Writing difficulties in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment

The present study addresses the scope of the writing difficulties observed in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Patients with AD, patients with MCI and healthy controls performed a written picture-naming task and a direct copy transcoding task in which phonology-to-orthography (P–O) consistency was manipulated. Written latencies, inter-letter durations, mean word pen pressure and number of errors were measured. Results revealed that there was a significant difference between the control group and both groups of patients in written latencies and number of errors. However, in inter-letter interval or mean pen pressure there were significant differences only between the group with AD and the other groups. P–O consistency and the type of task produced similar effects in the three groups of participants, suggesting a general deficit affecting the ability to access/generate orthographic representations. The relevance of these results for understanding the spelling impairment in AD and MCI are discussed.

     

Verbal Short‐Term Memory Underlies Typical Development of “Thought Organization” Measured as Speech Connectedness

Formal thought organization obtained from free speech, a key feature for psychiatric evaluations, has been poorly investigated during typical development. Computational tools such as speech graph connectedness (LSC) currently allow for an accurate quantification in naturalistic settings. LSC's typical development is better predicted by years of education than by age. Among beginning readers, the LSC of stories composed of short‐term memory predicted reading independently from IQ. Here we set out to test a longitudinal sample (6–8 years old, n = 45, followed for 2 years) to verify whether the LSC is predictive of various memory measures, and whether such relations can explain the correlation with reading. The LSC was specifically correlated with verbal short‐term memory performance. The results support the notion that the short‐term storage of verbal information is necessary to plan a story. Given the limited sample size, the relationship of this interaction with reading remains inconclusive.     

Knowledge creation for science and technology in academic laboratories: a pilot study

In the last decade, there has been increasing pressure on academic laboratories to produce practical results. The last 10 years also have seen a growing interest in knowledge management, a management discipline believed to enhance organizations’ innovative capability by the sharing and creation of knowledge. While most knowledge management cases refer to the business setting, we believe that the introduction of these practices can also enhance knowledge creation and knowledge sharing within and among research units. This paper focuses on a pilot study being conducted at a Japanese public graduate university – JAIST – under a Center of Excellence (COE) program that was established to bring the performance of research laboratories up to a world class level in productivity by applying the theories and tools of knowledge science. This study is a cooperative effort between the School of Knowledge Science, doing research on knowledge management and systems, and two research laboratories in the School of Materials Science, doing basic and applied research on materials science. The goal of this project is to enhance materials science students’ capabilities so that they become successful creators of new scientific knowledge. A group of seven graduate research students volunteered for the study. As one of the first steps, we introduced a formal and periodic written reporting system that motivates students to think strategically about their experiments, helps them to improve their communications skills, and enables students to self-evaluate their skills and supervisors to evaluate the students’ skills as well as monitor their progress and developments in a formalized way. Since the project is relatively new, these preliminary results are associated with a generalized awareness and participation of the students in the project. However, we are expecting to obtain more concrete results, that is, quantifiable improvements in scientific production, in the near future.     

A multilevel hypernetworks approach to capture meso-level synchronisation processes in football

ABSTRACT

Understanding team behaviours in sports performance requires understanding the interdependencies established between their levels of complexity (micro-meso-macro). Previously, most studies examined interactions emerging at micro- and macro-levels, thus neglecting those emerging at a meso-level (reveals connections between player and team levels, depicted by the emergence of coordination in specific sub-groups of players–simplices during performance). We addressed this issue using the multilevel hypernetworks approach, adopting a cluster-phase method, to record player-simplice synchronies in two performance conditions where the number, size and location of goals were manipulated (first-condition: 6 × 6 + 4 mini-goals; second-condition: Gk + 6 × 6 + Gk). We investigated meso-level coordination tendencies, as a function of ball-possession (attacking/defending), field-direction (longitudinal/lateral) and teams (Team A/Team B). Generally, large synergistic relations and more stable patterns were observed in the longitudinal direction of the field than the lateral direction for both teams, and for both game phases in the first condition. The second condition displayed higher synchronies and more stable patterns in the lateral direction than the longitudinal plane for both teams, and for both game phases. Results suggest: (i) usefulness of hypernetworks in assessing synchronisation of teams at a meso-level; (ii) coaches may consider manipulating these task constraints to develop levels of local synchronies within teams.     

The future of mathematics education since COVID-19: humans-with-media or humans-with-non-living-things

Educational Studies in Mathematics - The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the agenda of mathematics education. This change will be analyzed by looking at three trends in mathematics education: the use...     

The Relationship Between Running Economy and Biomechanical Variables in Distance Runners

In this study, we analyzed the relationship between running economy (RE) and biomechanical parameters in a group running at the same relative intensity and same absolute velocity. Sixteen homogeneous male long-distance runners performed a test to determine RE at 4.4 m.s^-1, corresponding to 11.1% below velocity at the ventilatory threshold. We found significant correlations between RE and biomechanical variables (vertical oscillation of the center of mass, stride frequency, stride length, balance time, relative stride length, range of elbow motion, internal knee, ankle angles at foot strike, and electromyographic activity of the semitendinosus and rectus femoris muscles). In conclusion, changes in running technique can influence RE and lead to improved running performance.     

Constitutive Pluralism of Chemistry: Thought Planning, Curriculum, Epistemological and Didactic Orientations

Maybe the most difficult aspect of thinking about chemistry arises from the fact that chemistry isn’t an homogeneous subject. As a central science, it draws on a range of philosophical perspectives which in turn can result in different cognitive, learning and teaching styles in chemical education. This idea, apparently non-controversial, needs to be validated by more research. Without assuming this constitutive pluralism, describing it, and determining it, it becomes difficult to think of curricular goals and content. Thus, if we intend to improve the teaching of chemistry it is necessary, first, to assume explicitly this constitutive pluralism, then to map it in order to find the guiding principles: first for the mind (thought process), then for the curriculum and finally for the teaching, in such a way that it is as close as possible to the chemical way of operating and thinking. This is the aim of this paper. It reports the authors’ experiences in drafting structural ideas and planning for the subject “didactic of chemistry” based on the philosophy of chemistry at the University of Porto in Portugal.     

Chemistry practical lessons: altering traditions for students’ emancipation

This paper is a response to Maria Andree’s paper. Andree tells in the paper how mistakes in practical lessons may be critical events to change students’ attitudes in regard science. While traditionally mistakes in practical lessons could obligate students to repeat the experiment in order to get the ‘right result’ in the paper we have a good example how we can use the incident to potentiate students’ participation. In my response I illustrate how transferable is what Andree speaks about but I put forward further reflections about the traditions that may act as impediment for students’ participation. I thus suggest that the critical paradigm should be a component in reflecting about science classroom practices in order to alter the traditions.