scholarly journals From the President: A Critical Aspect of Scientific Success: Perseverance

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-7
Author(s):  
Eric D. Wachsman

To address the challenges that face us, we cannot just work hard, we must persevere.

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 795-806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. Short ◽  
Rachael Cooper Schindler ◽  
Rita Obeid ◽  
Maia M. Noeder ◽  
Laura E. Hlavaty ◽  
...  

Purpose Play is a critical aspect of children's development, and researchers have long argued that symbolic deficits in play may be diagnostic of developmental disabilities. This study examined whether deficits in play emerge as a function of developmental disabilities and whether our perceptions of play are colored by differences in language and behavioral presentations. Method Ninety-three children participated in this study (typically developing [TD]; n = 23, developmental language disorders [DLD]; n = 24, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]; n = 26, and autism spectrum disorder [ASD]; n = 20). Children were videotaped engaging in free-play. Children's symbolic play (imagination, organization, elaboration, and comfort) was scored under conditions of both audible language and no audible language to assess diagnostic group differences in play and whether audible language impacted raters' perception of play. Results Significant differences in play were evident across diagnostic groups. The presence of language did not alter play ratings for the TD group, but differences were found among the other diagnostic groups. When language was audible, children with DLD and ASD (but not ADHD) were scored poorly on play compared to their TD peers. When language was not audible, children with DLD were perceived to play better than when language was audible. Conversely, children with ADHD showed organizational deficits when language was not available to support their play. Finally, children with ASD demonstrated poor play performance regardless of whether language was audible or not. Conclusions Language affects our understanding of play skills in some young children. Parents, researchers, and clinicians must be careful not to underestimate or overestimate play based on language presentation. Differential skills in language have the potential to unduly influence our perceptions of play for children with developmental disabilities.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Divya Bohra ◽  
Jehanzeb Chaudhry ◽  
Thomas Burdyny ◽  
Evgeny Pidko ◽  
wilson smith

<p>The environment of a CO<sub>2</sub> electroreduction (CO<sub>2</sub>ER) catalyst is intimately coupled with the surface reaction energetics and is therefore a critical aspect of the overall system performance. The immediate reaction environment of the electrocatalyst constitutes the electrical double layer (EDL) which extends a few nanometers into the electrolyte and screens the surface charge density. In this study, we resolve the species concentrations and potential profiles in the EDL of a CO<sub>2</sub>ER system by self-consistently solving the migration, diffusion and reaction phenomena using the generalized modified Poisson-Nernst-Planck (GMPNP) equations which include the effect of volume exclusion due to the solvated size of solution species. We demonstrate that the concentration of solvated cations builds at the outer Helmholtz plane (OHP) with increasing applied potential until the steric limit is reached. The formation of the EDL is expected to have important consequences for the transport of the CO<sub>2</sub> molecule to the catalyst surface. The electric field in the EDL diminishes the pH in the first 5 nm from the OHP, with an accumulation of protons and a concomitant depletion of hydroxide ions. This is a considerable departure from the results obtained using reaction-diffusion models where migration is ignored. Finally, we use the GMPNP model to compare the nature of the EDL for different alkali metal cations to show the effect of solvated size and polarization of water on the resultant electric field. Our results establish the significance of the EDL and electrostatic forces in defining the local reaction environment of CO<sub>2</sub> electrocatalysts.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-300
Author(s):  
Stephen Ferrigno ◽  
Yiyun Huang ◽  
Jessica F. Cantlon

The capacity for logical inference is a critical aspect of human learning, reasoning, and decision-making. One important logical inference is the disjunctive syllogism: given A or B, if not A, then B. Although the explicit formation of this logic requires symbolic thought, previous work has shown that nonhuman animals are capable of reasoning by exclusion, one aspect of the disjunctive syllogism (e.g., not A = avoid empty). However, it is unknown whether nonhuman animals are capable of the deductive aspects of a disjunctive syllogism (the dependent relation between A and B and the inference that “if not A, then B” must be true). Here, we used a food-choice task to test whether monkeys can reason through an entire disjunctive syllogism. Our results show that monkeys do have this capacity. Therefore, the capacity is not unique to humans and does not require language.


2021 ◽  
pp. 030908922095033
Author(s):  
Scott N Morschauser

In Late Bronze Age diplomatic correspondence, vassals attempt to demonstrate their loyalty by declaring they would carry out any command of the king even if it is self-destructive. A critical aspect of these exchanges is that the seemingly harmful order was never meant to be fulfilled. The exaggerated offer to undergo needless suffering was sufficient proof that the subaltern was an arad kitti, or ‘faithful servant’. This rhetorical dynamic, wherein the ‘deferential gesture’ is enough to satisfy a seemingly overwrought demand, has relevance for evaluating components of the divine decree in Genesis 22, that Abraham deliver up his son ‘as a burnt offering’, his willingness to carry out its dictates, and the heavenly overlord’s ultimately setting aside its execution. The author suggests that the biblical episode was a symbolic ritual enacted between the deity and patriarch, whose intent was to exalt Abraham as the arad kitti, par excellence, and to demonstrate that God was the most trustworthy of suzerains.


2005 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. P. BUTLER ◽  
T. BERNET ◽  
K. MANRIQUE

Potatoes are an important cash crop for small-scale producers worldwide. The move away from subsistence to commercialized farming, combined with the rapid growth in demand for processed agricultural products in developing countries, implies that small-scale farmers and researchers alike must begin to respond to these market changes and consider post-harvest treatment as a critical aspect of the potato farming system. This paper presents and assesses a low cost potato-grading machine that was designed explicitly to enable small-scale potato growers to sort tubers by size for supply to commercial processors. The results of ten experiments reveal that the machine achieves an accuracy of sort similar to commercially available graders. The machine, which uses parallel conical rollers, has the capacity to grade different tuber shapes and to adjust sorting classes, making it suitable for locations with high potato diversity. Its relatively low cost suggests that an improved and adapted version of this machine might enhance market integration of small-scale potato producers not only in Peru, but in other developing countries as well.


2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wasserman

In this article I want to ask what we should do, either collectively or individually, if we could identify by genetic and family profding the 12% of the male population likely to commit almost half the violent crime in our society. What if we could identify some individuals in that 12% not only at birth, but in utero, or before implantation? I will explain the source of these figures later; for now, I will use them only to provide a concrete example of the kind of predictive claims we can expect to be made with some frequency, and some scientific credibility, over the next generation. I will adopt an outlook that one commentator has called “pragmatic optimism,” but which could also be called technological optimism - the belief that a science or technology will achieve many or most of its advertised goals. My optimism will be directed towards human behavioral genetics, the source of predictions like the one I just offered; I will assume that this controversial discipline will achieve a substantial pan of its scientific ambition to identlfy genetic differences among individuals that help predict and possibly explain future behavior, psychological health, and cognitive skill. This optimism is very limited -it concerns the scientific success of behavioral genetics, not the social value of that success.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Joseph M. Carrasco ◽  
Laurentiu Rodina ◽  
Suna Zekioğlu

Abstract Color-kinematics duality in the adjoint has proven key to the relationship between gauge and gravity theory scattering amplitude predictions. In recent work, we demonstrated that at four-point tree-level, a small number of color-dual EFT building blocks could encode all higher-derivative single-trace massless corrections to gauge and gravity theories compatible with adjoint double-copy. One critical aspect was the trivialization of building higher-derivative color-weights — indeed, it is the mixing of kinematics with non-adjoint-type color-weights (like the permutation-invariant d4) which permits description via adjoint double-copy. Here we find that such ideas clarify the predictions of local five-point higher-dimensional operators as well. We demonstrate how a single scalar building block can be combined with color structures to build higher-derivative color factors that generate, through double copy, the amplitudes associated with higher-derivative gauge-theory operators. These may then be suitably mapped, through another double-copy, to higher-derivative corrections in gravity.


10.1142/12550 ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah D L Chung
Keyword(s):  

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