Text Fragmentation in the novel “Troubled Blood” by Robert Galbraith

The article examines specifics of fragmentation in contemporary works of fiction. Identifying elements that connect heterogeneous episodes or fragments can reshape readers’ experience and serve as a key for interpretation. The analysis of the detective novel “Troubled Blood” by R. Galbraith has demonstrated that fragmentation is realized at different text levels and in different compositional and stylistic forms, namely, within the categories of temporality and locality, in the development of plot lines, within the categories of description and reasoning, in dialogues, polylogues, internal monologues. The category of intertextuality plays a special role in the fragmentation of the novel under study. Non-linear narrative, intended lack of chronological and psychological sequence serve to effectively introduce the main focus of detective fiction – suspense and puzzle-solving; these literary devices also contribute to its unique narrative perspective.

STEM escape rooms for public engagement

Escape rooms are a relatively new cultural phenomenon, attracting a wide range of audiences to test their puzzle-solving skills. While this format has been trialled in an educational context, there has been little exploration of it as a tool for engagement. We ran a STEM-based escape room, open to the public, over five days at a science centre in Malta. This was an exploratory exercise to determine whether escape rooms could be successful in an informal science engagement context. Over seventy players attempted the game and completed our evaluation. Our results suggest that escape rooms can be used in engagement contexts as they provide a positive experience that encourages future interactions with science. They may also draw audiences not normally interested in science and help them engage with scientific content in a more accessible manner. Interestingly, players were able to persist in engaging with content they found difficult while still finding it enjoyable, which has implications for the science communication of complex topics. Finally, players perceived that they were able to learn science through the escape room, which may increase their self-efficacy.

NIMH Roundtable Discussion - Promissory Notes and Prevailing Norms in Social and Behavioral Sciences Research (1997)

Most workshops convened by the National Institute's of Health are devoted to the puzzle-solving activities of normal science,where the puzzles themselves and the strategies available for solving them are determined largely in advance by the sharedparadigmatic assumptions, frameworks, and priorities of the scientific community's research paradigm. They are designed tofacilitate what Thomas Kuhn referred to as elucidating topological detail within a map whose main outlines are available inadvance. And apparently for good reason. Historical studies by Kuhn and others reveal that science moves fastest and penetratesmost deeply when its practitioners work within well-defined and deeply ingrained traditions and employ the concepts, theories,methods, and tools of a shared paradigm. No paradigm is perfect and none is capable of identifying, let alone solving, all of theproblems relevant to a given domain of inquiry. Thus, the essential day-to-day business of normal science is not to question thelimits or adequacy of a given paradigm, but rather to exploit the presumed virtues for which it was adopted. As Kuhn cautioned inhis discussion of paradigms, re-tooling, in science as in manufacture, as an extravagance to be reserved for the occasion thatdemands it.

A Recipe for Success: The Effect of Dyadic Communication and Cooperative Gameplay on Subsequent Non-gaming Task Performance

Cooperative game play has been associated with a growing list of prosocial benefits. However, less research has examined its constituent parts to determine their contribution to subsequent positive outcomes. The current study examined partners’ communication as a common and even imperative aspect of cooperative play that may largely account for its positive effects on cooperative behaviors and effective teamwork. Partners played a cooperative game (Overcooked 2) alone or with a partner, and in the latter case with or without the ability to communicate, before engaging in two puzzle-solving tasks that required effective and efficient communication for successful performances. Results suggest communication is unnecessary, and may even be detrimental to, subsequent team performances on non-gaming tasks, and that it seems unlikely to account for the cooperative norms proposed to be the theoretical mechanism behind cooperative play’s positive effects. The conclusion discusses theoretical implications and potential future research.

The 3D structure of fibrous material is fully restorable from its X-ray diffraction pattern

X-ray fiber diffraction is potentially a powerful technique to study the structure of fibrous materials, such as DNA and synthetic polymers. However, only rotationally averaged diffraction patterns can be recorded and it is difficult to correctly interpret them without the knowledge of esoteric diffraction theories. Here we demonstrate that, in principle, the non-rotationally averaged 3D structure of a fibrous material can be restored from its fiber diffraction pattern. The method is a simple puzzle-solving process and in ideal cases it does not require any prior knowledge about the structure, such as helical symmetry. We believe that the proposed method has a potential to transform the fiber diffraction to a 3D imaging technique, and will be useful for a wide field of life and materials sciences.

Logic as a Puzzle-Solving Activity

Some authors have recently argued in favor of anti-exceptionalism about logic. The general idea is that logic is not different from the other sciences, and its principles are as revisable as scientific principles. This paper has three sections. In section 1, I discuss the meaning of anti-exceptionalism and its place in contemporary logic. In section 2, I analyze some recent developments on this topic by Williamson (2017) and Hjortland (2017), which will motivate my view. In section 3, I propose a puzzle-solving perspective on logical practice. According to my view, there is a common methodology, in which scientists may use non-classical in order to solve some specific puzzles, but classical logic stays in a privileged position, as a common language and as a general theory of reasoning. This role cannot be fulfilled by other logics, and therefore the comparison between classical and non-classical logic is not like a regular comparison between competing hypotheses in science. The methodology of logical practice is therefore not abductive, at least in many important cases. Classical logic is not the “best available theory”, but the fundamental piece of our scientific methodology. My position is still anti-exceptionalist: logic is like any other science, or at least like any other science which can be characterized by a puzzle-solving methodology.

Understanding Children’s Problem-solving Strategies in Solving Game-based Logic Problems

Problem solving is an essential skill for students to be successful in life and careers. Students need to use efficient strategies to solve problems effectively. In this basic interpretive qualitative study, we aimed to (a) explore children’s problem-solving strategies in a game-based tool (i.e., puzzles), and (b) investigate the troubleshooting strategies they employed while solving the puzzles. We recorded students’ puzzle-solving efforts, and using an observation analysis approach, noted important moments, patterns in puzzle-solving, troubleshooting methods, and other noteworthy events. Our analysis showed that while solving computer-based puzzles, students demonstrated the use of three approaches: varying-one-thing-at-a-time (VOTAT), building all-at-once or change-all (CA), and a mixed approach. CA was the approach used most often, followed by VOTAT, and then the mixed approach. Of the two troubleshooting approaches, starting the sequence over was the preferred method. Others opted to search for the faulty tile in the sequence. We discuss how these findings can inform practice and provide some insights as to the usefulness of the game-based tool, Lightbot.

The 3-D structure of fibrous material is fully restorable from its X-ray diffraction pattern

X-ray fiber diffraction is potentially a powerful technique to study the structure of fibrous materials, such as DNA and synthetic polymers. However, only rotationally averaged diffraction patterns can be recorded, and it is difficult to correctly interpret them without the knowledge of esoteric diffraction theories. Here we demonstrate that, in principle, the non-rotationally averaged 3-D structure of the material can be restored from its fiber diffraction pattern. The method is a simple puzzle-solving process, and in ideal cases, it does not require any prior knowledge about the structure, such as helical symmetry. We believe that the proposed method has a potential to transform the fiber diffraction to a 3-D imaging technique, and will be useful for a wide field of life and materials sciences.