The Magic of Mechanism: Explanation-Based Instruction on Counterintuitive Concepts in Early Childhood

Common-sense intuitions can be useful guides in everyday life and problem solving. However, they can also impede formal science learning and provide the basis for robust scientific misconceptions. Addressing such misconceptions has generally been viewed as the province of secondary schooling. However, in this article, I argue that for a set of foundational but highly counterintuitive ideas (e.g., evolution by natural selection), coherent causal-explanatory instruction—instruction that emphasizes the multifaceted mechanisms underpinning natural phenomena—should be initiated much sooner, in early elementary school. This proposal is motivated by various findings from research in the cognitive, developmental, and learning sciences. For example, it has been shown that explanatory biases that render students susceptible to intuitively based scientific misconceptions emerge early in development. Furthermore, findings also reveal that once developed, such misconceptions are not revised and replaced by subsequently learned scientific theories but competitively coexist alongside them. Taken together, this research, along with studies revealing the viability of early coherent explanation-based instruction on counterintuitive theories, have significant implications for the timing, structure, and scope of early science education.

Ekphrasis in Photography Lyrics: Methods of Representation

The article deals with ekphrasis (verbal description of visual artworks) in lyrics about photography. The purpose of this article is to clarify the possibility of using the term “ekphrasis” in relation to photographic lyrics and to divide the phenomena of photopoetics and photoekphrasis. The difference becomes obvious as we analyze the following texts: “Photograph from September 11” and “Hitler’s First Photograph” by Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, “A Snapshot” by Russian poet Bella Akhmadulina and “From the Album” by Russian poet Genrikh Sapgir. The four texts are characterized by a special timing structure: past, present and future, with some regularity, exist within the description of the same photographs. In addition, the space of all four texts is open. This is a feature not only of photoekphrasis, but also of photopoetics as a type of visual poetry, which does not depend on the type of description. In all four texts, the author's position is inevitably present and recognized. In the first three cases, we know the picture or the person to which the subject refers. In the fourth one, the poet refers to his personal archives or memories. But “Hitler’s First Photograph” refers to the well-known historical personality only in the title and some mentions in the text. Thus, in our opinion, only “Photograph from September 11” by Wislawa Szymborska and “A Snapshot” by Bella Akhmadulina can be considered as ekphrasis. However, “From the Album” by Genrikh Sapgir and “Hitler’s First Photograph” by Szymborska features photographic discourse and fragmentary descriptions to create a photopoetic text, but not an ekphrasis. Apparently, the ekphrasis of a photograph is not only a description of one specific and existing in common culture photograph, but also a restoration of its poetics in a lyrical text.

Associations of Del 301-303 alpha2B-adrenoceptor gene polymorphism with central hemodynamic parameters in the northern Russian population

The ADRA2B gene 301–303 I/D polymorphism is associated with various cardiovascular phenotypes. However, an association of genotypes with the timing structure of cardiac cycle remains unclear. The central hemodynamic parameters were assessed by pulse wave analysis in 63 residents of the Kola Peninsula (68 N) aged 27–65 yr. The genotypes were determined by PCR. The paired comparisons revealed that II genotype carriers had higher values of augmentation index ( P = 0.014), ejection duration ( P = 0.045), and lower SEVR ( P = 0.035) than DD homozygotes. Multiple regression analysis adjusted for age, body mass index, heart rate, and blood pressure confirmed these results. Further sex stratified analysis showed that the associations existed only in men ( n = 33) whereas in women ( n = 30) the differences were suggestive ( P < 0.1). It is concluded that in a northern Russian population men carrying I allele have stiffer arteries, shorter diastole duration, and impaired coronary perfusion and seem to be at higher risk for cardiovascular diseases than DD carriers.

Timing Structure Mechanism of Wireless Sensor Network MAC layer for Monitoring Applications

This paper aims at designing a Timing Structure Mechanism (TSM) for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) MAC, with specifying its respective logical topology, especially suitable to the monitoring applications, differentiated and characterized from the existing time bounding strategies, paving for a good performance channel access mechanism. The work proposed in this paper is based on classifying the monitoring applications so as to designing efficient setup and benefiting from the node's capabilities in dividing the network into sub-networks. By evaluating TSM against a cluster-tree IEEE802.15.4 in the two cases of one channel and multi-channel clusters, the simulation results showed that with varying the area, the TSM performs better than the two cases of IEEE802.15.4 in terms of lifetime, end-to-end delay, loss percentage by on average 103.44% and 61.84%, 96.59% and 95.37%, and 88.59% and 87.52%, respectively. Also, in case of increasing the node density, TSM is better in terms of the same parameters by on average 446.58% and 356.05%, 98.04% and 95.62%, and 77.62% and 75.2%, respectively.

The origins of music in auditory scene analysis and the roles of evolution and culture in musical creation

Whether music was an evolutionary adaptation that conferred survival advantages or a cultural creation has generated much debate. Consistent with an evolutionary hypothesis, music is unique to humans, emerges early in development and is universal across societies. However, the adaptive benefit of music is far from obvious. Music is highly flexible, generative and changes rapidly over time, consistent with a cultural creation hypothesis. In this paper, it is proposed that much of musical pitch and timing structure adapted to preexisting features of auditory processing that evolved for auditory scene analysis (ASA). Thus, music may have emerged initially as a cultural creation made possible by preexisting adaptations for ASA. However, some aspects of music, such as its emotional and social power, may have subsequently proved beneficial for survival and led to adaptations that enhanced musical behaviour. Ontogenetic and phylogenetic evidence is considered in this regard. In particular, enhanced auditory–motor pathways in humans that enable movement entrainment to music and consequent increases in social cohesion, and pathways enabling music to affect reward centres in the brain should be investigated as possible musical adaptations. It is concluded that the origins of music are complex and probably involved exaptation, cultural creation and evolutionary adaptation.

Minutes, days and years: molecular interactions among different scales of biological timing

Biological clocks are genetically encoded oscillators that allow organisms to keep track of their environment. Among them, the circadian system is a highly conserved timing structure that regulates several physiological, metabolic and behavioural functions with periods close to 24 h. Time is also crucial for everyday activities that involve conscious time estimation. Timing behaviour in the second-to-minutes range, known as interval timing, involves the interaction of cortico-striatal circuits. In this review, we summarize current findings on the neurobiological basis of the circadian system, both at the genetic and behavioural level, and also focus on its interactions with interval timing and seasonal rhythms, in order to construct a multi-level biological clock.