Card Arranging Research Articles

Two parameterized deformed Poisson type operator and the combinatorial moment formula

In this paper, we shall introduce two parameterized deformation of the classical Poisson random variable from the viewpoint of noncommutative probability, namely (q,s)-Poisson type operator (random variable) on the two parameterized deformed Fock space, namely, the (q,s)-Fock space constructed by the weighted q-deformation approach in [11,4] (see also [6]). The recurrence formula for the orthogonal polynomials of the (q,s)-deformed Poisson distribution is determined. Moreover we shall also give the combinatorial moment formula of the (q,s)-Poisson type operator by using the set partitions and the card arrangement technique with their statistics. Our method presented in this paper provides nice combinatorial interpretations to parameters, q and s. The deformation presented in this paper can be regarded as a generalization of the Al-Salam-Carlitz type, because the restricted case s=q recovers the q-Charlier polynomials of Al-Salam-Carlitz type appeared in combinatorics [17].

Application of the Monte Carlo Method in Modeling and Simulation of Service Queuing Systems at PT. Pos Indonesia Persero Binjai

Queues are events that we often encounter in various places that provide services to the public, one of which is the Post Office. Service to customer satisfaction is a very important thing, so that improving the quality of customer service must always be done. A good queuing system will affect consumer behavior and satisfaction. PT. Pos Indonesia Persero Binjai is a service company where the purpose of PT. Pos Indonesia (Persero) itself is customer satisfaction oriented. The problems that occurred at PT. Pos Indonesia Persero Binjai caused long queues to build up in queues. To overcome these problems, it is necessary to improve the system such as applying the queuing model application by applying the queuing model method and Monte Carlo simulation. Monte Carlo is a probabilistic simulation method that generates random input to mimic the existing conditions of a problem by estimating the same distribution and in accordance with reality. So that with the improvement of the system, the application of the queuing model can be applied, directing customers to take queue numbers, and monitoring the queue card arrangement, adding tellers to serve customers, enlarging the waiting room so that customers are comfortable waiting and also determine the characteristics and performance measures of the queuing system in part of the payment counter and delivery of goods that will help PT. Pos Indonesia Binjai Company.

Design of an Alphabet to Braille Letter Conversion Board Android based

A blind person is someone who has problems in terms of vision. This can occur due to congenital factors or disease factors that can affect the eye. To be able to replace the role of the eye to read something, blind people are known as a writing system known as Braille. Braille letters are letters specially designed for blind people. The introduction of Braille letters has been carried out since the beginning by special school teachers using Braille cards. Due to the large number of characters, the card arrangement often seems to take time to find the desired character. The arrangement of cards like this means that learning can only be done in a special school environment and cannot be done by someone who is not a special school teacher. To assist teachers in teaching and to help ordinary people teach Braille to the blind, a tool called the Android-based conversion board for the alphabet to Braille is made.

Enhanced Motivational Modulation of Motor Behaviour with Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease.

Background Motivational improvement of movement speed in Parkinson's disease (PD) is observed in life-threatening situations and has been empirically demonstrated in experimental studies using reaction time paradigms. Objectives To address two clinically relevant questions: first, if in PD, motivational modulation through provision of monetary incentive on a sorting task that approximates performance on everyday life tasks affects movement speed. Second, how this effect is compared between PD patients treated with medication or subthalamic deep brain stimulation. Methods We used the Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Test that shares component processes with everyday life tasks to compare reward responsivity of movement speed in 10 PD patients with STN-DBS, 10 nonoperated medicated PD patients, both OFF and ON their usual medications/stimulation, and 11 age-matched healthy controls. Results Despite longer disease duration and more severe motor symptoms, STN-DBS PD patients with the stimulator turned ON showed greater improvement of movement speed with the prospect of monetary incentive compared to both medicated PD patients and healthy participants. Discussion The effect of monetary incentive on movement speed in PD patients is more pronounced with STN-DBS than dopaminergic medications, suggesting that motivational modulation of movement speed may be enhanced as a direct consequence of STN stimulation.

An Efficient Storage System for Adult Odonata Specimens, With Application for Other Museum Collections

Abstract A new system of storing adult Odonata (damselfly and dragonfly) specimens is described and compared to existing storage systems. The major design innovation is the use of tongue and groove (“zipper lock”) resealable polyethylene envelopes manufactured to fit the standard index card and specimen arrangement currently used in major collections. Other design improvements include low-cost, adhesive-free specimen trays and glass-top drawers built to fit in standard-dimension Cornell insect cabinets. Comparisons of materials and designs with other available systems are presented and discussed. Finally, examples are presented of this new system's applicability to other collections such as Lepidoptera and Archeology.

English and Mandarin speakers’ mental representations of time

The questions of whether aspects of language (spatiotemporal metaphor and/or orthography) shape temporal cognition in general and whether English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently in particular have attracted considerable attention and controversy. Focusing on these controversial issues, the present study examines and refines the findings from previous work with some new evidence. Experiment 1 used a card arrangement task in which participants were asked to arrange in order a series of cards depicting temporal sequences of natural events. Experiment 2 included the card arrangement task (the same as in Experiment 1) and a video judgment task. In the video judgment task, the stimulus presented a horizontal or a vertical array of pictures depicting a temporal sequence of natural events, and participants were asked to verify if the temporal sequence described in the pictures was in the correct order. Converging results yielded from the two experiments demonstrate that most Mandarin speakers (approximately 80%) may be identical to English speakers with regard to their salient horizontal bias for temporal cognition. Only approximately 20% of Mandarin speakers, who overwhelmingly rely on the vertical axis to reason about time, may differ from English speakers. The evidence suggests that there might be a possible relationship between language and temporal cognition, but the relationship is far more complicated and indefinite than a simple or absolute causal one. The issue of whether language plays a powerful and critical role that shapes people’s thought remains uncertain and is subject to further examinations and clarifications. Implications for theoretical and empirical issues concerning the language-thought relationship are discussed.

Visualizing Similarity of Appearance by Arrangement of Cards.

This study proposes a novel method to extract the configuration of the psychological space by directly measuring subjects' similarity rating without computational work. Although multidimensional scaling (MDS) is well-known as a conventional method for extracting the psychological space, the method requires many pairwise evaluations. The times taken for evaluations increase in proportion to the square of the number of objects in MDS. The proposed method asks subjects to arrange cards on a poster sheet according to the degree of similarity of the objects. To compare the performance of the proposed method with the conventional one, we developed similarity maps of typefaces through the proposed method and through non-metric MDS. We calculated the trace correlation coefficient among all combinations of the configuration for both methods to evaluate the degree of similarity in the obtained configurations. The threshold value of trace correlation coefficient for statistically discriminating similar configuration was decided based on random data. The ratio of the trace correlation coefficient exceeding the threshold value was 62.0% so that the configurations of the typefaces obtained by the proposed method closely resembled those obtained by non-metric MDS. The required duration for the proposed method was approximately one third of the non-metric MDS's duration. In addition, all distances between objects in all the data for both methods were calculated. The frequency for the short distance in the proposed method was lower than that of the non-metric MDS so that a relatively small difference was likely to be emphasized among objects in the configuration by the proposed method. The card arrangement method we here propose, thus serves as a easier and time-saving tool to obtain psychological structures in the fields related to similarity of appearance.

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Abstract : Learning Objectives: Patient care in the burn intensive care unit (BICU) is complex and understanding clinician decision making is a challenging. We developed a card sort to learn how clinicians perceive patient condition and how they prioritize care. Results will support development of cognitive aids to improve communication and decision making. Methods: We developed the card sort through serial interviews with experts in burn critical care. The interviews discovered 10 categories of information that clinicians use to assess patient condition ( features ) and 9 categories of care elements ( treatment ) they use to manage patient care. This resulted in 97 total cards (67 features and 30 treatments). During the card sorts, clinicians were asked to identify a patient s severity of illness on a scale from could die today to could leave the ICU today. Clinicians then reviewed cards. They chose the cards they considered important to how they identified the patient s condition and what treatments should be given. The resulting arrangement of cards depicts a visual representation of the mental model they use to understand and care for patients. Results: The research team completed 133 card sorts were performed on clinicians from three backgrounds (nurse, physician, other) caring for 70 patients. Clinician experience ranged from 0 42 years. Card sorts took on average 32 minutes to complete. Of the cards that were chosen, clinicians identified identical feature cards 48 23% of the time, and treatment cards 55 25% of the time. While most clinicians identified severity of illness similarly, there were notable differences with perceptions related to 7 patients ( 3 point variance). Clear patterns of clinician perspective emerged that can be used to develop cognitive aids. Conclusions: Card sorting is a simple, effective method to help clinicians unpack their complex, intuitive understanding of patients and how they prioritize information and treatment.

Nicotine withdrawal and reward responsivity in a card-sorting task

Animal studies have demonstrated decreased reward responsivity during nicotine withdrawal (e.g., Epping-Jordan et al., Nature 393:76-79, 1998) and the Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Test (CARROT) has recently been used to study the effect of nicotine withdrawal on reward responsivity in humans (e.g., Al-Adawi and Powell, Addiction 92:1773-1782, 1997; Powell et al., Biol Psychiatry 51:151-163, 2002). We investigated a suggestion that nicotine withdrawal may have additional reward-related effects apart from the reward responsivity effects already observed. The objective of this study was to determine whether or not nicotine withdrawal results in slower improvements in performance on a card-sorting task over a series of trials. We carried out two experiments using a modified version of the CARROT, the mCARROT, to compare the performance of human participants in nicotine withdrawal with those who were satiated. Although withdrawal produced no direct effect on the mCARROT measure of reward responsivity, the overall sorting rate was lower, and the increase in sorting rate across successive trials was slower during nicotine withdrawal than during satiation. These data indicate that nicotine withdrawal impacted on task performance independently of the introduction of a performance contingent reward, suggesting a novel reward-related effect of nicotine withdrawal.

Phonetic disambiguation by Korean non-native speakers of English

This study examined the effect of pragmatic contrast and auditory priming on the production of contrasts such as ‘‘mob∼mop’’ and ‘‘pat∼pet’’ by 22 Korean non-native speakers of English. Korean speakers played a card arrangement game with a native speaker of English (a confederate). In the pragmatic condition, critical items were arranged to enable the comparison of the same word (e.g. ‘‘mob’’) in two contexts, one where the situation might force subjects to make the contrast of mob and mop and one where the situation facilitates the confederates recognition of mob because there is no contrasting form. An additional auditory priming condition was induced by the confederate saying a phonetically similar word such as ‘‘what is below hob?’’ before the target ‘‘mob.’’ Koreans produced more English-like forms when they had to be distinguished from the contrastive item or when they had been auditorily primed. For both b/p and ae/E contrasts, vowel duration was used to signal the distinction in both conditions. Additionally, for the b/p contrast, closure voicing percentage was significantly longer but only in the pragmatic condition. Overall both conditions have similar disambiguating effect, but have different specific consequences for cueing consonant versus vowel contrasts.

Personality, behavioural and affective characteristics of hazardous drinkers

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of appetitive and aversive motivation on hazardous drinking behaviour by drawing on Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST). A between-groups design examined differences between hazardous drinkers and matched controls on self-report and behavioural appetitive and aversive motivation. The relationship between motivational processes and changes in affective states following behavioural task performance was also examined. Data from 27 hazardous drinkers (M=21.88 years, SD=3.29) and 27 gender and age matched controls (M=21.85 years, SD=4.08) were utilised. The Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Test (CARROT) assessed behavioural appetitive motivation and the computerised Q-TASK provided an index of behavioural aversive motivation. Self-report appetitive and aversive motivation was measured using the Sensitivity to Punishment and Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ). Brief scales tapping state positive and negative affect were also administered. Hazardous drinkers were significantly higher than controls on self-report but not behavioural measures of appetitive motivation. Results also indicated that hazardous drinkers reported significantly higher levels of negative affect. These data suggest that hazardous drinkers are characterised by high trait appetitive motivation and state negative affect. It was suggested that RST may provide a useful framework for understanding both the appetitive and aversive motivational processes involved in drinking behaviour.

Elevated Impulsivity and Impaired Decision-Making in Abstinent Ecstasy (MDMA) Users Compared to Polydrug and Drug-Naïve Controls

Ecstasy (MDMA; 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) has a well-recognized neurotoxic effect on central serotonergic (5-HT) systems in animals, and there is some evidence of persistent serotonergic dysregulation in human ecstasy users. Serotonin is believed to mediate impulsive behavior and effective decision-making. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate impulsive behavior and decision-making in abstinent regular ecstasy users. Three groups were compared: 'ecstasy users' (recreational ecstasy users who reported modest use of illicit drugs other than cannabis), 'polydrug controls' (ecstasy naïve illicit drug users), and 'drug-naïve controls'. All participants completed personal details and general drug history questionnaires, the National Adult Reading Test, Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF20), a risky decision-making task (RDMT), and the Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Test (CARROT). The groups did not differ on the CARROT measure of responsiveness to financial incentive; however, the ecstasy group displayed significantly elevated MFF20 impulsivity, and showed reduced discrimination between magnitudes of prospective gains and losses when making risky decisions, compared to the 'polydrug' and 'drug-naïve' control groups. These findings may reflect a vulnerability of 5-HT systems in the orbital prefrontal cortex and interconnected corticolimbic circuitry to the cumulative neurotoxic effects of ecstasy and have clinical significance for regular ecstasy users. The combination of elevated impulsivity and impaired use of reinforcement cues in uncertain decision-making may comprise risk factors for continued drug abuse and everyday functioning.

Personality and responses to appetitive and aversive stimuli: the joint influence of behavioural approach and behavioural inhibition systems

Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) posits two separable neurological systems involved in the regulation of personality and behaviour. The behavioural approach and inhibition systems facilitate the expression of appetitive (impulsive-sensation seeking traits) and aversive motivation (anxiety traits), respectively. Inconsistent findings regarding associations between measures of personality and behavioural responses to appetitive and aversive stimuli has led to a modification of RST including the notion that, rather than separable as first hypothesised, the two systems jointly influence behaviour. The current study was designed to investigate this proposal with an additional focus on the role of reinforcement expectancies. Seventy-eight participants completed two questionnaire measures of BIS/BAS activity (EPQ-R, SPSRQ) and two behavioural measures (Q-TASK, Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Task). Findings were in general consistent with the original separable systems approach, however they also showed that aversive responses were highest in high BAS/high BIS individuals, thus suggesting an interactive account of BIS/BAS processes. Further, stronger positive correlations between self-report BAS traits and behavioural reward responsiveness were found for participants who perceived the task as more rewarding than initially expected. Discussion focuses on the role of reward expectancies and on the issue regarding separable vs. joint BIS/BAS systems.

The influence of sensitivity to reward on reactivity to alcohol-related cues.

To investigate the role of sensitivity to reward in mediating social drinkers' reactivity to alcohol cues. A standard cue-reactivity paradigm was employed. Two groups of social drinkers (heavy and light) were assessed after exposure to the sight, smell and taste of a neutral cue (water) and then an alcohol cue (glass of beer). Sessions were conducted in a laboratory based environment. Twenty heavy (12 males, eight females) and 18 light social drinkers (seven males, 11 females) were recruited; mean age was 23.6 years. The Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Test (CARROT), assessing behavioural responsiveness to a monetary incentive; urge to drink; positive affect; and the BAS scales, assessing sensitivity to reward. Heavy drinkers displayed a significant increase in responsivity to rewards (i.e. CARROT) and self-reported urge to drink, but not positive affect, after exposure to alcohol. For the heavy drinkers, heightened sensitivity to reward (i.e. BAS scales) was significantly related to cue-elicited urge to drink and positive affect. The results are consistent with a conditioned appetitive motivational model of alcohol use and suggest that Gray's theory of personality may be of some benefit in explaining variation in reactivity responses.

The development of systems of conventional time: A study of the appropriation of temporal locations by four-to-ten-year old children

The research is about the construction of conventional time through the appropriation of different tools used to locate events in time by 200 children between the ages of 4 to 10 years old. Temporal locations are examined through an interview task and the children’s ability to construct order of different temporal frameworks (daily, weekly, yearly) is studied using a card arrangement task. The same children took part in these two tasks. The results show that the tools children use to locate events in time change with their age and school experience: the youngest use relative locations or scripts (events are used as tools to locate other events) whereas older children use absolute locations (hours, days, months then become tools for locating events in time). Moreover, children use conventional temporal tools to locate events before being able to use them to put different events into the same temporal sequence. The study highlights developmental phases between the use of temporal locations and the construction of their meanings.

Ordering autobiographical experiences

This study examined individuals' memory for the temporal order of autobiographical events and for the components that constitute autobiographical events. Study 1 measured performance on an across-event ordering task that involved the chronological arrangement of cards that displayed event labels. Results indicated poor ordering ability across events, but a reasonable ability to order clusters of events. Study 2 compared within-event and across-event ordering using computer-presented digital photographs. Participants were better at ordering the photographs in their own across-event trials than in their within-event trials. The results are discussed in terms of the retrieval of temporal information under within- and across-event conditions.

The influence of smoking on reward responsiveness and cognitive functions: a natural experiment

To investigate the effects of (a) nicotine abstinence and (b) cigarette smoking after abstinence, on reward responsiveness and cognitive functions which are putatively dependent on activity in the dopaminergic system implicated in smoking. During Ramadhan, Muslim smokers elected to abstain from smoking either for the whole month (RAMQUIT) or during daylight hours (DAYQUIT). These groups, and non-smokers (NOSMOKE), were assessed on two occasions 6 hours apart (TEST1 and TEST2). DAYQUIT participants had abstained for 6 hours at TEST1 and smoked a single cigarette immediately prior to TEST2. RAMQUIT participants had abstained for at least 10 days prior to TEST1 and remained abstinent at TEST2. NOSMOKE and RAMQUIT participants are a small snack prior to TEST2 to control for non-specific consummatory effects. TEST1 was conducted at the mosque and TEST2 in participants' homes. All were male; mean age was 26.7 years. Modal cigarette consumption prior to Ramadhan by both the 13 DAYQUIT and the 11 RAMQUIT smokers was 21-30 per day. DAYQUIT subjects rated themselves as more dependent. The Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Test (CARROT), testing behavioural responsiveness to small financial incentive; digit span, measuring attention; verbal fluency, indexing frontal lobe function; and the two-choice guessing test (2CGT; at TEST1 only), measuring response stereotypy. At TEST1, compared with non-smokers, both smoking groups showed greater stereotypy (2CG) and lower reward responsiveness (CARROT). DAYQUIT participants improved on all measures after smoking a single cigarette. No marked changes were seen in the other groups. These data suggest that (i) abstaining smokers have impaired dopaminergic function and (ii) nicotine consumption may boost their dopaminergic activity.

Fuzzy-theoretic and concept-formational approaches to hint-effect experiments in human decision processes

This paper describes the results of hint-effect experiments, and analyses the human decision-making process from fuzzy-theoretic and concept-formational viewpoints. To begin with, we discuss the problem of the decision-making process subject to a specific and newly given information. In other words, the fuzzy-theoretic experiment concerning with some hints in the estimation and decision processes of the card arrangement is conducted. Next, the concept-formational process is analysed clearly by means of the introduction of both the cusp-curved surface in catastrophe theory and fuzziness concept in fuzzy set theory. Finally, we show the hint effect in the estimation and decision processes.