Children\u27s Effortful Control in a Montessori Classroom: Effects of Parenting and Purposeful Work

Research in effortful control is necessary to understand and support children\u27s behaviors in Social and classroom settings (Rimm-Kaufman, Curby, Grimm, Brock, & Nathanson, 2009). This study reviewed literature discussing the relationship between parenting style and effortful control and Montessori philosophy as it relates to the work in practical life. The literature reviewed in this study suggested that parenting style may also be related to a child\u27s effortful control. In addition, it was expected that the work of practical life in a Montessori classroom would positively influence effortful control in children. Using an experimental design, this study examined the efficacy of a Montessori Table Washing Task to prime effortful control in children ages 3-6. The Mischel Marshmallow Test (Mischel & Baker 1975) was used to test effortful control in the children. Children in the control group received only the Marshmallow Test. Children in the experiment group received a Montessori Table Washing Lesson prior to receiving the Marshmallow Test. Although not statistically significant, there was a difference in the groups. However, in this study, there was no correlation found between parenting style and the effortful control of the children. Implications of this study are that practical life work, like a Montessori Table Washing Task, may positively affect effortful control in pre-school age children

Individual Professional Practice in the Company

Import 05/08/2014Cílem této bakalářské práce je popsat mé působení v rámci odborné praxe ve firmě GIRITON Systems s.r.o. V práci nejprve informuji o oblasti odborného působení firmy, dále se zabývám technologiemi a nástroji, se kterými jsem během praxe pracoval a také uvádím příklady zadaných úkolů s popisem jejich řešení. V závěru práce hodnotím své znalosti a absolvovanou odbornou praxi jako celek.The aim of this bachelor thesis is to describe my work within proffesional practice in the company GIRITON Systems Ltd. The paper first informs about the company’s area of expertise, later it desribes used technologies and tools, with whom I worked during practise. Further I mention examples of given tasks along with description of their solution. In the conclusion I evaluate my own knowledge and professional practice as a whole.460 - Katedra informatikyvýborn

An optimal Q-state neural network using mutual information

Starting from the mutual information we present a method in order to find a hamiltonian for a fully connected neural network model with an arbitrary, finite number of neuron states, Q. For small initial correlations between the neurons and the patterns it leads to optimal retrieval performance. For binary neurons, Q=2, and biased patterns we recover the Hopfield model. For three-state neurons, Q=3, we find back the recently introduced Blume-Emery-Griffiths network hamiltonian. We derive its phase diagram and compare it with those of related three-state models. We find that the retrieval region is the largest.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

A combined NMR and DFT study of conformational dynamics in lanthanide complexes of macrocyclic DOTA-like ligands

[Abstract] The solution dynamics of the Eu(III) complexes of H4dota (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetracarboxylic acid) and H5do3ap (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-4,7,10-tris(carboxymethyl)-1-methylphosphonic acid, bound in both monoprotonated and fully deprotonated forms) were investigated by using a combination of NMR measurements and DFT calculations. In solution, an equilibrium between the square antiprismatic (SAP) and twisted-square antiprismatic isomers (TSAP) of these complexes is present. These two isomers interconvert by rotation of the pendant arms or inversion of the cyclen chelate rings. 1D EXSY NMR spectra were used to determine these exchange rates with unprecedented accuracy. It was found that the two processes occur at different rates. Additional variable-temperature measurements allowed determination of the corresponding activation parameters for the two processes. DFT calculations were then used to obtain mechanistic information at the molecular level. The results show that the cyclen inversion pathway involves stepwise inversion of the four chelate rings formed upon metal ion coordination. However, the arm rotation process may operate through a synchronous rotation of the pendant arms or a stepwise mechanism depending on the system. A mixed cluster-continuum approach was required to improve the agreement between experimental and calculated activation parameters for the arm rotation process. The obtained results will aid the design of MRI contrast agents. Furthermore, the methodology developed in this work can be further applied for the investigation of other dynamic paramagnetic systems, e.g. peptides with Ln(III) probes or natively paramagnetic metalloproteins.Czech Science Foundation; 16-03156SCharles University; 1076016Czech Republic. Ministry of Education; LTC 170607Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; CTQ2013-43243-

Prevalence and severity of dental caries among American Indian and Alaska Native preschool children

Objectives: To describe the Indian Health Service (IHS) oral health surveillance system and the oral health status of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children aged 1‐5 years. Methods: A stratified probability sample of IHS/tribal sites was selected. Children were screened by trained examiners at community‐based locations including medical clinics, Head Start, preschools, kindergarten, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Data collection was limited to the primary dentition and included number of teeth present plus number of teeth with cavitated lesions, restorations, and extracted because of decay. Number of molars with sealants and urgency of need for dental care data were also obtained. Statistical analyses were performed with SAS (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Sample weights were used to produce population estimates based on selection probabilities. Results: A total of 8,461 AI/AN children 12‐71 months of age were screened at 63 IHS/tribal sites, approximately 7 percent of the estimated IHS user population of the same age. Overall, 54 percent of the children had decay experience, 39 percent had untreated decay, 7 percent had primary molar sealants, 36 percent needed early or urgent dental care, and 6 percent needed urgent dental care. The mean of decayed, missing, or filled teeth was 3.5 (95 percent confidence interval, 3.1‐3.9). The prevalence of decay experience increased with age; 21 percent of 1‐year‐olds and 75 percent of 5‐year‐olds had a history of caries. When stratified by IHS area, there were substantial differences in the oral health of preschool children. Conclusions: The results confirm that in the United States, AI/AN children served by IHS/tribal programs are one of the racial/ethnic groups at highest risk of caries.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93514/1/j.1752-7325.2012.00331.x.pd

All Else Being Equal Be Empowered

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com . Copyright Springer DOI : 10.1007/11553090_75The classical approach to using utility functions suffers from the drawback of having to design and tweak the functions on a case by case basis. Inspired by examples from the animal kingdom, social sciences and games we propose empowerment, a rather universal function, defined as the information-theoretic capacity of an agent’s actuation channel. The concept applies to any sensorimotoric apparatus. Empowerment as a measure reflects the properties of the apparatus as long as they are observable due to the coupling of sensors and actuators via the environment.Peer reviewe

Polynomial evaluation over finite fields: new algorithms and complexity bounds

An efficient evaluation method is described for polynomials in finite fields. Its complexity is shown to be lower than that of standard techniques when the degree of the polynomial is large enough. Applications to the syndrome computation in the decoding of Reed-Solomon codes are highlighted.Comment: accepted for publication in Applicable Algebra in Engineering, Communication and Computing. The final publication will be available at springerlink.com. DOI: 10.1007/s00200-011-0160-

Bump formation in a binary attractor neural network

This paper investigates the conditions for the formation of local bumps in the activity of binary attractor neural networks with spatially dependent connectivity. We show that these formations are observed when asymmetry between the activity during the retrieval and learning is imposed. Analytical approximation for the order parameters is derived. The corresponding phase diagram shows a relatively large and stable region, where this effect is observed, although the critical storage and the information capacities drastically decrease inside that region. We demonstrate that the stability of the network, when starting from the bump formation, is larger than the stability when starting even from the whole pattern. Finally, we show a very good agreement between the analytical results and the simulations performed for different topologies of the network.Comment: about 14 page

Efficient data processing and quantum phenomena: Single-particle systems

We study the relation between the acquisition and analysis of data and quantum theory using a probabilistic and deterministic model for photon polarizers. We introduce criteria for efficient processing of data and then use these criteria to demonstrate that efficient processing of the data contained in single events is equivalent to the observation that Malus' law holds. A strictly deterministic process that also yields Malus' law is analyzed in detail. We present a performance analysis of the probabilistic and deterministic model of the photon polarizer. The latter is an adaptive dynamical system that has primitive learning capabilities. This additional feature has recently been shown to be sufficient to perform event-by-event simulations of interference phenomena, without using concepts of wave mechanics. We illustrate this by presenting results for a system of two chained Mach-Zehnder interferometers, suggesting that systems that perform efficient data processing and have learning capability are able to exhibit behavior that is usually attributed to quantum systems only.Comment: http://www.compphys.net/dl

On Convergence Properties of Shannon Entropy

Convergence properties of Shannon Entropy are studied. In the differential setting, it is shown that weak convergence of probability measures, or convergence in distribution, is not enough for convergence of the associated differential entropies. A general result for the desired differential entropy convergence is provided, taking into account both compactly and uncompactly supported densities. Convergence of differential entropy is also characterized in terms of the Kullback-Liebler discriminant for densities with fairly general supports, and it is shown that convergence in variation of probability measures guarantees such convergence under an appropriate boundedness condition on the densities involved. Results for the discrete setting are also provided, allowing for infinitely supported probability measures, by taking advantage of the equivalence between weak convergence and convergence in variation in this setting.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor