Integration Of New Information Research Articles

Risk Factors and Psychosocial Correlates of Emotionally Negative Dreams in Patients Referred to a Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre.

IntroductionDream, as a kind of mental activity, includes various functions such as mood regulation, adjustment and integration of new information with the available memory system. The study was done for assessing the relationship between physiological and psychological components of cardiac diseases with emotionally negative dreams in cardiac rehabilitation.MethodsAt the baseline of this cross-sectional study, 156 patients from Western Iran participated during April–November 2016. People 20 years–80 years able to recall the emotional content of dreams after cardiac surgery entered the study. The Beck depression inventory (BDI), Beck anxiety inventory (BAI), Buss and Perry’s aggression questionnaire (BPAQ) and Schredl’s dream emotions manual were used for collecting data. A binary logistic regression analysis used for the study of the relationship between risk factors and emotionally negative dreams.ResultsThe mean age of participants was 59 (SD = 9) years (men: 64.1%). The results showed that 25% of patients have negative emotional content. After adjustment for demographic variables, the results showed that increased anxiety [adjusted odds ratio (adj OR) = 1.08 [1.01–1.16], P = 0.020] and anger (adj OR = 1.03 [1.00–1.06], P = 0.024) and hypertension (adj OR = 2.71 [1.10–6.68], P = 0.030) can predict the dreams with negative content significantly.ConclusionThe increasing rates of anxiety and anger and history of hypertension are related to increasing dreams with the negative emotional load. The control of risk factors of dreams with negative emotional load can be the target of future interventions.

Critical infrastructure protection based on memory-augmented meta-learning framework

Critical infrastructures are related to systems which are essential for sustaining the important functions of a society. Their potential failures can cause serious problems not only to the population and economy but also to national security as well. The importance of these infrastructures calls for measures toward their security and protection. The aim was the reduction of risk related to natural disasters, terrorist acts, and cyberthreats. Traditional security systems, even those that employ intelligent algorithms, fail to prevent advanced zero-day attacks as they require constant training. This research proposes a novel meta-learning architecture that considers the neural turing machines as the approach upon which the model is founded. The introduced model allows for the memorization of useful data from past processes, by integrating external storage memory. Moreover, it facilitates the rapid integration of new information without the need for retraining. In particular, the proposed novel architecture is called memory-augmented neural network (M-ANN) whose core is a sophisticated, very fast, and highly efficient extreme learning machine. The M-ANN is assisted by a series of original modifications, related to fine-tuning of training, to memory retrieval mechanisms, to addressing techniques, and to ways of attention-weight allocation to memory vectors. The efficiency of the proposed system has been successfully tested using an extremely complex scenario for the protection of critical infrastructures. According to the testing scenario, memory could quickly encode and record information about new types of attacks, while any stored representation from previous experience was easily and consistently accessible, to maximize the detection efficiency.

Determining the dimensions of the innovation ability in logistics sector by using plithogenic-critic method: An application in Sakarya Province

Today's changing and developing level of competition and power, continuous learning, knowledge and technology management, transformation in the production process, market-oriented-based innovation and knowledge as communication applications, companies are routed to make more resources and research about the ability of innovation. The innovation factor has enabled new processes, products, ideas to adapt successfully for the production and market structure, and correspondingly implementation of them. In this point of view, innovation ability is the integration of new information resulting in product and process innovation by activating the power that a company provides to its employees. This ability has referred to the information between internal knowledge and external market demands. Accordingly, the factors affecting the innovation capability dimensions have a vital importance for companies. The fact that there exist limited number of studies on the weighting of the factors affecting the dimensions of innovation ability in the comprehensive literature review, is another factor increasing the importance of the subject. In this study, the innovation ability dimensions have been weighted in corporate logistics companies in Sakarya. Plithogenic set based CRITIC method, which is one of the multi criteria decision making techniques, has been used. The most important factor in the study was determined to be ability of accessing information resources.

Engineering of a Training Device and Skills Through the Integration of New Information and Communication Technologies in the Field of Exact Sciences

Engineering of a Training Device and Skills Through the Integration of New Information and Communication Technologies in the Field of Exact Sciences

Schema and Motor-Memory Consolidation

Recent research has demonstrated that memory-consolidation processes can be accelerated if newly learned information is consistent with preexisting knowledge. Until now, investigations of this fast integration of new information into memory have focused on the declarative and perceptual systems. We employed a unique manipulation of a motor-sequence-learning paradigm to examine the effect of experimentally acquired memory on the learning of new motor information. Results demonstrate that new information is rapidly integrated into memory when practice occurs in a framework that is compatible with the previously acquired memory. This framework consists of the ordinal representation of the motor sequence. This enhanced integration cannot be explained by differences in the explicit awareness of the sequence and is observed only if the previously acquired motor memory was consolidated overnight. Results are consistent with the schema model of memory consolidation and offer insights into how previous motor experience can accelerate learning and consolidation processes.

Diacylglycerol Lipase-Alpha Regulates Hippocampal-Dependent Learning and Memory Processes in Mice.

Diacylglycerol lipase-α (DAGL-α), the principal biosynthetic enzyme of the endogenous cannabinoid 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) on neurons, plays a key role in CB1 receptor-mediated synaptic plasticity and hippocampal neurogenesis, but its contribution to global hippocampal-mediated processes remains unknown. Thus, the present study examines the role that DAGL-α plays on LTP in hippocampus, as well as in hippocampal-dependent spatial learning and memory tasks, and on the production of endocannabinoid and related lipids through the use of complementary pharmacologic and genetic approaches to disrupt this enzyme in male mice. Here we show that DAGL-α gene deletion or pharmacological inhibition disrupts LTP in CA1 of the hippocampus but elicits varying magnitudes of behavioral learning and memory deficits in mice. In particular, DAGL-α-/- mice display profound impairments in the Object Location assay and Morris Water Maze (MWM) acquisition engaging in nonspatial search strategies. In contrast, WT mice administered the DAGL-α inhibitor DO34 show delays in MWM acquisition and reversal learning, but no deficits in expression, extinction, forgetting, or perseveration processes in this task, as well as no impairment in Object Location. The deficits in synaptic plasticity and MWM performance occur in concert with decreased 2-AG and its major lipid metabolite (arachidonic acid), but increases of a 2-AG diacylglycerol precursor in hippocampus, PFC, striatum, and cerebellum. These novel behavioral and electrophysiological results implicate a direct and perhaps selective role of DAGL-α in the integration of new spatial information.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Here we show that genetic deletion or pharmacologic inhibition of diacylglycerol lipase-α (DAGL-α) impairs hippocampal CA1 LTP, differentially disrupts spatial learning and memory performance in Morris water maze (MWM) and Object Location tasks, and alters brain levels of endocannabinoids and related lipids. Whereas DAGL-α-/- mice exhibit profound phenotypic spatial memory deficits, a DAGL inhibitor selectively impairs the integration of new information in MWM acquisition and reversal tasks, but not memory processes of expression, extinction, forgetting, or perseveration, and does not affect performance in the Objection Location task. The findings that constitutive or short-term DAGL-α disruption impairs learning and memory at electrophysiological and selective in vivo levels implicate this enzyme as playing a key role in the integration of new spatial information.

Learning Styles in a Collaborative Algorithmic Problem-Based Learning

Nowadays, university teaching can no longer rely solely on the pillar of traditional teaching, research on new teaching/learning methods is becoming more and more numerous, especially with the integration of new information and communication technologies, which play an important role in our daily lives. In the case of our university, all the algorithmic courses taught in the first year of computer science at our university are face-to-face; our research aims to present the improvements that online adaptive training can bring to the learning style of learners. In particular, in terms of learners’ subjective satisfaction and learning speed and performance. The objective of this research is to find the contribution that problem-based learning can make to the learner’s learning style within a social network. The technique proposed in this paper aims to personalize learning by applying Felder–Silverman’s model of learning styles and intelligent technologies, for example, such as ontology and data mining methods to improve the quality and sustainability of learning. The PBL process does not focus on problem solving with a defined solution, but takes into consideration the improvement of other attractive abilities and qualities. This will include learning, improved collaboration and group communication.

Hippocampal Place Fields Maintain a Coherent and Flexible Map across Long Timescales

To provide a substrate for remembering where in space events have occurred, place cells must reliably encode the same positions across long timescales. However, in many cases, place cells exhibit instability by randomly reorganizing their place fields between experiences, challenging this premise. Recent evidence suggests that, in some cases, instability could also arise from coherent rotations of place fields, as well as from random reorganization. To investigate this possibility, we performed invivo calcium imaging in dorsal hippocampal region CA1 of freely moving mice while they explored two arenas with different geometry and visual cues across 8days. The two arenas were rotated randomly between sessions and then connected, allowing us to probe how cue rotations, the integration of new information about the environment, and the passage of time concurrently influenced the spatial coherence of place fields. We found that spatially coherent rotations of place-field maps in the same arena predominated, persisting up to 6days later, and that they frequently rotated in a manner that did not match that of the arena rotation. Furthermore, place-field maps were flexible, as mice frequently employed asimilar, coherent configuration of place fields to represent each arena despite their differing geometry and eventual connection. These results highlight theability of the hippocampus to retain consistent relationships between cells across long timescales and suggest that, in many cases, apparent instability might result from a coherent rotation of place fields.

Individual Differences in Slow-Wave-Sleep Predict Acquisition of Full Cognitive Maps.

Accumulating evidence suggests that sleep, and particularly Slow-Wave-Sleep (SWS), helps the implicit and explicit extraction of regularities within memories that were encoded in a previous wake period. Sleep following training on virtual navigation was also shown to improve performance in subsequent navigation tests. Some studies propose that this sleep-effect on navigation is based on explicit recognition of landmarks; however, it is possible that SWS-dependent extraction of implicit spatiotemporal regularities contributes as well. To examine this possibility, we administered a novel virtual navigation task in which participants were required to walk through a winding corridor and then choose one of five marked doors to exit. Unknown to participants, the markings on the correct door reflected the corridor’s shape (from a bird’s eye view). Detecting this regularity negates the need to find the exit by trial and error. Participants performed the task twice a day for a week, while their overnight sleep was monitored. We found that the more time participants spent in SWS across the week, the better they were able to implicitly extract the hidden regularity. In contrast, the few participants that explicitly realized the regularity did not rely on SWS to do so. Moreover, the SWS effect was strictly at the trait-level: Baseline levels of SWS prior to the experimental week could predict success just as well, but day-to-day variations in SWS did not predict day-to-day improvements. We propose that our findings indicate SWS facilitates implicit integration of new information into cognitive maps, possibly through compressed memory replay.

Exploring the role of context on the existing evidence for reconsolidation of episodic memory

ABSTRACTRecent research has provided evidence for memory modifications when a post-reactivation treatment (e.g., drugs, new learning) interferes with the memory re-stabilisation (reconsolidation) process. This finding contradicts the long-standing consolidation theory and has high practical and theoretical implications. With an object-learning paradigm, it was shown that episodic memory is highly susceptible to interfering material presented after its reactivation [Hupbach, A., Gomez, R., Hardt, O., & Nadel, L. (2007). Reconsolidation of episodic memories: A subtle reminder triggers integration of new information. Learning & Memory, 14, 47–53. doi:10.1101/lm.365707]. The reactivation of a learned list (List 1) before a second learned list (List 2) led to intrusion errors from List 2 when trying to recall List 1, but not vice-versa. Their work has been widely cited and their findings have been explained according to reconsolidation theory. For the first time, we systematically explored the role of retrieval context as an alternative explanation for Hupbach’s results. Our results showed that the intrusion effect occurs independently of the retrieval context (Experiment 1). Additionally, even when the intrusion rate probability is increased (i.e., List 1 memory test is performed in the List 2 learning context), the groups that did not reactivate the original list did not commit intrusion errors (Experiment 2). In sum, we found that the intrusion effect critically depends on the presence of reactivation, discarding alternative interpretations of the results.

Teacher' attitudes towards e-learning in higher education in Macedonia Case study: University of Tetovo

Nowadays in higher education it is important integration of new information and communication technologies into the learning and teaching process. Fastest development of computer technologies and the Internet as a communication platform has motivated higher education institutions to start to think about integration of e-learning system on teaching and learning process on their university. E-learning is becoming progressively more important in higher education environment. Teacher is one of the most important stockholder for integration of e-learning. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the perception of teachers' attitudes towards e-learning. In this study were analyzed 49 teachers teaching in 2 major faculties in University of Tetovo, in Macedonia. The results show that a significant number of teachers agree about the plan to blend the present teaching method with e-learning, on the other hand, a great number of teachers not agree to replace traditional teaching method with e-learning. The results show that the number that prefer using traditional teaching method is the same with those that not agree. There is no any significant correlation between teacher' attitudes towards various e-learning according to gender and faculty. Results shows that teachers' attitudes have important role towards e-learning in teaching process. These results can be a good example for creation a platform or framework for the implementation of e-learning environment in the teaching and learning process on higher education. In addition, the results of the study can serve as an important factor for the improvement and development of the educational process supported by the use of technology, thus implementing an e-learning system in order to help and facilitate the students in their studies.

ONS: an ontology for a standardized description of interventions and observational studies in nutrition

BackgroundThe multidisciplinary nature of nutrition research is one of its main strengths. At the same time, however, it presents a major obstacle to integrate data analysis, especially for the terminological and semantic interpretations that specific research fields or communities are used to. To date, a proper ontology to structure and formalize the concepts used for the description of nutritional studies is still lacking.ResultsWe have developed the Ontology for Nutritional Studies (ONS) by harmonizing selected pre-existing de facto ontologies with novel health and nutritional terminology classifications. The ONS is the result of a scholarly consensus of 51 research centers in nine European countries. The ontology classes and relations are commonly encountered while conducting, storing, harmonizing, integrating, describing, and searching nutritional studies. The ONS facilitates the description and specification of complex nutritional studies as demonstrated with two application scenarios.ConclusionsThe ONS is the first systematic effort to provide a solid and extensible formal ontology framework for nutritional studies. Integration of new information can be easily achieved by the addition of extra modules (i.e., nutrigenomics, metabolomics, nutrikinetics, and quality appraisal). The ONS provides a unified and standardized terminology for nutritional studies as a resource for nutrition researchers who might not necessarily be familiar with ontologies and standardization concepts.

Predictive inference generation and story comprehension among children with ADHD: Is making predictions helpful?

Children with ADHD exhibit narrative comprehension difficulties relative to typically developing peers. One unexplored comprehension area for this population is the generation of explanatory predictive inferences. Plausible explanatory predictive inferences allow for smooth integration of new information, and are targeted in many comprehension interventions. The current study examined three questions: (1) Is there a difference between children with ADHD and typically developing children in the creation of explanatory predictive inferences during a predictive prompt task? (2) Does the group difference in the generation of these inferences mediate group differences in recall measures? (3) Does the act of making predictions during story presentation improve recall relative to a control condition? Seven- to 11-year-old children with and without ADHD listened to two audio-taped stories, and made predictions at several pauses during one of the stories (predictive prompt task). The recording of the other story was paused without asking for predictions in the control task. Children recalled the story following the task. During the predictive prompt task, children with ADHD generated fewer plausible explanatory predictive inferences than typically developing peers and this group difference mediated a group difference in the recall of highly important events. Further, children in both diagnostic groups included more plausible explanatory backwards inferences during recall following the predictive prompt task than following the control task. Given the importance of explanatory inferences in constructing coherent story representations, these findings are encouraging for educators using predictive tasks but indicate that children with ADHD may need further instruction on generating appropriate predictive inferences.

Impact of information incongruity and authors group membership on assimilation and accommodation

AbstractLearning is a complex process that can be differentiated into assimilation and accommodation. The Internet enables both types of learning through collaboration. There is, however, little research investigating the specific impact of social and information incongruity on assimilation and accommodation. The current research investigates how the information incongruity between prior knowledge and new information on the one hand and the social incongruity caused by the group membership of an information source on the other hand stimulates assimilation and accommodation specifically. It is predicted that medium incongruity stimulates assimilation and accommodation more strongly than low incongruity. Moreover, concerning social incongruity, ingroup information should specifically increase assimilation more strongly than outgroup information. A laboratory study with a 2 × 2 design using between‐subject factors information incongruity (low vs. medium) and social incongruity (ingroup vs. outgroup information) was conducted wherein participants worked on an ostensibly collaborative wiki. It was found that medium information incongruity stimulated stronger structuring of knowledge (i.e., internal accommodation) and stronger integration of new information into a wiki text (i.e., external accommodation) than low incongruity. As expected, ingroup information increased the acquisition of factual knowledge (i.e., assimilation) more strongly than outgroup information.

Switching between internal and external modes: A multiscale learning principle.

Brains construct internal models that support perception, prediction, and action in the external world. Individual circuits within a brain also learn internal models of the local world of input they receive, in order to facilitate efficient and robust representation. How are these internal models learned? We propose that learning is facilitated by continual switching between internally biased and externally biased modes of processing. We review computational evidence that this mode-switching can produce an error signal to drive learning. We then consider empirical evidence for the instantiation of mode-switching in diverse neural systems, ranging from subsecond fluctuations in the hippocampus to wake-sleep alternations across the whole brain. We hypothesize that these internal/external switching processes, which occur at multiple scales, can drive learning at each scale. This framework predicts that (a) slower mode-switching should be associated with learning of more temporally extended input features and (b) disruption of switching should impair the integration of new information with prior information.

Learning about Expectation Violation from Prediction Error Paradigms - A Meta-Analysis on Brain Processes Following a Prediction Error.

Modifying patients’ expectations by exposing them to expectation violation situations (thus maximizing the difference between the expected and the actual situational outcome) is proposed to be a crucial mechanism for therapeutic success for a variety of different mental disorders. However, clinical observations suggest that patients often maintain their expectations regardless of experiences contradicting their expectations. It remains unclear which information processing mechanisms lead to modification or persistence of patients’ expectations. Insight in the processing could be provided by Neuroimaging studies investigating prediction error (PE, i.e., neuronal reactions to non-expected stimuli). Two methods are often used to investigate the PE: (1) paradigms, in which participants passively observe PEs (”passive” paradigms) and (2) paradigms, which encourage a behavioral adaptation following a PE (“active” paradigms). These paradigms are similar to the methods used to induce expectation violations in clinical settings: (1) the confrontation with an expectation violation situation and (2) an enhanced confrontation in which the patient actively challenges his expectation. We used this similarity to gain insight in the different neuronal processing of the two PE paradigms. We performed a meta-analysis contrasting neuronal activity of PE paradigms encouraging a behavioral adaptation following a PE and paradigms enforcing passiveness following a PE. We found more neuronal activity in the striatum, the insula and the fusiform gyrus in studies encouraging behavioral adaptation following a PE. Due to the involvement of reward assessment and avoidance learning associated with the striatum and the insula we propose that the deliberate execution of action alternatives following a PE is associated with the integration of new information into previously existing expectations, therefore leading to an expectation change. While further research is needed to directly assess expectations of participants, this study provides new insights into the information processing mechanisms following an expectation violation.

Evolutions in clinical reasoning assessment: The Evolving Script Concordance Test

Introduction: Script concordance testing (SCT) is a method of assessment of clinical reasoning. We developed a new type of SCT case design, the evolving SCT (E-SCT), whereby the patient’s clinical story is “evolving” and with thoughtful integration of new information at each stage, decisions related to clinical decision-making become increasingly clear.Objectives: We aimed to: (1) determine whether an E-SCT could differentiate clinical reasoning ability among junior residents (JR), senior residents (SR), and pediatricians, (2) evaluate the reliability of an E-SCT, and (3) obtain qualitative feedback from participants to help inform the potential acceptability of the E-SCT.Methods: A 12-case E-SCT, embedded within a 24-case pediatric SCT (PaedSCT), was administered to 91 pediatric residents (JR: n = 50; SR: n = 41). A total of 21 pediatricians served on the panel of experts (POE). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted across the levels of experience. Participants’ feedback on the E-SCT was obtained with a post-test survey and analyzed using two methods: percentage preference and thematic analysis.Results: Statistical differences existed across levels of training: F = 19.31 (df = 2); p < 0.001. The POE scored higher than SR (mean difference = 10.34; p < 0.001) and JR (mean difference = 16.00; p < 0.001). SR scored higher than JR (mean difference = 5.66; p < 0.001). Reliability (Cronbach’s α) was 0.83. Participants found the E-SCT engaging, easy to follow and true to the daily clinical decision-making process.Conclusions: The E-SCT demonstrated very good reliability and was effective in distinguishing clinical reasoning ability across three levels of experience. Participants found the E-SCT engaging and representative of real-life clinical reasoning and decision-making processes. We suggest that further refinement and utilization of the evolving style case will enhance SCT as a robust, engaging, and relevant method for the assessment of clinical reasoning.

Impact of Stress and Glucocorticoids on Schema-Based Learning.

Pre-existing knowledge, a 'schema', facilitates the encoding, consolidation, and retrieval of schema-relevant information. Such schema-based memory is key to every form of education and provides intriguing insights into the integration of new information and prior knowledge. Stress is known to have a critical impact on memory processes, mainly through the action of glucocorticoids and catecholamines. However, whether stress and these major stress mediators affect schema-based learning is completely unknown. To address this question, we performed two experiments, in which participants acquired a schema on day 1 and learned schema-related as well as schema-unrelated information on day 2. In the first experiment, participants underwent a stress or control manipulation either immediately or about 25 min before schema-based memory testing. The second experiment tested whether glucocorticoid and/or noradrenergic activation is sufficient to modulate schema-based memory. To this end, participants received orally a placebo, hydrocortisone, the α2-adrenoceptor-antagonist yohimbine, leading to increased noradrenergic stimulation, or both drugs, before completing the schema-based memory test. Our data indicate that stress, irrespective of the exact timing of the stress exposure, impaired schema-based learning, while leaving learning of schema-unrelated information intact. A very similar effect was obtained after hydrocortisone, but not yohimbine, administration. These data show that stress disrupts participants' ability to benefit from prior knowledge during learning and that glucocorticoid activation is sufficient to produce this effect. Our findings provide novel insights into the impact of stress and stress hormones on the dynamics of human memory and have important practical implications, specifically for educational contexts.

Carolyn Rovee-Collier's legacy to applied psychology, intervention, and public policy.

In this article, we reflect upon Carolyn Rovee-Collier's pioneering research on learning and memory in infants, especially that using the mobile conjugate reinforcement task, for our understanding of (a) cognitive development in infants born prematurely and those with Down's syndrome and (b) her prediction that infants' performance in the mobile conjugate reinforcement and similar operant tasks would predict later intellectual functioning. We then examine the implications of her research on time windows (the integration of new information into a memory) and memory reactivation (the retrieval of a forgotten memory as a result of the re-exposure to a component of the original learning experience) for early intervention programs and clinicians treating victims of early trauma. We conclude with a discussion of the value of Rovee-Collier's work for the growing field of infant/toddler science and how this science has informed public policy and program development.

Integración de las TIC en la Unidad Educativa Particular Terranova. Resultados de la primera fase de investigación

This research paper aims to diagnose the state of integration of ICT in the teaching and learning processes and focuses on the state of integration of new information and communications technology (ICT) in the Special Education Unit Terranova located in Quito, Ecuador. The theoretical framework focuses on ICT in education, its possibilities and obstacles, some integration experiences and the latest trends, challenges and progress; and of digital competence of both teachers and students.A part of an interpretive paradigm is used and it focuses towards an exploratory empirical research whose methodology is mixed and in which both quantitative and qualitative approach has great weight during the investigation process.The results obtained in the first phase of research are presented especially, the questionnaire and documentary review. They showed the existence of a certain level of integration of ICT in the teaching and learning process while an institutional need to provide a considerable number of teachers with more training or even an integral training program in ICT was noted.