The effectiveness of the creativity trigger module in achieving higher levels of creative thinking among prospective teachers

The unoptimised level of creative thinking is seen as an issue among Semester 8 prospective teachers in Malaysian Teacher-Education Institutes (IPG). This could impede their teaching of creative thinking as one of the four components of 21st century skills in schools. In relation to this, this study sets out to investigate prior creativity levels of IPG prospective teachers and develop the Creativity Trigger Module (CTM) as a training module for enhancing their creativity. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was used to compare the prior creativity levels of four respondent groups and test the effectiveness of the CTM on five dimensions of figural creativity, namely fluency, originality, elaboration, resistance to premature closure, abstractness of titles, and their overall creativity. A two-stage cluster sampling technique identified two IPGs with 68 respondents in the state of Johor namely, IPG-Kampus Tun Hussein Onn, Batu Pahat (IPGKTHO) as the control group site (34 respondents), and IPG- Kampus Temenggong Ibrahim, Johor Bahru (IPGKTI) as the treatment group site (34 respondents). Mathematics (MT) and Design and Technology (RBT) are the only two specialist subject combinations that provided enough sample size at both test sites. A quasi-experimental research design was used and this involved intact classes. Data analysis was carried out as follows: ANOVA, ANCOVA, and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test analysis for TTCT scores while data analysis based on the NVivo software was used for the focus group interviews. Findings on prior creativity levels showed average or low creativity levels among all 4 test groups with IPGKTHO and RBT options having significantly higher posttest marks as compared to IPGKTI and MT option respectively. The CTM was found to improve significantly respondents’ posttest marks for the treatment group in all the five dimensions of figural creativity and, their overall creativity. Feedback from respondents revealed positive support for the CTM. In conclusion, the prior creativity of IPG prospective teachers was at an unoptimised level before treatment but the CTM has been successfully developed as an effective resource for enhancing the creative thinking levels among IPG prospective teachers

Anticholinergic Medications and Cognition in Older Adults

A significant portion of the cognitive decline seen in older adults may be due to anticholinergic medications (i.e., muscarinic receptor antagonists) which are known to cause memory loss, confusion, and delirium. A competitive radioligand binding assay has been used in the research setting to measure the cumulative level of muscarinic receptor binding present in an individual's serum, referred to as serum anticholinergic activity (AA). Serum AA is the measure of binding of all compounds present in a person's serum (e.g., medications, metabolites, and possibly endogenous substances) to muscarinic receptors. Multiples studies have shown that even low serum AA levels are associated with impaired cognitive performance, impaired self-care capacity, and the presence of delirium in nondemented or mildly demented elderly. Serum AA has the potential to be a useful tool for clinicians. However, there are multiple items which first need to be addressed to enhance the reliability and clinical applicability of this assay. One concern is that the muscarinic receptor binding profiles of most medications and their metabolites have never been examined. Thus, even if a clinician decides that a patient is suffering from anticholinergic-induced toxicity, he/she has little guidance on which medication(s) to adjust. To address this issue, we investigated the in vitro AA of 106 commonly used medications and estimated the relationship between dose and AA in older adults. The change in serum AA over time in the absence of medication adjustments is not known. Another limitation is that serum AA is a peripheral measure, while the central anticholinergic effects of a medication are dependent on its distribution into the CNS. An optimal tool to predict medication-induced cognitive impairment would be one which better estimates drug distribution into the CNS. To address these issues, we conducted a pilot study investigating the utility of using centrally mediated pupillary oscillationsin conjunction with serum AA as a possible predictor of cognitive performance. Serum AA levels and ocular response were measured in a double-blind, cross-over study across an 8 hour time period following administration of placebo or the anticholinergic medication, oxybutynin

Nothing Besides Remains: Preserving the Scientific and Cultural Value of Paleontological Resources in the United States

Receptor occupancy assessed by Positron Emission Tomography (PET) can provide important translational information to help bridge information from one drug to another or from animal to man. The aim of this thesis was to develop nonlinear mixed effects methods for estimation of the relationship between drug exposure and receptor occupancy for the two mGluR5 antagonists AZD9272 and AZD2066 and for the 5HT1B receptor antagonist AZD3783. Also the optimal design for improved estimation of the relationship between drug exposure and receptor occupancy as well as for improved dose finding in neuropathic pain treatment, was investigated. Different modeling approaches were applied. For AZD9272, the radioligand kinetics and receptor occupancy was simultaneously estimated using arterial concentrations as input function and including two brain regions of interest. For AZD2066, a model was developed where brain/plasma partition coefficients from ten different brain regions were included simultaneously as observations. For AZD3783, the simplified reference tissue model was extended to allow different non-specific binding in the reference region and brain regions of interest and the possibility of using white matter as reference was also evaluated. The optimal dose-selection for improved precision of receptor occupancy as well as for improved precision of the minimum effective dose of a neuropathic pain treatment was assessed, using the D-optimal as well as the Ds-optimal criteria. Simultaneous modelling of radioligand and occupancy provided a means to avoid simplifications or approximations and provided the possibility to tests or to relax assumptions. Inclusion of several brain regions of different receptor density simultaneously in the analysis, markedly improved the precision of the affinity parameter. Higher precision was achieved in relevant parameters with designs based on the Ds compared to the D-optimal criterion. The optimal design for improved precision of the relationship between dose and receptor occupancy depended on the number of brain regions and the receptor density of these regions. In conclusion, this thesis presents novel non-linear mixed effects models estimating the relationship between drug exposure and receptor occupancy, providing useful translational information, allowing for a better informed drug-development

On the danger of redundancies in some aerospace mechanisms

An attempt is made to show that redundancies in some aerospace mechanisms do not generally improve the odds for success. Some of these redundancies may even be the very cause for failure of the system. To illustrate this fallacy, two designs based on the Control of Flexible Structures I (COFS I) Mast deployer and retractor assembly (DRA) are presented together with novel designs to circumvent such design inadequacies, while improving system reliability

Maximum a posteriori estimation of piecewise arcs in tempo time-series

In musical performances with expressive tempo modulation, the tempo variation can be modelled as a sequence of tempo arcs. Previous authors have used this idea to estimate series of piecewise arc segments from data. In this paper we describe a probabilistic model for a time-series process of this nature, and use this to perform inference of single- and multi-level arc processes from data. We describe an efficient Viterbi-like process for MAP inference of arcs. Our approach is score-agnostic, and together with efficient inference allows for online analysis of performances including improvisations, and can predict immediate future tempo trajectories.Comment: Submitted to postprint volume for Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval (CMMR) 201