Cognitive load and science text comprehension: Effects of drawing and mentally imagining text content

One hundred and eleven 10th graders read an expository science text on the dipole character of water molecules (ca. 1600 words). Reading instruction was varied according to a 2 × 2 experimental design with factors ‘drawing pictures of text content on paper’ (yes, no) and ‘mentally imagining text content while reading’ (yes, no). The results indicate that drawing pictures, mediated through increased cognitive load, decreased text comprehension and, thus, learning (d = −0.37), whereas mental imagery, although decreasing cognitive load, increased comprehension only when students did not have to draw pictures simultaneously (d = 0.72). No evidence was found that the effects were moderated by domain-specific prior knowledge, verbal ability, or spatial ability. The results are in line with cognitive theories of multimedia learning, self-regulated learning, and mental imagery as well as conceptions of science learning that focus on promoting mental model construction by actively visualizing the content to be learned. Constructing mental images seems to reduce cognitive load and to increase comprehension and learning outcome when the mental visualization processes are not disturbed by externally drawing pictures on paper, whereas drawing pictures seems to increase cognitive load resulting in reduced comprehension and learning outcome.     

Modelling Musical Structures

Modelling musical structures is a research field prominent among mathematicians and computer scientists as well as musicologists, psychomusicologists and musicians. Constraint programming has been proved to be a highly appropriate technique in this field. For the task of automated music composition, in particular, constraints have been shown to describe composition principles in a declarative, natural, and, above all, efficient way since music composition knowledge is in fact a collection of conditions rather than a sort of cookery-book.Unfortunately, many approaches stress the technical aspects of applying constraints and do not think about the concrete role of constraints, i.e. about what music really should be. In general, the composer as an artist is more concerned about what he wants to say through his music than with theoretically (or socially or psychologically) established rules. This means that automated music composition needs practical goals in order to make sense. The role of those goals as well as musical constraints and constraint technologies that help to realize the goals are to be shown in this article. As a modelling example the system COPPELIA is introduced. It generates music on the basis of the structures, goals, and contents of given multimedia presentations. In this relatively young field of constraint application that does not supply such ideal, well-defined and closed sets of conditions as technical applications do, we find it very important to also present general thoughts about the sense of our application, about the development of composition constraints and the conditions under which these constraints work effectively.     

An expectation-maximisation algorithm for the deconvolution of the intrinsic distribution of single molecule's parameters

Values obtained from single molecule techniques exhibit distinct distributions comprising an uncertainty due to random noise convoluted with the intrinsic distribution of the molecule's properties. In the fields of single molecule light microscopy and spectroscopy, force microscopy and spectroscopy as well as other techniques like electrophysiology, sophisticated data analysis algorithms are available which extract the interesting parameters and their uncertainties from the noisy data set. The intrinsic distributions of these parameters contain valuable information about the molecules' physical and chemical properties, that need to be deconvoluted from the data. Here, we present an expectation-maximisation (EM-) algorithm that estimates the intrinsic distribution in single molecule experiments. The performance is tested by using computer simulations and the application of the method is demonstrated for data from single molecule force spectroscopy.     

Process Design and Monitoring for Plasma Sprayed Abradable Coatings

Abradable coatings in compressor and high-pressure stages of gas turbines must provide specific hardness and porosity values to achieve an optimal cut-in of the blade tips. A fractional factorial experimental plan was designed to investigate the influence of the plasma spraying parameters argon flow rate, current, spraying distance and powder feed rate on these properties of magnesia spinel. Based on the results, magnesia spinel coatings with low (~400 HV_0.5), medium (~600 HV_0.5) and high hardness (~800 HV_0.5) could be reliably manufactured. Further incursion rig tests confirmed the dependence of the rub-in behavior and abradability on the coating characteristics and process parameters, respectively. Process monitoring was also applied during plasma spraying of magnesia spinel abradables on batches of turbine components. The recorded particle characteristics and coating properties showed a good reproducibility of the spraying process.     

Vectorially Imprinted Hybrid Nanofilm for Acetylcholinesterase Recognition

Effective recognition of enzymatically active tetrameric acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is accomplished by a hybrid nanofilm composed of a propidium‐terminated self‐assembled monolayer (Prop‐SAM) which binds AChE via its peripheral anionic site (PAS) and an ultrathin electrosynthesized molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) cover layer of a novel carboxylate‐modified derivative of 3,4‐propylenedioxythiophene. The rebinding of the AChE to the MIP/Prop‐SAM nanofilm covered electrode is detected by measuring in situ the enzymatic activity. The oxidative current of the released thiocholine is dependent on the AChE concentration from ≈0.04 × 10^?6 to 0.4 × 10^?6m . An imprinting factor of 9.9 is obtained for the hybrid MIP, which is among the best values reported for protein imprinting. The dissociation constant characterizing the strength of the MIP‐AChE binding is 4.2 × 10^?7m indicating the dominant role of the PAS‐Prop‐SAM interaction, while the benefit of the MIP nanofilm covering the Prop‐SAM layer is the effective suppression of the cross‐reactivity toward competing proteins as compared with the Prop‐SAM. The threefold selectivity gain provided by i) the “shape‐specific” MIP filter, ii) the propidium‐SAM, iii) signal generation only by the AChE bound to the nanofilm shows promise for assessing AChE activity levels in cerebrospinal fluid.     

Radiation initiated grafting on fluoro polymers II. Grafting of N-vinylpyrrolidone on copolymers of vinyl fluoride and vinylidene fluoride by accelerated electrons

The radiation initiated grafting of N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) onto copolymers of vinyl fluoride/vinylidene fluoride (VF/VF₂) with compositions of 75/25 mol-%, 50/50 mol-% and 20/80 mol-% VF/VF₂ has been investigated. The active species, initiating the grafting, have been created by accelerated electrons (160 keV) applying preirradiation technique in vacuo. The time conversion curves present a characteristic temperature dependence. Increasing grafting temperature rises the initial grafting rate. The final (saturation) grafting yield increases with temperature up to 333 K, and then declines. This behaviour was described by the influences of glass transition on the rate of termination in the semicrystalline trunk polymers. The grafting rate (at constant irradiation dose and grafting temperature) decreases with increasing VF₂ content in the copolymers. The reason is discussed by means of a semiquantitative mathematical analysis of the graft kinetics applying “non-steady-state”-conditions. The grafting rate does not depend on dose rate, but strongly depends on irradiation dose passing a maximum. This maximum has been interpreted by means of “Differential-Interference-Contrast”-microscopy. The enthalpies of melting ΔH_m of the semicrystalline copolymers decrease after grafting with increasing grafting yield. This change is due to the partial destroying of crystalline regions in the trunk copolymers caused by stresses arising from grafted polymer chains. The membrane resistance of films grafted through is <10 Ω cm². The membranes proved to be permeable for urea.     

Analysis of atmospheric sesquiterpenes: sampling losses and mitigation of ozone interferences

Atmospheric standards containing parts-per-billion levels of 14 semivolatile hydrocarbon compounds, including eight sesquiterpenes (SQTs) (longipinene, alpha-copaene, isolongifolene, alpha-cedrene, trans-caryophyllene, aromadendrene, alpha-humulene, delta-cadinene), two oxidized sesquiterpenoids (cisnerolidol, trans-nerolidol), one biogenic ketone (geranylacetone) and three aromatic compounds (1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene, diphenylmethane, nonylbenzene), were collected onto four solid adsorbent materials at increasing ozone mixing ratios (0-100 ppbv 03) for analysis by thermodesorption-gas chromatography. Substantial sampling losses of up to >90% were found for the most reactive SQT, even at the lowest ozone level investigated of 20 ppbv. Loss rates from the ozone-SQT reaction were used to derive estimates of gas-phase ozone reaction rate constants for longipinene, alpha-copaene, isolongifolene, geranylacetone, aromadendrene, delta-cadinene, cis-nerolidol, and transnerolidol. Three different ozone mitigation techniques were investigated to prevent these sampling losses. These strategies included (a) placing glass fiber filters impregnated with sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3) into the sampling line, (b) titration of ozone in the sampling stream with nitric oxide (NO), and (c) catalytically removing ozone with a commercially available manganese dioxide (MnO2) catalyst. All three techniques reduced ozone-mixing ratios from 100 ppbv to <0.6 ppbv at sampling flow rates of 1 L min(-1). When the Na2S2O3 filters and the NO-titration techniques were applied, SQT loss rates decreased from 25-60% to 0-5% for most SQT compounds and from >90% to approximately 10-50% for the two most reactive compounds at ozone mixing ratios of up to 100 ppbv. The commercial manganese dioxide scrubber, however, caused complete analyte losses (>98%) even at 0 ppbv ozone. These results underline the need and present applicable techniques for removal of ozone in air samples for SQT analysis by solid adsorption techniques.     

Analysis of some available heat transfer coefficients applicable to solar chimney power plant collectors

A solar chimney power plant consists of a translucent collector which heats the air near the ground and guides it into the base of a chimney at its centre. The buoyant air rises in the chimney and electricity is generated through one or more turbines in or near the base of the chimney. Various studies about solar chimney power plant performance have been published. Different calculation approaches with a variety of considerations have been applied to calculate chimney power plant performance. In particular, two comprehensive studies are relevant, namely those of (Bernardes, M.A.d. S., Voß, A., Weinrebe, G., 2003. Thermal and technical analyses of solar chimneys. Solar Energy 75, 511-524; Pretorius, J.P., Kröger, D.G., 2006b. Solar chimney power plant performance. Transactions of the ASME 128, 302-311). The paper compares the methods used to calculate the heat fluxes in the collector, and their effects on solar chimney performance. Reasons for the discrepancies between the predictions of the two models are given. In general the Pretorius model produces higher heat transfer coefficients and higher heat rate fluxes for both the roof and for the ground surfaces. The two approaches lead to very similar air temperature rises in the collector and thus, similar produced power.     

Microfluidic chips for chirality exploration

Microfluidic chips applied to the investigation of chirality allow reaction, separation and analysis of minuscule amounts of enantiomeric molecules. Chiral chip technology is employed in fields as diverse as pharmaceutical high throughput screening and deep space exploration missions.