Simulation of Bayes' rule by means of Monte Carlo method

This contribution shows a simple implementation of Monte Carlo simulation method when presenting Bayes' rule. The implementation is carried out in the environment of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets by means of a generator of random numbers. The empiric results gained by simulation serve to confirm the correctness of the chosen procedures in calculations using Bayes' formula.     

An electrohydrodynamic flow in ac electrowetting

In ac electrowetting, hydrodynamic flows occur within a droplet. Two distinct flow patterns were observed, depending on the frequency of the applied electrical signal. The flow at low-frequency range was explained in terms of shape oscillation and a steady streaming process in conjunction with contact line oscillation. The origin of the flow at high-frequency range has not yet been explained. We suggest that the high-frequency flow originated mainly from the electrothermal effect, in which electrical charge is generated due to the gradient of electrical conductivity and permittivity, which is induced by the Joule heating of fluid medium. To support our argument, we analyzed the flow field numerically while considering the electrical body force generated by the electrothermal effect. We visualized the flow pattern and measured the flow velocity inside the droplet. The numerical results show qualitative agreement with experimental results with respect to electric field and frequency dependence of flow velocity. The effects of induced-charge electro-osmosis, natural convection, and the Marangoni flow are discussed.     

Haemoglobin A1c-based screening for prediabetes and diabetes mellitus: a multi-center study in Croatian adult population

IntroductionBased on the hypothesis that there is a substantial rate of adults with prediabetes and undiagnosed diabetes mellitus (DM), our aim was to perform haemoglobin A1c (HbA_1c)-based screening in a cohort of Croatian adults and estimate the prevalence of prediabetes and undiagnosed DM according to American Diabetes Association criteria.Materials and methodsThis multi-center, cross-sectional study performed in six Croatian hospitals included 5527 patients aged 40 to 70 years admitted to the Emergency Department or undergoing a primary care check-up. Haemoglobin A1c was measured from leftover whole blood samples using the enzymatic method on either Alinity c or Architect c-series analyser (Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, USA). Haemoglobin A1c between 39-47 mmol/mol was classified as prediabetes, while ≥ 48 mmol/mol as undiagnosed DM.ResultsAfter exclusion of 435 patients with known DM, the final cohort included 5092 patients (median age 57; 56% males). A total of 882 (17.3%) patients had HbA_1c values between 39 and 47 mmol/mol. There were 214 (4.2%) patients with HbA_1c ≥ 48 mmol/mol. Prediabetes prevalence ranged from 14.2% to 20.5%, while undiagnosed DM from 3.3% to 7.3%, with statistically significant differences among settings (P < 0.001). Age-stratified analysis showed that prediabetes and undiagnosed DM prevalence increase with age (P < 0.001), being 25.4% and 5.8%, respectively, in patients aged 60 to 70 years.ConclusionUnderlying impairment of glucose metabolism was identified in about one in five adults, with significant number of patients with already overt DM. These results should serve as a starting point for further steps directed towards promotion of preventive measures for DM in Croatia.     

Imaginaries of Invention Management: Comparing Path Dependencies in East and West Germany

The ways in which societies and institutions institutionalize and practice invention management reflects not only how new ideas are valued, but also imaginaries about the role of science and technology for societal development. Often taking the US Bayh-Dole-Act as a model, many European states have recently implemented changes in how inventions at academic institutions are to be handled to optimize their societal impact. We analyze how these changes have been taken up—and made sense of—in regions with different pre-existing infrastructures, practices and semantics of invention management. For doing so, we build on a comparative analysis of continuities and changes in infrastructures, practices and semantics of invention management in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW, a former Western state) and Saxony (a former GDR state) to reflect on how academic institutions have been handling inventions along transforming socio-political contexts. Building on document analysis and qualitative interviews with research managers, we discuss ongoing differences in practices of invention management and the semantic framing of the societal value of inventions in NRW and Saxony, and discuss how this can be understood before the background of their ideological, political and economic separation until reunification in 1990. Joining the conceptual perspectives of path dependencies and sociotechnical imaginaries, we argue that two critical incidents in the history of these states (the reunification in 1990 and a legal change in 2002) allowed for wide-ranging institutional alignments, but also allowed path dependencies in practices and semantics of invention management to prevail.     

Productive Communication in an Afterschool Engineering Club with Girls Who are English Language Learners

This article the learning of girls who were in a co-ed after school engineering club related to the project: Designing Vital Engineering and Literacy Practices for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math for Elementary Teachers and Children (DeVELOP STEM ETC). While few girls grow up to become engineers in the US, recently more attention has focused on practices that engage girls in order to grow interest in engineering and engineering careers. In this article, we follow three eight and nine-year-old girls (3rd graders). We illustrate how key features of the Engineering Design Process intersect with a multimodal model of Productive Communication to help the girls enact identities as girls and as engineers as they design and build a bridge. We argue that to enact the Next Generation Science Standards, particularly those related to engineering, engineering and STEM educators must attend to the disciplinary literacies and communicative modes of girls and other under-represented minorities. This is also particularly important for learners who are still new to learning English and who may benefit from multimodal interactions and diverse opportunities to learn.     

Is too much help an obstacle? Effects of interactivity and cognitive style on learning with dynamic versus non-dynamic visualizations with narrative explanations

Educational technology research and development - The aim of this study was to investigate the role of visual/verbal cognitive style and interactivity level in dynamic and non-dynamic multimedia...     

Yugoslavia: other modernities,other histories

The Non-Aligned Movement was a transnational political project, a coalition of small and middle-sized states, mostly former colonies and developing countries, from the global south or the Third World. It was formed in 1961 in Yugoslavia at the Belgrade summit. The NAM represented the first major disruption in the Cold World map, a quest for alternative political alliances, for “alternative mundialization.” Culture was accorded particular importance in the NAM, despite the fact that it never took center-stage at summits and conferences. However, NAM’s cultural politics strongly condemned cultural imperialism and epistemic colonialism. Western (European) cultural heritage was to be understood in terms of “juxtaposition”; this heritage would be interwoven with and into the living culture of the colonized, and would not simply be repeated under new (political) circumstances. Consequently art and culture in the NAM were largely about politics and history, or to put it differently, they were a way of staking a claim to history. It seems the movement was somehow aware of the fact that this was the only way it could enter the world’s (cultural) space on an equal footing. There existed a heterogeneous artistic production, a variety of cultural politics and extensive cultural networks which enriched the cultural landscape of the NAM and enabled discussions about the meaning of art outside the Western canon.