scholarly journals On the Relation Between Variability and Creativity: A Summary of Early Work and Advancements from Applied Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-302
Author(s):  
Joseph Dracobly
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Environmental Influence ◽  
Response Variability ◽  
Response Class ◽  
Lag Schedule ◽  
Behavior Analysts ◽  
Lag Schedules ◽  
Conceptual Work

Creativity, or the generation of previously unobserved behavior, is a topic of interest to scientists and the general public alike. Researchers outside behavior analysis have focused on creativity as a trait of individuals. Behavior analysts, however, have focused on the variables that give rise to novel responses. Initial conceptual work examined specific environmental variables that may promote creativity. Subsequent conceptual work examined the role of the response class and the selective nature of reinforcement. As this conceptual work progressed, researchers began evaluating variables that affect response variability, a potentially critical component of variability. Most basic researchers, and some applied researchers, have focused on response sequences. Although this work has proven fruitful in understanding response variability as an operant dimension, these limited response classes have prevented a more robust understanding of variability and novelty. Following the development of the lag schedule, applied researchers began using lag schedules to increase complex behavior behavior such as responses to questions, social skills, and martial arts skills. This applied work has provided intriguing evidence that variability, and environmental influence of variability, is a key contributor to novel responding, thus bringing creativity well into our scientific understanding of behavior.

When People Come First

2013 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Health It ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
New Research ◽  
Health Enterprise ◽  
Conceptual Work

This book critically assesses the expanding field of global health. It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a more comprehensive, people-centered approach. Topics include the limits of technological quick fixes in disease control, the moral economy of global health science, the unexpected effects of massive treatment rollouts in resource-poor contexts, and how right-to-health activism coalesces with the increased influence of the pharmaceutical industry on health care. The chapters explore the altered landscapes left behind after programs scale up, break down, or move on. We learn that disease is really never just one thing, technology delivery does not equate with care, and biology and technology interact in ways we cannot always predict. The most effective solutions may well be found in people themselves, who consistently exceed the projections of experts and the medical-scientific, political, and humanitarian frameworks in which they are cast. This book sets a new research agenda in global health and social theory and challenges us to rethink the relationships between care, rights, health, and economic futures.

scholarly journals Religiosity as a factor protecting against problem behaviour in adolescence

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 63-89
Author(s):  
Iwona Niewiadomska ◽  
Rafał P. Bartczuk ◽  
Joanna Chwaszcz ◽  
Stanisław Fel ◽  
Weronika Augustynowicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Problem Behaviour ◽  
Problem Behaviours ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools ◽  
Conceptual Work ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract This article explores the question, to what degree religiosity contributes, as a protecting factor against a broad category of socially deviant adolescent and youth behaviours. It also tests the hypothesis that gender plays a moderating role in the relationship between religiosity and problem behaviour. It employs a modified version of the Problem Behaviour Syndrome Measure (PBSM), in concert with Jessor and Jessor’s conceptual work. It also makes use of the Duke Religion Index (DUREL) to assess religiosity. The empirical study deals with a representative group of 960 students of upper-secondary schools in the Lubelskie province, Poland. The results were analyzed using canonical analysis and ANOVA. The achievements of the article are twofold. First, it identifies significant correlations between the different levels of religiosity among youth, and the occurrence and intensification of problem behaviours, particularly in regard to organized activity. Organized and intrinsic religiosity play principal protective roles, while the impact of personal religious practices is less significant. Secondly, while analyzing the moderating role of gender in the relationship between religiosity and the intensity of problem behaviour, it was found that gender does not have a significant interactive impact. An affirmative conclusion was confirmed in only two instances.

scholarly journals Monitoring studies should consider temporal variability to reveal relations between cyanobacterial abundance and environmental variables

2015 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 1717-1726 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIANA WOJCIECHOWSKI ◽  
ANDRÉ A. PADIAL
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Variability ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Cyanobacteria Blooms ◽  
Environment Variables ◽  
Sampling Points ◽  
The Relationship

One of the main goals of monitoring cyanobacteria blooms in aquatic environments is to reveal the relationship between cyanobacterial abundance and environmental variables. Studies typically correlate data that were simultaneously sampled. However, samplings occur sparsely over time and may not reveal the short-term responses of cyanobacterial abundance to environmental changes. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that stronger cyanobacteria x environment relationships in monitoring are found when the temporal variability of sampling points is incorporated in the statistical analyses. To this end, we investigated relationships between cyanobacteria and seven environmental variables that were sampled twice yearly for three years across 11 reservoirs, and data from an intensive monitoring in one of these reservoirs. Poor correlations were obtained when correlating data simultaneously sampled. In fact, the 'highly recurrent' role of phosphorus in cyanobacteria blooms is not properly observed in all sampling periods. On the other hand, the strongest correlation values for the total phosphorus x cyanobacteria relationship were observed when we used the variation of sampling points. We have also shown that environment variables better explain cyanobacteria when a time lag is considered. We conclude that, in cyanobacteria monitoring, the best approach to reveal determinants of cyanobacteria blooms is to consider environmental variability.

scholarly journals Contract farming in Brazil – an approach to Law and Economics

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kassia Watanabe ◽  
Nunziata Stefania Paiva ◽  
Ana Elisa Bressan Smith Lourenzani
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Law And Economics ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
Legal Certainty ◽  
Contract Farming ◽  
Economic Agents ◽  
Means Of Production

Abstract Contract farming is based on agreements settled prior to the farmer deciding about agricultural production, and influence their judgment regarding inputs and production systems. Therefore, they provide means of production coordination and safety for both farmer and agro-industry/distributor. However, contract farming has its gaps since it is written in abscence of complete information, due to the behavioral assumption of bounded rationality of economic agents. A specific law might generate legal certainty for economic agents, insofar as the Judiciary fulfills the contractual gaps. From the other side, private agents may also fulfill the contractual gaps. As an effort to understand the role of institutions in contract farming, this study aims to analyze the Bill 6,459/2013, which intends to rule contract farming and takes private instituctions into account, through the agency of the Monitoring, Development and Reconciliation of Integration Committee (Cadec). This is an applied research with qualitative approach. The research concludes that the approval of bill might lead to effective typical law for contract farming, provided that the creation of Cadec is encouraged.

scholarly journals Genetic disruption of the On visual pathway affects cortical orientation selectivity and contrast sensitivity in mice

2014 ◽  
Vol 111 (11) ◽  
pp. 2276-2286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashmi Sarnaik ◽  
Hui Chen ◽  
Xiaorong Liu ◽  
Jianhua Cang
Keyword(s):  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Response Variability ◽  
Stimulus Contrast ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Pharmacological Blockade ◽  
Single Unit Recordings ◽  
On And Off Pathways

The retina signals stimulus contrast via parallel On and Off pathways and sends the information to higher visual centers. Here we study the role of the On pathway using mice that have null mutations in the On-specific GRM6 receptor in the retina (Pinto LH, Vitaterna MH, Shimomura K, Siepka SM, Balannik V, McDearmon EL, Omura C, Lumayag S, Invergo BM, Brandon M, Glawe B, Cantrell DR, Donald R, Inayat S, Olvera MA, Vessey KA, Kirstan A, McCall MA, Maddox D, Morgans CW, Young B, Pletcher MT, Mullins RF, Troy JB, Takahashi JS. Vis Neurosci 24: 111–123, 2007; Maddox DM, Vessey KA, Yarbrough GL, Invergo BM, Cantrell DR, Inayat S, Balannik V, Hicks WL, Hawes NL, Byers S, Smith RS, Hurd R, Howell D, Gregg RG, Chang B, Naggert JK, Troy JB, Pinto LH, Nishina PM, McCall MA. J Physiol 586: 4409–4424, 2008). In these “nob” mice, single unit recordings in the primary visual cortex (V1) reveal degraded selectivity for orientations due to an increased response at nonpreferred orientations. Contrast sensitivity in the nob mice is reduced with severe deficits at low contrast, consistent with the phenotype of night blindness in human patients with mutations in Grm6. These cortical deficits can be largely explained by reduced input drive and increased response variability seen in nob V1. Interestingly, increased variability is also observed in the superior colliculus of these mice but does not affect its tuning properties. Further, the increased response variability in the nob mice is traced to the retina, a result phenocopied by acute pharmacological blockade of the On pathway in wild-type retina. Together, our results suggest that the On and Off pathways normally interact to increase response reliability in the retina, which in turn propagates to various central visual targets and affects their functional properties.

scholarly journals The Role of Scientific Research in Local Community Service from the Perspective of Faculty Members of some Palestinian Universities

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (44) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
أ.د. زياد بركات
Keyword(s):  
Community Service ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Awareness Raising ◽  
Palestinian Universities

The present study aimed at investigating the role of scientific research in the development of the local community from the point of view of the faculty members in the Palestinian Universities. To achieve this objective, a convenient sample of (244) faculty members from the universities of northern Palestine: Al-Quds Open University (Tulkarm), An-Najah National (Nablus), Technical Palestine - Khadouri (Tulkarem), and Arab American (Jenin). The results of the study showed that the participants' assessment of the importance of the role of scientific research in community development was medium in the overall instrument and two dimensions: applied research and scientific consultancy, but their assessment of awareness-raising was high. On the other hand, the results showed that there were statistically significant differences in the level of the role of practical research in the development of the community attributed to the gender variable in favor of males on the overall instrument and three dimensions, while there were no statistically significant differences in the level of participants' assessment attributed to the variable of specialization. The differences were in favor of the disciplines of educational sciences and applied sciences. There were also statistically significant differences in the level of their assessment attributed to the qualification variable on the overall instrument and the three dimensions in favor of PhD holders.Keywords: scientific research, community service, awareness-raising, applied research, scientific consultancy.

scholarly journals To Be Or Not To Be? What Makes a Child Dyslexic: An Overview on Risk Factors and Correlated Clinical Aspects

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Claudio Rosa ◽  
Carlo Aleci
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Early Diagnosis ◽  
Reading Disability ◽  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Environmental Influence ◽  
Phenotypic Expression ◽  
Clinical Aspects

Developmental dyslexia, one of the most common neuro-developmental disorders, is frequently under-diagnosed or diagnosed late. Despite there is consensus on the neurobiological and genetic basis and on the environmental influence, the multi-faceted aspects of dyslexia and the complexity of its phenotypic expression hinder the identification of the risk factors. Indeed, determining risk factors and understanding how they predispose to the reading disability is important for an early diagnosis and a satisfactory rehabilitative outcome. The aim of this paper is therefore to provide an overview on the genetic, biochemical, anatomical and environmental variables involved in the pathogenesis of developmental dyslexia, and on the visual-perceptual aspects that characterize children who struggle to read.

scholarly journals Neuronal response variability as a product of divisive normalization; neurobiological implications at a macroscale level

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Kathy L. Ruddy ◽  
David M. Cole ◽  
Colin Simon ◽  
Marc T. Bächinger
Keyword(s):  
Potential Role ◽  
Neuronal Response ◽  
Quantitative Model ◽  
Response Variability ◽  
Sensory Cortex ◽  
Neural Oscillations ◽  
Neural Encoding ◽  
Approach Response ◽  
Divisive Normalization

The occurrence of neuronal spikes recorded directly from sensory cortex is highly irregular within and between presentations of an invariant stimulus. The traditional solution has been to average responses across many trials. However, with this approach, response variability is downplayed as noise, so it is assumed that statistically controlling it will reveal the brain’s true response to a stimulus. A mounting body of evidence suggests that this approach is inadequate. For example, experiments show that response variability itself varies as a function of stimulus dimensions like contrast and state dimensions like attention. In other words, response variability has structure, is therefore potentially informative and should be incorporated into models which try to explain neural encoding. In this article we provide commentary on a recently published study by Coen-Cagli and Solomon that incorporates spike variability in a quantitative model, by explaining it as a function of divisive normalization. We consider the potential role of neural oscillations in this process as a potential bridge between the current microscale findings and response variability at the mesoscale/macroscale level.

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