An analytical solution to the nonlinear evolutionary equations for nucleation and growth of particles

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we consider a mathematical model for the growing crystals in supersaturated or supercooled systems. An integro-differential equation of the Fokker-Planck type is analytically solved using the saddle point method for the Laplace integral. The solution describes an intermediate stage of the phase transition process with allowance for the power law of the growth rate of spherical particles and the nucleation mechanisms known as the Meirs and Weber-Volmer-Frenkel-Zeldovich kinetics. A dynamical dependencies for the supersaturation/supercooling and the distribution function of crystals by their size are obtained. The novelty of the theory is the use of a power law for the growth rate of crystals, which leads to new analytical solutions of the problem.     

Assessing mental flexibility with a new word recognition test

This paper presents the development and preliminary evaluation of a new word recognition test (WRT) designed to measure individual differences in mental flexibility, defined as the ability to solve novel problems in unfamiliar settings. Conceptually designed to simulate problem solving in real world performance situations, the test was developed to recruit fluid and reproductive abilities and the interplay between convergent and divergent thinking. It is based on a framework that integrates and extends previous theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of cognitive ability and creative cognition. The WRT was administered with various cognitive ability and criterion measures to an undergraduate student sample (n = 266). Results provide preliminary evidence of construct validity. WRT scores correlated as expected with reference measures of cognitive ability, creative performance, and college performance (GPA). Regression analyses showed the WRT explained an additional 4.5% of variance in college performance over and above traditional cognitive ability measures that take up to five times as long to administer. Results suggest further study is warranted given the potential for its contribution to basic research and applied use.     

Psychometric properties of an experimental test for the assessment of basic arithmetic calculation efficiency / Propiedades psicométricas de una prueba experimental para la evaluación de la eficacia del cálculo aritmético básico

Abstract

In this article the ‘Arithmetic Calculation Efficiency Test’ (Test de Eficacia en el cálculo aritmético – TECA), a test for the assessment of arithmetic efficiency in terms of precision and speed in school-aged subjects, is introduced. The test aims to contribute to educational practices and the diagnosis of students who are at risk of Learning Difficulties in Calculations (LDC). Psychometric properties of the test items were analysed based on a sample of 331 subjects from grade 1 to 6 from Primary School. Analysis of content validity, item analysis, dimensionality and reliability have provided evidence of the validity of a one-dimensional structure consistent with the theoretical framework.     

From a fixation on sports to an exploration of mechanism: The past,present, and future of hot hand research

We review the literature on the hot hand fallacy by highlighting the positive and negative aspects of hot hand research over the past 20 years, and suggesting new avenues of research. Many researchers have focused on criticising Gilovich et al.'s claim that the hot hand fallacy exists in basketball and other sports, instead of exploring the general implications of the hot hand fallacy for human cognition and probabilistic reasoning. Noting that researchers have shown that people perceive hot streaks in a gambling domain in which systematic streaks cannot possibly exist, we suggest that researchers have paid too much attention to investigating the independence of outcomes in various sporting domains. Instead, we advocate a domain-general mechanistic approach to understanding the hot hand fallacy, and conclude by suggesting approaches that might refocus the literature on the important general implications of the hot hand fallacy for human probabilistic reasoning.     

护理专业“能力拓展人才培养模式”的研究与实践

通过分析传统护理教育培养模式存在的缺陷及根本原因,探索促进护理专业的教学改革的方法和途径,创新护理专业“能力拓展人才”模式.建立了一个平台、两个系列、三个循环、四个“融”为一体、五个教学模块的能力拓展人才的培养体系,从而使97％的学生认为增强了学生的学习积极性,95％的学生认为促进了理论知识的理解,86％的学生认为理论联系实际的能力明显增强,75％的学生与老师建立了良好的师生关系,100％的学生认为提高了动手能力和自主学习能力,提高就业率及毕业生双证持有率.经过7年的实践应用和经验总结证明,该模式能有效实现护理专业“能力拓展人才”的培养目标,提高毕业生的综合素质.     

Evaluation de la capacité de travail des seniors : l’apport des compétences perçues

The Work Ability Index (Ilmarinen, Tuomi, & Klockars, 1997; Ilmarinen, 2007) is a validated tool extensively used in epidemiological studies to measure older workers work ability. The WAI is relatively focused on health. The VOW/QFT (Hellemans, 2010, 2011, 2013) proposes to expand the notion of work ability with these competences, beyond the issue of functional ability. This contribution aims to test convergences and divergences between the WAI and the two work ability indices of the VOW/QFT, and also their respective predictors. Analyzes, conducted with 254 workers subject to medical visits, have shown especially that WAI scores and evolution of ability scores from the VOW/QFT are highly correlated, generally and among laborers, but not among employees. The results highlight the interest accounting for perceived competence for assessing work capacity among employees.     

The Contributions of Memory and Attention Processes to Cognitive Abilities

In two experiments, the contributions of memory and attention processes to the cognitive abilities of reasoning and perceptual speed were investigated. Two measures of speed of information retrieval from long-term and short-term memory (Posner paradigm, Sternberg paradigm) and two attention measures (continuous attention test, attention switching test) were included in the first experiment (N = 220). The memory tests led to correlations with the measures of cognitive abilities, whereas the attention test did not. The same tests as well as one additional memory test and one attention test (working memory test, test of covert orientation) were administered in the second experiment (N = 116). Again, the memory tests led to the larger correlations with the measures of cognitive abilities. Two components were obtained in components analysis, of which the first was characterized by high loadings of the memory tests and the second by high loadings of the attention tests. Only the memory component contributed to the prediction of cognitive abilities.     

Verbal fluency and creativity: General and specific contributions of broad retrieval ability (Gr) factors to divergent thinking

The Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence views creativity as a first-level factor within the second-level factor of broad retrieval ability (Gr), alongside other first-level abilities such as ideational fluency and word fluency. Traditional methods of measuring creativity, however, confound idea quality with idea quantity, which might exaggerate the relationship between creativity scores and verbal fluency factors. Participants (n = 131 adults) completed two divergent thinking tasks (unusual uses for a rope and a box), which were scored using newer methods that effectively separate creativity (scored via subjective ratings) and fluency (scored as number of responses). They then completed 16 verbal fluency tasks that assessed six lower-order Gr factors: word fluency, associational fluency, associative flexibility, ideational fluency, letter fluency, and dissociative ability. Viewed singly, many of the lower-order factors significantly predicted creative quality and fluency. General Gr had substantial effects on creative quality (standardized β = .443) and fluency (β = .339) in a higher-order model as well as in a bifactor model (quality β = .380, fluency β = .327). Moreover, general Gr was the only significant predictor in the bifactor model, suggesting that it, not the specific factors, was most important. All effects were essentially the same after controlling for typing speed and vocabulary knowledge. The findings thus support the CHC view of creativity/originality as a lower-order component of Gr, illuminate the relationships between creativity and first-level Gr factors, extend the study of creativity and intelligence beyond fluid intelligence, and further indicate that creativity is more closely tied to cognitive abilities than creativity research has yet recognized.     

Perception of one's own and others' ability by preschool Japanese children

This study examined the perception of one's own and others' ability in preschool Japanese boys and girls. In Study 1, 70 Japanese boys and girls aged 4–6 years rated their own and their close friend's ability on their favorite outdoor and indoor activities. In Study 2, 65 Japanese children aged 5 and 6 years rated their own and their close friend's ability and guessed that of a nonfriend (a mere acquaintance child in the preschool) on their most and least favorite outdoor and indoor activities. The major findings were as follows: (a) the perception of preschool children's own ability correlates with that of their close friend's ability; (b) ability perception was influenced by preference for the activity and by gender; and (c) no difference was found between ratings for a close friend and a nonfriend according to activities preferences, which differed from the ability perception by preadolescent children.     

The Duration and Intensity of the Exposure Light as Factors in Determining the Course of the Subsequent Dark-Adaptation: I. the Matching Method

The authors investigated the phenomenon that performance in an ongoing task declines when individuals must carry out a prospective memory (PM) task. This effect is referred to as the PM interference effect. The authors examined whether the PM interference effect differs between event-based and time-based PM tasks and whether it is increased among the elderly. The authors also investigated adult age differences in PM performance and the potential underlying mechanisms of the age deficits in PM. They found that the PM interference effect was greater in event-based than in time-based tasks. However, aging was not associated with an increase in PM interference effects. Age differences in PM performance were more exaggerated in time-based than event-based PM, but they were not mediated by age differences in traditional cognitive ability measures. In time-based PM, age showed a unique adverse effect even after controlling for the ability to externally monitor the time, leading to the possibility that aging disrupts time-based PM because of deficits in internally processing the time.