Organizational management of intra-group behaviour based on conflict analysis of activities

The article is aimed at solving an important theoretical and experimental problem associated with the search for constructive ways of organizational management of intra-group behaviour based on the official activity analysis. On the ground of ergonomic concepts of purposeful systems, some strategies for eliminating and preventing conflicts are considered based on the materials taken from the domestic and foreign publications. The empirical data obtained on a representative sample of employees related to conflict interactions, status-role positions, and the socio-psychological climate in the team are analyzed. The article outlines further research on organizational management of conflict resolution strategies in official activities

Measuring and Fostering Preservice Chemistry Teachers’ Scientific Reasoning Competency

Developing scientific reasoning (SR) is a central goal of science-teacher education worldwide. On a fine-grained level, SR competency can be subdivided into at least six skills: formulating research questions, generating hypotheses, planning experiments, observing and measuring, preparing data for analysis, and drawing conclusions. In a study focusing on preservice chemistry teachers, an organic chemistry lab course was redesigned using problem-solving experiments and SR video lessons to foster SR skills. To evaluate the intervention, a self-assessment questionnaire was developed, and a performance-based instrument involving an experimental problem-solving task was adapted to the target group of undergraduates. The treatment was evaluated in a pre-post design with control group (cook-book experiments, no SR video lessons) and alternative treatment group (problem-solving experiments, unrelated video lessons). Interrater reliability was excellent (ρ from 0.915 to 1.000; ICC (A1)). Data analysis shows that the adapted instrument is suitable for university students. First insights from the pilot study indicate that the cook-book lab (control group) only fosters students’ skill in observing and measuring, while both treatment groups show an increase in generating hypotheses and planning experiments. No pretest-posttest differences were found in self-assessed SR skills in the treatment groups. Instruments and data are presented and discussed.

Multi-Objective Optimization and Finite Element Method Combined with Optimization via Monte Carlo Simulation in a Stamping Process under Uncertainty

The Response Surface Methodology (RSM), which uses a quadratic empirical function as an approximation to the original function and allows the identification of relationships between independent variables xi and dependent variables ys associated with multiple responses, stands out. The main contribution of the present study is to propose an innovative procedure for the optimization of experimental problems with multiple responses, which considers the insertion of uncertainties in the coefficients of the obtained empirical functions in order to adequately represent real situations. This new procedure, which combines RSM with the Finite Elements (FE) method and the Monte Carlo Simulation Optimization (OvMCS), was applied to a real stamping process of a Brazilian multinational automotive company. For RSM with multiple responses, were compared the results obtained using the agglutination methods: Compromise Programming, Desirability Function (DF), and the Modified Desirability Function (MDF). The functions were optimized by applying the Generalized Reduced Gradient (GRG) algorithm, which is a classic procedure widely adopted in this type of experimental problem, without the uncertainty in the coefficients of independent factors. The advantages offered by this innovative procedure are presented and discussed, as well as the statistical validation of its results. It can be highlighted, for example, that the proposed procedure reduces, and sometimes eliminates, the need for additional confirmation experiments, as well as a better adjustment of factor values and response variable values when comparing to the results of RSM with classic multiple responses. The new proposed procedure added relevant and useful information to the managers responsible for the studied stamping process. Moreover, the proposed procedure facilitates the improvement of the process, with lower associated costs.

FERRETS MAY LEARN AWARENESS IF THEIR OWN BODY LIMITS

"The study of the ability of self-awareness (self-awareness, the ability to perceive one's own body and mental properties separately from objects of the external world) in animals contributes to the study of the specifics of human consciousness. One of the aspects of self-awareness is body-awareness, which is expressed in the ability of an animal to take into account the physical parameters of its body when regulating behavior. We studied the ability of ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) to be aware of the limits of their own bodies. To solve the experimental problem, the animals had to choose holes suitable in size for penetration in the partition that divided the sections of the experimental setup. The shapes and sizes of the holes varied. We have used both small area holes that are suitable for penetration and large areas that are not suitable for penetration. It was found that all 6 animals participating in the experiment were able to choose a hole suitable for penetration from the first trial, despite the fact that it was smaller than the unsuitable one in area. In 18 test trials, ferrets made 105 successful penetrations and 3 unsuccessful attempts. This distribution differs from the uniform one (?2 = 97.25; df = 2; p <0.01). None of the individuals showed a significant reduction or increase in unsuccessful attempts to penetrate the holes This data may indicate that ferrets have knowledge of the boundaries of their bodies and the ability to compare them with the parameters of the penetration hole."

Searching for dark sectors in multi lepton final state in e+e− collisions

Electron positron collisions are a very promising environment to search for new physics, and in particular for dark sector related observables. The most challenging experimental problem in detecting dark sector candidates is the very high associated Standard Model background. For this reason it is important to identify observables that are, at the same time, minimally suppressed in the dark sector and highly suppressed in the Standard Model. One example is the e+e− → 3(e+e−) process that can be mediated either by the production and subsequent decay of dark Higgs (h′), e+e− → A′h′ → 6e [1] or produced by the Standards Model process e+e− → 3(e+e−). In the following letter we study the relative contribution to observed e+e− → 3(e+e−) total cross section, coming from the h′ mediated and from the Standard Model processes in the contest of fixed target and low energy collider experiments, with particular attention to the PADME experiment at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati.

Studying the Deuterium Accumulation Process in CuCrZr Alloy Using the Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy Method

ITER is presently the world's key thermonuclear project. This reactor should operate under the conditions of increased thermal and power loads. In this regard, an analysis of the behavior of structural materials during the reactor operation is an important theoretical and experimental problem. During the ITER operation, an important factor that affects the fuel turnover is the capture of hydrogen isotopes (especially radioactive tritium) into the reactor structural materials, which has an effect on both the radiation environment and the plasma parameters as a whole. Annealed CuCrZr alloy samples saturated in deuterium at various temperatures were studied using the thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) method at different saturation temperatures equal to 350oC, 400oC, 450oC, and 500oC. The saturation was carried out at a pressure of 5 atm for 25 h. The deuterium capturing process was studied on the TDS setup located at the NRC Kurchatov Institute. In the course of thermal desorption spectroscopy, samples were heated to a temperature of 977oC at a rate of 0.5 K/s. The influence of alloying additions in the CuCrZr alloy was analyzed. It is shown that in the obtained thermal desorption spectra there is a shift in the deuterium yield peak to the region of higher temperatures and an increased capture of deuterium with an increase in the sample saturation temperature in gaseous deuterium.

Rats May Take into Account Dtheir Own Body Weight

In animals, the awareness of own body is expressed in their ability to take into account various parameters of their bodies in the relationship with the environmental objects. Currently, one of the areas of these studies is the ability of animals to perceive their bodies as a physical obstacle to solve a problem. We studied the ability of brown rats to consider their own body weight. To solve the experimental problem, the rats were supposed to receive the bait by crossing one of three bridges located above the floor. The bridges could be installed in a fixed or unfixed position. In the second case, when the rat tried to cross the bridge, it fell. Accordingly, the rat needed to correlate its body weight with the strength of the support. We found that 14 out of 41 tested rats could solve this problem. During the experiment, these rodents demonstrated characteristic “trying movements”, during which, we believe, they correlated their own weight with the reliability of the bridge.

SIMPLEX: An Activation Function with Improved Loss Function Results in Validation

An activation function is a mathematical function used for squashing purposes in artificial neural networks, whose domain and the range are two important most features to judge its potency. Overfitting of a neural network, is an issue that has gained considerable importance. This is a consequence of a function developing some complex relationship during the training phase and then these do not show up during the testing phase due to which these relationships aren’t actually relations, but are merely a consequence of sampling noise that arises during the training phase and is absent during testing phase. This creates a significant gap in accuracy which if minimized could result in better results in terms of overall performance of an ANN (Artificial Neural Network). The activation function proposed in this work is called SIMPLEX. Over a set of experiments, it was observed, to have the least overfitting issue among the rest of the analyzed activation functions over the MNIST dataset, selected as the experimental problem.