A Review on the Role of Nutraceuticals as Simple as Se2+ to Complex Organic Molecules Such as Glycyrrhizin That Prevent as Well as Cure Diseases

Nutraceuticals are nutritional medicines which are present in edible food items. Most of them are antioxidants with various other biological properties viz, anti inflammatory, anti atherogenic, anticancer, anti viral, anti aging properties etc. They are as simple as minerals like Se²⁺ to complex organic molecules such as glycyrrhizin (Ca²⁺, K⁺ salts of glycyrrhizic acid). They can prevent as well as cure various diseases. Most of the medical people are not aware of the importance of the nutraceuticals as such matters are not part of their text books. Many still think that vitamins are the major nutritional medicines. Actually other dietary principles like terpenes, carotenes, phytosterols, polyphenols, flavanoids, di and poly sulphides, their sulfoxides and their precursor amino acids are necessary to scavenge free radicals in the body which are reactive oxygen species to protect and maintain the vitamin levels in the body. They down regulate the activities of those enzymes which are increased in diseases and they increase those that remove oxidants and detoxify carcinogens. They are immune boosters too. Recently glucosinolates, non toxic alkaloids, certain proteins and even fiber are included in the list of nutraceuticals.     

Application of Think Aloud Protocols for Examining and Confirming Sources of Differential Item Functioning Identified by Expert Reviews

This paper demonstrates and discusses the use of think aloud protocols (TAPs) as an approach for examining and confirming sources of differential item functioning (DIF). The TAPs are used to investigate to what extent surface characteristics of the items that are identified by expert reviews as sources of DIF are supported by empirical evidence from examinee thinking processes in the English and French versions of a Canadian national assessment. In this research, the TAPs confirmed sources of DIF identified by expert reviews for 10 out of 20 DIF items. The moderate agreement between TAPs and expert reviews indicates that evidence from expert reviews cannot be considered sufficient in deciding whether DIF items are biased and such judgments need to include evidence from examinee thinking processes.     

A Didactic Sequence of Elementary Geometric Optics Informed by History and Philosophy of Science

The concepts and instruments required for the teaching and learning of geometric optics are introduced in the didactic process without a proper didactic transposition. This claim is secured by the ample evidence of both wide- and deep-rooted alternative concepts on the topic. Didactic transposition is a theory that comes from a reflection on the teaching and learning process in mathematics but has been used in other disciplinary fields. It will be used in this work in order to clear up the main obstacles in the teaching-learning process of geometric optics. We proceed to argue that since Newton’s approach to optics, in his Book I of Opticks, is independent of the corpuscular or undulatory nature of light, it is the most suitable for a constructivist learning environment. However, Newton’s theory must be subject to a proper didactic transposition to help overcome the referred alternative concepts. Then is described our didactic transposition in order to create knowledge to be taught using a dialogical process between students’ previous knowledge, history of optics and the desired outcomes on geometrical optics in an elementary pre-service teacher training course. Finally, we use the scheme-facet structure of knowledge both to analyse and discuss our results as well as to illuminate shortcomings that must be addressed in our next stage of the inquiry.     

Forensic child sexual abuse evaluations: assessing subjectivity and bias in professional judgements

Objectives

Evaluators examining the same evidence often arrive at substantially different conclusions in forensic assessments of child sexual abuse (CSA). This study attempts to identify and quantify subjective factors that contribute to such disagreements so that interventions can be devised to improve the reliability of case decisions.

Methods

Participants included 1106 professionals in the field of child maltreatment representing a range of professional positions or job titles and years of experience. Each completed the Child Forensic Attitude Scale (CFAS), a 28-item survey assessing 3 forensic attitudes believed to influence professional judgments about CSA allegations: emphasis-on-sensitivity (i.e., a focus on minimizing false negatives or errors of undercalling abuse); emphasis-on-specificity (i.e., a focus on minimizing false positives or errors of overcalling abuse); and skepticism toward child and adolescent reports of CSA. A subset of 605 professionals also participated in 1 of 3 diverse decision exercises to assess the influence of the 3 forensic attitudes on ratings of case credibility.

Results

Exploratory factor analysis identified 4 factors or attitude subscales that corresponded closely with the original CFAS scales: 2 subscales for emphasis-on-sensitivity and 1 each for emphasis-on-specificity and skepticism. Attitude subscale scores differed significantly by sample source (in-state trainings vs. national conferences), gender, years of experience, and professional position, with Child Protective Service workers unexpectedly more concerned about overcalling abuse and more skeptical of child disclosures than other professionals—a pattern of scores associated with an increased probability of disbelieving CSA allegations. The 3 decision exercises offered validation of the attitude subscales as predictors of professional ratings of case credibility, with adjusted R²s for the three exercises ranging from .06 to .24, suggesting highly variable effect sizes.

Conclusions

Evaluator disagreements about CSA allegations can be explained, in part, by individual differences in 3 attitudes related to forensic decision-making: emphasis-on-sensitivity, emphasis-on-specificity, and skepticism toward child reports of abuse. These attitudes operate as predispositions or biases toward viewing CSA allegations as likely true or likely false. Several strategies for curbing the influence of subjective factors are highlighted including self-awareness of personal biases and team approaches to assessment.     

Gender and ethnic differences in perceptions of equal opportunity climate and job outcomes of US Army Reserve component personnel

We examined equal opportunity climate (EOC) perceptions of reserve component personnel in the US Army (n = 949). We expected that gender and ethnic group membership would influence perceptions of the equal opportunity climate; and that gender and ethnic group membership would moderate the relationship between equal opportunity climate perceptions and ratings of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and workgroup effectiveness. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found the women and minorities perceptions regarding the equal opportunity climate were less favorable than White men. We also found that both gender and ethnicity moderated the relationship between equal opportunity climate perceptions and job outcomes of these groups. Our findings suggest that different groups are sensitive to particular aspects of EOC (e.g., harassment or discrimination) and that these sensitivities affect job-related outcomes.     

An approach to web-based Personal Health Records filtering using fuzzy prototypes and data quality criteria

Nowadays, new ways of managing and accessing to health-care information are continuously appearing. Web-based Personal Health Records (web PHRs) have the potential to make data about health-care available to clinicians, researchers and students in different medical contexts and applications. Therefore, the amount of web PHRs accessible through Internet has grown enormously and as a result health-care professionals are currently burdened with more and more data. It’s probable that these data, unfortunately, have not always the adequate levels of quality, making that their work cannot always be as successful as expected. As a way of alleviating this fact, the present work is focused on improving the document filtering results in the context of web PHRs management. To achieve this goal, a new kind of document filtering model is proposed. This model is based on fuzzy prototypes which are defined by means of conceptual prototypes. These prototypes are obtained by using a data quality analysis of documents. This analysis guarantees that filtered information will be relevant enough for the information user. The complete model provides an efficient strategy of document filtering that can be very useful when it is necessary to deal with a constant flow of new information.     

Soft approaches to information access on the Web: An introduction to the special issue

Soft Computing (SC) tools present a great potential in real-life problems related with engineering, industrial applications, medicine, finances, etc. In this special issue we present a set of seven papers that report original research about the use of SC techniques to solve the problems in the field of information access on the Web.     

Telematics for Teacher Education: issues from a European conference

ABSTRACT

The world Information Superhighway is under discussion in many countries. Within Europe the discussion is also very active as is the promotion of the use of telematics for trans‐European communication and co‐operation in various areas. For education and training, representatives of European teacher trainers, teachers, students, parents, policy and decision makers discussed their needs and views on a trans‐European network at a conference held in May 1994 in Luxembourg. This paper presents a selection of various issues raised at the conference regarding the use of telematics for teacher education and illustrates the discussion and the method of discussion. It also describes and discusses the conference programme model, as it offered innovative on‐line activities to facilitate appreciation of telematics. The case is argued that teacher education can benefit greatly from telematics and some points are put forward for further discussion.     

Emergent relations in pigeons following training with temporal samples

In two experiments, we investigated emergent conditional relations in pigeons using a symbolic matching-to-sample task with temporal stimuli as the samples and hues as the comparisons. Both experiments comprised three phases. In Phase I, pigeons learned to choose a red keylight (R) but not a green keylight (G) after a 1-s signal. They also learned to choose G but not R after a 4-s signal. In Phase II, correct responding consisted of choosing a blue keylight (B) after a 4-s signal and a yellow keylight (Y) after a 16-s signal. Comparisons G and B were both related to the same 4-s sample, whereas comparisons R and Y had no common sample. In Phase III, R and G were presented as samples, and B and Y were presented as the comparisons. The choice of B was correct following G, and the choice of Y was correct following R. If a relation between comparisons that shared a common sample were to emerge, then responding to B given G would be more likely than responding to Y given R. The results were generally consistent with this prediction, suggesting, for the first time in pigeons, the emergence of novel relations that involve temporal stimuli as nodal samples.