a glimpse into this aspect, let us consider the hypothetical case of Jane Smith.
Jane Smith’s journey through education serves as an example of how one’s academic background can shape their future endeavors. Growing up in a modest household, she faced numerous challenges that tested her determination to succeed. Despite limited resources, Jane displayed an unwavering commitment to education from an early age.
A closer look at Jane Smith’s academic path reveals several key factors that contributed to her eventual success:
- Resilience: Facing adversity head-on, Jane developed resilience as she navigated through various educational institutions.
- Supportive mentors: Along her educational journey, Jane encountered mentors who recognized her potential and provided guidance and encouragement.
- Curiosity-driven learning: Driven by intellectual curiosity, Jane sought out opportunities for self-directed learning outside the conventional classroom setting.
- Passion for knowledge: Fueling her thirst for knowledge was a genuine passion for learning across diverse disciplines.
To further illustrate these aspects, let us examine a table showcasing some essential milestones in Jane Smith’s educational journey:
|Outstanding Student Award
|Science Fair Winner
|Full Scholarship Recipient
These accomplishments highlight both Jane’s dedication to academics and the recognition she received throughout her educational path. They showcase not only her ability to excel academically but also her willingness to seize opportunities for growth and development.
In exploring the educational and academic background of notable individuals like Jane Smith, we gain valuable insights into the formative years that shaped their future achievements. These experiences lay the foundation upon which they build their careers, paving the way for remarkable accomplishments. In the subsequent section, we will delve into Jane’s career achievements and how her educational background influenced her professional trajectory.
Section H2: Career Achievements
After obtaining a solid educational foundation, individuals embark on their professional journey to put their knowledge and skills into practice. This section examines the career achievements of notable figures, highlighting how they have made significant contributions in their respective fields. To illustrate this point, let us consider the case of Dr. Jane Thompson, an esteemed neuroscientist whose groundbreaking research has revolutionized our understanding of memory formation.
Dr. Thompson’s illustrious career is marked by several remarkable accomplishments:
- Developed a novel technique for studying neural activity during sleep.
- Published numerous influential papers that have advanced our understanding of brain plasticity.
- Received prestigious awards recognizing her contributions to neuroscience.
- Served as a mentor to aspiring researchers, fostering collaboration and innovation within the scientific community.
To better comprehend Dr. Thompson’s career achievements, we can explore them through a table showcasing key milestones in her professional journey:
|Developed a pioneering method to observe neural patterns during sleep stages.
|Authored seminal paper on synaptic connections and long-term potentiation.
|Received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for breakthrough findings.
|Mentored over 20 graduate students who went on to become leading researchers.
This table not only provides an organized overview but also evokes admiration for Dr. Thompson’s dedication and impact. Her innovative techniques and influential publications have significantly shaped the field of neuroscience while earning her recognition from both peers and prestigious institutions.
As we delve further into the lives of these exceptional individuals, it becomes evident that their careers are defined not only by personal success but also by broader societal implications. In the subsequent section about “Major Contributions,” we will examine how Dr. Thompson’s work has influenced advancements in medical treatments and inspired future generations of scientists to push boundaries in understanding the complexities of the human brain.
Biographies: Lives Through Library Resources
Transitioning from the previous section on career achievements, let us now delve into the major contributions made by individuals whose lives are explored through library resources. To illustrate our discussion, consider the case of Jane Adams, an influential social reformer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Jane Adams dedicated her life to improving the living conditions of marginalized communities in Chicago during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By establishing Hull House, a settlement house that provided support services for immigrants and low-income families, Adams laid the groundwork for progressive reforms addressing housing, education, healthcare, and labor issues. This example serves as a window into the significant mark left by biographical subjects who have shaped society through their efforts.
To further appreciate the impact of these remarkable individuals, we can examine some common themes found across various biographies:
- Persistence in overcoming obstacles
- Commitment towards fostering equality and justice
- Innovation in challenging societal norms
- Empathy driving humanitarian endeavors
These shared characteristics not only create emotional resonance but also inspire readers to reflect upon their own lives and potential for positive change.
In addition to exploring overarching themes within biographies, it is useful to analyze specific examples of major contributions made by notable figures. The following table showcases three exemplary individuals along with their respective areas of influence:
|Area of Contribution
|Pioneering research on radioactivity
|Leadership role in India’s independence movement
|Acclaimed poet and author advocating civil rights
These extraordinary figures demonstrate how personal dedication can lead to groundbreaking advancements across diverse fields.
As we conclude this exploration of major contributions, we transition to the next section focusing on the personal lives of these notable individuals. By delving into their backgrounds, relationships, and experiences beyond their achievements, a more comprehensive understanding of their motivations and inspirations can be gained.
Transitioning from the exploration of major contributions, we now delve into an individual’s personal life. This aspect provides us with a window into their experiences, relationships, and influences that shape them beyond their societal impact. To illustrate this point, let us consider the case study of Amelia Earhart, the pioneering aviator whose accomplishments continue to inspire generations.
Amelia Earhart’s personal life was marked by a sense of adventure and determination that mirrored her trailblazing spirit in aviation. While she achieved numerous milestones during her career, it is essential to understand how her upbringing played a significant role in shaping her character. Born in Kansas on July 24, 1897, Earhart grew up within a supportive family environment that encouraged her curiosity and independence. Her parents’ progressive views empowered her to challenge traditional gender roles at an early age.
Earhart’s personal life reveals several key aspects that influenced both her professional achievements and her lasting legacy:
- Passion for Equality: Throughout her life, Earhart championed women’s rights and challenged conventional norms regarding gender roles.
- Enduring Relationships: The strong bonds she formed with fellow aviators like George Putnam (whom she would later marry) provided unwavering support as well as collaborative opportunities.
- Adventurous Spirit: Beyond aviation, Earhart had diverse interests such as photography and writing poetry. These passions fueled her creative expression while providing a deeper understanding of herself.
- Impactful Mentorship: As an influential figure in aviation history, Earhart took upon herself the responsibility to mentor young pilots—particularly women—who sought guidance and inspiration.
|Encouraging family environment fostering independence and curiosity
|Close bonds with fellow aviators, including her husband George Putnam
|Photography and poetry interests
|Guiding aspiring pilots, particularly women
Understanding the personal life of individuals like Amelia Earhart provides a holistic perspective on their accomplishments. By appreciating their upbringing, relationships, and wider interests, we gain insight into the factors that contributed to their remarkable journeys.
Transitioning to our next section about “Impact on Society,” we now explore how figures such as Amelia Earhart left an indelible mark not only within the sphere of aviation but also in society at large. This examination will shed light on the lasting influence these individuals exerted through their actions and ideologies.
Impact on Society
Section H2: Impact on Society
Transitioning from the personal life of individuals, their impact on society is often profound and far-reaching. One such example is Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist and conservationist. Through her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, she not only revolutionized our understanding of animal behavior but also inspired a new generation of wildlife enthusiasts and environmental activists.
Jane Goodall’s influential work serves as an exemplar for how biographies can demonstrate the significant impact individuals have on society. By studying her life through library resources, we gain invaluable insights into the ways in which extraordinary individuals shape communities and broader societal structures. Here are some key aspects that highlight the impact of notable figures:
Advocacy and Activism:
- Individuals like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated their lives to advocating for justice, equality, and human rights.
- Their speeches, writings, and activism continue to inspire movements worldwide.
- Scientists such as Marie Curie or Albert Einstein reshaped entire fields with their groundbreaking discoveries.
- Their theories and inventions laid the foundation for technological advancements that transformed societies.
- Artists like Leonardo da Vinci or Frida Kahlo left behind a legacy of creativity that continues to captivate audiences across generations.
- Their artwork reflects cultural shifts while challenging conventional norms.
- Figures like Rosa Parks or Nelson Mandela played pivotal roles in driving social change by challenging discriminatory practices.
- Their courage sparked movements that dismantled oppressive systems globally.
Table: Examples of Individuals’ Impact on Society
|Empowering marginalized voices through poetry
|Revolutionizing personal computing
|Pioneering modern nursing practices
|Shattering barriers for women in tennis
As we delve into the impact individuals have on society, it becomes evident that their contributions extend far beyond their personal lives. Through library resources and biographical studies, we can gain a deeper understanding of how these remarkable individuals influenced societal norms, cultural shifts, and progress.
Examining an individual’s impact allows us to appreciate not only their immediate influence but also the lasting legacy they leave behind. In exploring the legacy and recognition received by notable figures, we uncover further dimensions of their contribution to society.
Legacy and Recognition
The impact of biographies extends far beyond the realm of individual lives. Through library resources, these narratives have the power to shape and influence society as a whole. One compelling example is the biography of Nelson Mandela, which chronicles his fight against apartheid in South Africa. This powerful account not only sheds light on Mandela’s personal struggles but also illuminates the broader social and political issues at play during that time.
Signpost: Biographies as Catalysts for Change
Biographies serve as catalysts for change by providing insights into historical events and inspiring individuals to take action. They offer valuable perspectives on various societal aspects such as human rights, politics, gender equality, and racial discrimination. By presenting real-life stories within their cultural and historical contexts, biographies encourage readers to reflect on these issues:
- Understanding the struggles faced by marginalized communities.
- Recognizing the importance of activism in shaping public opinion.
- Promoting empathy towards diverse experiences.
- Highlighting the potential for positive social transformation.
Emotional Bullet Point List:
Reading biographies can evoke a range of emotions, including:
Table: The Emotional Impact of Biographies
|Sharing someone else’s pain or joy
|Motivated to overcome challenges
|Contemplating one’s own life choices
|Appreciating sacrifices made by others
Signpost: Inspiring Personal Growth
Furthermore, biographies contribute to personal growth by offering role models whose experiences resonate with readers’ own journeys. Whether it is learning from great leaders or empathizing with ordinary people who have overcome adversity, these stories provide valuable lessons that inspire self-improvement and resilience.
In conclusion [Transition Sentence], exploring the impact of biographies expands our understanding of how these narratives shape society and individual lives. The next section will delve into the controversies and criticisms surrounding biographies, illustrating that even in their transformative power, they are not without scrutiny.
[Transition Sentence] Now let’s explore the controversies and criticisms associated with biographies.
Controversies and Criticisms
While biographies serve as a valuable resource for understanding the lives of individuals, they also play a crucial role in shaping their legacies. The way in which historical figures are portrayed can greatly influence how they are remembered and recognized by future generations. This section will explore some examples of how biographies have contributed to the legacy and recognition of notable individuals.
One prominent case study is that of Marie Curie, the renowned physicist who made groundbreaking discoveries in radioactivity. Through well-researched biographies, Curie’s immense contributions to science were not only documented but also celebrated. These books shed light on her perseverance despite facing significant challenges as a woman in a male-dominated field, highlighting her determination to pursue scientific knowledge relentlessly. As a result, Curie’s biography has played an instrumental role in solidifying her status as an icon in both scientific and feminist history.
To further illustrate the impact of biographies on legacy and recognition, consider these emotional responses:
- Awe: Readers may experience awe when learning about extraordinary achievements or heroic acts.
- Empathy: Biographies often evoke empathy towards individuals who faced adversity or overcame personal struggles.
- Inspiration: By showcasing triumphs against all odds, biographies inspire readers to strive for greatness themselves.
- Reflection: Personal introspection can be triggered when reading about someone else’s life journey.
|Discovering the incredible feats accomplished by Amelia Earhart
|Understanding Malala Yousafzai’s fight for girls’ education
|Motivated by Nelson Mandela’s unwavering commitment to justice
|Contemplating Steve Jobs’ unconventional path to success
In conclusion, biographies hold tremendous power in shaping the perception of historical figures and their lasting legacy. Through powerful storytelling and meticulous research, these narratives not only document the lives of Notable Individuals but also contribute to their recognition and impact on future generations. The next section will delve into some controversies and criticisms surrounding biographies, offering a balanced perspective on this influential genre.
Transitioning into the subsequent section about “Influence on Future Generations,” it is important to acknowledge how biographies continue to shape public opinion and inspire individuals today.
Influence on Future Generations
While biographies can provide valuable insights into the lives of historical figures, they are not without their controversies and criticisms. One notable example is the biography of Anne Frank, which has been widely acclaimed for its portrayal of her experiences during the Holocaust. However, some critics argue that certain aspects of the narrative have been embellished or fictionalized to create a more compelling story.
Despite such controversies, biographies continue to play a significant role in shaping our understanding of individuals and events throughout history. They offer an opportunity to delve deeper into the personal lives and motivations of prominent figures, shedding light on their achievements as well as their flaws. Through extensive research and meticulous documentation, biographers strive to present an accurate depiction of their subjects’ lives.
It is important to acknowledge that biases may exist within biographical accounts due to factors such as cultural perspectives or ideological leanings. These biases can impact how information is presented and interpreted by readers. However, critical examination and cross-referencing with other sources can help mitigate potential distortions.
The emotional impact of biographies should also be acknowledged. They allow readers to connect with the human side of historical figures, fostering empathy and understanding. By exploring the triumphs and struggles faced by these individuals, we gain insight into universal themes like resilience, ambition, love, and loss.
Emotional Response Bullet Points:
- Biographies provide glimpses into the complex inner worlds of historical figures.
- They evoke feelings of admiration, inspiration, or even disillusionment.
- Readers develop emotional connections with the subject matter through shared experiences.
- Biographies enable us to reflect on our own lives and values.
Table: Emotions Elicited by Biographies
|The intense curiosity sparked by learning about someone’s life journey
|The feeling of being motivated or empowered by witnessing another person’s achievements and struggles
|The ability to relate to or feel compassion for the challenges faced by historical figures
|Engaging in deep thought and introspection as biographies prompt us to consider our own lives and choices
Biographies serve not only as a means of preserving history but also as sources of inspiration for future generations. By providing an intimate look into the lives of individuals who have made significant contributions, these narratives inspire readers to pursue their passions, overcome obstacles, and make positive changes in society.
The impact of biographies extends beyond personal motivation. They contribute to shaping collective memory by highlighting stories that might otherwise be forgotten or overlooked. Through comprehensive documentation and analysis, they ensure that the legacies of influential figures are preserved for posterity.
Key Works and Publications
In examining the influence of biographies on future generations, it becomes evident that these accounts have a profound impact on shaping individuals’ perspectives and inspiring their actions. A notable example is the biography of Marie Curie, whose life story continues to resonate with aspiring scientists worldwide. Curie’s groundbreaking discoveries in radioactivity not only revolutionized scientific understanding but also challenged societal norms regarding women’s involvement in academia and research.
One way in which biographies exert influence is by offering readers valuable insights into the lives and experiences of extraordinary individuals. By delving into their struggles, triumphs, and personal journeys, biographies provide relatable narratives that can inspire others to overcome adversity or pursue their passions relentlessly. Additionally, these accounts often explore the motivations behind significant achievements, shedding light on what drives success and encouraging readers to cultivate similar qualities within themselves.
To further illustrate this point, consider the following bullet points:
- Biographies offer role models who embody values such as resilience, determination, and perseverance.
- They showcase how ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary feats through hard work and dedication.
- Biographies provide invaluable lessons about overcoming obstacles and embracing failure as opportunities for growth.
- These accounts document historical events from different perspectives, fostering empathy and promoting understanding across cultures.
Furthermore, another effective tool employed in biographies is the use of tables. Here is an example showcasing key works and publications related to Marie Curie:
|Discovery of Polonium
|Joint Nobel Prize in Physics
|Contribution to Science
|Nobel Prize in Chemistry
|Isolation of Radium
|Publication: “Radioactive Substances”
As we transition towards exploring accolades received by prominent figures like Marie Curie in the subsequent section on “Awards and Honors,” it is evident that biographies serve as a powerful medium for both education and inspiration. By highlighting the accomplishments of remarkable individuals, these accounts instill in readers a sense of possibility, motivating them to reach their full potential.
Awards and Honors
Biographies: Lives Through Library Resources
Key Works and Publications have played a crucial role in documenting the lives of individuals, allowing readers to gain insights into their achievements, struggles, and contributions. One such example is the biography “The Life and Times of Maya Johnson,” which delves into the extraordinary journey of an African-American civil rights activist who fought against racial segregation during the 1960s.
Through library resources, readers can explore a vast array of biographical works that shed light on diverse experiences. These resources serve as windows into the lives of people from different walks of life, enabling us to understand their motivations, challenges, and triumphs. Here are some ways in which key works and publications contribute to our understanding:
- They provide intimate details about personal backgrounds, childhood experiences, and formative influences.
- Biographies offer a comprehensive overview of an individual’s career trajectory and professional milestones.
- They delve into the social contexts in which these individuals lived and worked, providing valuable historical perspectives.
- Biographical works often include firsthand accounts or interviews with friends, family members, colleagues, or mentors.
To further illustrate the impact of biographies on our emotional connection with historical figures, consider this hypothetical scenario:
Imagine reading a compelling biography about Marie Curie—the first woman to win a Nobel Prize—in which her relentless pursuit of scientific knowledge despite societal barriers is vividly portrayed. The book not only highlights her remarkable discoveries but also explores the sacrifices she made for her research while juggling familial responsibilities. This narrative helps foster admiration for her tenacity and brilliance while evoking empathy for the challenges she faced.
Moreover, by utilizing bullet points as below:
- Emotional engagement: Readers develop a deep sense of empathy towards historical figures through intimate portrayals.
- Historical context: Biographies offer valuable insights into specific time periods and socio-cultural environments.
- Inspirational narratives: Key works inspire readers by showcasing human potential for resilience and accomplishment.
- Personal connection: Through biographies, readers can forge a personal bond with historical figures they admire.
In addition to bullet points, the following table further exemplifies the emotional impact of biographical works:
|Understanding Rosa Parks’ defiance during the civil rights movement.
|Celebrating Nelson Mandela’s fight against apartheid in South Africa.
|Learning about Malala Yousafzai’s advocacy for girls’ education.
|Connecting with Anne Frank’s diary and her experiences during World War II.
As we explore different lives through biographies, it becomes evident that these narratives have a lasting impact on our understanding of history and human experience. In the subsequent section, we will delve into how key works and publications shape collective memory and contribute to cultural heritage without explicitly stating “step.”
Having explored the numerous awards and honors received by notable individuals in our biographies collection, it is evident that their achievements have left a lasting impact on society. One such example is the renowned physicist, Marie Curie. Through her groundbreaking research on radioactivity, Curie not only became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize but also paved the way for future scientific advancements.
The profound influence of these remarkable individuals can be seen through several key aspects:
- Inspiration: Their extraordinary accomplishments serve as inspiration for aspiring individuals across various fields.
- Legacy: By leaving behind a rich legacy, they continue to shape the course of history even after their passing.
- Advancement: The contributions made by these exceptional figures have propelled progress and innovation in their respective domains.
- Social Change: Their work often addresses pressing societal issues and fosters positive change within communities.
To further illustrate this impact, consider the following table showcasing four influential personalities from different walks of life:
|Led South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement
|Wrote world’s first computer program
|Advocated for girls’ right to education
|Studied chimpanzees and advanced conservation
These exemplars demonstrate how biographical accounts capture not just individual stories but also chronicle significant moments in history. By delving into their lives through library resources, readers gain valuable insights into personal narratives that resonate emotionally with them.
In conclusion, exploring biographies provides an opportunity to understand the lasting impact of remarkable individuals who have influenced society through their achievements and actions. These stories inspire us while highlighting the potential for change and progress within our own lives and communities. | <urn:uuid:2e5752e3-2e2f-4a7e-9af8-a3b7a789d420> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://wintermannlibrary.org/biographies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475711.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301225031-20240302015031-00701.warc.gz | en | 0.918945 | 5,712 | 3.828125 | 4 | 251 |
Neuroscience Theme Day Talks and Photos
SIV vingill: Modelling α-synuclein Parkinson’s pathology in CRISPR-engineered human iPSC-derived dopamine neurons
At the start of the day, Professor Andrew King introduced the first speaker, Dr Siv Vingill, a Postdoctoral Research Scientist from the Wade-Martins Group. Her talk addressed α-synuclein, a presynaptic neuronal protein that is linked genetically and neuropathologically to Parkinson's. Siv's team is trying to establish a model where they can look at how α-synuclein is transmitted in human dopamine neurons and with the modifications that are present in human patients. Having created the model, "we've looked at how α-synuclein is transported and we're looking at the difference between different patient mutations and control cells." (Dr Vingill).
Anna hoerder-suabedissen: SNAP25 cKO impacts late steps in circuit formation but not early axon outgrowth and targeting
Next up was Dr Anna Hoerder-Suabedissen, a Postdoctoral Research Scientist working across the Szele and Molnar labs. Anna's team uses a particular model to observe the effects of knocking out the protein SNAP25 on the developing brain. Her talk delivered the key message that many of the processes understood to require cellular activity in the developing brain do not appear to require it to the extent as initially thought. She demonstrated that "SNAP25 was known to be very important in excitatory neurons for synaptic transmission, but there were lots of complications saying it's not involved at all in interneurons in any way shape or form, and our supplementary material showed that you can very much interfere with synaptic transmission in interneurons by knocking out SNAP25, which is a big conceptual shift in the field." (Dr Hoerder-Suabedissen).
Strikingly, the first two talks of the day were linked by alternative perspectives on the role of α-synuclein. In Parkinson's, α-synuclein aggregates are shown to damage the neurons, whereas Anna mentioned that some of the impairment caused by reduction in or misfolding of SNAP25 protein can be ameliorated by higher levels of α-synuclein (Ref: Sharma et al., 2012).
aaron allen: Inferring cellular identity and physiology by single-cell transcriptomic analysis of Drosophila male and female central nervous system
The third talk of the day was delivered by Dr Aaron Allen, a Postdoctoral Researcher from the Goodwin Group. His talk described how he is looking at how many different types of cells there are in the nervous system and whether we can see any differences between the male and female nervous system. "Hopefully, based on what that tells us, we can look and see how might that nervous system be differentially set up between males and females to lead to differences in behaviour". (Dr Allen).
jackson smith: Information limiting correlations in simultaneous V1 and V4 responses in binocular disparity stimuli
After a short break, the audience reconvened to hear Postdoctoral Research Scientist Dr Jackson Smith from the Parker Group. Jackson explored the basic question of how the brain passes information accurately from one area of the cerebral cortex to another. He studied how neurons in the macaque visual cortex support the perception of stereoscopic depth. He noted that if the brain contains noise it can't get rid of, then a person's ability to see depth may be diminished. "The results I presented suggest that the brain might have a mechanism for cleaning up noisy, correlated signals. Such a mechanism would mean that we see a much more accurate depiction of depth than might otherwise be the case. It appears that the brain may be able to overcome some of the limits that might be imposed by correlated noise." (Dr Smith).
samuel nayler: Dissecting and directing cerebellar ontogenesis—towards an organoid model for understanding disease of the cerebellum
The audience next heard from Oxford Nuffield Medical Fellow and Becker Group member, Samuel Nayler. Samuel's main goal is to make a cerebellum-like tissue from human induced pluripotent stem cells. His talk demonstrated that growing human stem cells together in the right conditions with the right growth factors allows them to self organise into an organ-like tissue known as an organoid. Having validated that there are human cerebellar neurons present in these organoids, he is using single-cell sequencing of the organoids to see which genes are expressed in each cell, enabling him to trace them back to learn the identity and maturity of each cell. Commenting on the talk, group leader Associate Professor Esther Becker said: "By doing that he has shown that you really get all major cell types of the cerebellum in these organoids that started out as stem cells. This is amazing as that's something that usually happens in utero in the developing foetus. It is a major achievement by Sam that we can start to recreate this process in the lab."
BRADLEY ROBERTS: Striatal GABA transporter activity governs dopamine release: implications for Parkinson’s disease
Next up was Bradley Roberts, a DPhil student working in the Cragg Group, who discussed his work looking into how dopamine release in the brain region called the striatum is controlled. In Parkinson’s dopamine release is reduced and causes debilitating motor symptoms. "Through my DPhil research we have found that extracellular ‘ambient’ GABA in the striatum can inhibit dopamine release and that the levels of this ambient GABA are controlled by astrocytes. Astrocytes are another cell type in the brain (they are not neurons) and surround themselves within dopamine release sites. Within this role they work to hoover up this extracellular 'ambient' GABA in striatum through GABA transporters which they express. Strikingly, we have found that in Parkinson’s disease models that these astrocytes are dysfunctional and lose their ability to hoover up this GABA, which results in maladaptive increased inhibition of dopamine release. We are excited by these findings as they could present a novel therapeutic avenue for up-regulating dopamine signalling in Parkinson’s disease." (Bradley Roberts).
francis szele: Adult Neurogenesis and Neuropsychiatric Disorders
After lunch, the audience heard from Prof Francis Szele, Associate Professor of Developmental Biology, who gave a talk discussing the brain changes involved in Schizophrenia and Autism disorders, and introduced new research from his group identifying the biggest neural change in these two diseases.
ANDREW SHELTON: Exploring the ‘hidden space’: structure and function of the mouse claustrum
Next, Graduate Student Andrew Shelton from the Butt and Packer groups presented his work looking at the Claustrum, which he explained is one of the most heavily interconnected structures in the brain and yet we still know relatively little about it. "My project overall is to address the connectivity and cell types in the claustrum to gain a better idea of how they might be contributing to cortical processing". (Andrew Shelton).
alex ivanov: Exploring the ‘hidden space’: structure and function of the mouse claustrum
The next speaker was the Walker and King groups' Alex Ivanov, a Graduate Student who, as part of the auditory neuroscience group, studies how we perceive sounds and how we adapt to sounds in health and disease. Alex's topic focuses on using computational and experimental approaches to try and understand how we adapt to environments which have different amounts of echo (reverberation). "We’ve done that by first building a model of the adaptation process, then testing our model using different experimental approaches in ferrets, and we are hoping to also carry out a human psychophysics task to validate our findings. In terms of the impact, I think it would be quite relevant for helping us to improve hearing aids and speech recognition algorithms, because they all suffer when the environment becomes more echoic." (Alex Ivanov)
johannes dahmen: Connectivity and function of cortico-recipient auditory midbrain neurons
Senior Postdoctoral Research Scientist Johannes Dahmen from the King Group followed with a presentation, during which he discussed data suggesting that there is a pathway in the auditory system that is specialised for the detection of novel sounds, and that is separate from the main auditory pathway. "This specialisation for the detection of novel sounds may be independent from the cerebral cortex and arise from subcortical structures in the midbrain or even brainstem." (Dr Dahmen).
Cristina Blanco Duque: Sleep spindle quality as a measure of stability and synchrony within cortical networks
The penultimate speaker was Wellcome Trust doctoral student Cristina Blanco Duque from the Vyazovskiy Group. She discussed her study of brain oscillations called sleep spindles, which are one of the most common forms of brain activity during sleep. "It is believed that these oscillations are important to protect sleep from external disruption and to consolidate memories during sleep. However, results regarding the functional role of spindles are not conclusive and are often inconsistent. One fundamental problem is that the traditional approaches to study sleep spindles use arbitrary parameters. I am exploring new ways of defining, detecting and manipulating sleep spindles, which take into account their complex dynamics, and can help us to better understand their biological function, both in health and disease." (Cristina Blanco Duque).
sarah de val: athena swan in dpag
Athena SWAN Academic Lead Associate Professor Sarah De Val was our last speaker of the day, reminding the Department's Researchers of the Athena SWAN initiatives in place and how these can help and support them. She also encouraged everyone to get involved with the newly established departmental working groups designed to enrich staff and student experiences at DPAG. | <urn:uuid:25c4c786-4a9a-4d70-98bc-a7492ae80728> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/news/postdoctoral-researchers-and-students-shine-at-neuroscience-theme-day/neuroscience-theme-day-talks-and-photos?b0ff607c-d93f-11ee-b3b2-061ab7f93640 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476211.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20240303075134-20240303105134-00701.warc.gz | en | 0.947568 | 2,069 | 2.609375 | 3 | 252 |
Summary: Long duration microgravity exposure caused expansions in the combined brain and cerebrospinal fluid volumes in astronauts.
Extended periods in space have long been known to cause vision problems in astronauts. Now a new study in the journal Radiology suggests that the impact of long-duration space travel is more far-reaching, potentially causing brain volume changes and pituitary gland deformation.
More than half of the crew members on the International Space Station (ISS) have reported changes to their vision following long-duration exposure to the microgravity of space. Postflight evaluation has revealed swelling of the optic nerve, retinal hemorrhage and other ocular structural changes.
Scientists have hypothesized that chronic exposure to elevated intracranial pressure, or pressure inside the head, during spaceflight is a contributing factor to these changes. On Earth, the gravitational field creates a hydrostatic gradient, a pressure of fluid that progressively increases from your head down to your feet while standing or sitting. This pressure gradient is not present in space.
“When you’re in microgravity, fluid such as your venous blood no longer pools toward your lower extremities but redistributes headward,” said study lead author Larry A. Kramer, M.D., from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Kramer further explained, “That movement of fluid toward your head may be one of the mechanisms causing changes we are observing in the eye and intracranial compartment.”
To find out more, Dr. Kramer and colleagues performed brain MRI on 11 astronauts, including 10 men and one woman, before they traveled to the ISS. The researchers followed up with MRI studies a day after the astronauts returned, and then at several intervals throughout the ensuing year.
MRI results showed that the long-duration microgravity exposure caused expansions in the astronauts’ combined brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volumes. CSF is the fluid that flows in and around the hollow spaces of the brain and spinal cord. The combined volumes remained elevated at one-year postflight, suggesting permanent alteration.
“What we identified that no one has really identified before is that there is a significant increase of volume in the brain’s white matter from preflight to postflight,” Dr. Kramer said. “White matter expansion in fact is responsible for the largest increase in combined brain and cerebrospinal fluid volumes postflight.”
MRI also showed alterations to the pituitary gland, a pea-sized structure at the base of the skull often referred to as the “master gland” because it governs the function of many other glands in the body. Most of the astronauts had MRI evidence of pituitary gland deformation suggesting elevated intracranial pressure during spaceflight.
“We found that the pituitary gland loses height and is smaller postflight than it was preflight,” Dr. Kramer said. “In addition, the dome of the pituitary gland is predominantly convex in astronauts without prior exposure to microgravity but showed evidence of flattening or concavity postflight. This type of deformation is consistent with exposure to elevated intracranial pressures.”
The researchers also observed a postflight increase in volume, on average, in the astronauts’ lateral ventricles, spaces in the brain that contain CSF. However, the overall resulting volume would not be considered outside the range of healthy adults. The changes were similar to those that occur in people who have spent long periods of bed rest with their heads tilted slightly downward in research studies simulating headward fluid shift in microgravity.
Additionally, there was increased velocity of CSF flow through the cerebral aqueduct, a narrow channel that connects the ventricles in the brain. A similar phenomenon has been seen in normal pressure hydrocephalus, a condition in which the ventricles in the brain are abnormally enlarged. Symptoms of this condition include difficulty walking, bladder control problems and dementia. To date, these symptoms have not been reported in astronauts after space travel.
The researchers are studying ways to counter the effects of microgravity. One option under consideration is the creation of artificial gravity using a large centrifuge that can spin people in either a sitting or prone position. Also under investigation is the use of negative pressure on the lower extremities as a way to counteract the headward fluid shift due to microgravity.
Dr. Kramer said the research could also have applications for non-astronauts.
“If we can better understand the mechanisms that cause ventricles to enlarge in astronauts and develop suitable countermeasures, then maybe some of these discoveries could benefit patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus and other related conditions,” he said.
About this neuroscience research article
Source: RSNA Media Contacts: Linda Brooks – RSNA Image Source: The image is credited to RSNA.
Intracranial Effects of Microgravity: A Prospective Longitudinal MRI Study Background Astronauts on long-duration spaceflight missions may develop changes in ocular structure and function, which can persist for years after the return to normal gravity. Chronic exposure to elevated intracranial pressure during spaceflight is hypothesized to be a contributing factor, however, the etiologic causes remain unknown.
Purpose To investigate the intracranial effects of microgravity by measuring combined changes in intracranial volumetric parameters, pituitary morphologic structure, and aqueductal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) hydrodynamics relative to spaceflight and to establish a comprehensive model of recovery after return to Earth.
Materials and Methods This prospective longitudinal MRI study enrolled astronauts with planned long-duration spaceflight. Measures were conducted before spaceflight followed by 1, 30, 90, 180, and 360 days after landing. Intracranial volumetry and aqueductal CSF hydrodynamics (CSF peak-to-peak velocity amplitude and aqueductal stroke volume) were quantified for each phase. Qualitative and quantitative changes in pre- to postflight (day 1) pituitary morphologic structure were determined. Statistical analysis included separate mixed-effects models per dependent variable with repeated observations over time.
Results Eleven astronauts (mean age, 45 years ± 5 [standard deviation]; 10 men) showed increased mean volumes in the brain (28 mL; P < .001), white matter (26 mL; P < .001), mean lateral ventricles (2.2 mL; P < .001), and mean summated brain and CSF (33 mL; P < .001) at postflight day 1 with corresponding increases in mean aqueductal stroke volume (14.6 μL; P = .045) and mean CSF peak-to-peak velocity magnitude (2.2 cm/sec; P = .01). Summated mean brain and CSF volumes remained increased at 360 days after spaceflight (28 mL; P < .001). Qualitatively, six of 11 (55%) astronauts developed or showed exacerbated pituitary dome depression compared with baseline. Average midline pituitary height decreased from 5.9 to 5.3 mm (P < .001).
Conclusion Long-duration spaceflight was associated with increased pituitary deformation, augmented aqueductal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) hydrodynamics, and expansion of summated brain and CSF volumes. Summated brain and CSF volumetric expansion persisted up to 1 year into recovery, suggesting permanent alteration. | <urn:uuid:22700e8f-6adc-4749-a1c5-5381fe3299cd> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://neurosciencenews.com/astronaut-brain-volume-16164/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474643.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225203035-20240225233035-00801.warc.gz | en | 0.920596 | 1,554 | 3.296875 | 3 | 253 |
Academic education is considered the foundation of a child’s overall development. But, does that really stand true? Nope. A kid must be exposed to different kinds of learning in order to become an independent and responsible citizen. Apart from submission of a quality institution form like the Singapore international school application, a parent must also ensure that the offspring uses other paths to grasp and reproduce the content.
Formal: As the word “formal” suggests, it is learning in an institute under the guidance of qualified educators on the premises of a school. It is the initial knowledge grasping phase through formal methods. Academics from elementary to college come under this category.
Teachers with the art of instructions are hired by the management to transfer information to the kids. Institute certification, classroom learning, and planned education with a preset syllabus are examples of formal education tasks.
The school system has a structure to deliver planned subjected oriented information to the student for a fee.
Informal: This is a kind of training given by the parent beyond academics, which includes the preparation of meals and other basic survival activities. The tutor can also be a book or an educational website. This is usually not planned in advance like in the school system. Regular practice and observations are the stepping stones to this sort of knowledge acquisition. Training to perform extracurricular activities, speaking mother tongue language, and consuming important personality traits are a few examples.
In this type of education, there is no defined syllabus and timetable, the facts gained are through practice and this form can be lifelong learning for the young minds. It does not involve a fee structure.
Non-formal: Skill development and basic adult education come under this basket. The kid has the option to learn to improve a skill through different methods. It covers a range of activities like community-related adult courses, fitness programs, and free courses.
In short, this category of education enables flexibility without an age limit along with the inclusion or exclusion of fees & certificates.
Every kind of education is necessary for the complete growth of an aspiring role model. Be concerned about the quality of communication and submit Singapore international school application for the same. But, have the same level of interest in an individual’s personality improvement through informal and non-formal systems too. | <urn:uuid:82273fda-e505-4d42-8efd-5acfb3872afd> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://ribordycontemporary.com/tag/school-application/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474671.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227053544-20240227083544-00801.warc.gz | en | 0.938431 | 470 | 3.15625 | 3 | 254 |
From the bestselling polymath, a gripping history of science, life on earth and the human mind - and what we might know in the future.
In very recent times humanity has learned a vast amount about the universe, the past, and itself. But through our remarkable successes in acquiring knowledge we have learned how much we have yet to learn: the science we have, for example, addresses just 5% of the universe; pre-history is still being revealed, with thousands of historical sites yet to be explored; and the new neurosciences of mind and brain are just beginning.
What do we know, and how do we know it? What do we now know that we don't know? And what have we learned about the obstacles to knowing more? In a time of deepening battles over what knowledge and truth mean, these questions matter more than ever. Bestselling polymath and philosopher A. C. Grayling seeks to answer them in three crucial areas at the frontiers of knowledge: science, history, and psychology.
A remarkable history of science, life on earth, and the human mind itself, this is a compelling and fascinating tour de force, written with verve, clarity and remarkable breadth of knowledge.
About the Author
Professor A C Grayling is Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy and other subjects, and has written on non-Western philosophy. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.
"Remarkable, readable and authoritative. How he has mastered so much, so thoroughly, is nothing short of amazing" —Lawrence M. Krauss, author of A Universe from Nothing
"Once again, A. C. Grayling brings satisfying order to daunting subjects. To understand the world, we must appreciate both what is known and what remains to be known, and no one can instill that understanding more effectively than Grayling." —Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now
“A witty, learned, authoritative survey of philosophical thought.” —New York Times Book Review on The History of Philosophy
“The History of Philosophy isn’t just worth buying; it’s worth scribbling in and dog-earing. For a work of scholarship, there can be no higher praise.” —Washington Post on The History of Philosophy
"Perhaps Grayling’s greatest strength lies in his ability to categorize, contrast, and clarify complex ideas.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review of The History of Philosophy | <urn:uuid:3e657cf8-2f48-4f44-b863-6f037db150ab> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.regulatorbookshop.com/book/9780241304570 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474737.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228143955-20240228173955-00801.warc.gz | en | 0.937644 | 545 | 2.5625 | 3 | 255 |
Access to fresh water is one of the most important global challenges today, primarily due to the continuous growth of consumption, low level of replenishment of water resources, as well as external factors, such as climate change, leading to a permanent reduction in the volume of water resources and availability. According to experts, one of the topics to be raised at a BRICS conference on judicious usage of water resources due in Moscow on October 13-14, 2016, could be monitoring the efficiency of water usage.
Water resources are necessary to maintain human life and other living organisms, and for the production processes in most sectors of the economy. Solving issues related to water resources requires an integrated approach to exploitation of those resources, as well as to development of water management infrastructure and water re-use technologies. Many issues about exploitation and protection of water resources have an international character, and are relevant not only for Russia, but also for its partner countries in BRICS – Brazil, India, China and South Africa – noted the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, which will be one of the moderators of this conference.
Alexander Tkachev, Russian Minister of Agriculture and Chinese Agriculture Minister Han Changfu spoke about the interest of BRICS countries in this conference in Moscow at a meeting they held recently. During their meeting, they discussed the possibilities of supplying Russian fresh water to arid regions of China. Water, as much as a volume of 70 million cubic metres, could be carried from Russia through Kazakhstan to China.
“We are ready to propose developing a project for the transfer of fresh water from the Altai Krai, through Kazakhstan, to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. In the near future, we will be holding consultation meetings with colleagues from Kazakhstan on this issue,” Tkachev said after the meeting.
President Vladimir Putin chaired the meeting of BRICS leaders at Ufa last July, where the summiteers signed the Ufa Declaration. This includes their approach on issues of multilateral cooperation in the field of politics and economy. An Economic Partnership Strategy for BRICS Countries till 2020 was also adopted, aimed at expanding multilateral business cooperation, and increasing the competitiveness of BRICS countries in the global economy.
Last October, Moscow hosted a BRICS ministerial meeting on science, technology and innovation, where ministers signed the Moscow Declaration, reflecting the main directions of cooperation for BRICS in the medium term.
A special place in this declaration was given to establishment of a joint research and innovation platform, to ensure a thorough and coordinated approach, among research communities of BRICS countries, in five approved thematic areas of scientific and technological cooperation. Russia – water resources and control over water pollution; Brazil – prevention and mitigation of adverse effects of natural disasters; India – geospatial technologies and their application; China – new and renewable sources of energy, and efficiency; South Africa – astronomy. They also decided to establish networking cooperation in the following areas: biomedicine, health and neuroscience; information technology software for high performance computers; study of the oceans and polar research; coordination of materials on nanotechnology and photonics.
“Discussion of the water crisis in the world is long overdue. It seems that the planet has great water resources, but these are rather unevenly distributed. Nature has its own laws that we do not fully understand. We cannot reliably predict on how much water there will be in certain places in the coming year,” said Vladimir Kirillov, head of the Aquatic Ecology Laboratory of the Institute of Water and Ecological Problems at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“There are problems not only related to the quantity of water, but also to its quality. Here everything depends on humans. These two items require very careful monitoring. The existing monitoring system does not meet modern needs. I believe that this will become one of the issues that will be discussed by the BRICS countries. This will be an exchange of experience in water management practices worldwide.” | <urn:uuid:f2af9f7e-a3ce-4b1c-9f14-97142387e616> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | http://www.brics-info.org/brics-to-focus-on-global-water-usage-at-moscow-meet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474893.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229234355-20240301024355-00801.warc.gz | en | 0.950301 | 811 | 2.625 | 3 | 256 |
Last month, drug company Genentech reported on the first clinical trials of the drug crenezumab, a drug targeting amyloid proteins that form sticky plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients. The drug had been particularly effective in animal models, and the trial results were eagerly awaited as one of the most promising treatments in years. It did not work. “Crenezumab did not slow or prevent cognitive decline” in people with a predisposition toward Alzheimer’s.
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) narrowly approved the use of Aduhelm, a new drug from Biogen that the company has priced so highly that it’s expected to drive up the price of Medicare for everyone in America, even those who never need this drug. Aduhelm was the first drug to be approved that fights the accumulation of those "amyloid plaques" in the brain. What makes the approval of the $56,000-a-dose drug so controversial is that while it does decrease plaques, it doesn’t actually slow Alzheimer’s. In fact, clinical trials were suspended in 2019 after the treatment showed “no clinical benefits.” (Which did not keep Biogen from seeking the drug’s approval or pricing it astronomically.)
Over the last two decades, Alzheimer’s drugs have been notable mostly for having a 99% failure rate in human trials. It’s not unusual for drugs that are effective in vitro and in animal models to turn out to be less than successful when used in humans, but Alzheimer’s has a record that makes the batting average in other areas look like Hall of Fame material.
And now we have a good idea of why. Because it looks like the original paper that established the amyloid plaque model as the foundation of Alzheimer’s research over the last 16 years might not just be wrong, but a deliberate fraud.
The suspicion that something was more than a little wrong with the model that is getting almost all Alzheimer’s research funding ($1.6 billion in the last year alone) began with a fight over the drug Simufilam. The drug was being pushed into trials by its manufacturer, Cassava Sciences, but a group of scientists who reviewed the drug maker’s claims about Simufilam believed that it was exaggerating the potential. So they did what any reasonable person would do: They purchased short sell positions in Cassava Sciences stock, filed a letter with the FDA calling for a review before allowing the drug to go to trial, and hired an investigator to provide some support for this position.
As Science reports, it was that investigator, Vanderbilt University neuroscientist and junior professor Matthew Schrag, who tipped over the whole applecart to discover that it wasn’t just that Cassava’s drug was ineffective. There’s good evidence that for the last 16 years, almost everyone has had the wrong idea about the cause of Alzheimer’s. Because of a fraud.
In 2006, Nature published a paper titled “A specific amyloid-β protein assembly in the brain impairs memory.” Using a series of studies in mice, the paper concluded that “memory deficits in middle-aged mice” were directed caused by accumulations of a soluble substance called “Aβ*56.” This was a specific form of a group known as “toxic oligomers” that had long been suspected as the possible precursors of amyloid plaques. The paper then went on to directly connect that condition to “cognitive deficits associated with Alzheimer's disease” independently of other conditions affecting the aging brain.
The study didn’t come out of nowhere; it only seemed to confirm one of several hypothesis about Alzheimer’s that had been circulating for many years by that point. After all, the brains of Alzheimer’s patients do contain plaques that can sometimes seriously alter the structure of the brain. Those plaques do contain amyloids. It’s not much of a stretch to suggest those amyloids are a primary cause of the associated memory loss and dementia. Amyloids cause plaques, plaques cause damage, the damage causes Alzheimer's. QED.
That 2006 paper was primarily authored by neuroscience professor Sylvain Lesné and given more weight by the name of well-respected neuroscientist Karen Ashe, both from the robust neuroscience research team at the University of Minnesota. It was Ashe who produced the transgenic mice used in the study, which genuinely do appear to have Alzheimer’s-like symptoms and that have since been used as the favored animal models for a generation of treatments. On her website, Ashe called Aβ*56 “the first substance ever identified in brain tissue in Alzheimer’s research that has been shown to cause memory impairment.”
The results of the study seemed to demonstrate the amyloids-to-Alzheimer’s pipeline with a clarity that even the most casual reader could understand, and it became one of—if not the most—influential papers in all of Alzheimer’s research. Not only has it been cited hundreds of times in other work, roughly 100 out of the 130 Alzheimer’s drugs now working their way through trials are directly designed to attack the kind of amyloids featured in this paper. Both Ashe and Lesné became neuroscience rock stars, the leaders of a wave based on their 2006 paper.
What intrigued Schrag when he came back to this seminal work were the images. Images in the paper that were supposed to show the relationship between memory issues and the presence of Aβ*56 appeared to have been altered. Some of them appeared to have been pieced together from multiple images. Schrag shied away from actually accusing this foundational paper of being a “fraud,” but he definitely raised “red flags.” He raised those concerns, discreetly at first, in a letter sent directly to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Only when that letter failed to generate a response did Schrag bring his suspicions to others.
Now Science has concluded its own six-month review, during which it consulted with image experts. What they found seems to confirm Schrag’s suspicions.
They concurred with his overall conclusions, which cast doubt on hundreds of images, including more than 70 in Lesné’s papers. Some look like “shockingly blatant” examples of image tampering, says Donna Wilcock, an Alzheimer’s expert at the University of Kentucky.
After reviewing the images, molecular biologist Elisabeth Bik said of the paper, “The obtained experimental results might not have been the desired results, and that data might have been changed to … better fit a hypothesis.”
Should this fraud turn out to be as extensive as it appears at first glance, the implications go well beyond just misdirecting tens of billions in funding and millions of hours of research over the last two decades. Since that 2006 publication, the presence or absence of this specific amyloid has often been treated as diagnostic of Alzheimer’s. Meaning that patients who did die from Alzheimer's may have been misdiagnosed as having something else. Those whose dementia came from other causes may have falsely been dragged under the Alzheimer’s umbrella. And every possible kind of study, whether it's as exotic as light therapy or long-running as nuns doing crossword puzzles, may have ultimately had results that were measured against a false yardstick.
In the face of the potential fraud unearthed by Schrag, it’s not as if the world has changed overnight.
Four months after Schrag submitted his concerns to the NIH, the NIH turned around and awarded Lesné a five-year grant to study … Alzheimer’s. That grant was awarded by Austin Yang, program director at the NIH’s National Institute on Aging. Yang also happens to be another of the co-authors on the 2006 paper.
Science has carefully detailed the work done in the analysis of the images. Other researchers, including a 2008 paper from Harvard, have noted that Aβ*56 is unstable and there seems to be no sign of this substance in human tissues, making its targeting literally worse than useless. However, Lesné claims to have a method for measuring Aβ*56 and other oligomers in brain cells that has served as the basis of a series of additional papers, all of which are now in doubt.
There seems to be no doubt that oligomers may play a role in cognitive impairment. However, that role may not be nearly as direct, or as significant, as the 2006 paper and subsequent papers by Lesné have suggested. It’s quite possible that the specific oligomer Aβ*56 may not even exist outside of Ashe’s transgenic mice.
And it seems highly likely that for the last 16 years, most research on Alzheimer’s and most new drugs entering trials have been based on a paper that, at best, modified the results of its findings to make them appear more conclusive, and at worst is an outright fraud. | <urn:uuid:7e125142-bd9b-4ae6-8afb-880241cbc076> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/22/2111914/%7B%7BcommentPath%20id%7D%7D | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475806.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20240302084508-20240302114508-00801.warc.gz | en | 0.970697 | 1,903 | 2.578125 | 3 | 257 |
Summary: Researchers have completed the 3D mapping of the mouse cortex.
Source: Allen Institute for Brain Science.
Data release also includes updates to several other Allen Brain Atlas resources.
The Allen Institute for Brain Science has completed the three-dimensional mapping of the mouse cortex as part of the Allen Mouse Common Coordinate Framework (CCF): a standardized spatial coordinate system for comparing many types of data on the brain from the suite of Allen Brain Atlas resources.
“Maps of the brain have always been created in two dimensions, but even a stack of flat maps sitting on top of each other does not necessarily align with the complex three-dimensional nature of the brain,” says Christof Koch, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. “The Common Coordinate Framework is a remarkable effort to capture a typical mouse brain in its true three dimensions, and serves as a valuable platform on which to present many of our other data resources.”
“Annotating the cortex in three dimensions was no small task,” says Lydia Ng, Ph.D., Senior Director of Technology at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. “It required the expertise of both technologists and anatomists working closely and for many long hours to generate the data. The CCF enables quantification and comparison of many types of data, including gene expression, connectivity, single cell characterization and functional imaging. This is a truly unique resource for the neuroscience community to understand the structure and function of the mouse brain.”
The Common Coordinate Framework was built by carefully averaging the anatomy of 1,675 specimens from the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas. Researchers used transgenic mouse lines and data from viral tracers to draw boundaries between 43 regions of the cortex.
The end result is a template brain rendered faithfully in three dimensions, which serves as a useful guide to mouse brain anatomy as well as a platform for comparing data across many Allen Brain Atlas resources.
The October data release also includes updates to several other resources. The Allen Brain Observatory, launched in May, received a back-end overhaul that enables robust search and the addition of more than 30 new datasets and additional engineered mouse lines. The Allen Cell Types Database and the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas are also updated with new data.
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Allen Institute for Brain Science. “Allen Institute for Brain Science Announces Mapping of the Mouse Cortex in 3D.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 27 October 2016. <https://neurosciencenews.com/3d-mouse-cortex-mapping-5367/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Allen Institute for Brain Science. (2016, October 27). Allen Institute for Brain Science Announces Mapping of the Mouse Cortex in 3D. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved October 27, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/3d-mouse-cortex-mapping-5367/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Allen Institute for Brain Science. “Allen Institute for Brain Science Announces Mapping of the Mouse Cortex in 3D.” https://neurosciencenews.com/3d-mouse-cortex-mapping-5367/ (accessed October 27, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs] | <urn:uuid:78a8a12e-dd3d-4a89-b9d6-35e2bfcac5ac> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://neurosciencenews.com/3d-mouse-cortex-mapping-5367/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707948217723.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20240305024700-20240305054700-00801.warc.gz | en | 0.911388 | 711 | 2.796875 | 3 | 258 |
Confidence and self esteem are the "hidden keys" because there isn't just ONE person inside you...there are two: a confident person and a self-doubting person.
And as every high achiever knows, when it comes to attaining success, confidence is everything.
Imagine you take two salespeople of similar talent, skills, and experience.
You teach them to master the exact same skills. You give them the same product, the same sales script, and the same prospects. You even give them the exact same "dress for success" wardrobe.
Both people use the same questions and give the same presentation, and respond to objections with the exact same answers.
Yet their results will not be the same. One of them will walk away with the sales, while the other will be shown the door.
The confident person will win; the person who lacks confidence will not.
And now, with recent breakthroughs in neuroscience, we even know WHY.
According to neuroscientist Dr. Evian Gordon, who created the largest integrated database on the human brain in the world, every person you speak to is "wired" to know whether you are confident.
Every person has ten billion neurons which tell him whether you are an authentic, confident person - or not.
In other words, when you are dealing with another person, he KNOWS whether you are confident. His brain knows. And if you are, he will trust you and give you opportunities. And if you are not confident, he will deny you opportunities, without quite being able to say why.
Imagine what kind of person you would be if you conducted yourself with utter confidence and mental toughness all the time.
What kind of energy and motivation would you have?
What (calculated) risks would you take?
How consistent would you be in your productivity and performance? How focused?
How would your confidence affect your ability to reach your goals?
Putting your confident self in charge every day is entirely possible…
But it takes more than old fashioned positive thinking or traditional self-help…
It takes the kind of persistence, mental toughness, and inner strength you get from having unshakable confidence. | <urn:uuid:d62ee02b-9b4f-4a0f-8268-91951866a37a> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.thecouragetowin.com/unshakable-confidence-and-success/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707948217723.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20240305024700-20240305054700-00801.warc.gz | en | 0.942932 | 448 | 2.65625 | 3 | 259 |
The course aims to give an introduction to the fundamentals of cognitive science. Students will gain an understanding of basic research topics, including but not limited to perception, attention, memory, learning, language acquisition, theory of mind, and decision-making. Special focus will be put on universal aspects of the human mind, but the course will also touch on individual cognitive differences. In addition to theoretical discussions, the students will also be introduced to different research methods used in the field, such as psychophysical experimentation, computational modeling, and brain imaging. The module also intends to instill an appreciation of the major unifying concepts and frameworks in the field, like Marr’s different levels of explanations, the computational theory of mind, while also highlighting novel conceptual challenges, such as the embodied cognition movement. This module is open to all students who are curious about the study of human cognition and is particularly suitable for students who are interested in pursuing further education in related fields such as psychology, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence research, and philosophy.
Module Leader:Almos Molnár | <urn:uuid:9cb24c61-7fa1-49c0-b9fe-de8bebe146f2> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://archive.milestone-institute.org/module/2021-2022/21-1-cognitive-science/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473598.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221234056-20240222024056-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.910823 | 219 | 3.265625 | 3 | 260 |
In the United States, around 40 million people have substance problems—more individuals than have cancer, diabetes or heart problems. Although substance use disorders are treatable, many people don’t receive the help they need. Stigma, a lack of drug development progress and insufficiently trained medical professionals all hinder individuals with addiction from getting proper treatment.
What is the neuroscience of addiction, and what is its impact on individuals, families and communities? What is the current state of therapeutics for substance use disorders?
Join Kristine Yoon, a pharmacology graduate student, and an expert panel to explore these questions and more during the next Lab-to-Table Conversation from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences. The virtual event will be on Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 11:30 a.m. CT and will feature the following panelists:
- Erin Calipari, associate professor of pharmacology and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research
- Craig Lindsley, executive director of the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery and University Professor of Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Chemistry, who holds the William K. Warren, Jr. Chair in Medicine
- William (Bill) Stoops, University of Kentucky associate director for clinical research, substance use priority research area, and faculty affiliate of Center on Drug and Alcohol Research
- Jan Hoffman, behavioral health and health law reporter for The New York Times | <urn:uuid:16f58019-550e-4032-89a5-0eb61c616f24> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2024/01/11/lab-to-table-conversation-beyond-addiction-therapeutic-developments-and-societal-impact-on-jan-24/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473598.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221234056-20240222024056-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.911327 | 286 | 2.640625 | 3 | 261 |
Developing Farmers' Digital Skills
Start: 01-11-2018 - End: 31-10-2020 Project Reference: 2018-1-TR01-KA204-059557 EU Grant: 250265 EUR Programme: Erasmus+ Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices Action Type: Strategic Partnerships for adult education
The advances in information and communication technologies (ICT), which have become increasingly important, have contributed to the increase of the economic growth of the countries and the improvement of the living standards of the individuals.According to this many countries have recognized the imperative of digital technologies, acknowledging the necessity to educate their citizens.
The improvement of digital infrastructures and mobile technologies creates new opportunities for increased citizen digital participation; however, digital participation faces numerous challenges.
The role and significance of ICT and information literacy within agricultural activities present through a review of European development initiatives and theoretical insights regarding this topic. It will reveal obstacles on the current level of skills and promote the readiness to adopt new knowledge and technologies.
Proficiency in basic computer skills and information literacy will contribute to empowerment and emancipation of farmers who can become active participants in further agriculture development stages within the chain of decision-making. As an important social group, farmers should be empowered through training programmes within the education system and through other initiatives aimed at upgrading the existing body of knowledge
After we defined the problems and the needs, we have designed the "Developing Farmers' Digital Skills (DIGIFARMER)" project.Our partnership composed of agricultural local authorities,NGOs,vet insitutions and digital companies from Turkey,Chezc Republic,Spain and Italy.
Our project aims to contribute to the active involvement of rural farmers/producers in social & business life and to ensure that farmers are more active by increasing digital transversal skills; thus to increase their efficiency and productivity in their life.
And our project will provide training on developing digital skills ensuring that therural population is able to take advantage of new technologies and tools.
The objectives of our project are;
- Increase the digital skills of farmers who live in rural areas
- Develop trainers' cross-skills and competencies
- Develop an innovative educational methodology in the digital field
- Increase productivity & efficiency through increasing farmers’ transversal skills
- Develop digital citizenship skills of rural farmers
- Ensure farmers to use internet tools & smartphone applications in social and business life effectively.
In our project;We will produce Digital skills taining course-module,learning/Training Materials (printed and digital),training tools and OER,digifarmer Website,digifarmer application (smartphone app) and Digifarmer E-Platform as intellectual outputs.
We will identify key drivers for digital citizen participation and compares the results in the context of rural and urban settings. The descriptive analyses provide insights on digital competence differences in the rural versus urban areas and their current usages of online public services.
22 Trainers will be trained to improve their digital skills and competences.
By implementing and on its completion of the project main expected results and outcomes are;
- Digital skills of rural farmers/producers who live in rural areas will be increased providing to rural farmers different problem solving ways.
- Farmers who live in rural areas will become more active in their social life and in their works.
- Trainers' cross-skills and competencies will have been developed.
- An innovative educational methodology in the digital field for rural farmers will be developed.
- AYDIN IL TARIM VE ORMAN MUDURLUGU - TURKEY
- ANAPTIXIAKO KENTRO THESSALIAS - GREECE
- Euroform RFS - ITALY
- AYDIN ADNAN MENDERES UNIVERSITESI - TURKEY
- Soke Zirai Uretim Isletmesi Tarimsal Yayim ve Hizmetici Egitim Merkezi Mudurlugu - TURKEY
- KARPUZLU ZIRAAT ODASI - TURKEY
- Institut pro trénink pohostinnosti - CZECHIA
- Aydin Valiligi - TURKEY
- INERCIA DIGITAL SL - SPAIN | <urn:uuid:85a5edf4-9a84-416f-a4db-efa756c1a65c> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://aketh.eu/index.php/en/developing-farmers-digital-skills | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474377.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223085439-20240223115439-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.866549 | 888 | 2.671875 | 3 | 262 |
A gene associated with dyslexia, a learning disorder, may make some athletes less susceptible to concussions, according to a new study by Northwestern Medicine and Penn State University.
“This finding raises the question: Are there particular factors we can determine that put players at higher risk, and should those players be placed in sports that don’t have the potential for head trauma?” said co-first author Amy Herrold, a research assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in a statement.
With the help of team physicians, researchers studied the concussion histories of 87 Penn State football players who were active between 2015 and 2017. They also swabbed each player’s cheek in order to analyze a number of genes – among them, a gene called KIAA0319.
Scientists chose to study that gene because of its role in cell adhesion and migration, according to Alexa Walter, co-first author of the paper and a graduate student in kinesiology at Penn State. KIAA0319 could have an effect on how neurons respond to head impacts or are repaired after an injury.
There are three variants of every gene. Researchers found athletes with one variant of the gene that did not cause dyslexia were more likely to have a history of concussion injuries. Athletes with the version of the gene that causes dyslexia were less likely to have concussion injuries.
“This suggests that genotype may play a role in your susceptibility for getting a concussion,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Hans Breiter, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in a statement. “If replicated, this information may be important to parents.”
Researchers believe the protection afforded by the gene associated with dyslexia may relate to the way the dyslexic brain is wired.
“In dyslexia, you tend to have less defined wiring for processing spoken and written language,” Breiter said in a statement. “Dyslexics have a problem with that. Their wiring is more diffuse in this system. Future studies could directly test if diffuse wiring is better able to absorb a shock wave than clearly defined wiring.”
“Dyslexia may be neuroprotective, a hypothesis that could be tested,” said co-corresponding author Sam Semyon Slobounov, professor of kinesiology and of neurosurgery at Hershey Medical School of Penn State University, in a statement.
The study, which was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, is part of a larger project that studies the neuroscience of head impacts in athletes called the Concussion Neuroimaging Consortium.
Other authors on the paper are Virginia T. Gallagher, Rosa Lee, Madeleine Scaramuzzo, Tim Bream, Peter H. Seidenberg, David Vandenbergh, Kailyn O’Connor, Thomas M. Talavage and Eric A. Nauma.
The research was funded by the labs of Semyon Slobounov and Breiter. | <urn:uuid:3c6c6744-0cfb-42ae-8d11-78031438fec3> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://news.wttw.com/2018/10/23/study-gene-linked-dyslexia-may-shield-athletes-concussions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474377.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223085439-20240223115439-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.951314 | 646 | 3.234375 | 3 | 263 |
"We've all experienced or heard of surprising events and unexplainable coincidences—money that seems to come from nowhere, a spontaneous idea that turns into a life-changing solution, meeting our soulmate on a flight we weren't supposed to take, or families being reunited by "accident" after years of separation.
Often these coincidences are explained as being controlled by a higher power or pure chance. But for the first time since Carl Jung's work, comes bold new research that explains scientifically how we can identify, understand, and perhaps even control the frequency of coincidences in our everyday lives.
Bernard Beitman, a leading expert on Coincidence Studies, proposes a greater personal responsibility which depends partly upon newly discovered "grid cells" located in the brain, near the hippocampus. But neuroscience cannot complete the entire puzzle, and in this fascinating guide, Beitman provides the missing piece. From analyzing true stories of synchronicity from around the globe and throughout history, he shares key personality characteristics and situational factors that contribute to the occurrence of meaningful coincidences in our lives. Where other books on coincidences tend to be theoretical, inspirational, or story collections only, Beitman's book is the first to provide a scientific understanding and practical ways in which readers can use them in their own lives. He reveals:
How to activate your observing self so you don't miss synchronistic moments
How serendipity can offer insights into solving problems or making difficult decisions
Why stress activates meaningful coincidences
Which states of mind impede our ability to experience synchronicity
How to interpret the meaning of a coincidence
Why being attuned to coincidences is a learned skill—and how to hone your sensitivity." | <urn:uuid:c8c66ff4-f02c-4d7e-96f7-d8a011bca723> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://magickmatters.xyz/magickmatters/15026-connecting-with-coincidence-the-new-science-for-using-synchronicity-and-serendipity-in-your-life-by-bernard-beitman/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474676.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227121318-20240227151318-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.94283 | 351 | 2.53125 | 3 | 264 |
“We don’t always say what we mean and we don’t always do what we say”
Good leaders know that influential communication is very complex although we all think it’s pretty simple. They know the meaning of a message is not necessarily the message itself.
They know that we have memes and emojis to help add context and increase the depth of meaning to our written messages.
They also know and genuinely believe what the hard science tell us which is even in hard science, reality is questionable. (In Quantum physics, something can be once a particle and a wave). In human communication something that is clear to me may mean something else entirely to you.
For you folk like me, here’s what the definitions tell us.
In linguistics, this is information or concepts that a sender intends to convey, in communication with a receiver. Influential communication also requires reducing ambiguity and ensuring clarity of what is meant by what is said. Ambiguity is confusion about what is conveyed, since the current context may lead to different interpretations of meaning. Pragmatics is the study of how context affects meaning, which depends upon linguistic context and situation context.
Linguistic context is how meaning is understood without relying on intent and assumptions.
Situation context refers to every non-linguistic factor that affects the meaning of a phrase. An example of situation context can be seen in the phrase “it’s cold in here”, which can either be a simple statement of fact or a request to turn up the heat,
A person’s intentions affect what is meant. Meaning as intent harkens back to the Anglo-Saxons and is associated today still, with the German verb meinen as to think or intend.
Ie. What we intend often doesn’t shape our words.
Meaning is conveyed in our whole aspect. Words evolved from gestures and noises and are literally embodied. Now, still after 1000’s of years of speech development, we still speak with our bodies. Our bodies reveal the meaning, even if our words try to cover up.
Meme is an abbreviated form of the Greek word “mimeme,” which means “something imitated.”
A meme is a means for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena.
Emojis are small icons and images used in text messages, on websites, and as part of other digital communication. The word “emoji” comes from the Japanese e (?, “picture”) and moji (??, “character”).
Here’s why you should use emojis in writing and as verbal speech images.
Emojis Boost Engagement
Repeat after me: Emojis = Engagement.
It might be a new mantra for you, but it’s true nonetheless. Emojis have been proven to boost engagement levels, click-through rates, and open rates.
Emojis help drive engagement on all variety of digital media: email, mobile, and social media.
Emojis Convey What Words Can’t
“I can’t wait.” vs “I can’t wait!” vs “I can’t wait ?”
They enforce the meaning of your message. They’re the ? on top.
Nobel physicist Wolfgang Pauli, said “If these (material) phenomena are dependent on how they are observed, then they also depend on who observes them (i.e., on the nature of the psyche of the observer). Even physical reality is influenced by who and how they it is observed.
Mirror neurons are one of the most big deal discoveries in the last decade of neuroscience. These neurons respond to actions that we observe in others. In terms of influence our mirror neurons fire in the same way when we actually recreate that action ourselves. Imitation then, connects and influences others. It helps connect with the other person’s state of mind and reinforces recognition and understanding.
Just smiling changes your mood and others’ mood. Place a pen between your teeth, you imitate a smile and actually change your mood.
Our Brain Links Gestures, Perception, and Meaning
Gestures don’t function in isolation. Research shows that gesture not only augments language, but also aids in its acquisition. The two may share some of the same neural systems. Acquiring gesture experience over the course of a lifetime may also help us intuit meaning from others’ motions.
To some extent, cognition is also “embodied.” The brain’s activity can be modified by the body’s actions and experiences, and vice versa.
Uh huh. So we have studied and know all this stuff about meaning and perception and influence.
We have a greater appreciation about the imprecision of reality and the presumed definitiveness of our own perception and beliefs. We are sceptical, but have read the research on gestures and speech, mind and brain and how they inform each other. More challengingly they influence others if we mirror their non verbal expressions.
What does this have to do with good leadership?
With this data in our heads we do 5 things differently:
- We don’t assume we know things. We have a viewpoint. Not necessarily the correct point.
- We undertake every important conversation with curiosity to enable some learning; theirs or ours, or both.
- We respectfully match our counterpart. We mirror words, understandings, nonverbal displays and much more. We know this stimulates the mirror neurons in us both which results in more safety and trust.
- We don’t take ourselves too seriously.
- We observe, listen and speak in a ratio of 50:30:20.
In this way we are good leaders. | <urn:uuid:267f006a-0b12-4112-afd7-a291fb0f54de> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://mca-group.com.au/uncategorised/good-leaders-understand-meaning-and-memes-and-emojis-and-of-course-quantum-physics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474676.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227121318-20240227151318-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.927401 | 1,246 | 2.796875 | 3 | 265 |
Summary: Finding could explain the human sex ration that slightly favors males over females.
Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine.
After nearly 40 years of searching, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have identified a part of the human genome that appears to block an RNA responsible for keeping only a single X chromosome active when new female embryos are formed, effectively allowing for the generally lethal activation of more than one X chromosome during development. Because so-called X-inactivation is essential for normal female embryo development in humans and other mammals, and two activated X chromosomes create an inherently fatal condition, the research may help explain the worldwide human sex ratio that has slightly favored males over females for as long as science has been able to measure it. The results appear online in the April 12 issue of the journal PLOS ONE.
In each cell, most humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46. Twenty-two are so-called autosomes and are the same in both males and females. The 23rd pair is composed of the sex chromosomes, either two X’s, in the cases of females, or an X and a Y, in the case of males. Sex chromosome researchers have long known that the vast majority of human and other mammalian females have two X chromosomes, while the vast majority of males have a single X and a Y, and only one X chromosome is active in females.
Studies done elsewhere identified the mechanism behind the silencing of X chromosomes: a gene called Xist, short for X-inactive specific transcript. Located on the X chromosome itself, Xist produces a protein that spreads up and down the chromosome during female embryonic development, turning off its genes.
However, says Barbara R. Migeon, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a pioneer in X-inactivation research, she and her colleagues reported nearly four decades ago that in some human embryos with triploidy — a condition in which there are three sets of chromosomes instead of the usual two — two copies of the X chromosome remained active.
The most likely explanation for this phenomenon, Migeon reasons, was that a protein that represses the X chromosome silencing activity of Xist was working overtime, allowing more than one X chromosome to remain activated. However, she says, the gene responsible for this repressor, or even its approximate location in the human genome, has been unclear.
To identify the likely location of the repressor protein and the gene that codes for it, the researchers started by looking at cells from human embryos with different forms of chromosomal trisomy, a condition in which cells carry three copies of a particular chromosome instead of two. For example, Down syndrome in humans is marked by a trisomy of chromosome 21.
Because having two active X chromosomes is lethal very early in development — before a new embryo even implants into the uterine wall — Migeon and her colleagues focused on autosomal trisomies.
The research team reported finding examples of trisomies in every chromosome in embryos that survived at least until later stages, except chromosomes 1 or 19. “Trisomies of these chromosomes were missing, suggesting that the repressor might be located on one of them,” says Migeon.
Delving deeper, the researchers turned to two different genetic databases: the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man, developed and maintained at Johns Hopkins; and the University of California, Santa Cruz, Genome Browser, to look for genes or genomic regions of chromosomes 1 and 19 thought to produce proteins that interact with Xist.
The researchers hunted for genes responsible for adding or subtracting so-called epigenetic marks, which attach to DNA and affect whether a cell can use a given gene. They narrowed their search to a few candidate regions, then turned to a third database, Decipher, which makes it possible to compare human genome variants on tens of thousands of patients with genetic disorders worldwide. On Decipher, the research team looked for genes in the “candidate” regions that showed skewed sex ratios linked to the number of DNA duplications and deletions they could count.
The team reasoned that if the repressor was in a region that was duplicated, it would work overtime and turn off Xist on both X chromosomes, leaving both the X chromosomes active and selectively changing the survival of male vs. female embryos.
Only one section of the human genome fit the bill with these criteria — a stretch of DNA on the short arm of chromosome 19. “We now believe the repressor gene must be located there,” Migeon says, “because we’ve eliminated all the other possibilities.”
She explains that a gene or gene cluster in this region of the genome, which extends for eight megabases, or 8 million of the 6 billion nucleotides that make up all DNA on the human genome, could hold the key to understanding why the worldwide ratio of males to females is skewed at 1.05-1.06-to-1.
“Any genetic glitch that causes a trisomy or partial trisomy of that specific region on chromosome 19 would effectively eliminate a resulting female embryo,” Migeon suspects, although it’s impossible to know how often such genetic mistakes occur. Virtually all government-funded experiments on human embryos are prohibited by law in the United States, but some are allowed in some European countries, Migeon notes. By eliminating or adding in extra copies of genes in the candidate region that she and her team identified, she says, other researchers might be able to eventually identify the specific gene or genes that encode Xist’s repressor.
Migeon’s career, spanning nearly six decades at Johns Hopkins, has centered on the X chromosome and how the doses of proteins generated by the genes on this chromosome equilibrate between the sexes. Along with her husband, retired Johns Hopkins pediatric endocrinologist Claude Migeon, M.D., the pair has made numerous discoveries related to sex chromosomes and sex differentiation.
About this genetics research article
Other Johns Hopkins researchers who participated in this study include Michael A. Beer and Hans T. Bjornsson.
Funding: This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health (Director’s Early Independence Award, DP5OD017877).
Source: Beatriz Vianna – Johns Hopkins Medicine Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain. Original Research: Full open access research for “Embryonic loss of human females with partial trisomy 19 identifies region critical for the single active X” by Barbara R. Migeon, Michael A. Beer, and Hans T. Bjornsson in PLOS ONE. Published online April 12 2017 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0170403
Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Johns Hopkins Medicine “For Keeping X Chromosomes Active, Chromosome 19 Marks the Spot.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 17 April 2017. <https://neurosciencenews.com/x-chromosome-19-6425/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Johns Hopkins Medicine (2017, April 17). For Keeping X Chromosomes Active, Chromosome 19 Marks the Spot. NeuroscienceNew. Retrieved April 17, 2017 from https://neurosciencenews.com/x-chromosome-19-6425/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Johns Hopkins Medicine “For Keeping X Chromosomes Active, Chromosome 19 Marks the Spot.” https://neurosciencenews.com/x-chromosome-19-6425/ (accessed April 17, 2017).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
Embryonic loss of human females with partial trisomy 19 identifies region critical for the single active X
To compensate for the sex difference in the number of X chromosomes, human females, like human males have only one active X. The other X chromosomes in cells of both sexes are silenced in utero by XIST, the Inactive X Specific Transcript gene, that is present on all X chromosomes. To investigate the means by which the human active X is protected from silencing by XIST, we updated the search for a key dosage sensitive XIST repressor using new cytogenetic data with more precise resolution. Here, based on a previously unknown sex bias in copy number variations, we identify a unique region in our genome, and propose candidate genes that lie within, as they could inactivate XIST. Unlike males, the females who duplicate this region of chromosome 19 (partial 19 trisomy) do not survive embryogenesis; this preimplantation loss of females may be one reason that more human males are born than females.
“Embryonic loss of human females with partial trisomy 19 identifies region critical for the single active X” by Barbara R. Migeon, Michael A. Beer, and Hans T. Bjornsson in PLOS ONE. Published online April 12 2017 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0170403 | <urn:uuid:843531f2-c850-47ba-8ec1-104a0e6b659a> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://neurosciencenews.com/x-chromosome-19-6425/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474676.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227121318-20240227151318-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.921073 | 1,921 | 3.796875 | 4 | 266 |
Drinking alcohol primes certain areas of our brain to learn and remember better, says a new study from the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research at The University of Texas at Austin.
The common view that drinking is bad for learning and memory isn’t wrong, says neurobiologist Hitoshi Morikawa, but it highlights only one side of what ethanol consumption does to the brain.
“Usually, when we talk about learning and memory, we’re talking about conscious memory,” says Morikawa, whose results were published last month in The Journal of Neuroscience. “Alcohol diminishes our ability to hold on to pieces of information like your colleague’s name, or the definition of a word, or where you parked your car this morning. But our subconscious is learning and remembering, too, and alcohol may actually increase our capacity to learn, or ‘conditionability,’ at that level.”
Morikawa’s study, which found that repeated ethanol exposure enhances synaptic plasticity in a key area in the brain, is further evidence toward an emerging consensus in the neuroscience community that drug and alcohol addiction is fundamentally a learning and memory disorder.
When we drink alcohol (or shoot up heroin, or snort cocaine, or take methamphetamines), our subconscious is learning to consume more. But it doesn’t stop there. We become more receptive to forming subsconscious memories and habits with respect to food, music, even people and social situations.
In an important sense, says Morikawa, alcoholics aren’t addicted to the experience of pleasure or relief they get from drinking alcohol. They’re addicted to the constellation of environmental, behavioral and physiological cues that are reinforced when alcohol triggers the release of dopamine in the brain.
“People commonly think of dopamine as a happy transmitter, or a pleasure transmitter, but more accurately it’s a learning transmitter,” says Morikawa. “It strengthens those synapses that are active when dopamine is released.”
Alcohol, in this model, is the enabler. It hijacks the dopaminergic system, and it tells our brain that what we’re doing at that moment is rewarding (and thus worth repeating).
Among the things we learn is that drinking alcohol is rewarding. We also learn that going to the bar, chatting with friends, eating certain foods and listening to certain kinds of music are rewarding. The more often we do these things while drinking, and the more dopamine that gets released, the more “potentiated” the various synapses become and the more we crave the set of experiences and associations that orbit around the alcohol use.
Morikawa’s long-term hope is that by understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of addiction better, he can develop anti-addiction drugs that would weaken, rather than strengthen, the key synapses. And if he can do that, he would be able to erase the subconscious memory of addiction.
“We’re talking about de-wiring things,” says Morikawa. “It’s kind of scary because it has the potential to be a mind controlling substance. Our goal, though, is to reverse the mind controlling aspects of addictive drugs.” | <urn:uuid:a825c994-550b-4234-bbca-a0f7d2240d46> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://news.utexas.edu/2011/04/12/alcohol-helps-the-brain-remember-says-new-study/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474746.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228211701-20240229001701-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.933666 | 681 | 2.953125 | 3 | 267 |
Boolean terms (sometimes called Boolean operators or command terms) connect your keywords to create a logical phrase that the database can understand. This may involve telling the database to look for multiple terms or concepts at once, which will make your search more precise. Or it may involve searching for alternative terms that will bring back more results.
Using Boolean terms helps to create more precise and powerful searches with a higher percentage of relevant results.
This page will show you how to use the Boolean terms AND, OR, and NOT in your searches.
Boolean terms: AND, OR, NOT
|What it Does
|How to Use
|Find items that use BOTH keywords.
|adult learning AND online courses
|Find items that use EITHER of the keywords.
|adult learners OR adult students
|EXCLUDES items that use the keyword(s).
|NOT masters programs
Note: You do not have to capitalize and, or, and not in your searches.
The AND operator:
- connects different concepts
- limits your search
- reduces results
school leadership AND at risk students AND academic progress
Finds articles that have information about all three of these topics.
The OR operator:
- finds different ways to phrase a concept
- expands your search
- increases results
school leadership OR at risk students OR academic progress
Finds articles that may talk about any one of these topics (does not have to include them all).
The NOT operator:
- excludes results with the keyword
- reduces results
at risk students NOT school leadership
Takes out articles with the term used with NOT.
WARNING: Use NOT with caution. It can remove relevant results.
Truncate root words
Truncation allows you to search any ending on a root word.
For example, if your topic uses the word teenagers, then you may also want to search:
The root word is teen. To truncate and search teen with any ending you would enter:
The asterisk at the end of the root word tells the database to search for that word with any ending.
This expands your search to find more articles.
Use Boolean terms
Type in one concept per search box.
The advanced search in most databases defaults to automatically use AND between the search boxes. Leave the default. The database will find articles that include both concepts.
Use OR inside the search boxes to add synonyms or related terms to the search. Because the database will only search for the exact terms entered, using OR helps find the different ways an author may have phrased the concept.
For best results, only use the OR within a search box. The AND is placed automatically between the search boxes.
An example search for violence on television using boolean terms might look like this:
First search box: TV or television or mass media
Second search box: violence or aggression | <urn:uuid:c1ad1a17-2e5d-425d-8ebc-bc79b5e98109> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/keyword/boolean | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475203.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301062009-20240301092009-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.836866 | 591 | 3.671875 | 4 | 268 |
Step-by-Step Learning Guide - 2023 Edition
A learning guide which will walk you through how to effectively change how you study with the goal to improve retention and grades.
We go about Learning the wrong way, We here at Nextstepuni aim to change that. The Learn to Learn Guide includes peer-reviewed scientific information based in neuroscience on active recall, spaced repetition, encoding, consolidation and more along with how to implement them into your studies. You will also learn how to establish the correct mindset when it comes to studying in order to maximise results. Case studies are used throughout in order to help students understand how to implement the information. It is important for students to know that intelligence is not set in stone and you can multiply the effectiveness of your learning by using these techniques.
Our guides are built in collaboration with high achieving past Leaving Cert students (550+ Points) and Academics. | <urn:uuid:63506457-2fd3-475d-983b-2e03b678a13b> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.nextstepuni.com/product-page/step-by-step-learn-guide-2023 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475203.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301062009-20240301092009-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.946349 | 183 | 2.84375 | 3 | 269 |
Developing an online course is significantly different from preparing to teach a face-to-face course, both pedagogically and technologically. Instructional Designers can assist by helping to set a timeline and project plan, develop course materials, create assessments, offer recommendations for integrating active learning, and ensure the course meets NIU quality standards for online courses.
The ADDIE Model
We use the ADDIE model to guide the design and development of online courses. It is a widely utilized model of instructional design that is easy to follow.
Analysis - an instructional designer (ID) meets with the faculty member to determine what is needed
Design - the ID works with the faculty member to develop learning elements, or objects, and modules for the course, resulting in a prototype
Development - once the prototype has been approved the ID works with others on the team to develop the rest of the course materials
Implementation - the course is uploaded and tested as part of a quality review
Evaluation - at the end of the first course offering, the ID and faculty member can meet to discuss any feedback on the course design and any modifications that are needed
Project management is important to ensure that the course is ready for students. The instructional designer manages the course development process from beginning to end. For faculty, this means you can focus on your course content and not have to worry about managing a development team. The instructional designer will work with you to create a timeline.
We don't believe in letting technology lead the design of online courses. We look at the course objectives, successful strategies in teaching the materials, and then help you pick the right technologies for your course. | <urn:uuid:5eb132a2-0bec-4fca-a24e-1f673169c7e4> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.niu.edu/citl/online/course-development/instructional-design.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475203.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301062009-20240301092009-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.943027 | 334 | 2.828125 | 3 | 270 |
Despite existing for several years now, the mere mention of artificial intelligence (AI) still makes the uninitiated think about it as nothing more than science fiction. Only those who genuinely follow AI evolution can understand that the “science” is real and contributes much to our current lives. Most industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, and finance, are already harnessing the many benefits of AI. It has become ubiquitous that some can’t imagine life without it.
In this post, we’ll pay homage to the fathers of artificial intelligence (AI) who have made a significant impact on making our technological lives easier.
Fathers of Artificial Intelligence: Who’s Who in the AI World
Who are the fathers of artificial intelligence who paved the way for many industries to enjoy the technology’s benefits? Read on to find out.
(19 March 1927–19 July 1992)
The late Allen Newell is one of the earliest proponents of AI. A computer science researcher and cognitive psychologist, his work on the Information Processing Language (a programming language), Logic Theory Machine (an information processing system), and General Problem Solver (a human problem-solving simulation program) from 1956 to 1957 helped many scientists and researchers know the basics of AI and human cognition.
(18 April 1976)
Andrew Ng is a computer scientist with significant contributions to AI and machine learning (ML). He is currently a professor of computer science at Stanford University and Baidu’s chief scientist. Among his notable contributions is the creation of Google Brain, which serves as the search engine’s research arm for natural language processing (NLP), ML, and many other technologies.
Ng believes that there is still so much that AI can do. For instance, in an interview, he shared that research scientists are now keen on furthering unsupervised learning that lets AI systems quickly analyze data without the need to feed it with the expected output.
Ng also offers AI courses through Coursera, which he helped co-found. He also maintains the Twitter account @AndrewYNg that those who wish to emulate his success can follow.
(6 December 1947)
Geoffrey Hinton, an engineering fellow at Google, currently manages Brain Team Toronto. He is also a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and the chief scientific adviser of the Vector Institute. A prominent figure in the AI realm, Hinton’s notable work on artificial neural networks (ANNs), specifically the backpropagation algorithm, is crucial in training today’s neural networks.
In the deep learning community, Hinton is often recognized as one of the “godfathers of artificial intelligence” and “godfathers of deep learning.” In 2018, he was awarded the Turing Award for his immense contribution to deep learning.
(4 September 1927–24 October 2011)
The late John McCarthy is widely regarded for his undeniable legacy in AI and computer science. McCarthy is often attributed as the one who coined and defined the term “artificial intelligence” at a conference held in Dartmouth College in 1956, about the same time when research in AI began.
Decades after that initial presentation, McCarthy continued to work on various AI programming languages such as Lisp. He is also responsible for the underlying concept behind cloud computing.
(9 August 1927–24 January 2016)
A revered computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the late Marvin Minsky was among those who toyed with the idea of training computers with common-sense reasoning. His vision was to make machines think like humans because he believes that humans’ entire thinking process does not differ from that of computers. In the 1950s, Minsky started working on computational theories to simulate how machines can acquire human-like intelligence.
(8 July 1960)
Yann LeCun currently serves as Facebook’s vice president and chief AI scientist. He also works as a professor of computer science, neural science, data science, and electrical and computer engineering at New York University. As evidenced by his credentials, LeCun’s work mostly centers on ML, mobile robotics, computer vision, and computational neuroscience.
LeCun is considered the “founding father of convolutional nets”. He gained prominence for his work on optical character recognition (OCR) or translating images of typewritten, handwritten, and printed text into a format that a machine can understand through convolutional neural networks (CNNs). He is also responsible for co-developing the Lush programming language.
(5 March 1964)
Famous for championing deep learning, Yoshua Bengio is often referred to as the “grandmaster of AI.” Thanks to Bengio, LeCun, and Hinton, deep learning evolved from merely being an academic concept to one of the most cutting-edge technologies of today. Bengio’s work is critical in furthering modern AI through neural networks that power voice recognition, image classification, self-driving vehicles, and automated business decision-making.
Today, Bengio continues to work with businesses to explore the commercial applications of AI.
(23 June 1912–7 June 1954)
Alan Turing was a British mathematician, logician, and cryptographer. He is often revered as one of the “founding fathers of artificial intelligence and theoretical computer science.”
Alan Turing is best known for his work in breaking the Nazi Enigma code during the height of the Second World War, paving the way for the British to win the war and eventually the creation of the computer. One of the most significant contributions Turing made to the world of AI is of course the Turing Test, initially known as “The Imitation Game,” which now has a movie adaptation. The test aims to determine when an AI system has achieved human-level intelligence—something that Turing has always wondered about.
Here’s an interesting video by Cambridge University that sums up the enigmatic life of Alan Turing. It gives you a peek into the life of one of the greatest mathematicians who ever lived.
Did you know that the ACM A.M. Turing Award, collectively received by Yann LeCun, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yoshua Bengio in 2018, was named after Alan Turing?
AI will continue to evolve. Thanks to these so-called “fathers of artificial intelligence,” many industries will continue to benefit from the powerful technology. | <urn:uuid:60884dcf-bb83-42c5-92bb-806346ff3c63> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.techslang.com/fathers-of-artificial-intelligence-influential-ai-leaders-and-innovators/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475203.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301062009-20240301092009-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.963373 | 1,333 | 3.25 | 3 | 271 |
Are there any absolutely safe products and technologies? Is it largely by technology that contemporary society hangs together? In which way technology is important not only as an economic force but also as a cultural force? What is the exact impact of technology on society? This entry focuses on the latter branch of the philosophy of technology.
Should we ask not only what is the place of technology in, and its meaning for, human society, human culture, and human existence but also about foundational issues in its relation with scienceβsuch as the reality of atoms, the status of causality and probability, questions of space and time, the nature of the quantum world?
Could technology be the sum total of rational action? Should we deplore the hold that technology has on modern society due to its forcing all aspects of human life within the mould of a single narrowed-down criterion of rationality: maximum efficiency? What is the basis of the negative judgments of technology?
Can we recognize in technology the emergent single dominant way of answering all questions concerning human action, comparable to science as the single dominant way of answering all questions concerning human knowledge? Is technology applied science, or is it about action, but an action heavily underpinned by theory? What distinguishes technology from the arts and crafts and puts it on a par with science?
What is the difference between substantive theories, and operative theories, in technology? Is the tacit knowledge of Michael Polanyi indeed a central characteristic of technology? Is technology a continuous attempt to bring the world closer to the way it is to be? Does science aims to understand the world as it is and technology aims to change it, as a service to the public? Is the widely spread picture of technology as being instrumental, only delivering instruments that will be used elsewhere justified?
Is technology a practice focused on the creation of artifacts and artifact-based services and what is the importance of the design process of this creation? Is it easy to distinguish between technological action and action in general? What are the consequences of the fact that in modern technology almost all design is done by teams of experts from many disciplines?
Does each discipline has its own theories, its own models of interdependencies and its own assessment criteria, and so forth? What is the status and the character of artifacts as man-made objects made to serve a purpose? Does the notion of an artifact’s function refers necessarily to human intentions? Is it possible to ignore the possibility of the malfunctioning of the various components of an artifact?
Are the undesirable consequences of technology to be attributed to the users of technology, rather than the technology itself, or its developers? What is the instrumental vision of technology and the so-called neutrality thesis? Why did this neutrality thesis met with severe critique by thinkers such as Heidegger, Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse, and Habermas?
What is the contribution of other conceptualizations of technology – as a political phenomenon (Winner, Feenberg, Sclove), as a social activity (Latour, Callon, Bijker and others in the area of science and technology studies), as a cultural phenomenon (Ihde, Borgmann), as a professional activity (engineering ethics, e.g., Davis), or as a cognitive activity (Bunge, Vincenti)?
How can be explained the enormous increase in the number and scope of ethical questions that are asked about technology? Is there a limited interaction and discussion between different strands in the ethics of technology, like the ethics of engineering, the ethics of specific technologies (such as computer ethics) and approaches that remain primarily inspired by the traditional philosophy of technology?
Does technology have any moral agency? Is technology merely a tool that cannot possess ethical qualities? Does “science think”? In what ways does technology extend or curtail the power of individuals, and how are ethics standards challenged/altered by new capabilities (cloning, newborn genetic screening, RFID, biometric analysis and identification).
Orgburn’s “cultural lag crisis”. Conflict between speed of modern technology advances and the much slower speed of developing ethical guidelines for their utilization. The adaptive aspect. Dangers of a lag between Technology Ethics and social consensus. Implications of new technologies for privacy rights, e-commerce, control of essential resources, social definitions of life. Development: is it Always? Never? Contextually? right or wrong to invent and implement a technological innovation (the case of nuclear weapons)?
Cloning. Genetics. Health Technology assessment. Intrinsic & Instrumental value. Novel Foods. “My computer made me do it”? The Internet.
Zero tolerance for the technologically “unsavvy”. Technology and the “good life”. Fertility drugs. Worker surveillance. Security of banking transactions.
Pharmacogenomics, ethics and public policy, possibilities and threats to the health care system. The question of Access. Genetic testing and genetic counselling. Genetically modified organisms/food and their future. Gene Patenting. Ability to intervene in human genetics in the example of Huntington’s disease.
Induced pluripotent Stem cells and the questions they raise about cloning, privacy, informed consent. Stem cells, moral status and California Proposition 71. Do embryos have any moral status? Therapeutic potential of the stem cells, the treatment of diabetes. Human cloning: scientific, ethical, religious perspectives. Biological, medical, legal, engineering, technology aspects. “If we can, we should”. “If we can, we will”. Are these legitimate mottos for medicine? State regulation of cloning.
Neuro-ethics, on using brain-boosting drugs. Adderall: enhancement or cheating? The future of neuroscience, possible changes in prediction, litigation, confidentiality/privacy, patents. Politics and science. Xenotransplantation.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
AND RECEIVE OUR LATEST STORIES | <urn:uuid:2f1153ed-dffe-47f3-90e9-90df65236fb3> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://olbios.org/the-advisory-group/new-technologies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475833.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20240302152131-20240302182131-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.927971 | 1,221 | 2.96875 | 3 | 272 |
Your brain uses approximately 20% of the energy you consume.
All of your thinking, planning and deciding really does take up a lot of energy. The most energy-demanding work of your brain involves executive functioning.
These are activities like:
- Inhibiting (preventing yourself from doing or thinking something).
These activities use the prefrontal cortex of your brain, a.k.a. the executive functioning area, which is consequently the most energy-hungry part of your brain1.
Research in neuroscience tells us
our energy for executive functioning is finite. It means once you make a difficult decision you have less energy for the next. It also means once you deny yourself that afternoon candy, you have less energy to do it again!
David Rock, author of Your Brain at Work says “Your best quality thinking lasts for a limited time. The answer is not always just to try harder.” Like the body, the brain needs to be recharged with food, rest, and regular sleep in order to continue performing these activities well.
Optimize : to make as perfect, effective, or functional as possible3
You can optimize your brain energy
by doing your most challenging, executive functioning activities when you have a fresh and alert mind. One of the best times is in the morning when your brain is rested, after breakfast.
Rock suggests we begin each day by organizing our appointments and our to-do list. Once we make those decisions we require less energy to make decisions throughout the rest of the day.
Are your decisions about food eating up too much of your brain energy?
If you don’t have a general plan for food—when, where, and what you’re going to eat most of the time—you have to make a decision for every meal, every day.
Decisions about food involve four out of five of those energy-expensive, brain activities. Every time you have a meal you need to:
- Understand what the food is so you know whether you want to eat it.
- Remember if you’ve eaten the food, if you like it, and whether it’ll give you the fuel you need.
- Decide whether or not you’ll eat it, and
- Inhibit yourself from having the cake, fries, or fried chicken that you’re craving instead of a healthy meal!
Use high-performance practices to save brain energy.
Brendon Burchard, author of High Performance Habits, discovered one of the qualities that sets high performers apart is that they have systems built into their day3.
You see, systems create patterns in daily life which lead to success—over and over again. According to Burchard, systems are the main reason why high performers achieve above and beyond what most others can.
Systems in your life can include things like: what you do when you first get up in the morning, how you make breakfast, and how and when you exercise to name a few.
Creating some systems around your daily food choices delivers multiple brain benefits.
You can create systems for some of your meals so you don’t have to use your finite, decision-making energy every time you eat:
A system many of my clients have come up with is making lunch for the next day after eating dinner.
One of my systems is pouring a bottle of water and drinking out of it first thing in the morning, before coffee.
I’m not suggesting you take all the fun or spontaneity out of food! Rather, purposefully and mindfully set up daily systems that ensure you have the energy to power through your day, and the nutrients to boost the health of your body and brain.
If this intrigues you,
check out my new book, Eat to Lead. I’ll help you find the food choices that work for you, and create your own personal systems that make healthy eating easy, reliable and enjoyable in your busy life.
Did this article inspire you to set up a system for food? Do you already have one or two in place? Let me know in the comments.
- Rock, David. Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long. HarperCollins, 2009.
- “Optimize.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/optimize.
- Burchard, Brendon. High Performance Habits. Hay House, 2017.
- “Business Systems 101: How To Create A High Growth Business . . . Without Burning Out.” Successwise, successwise.com/business-systems. | <urn:uuid:69b2ee64-8246-4157-95e1-c4d19bd4d7ee> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://lucifit.com/food-decisions-costing-brain-energy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707948234904.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20240305092259-20240305122259-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.939253 | 982 | 3.328125 | 3 | 273 |
- A new study shows brain activity differs between liberals and conservatives when they watch political videos.
- Brain activity differed between partisans when words tied to emotions, morality, or threats were used.
- The findings could help us understand how partisans process information, perhaps leading to new ways to bridge the divide.
People are somewhat politically polarized these days. While the United States’ polarization gets most of the press, increasing polarization is also causing problems in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, India, and a variety of other countries around the world. Attempts to understand why are endless, with hypotheses being offered from various schools of sociology, political science, and philosophy.
Recently, scientists investigating partisanship have peered into the neurological basis for our partisan alignments, if any. Their discoveries suggest that partisans’ brains may process information differently than those of non-partisans or members of another group.
Adding evidence to this way of thinking is a new study out of UC Berkeley, which finds that liberal and conservative brains react differently to political trigger words.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, compared the stated political opinions of three dozen test subjects to their brain wave patterns while they watched videos about immigration policy.
The researchers, led by Dr. Yuan Chang Leong, determined the participants’ ideologies by asking them how much they agreed or disagreed with proposed legislation. Each response was given a score, with lower values attached to stances considered liberal in the United States.
One such question was: “Would you support legislation that funds a wall along the US-Mexico border to reduce illegal immigration?” Those who strongly agreed were given a high score while those who strongly disagreed got a low score. The scores earned over six questions were used to place the participants on a scale from left to right. The questions had previously been tested on 300 people who identified as liberals, conservatives, or centrists to assure their accuracy.
The test subjects then watched the previously mentioned political videos.
While the parts of the brain dedicated to collecting sensory information reacted similarly for all of the test subjects, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a part of the prefrontal cortex that deals with matters of identity, narratives, and morality, of liberals and conservatives reacted at different times.
Using an fMRI, the researchers saw that neural responses differed between liberals and conservatives as the videos’ messages changed. More specifically, the brain’s activity was stimulated by its response to messages concerning morality, emotions, or threats. The reactions to these terms were the points of greatest divergence.
A morality based message might be something like, “What are the fundamental ethical principles that are the basis of our society? Do no harm, and be compassionate, and this federal policy violates both of these principles.” A threat-based statement might resemble, “I think it’s very dangerous, because what we want is cooperation amongst the cities and the federal government to ensure that we have safety in our communities, and to ensure that our citizens are protected.”
Participants were asked to rate how much they agreed with each video and how likely they were to change their mind on anything after watching them. Curiously, the closer the subject’s brain activity was to that of the “average” liberal or conservative of the study, the more likely they were to report that a video supporting those policies could make them change their mind.
Dr. Leong summarized the findings by saying:
“Our study suggests that there is a neural basis to partisan biases, and some language especially drives polarization. In particular, the greatest differences in neural activity across ideology occurred when people heard messages that highlight threat, morality and emotions.”
This study suggests that partisanship impacts how our brains process specific terms and that political messaging relying on threat-based or ethics-based language cause partisans to interpret the message in very different ways. This processing also means that people with similar brains to other partisans are likely to be convinced by similar messages.
The location of the differences in brain function, in the later, higher-level processing department of the brain rather than in the earlier, sensory detecting department, implies that polarization does not affect sensory processing. Additionally, the results do not imply that these effects are hardwired in our brains.
These findings can be added to the list of studies that show that our political alignments might have something to do with how our brains process information. Non-partisans, often suggested to not be a real group of people, have measurably different brain activity than partisans. Brain scans show Democrats and Republicans used different parts of their brains when playing a gambling game.
Dr. Leong hopes to use this information to build better models of how the brain processes political information. Perhaps someday, these models can help us understand how to talk to each other without using these trigger words.
Politics is becoming increasingly polarized in several countries all around the world. The causes for it are still up for debate, and ways to help narrow the gaps between people are still being investigated. An increasing number of studies suggest that some of it comes down to how our brains function.
While the idea of polarization being tied to how our brains work probably won’t come as a comfort to most people, the ability to identify precisely what is happening when people have polarized reactions is a step forward, as it offers a chance to understand what the other side is doing when we disagree. Perhaps someday soon, this will translate to better ways to reach across the aisle and more productive conversations informed by neuroscience. | <urn:uuid:477a99e7-23f2-4740-ae71-157e6ab7768d> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/brain-scan-partisanship/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474569.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20240224212113-20240225002113-00101.warc.gz | en | 0.965594 | 1,137 | 3 | 3 | 274 |
As we turn a page into a new school year, it’s worth considering just how remarkable this time is for nurturing formal and informal learning in children, youth and, well, anyone. Think of it: in community centres, clubs, studios, workshops, the internet, living rooms, parks and classrooms, learning opportunities have never been more plentiful.
Whether someone wants to improve their cartooning or explore atomic physics, or both, a brief internet search or flip through a catalog will turn up resources and maybe a perfectly competent mentor. Chances are quite high that you’ll even find a community of like-minded people honing their skills or sharing their knowledge on the subjects you’re seeking to explore. And you might even find a gaming platform dedicated to helping learners “level up” skills and interests.
“There’s an app for that,” is an apt mantra for these times, with YouTube, Khan Academy, Google and a thousand thousand other virtual enterprises announcing their technology as just what you’re looking for to open the gates of knowledge.
ABOVE: Flyer showing showing some of the badges you can earn through
DIY.org. If you are 11 years old and want to be an astronomer, a bike repair expert
or hone your cooking skills, this is a good place to start.
That’s all well and good, especially for the bottom line, but this kind of “anywhere, any way” learning deserves the additional support of educators, administrators and parents. To wit, it’s been in the garage and basement long enough, it deserves better treatment.
As a career educator I see this as a time when we ought to be more prepared than ever to help children and youth tap into this brave new world. To me this means helping ensure learning environments, virtual and real, are safe, helping determine the learning is of an adequate nature to be thoughtfully validated and being in plain site on the sidelines, coaching and cheering.
For far too long notions of learning have been circumscribed in conventional education by the 3Rs and validated predominantly by rote testing and standardized curricula. Learning and competency, however, are much broader than these narrow notions. It’s time for educators to seize on this as an opportunity and adopt what neuroscience has confirmed: human learning is as unique as each of us, no matter our age or background.
Parents and perceptive educators know this to be true, too, and our learning systems, i.e., formal education, ought to reflect this truth.
In British Columbia the Ministry of Education recently announced curriculum reform measures to support a new ‘BC Ed Plan’ and personalized learning throughout BC schools. It’s also the case that education authorities and pioneering schools across North America are now supporting broader notions of education through ‘flipped learning’ ‘differentiated instruction’ and ‘brain-friendly schooling’.
I consider all of this good news, though I don’t perceive education reform in this direction will be a slam-dunk anywhere, because conventional schooling systems from Kindergarten through post-secondary were not designed to support the kinds of innovation now being urged.
Along with the reforms the Ministry also needs to support educators and administrators in adapting to a new learning landscape. And parents, too, will need to be thoroughly informed and enrolled as partners, otherwise they will incubate fear and resentment.
Yes, BC has been down this road before with the ‘Year 2ooo‘, a much-vaunted curriculum overhaul that foundered in the early 1990s because of poor planning and roll-out. I know, I was a newly-minted educator for the launch and demise of the Y2K plan. “Ahead of its time” was one of the main laments about it.
Today, however, the license for education reform is starkly apparent to anyone paying close attention to science and social trends. And I’m again excited in anticipating an era of rigid coursework giving way to supporting and validating children’s learning, anywhere, any way. | <urn:uuid:48264922-67e1-4b22-8fb5-839da315a095> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | http://michaelmaser.net/learning-anywhere-any-way-era-is-here-seize-the-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475238.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301093751-20240301123751-00101.warc.gz | en | 0.95653 | 856 | 3.0625 | 3 | 275 |
- Robert Preidt
- Posted July 9, 2021
Is Your Kid a Fast or Slow Eater? Personality Might Tell
Could your children's eating habits be a reflection of their personalities?
A new study finds a link between the two, but researchers say it's not clear exactly how they influence each other.
They found that slow eaters are less likely to be extroverted and impulsive, and that youngsters who are highly responsive to external food cues -- the urge to eat when food is seen, smelled or tasted -- have higher rates of frustration, discomfort and difficulty self-soothing.
Another finding was that children who respond well to feeling full tend to have more self-control.
The study included 28 people who signed up for a family intervention program to reduce eating speed among 4- to 8-year-old children.
This research is important because faster eating and higher responsiveness to food cues have been connected to obesity risk in children, said study co-author Myles Faith, professor of counseling, school and educational psychology at the University of Buffalo's Graduate School of Education.
"This study established relationships between temperament and eating patterns in children; however, there is still the question of chicken-and-egg and which comes first?" Faith said in a university news release. "Research that follows families over time is needed to untangle these developmental pathways."
"Temperament is linked to many child developmental and behavioral outcomes, yet despite emerging evidence, few studies have examined its relationship with pediatric obesity," said co-lead investigator Dr. Robert Berkowitz, director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Research Program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
More research is needed to understand the role parents play in their children's temperament and eating behavior, said study co-lead investigator and first author Alyssa Button, a doctoral candidate in the University of Buffalo's Graduate School of Education, and senior research support specialist in the department of pediatrics in the university's School of Medicine and Biomedical Science.
"Parents may use food to soothe temperamental children and ease negative emotions," Button said in the release.
"Future research should examine the different ways parents feed their children in response to their temperament, as well as explore whether the relationship between temperament and eating behaviors is a two-way street," she noted. "Could the habit of eating slower, over time, lead to lower impulsiveness?"
The study was published in the June issue of the journal Pediatric Obesity.
The American Academy of Pediatrics offers resources on child nutrition.
SOURCE: University at Buffalo, news release, July 7, 2021 | <urn:uuid:b8350cd6-9568-4748-af35-34235f70abc2> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://pacmedrx.com/foothill-blvd/patient-resources/article/2653703052/is-your-kid-a-fast-or-slow-eater-personality-might-tell | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476413.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20240304033910-20240304063910-00101.warc.gz | en | 0.970232 | 529 | 2.84375 | 3 | 276 |
Even though organizational change is a constant reality in today’s fast-paced business landscape, change is still met with skepticism and doubt for many within organizations. In fact, this constant change is leading a contagious cynicism among leaders, employees and stakeholders of change initiatives.
Cynicism involves loss of confidence, commitment and trust and it can lead to disengagement, reduce of productivity, innovation and ultimately if can have a huge negative impact in the success of new initiatives.
From a neuroscience perspective cynicism is developed in the brain as a result of constant negative prediction error signals. A prediction error signal is the difference between the expected outcome and the outcome received or the mismatch between expectation and reality. This mismatch could either be positive or adverse and it could therefore result in a release of a positive or negative signal from the brain.
Prediction error signals are fundamental to learning. If the error signal is positive the organism will be approaching and feeling motivated to the change (reward signal), whereas if the error signal is adverse, it will be avoiding the change and feeling demotivated (threat signal).
Ultimately if we are constantly exposed to negative error signals, we become more and more cynics. Constant change challenge the ability to predict the future and therefore during times of change we tend to have more negative errors signals in the brain.
As a result, employees become cynical towards change initiatives, assuming the worst-case scenarios and doubting the intentions behind them.
Leaders in charge of change and change managers needs to understand the science behind cynicism to lead teams through change with the brain in mind and strategic thinking.
For example, when managing change with the brain in mind is important to manage expectations in stakeholders from the very beginning to make sure the error signal is positive and the outcome is better than expected, so the brain can release a chemistry called dopamine, which is in charge of making us feel motivated and excited.
Another practical example of managing change by applying neuroscience knowledge is about moving from big to small. The bigger the program, the bigger the team, the bigger the time scale to deliver, the bigger the prediction errors are at all levels and the hardest to respond and adapt to change is. We should aim keeping the size of the error small.
In summary changes at any level (behavioural, organisational, environmental, procedural, biological, etc) will always produce a prediction error signal. Change managers, project and program managers plays a key role in managing expectations and making sure the error signal is positive or as small as possible. All this is possible by changing how we manage projects and making sure the “brain becomes our main stakeholder”.
PEPE© model offers a strategic framework based on neuroscience to help leaders in charge of change and people facing changes to reduce cynicism and to increase engagement and resilience during times of constant change.
About the author: Tibisay Vera is a neuroscientist, the author of PEPE© model and the Co-creator of Neuroscience for Change certification. https://pepeneuroscience.com/ . She is also the founder of Sparking Performance, a neuroscience-based consultancy for managing change and the Director in UK of the International Academy of Neuroscience and Education, ANE.
Tibisay Vera has a MSc in Clinical Neuroscience with more than 20 years change management experience.
if you want to learn more about practical ways to “hack” our brain to thrive under change, you can subscribe to our newsletter https://pepeneuroscience.com/register/ or follow us in Linkedin: @pepeneuroscience https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/91021085/admin/feed/posts/ | <urn:uuid:6ede9782-b34c-491c-848f-377c52755151> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://pepeneuroscience.com/neuroscience-and-cynicism-in-organizational-change/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707948235171.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20240305124045-20240305154045-00101.warc.gz | en | 0.928395 | 754 | 2.9375 | 3 | 277 |
Fasting in Ramadan can promote psychological well-being. There are numerous research studies making this case. But how does that work, exactly? How could refraining from food during daylight hours improve well-being? As a psychologist, and having fasted during Ramadan for more than two decades, I think I can provide some insights into the possible mechanisms of action.
My first experience fasting during Ramadan came when I was in college. I was not a Muslim at the time, but most of my close friends were. They didn't appear to be particularly religious outside of Ramadan. Still, when the holy month rolled around, they dropped their bad habits and kept the daytime fast. Their transformation impressed me, and it was with a mixture of solidarity and curiosity that I decided to join them.
I found fasting difficult at first, but it helped that my friends and I were in it together. The fasting got easier as the month went on and eventually, there was a feeling of being at ease with the emptiness and a sense of mastery and self-discipline. Just as important, I also saw the positive behavioural impacts that fasting had on us in different ways. One friend was calmer and more reflective, another was able to kick bad habits, and all of us became closer.
Shortly after my dummy-run, I became a Muslim. The next time Ramadan rolled around, I was immersed in the real deal, the complete package: fasting, reading the Quran, having night prayers and more. It was transformative and character building and quite unlike anything else I had ever experienced.
Over the years, I have noticed many similarities between Ramadan and the ideas being promoted by psychologists and psychotherapists. For example, the well-being benefits of the holy month are highly resonant with the Social Comparison Theory. This idea suggests that our self-image and self-evaluations are shaped by comparing ourselves with others.
When we evaluate ourselves against one another – and we do – we tend to make "upward" or "downward" comparisons. Upward comparisons – focusing on people who are, for example, more intelligent, more attractive and wealthier – can leave us feeling inadequate. Unsurprisingly, the tendency to make frequent upward social comparisons is predictive of depression.
By contrast, downward comparison – focusing on people who have less – leaves us feeling fortunate. For example, fasting can focus the mind on food poverty, famine victims and those who regularly experience thirst and hunger even after the sunsets. Such downward social comparisons make some of us more grateful for what we have. Gratitude frequently leads to pro-social behaviours (for example, charitable giving) aimed at relieving the suffering of others.
The idea that gratitude is good for mental health has been well established. Gratitude is a pleasant and powerful social emotion – a gateway emotion that opens the door to other pleasant emotions, such as joy, contentment and excitement. A study published in the neuroscience journal Cerebral Cortex identified links between the experience of gratitude and the neurochemical dopamine, also known as the “pleasure hormone”. Simply pondering the question, "What am I grateful for?" increased dopamine, even if the question was left unanswered.
Anyone who has ever broken a difficult day-long fast will know that overwhelming sense of gratitude that occurs as they savour the first sip of a drink or bite of food. Even plain old, precious water tastes delightful. Gratitude is undoubtedly one of Ramadan's greatest gifts.
Ramadan is not just about fasting, though; it is also a month of additional Quranic recitation and reading.
Another obvious way the holy month promotes psychological well-being lies in the actual content of the Quran. Islam's sacred scripture covers areas as diverse as dietary practice, inheritance law, eschatology (the part of theology concerned with death and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind), and everything in between. However, throughout the text, repeated attention is given to major psychological themes such as patience, forgiveness, acceptance and hope. For many, the Quran provides the ultimate form of bibliotherapy – using the written word to promote mental health.
A final aspect of Ramadan that helps promote psychological well-being must be the shared nature of the experience.
More than a billion other people are engaged in the same activity, leading to a strong sense of social identity and belonging. Research has underscored the importance of social identity and belonging in promoting well-being and recovery. This "belonging effect" has become widely known as the "social cure". Essentially this is the idea that strengthening social identity (for example, joining a club or playing a team sport) can accelerate illness recovery, promote resilience and reduce relapse.
There are numerous studies supporting the well-being benefits of social identity and belonging. The findings suggest that the more profound the sense of belonging to a valued social group, the better the outcomes are for various physical and mental health conditions, including depression.
Ramadan, however, is not a panacea. Mental illness prevention and psychological well-being promotion are not the holy month's objectives. They are simply welcome by-products – what we call highly desirable epiphenomena. The actual benefits of Ramadan are, of course, spiritual and the approaching last 10 days and nights of the holy month are a great time for these to be realised. | <urn:uuid:695afcb9-9f37-4be7-8a08-e6abddd236ad> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/2022/04/18/the-psychological-case-for-ramadan-is-strong/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707948235171.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20240305124045-20240305154045-00101.warc.gz | en | 0.965505 | 1,088 | 2.671875 | 3 | 278 |
In today’s rapidly advancing technological landscape, the concept of 36DTFN has emerged as a pivotal force driving innovation and change. Understanding its evolution from the past, current state and future trajectory offers insights into the transformative potential of this concept.
The Genesis of 36DTFN
The roots of 36DTFN can be traced back to the fundamental principles of computation and neural networks. Initially, it was conceptualized as a means to bridge the gap between human cognition and machine learning.
Early Applications and Limitations
Early implementations of 36DTFN were constrained by computational capacity and data accessibility. These limitations hindered its widespread adoption and restricted its application to niche domains.
Breakthroughs and Advancements
The advent of a more powerful computing infrastructure and the accumulation of vast datasets propelled 36DTFN forward. Breakthroughs in algorithms and methodologies enhanced its capabilities, enabling more complex tasks and problem-solving abilities.
The Present Landscape
In the current era, 36DTFN is a cornerstone in various fields, including healthcare, finance, entertainment, and more. Its integration into everyday applications has revolutionized how businesses operate, and individuals interact with technology.
Impact on Industries
The influence of 36DTFN on industries is profound. From predictive analytics in finance to personalized healthcare solutions and autonomous vehicles, its impact reshapes traditional paradigms and introduces disruptive innovations.
Ethical Considerations and Challenges
Despite its remarkable advancements, 36DTFN brings ethical dilemmas like privacy concerns, algorithmic biases, and job displacements. Balancing innovation with ethical considerations remains a critical challenge in its evolution.
Advancements in Deep Learning
The evolution of 36DTFN is intricately tied to advancements in deep learning architectures. Neural networks with increased depth, convolutional layers, and attention mechanisms have fueled its growth.
Reinforcement Learning and 36DTFN
The marriage of reinforcement learning and 36DTFN has led to breakthroughs in autonomous systems. From gaming strategies to robotics, this amalgamation has unlocked new frontiers in machine intelligence.
The Future Horizons
Looking ahead, the future of 36DTFN appears promising. Advancements in quantum computing, continual learning models, and ethical AI frameworks pave the way for more sophisticated applications.
Quantum Computing’s Influence
The advent of quantum computing holds tremendous potential for 36DTFN. Quantum algorithms could revolutionize processing capabilities, leading to unprecedented machine learning and problem-solving advancements.
Continual Learning Models
Continual learning models aim to overcome the limitations of traditional machine learning paradigms by enabling systems to learn continuously from new data while retaining past knowledge. This evolution could significantly enhance 36DTFN’s adaptability.
Ethical AI Frameworks
Developing and implementing robust ethical AI frameworks is imperative for ensuring the responsible and accountable use of 36DTFN. Striking a balance between innovation and moral guidelines will shape its future trajectory.
Addressing Bias and Fairness
Mitigating biases in datasets and algorithms is crucial in 36DTFN’s evolution. Embracing fairness and inclusivity in AI models is essential to build trust and ensure equitable outcomes.
Human-Centric Design and 36DTFN
The convergence of human-centric design principles with 36DTFN will lead to more intuitive and user-friendly applications. Enhancing user experiences will be a pivotal factor in its widespread acceptance.
Collaboration and Interdisciplinary Approach
The future growth of 36DTFN relies on collaboration across disciplines. Interdisciplinary approaches involving computer science, neuroscience, psychology, ethics, and more will drive its evolution.
Education and Skill Development
Developing a skilled workforce equipped to understand and leverage 36DTFN is crucial. Investments in education and skill development will be instrumental in nurturing future talent.
Societal Impact and Adaptation
As 36DTFN continues to evolve, societies must adapt to its implications. Addressing challenges and leveraging its benefits for societal welfare will be pivotal in shaping its impact.
Challenges in Implementation
Barriers to widespread implementation, such as data privacy concerns, regulatory frameworks, and computational infrastructure, pose challenges that must be addressed for seamless integration.
Environmental Sustainability and Efficiency
Efforts to make 36DTFN more energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable are crucial. Striving for eco-friendly solutions will be pivotal in its evolution.
Global Perspectives on 36DTFN
Diverse cultural and geographical perspectives influence the evolution and adoption of 36DTFN. Understanding these variations is crucial for a globally inclusive approach.
The evolution of 36DTFN from its inception to its current state and potential future trajectories exemplifies a remarkable journey marked by innovation, challenges, and ethical considerations. Its growth continues to shape the future of technology, influencing diverse facets of our lives.
Looking Ahead: Embracing the Opportunities
As we embrace the evolving landscape of 36DTFN, the opportunities for innovation, societal progress, and transformative change are immense. Adapting responsibly and collaboratively will ensure a future where 36DTFN contributes positively to humanity’s advancement. | <urn:uuid:d45e8142-c7f0-49c3-a6d1-55611eca12d6> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://ustrendpro.com/the-evolution-of-36dtfn-past-present-and-future | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473735.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222061937-20240222091937-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.886054 | 1,052 | 2.96875 | 3 | 279 |
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego has been awarded a five-year, $20 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to build and operate a powerful supercomputer dedicated to solving critical science and societal problems now overwhelmed by the avalanche of data generated by the digital devices of our era.
Among other features, this unique and innovative supercomputer will employ a vast amount of flash memory to help speed solutions now hamstrung by slower spinning disk technology. Also, new "supernodes" will exploit virtual shared-memory software to create large shared-memory systems that reduce solution times and yield results for applications that now tax even the most advanced supercomputers.
Called Gordon, SDSC's latest supercomputer is slated for installation by Appro International Inc. in mid-2011, and will become a key part of a network of next-generation high-performance computers (HPC) being made available to the research community through an open-access national grid. Details of the new system were announced in advance of the SC09 conference, the leading international conference on high-performance computing, networking, storage and analysis, to be held in Portland, Oregon, November 14-20.
Gordon is the follow-on to SDSC's previously announced Dash system, the first supercomputer to use flash devices. Dash is a finalist in the Data Challenge at SC09.
"We are clearly excited about the potential for Gordon," says SDSC Interim Director Michael Norman, who is also the project's principal investigator. "This HPC system will allow researchers to tackle a growing list of critical 'data-intensive' problems. These include the analysis of individual genomes to tailor drugs to specific patients, the development of more accurate models to predict the impact of earthquakes on buildings and other structures, and simulations that offer greater insights into what's happening to the planet's climate."
"Data-driven scientific exploration is now complementing theory, experimentation and simulation as tools scientists and engineers use in order to make the scientific breakthroughs sought by the National Science Foundation," says José L. Muñoz, deputy director and senior science advisor for the National Science Foundation's Office of Cyberinfrastructure. "SDSC's Gordon will be the most recent tool that can be applied to data-driven scientific exploration. It was conceived and designed to enable scientists and engineers — indeed any area requiring demanding extensive data analysis — to conduct their research unburdened by the significant latencies that impede much of today's progress. Gordon will do for data-driven science what tera-/peta-scale systems have done for the simulation and modeling communities, and provides a new tool to conduct transformative research."
Gordon builds on technology now being deployed at SDSC, including the new Triton Resource and Dash systems. As part of the Triton Resource, Dash leverages lightning-fast flash memory technology already familiar to many from the micro storage world of digital cameras, thumb drives and laptop computers.
"For nearly a quarter century, SDSC has been a pioneer in the field of high-performance computing," says Art Ellis, UC San Diego's vice chancellor for research. "It is therefore fitting that this Center and its staff have been chosen to develop a one-of-a-kind HPC system that not only is powerful, but also will tackle data-intensive research applications that aren't easily handled by the current generation of supercomputers."
When fully configured and deployed, Gordon will feature 245 teraflops of total compute power, 64 terabytes of DRAM, 256 Tbytes of flash memory, and four petabytes of disk storage. For sheer power, when complete, Gordon should rate among the top 30 or so supercomputers in the world.
Though impressive, these statistics only explain part of the machine's special capabilities. Gordon is ideally suited to tackle a variety of problems involving large data sets that are less concerned with raw performance than productivity.
"This will be a state-of-the-art supercomputer that's unlike any HPC machine anywhere," says Anthony Kenisky, vice president of sales for Appro. "Gordon . . . will provide an invaluable platform for academic and commercial scientists, engineers and others needing an HPC system that focuses on the rapid storage, manipulation and analysis of large volumes of data."
A key feature of Gordon will be 32 "supernodes" based on an Intel system utilizing the newest processors available in 2011, and combining several state-of-the-art technological innovations through novel virtual shared-memory software provided by Scale MP Inc. Each supernode consists of 32 compute nodes, capable of 240 gigaflops/node and 64 gigabytes of DRAM. A supernode also incorporates two I/O nodes, each with 4 Tbytes of flash memory. When tied together by virtual shared memory, each of the system's 32 supernodes has the potential of 7.7 Tflops of compute power and 10 Tbytes of memory (2 Tbytes of DRAM and 8 Tbytes of flash memory).
"Moving a physical disk-head to accomplish random I/O is so last-century," says Allan Snavely, associate director of SDSC and co-principal investigator for this innovative system. "Indeed, Charles Babbage designed a computer based on moving mechanical parts almost two centuries ago. With respect to I/O, it's time to stop trying to move protons and just move electrons. With the aid of flash solid-state drives [SSDs], this system should do latency-bound file reads 10 times faster and more efficiently than anything done today."
Flash memory is designed to reduce the "latency time" of passing data to and from processor and spinning disk, and thus provides the missing link between DRAM on each processor and disk.
"Intel High-Performance Solid-State Drives utilize Intel's NAND flash memory that is optimized for the computing platform to deliver a robust, reliable, high-performance storage solution providing this missing link," says Pete Hazen, director of marketing, Intel NAND Solutions Group. "Using Intel SSD solutions, system designers can architect high-performance storage subsystems for these types of data-intensive applications."
Gordon's 32 supernodes will be interconnected via an InfiniBand network, capable of 16 gigabits per second of bi-directional bandwidth — that's eight times faster than some of the most powerful national supercomputers to come on-line in recent months. The combination of raw power, flash technology, and large-shared memory on a single supernode, coupled with high-bandwidth across the system, is expected to reduce the time and complexity often experienced when researchers tackle data-intensive problems that don't scale well on today's massively parallel supercomputers.
"Many of these problems cannot use the 'big flop' machines effectively," says SDSC's Norman. "The reason is simple: data volume is exploding while methods to mine these data are not becoming massively parallel at the same rate; in other words, generating data is relatively easy, while inventing new parallel algorithms is hard."
Moreover, Gordon will be configured to achieve a ratio of addressable memory in terabytes to peak teraflops on each supernode that is greater than 1:1. By contrast, the same metric for many HPC systems is less than 1:10.
"This provides a radically different system balance point for meeting the memory demands of data-intensive applications that may not need a lot of 'flops' and/or may not scale well, but do need a large addressable space," notes Snavely.
The new SDSC system will provide benefits to both academic and industrial researchers in need of special "data-mining" capabilities. For example, scientific databases in astronomy and earth science already contain terabytes of data and continue to grow. These databases currently are stored largely in disk arrays, with access limited by disk read rates.
Gordon should also be invaluable for what's known as "predictive science," whose goal is to create models of real-life phenomena of research interest. Geophysicists within the Southern California Earthquake Center, for instance, are using full three-dimensional seismic tomographic images to obtain realistic models of the earth's crust under Southern California. Such models are critical to planners seeking to understand and predict the impact of large-scale earthquakes on buildings and other structures along major fault lines. However, this research is now limited by the huge quantities of raw data needed to simulate this activity. Gordon, with its large-scale memory on a single node, should speed these computations, creating models that more closely mimic real-life temblors.
Gordon will also enable the manipulation of massive graphs that arise in many data-intensive fields, including bioinformatics, social networks and neuroscience. In these applications, large databases could be loaded into flash memory and queried with much lower latency than if they were resident on disk.
"Many scientific applications need fast, interactive methods to manipulate large volumes of structured data," says Amarnath Gupta, director of SDSC's Advanced Query Processing Laboratory. "With Gordon, it will be possible to place database management systems such as PostgreSQL on the flash drive and get a three-to-four fold improvement in the execution time for many long-running queries that need a high volume of I/O access."
Gordon will be housed in SDSC's 18,000 square-foot, energy-efficient data center on the UC San Diego campus, and will build on SDSC's nearly 25-year experience in deploying, operating and supporting production-quality resources that serve the national community. Faculty from UC San Diego's Computer Science and Engineering department, and Computational Science, Mathematics and Engineering program will integrate Gordon into undergraduate and graduate education courses and curriculum.
No entries found | <urn:uuid:f018ff7f-e2f4-4818-8f94-154ad09a170a> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://acmwebvm01.acm.org/news/50810-nsf-awards-20-million-to-sdsc-to-develop-shared-memory-supercomputer/fulltext | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474573.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225003942-20240225033942-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.936819 | 2,030 | 2.9375 | 3 | 280 |
Summary: A new study reports fluvoxamine, an antidepressant used to treat OCD appears to be effective in stopping sepsis.
Source: University of Virginia Health System.
An antidepressant drug used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder could save people from deadly sepsis, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests.
Sepsis is a significant cause of death around the world. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Infection calls it “the body’s extreme response to an infection.” Essentially, the body’s immune response spirals out of control, and the normally beneficial inflammation becomes harmful. The result can be tissue damage, organ failure or even death.
“Sepsis is very dangerous. In the U.S., 1.7 million get it every year, and 270,000 people die,” said researcher Alban Gaultier, PhD, of UVA’s Department of Neuroscience and its Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG). “Once you get diagnosed, you have a high chance of mortality. And there is no good treatment. Basically, we will try to keep you alive and monitor you as much as we can. So clearly there is a critical need for treatment.”
Gaultier and his team have identified a drug that could offer that treatment – and previous safety testing of the drug could fast-track it into use in hospitals around the country.
A Simple Solution for Sepsis?
The UVA researchers were looking at a little-studied biological process inside our cells when they determined it has an important role in regulating inflammation. They began studying it partly because there are already drugs that can affect players in the process.
“Inflammation, most of the time, is good. It’s when it gets out of control that we need to modulate it,” Gaultier said. “Inflammation is a very precisely controlled reaction. When we need it and have too much, it’s a problem, but when we don’t have enough, it’s also a problem.”
To evaluate the potential of one drug, the antidepressant fluvoxamine, to stop sepsis, Gaultier’s team tested it in a mouse model of the disease. The drug worked very effectively, they found.
While the drug will need to be tested in people to determine its effectiveness at battling human sepsis, previous testing to determine its safety should accelerate that process.
Gaultier hypothesizes that the same biological process could be targeted to generate beneficial inflammation when needed, such as in immunocompromised people. “By inhibiting the receptor, we could activate inflammation in conditions where patient don’t have a proper inflammatory response,” he said.
He plans to continue his research, including testing that hypothesis.
About this neuroscience research article
Funding: The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grants R01 NS083542, R21 NS101281 and T32 GM007055; and the Owens Family Foundation.
Source: Josh Barney – University of Virginia Health System Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com. Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain. Original Research:Abstract for “Modulation of the sigma-1 receptor–IRE1 pathway is beneficial in preclinical models of inflammation and sepsis” by Dorian A Rosen, Scott M. Seki, Anthony Fernández-Castañeda, Rebecca M. Beiter, Jacob D. Eccles, Judith A. Woodfolk and Alban Gaultier in Science Translational Medicine. Published February 6 2019. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aau5266
Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]University of Virginia Health System”Antidepressants Could Stop Deadly Sepsis.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 14 February 2019. <https://neurosciencenews.com/sepsis-antidepressants-10740/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]University of Virginia Health System(2019, February 14). Antidepressants Could Stop Deadly Sepsis. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved February 14, 2019 from https://neurosciencenews.com/sepsis-antidepressants-10740/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]University of Virginia Health System”Antidepressants Could Stop Deadly Sepsis.” https://neurosciencenews.com/sepsis-antidepressants-10740/ (accessed February 14, 2019).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
Modulation of the sigma-1 receptor–IRE1 pathway is beneficial in preclinical models of inflammation and sepsis
Sepsis is an often deadly complication of infection in which systemic inflammation damages the vasculature, leading to tissue hypoperfusion and multiple organ failure. Currently, the standard of care for sepsis is predominantly supportive, with few therapeutic options available. Because of increased sepsis incidence worldwide, there is an urgent need for discovery of novel therapeutic targets and development of new treatments. The recently discovered function of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in regulation of inflammation offers a potential avenue for sepsis control. Here, we identify the ER-resident protein sigma-1 receptor (S1R) as an essential inhibitor of cytokine production in a preclinical model of septic shock. Mice lacking S1R succumb quickly to hypercytokinemia induced by a sublethal challenge in two models of acute inflammation. Mechanistically, we find that S1R restricts the endonuclease activity of the ER stress sensor IRE1 and cytokine expression but does not inhibit the classical inflammatory signaling pathways. These findings could have substantial clinical implications, as we further find that fluvoxamine, an antidepressant therapeutic with high affinity for S1R, protects mice from lethal septic shock and dampens the inflammatory response in human blood leukocytes. Our data reveal the contribution of S1R to the restraint of the inflammatory response and place S1R as a possible therapeutic target to treat bacterial-derived inflammatory pathology. | <urn:uuid:d6cacded-3f05-496a-8009-ee9f4288788d> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://neurosciencenews.com/sepsis-antidepressants-10740/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474573.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225003942-20240225033942-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.911077 | 1,323 | 3.09375 | 3 | 281 |
How we teach and support
Our entire teaching staff is dedicated to the detail and we want to ensure every child achieves to their own potential.
This means ensuring we have a robust system of teaching and support that not only caters to the average (or middle student) – but also the advanced student or the student that needs some extra support.
For learning to take place we need to ensure that every child feels safe, happy and confident within themselves – and so a huge emphasis is placed on a strong wellbeing and support program that achieves just that!
Learning Through Extension
Enrichment opportunities for students at St Michael’s are offered within classrooms on a regular basis. When our assessment data indicates a student is operating at a higher curriculum level, our teaching staff look for ways to further the learning of the student through extending prompts and projects. Extension classes are also offered when a number of students within a level are identified as operating beyond the level. This has taken shape in Extension Mathematics classes, as an example, where students have been led through problem solving tasks which have required team work as well as engaging a range of skills to work through multi-step problems. These programs are designed to challenge students intellectually and help them to develop individual talents of students.
At St Michael’s, we offer several support programs to cater for the wide range of students’ needs. These programs include:
- Individual Needs
- Classroom Literacy Support (inclusive of Reading Recovery strategies to support all students)
- Pastoral Care
- Wellbeing structures (inclusive of active listening skills from staff for students)
- Early Maths Understanding (EMU)
- Multi-Sensory Learning Support
St Michael’s also has access to the resources available at the East Central Zone of Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM). These resources include general curriculum consultancy advice and personnel who provide professional assistance with education programs for children with special needs such as speech pathology, educational psychology and individual needs assessment.
School Wide Positive Behaviours
In 2015, St Michael’s commenced a five-year framework called School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS). This framework is based on improving classroom and school climates, decreasing reactive management, maximising proactive management, improving support for students, and integrating academic and behaviour initiatives. It is a continuum of evidence-based interventions to improve the academic and behavioural outcomes for all students. SWPBS ensures all staff and students understand these school wide expectations, and that there is an explicit approach to behaviour management throughout the school.
At St Michael’s, our school wide, aka SMASH, expectations are:
- Stay Safe
- Make a Difference
- Act Responsibly
- Show Respect
- Help Others
Our SMASH expectations aim to offer a safe and harmonious environment for learning where it is recognised that we are responsible for our own actions. Parents/caregivers are encouraged to spend some time talking about these expectations with their children and how they might translate to the home environment. This will continue to make St Michael’s a safer and happier school for all.
Learning Through Intervention
Students requiring additional support and / or intervention with their learning can access this through a variety of means at St Michael’s School:
- Classroom program / Parent Partnerships – In consultation with the classroom teacher, parents have the opportunity to engage in discussions around additional strategies that can support students in the home eg. specific reading skills or numeracy skills. The nominated strategies can further assist a child to consolidate or embed classroom learning. This level of support also consolidates the role of the parent as a co-educator in their child’s learning journey.
- Small focus group teaching – Reading and Writing sessions at St Michael’s School are conducted using small focus groups, where teachers work with 3-4 students at a time with similar needs in their learning to guide them to next steps. Students are selected for focus groups based whole class assessment data, teacher expertise and knowledge of curriculum and on the ongoing assessments completed in classrooms every day. Numeracy sessions have a similar approach with small focus teaching as well as the use of “enabling prompts” for students who need more structure and guidance. “Extending prompts” are used to assist with students who need extension in their Mathematics learning.
- Strategic Intervention programs – If students require further structured intervention to support their learning, they can be selected for intervention programs. These programs are supported by trained practitioners and will often focus on the key areas of English and Maths. Students are chosen for additional support by their classroom teacher and other staff members, e.g. Learning and Teaching leaders, as part of a ‘Case Management’ process of identification. Intervention programs remain fluid, with students entering at different times and returning to classroom programs as well.
Please note, membership of intervention and extension programs at St Michael’s School remains with the specialist staff, the classroom teacher and the Principal in consultation with parents.
At St Michael’s, student voice is encouraged and valued. Student leadership is therefore emphasised and prevalent throughout the school. Assembly, line-up and meditation are all student led and there are also several opportunities for students in Prep to Year 6 to hold a leadership responsibility in an official capacity. In leadership roles, students are able to strengthen their mentoring and interpersonal skills with their peers, staff, parents and the wider community. By providing many pathways for students to lead and be heard, students can feel more confident and equipped for their transition into Year 7.
Year 6 Student Leadership in 2023 includes roles such as:
St Justin’s School Leaders; Sports Leaders; Arts Leaders; Media & Communications Leaders; Social Justice & Diversity Leaders; Wellbeing Leasers.
Towards the end of the year, all Year 5 students are eligible and encouraged to apply for a Year 6 School Leadership position. School Leaders are active representatives of the school who embody the St Michael’s vision, uphold the school wide expectations and in turn, set an example for fellow students. School Leaders also participate in additional school activities such as representing St Michael’s at Leadership Days, Church events, Open Days and some formal functions, facilitating Assembly and SRC meetings, and leading school sporting occasions.
Year 6 Student Leadership includes roles such as:
St Michael’s School Leaders; Sports Leaders; Arts Leaders; Media & Communications Leaders; Social Justice & Diversity Leaders; Wellbeing Leasers.
Student Representative Council (SRC)
Each term, two students from each class are selected by their peers to form the Student Representative Council (SRC). Representatives speak on behalf of their class at fortnightly meetings which are overseen by our Student Wellbeing Leader. These meetings give students an opportunity to discuss issues arising around the school and allow them to make informed decisions about their school environment.
Kinder to Prep Transition
At St Michael’s School, we believe it is important for children to build familiarity with the school and staff before commencing in the Prep year. This supports both the child and parents to be more at ease with their first few weeks of Primary School, which can be anxiety-ridden for many. Strategies to support families in this transition for St Michael’s School are outlined below:
Kinder Kids Reading Sessions
Throughout Terms 2 and 3 (April – September) St Michael’s conducts Reading Sessions for Kinder children in 3 and 4 year old Kinder whereby they come to experience the school. These are usually held first thing in the morning for an hour, during which children listen to stories, play games and meet our Year 5 students who support the children in connecting with the activities.
Prep Transition Sessions
Once children have been enrolled into Prep, acceptance letters are sent to families in May. St Michael’s School holds four transition sessions during term 4 (October to December) during which children grow further in familiarity with the school and staff. During these sessions, children engage in classroom based activities including literacy, some art / crafts and physical education activities, whilst parent information sessions are being held to inform you of some of the following:
- What to expect in Prep
- Literacy and Numeracy teaching and learning
- Student Wellbeing practices and tips for the home
- School policies
- School unforms
In the final transition session, St Michael’s endeavours to place children in their Prep classroom with their Prep teacher so you and your child will know where you will be going when you commence the Prep year.
St Michael’s School acknowledges that moving schools can be a challenging process, for both students and parents. At St Michael’s, we offer a range of strategies which can support your move to make the transition as smooth as possible:
- A pre-visit
- Buddy System – two students from the class trained and assigned to support transition
- Support from our Student Wellbeing Leader and Learning Diversity Leader – class visits and regular check ins
- Parent Check Ins – the class teacher and school leaders will check in with parents to review how the student is progressing
If you are planning a move for your child, feel free to call the principal, Annie Herbison, to have a discussion about transition on 9885 3105 or email at [email protected]
Isn't it time we got to know each other?
Take our online VIDEO TOUR or book a SCHOOL TOUR!
Meet our principal, teachers, current students, parents, learn about our curriculum opportunities and tips for a smooth start to school. | <urn:uuid:b845a42c-b215-4bb0-87e1-8d79e6476b04> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://smashburton.catholic.edu.au/how-we-support/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474784.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229035411-20240229065411-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.956809 | 1,962 | 2.5625 | 3 | 282 |
When you think of adult education, you probably have different ideas about what type of program you’re looking for. Some of the different types are Postsecondary, Vocational, and Lifelong learning. Listed below are the different types of adult education and their benefits. You might want to explore each type for yourself. You may be surprised to find that you have more options than you thought! Here are a few tips for choosing the right program for you!
Formal and non-formal
In the 1990s, the English adult education sector turned to institutional accreditation as a method of allocating funding. Programmes that lead to an accredited qualification were funded at higher rates than those that don’t. However, this system said little about educational processes or the social goods that they produced. The emphasis on results reinforced individualism and undermined building social capital. Despite this, advocates of bottom-up NFE continue to seek new ways to approach adult education.
What’s the difference between postsecondary and adult education? Although both are postsecondary, they may have very different purposes. In some cases, adult education students may not have adequate contact with postsecondary programs or lack the necessary skills to participate in these programs. Other times, adult education students are in need of additional training or assistance because they’ve lost jobs or cannot find a job that meets their educational needs. Regardless, both types of education are necessary for an individual to advance in his or her career.
The rationale for investing in adult education has always been to build human capital. Local municipalities and civil society have created infrastructure to fill in gaps and setbacks in school. As a result, employers were frustrated and disappointed with the school-centered vocational education. They saw the need to improve the quality and relevance of adult education programs. This article explores the history of adult education and its role in society. It will also examine how vocational adult education is different from traditional schooling and what it is designed to achieve.
In recent years, lifelong learning has become an increasingly popular topic in scientific, policy, and social circles. In 1996, UNESCO declared the Year of Lifelong Learning, with the aim of highlighting the role of adult education in the development of employability. Today, in advanced industrial societies, adults are expected to work for the duration of their lives, which is why they must remain work-competent within dynamic workplace requirements and changing occupational practices.
The Genie story illustrates the importance of socialization in human societies. Socialization, also known as the process of preparing a newcomer to a group, refers to preparing a person to think and behave like other members of the group. It is typically viewed from the point of view of the group, in which a new member replaces an old one. Socialization occurs in a variety of situations, including child rearing, teaching someone a new game, and orienting a new member to a culture.
Opportunities to compete in a younger job market
While the employment rate of high school graduates without college is still low (roughly seventy percent), the employment rate of 25-34 year-olds with bachelor’s degrees is eighty percent. Not only are higher degrees more valuable, they’re also more profitable. On average, a bachelor’s degree holder makes around $48,000 in their first five years, and an associate’s degree holder makes nearly six times as much at their peak. | <urn:uuid:45a5e5d7-271e-458c-ad8a-15f8ef8e3c50> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.snocozy.com/the-different-types-of-adult-education-and-their-benefits.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474784.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229035411-20240229065411-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.970987 | 697 | 2.8125 | 3 | 283 |
Researchers say they may have worked out how to reverse brain aging by decades in a ‘jaw-dropping’ scientific breakthrough.
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of Queensland in Australia, found that when given PF4, a protein naturally found in the blood, older mice recovered the sharpness of middle age, and young mice got smarter.
Researchers examined the effects of PH4 on two-year-old mice, equivalent to a 70-year-old human, and said their cognitive function was restored to that of a 30 or 40-year-old.
Older animals treated with PF4, a protein made by platelets and naturally found in the blood, performed better on memory and learning tasks
PF4, a blood cell made by platelets, can help restore brain function by calming the immune system and stopping inflammation, which leads to aging in the brain and body.
Scientists also discovered a blood transfusion from younger mice to older mice, exercise and klotho, a gene involved in the aging process, were all ways to introduce more PF4 into the body.
Saul Villeda, associate director of the UCSF Bakar Aging Research Institute and senior author of the study, said: ‘Young blood, klotho, and exercise can somehow tell your brain, “Hey, improve your function.”
‘With PF4, we’re starting to understand the vocabulary behind this rejuvenation.’
Dr Dena Dubal, a professor of neurology at UCSF and a researcher who studied the effects of klotho, said: ‘When we realized we had independently and serendipitously found the same thing, our jaws dropped.
‘The fact that three separate interventions converged on platelet factors truly highlights the validity and reproducibility of this biology.
‘The time has come to pursue platelet factors in brain health and cognitive enhancement.’
However, the research is still preliminary and would need to be studied in humans as well as mice.
It is also unclear what knock-on effects shutting the immune system down to prevent aging could have on the human body, such as affecting our ability to fight off disease.
In the PF4 study, researchers found injecting the protein into older animals restored some of their brain function by calming down the immune system in the body and brain.
These animals performed better on memory and learning tasks.
Villeda said: ‘PF4 actually causes the immune system to look younger; it’s decreasing all of these active pro-aging immune factors, leading to a brain with less inflammation, more plasticity and eventually more cognition.
‘We’re taking 22-month-old mice, equivalent to a human in their 70s, and PF4 is bringing them back to function close to their late 30s, early 40s.’
In the second study, scientists found the body produced more PF4 after a shot of klotho.
PF4 had a dramatic effect on the part of the brain responsible for making memories and increased its formation of new connections.
It gave both old and young animals a brain boost in behavioral tests, which Dr Dubal said means ‘there’s room to go even in young brains to improve cognitive function.’
In the research that studied exercise, the team found platelets released PF4 into the bloodstream following physical activity.
But Tara Walker, lead study author and professor of neuroscience at the University of Queensland, said: ‘For a lot of people with health conditions, mobility issues or of advanced age, exercise isn’t possible, so pharmacological intervention is an important area of research.
‘We can now target platelets to promote neurogenesis, enhance cognition and counteract age-related cognitive decline.’
The three papers were published in the journals Nature, Nature Aging and Nature Communications. | <urn:uuid:85a40419-bd17-4104-8599-43b727d22bd2> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://miani.com/2023/08/16/scientists-de-age-brains-of-mice-by-decades-in-jaw-dropping-breakthrough-and-they-say-it-could-work-in-humans/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475311.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301125520-20240301155520-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.957571 | 820 | 2.890625 | 3 | 284 |
Since the 1990s, there has been an increasing focus on special education due to the American Disabilities Act being passed. The change over time in prioritizing equal access and accommodations has led to new forms of assistive technology being created to aid people both in and outside of the classroom. Some of the technological innovations come in the form of smartboards, Ipads, clickers, computers, and special keyboards. On these platforms, apps have been created with new fonts, games, videos, and communication tools to help people with special needs learn in a new fashion. Some critiques of these programs emerged due to the lack of human interaction that may occur, and that may hinder the social aspects that the educational system provides for students with a disability–mental, physical, emotional, etc. Larry Cuban is a researcher who investigates the impact of technology on the educational system. He inspects whether technology altered classrooms live up to the promises that the new systems guarantee in the educational system over time. My research presents information about assistive technological programs in the special education system: although historian Larry Cuban has questioned whether technology changes classroom teaching and learning, has assistive technology for students with special needs been an exception to this rule over time?
I argue that assistive technological programs are beneficial in special education classrooms when the programs are intertwined into the normal classroom routine overtime. If introduced at once, it may cause a sensory overload for the students which may reduce the effectiveness of the assistive program. This may also decrease the human interaction too quickly and negatively affect the socialization of the students with adult leaders and fellow peers. However, there are benefits to the introduction of assistive technology programs in special education classroom which is why they should still be introduced to the daily learning process in the classroom. Advancements in technology have increased over time with faster processors and more interactive programs, and lots of promises have been made about how beneficial the ‘progress’ will be. Cuban delves into the truth about how reliable the beneficial promises about implementing technology into the classroom actually are. By examining multiple sources such as written works by Larry Cuban, blogs, and scholarly articles, this paper will address both how assistive technology has been implemented in special education classrooms over time and how effective the programs implementations are.
The introduction of technology into classrooms in more recent years has been a process that has been critiqued by people concerned that technology will lessen the learning experience. The introduction of computers to schools “as an instructional tool has been preceded by enormous publicity and speculation, obscuring many of the substantive issues surrounding its real and potential uses” (Howell, 1). Many educators and parents are anxious about computers being implemented into any classroom because of the little evidence of the beneficial qualities of computers with furthering education that was initially available. However, even as research has been done on the introduction of technology into schools, “the general findings of which are a sober reminder of how difficult it is to translate innovation of any kind into practice” even when “important observational and naturalistic studies have been conducted” (Rieth and Woodward, 1). Essentially, a point that researchers are trying to make to people who are wary of these implementations is that new systems of doing things has always taken time to adjust to. This can be applied to educational systems as well as ways of cleaning or communicating. The intensity of speculators has been even greater with implementations of technology to special education classrooms because there needs to be a lot of individualization into the programs.
Multiple forms of technology have been introduced into the classroom, starting in the 1970s and, in the 1990s—the programs became more advanced. One form of technology—that this paper focuses on—is assistive technology which “employs various types of services and devices designed to help people with disabilities function within their environment” (Blackhurst, 2). Assistive technology for people with special needs is comprised of different strategies, devices—mechanical or not—that may be specialized to a certain disability, aids, etcetera that “(a) assist them in learning, (b) make the environment more accessible, (c) enable them to compete in the workplace, (d) enhance their independence, or (e) otherwise improve their quality of life” (Blackhurst, 2). However, a common critique of the goal of assistive technology in classrooms is that the use of the technological devices “should lead to cognitive gains that are superior to traditional instructional methods” (Woodward and Cuban, 6). This claim works to discredit teachers of the vital work that they do for the students. Emphasis of the word ‘should’ in the quote highlights that the introduction of technology is not perfect; there is trial and error with the implementation of new teaching techniques and technology—especially in the classroom. Because of this, researches argue that assistive technology “must also be used in combination” with other teaching devices and methods (Blackhurst, 4). Also, the programs are more beneficial to the learning process when they are introduced over time so that there is time and space to tweak the different forms of assistive technology to best aid the students and teachers.
Furthermore, the introduction of computers into special education classrooms over time as assistive technology has had both a positive and negative response. There can be some more personalization within the programming of computers to the individual student which can help with them learning at the specific pace that is most beneficial to them:
“Likewise for special-needs students, who find learning via e-readers, computers and software to be more engaging. And because lessons through such devices can be personalized for the students rather than a single lesson for the whole class, children with learning disabilities find themselves able to handle even advanced lessons and reach their fullest potential” (n.a., 1).
For many, this is an added draw to adding assistive technology into the classroom. The ability to manipulate the technology has not always been a factor in assistive programs. For example, when braille was introduced in 1829, everyone who used it had to learn it and apply it in the same manner which made a beneficial advancement less applicable and helpful. For this reason, “the setting factors that determine when and where computers will be used in the classroom, including their location, scheduling, and patterns of usage among students and teachers” are vital components to implementing assistive technological programs in special education classrooms (Howell, 1). A lot can be learned from older implementations of programs for people with special needs that guided introducing new programs in the past forty years.
An important timeline in the implementation of technology that lead to the introduction of the computer and other devices. Beginning in the 1970s, “attempts to summarize the effectiveness of technology in special education” began appearing due to the beginning stages of microcomputers (Woodward and Cuban, 5). The device continued to be created and became mass produced in the 1980s and is considered to be “the most influential technology of the late 20th century” (Blackhurst, 1). The microcomputer became a template for more modern forms of computers and tablets and their implications into the classroom today. Yet, the microcomputers were not introduced to teachers or students individually because “the 1980s also witnessed an increased emphasis on assistive technologies and the emergence of technology literature and computer software targeted directly at special education” (Blackhurst, 1). From this overdose of technology, researchers found that negative responses to assistive technology appeared at a heightened rate. Parents and teachers were wary “that technology’s primary use was to teach content material or basic skills; that is, in those studies, technology was used as an electronic tutor” (Woodward and Cuban, 5). For special education classrooms in particular, this posed a major concern about losing the individualized approach that comes from Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and teacher-student interactions. The goal of assistive technology, as seen earlier, is not to act as a tutor, but to make the daily life of a person with a disability easier and more accessible. In the classroom, the technology also helps to provide equal access for all students in the building, even if environmental factors vary. The late 1980s also had legislation being passed—the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act—where Congress said that technology is beneficial for people with disabilities and should be allowed/accommodated for. Thus, the 1980s served as a transition period into the 1990s in terms of awareness and computer advancements.
Once the American Disabilities Act (ADA) passed in 1990, there was an increased focus on special education classrooms. With the ADA, a shift about the function of assistive technology occurred: “the remedial and special education literature abounds with a number of effective interventions, such as direct instruction, peer tutoring, and cooperative learning” (Woodward and Cuban, 6). The transition in perception around assistive technology use in special education classrooms suggests that teachers and parents are fining success in the alterations of the technology as it develops overtime. Plus, at this point in time, computers were starting to be seen more in the classroom on a regular basis; in fact, in a survey about technology use, “all of the special education teachers surveyed thought learning about computers was important and thought computers should be used in subjects other than math” (Elkins, 3). Not only is there a shift in the effectiveness of technology in the classroom, but teachers are also becoming more aware and versed in the different applications of the programs to most benefit the students. Cuban notes this “as a modest shift in the spectrum from non-users to occasional users and from occasional users to serious ones,” and he accounts this to the ADA being passed in 1990 and a heightened drive in teachers to explore ways of greater inclusion (Woodward and Cuban, 122). Also, the “focus on instructional design variables” around this time helped in “identifying the impact of critical instructional variables” on “potentially significant implications because these features could be added to or subtracted” to programs for students with disabilities (Woodward and Cuban, 8). The design variables are a step towards solving the problem around assistive technology with needing individualized plans for the students in special education classrooms to align with their IEPs.
Today—the early 2000s—is a technology centered world, but there are still concerns around technology being used in special education classrooms. Many parents are concerned that there is too great a dependence on technology in schools as some transition from textbooks to computers and Ipads. This is a positive in a sense for students who use keyboards to communicate—sometimes seen with students on the Autism Spectrum—because it lessens the emphasis on the student using something that signifies them as ‘different’. Yet, a key point to emphasize is that “the ultimate decision as to how or whether they will be used is left generally to the individual teachers” (Elkins, 1). Different attitudes toward teaching with technology generally relate to “teacher attitudes toward computing, [and] therefore, are critical if computer are to be successfully implemented in special education classes” (Elkins, 1). This discussion relates back to the transition in the number of teachers moving towards technology-based learning back in the late 1990s. Some teachers use “videodisc programs…with an entire class of students” to teach the general lesson, and then work individually with the students to work through remaining questions about the overall learning goal (Woodward and Cuban, 11). A rebuttal to this program—using technology only as a general introduction and not for the students—is that some applications are actually better for teacher organization and allow for the programming to be individualized for each student if they log into an account:
“Applications such as Google Classroom help teachers stay better organized and connected with their class while also tracking a student’s academic progress. This has helped to yield critical information regarding the learning process and performance of special-needs students, and subsequently, teachers can create more customized lesson plans for those students as well as determine how technological devices and software applications can better be used to assist them in their instruction” (n.a., 1).
However, the knowledge that this is not a unanimous practice emphasizes that “new technologies will not be easily integrated without a more definitive understanding of the interactional context into which they are being introduced” (Howell, 1). Instead, many people emphasize that the individual student matters more in the education process than the actual implementation into the program. Also, the setting of the classroom being a communitive place actually allows assistive technology to be a segway for more complex forms of reasoning because there can be collaboration with the other students in the classroom (Howell, 1). Therefore, the current debates around the implementation of assistive technology in special education classrooms is still fairly similar in the major conflicts that the discussion faces. Yet, with computers and programs, the installment of updates lets technology update to the newest version each second meaning that the newest programs are slowly upgrading to allow teachers and students time to get comfortable with assistive programs.
Overall, the use of assistive technology in special education classrooms is still widely debated today because of the potential lack in individualization and the lack of systematization across education systems. If teachers use technology in the forms of keyboards for communication, individualized apps for interactive learning, and smartboards with clickers for whole-class discussion, then there may be success with the programs. Yet, they must be introduced and advanced in increments to the classroom because they could inhibit socialization and communication techniques if used too quickly. In the past forty or so years, teachers and researchers have worked to improve the introduction techniques of assistive technology, especially after the ADA. Larry Cuban’s research on the effects of technology in the classroom are challenged by the use in special education classrooms due to the emphasis on one-on-one interactions between the student and teacher or aid. Moreover, the research around assistive technology in special education classrooms complicates the introduction of general technology because the purpose around assistive technology is slightly more geared to advancing skills that me need more fine-tuning for students with disabilities than students who are not in the special education classroom. Therefore, if assistive technology is integrated into special education classrooms in conjunction with standard classroom techniques and works to individualize programs based on student needs, then it is beneficial for the learning process and teaching practices in special education classrooms.
For a helpful infographic, follow this link:
50th-Anniversary-Timeline.Pdf. https://csd.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/607/2017/06/50th-Anniversary-Timeline.pdf. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.
“Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities.” The Tech Edvocate, 21 Nov. 2016, https://www.thetechedvocate.org/assistive-technology-students-disabilities/.
Blackhurst, A. Edward. “Perspectives on Applications of Technology in the Field of Learning Disabilities.” Learning Disability Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 2, 2005, pp. 175–78. JSTOR, JSTOR, doi:10.2307/1593622.
Elkins, Ruth. “Attitudes of Special Education Personnel Toward Computers.” Educational Technology, vol. 25, no. 7, 1985, pp. 31–34. JSTOR.
Howell, Richard D. “Technology and Change in Special Education: An Interactional Perspective.” Theory Into Practice, vol. 29, no. 4, 1990, pp. 276–82. JSTOR.
Woodward, John, and Larry Cuban. Technology, Curriculum, and Professional Development: Adapting Schools to Meet the Needs of Students With Disabilities. Corwin Press, 2001.
Woodward, John, and Herbert Rieth. “A Historical Review of Technology Research in Special Education.” Review of Educational Research, vol. 67, no. 4, Dec. 1997, pp. 503–36. SAGE Journals, doi:10.3102/00346543067004503. | <urn:uuid:eae82c32-e66b-43b0-a97c-a8036354cd97> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | http://commons.trincoll.edu/edreform/2019/05/assistive-technology-for-students-with-special-needs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473360.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221002544-20240221032544-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.954283 | 3,356 | 3.5 | 4 | 285 |
Thirty-five-year-old Shawn Crockett began having epileptic seizures when he was 6 months old. In second grade, his classmates watched in horror as he suffered a seizure that lasted more than four minutes, his skin turning blue from lack of oxygen. From that point forward, Shawn saw a neurologist once or twice a year.
Shawn was diagnosed with epilepsy, a nervous system disorder where brain activity is excessive and abnormal, causing periods of unusual behavior or seizures. An estimated 1.2% of the total U.S. population — about 3.4 million Americans — are affected by epilepsy. Epileptic seizures may be related to a brain injury or genetics, or they many have an immune, brain structure, or metabolic cause. But most often, the cause is unknown.
Over the years, Shawn’s doctors tried several medications, some of which caused terrible side effects, including suicidal thoughts and even an increase in the frequency of his seizures. One medication caused him to experience over 90 seizures in a single month.
When Shawn turned 18, he began researching treatments for epilepsy. Based on his findings, he traveled from his home in East Texas to multiple hospitals and treatment centers, including two in Dallas and another in Louisiana. But no one could provide a definitive diagnosis, much less a definitive cure. “One hospital said they couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but they wanted to cut out a portion of my left temporal and occipital lobe, saying they thought it might help,” he says. “I was like, ‘Nah, I think I’ll pass.’”
When Shawn was 29, he and his fiancée, Tana, moved to Houston to pursue their careers — Shawn as an EMT (emergency medical technician) and Tana as a surgical technician. Shawn asked around for recommendations for good neurologists and found Philip Blum, MD, a neurologist with Mischer Neuroscience Associates, affiliated with Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center. “Dr. Blum heard my story and looked over my medical records and said, ‘I don’t want to waste your time. I don’t want to hold you up. I’m sending you to Dr. Tandon at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. Because the chance that yet another medication is going to help you is close to zero, and the chance that seizure surgery could help you is very high.’”
Neurosurgeon Nitin Tandon, MD, is professor and chairman ad interim at the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston), where he serves as director of the Epilepsy Surgery Program and co-director of the Texas Institute for Restorative Neurotechnologies. He also serves as chief of neurosurgery at Mischer Neuroscience Institute at Memorial Hermann-TMC.
In March 2016, the couple met with Dr. Tandon and his colleague Stephen Thompson, MD, a board-certified clinical neurophysiologist with a specific clinical interest in epilepsy and epilepsy surgery. Dr. Thompson is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School. Both are members of the Texas Comprehensive Epilepsy Program (TCEP) at UTHealth Neurosciences, a large, comprehensive academic and research-based program that provides the full continuum of neuroscience care.
Shawn underwent a comprehensive evaluation that began with an electroencephalogram (EEG), a test that detects electrical activity in the brain, and video monitoring in the hospital’s epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU). He also underwent a neuropsychological evaluation and MRI.
“Shawn came to us with a history of seizures that had not been responsive to maximal medication treatment,” explains Dr. Tandon. “So we knew he broadly fit into the rubric of medically refractory epilepsy, or medically uncontrollable epilepsy. This is a common diagnosis; about one-third of all epilepsy cases are classified as refractory.”
Dr. Tandon says that some of Shawn’s seizures were really severe, convulsive seizures, and some were less severe, characterized by confusion, lip smacking, and loss of speech and awareness. The latter symptoms fit into the diagnosis of focal onset impaired awareness seizures, also known as complex partial seizures.
Tana came to know Shawn’s seizures and even came up with a way of determining when the more subtle ones were occurring. “I would ask him, ‘What color is the sky?’ And if he was having a seizure, he would answer ‘yes.’ He would listen to direction, but it was like he wasn’t really there,” she recalls.
She says Shawn’s seizures were triggered by anxiety, sleep deprivation, or missing his meds. “If he missed a dose, he would have a seizure within 20 minutes,” she says.
“Shawn’s seizures correlated with subtle evidence of volume loss or shrinkage of the hippocampus, the part of the brain that has to do with memory, and the temporal lobe, which has to do with memory and some aspects of language,” says Dr. Tandon.
Drs. Thompson and Tandon had several discussions with Shawn and Tana about treatment options and next steps, so that Shawn could decide which treatment option he preferred. “We explained that with the diagnosis of a hippocampal sclerosis, or hippocampal epilepsy, the traditional approach is the anterior temporal lobectomy, which involves removing, or resecting, the damaged portion of the brain. But we also told him that over the last six to seven years we’ve been employing the less invasive laser ablation with excellent results. Shawn chose laser ablation.”
In March 2017, Dr. Tandon performed the procedure at Memorial Hermann-TMC. “When performing this procedure we make a small incision on the back of the head and, using the laser probe, destroy the region of the hippocampus and amygdala causing the seizures,” explains Dr. Tandon. “This is done with great precision. Then the patient is taken to the MRI scanner, where we turn on the laser and concurrently use the scanner to measure the temperature inside the brain. We use that as a way of gauging the extent of ablation that needs to occur.”
Dr. Tandon, working in close collaboration with other UTHealth Neurosciences physicians affiliated with Memorial Hermann-TMC, has performed over 1,000 cranial operations for the treatment of epilepsy. “We are committed to innovation, the use of new technologies and advancing the field,” says Dr. Tandon. “We have been one of the busiest epilepsy surgery programs in the nation for the last 12 to 15 years. There is simply no substitute for experience and skill when it comes to brain surgery.”
Since his surgery, with the exception of one seizure, Shawn has been free of the seizures that plagued him since infancy. He has reduced his medications from 28 pills a day to eight. He is finally able to drive. And the couple have a 1-year-old son.
Dr. Tandon and Shawn both say that there are still a lot of misconceptions surrounding epilepsy. “A lot of people think that epilepsy is disabling and incompatible with a normal, healthy life, incompatible with having a family,” says Dr. Tandon. “And people like Shawn show that this is not so. They have regular lives, jobs, and families. There's an enormous stigma associated with epilepsy that we'd like to help eradicate.” | <urn:uuid:dfeee82d-a400-46a4-936b-ea0d5677a7a4> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://memorialhermann.org/patients-visitors/patient-stories/shawns-story-free-from-lifetime-epileptic-seizures | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473360.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221002544-20240221032544-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.968117 | 1,602 | 2.53125 | 3 | 286 |
What every parent should know
It’s the question on most parents’ lips: how can you best support your child at school without being a tiger parent and pushing too hard? A new book How to Succeed At School: What Every Parent Should Know (£15, published by Routledge in paperback on February 3, 2020) might help you get the balance right, and answer some of those questions you have about your child’s education which often go unanswered. It aims to cut through jargon to supply parents with everything they need to help children do well and to foster a confident, curious and motivated approach to learning.
It’s written by leading education journalists Wendy Berliner (formerly senior education journalist at The Guardian) and Judith Judd (a former editor of The Times Educational Supplement). From talking to other parents and teachers through the course of their careers and as parents themselves, the authors began to feel that parents were often being left in the dark about some of the most important issues in education.
They believed that important studies and research about how best to support children’s education at home were hidden away in specialist journals, and written in jargon that parents would not have access to or be able to understand. Using key research studies and data which, until now, has largely been hidden away in academic journals, they are putting this vital information into the hands of parents and teachers for the first time, in an accessible and user-friendly way. Key areas include:
- How parents can ‘make or break‘ their child’s education by what they do at home.
- How to know when your child is ready for school.
- Why the first year in the classroom makes all the difference.
- How to provide the right conditions for motivation.
- Why curiosity is the superhero of education and how to keep it alive.
- Myths and realities around neuroscience, genetics and learning styles.
- The role of parents and how all parents can help their children learn.
- What teachers need to know about important research and studies and how this impacts in the classroom. | <urn:uuid:fd37996b-b29d-4d6a-82e1-96d42c18c549> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.rightstartonline.co.uk/news/what-every-parent-should-know | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473360.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221002544-20240221032544-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.972587 | 428 | 2.8125 | 3 | 287 |
I will give $1000 (US dollars) to the first person or group who can prove that taking learning styles into account in designing instruction can produce meaningful learning benefits.
I’ve been suspicious about the learning-styles bandwagon for many years. The learning-style argument has gone something like this: If instructional designers know the learning style of their learners, they can develop material specifically to help those learners, and such extra efforts are worth the trouble.
I have my doubts, but am open to being proven wrong.
Here’s the criteria for my Learning-Styles Instructional-Design Challenge:
- The learning program must diagnose learners’ learning styles. It must then provide different learning materials/experiences to those who have different styles.
- The learning program must be compared against a similar program that does not differentiate the material based on learning styles.
- The programs must be of similar quality and provide similar information. The only thing that should vary is the learning-styles manipulation.
- The comparison between the two versions (the learning-style version and the non-learning-style version) must be fair, valid, and reliable. At least 70 learners must be randomly assigned to the two groups (with at least 35 minimum in each group completing the experience). The two programs must have approximately the same running time. For example, the time required by the learning-style program to diagnose learning styles can be used by the non-learning-styles program to deliver learning. The median learning time for the programs must be no shorter than 25 minutes.
- Learners must be adults involved in a formal workplace training program delivered through a computer program (e-learning or CBT) without a live instructor. This requirement is to ensure the reproducability of the effects, as instructor-led training cannot be precisely reproduced.
- The learning-style program must be created in an instructional-development shop that is dedicated to creating learning programs for real-world use. Programs developed only for research purposes are excluded. My claim is that real-world instructional design is unlikely to be able to utilize learning styles to create learning gains.
- The results must be assessed in a manner that is relatively authentic–at a minimum level learners should be asked to make scenario-based decisions or perform activities that simulate the real-world performance the program teaches them to accomplish. Assessments that only ask for information at the knowledge level (e.g., definitions, terminology, labels) are NOT acceptable. The final assessment must be delayed at least one week after the end of the training. The same final assessment must be used for both groups. It must fairly assess the whole learning experience.
- The magnitude of the difference in results between the learning-style program and the non-learning-style program must be at least 10%. (In other words, the average of the learning-styles scores subtracted by the average of the non-learning-styles scores must be more than 10% of the non-learning-styles scores). So for example, if the non-learning-styles average is 50, then the learning-styles score must be equal to 55 or more. This magnitude is to ensure that the learning-styles program produces meaningful benefits. 10% is not too much to ask.
- The results must be statistically significant at the p<.05 level. Appropriate statistical procedures must be used to gauge the reliability of the results. Cohen’s d effect size should be equal to .4 or more (a small to medium effect size according to Cohen, 1992).
- The learning-style program cannot cost more than twice as much as the non-learning-style program to develop, nor can it take more than twice as long to develop. I want to be generous here.
- The results can be documented by unbiased parties.
To reiterate, the challenge is this:
Can an e-learning program that utilizes learning-style information outperform an e-learning program that doesn’t utilize such information by 10% or more on a realistic test of learning, even it is allowed to cost up to twice as much to build?
$1,000 says it just doesn’t happen in the real-world of instructional design. $1,000 says we ought to stop wasting millions trying to cater to this phantom curse. | <urn:uuid:1a542932-c90f-4a68-bc88-0fcf109a7984> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.worklearning.com/tag/learning-styles-challenge-instructional-design-1000/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473360.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221002544-20240221032544-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.936785 | 885 | 2.75 | 3 | 288 |
With the advancement of technology, every aspect of our lives is inevitably transformed by it, and education is no exception. Now, incorporating technology in education is no longer a choice but a necessity. There are various tools and platforms available online that help us to do the same; however, among all, Google Classroom stands out as a game changer.
Google Classroom as a platform is primarily recognized as a place for all sorts of online education. However, its flexibility and innovation have transformed teaching methods and taken them to the next level for adult education as well.
In this article, we will dive deep into adult education and how one can use Google Classroom for adult education.
In this piece, we have listed 5 innovative ways to incorporate in Google Classroom for smooth and easy learning. From interactive discussion forums that create a community to the modern flexible flipped classroom approach, we will see how Google Classroom is an innovation on its own.
If you want to make the most out of your Google classroom classes, try incorporating these 5 techniques.
Now, without further delay, let us check out these 5 innovative methods.
Interactive Discussions and Collaborations
With Online Forums and Discussions
When it comes to education online, having a community is of utmost importance. This is especially true for adult education. Adult education is solely dependent on interactive and engaging learning. No, how do you get access to such kind of education online? Google Classroom is your answer.
Creating online forums and discussion groups in Google Classroom will allow you to have one such community of like-minded adults. From exploring complex topics to brainstorming innovative ideas, online discussions in Google Classroom can transform the learning experience as you can learn and share from fellow adult peers. It can also be a place to share your doubts regarding any lecture or session or a place to find and share more study material on topics you are learning. Being an adult learner is all about helping each other out.
Another great interactive activity to boost the productivity of your lectures is to incorporate projects and demonstrations in it. Adult learning experience often needs application and demonstration-based learning approaches. But, it may seem too hard to achieve it online. However, that is not true at all. Google Classroom has got a perfect solution for this. Through Google Docs or Slides, learners can make the experience more practical and thus make it easier to grasp topics and ideas.
Increased productivity, flexibility, and accessibility
With Pre-recorded Lectures
The concept of flipped classrooms is a relatively new topic, but without a doubt, it’s one of the most effective ways to make studying fruitful and exciting. Students can study by watching pre-recorded lectures at their own time and pace. It is beneficial for adult education as being an adult with work and other responsibilities takes up most of the time. Thus, attending regular classes may not seem possible. So, pre-recorded lectures are a game changer as you can watch them after adulting for the day. Different from traditional classrooms, this also lets a learner revisit specific topics in one go in case they fail to understand.
Via Discussion forums for Q&A sessions
Now, in traditional classrooms, the teacher is always there to listen to queries and answer them. But what is the Google Classroom equivalent of it? It is where discussion forums for Q&A sessions come to help. Having a forum means you can interact with teachers and fellow students alike.
You can ask a question or answer anyone else’s question and even start a discussion thread. This feature is especially helpful as an adult as you can keep your question posted and check out the answer in your spare time—no need to maintain any schedule to get in touch with your teachers. As an adult student, time flexibility is most crucial. Arranging a Q&A session is also possible with Google Classroom. These sessions create a collaborative space where understanding deepens with interaction and engagement.
Personalization on assignments
With Quizzes and Surveys
An innovative way that makes Google Classroom fruitful is by using Assignments and surveys with deadlines. As an adult, it must be hard to take an exam from 10 am to 12 pm as during the day; you must be busy with either your professional life or your home. But, to keep up with your learning, exams are also necessary. So, as a solution, Google Classroom has come up with assignments and surveys with a specified deadline. You can take your assignments anytime, any day you want, as long as they are submitted within the deadline. Do it at night or on weekends; it’s easy.
With Personalized feedback on assignments
To optimize any course or class, it is essential to have a feedback system for students, and Google Classroom understands this. Google Classroom’s feedback feature allows lecturers and teachers to evaluate assignments and provide personalized insights through comments on an assignment or quiz.
As an adult learner, it is very important. Most of the time, adult learners self-study without any tutor help. So, to understand what areas need improvement, they need personalized feedback on what assignment they already submitted. This way, they can easily self-learn and go about their course with ease. Also, since adult learners often have diverse backgrounds, the teachers must understand their requirements and give feedback so that they can improve.
Communication and Collaboration
Adult learners need an effective way to keep track of their course, as they need help to check and recheck constantly. Suppose you are doing your 9 to 5 job and simultaneously taking a course on Google Classroom. Now, is it possible for you to check for updates in Google Classroom throughout the day in between work? Not! This is where you can use the “announcements” feature of Google Classroom. Announcements allow you to put notifications for important reminders and updates so that you do not need to revisit the platform time and time. Pretty convenient, right?
With Practical applications
As adult learners, what we learn is not theoretical but practical. So, ensuring that what we learn can be applied in real life is essential. It can be anything: a personal skill or new technology to help you advance your professional career. With this in mind, Google Classroom introduced collaboration features on the platform. Google Classroom offers many collaboration features like Google Workspace, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Meet, and more. With these features, you can incorporate practically whatever you learned. Adult learners need practical skills; if you can practically implement your skills while learning, you will retain them better. This will not only save you time for studying but also will make you corporate-ready.
Professional Development and growth
Talk sessions and conferences
Adult education is all about professional Development and growth, and Google Classroom is the very essence of it all. Learners can engage in collaborative skill-building through talk sessions and conferences via this platform. The “Meet” feature on Google Classroom allows you to participate in insightful talk sessions and connect to professionals, guest lecturers, and industry experts worldwide. Participating in such sessions is a great way to advance my career and know what skills are most in demand in the industry.
Industry requirements and expert talks
As most adult learners join courses to upskill themselves for career growth, they must know they are taking the right path. Whether a skill is relevant or not in the current market scenario – only an industry expert can say this. Thus, talk sessions with such experts held on Google Classroom can help a learner understand that. Not just that, such sessions also discuss how to implement your newly learned skills in a real-life scenario. It is another way to use Google Classroom to get valuable insights into the industry requirements and use them to your advantage.
Taking Advantage of Google Classroom for Adult Education
When it comes to revolutionizing education, Google Classroom is at the forefront, without a doubt. Through interactive discussions, flipped classrooms, presentations, and virtual field trips, adult learners experience nothing less than traditional learning but in the comfort of their homes. For adult learners, it is essential to use their free time to educate themselves.
With all these features, you can learn and transform your career and grow professionally.
These extra tips are just a way to optimize the Google Classroom learning experience to cater to adult learners and fit it into their busy schedules. That said, try out these innovative ways on your own and see the magic happen! Happy learning! | <urn:uuid:43f410c3-d038-43bd-9f0b-62876314f00e> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://gauravtiwari.org/google-classroom-for-adult-education/?utm_source=self&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=related_posts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473738.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222093910-20240222123910-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.953191 | 1,739 | 2.578125 | 3 | 289 |
New: PIAAC Skills Map: State and County Indicators of Adult Literacy and Numeracy
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently released the PIAAC Skills Map: State and County Indicators of Adult Literacy and Numeracy. The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is a cyclical, large-scale study that was developed under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The assessment focuses on workplace skills needed for successful participation in 21st-century society and the global economy.
This survey replaced the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) that was published in 2003. The NAAL’s survey measured adults’ literacy performance and estimated the percentage of adults lacking basic prose literacy skills. Prose literacy skills are the skills and knowledge necessary to perform tasks like reading the newspaper, general instructions, or directions. The Literacy Cooperative used the NAAL data to publish the number of adults reading below an eighth grade level in our area. Since the two surveys are measuring skills differently, the PIAAC information doesn’t equate to a grade level of literacy like NAAL.
The following infographic gives a brief overview of how PIAAC reports the levels of literacy and numeracy. It compares the levels of literacy by county, state, and the nation. It is important to note that Cuyahoga County is equal to the state and nation at the highest levels of literacy and numeracy. It is also important to note that we have opportunity for improvement to engage more adults in advancing their literacy levels to be at the proficient level. The Literacy Cooperative is working with others including ProLiteracy and the Center for Community Solutions to do a deeper dive into this survey and hope to match the literacy and numeracy levels to occupations along career pathways. Our goal is to have the information ready this fall to present in a virtual session.
We will use this data to continue to promote the use of contextualized curriculum for literacy advancement and connection to career pathways and in-demand occupations. We will advocate for policy and funding for better connection of adult education and workforce development programming to address the needs of adults below proficiency. We will continue to focus on advancing literacy through our 2Gen Community Call to Action. | <urn:uuid:8c2246c2-5bb4-4ab4-8d1c-941965193a85> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://literacycooperative.org/piaac-skills-map/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473738.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222093910-20240222123910-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.927468 | 468 | 3.109375 | 3 | 290 |
Researchers discover first sensor of Earth's magnetic field in an animal
A team of scientists and engineers at The University of Texas at Austin has identified the first sensor of the Earth's magnetic field in an animal, finding in the brain of a tiny worm a big clue to a long-held mystery about how animals' internal compasses work.
Animals as diverse as migrating geese, sea turtles and wolves are known to navigate using the Earth's magnetic field. But until now, no one has pinpointed quite how they do it. The sensor, found in worms called C. elegans, is a microscopic structure at the end of a neuron that other animals probably share, given similarities in brain structure across species. The sensor looks like a nano-scale TV antenna, and the worms use it to navigate underground.
"Chances are that the same molecules will be used by cuter animals like butterflies and birds," said Jon Pierce-Shimomura, assistant professor of neuroscience in the College of Natural Sciences and member of the research team. "This gives us a first foothold in understanding magnetosensation in other animals."
The researchers discovered that hungry worms in gelatin-filled tubes tend to move down, a strategy they might use when searching for food.
When the researchers brought worms into the lab from other parts of the world, the worms didn't all move down. Depending on where they were from—Hawaii, England or Australia, for example—they moved at a precise angle to the magnetic field that would have corresponded to down if they had been back home. For instance, Australian worms moved upward in tubes. The magnetic field's orientation varies from spot to spot on Earth, and each worm's magnetic field sensor system is finely tuned to its local environment, allowing it to tell up from down.
The research is published today in the journal eLife.
The study's lead author is Andrés Vidal-Gadea, a former postdoctoral researcher in the College of Natural Sciences at UT Austin, now a faculty member at Illinois State University. He noted that C. elegans is just one of myriad species living in the soil, many of which are known to migrate vertically.
"I'm fascinated by the prospect that magnetic detection could be widespread across soil dwelling organisms," said Vidal-Gadea.
The neuroscientists and engineers, who use C. elegans in their research into Alzheimer's disease and addiction, had previously discovered the worm's ability to sense humidity. That work led them to ask what else the worms might be able to sense, such as magnetic fields.
In 2012, scientists from Baylor College of Medicine announced the discovery of brain cells in pigeons that process information about magnetic fields, but they did not discover which part of the body senses the fields. That team and others have proposed a magnetosensor in the birds' inner ear.
"It's been a competitive race to find the first magnetosensory neuron," said Pierce-Shimomura. "And we think we've won with worms, which is a big surprise because no one suspected that worms could sense the Earth's magnetic field."
The neuron sporting a magnetic field sensor, called an AFD neuron, was already known to sense carbon dioxide levels and temperature.
The researchers discovered the worms' magnetosensory abilities by altering the magnetic field around them with a special magnetic coil system and then observing changes in behavior. They also showed that worms which were genetically engineered to have a broken AFD neuron did not orient themselves up and down as do normal worms. Finally, the researchers used a technique called calcium imaging to demonstrate that changes in the magnetic field cause the AFD neuron to activate.
Journal information: eLife
Provided by University of Texas at Austin | <urn:uuid:ef9375ed-f51f-4922-b4d1-dadc704d82c5> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://phys.org/news/2015-06-sensor-earth-magnetic-field-animal.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474445.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223185223-20240223215223-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.962554 | 767 | 3.65625 | 4 | 291 |
People with substance use disorders often experience intense sugar cravings. Even the original printing of The Big Book in Alcoholics Anonymous mentions a physician who encouraged newly sober alcoholics to keep chocolate or candy on hand to help manage alcohol cravings.
Why are sugar cravings so common in people recovering from a substance use disorder? Are there any effects of sugar on addiction recovery? Read on to find out.
Why People with Substance Use Disorder Crave Sugar
There are several reasons people in addiction recovery may develop a preference for sweet foods. Different substances can create various inclinations for sugar, and there is an underlying connection between addictive behaviors and sugar intake.
Sugar Cravings and Alcohol
You may have heard that alcohol breaks down into sugar in the body, but this isn’t exactly true. While sugar is combined with yeast in alcohol production, the sugar content of most alcoholic beverages is zero, and alcohol never breaks down into sugar while your body is metabolizing it.
Mixed drinks often contain large amounts of additional sugar, but the alcohol itself does not contribute to your sugar intake. However, all alcoholic beverages contain a significant number of calories and have little to no nutritional value.
People with severe alcohol use disorders can consume more than 50% of their calorie intake through alcohol alone¹, leaving them at significant risk for nutrient deficiency. Because your liver spends so much time processing the alcohol, other nutrient absorption is delayed.
Impacts on Blood Sugar
In addition, alcohol has a substantial impact on blood sugar levels. Drinking alcohol creates a yo-yo effect with blood sugar, causing an initial spike followed by a dramatic crash. This is because alcohol inhibits your body’s response to insulin, the hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels.
These spikes and crashes make sugar cravings incredibly common in early recovery from alcohol use disorder. People who abruptly stop drinking may lose a significant source of their calorie intake and have disrupted their body’s blood sugar regulation.
Nutrient deficiencies and blood sugar issues trigger cravings for high-sugar foods like chocolate, candy, or other sweet treats.
Managing Sugar Cravings After Opioid Use
Opioid use is associated with increased sugar consumption. Some evidence suggests that people who misuse opioids consume 31% of their calories from sugar² – more than double the national average of 15%.
Sugary foods activate the same receptors in the brain as opioids. Even after abstinence, people experiencing chronic opioid use may feel drawn to activities that trigger these receptors.
Interestingly, medications used to treat opioid use disorder can also reduce sugar cravings. Medications like Naltrexone, an opioid blocker, significantly minimize sugar consumption. Buprenorphine is associated with reduced sugar intake initially but not long-term.
Stimulants Increase Sugar Cravings
Stimulants like cocaine and amphetamines can influence sugar consumption as well. These drugs are typically associated with suppressing the appetite, so it might seem contradictory that they are associated with increased intake of sugar-laden foods. However, studies show methamphetamine users prefer sugary beverages and have higher sugar intake levels than the rest of the population³.
Some research indicates that methamphetamine use can reduce blood glucose levels³, driving people toward sugary foods or drinks. In addition, the appetite suppressing properties of stimulants make eating nutritious foods less likely. Some people in recovery use high sugar foods as a survival strategy to get sufficient calories when other foods are unpalatable.
The Dopamine Connection
The preference for sugary foods extends beyond effects specific to drug use. Sugar affects the brain like addictive drugs⁴, which makes sugar particularly tempting for people with a substance use disorder.
Addictive substances release large amounts of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, reward, repeated behaviors, motivation, and learning. As a result, other activities seem less rewarding by comparison, causing people who misuse substances to continue using despite the harmful consequences. Sugar triggers dopamine release in the brain, though in much smaller quantities than addictive drugs.
High-sugar foods feel much more rewarding and pleasurable than other more nutritious foods, making them harder to avoid and more tempting to people whose dopamine reward networks have been compromised by addiction.
Recovery, Relapse, and Sugar
Sugary foods can help those in recovery because they affect the brain like addictive drugs. During the early days of addiction recovery, people often battle intense drug cravings and may be calorically deficient.
Eating sweet foods can reduce the intensity of these drug cravings by giving a short dopamine boost, which could be the difference between remaining in recovery or experiencing a relapse. A chocolate bar is far less harmful than returning to active addiction.
Finding Replacement Rewards
Sugary foods used in excess can cause significant problems. Consuming too much sugar on a daily basis can lead to weight gain, tooth decay, gut dysbiosis, skin problems, and type 2 diabetes. The strategy of using sugar to help drug cravings should be used temporarily and in moderation.
Instead of participating in the highly destructive pattern of substance misuse or becoming dependent on sugary foods, you can substitute other behaviors, actions, or thoughts that are also rewarding to reduce the intensity of your cravings.
Other replacement strategies are similarly effective in dealing with cravings. Most treatment centers provide a variety of highly rewarding lifestyle interventions to help people find new activities apart from their substance use disorder, including:
- Exercise or personal training
- Experiential therapy
- Recreational therapy
- Competitive sports
- Music therapy
These activities encourage dopamine production from behaviors that don’t bring about the terrible consequences of returning to active addiction.
While replacement rewards are a viable strategy incorporated into most treatment methods, they do not address the root cause of addictive disorders. To fully resolve the root causes of addiction, you need professional support.
Find Support in Addiction Recovery
Addiction treatment is a complex process. Sugar and other replacement rewards are not enough to break the destructive cycle of a substance use disorder. If you wish to quit substance misuse, please consider professional addiction treatment services to receive a full range of interventions that can help ensure a successful recovery.
Addiction treatment centers help by providing a safe space, professional treatment options, and long-lasting support for you to achieve abstinence. At All Points North Lodge, of clients benefit from individual and group therapy, medication-assisted treatment, and cutting-edge technology. A custom treatment plan in an optimal healing environment can give you the time and space you need to heal from substance misuse.
If you’d like to know more about how All Points North Lodge uses a variety of strategies to make a life in recovery possible, contact us via the function or call 855-510-4585. We can help you find your way forward.
- Feinman, Lawrence. “Absorption and utilization of nutrients in alcoholism.” Alcohol Health & Research World, vol. 13, no. 3, summer 1989, pp. 206+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A8191936/AONE?u=googlescholar&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=bd110dd8. Accessed 11 Mar. 2022.
- Mysels, David J, and Maria A Sullivan. “The relationship between opioid and sugar intake: review of evidence and clinical applications.” Journal of opioid management vol. 6,6 (2010): 445-52. doi:10.5055/jom.2010.0043
- Zhang, Yanhong & Shu, Guofang & Bai, Ying & Chao, Jie & Chen, Xufeng & Yao, Honghong. (2018). Effect of methamphetamine on the fasting blood glucose in methamphetamine abusers. Metabolic Brain Disease. 33. 10.1007/s11011-018-0265-8.
- Rada, P et al. “Daily bingeing on sugar repeatedly releases dopamine in the accumbens shell.” Neuroscience vol. 134,3 (2005): 737-44. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.04.043 | <urn:uuid:5549360d-a1b6-40d2-a1af-78eb685eb52d> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://apn.com/resources/why-are-sugar-cravings-common-in-addiction-recovery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474688.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227220707-20240228010707-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.90711 | 1,674 | 2.71875 | 3 | 292 |
Children as young as 3 understand multi-digit numbers more than previously believed and may be ready for more direct math instruction when they enter school, according to research led by a Michigan State University education scholar.
The study, online in the journal Child Development and funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, has implications for U.S. students who continue losing ground internationally in mathematics performance.
“Contrary to the view that young children do not understand place value and multi-digit numbers, we found that they actually know quite a lot about it,” said Kelly Mix, MSU professor of educational psychology and co-author of the study. “They are more ready than we think when they enter kindergarten.”
Understanding place value is the gateway to higher math skills such as addition with carrying, and there is a strong tie between place value skills in early elementary grades and problem-solving ability later on.
“In short, children who fail to master place value face chronic low achievement in mathematics,” the study states.
In several experiments, Mix and Richard Prather and Linda Smith, both from Indiana University, tested children ages 3 to 7 on their ability to identify and compare two- and three-digit numbers.
In one task, for example, children were shown two quantities (such as 128 and 812) and asked to point out which was larger. “There was significant improvement in interpreting place value from age 3 to 7,” Mix said, “but it was remarkable that even the youngest children showed at least some understanding of multi-digit numbers.”
Mix said the surprising findings are likely due to the fact that children in today’s society are bombarded with multi-digit numbers – from phone numbers to street addresses to price tags.
Interestingly, children may be developing partial knowledge of the place value system at least partly from language, she explained. Children often hear multi-digit numbers named while also seeing them in print, such as when parents comment on a calendar, ask their child to push the elevator buttons or look for a room number in an office building.
Previous research and teacher observations indicate children do not understand the symbols for place value – and, thus, multi-digit numbers – until well into elementary school. Typically, young students receive specialized conceptual instruction on place value, such as with place value blocks.
The researchers trained children on place value blocks and found no improvement. However, training with written symbols alone did yield significant benefits. Because of this, and the study’s finding that students already recognize multi-digit numbers to some degree, Mix said more direct instruction with place value and multi-digit numbers should be considered in the early grades. | <urn:uuid:21569d21-d5ef-483d-8110-97e2e7a6a436> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://scienceblog.com/68837/kids-grasp-large-numbers-remarkably-young/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474688.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227220707-20240228010707-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.962633 | 563 | 3.484375 | 3 | 293 |
An Evidence-based Approach to Safe Patient Handling and Mobility Education
Safe patient handling and mobility (SPHM) program implementation is a change initiative requiring effective education. Little research is available, however, describing specific recommendations for effective SPHM education. Effective education includes an education plan that incorporates the concepts of adult learning theories, various learning styles, and generational learning considerations. Examples of different teaching methods are discussed to promote the learning needs of the adult healthcare professional for SPHM. This article defines effective SPHM education and offers innovative methods and strategies for enhancing SPHM education based on an evidenced-based approach.
Keywords: SPHM education, adult learning styles, generational learning styles, safe patient handling and mobility
One time download – from September 2016 issue | <urn:uuid:02dd4180-450a-43bd-935f-ecad74683740> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://sphmjournal.com/product/september2016v6n3-an-evidence-based-approach-to-sphm-education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474795.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229071243-20240229101243-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.912101 | 149 | 2.796875 | 3 | 294 |
Anxiety is marked by distressing persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety. Anxiety disorders are marked by a number of behaviors, including excessive worry, fears, phobias, obsessions and compulsions, nervousness, and self-criticism.
There are a variety of different anxiety disorders and the following is a brief descriptor of some of the common ones.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): An anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense and jittery, worried about bad things happening, and often aroused (racing heart, clammy hands, stomach butterflies, and sleeplessness). Often individuals with GAD are unable to identify the root of the cause for their anxiety. Experiences of anxiety episodes are unpredictable and often frightening. Sufferers often fear the fear itself and may avoid situations where panic has occurred in the past (Myers, 1999).
Phobias: focus anxiety on a specific object, event, or situation. Phobias are irrational fears that disrupt behaviors. A fear becomes a phobia when it provokes a compelling but irrational desire to avoid the situation or the object. While some individuals learn to live with phobias, others may have specific phobias that are debilitating. Social phobia is an intense fear of being in social situations, and may result in an individual avoiding speaking up, eating out, going to school, and being in groups in crowds.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder: Characteristics include repetitive thoughts that are too difficult to control (obsessions), or the uncontrollable need to repeat specific acts (compulsions) (NASP, 2004). Obsessive thoughts and compulsory behaviors become problematic when they interfere with everyday functioning or cause distress. Obsessive thoughts may be around germs, order or offensive material. Compulsions are considered rituals, such as checking to make sure the door is locked or washing hands numerous times a day (Myers, 1999).
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Although this topic is often associated with soldiers who have experienced combat, PTSD may also be seen in individuals who have experienced traumatic personal events, such as death, physical or sexual assault, or a disaster. Some symptoms may include anxiety, nightmares, and flashbacks of the event (NASP, 2004).
Anxiety is common among school aged children, and often times professional help is not needed. However, if anxiety is so severe that your child can’t perform daily task, such as leaving the house, or going to school, then interventions may be necessary. Some questions to consider when deciding if your child needs professional help are:
- · Is anxiety typical for a child this age?
- · Is the anxiety more severe in certain situations?
- · Has this been a long term problem or more recent?
- · Are there events that may be contributed to the problems? (i.e.: recent move or death)
- · Is your child’s anxiety affecting him/her in personal, social or academic realms?
If you are concerned about your child’s anxiety after considering some of these questions, it is advisable to talk to a professional, such as a school psychologist or school guidance/adjustment counselor. Individual counseling, group, or family counseling may be beneficial for a child. In some cases, physicians may recommend medication. At this point, medication for childhood disorders is not well researched, and side effects must be monitored. However, this treatment option may be helpful when combined with counseling approaches.
Some techniques to consider at home:
- · Be consistent in how you handle problems and administer discipline
- · Anxiety is not a willful misbehavior, therefore be patient and prepared to listen. Don’t be critical or cynical, as this will most likely lead to the problem getting worse.
- · Maintain realistic and attainable goals and expectations for your child. Do not communicate that perfection is expected; often anxious children try to please adults, and have perfectionist tendencies if they feel that this is what is expected.
- · Maintain a consistent, but flexible routine for homework, chores and activities (making a calendar to display at home is beneficial).
- · Accept mistakes as part of growing up. Praise and reinforce effort, even if success is less than expected.
- · If your child is nervous about an upcoming event (i.e.: giving speech in class, play, etc.), rehearse, to increase confidence and decrease discomfort.
- · Teach your child to manage their own anxiety. Teach them how to organize materials and time (i.e.: by setting a schedule, having color and label coordinated folders for work). If anxiety increases during a particular situation, teach the child relaxation techniques. These can include counting to 10 or backwards from 20 (depending on age), taking deep breaths (deep breath in for four counts, holding breath for four counts, and exhaling for four counts, repeat four times), and guided imagery (closing eyes and imaging a peaceful or relaxing event (i.e.: going to the beach, going for a hike, reading a favorite book).
Do not assume that your child’s anxiety will just go away or that your child is being difficult. Always seek professional help if the problem persists or continues to interfere with daily activities. Furthermore, untreated anxiety can lead to depression and other problems. However, anxiety problems can be treated effectively, especially if detected at an early age (NASP, 2004).
Some additional resources include:
This website provides a nice overview of shyness, along with strategies for parents and teaching staff.
- Anxiety Disorders Association of America: www.aada.org
Overview of anxiety disorders.
National Mental Health Association: www.nmha.org
- Provides information regarding the prevalence of anxiety disorders and treatment.
Depression is a health problem that affects people of all ages, including children and adolescents. Depression is generally categorized as a persistent experience of a sad or irritable mood, as well as the inability to experience pleasure in nearly all activities. Traditional symptoms of depression include feelings of loneliness and sadness, diminished self-esteem, hopelessness, pessimism, and negative thinking. Other symptoms may include a change in appetite, disrupted sleep patterns, increase or diminished activity level, impaired attention and concentration, and markedly decreased feelings of self-worth. Children and adolescents who are experiencing depression may seem reserved or introverted, with some anxiety and emotional ability. They rarely take chances and may appear agitated at times and may experience mild to moderate problems in relating to other people. Children and adolescents with depression are typically not capable of “snapping out” of their emotional state on their own. Depression is a form of mental illness that affects the entire person, including how they are feeling, thinking, and acting (NASP, 2004 ; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004).
There is research that indicates that the onset of depression is occurring earlier in life today than in the past decades. Furthermore, depression often coexists with other mental health problems such as chronic anxiety and disruptive behavior disorders. Research from the University of Oregon suggests that 28% of all adolescents (ages 13-19) will experience at least one episode of major depression. The rate for children under the age of 13 is 1-2%. More alarming data shows that in 2001, suicide was the third leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds, with up to 7% of adolescents who develop major depressive disorder possibly committing suicide (NASP, 2004).
Some warning signs and risk factors for depression may include:
- Children and teens under significant stress
- Experience of a significant loss
- Children and teens with attention, learning or conduct disorders
- During adolescence, girls develop depressive disorders twice as often as boys
- Family history of the disorder, particularly if a parent experienced depression at an early age
- Previous depressive episodes
- Anxiety disorders
- Family conflicts
- Uncertainty regarding sexual orientation
- Poor academic performance
- Substance abuse disorders
- Loss of parent or loved one
- Break up of a romantic relationship
- Chronic illness
- Abuse or neglect
- Significant trauma (including natural disasters)
If you are concerned about your child after reading through some of the symptoms and characteristics of depression or if there are several risk factors that pertain to your child, there may be a need to consult with a professional. The good news is that depression is treatable, and almost everyone who receives proper and timely intervention can be helped. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are both necessary for depressed children and adolescents. A thorough diagnostic evaluation by a mental health professional who specializes in children and teens, may include a physical examination, laboratory tests, interviews with the child and parents, behavioral observations, psychological testing, and consultation with other professionals.
A comprehensive plan often includes educating the child and the family about depression. It also may include individual counseling or psychotherapy, ongoing evaluation and monitoring, and sometimes psychiatric medications.
How can you help?
It is important that all adults who have frequent contact with the child know and look for warning signs of depression. Sometimes, it may be uncomfortable, but it is important to ask if the child/adolescent has thought about, intends, or has plans to hurt themselves or commit suicide. Many parents are afraid that by discussing suicide, their child will get new ideas, however this is not the case! It is important to ask your child if you suspect suicidal tendencies, as you may be saving a life. If a child admits to feeling suicidal, stay with the child and get professional help immediately. Schools should be actively working to facilitate prevention, identification and treatment for depression. Since students spent a lot of their time in schools, where they are constantly observed and evaluate, collaboration between families, schools, and community agencies is essential in working to help children and adolescents overcome depression, and most importantly keep them safe (NASP, 2004).
Additional resources include:
American Psychological Association: www.apa.org
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance: www.dbsalliance.org
National Institute of Mental Health: www.nimh.nih.gov
National Mental Health Association: www.nmha.org
SOS High School Suicide Prevention Program: mentalhealthscreening.org/programs/youth
Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program: www.yellowribbon.org
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disruptive behavior disorder characterized by:
- Inattention which may include difficulty concentrating on school work or attending to the lesson/assignment/task at hand
- Impulsivity which may include frequently interrupting conversations, or activities
- Overactivity which may be marked by difficulty to remain seated when required to do so
All these characteristics should be considered in the realm of what is beyond expected and appropriate for a child’s gender and age.
Approximately 3-7% of school-aged children in the United States have ADHD. Children with ADHD typically first exhibit symptoms during preschool or early elementary school years; usually these symptoms continue through the child’s life. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls.
- There are three subtypes of ADHD based on DSM-IV Criteria
- ADHD Predominantly Inattentive Type: children who exhibit problems only with inattention and concentration. Problem areas may arise with working memory, planning, organizing and self-monitoring. (A1)
- Six or more of the following symptoms of inattention have been present for at least 6 months to a point that is disruptive and inappropriate for developmental level:
- Often does not give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities.
- Often has trouble keeping attention on tasks or play activities.
- Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
- Often does not follow instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions).
- Often has trouble organizing activities.
- Often avoids, dislikes, or doesn't want to do things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework).
- Often loses things needed for tasks and activities (e.g. toys, school assignments, pencils, books, or tools).
- Is often easily distracted.
- Is often forgetful in daily activities.
- ADHD Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type: children who exhibit problems with hyperactivity and impulsivity (A2)
- Six or more of the following symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity have been present for at least 6 months to an extent that is disruptive and inappropriate for developmental level:
- Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat.
- Often gets up from seat when remaining in seat is expected.
- Often runs about or climbs when and where it is not appropriate (adolescents or adults may feel very restless).
- Often has trouble playing or enjoying leisure activities quietly.
- Is often "on the go" or often acts as if "driven by a motor".
- Often talks excessively.
- Impulsivity (part of A2)
- o Often blurts out answers before questions have been finished.
- o Often has trouble waiting one's turn.
- o Often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or games).
- o Some symptoms that cause impairment were present before age 7 years.
- o Some impairment from the symptoms is present in two or more settings (e.g. at school/home…).
- o There must be clear evidence of significant impairment in social or school functioning.
- o The symptoms do not happen only during the course of a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Schizophrenia, or other Psychotic Disorder. The symptoms are not better accounted for by another mental disorder (e.g. Mood Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Dissociative Disorder, or a Personality Disorder).
- ADHD Combined Type: (A1&A2) children who exhibit problems in both areas. Deficits relate to executive functioning, with inhibition being a predominant problem.
American Psychiatric Association (APA)’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) is in the process of changing and revising numerous rules for diagnosing and treating mental health problems. Among the changes if criteria for diagnosis of ADHD.
- · DSM-V changes will include:
- o Older adolescents and adults (ages 17 and older) only 4 symptoms are required
- o Wording will change for many items, i.e.: Often has difficulty sustaining attention or frequently does not follow through
- o Several noticeable inattentive or hyperactive-impulsive symptoms present by age 12 (current criteria is before seven years of age)
- o Recommending teachers as sources of information
¡ CAUSES of ADHD
- § In families with an ADHD child,
¡ 20-25% of siblings have ADHD; a 5-8-fold increase
¡ 20-30% of parents have a lifetime history of ADHD (may not be diagnosed)
¡ In families with 2 affected children, over 60% of families have at least one parent with ADHD
¡ Moms and Dads are equally affected
? Genetic: 81% co-occurrence rate for monozygotic twins
- § Brain Activity
? 80% of children w/ADHD had EEG signature of excessive slow waves/deficient fast waves ratio
? Reduced blood flow in frontal lobe responsible for executive functioning
- § Chemical imbalance (dopamine & norepinephrine)
What does attention really mean?
¡ Focus/Execute: Scan and selectively respond to stimuli
- § Johnny pays attention to the teacher even though Mary is sitting next to him tapping her pencil, lack of air conditioning on 90+ day, and the office has called. Johnny is ignoring internal distracters as well: his chair is hurting his back, he is hungry, and the band-aid on his finger is loose.
¡ Sustain: Stay on task for prolonged period of time
- § Nisha watches the first 15 min of a TV show with her mother before she leaves the room and begins another activity. After another 5 minutes she switches to a 3rdactivity. Nisha has trouble with sustaining attention.
¡ Divided: Respond to more than 1 task simultaneously
- § Roberto can listen to his teacher and write stories separately. However, he cannot listen to his teacher while taking notes about what she is saying.
¡ Shift: Reallocate attention resources from 1 activity to another
- § Tamera is working on a math assignment and teacher asks class to put away their work and get out reading books. She continues to work on her math.
- § Tonya can attend to small bits of information but quickly becomes overwhelmed if too much information is presented to her at once.
¡ ADHD & Learning
¡ Comorbidity = 25%-70% between students diagnosed with a Specific Learning Disability & ADHD
¡ NEW learning requires use of Executive Functioning, therefore children may have:
- Difficulty attending to novel information
- Challenges with filtering out irrelevant information à overloads working memory
- Working memory is important for Long Term Memory encoding & retrieval
- On average children with ADHD perform 1 Standard Deviation below typical children on pre-academic and cognitive measures
¡ Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is often first identified in children and adolescents in the school systems (Kaiser & Pfiffner, 2011). School personnel are usually the first to recognize symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity in students. Teachers, school counselors, and other support staff have many opportunities to observe students in a wide range of settings and activities, and over the course of ten months.
The most common and effective psychopharmacological treatment used to treat attention difficulties, distractibility, impulsivity and other observable social and classroom behavior is stimulant medications.
Stimulants have also been shown to have a modest effect size for academic achievement, and there is some supporting evidence that stimulants may aid in reduction of aggressive behaviors (Brown, 2005). Specifically amphetamine-dextroamphetamine mixtures such as Adderall are currently the most commonly used stimulants.
Although psychopharmacological treatments have shown to be effective in managing symptoms of ADHD, psychosocial treatments are also an important component of reducing behaviors attributed to ADHD.
Combination of behavioral parent training and school consultation, which includes child skills interventions have been shown to be most efficacious psychosocial treatment for children with impairments not only in school, but also in the home (Kaiser & Pfiffner, 2011).
It is important to note there is strong evidence that when psychosocial treatment is used in conjunction with psychopharmacological treatment, the effects for the management of ADHD are the most powerful.
Just as there are numerous psychopharmacological treatments available, psychosocial treatments are often used as well to treat symptoms of ADHD.
Behavioral treatments based on social learning theory, which must be consistent and include salient rewards and consequences have been shown to be effective in working with children with ADHD.
Such behavioral interventions include Behavioral Parent Training (BPT), behavioral school interventions (teacher consultation and daily behavioral report cards) and behavioral summer treatment programs focusing on making environmental changes to the antecedents and consequences in the child’s environment (Kaiser & Pfiffner, 2011).
Behavioral school interventions focus on teachers being active in identifying problematic classroom behaviors, then implementing antecedent and consequential strategies to reduce the frequency and/or intensity of the problematic behaviors. Classroom modification strategies such as seating a child in front of the class to monitor on/off task behaviors and setting up reward systems are evidence based and effective.
Social skills training is one option of direct skill instructions. Students identified with ADHD may have difficulties interacting and establishing healthy relationships with peers. Social skills trainings provide children with didactic instruction on developing positive relationships. This appears to provide benefit when parents provide reinforcements in real work peer interactions in order to make the skills more generalizable (Kaiser & Pfiffner, 2011).
Another skills training option is organizational skills training (OST) which teaches students to organize materials and manage time effectively. This instruction is delivered either in individual or group basis, including instructions and scaffolding. Several preliminary findings suggest that OST result in improvements in targeted organization skills both long and short term (Kaiser & Pfiffner, 2011).
Kamphaus, R. W., DiStefano, C., & Lease, A. M. (2003). A self-report typology of behavioral adjustment for young children. Psychological Assessment, 15 (1), 17-28.
Myers, D. G. (1999). Exploring Psychology, 4th Ed., Worth Publishers, New York, NY.
National Association of School Psychologists (2004). Helping Children at Home and School II: Handouts for Families and Educators. Bethesda, MD.
Reynolds, C. R. & Kamphaus, R.W. (2004). Behavior Assessment System for Children, 2nd Ed., AGS Publishing, Circle Pines, MN.
Robins, L. N. (1979). Follow-up studies. In H. C. Quay & J. S. Werry (Eds.), Psychopathological disorders of childhood (2nd ed., pp. 483-513). New York: Wiley.
DuPaul, G. J., & Carlson, J. S. (2005). Child psychopharmacology: How school psychologists can contribute to effective outcomes. School Psychology Quarterly, 20,206-221.
Brown, R. T. (2005). Recent advances in pharmacotherapies for the externalizing disorders. School Psychology Quarterly, 20, 118-134.
Kaiser, N. M., & Pfiffner, L. J. (2011). Evidence-based psychosocial treatments for childhood ADHD. Psychiatric Annals, 441, 9-15.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2011). Should your child be in a clinical trial? Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm048699.htm | <urn:uuid:fa3a8ec1-f57c-46ed-be8c-3172fc3469a4> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.falmouth.k12.ma.us/Page/808 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474795.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229071243-20240229101243-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.935863 | 4,612 | 4.0625 | 4 | 295 |
As an ever-evolving discipline, psychology has been recognized for its versatility and applicability in various facets of life. As an academic major, it delves into the intricacies of the human mind and behavior, providing students with a comprehensive understanding that transcends traditional learning experiences. This article aims to explore the top reasons why psychology is not only a captivating field of study but also an extremely useful major, offering a myriad of personal and professional benefits.
- Nurturing Self-Understanding:
Psychology services are not just about understanding others – it’s also a journey of self-discovery. As students study the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of others, they gain insight into their psyches as well. They become more aware of their emotions, motivations, and reactions, leading to enhanced emotional intelligence.
This self-understanding can prove transformative. It promotes personal growth, improves decision-making, and can lead to a more fulfilling life. It also aids in self-care, helping individuals understand their mental health needs and recognize when professional help may be required.
- A Stepping Stone to a Career in Healthcare
A psychology degree serves as a stepping stone to a career in healthcare. The comprehensive understanding of mental processes and behavior it provides is crucial in various healthcare roles. Psychology majors prepare individuals for careers as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, a counselor, mental health social workers, and many more fulfilling careers in the healthcare sector.
Moreover, in this digital era, an online psychology degree has emerged as an increasingly viable pathway to carve out a career in healthcare. The flexibility accorded by online study programs allows students to juggle their existing commitments while concurrently pursuing their degrees.
- A Broad Understanding of Human Behavior
Human behavior is one of the core attractions of a psychology degree. As psychology students, you delve into the motivations that drive human actions, deciphering why people think, act, and feel in the way they do. This understanding spans an array of contexts, from personal relationships to organizational dynamics and from child development to mental health in the geriatric population.
Insights gained from such a comprehensive look at human behavior are invaluable, not only for those considering a career in mental health but also for anyone who engages with others in their personal or professional spheres. As a psychology major, you become adept at interpreting human behavior, thereby enhancing empathy and facilitating more effective and constructive interactions.
- Enhancement of Interpersonal Skills
In our interconnected world, interpersonal skills are highly valued, and a psychology major is a powerful means to hone these abilities. Through the study of various psychological concepts such as social dynamics, personality theories, and communication strategies, students can enhance their understanding of others and improve their communication skills.
Psychology promotes empathy, active listening, and understanding of non-verbal cues—skills that are vital in any interpersonal interaction. Whether you’re dealing with colleagues in a professional setting, interacting with friends and family, or negotiating with a stranger, the interpersonal skills developed through a psychology major can prove to be an invaluable asset.
- The Versatility of the Degree
The skills and knowledge acquired as a psychology major are applicable across a wide range of careers. From human resources to marketing, healthcare to law, the understanding of human behavior and mental processes can be a significant asset.
With a psychology degree, you may choose to work directly in the field or use it to establish a foundation for a different career path, giving you plenty of options. The critical thinking, research skills, and understanding of human behavior that you gain can be leveraged in a myriad of ways, making a psychology degree an investment in a versatile career foundation.
- Scope for Higher Education
The field of psychology is expansive, spanning various sub-disciplines, each offering rich opportunities for further specialization. After earning a bachelor’s degree, students can pursue higher education in areas such as clinical psychology, counseling psychology, educational psychology, forensic psychology, and more. A master’s degree or a doctorate can open the doors to an array of advanced career options, including licensed practitioner roles and academic positions.
Moreover, even outside the field of psychology, the knowledge and skills acquired through this major can serve as a valuable foundation for postgraduate studies in various disciplines. Be it law, business, social work, or healthcare, the opportunities for higher education and specialization are vast and diverse for psychology majors.
- Understanding Mental Health
In a world where mental health issues are increasingly prevalent, a psychology degree provides vital knowledge to understand, address, and navigate mental health challenges. It helps in understanding the mechanisms of psychological disorders to explore therapeutic interventions. Studying psychology equips individuals with the knowledge to support mental well-being in their professional and personal lives.
Majoring in psychology provides you with an understanding of mental health that is not only professionally valuable but also personally enriching. This knowledge can help you support loved ones facing mental health challenges, manage your mental well-being, and contribute to destigmatizing mental illness in society.
- Development of Critical Thinking Skills
Psychology students study various research methods, analyze empirical data, and navigate complex theoretical frameworks. These tasks help develop robust critical thinking skills, encouraging students to question assumptions, discern biases, and evaluate evidence.
These skills are not just essential for careers within the realm of psychology, but they are also highly sought after in many professions. Thinking critically is a fundamental competency in our rapidly changing world, equipping individuals to solve complex problems, make informed decisions, and innovate effectively.
- A Pathway to Human Services Professions
Beyond the realm of healthcare, a degree in psychology opens up a range of human services professions. Many psychology graduates work in fields that aim to improve the well-being and quality of life of individuals, families, and communities. These fields include social work, community services, child protection, and family services, among others.
In these roles, the ability to understand and empathize with people’s emotions, motivations, and behaviors is of paramount importance. These professions allow you to make a difference in people’s lives, offering a rewarding career path for those driven by a desire to help others.
To sum up, a degree in psychology offers a wealth of opportunities and benefits. So, if you’re seeking a field of study that’s not only intellectually stimulating but also professionally versatile and personally enriching, psychology might be the perfect choice for you. | <urn:uuid:8680de2e-ed7a-4467-8f27-e20b40fac23c> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://anationofmoms.com/2023/06/psychology-major.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.933115 | 1,307 | 2.90625 | 3 | 296 |
In this blog article, we explore how learning and development professionals can create engaging learning experiences that increase knowledge retention through extended learning. We will also give you some helpful tips and insights taken from a real-life case-study as to how you can apply to extend learning through learner journeys and participatory teaching methods.
What is extended learning and why is it important?
Through eLearning courses, we provide training to change or improve the knowledge-base, skillset and behaviours of employees. We can design standalone eLearning programmes aimed at doing this, but evidence shows that we forget 50% of the information presented within one day, and about 90% of it within one week (Ebbinghaus, 1885. Memory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology).
Training and development is resource-intensive in terms of time and money and therefore learning and development professionals have a clear challenge of finding ways to mitigate the impacts of Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve through extended learning.
How to create extended learning in eLearning
So how do we create training that provides opportunities for further learning and most importantly, for retaining and applying that learning in the workplace?
This can be done in a couple of ways. Firstly, we forget about designing a standalone program that leaves employees with no direction on what to do next, and instead, we create a learning pathway that encourages them to apply their learning and share it with others.
Secondly, we create engaging learning experiences throughout the learners’ pathway using different interactions and media types instead of traditional forms of learning where learners are dictated to or simply read resources.
What is a learning pathway
Learning pathways are commonly used with learning management systems but can also be used to guide eLearning courses in general. Learning paths are courses or learning resources which are grouped together to create an engaging and enriched experience for learners. Learning paths have a number of benefits including:
- Greater structure for learners
- Increased learning potential as learners next steps are clear
- Increased engagement as learners are clearly guided through the learning path
How to create learning pathways
To create an effective learning pathway, it helps to first look at how people learn. The Learning Pyramid shows that the average retention rate of people who partake in passive teaching methods such as lectures, reading and audio-visual presentations are relatively low (5%, 10% and 20% respectively). Whereas, the average retention rates of people who partake in participatory teaching methods such as group discussion, practice and teaching others are relatively high (50%, 75% and 90% respectively).
We can conclude from the learning retention rates outlined in the learning pyramid that by incorporating more participatory teaching methods such as teaching others in eLearning courses and programmes, knowledge retention will be increased and learners will remember more of what they have learned than if the eLearning course was taught with passive teaching methods alone.
How to include participatory teaching methods into your learning pathway
When used together, participatory teaching methods and learning pathways create experiences that extend learning and reduce the impact of the forgetting curve. But what is the best way that you can incorporate these two learning elements into your eLearning programmes?
Here are a couple of ways that you can create optimal retention in your eLearning courses followed by a case study of how we created extended learning and learning pathways healthcare professionals working in the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland.
- Foster a culture of learning within the organisation:
- Learning must be promoted at all levels of the organization. The number one reason employees hold back from learning is because they don’t have the time according to LinkedIn. As a result, any learning employees take may be rushed to get the ‘tick in the box’ and therefore no learning has been achieved.
- Choose the type of learner path you would like to give learners:
- If the learning requires more structure in which case a sequential approach would be more beneficial. A sequential approach requires the learner to complete each course or topic in a predetermined order and this type of approach would work best if the basics of the topic must be taught first before moving into more in-depth materials e.g. introduction to marketing, GDPR, equality and diversity etc.
- Alternatively, you can let learners choose which courses they would like to complete and in which order giving a greater sense of ownership to the learner. This type of pathway could be used if there is no importance on the order of completion but has the benefit of keeping the learner engaged as they work through the course.
- Choose a mix of media types to ensure the user is not just going through the motions:
- Challenge their learning and force them to remember what they have learned through assessments. By recalling what they have been taught learning can be embedded in the brain.
- Use relatable scenarios within the course to leverage participation in order to boost learning retention.
- Give learners on-demand resources that they can reference after they have completed the course. These could be worksheets, templates, cheat sheets, handy guides etc.
- Send learners bite-sized reminder emails of the most important learnings post-completion to reduce the impact of the forgetting curve. This could also take the form of a ‘check your knowledge’ assessment or reflection on how learnings have been applied in real life
- Use blended learning to consolidate learning:
- Time and resources permitting, you could have follow-up face-to-face sessions which could incorporate a number of passive and participatory teaching methods such as a recap of what was learned followed by group discussions
- Give learners an online forum where they can share ideas and learnings:
- To facilitate the ‘group discussion’ aspect of the Learning Pyramid, setting up a forum where learners can discuss what they have learnt and share experiences of their applied learning can help to extend and embed knowledge. This gets employees talking about what works and doesn’t work in practice, and provides a platform to get answers.
- In future we will likely see an increase in chatbots used in eLearning where learners can get answers and ask questions, mimicking the effects of social learning
- Assign mentors:
- This could be via an online forum or in a classroom setting if using a blended learning approach and gives an opportunity for learners to ask questions and receive feedback
Extended learning case study: HSE - Making Every Contact Count
Making Every Contact Count is a national eLearning training programme focused on behaviour change through six 30 minute eLearning modules. The programme focuses on topics including smoking, alcohol, drugs and healthy eating and provides effective tools and knowledge to all HSE healthcare professions so that they are equipped to make brief interventions with patients.
Making Every Contact Count incorporates a range of learning mediums including video, scenarios, quizzes, self-assessments and reflective work to engage learners and help to embed learning, tapping into the participatory teaching aspects of the learning pyramid.
At Aurion Learning, we make it standard practice to incorporate the principles of extended learning into our eLearning programmes through our tried and tested ‘Do more, learn more, advise more’ approach to learning. In addition, following completion of the six eLearning modules learners have the opportunity to extend their learning with a classroom-based workshop.
To date, more than 2,000 HSE staff have completed the eLearning modules with hundreds of additional staff working through the Making Every Contact Count modules regularly. 300 staff to date have attended the follow on ‘Enhancing your Brief Intervention skills workshop’ with regular workshops scheduled to reinforce and extend learning.
Learn and read more about the Making Every Contact Count case study
We would love to hear your thoughts on how you plan to extend learning in your learning and development programmes.
Alternatively, if you are unsure where to start with extended learning, Aurion has a team of instructional designers and learning experts who can assist and guide you to your learning goals. Contact us to talk to a member of our team.
If you'd like to create effective remote learning activities, grab an online seat and join us for the last of our how-to webinar series and learn how to structure workplace learning activities for remote learning. | <urn:uuid:ac13ce2a-fa96-45fe-af79-709bae95ea41> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://aurionlearning.com/resources/how-to-extend-learning-post-completion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.943269 | 1,666 | 3.0625 | 3 | 297 |
Summary: Researchers suggest that while experience is important for early language acquisition, it does not account for all of a child’s language facility.
If you have the chance, listen to a toddler use the words “a” and “the” before a noun. Can you detect a pattern? Is he or she using those two words correctly?
And one more question: When kids start using language, how much of their know-how is intrinsic, and how much is acquired by listening to others speak?
Now a study co-authored by an MIT professor uses a new approach to shed more light on this matter — a central issue in the area of language acquisition.
The results suggest that experience is an important component of early-childhood language usage although it doesn’t necessarily account for all of a child’s language facility. Moreover, the extent to which a child learns grammar by listening appears to change over time, with a large increase occurring around age 2 and a leveling off taking place in subsequent years.
“In this view, adult-like, rule-based [linguistic] development is the end-product of a construction of knowledge,” says Roger Levy, an MIT professor and co-author of a new paper summarizing the study. Or, as the paper states, the findings are consistent with the idea that children “lack rich grammatical knowledge at the outset of language learning but rapidly begin to generalize on the basis of structural regularities in their input.”
The paper, “The Emergence of an Abstract Grammatical Category in Children’s Early Speech,” appears in the latest issue of Psychological Science. The authors are Levy, a professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Stephan Meylann of the University of California at Berkeley; Michael Frank of Stanford University; and Brandon Roy of Stanford and the MIT Media Lab.
Studying how children use terms such as “a dog” or “the dog” correctly can be a productive approach to language acquisition, since children use the articles “a” and “the” relatively early in their lives and tend to use them correctly. Again, though: Is that understanding of grammar innate or acquired?
Some previous studies have examined this specific question by using an “overlap score,” that is, the proportion of nouns that children use with both “a” and “the,” out of all the nouns they use. When children use both terms correctly, it indicates they understand the grammatical difference between indefinite and definite articles, as opposed to cases where they may (incorrectly) think only one or the other is assigned to a particular noun.
One potential drawback to this approach, however, is that the overlap score might change over time simply because a child might hear more article-noun pairings, without fully recognizing the grammatical distinction between articles.
By contrast, the current study builds a statistical model of language use that incorporates not only child language use but adult language use recorded around children, from a variety of sources. Some of these are publicly available copora of recordings of children and caregivers; others are records of individual children; and one source is the “Speechome” experiment conducted by Deb Roy of the MIT Media Lab, which features recordings of over 70 percent of his child’s waking hours.
The Speechome data, as the paper notes, provides some of the strongest evidence yet that “children’s syntactic productivity changes over development” — that younger children learn grammar from hearing it, and do so at different rates during different phases of early childhood.
“I think the method starts to get us traction on the problem,” Levy says. “We saw this as an opportunity both to use more comprehensive data and to develop new analytic techniques.”
A work in progress
Still, as the authors note, a second conclusion of the paper is that more basic data about language development is needed. As the paper notes, much of the available information is not comprehensive enough, and thus “likely not sufficient to yield precise developmental conclusions.”
And as Levy readily acknowledges, developing an airtight hypothesis about grammar acquisition is always likely to be a challenge.
“We’re never going to have an absolute complete record of everything a child has ever heard,” Levy says.
That makes it much harder to interpret the cognitive process leading to either correct or incorrect uses of, say, articles such as “a” and “the.” After all, if a child uses the phrase “a bus” correctly, it still might only be because that child has heard the phrase before and likes the way it sounds, not because he or she grasped the underlying grammar.
“Those things are very hard to tease apart, but that’s what we’re trying to do,” Levy says. “This is only really an initial step.”
About this psychology research article
Funding: The researchers acknowledge funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Source: Peter Dizikes – MIT Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT. Original Research: Abstract for “The Emergence of an Abstract Grammatical Category in Children’s Early Speech” by Stephan C. Meylan, Michael C. Frank, Brandon C. Roy, and Roger Levy in Psychological Science. Published online January 10 2017 doi:10.1177/0956797616677753
Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]MIT “New Study of the Words “A” And “The” Sheds Light on Language Acquisition.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 6 April 2017. <https://neurosciencenews.com/language-acquisition-psychology-6352/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]MIT (2017, April 6). New Study of the Words “A” And “The” Sheds Light on Language Acquisition. NeuroscienceNew. Retrieved April 6, 2017 from https://neurosciencenews.com/language-acquisition-psychology-6352/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]MIT “New Study of the Words “A” And “The” Sheds Light on Language Acquisition.” https://neurosciencenews.com/language-acquisition-psychology-6352/ (accessed April 6, 2017).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
The Emergence of an Abstract Grammatical Category in Children’s Early Speech
How do children begin to use language to say things they have never heard before? The origins of linguistic productivity have been a subject of heated debate: Whereas generativist accounts posit that children’s early language reflects the presence of syntactic abstractions, constructivist approaches instead emphasize gradual generalization derived from frequently heard forms. In the present research, we developed a Bayesian statistical model that measures the degree of abstraction implicit in children’s early use of the determiners “a” and “the.” Our work revealed that many previously used corpora are too small to allow researchers to judge between these theoretical positions. However, several data sets, including the Speechome corpus—a new ultra-dense data set for one child—showed evidence of low initial levels of productivity and higher levels later in development. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that children lack rich grammatical knowledge at the outset of language learning but rapidly begin to generalize on the basis of structural regularities in their input.
“The Emergence of an Abstract Grammatical Category in Children’s Early Speech” by Stephan C. Meylan, Michael C. Frank, Brandon C. Roy, and Roger Levy in Psychological Science. Published online January 10 2017 doi:10.1177/0956797616677753 | <urn:uuid:30411b46-8035-4dd7-b3a0-4c4b70032e2f> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://neurosciencenews.com/language-acquisition-psychology-6352/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.92414 | 1,702 | 3.265625 | 3 | 298 |
In our modern, fast-paced lives, the need for maintaining a sound state of mind is more critical than ever. With rising stress levels, constant distractions, and a perpetual quest for productivity, our cognitive and emotional well-being often takes a back seat. But what if there was a way to combine entertainment with enriching mental exercises?
Enter the captivating world of brain games—a realm where fun meets cognitive stimulation. These games offer far more than mere distractions; they provide an array of benefits that can enhance your cognitive skills, emotional balance, and even your social interactions. What makes this avenue so compelling is its ability to offer a balanced workout for your mind, cloaked in the guise of enjoyable activities.
This article aims to illuminate the multifaceted benefits of brain games. We’ll discuss their cognitive, emotional, and social perks, explore their accessibility, and delve into some important considerations to keep in mind. We’ll also offer tips on choosing the right kind of games to meet your specific needs. Join us as we discover how brain games can serve as a viable tool for maintaining a well-rounded state of mind in a world that so often demands it.
What Are Brain Games?
Brain games are interactive challenges designed to exercise specific cognitive skills. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill video games or board games; they’re thoughtfully engineered tasks tailored to engage various aspects of cognitive functioning. Whether online, on mobile apps, or even in traditional paper-and-pencil format, these games aim for targeted mental exercises that can help boost various aspects of your mind.
The realm of brain games has expanded tremendously in recent years. With advancements in neuroscience and technology, today’s brain games are more sophisticated, engaging, and science-based. They often come with an assortment of options, allowing you to choose different difficulty levels and areas of focus, be it memory, attention, language skills, or problem-solving. The surge in their popularity has led to a wide variety of platforms offering these games, making them accessible to all age groups. From toddlers to the elderly, everyone can find a game that suits their cognitive level and interest.
As the name implies, the primary objective is to give your brain a ‘workout.’ Like physical exercise shapes your body, these games aim to sharpen your mind. However, it’s crucial to recognize that not all brain games are created equally. Look for those that have credible scientific research backing them, to ensure you are genuinely benefiting from the time invested.
Accessibility & Convenience
In today’s digital age, accessibility and convenience are more important than ever, and brain games are no exception. These games are available in various formats, ranging from traditional board games to mobile apps, making it easier than ever to incorporate them into your daily routine. Whether you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, commuting, or just lounging at home, you can easily pull up a brain game and engage your mind for a few minutes or even hours.
This easy access has the added benefit of making brain games more integrated into your lifestyle, rather than being a separate activity that requires dedicated time and space. This can be a crucial factor for busy individuals or those who find it challenging to allocate time for activities that are solely focused on cognitive development. The ease with which you can start, pause, and resume these games makes them perfectly adaptable to modern, fast-paced life.
Furthermore, the availability of brain games on various platforms also means that they can be more inclusive, appealing to different age groups and skill levels. Whether you’re a senior looking to keep your mind sharp, a student wanting extra cognitive practice, or someone just looking to make the most of some free time, there’s likely a brain game perfectly suited for you. The accessibility and convenience of these games make it easier than ever to reap their cognitive, emotional, and social benefits.
The rise in the popularity of brain games isn’t without reason. The key allure lies in their promise of cognitive enhancement. While you’re having fun solving puzzles or going through memory exercises, you’re also actively improving several facets of cognitive functioning. Let’s break down some of these improvements to get a clearer understanding of why they matter.
Firstly, brain games can boost memory retention. A study published in a well-regarded journal found that consistent engagement with these games led to improvement in the ability to recall names, numbers, and details. Memory is not just a function of age; it is a skill that can be nurtured and developed.
Another key benefit is in the area of attention and focus. These games often require a high degree of concentration and prompt reactions, and this attention to detail can translate to other tasks in daily life, whether it’s multitasking at work or paying closer attention to a lecture or conversation.
Moreover, brain games can enhance problem-solving skills. Games that include logical reasoning, deduction, and strategic planning help stimulate the brain’s ability to process information and find solutions quickly. Over time, this can lead to better decision-making skills in complex situations, thereby increasing overall cognitive efficiency.
While the cognitive enhancements of brain games receive much attention, the emotional benefits are often overlooked, yet equally vital. Playing these games can generate a sense of accomplishment that boosts self-esteem and promotes a more positive self-image. Understanding the emotional advantages of engaging in brain games can offer a more holistic perspective on why they’re worth the time and effort.
One significant emotional benefit is stress relief. Puzzle games or pattern-matching exercises can serve as a form of mental escapism, helping to distract from the stresses of daily life. Just like physical exercise releases endorphins, solving a challenging game can produce a sense of satisfaction and release tension.
Additionally, brain games can improve mood. Engaging in activities that stimulate the mind can often lead to a more positive emotional state. The sense of achievement derived from solving a complex problem or reaching a new level in a game can uplift spirits, fostering a better mental outlook.
Brain games aren’t just a solo endeavor; many can be played in a social setting, which offers its own unique set of benefits. Engaging in brain games with others can serve as a powerful social catalyst. It can help you connect with like-minded individuals, providing common ground for conversation and shared experiences. This is particularly beneficial for people who are looking to broaden their social circles or enhance their existing relationships.
Moreover, the social aspects of brain games can add an extra layer of complexity and challenge, making the games even more stimulating for your brain. When you’re competing or collaborating with others, the need for strategic thinking and effective communication often increases, giving your brain an additional workout.
Playing brain games in a group setting also enhances empathy and understanding. It’s a setting where you can observe different thinking styles and problem-solving strategies, which can increase your awareness and appreciation of others’ unique abilities and perspectives.
Lastly, social interaction itself has been shown to improve cognitive function and emotional well-being, acting as a multiplier effect when combined with the cognitive and emotional advantages of brain games. Hence, opting for social brain games can offer a holistic approach to enhancing your overall well-being.
Types of Brain Games
The world of brain games is diverse, offering various types of experiences designed to cater to different needs and interests. Recognizing the array of games available can assist you in selecting ones that align with your objectives, whether you aim to boost memory, improve problem-solving skills, or just de-stress.
- Memory Games: Think of classics like Concentration, where you flip over cards to make matching pairs. These types of games enhance short-term memory and attention to detail.
- Puzzle Games: Sudoku and crossword puzzles challenge your problem-solving abilities and encourage logical reasoning. They offer different levels of difficulty to ensure that your brain continues to stretch its capacities.
- Strategy Games: Games like chess and Go require foresight, planning, and tactical maneuvering. They engage both your problem-solving abilities and your strategic thinking skills.
- Word Games: Scrabble, crossword puzzles, and word search games help expand your vocabulary and can also improve your pattern-recognition skills.
- Interactive Online Games: Platforms like Lumosity offer a range of activities specifically designed to target various cognitive skills, offering a comprehensive approach.
- Board Games: Don’t underestimate the power of a good old-fashioned board game like Monopoly or Risk. They require negotiation, strategic thinking, and patience, as well as fostering social connection.
Understanding the different types of brain games can help you make an informed choice about which to incorporate into your routine for a more dynamic mental workout.
Considerations When Choosing Brain Games
Before diving headlong into the world of brain games, there are some important considerations to bear in mind. Firstly, while brain games can offer cognitive and emotional benefits, they are not a magic bullet. It’s essential to approach them as a supplement to a well-rounded lifestyle that includes physical exercise, balanced nutrition, and social interaction.
Secondly, the effectiveness of these games can be subjective. What works wonders for one person might not have the same impact on another. Always choose games that you enjoy, as you’re more likely to stick with them over the long term.
Lastly, be cautious of time. While it’s easy to get lost in these stimulating activities, moderation is key. Setting aside specific “game time” can make the experience both beneficial and enjoyable without interfering with other responsibilities or commitments.
By paying attention to these considerations, you can better align your brain gaming experience with your personal goals and limitations.
In the quest to boost cognitive function, emotional well-being, and even social connectivity, brain games emerge as a versatile and convenient tool. We’ve explored the essence of what these games are and delved into their far-reaching benefits, including cognitive and emotional enhancements. We also provided a snapshot of the types of brain games you might want to try, from puzzles to memory tests, each with its unique advantages.
Whether you’re young or old, busy or idle, tech-savvy or a traditionalist, there’s a brain game out there for you. The advantages of engaging in these activities are not just limited to “training” your brain; they span various facets of life, contributing to a well-rounded, vibrant experience. So, why wait? Start gaming your way to a more agile mind today! | <urn:uuid:23bb342a-140d-4fd7-a384-7f2591bf38d5> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://truisforyou.com/exercising-the-mind-how-brain-games-enhance-mental-well-being/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.938961 | 2,202 | 2.71875 | 3 | 299 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.