Low Fluency Research Articles

Underwater Laser Treatment of PET: Effect of Processing Parameters on Surface Morphology and Chemistry

Rapid development of nanotechnology in processes of metal nanoparticle immobilization on solid surfaces, especially polymeric ones, requires the study of particular issues within these complex approaches. Numerous studies have been published on laser light mediated manipulation with single metal nanoparticles in water environment and even laser assisted immobilization of such particles on polymeric substrate, however, not much has been reported on fundamentals of underwater laser processing of polymer itself, especially regarding to resulting surface morphology and chemistry. In this work, we study surface morphology (atomic force microscopy (AFM)) and chemistry (angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS)) of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) after underwater laser treatment in broad scale of applied laser fluencies and operating voltages. Due to typical dependence of laser efficiency on operating voltage, induced nanostructures on PET exhibited a noticeable symmetry spread out around the maxima of laser efficiency for low laser fluencies. The study of surface chemistry revealed that at high laser fluencies, photochemical decomposition of macromolecular polymer structure took place, resulting in rapid material ablation and in balanced chemical composition of the surface throughout the studied profile. Enrichment of the water bath by the low-molecular polymer degradation products proves that ablation mechanism is the governing process of surface nanostructure formation in underwater laser processing.

Grown of highly porous ZnO-nanoparticles by pulsed laser ablation in liquid technique for sensing applications

Pulsed laser ablation technique in deionized water with low laser fluency has been explored to prepare uniform dispersed porous ZnO nanoparticles for sensing applications. Surface morphology, particle size, porous structure, roughness, elemental distribution, and chemical bonding of the synthesized ZnO are analyzed by TEM, FESEM, AFM, EDX, and FTIR spectroscopy, respectively. Sensing behavior is observed by UV–Vis absorption measurements. TEM and FESEM analysis show that the prepared ZnO-coated film has homogeneous, dispersed, highly porous, and crack-free surface; the average particle size are observed ~ 24.72 ± 2.97 nm. The porous structure is responsible for appropriate sensing behavior. Low roughness value ~ 1.52 nm which is analyzed by AFM is advantageous for sensing behavior. EDX spectrum and elements mapping clearly show the uniform Zn and O distribution. XRD analysis confirms the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO. FTIR reveals the Zn and O chemical bonding successfully. UV-Visible analysis exhibits that the prepared ZnO matrix has good incorporation with multi-dyes solutions at pH values 10–12 with significant changes in color behavior. The highest pKa value ~ 9.77 at a wavelength of 598.28 nm was calculated for multi-dyes immobilized ZnO matrix. So, it can be concluded that prepared ZnO nanostructures are potential candidates for sensing application.

Language as a barrier to cancer clinical trial accrual: assessing consenting team knowledge and practices for cancer clinical trial consent among low English fluency patients

BackgroundLow English fluency in large culturally diverse institutions may contribute to meager minority accrual. Our objective was to: 1) Assess knowledge of proper consenting procedures among the research team when consenting a low English fluency patient. 2) Assess the enrollment rate of participants in cancer therapeutic trials who identify a preferred language other than English.MethodsAn anonymous web-based survey was distributed at a single institution to investigators, research staff and translator services to assess knowledge of consenting procedures. Patient enrollment data was retrieved from the clinical trials enrollment tracking system from January 2011 – October 2014 and matched to registration data indicating preferred language (N = 1521). The number and type of cancer cases from January 2011–October 2014 were retrieved from the institutional cancer registry and matched to registration data indicating preferred language.ResultsAlthough there are many organizational in-person and web-based trainings focused on the requirements for consenting low English fluency patients, members of the research team responded correctly to only 64.8% (σ = 24.6%) of the knowledge-based portion of the survey. Of the 12,538 index cancer cases indentified, 10% preferred a language other than English. Trial enrollment rates for cancer clinical trials were similar for English (13%), Spanish (11%), and, Armenian (10%) speakers. Populations speaking Russian and Arabic had the lowest participation at 5% each.ConclusionsIn order to increase enrollment into clinical trials, institutions must explore more effective training opportunities for research staff, engage interpreters and adopt recruitment and study materials in different languages.

Age-related changes in processing speed modulate context use during idiomatic ambiguity resolution

ABSTRACTThe goal of the current study was to investigate whether age-related changes in processing speed, as indexed by verbal fluency, modulate context use in the resolution of ambiguous idioms (e.g., tie the knot). Younger and older adults completed a cross-modal priming experiment where they decided whether visual word targets were related in meaning to idiomatically or literally biased auditory sentence primes. Older adults with high verbal fluency, similar to younger adults, showed context-dependent facilitation in both biasing sentence contexts. In contrast, older adults with low verbal fluency did not show facilitation of literal meanings in literally biased sentence contexts, likely because they had difficultly inhibiting the dominant figurative meaning. These findings argue that age-related changes in context use during ambiguity resolution are restricted to older adults with reduced processing speed. The results also suggest that verbal fluency may reflect the speed in recruiting frontally-mediated selection mechanisms during ambiguity resolution.

RETRACTED: Auditory (dis-)fluency triggers sequential processing adjustments

An increasing amount of studies indicates that experiencing increased task demands, triggered for example by conflicting stimulus features or low perceptual fluency, lead to processing adjustments. While these demand-triggered processing adjustments have been shown for different paradigms (e.g., response conflict tasks, perceptual disfluency, task switching, dual tasking), most of them are restricted to the visual modality. The present study investigated as to whether the challenge to understand speech signals in normal-hearing subjects would also lead to sequential processing adjustments if the processing fluency of the respective auditory signals changes from trial to trial. To that end, we used spoken number words (one to nine) that were either presented with high (clean speech) or low perceptual fluency (i.e., vocoded speech as used in cochlear implants-Experiment 1; speech embedded in multi-speaker babble noise as typically found in bars-Experiment 2). Participants had to judge the spoken number words as smaller or larger than five. Results show that the fluency effect (performance difference between high and low perceptual fluency) in both experiments was smaller following disfluent words. Thus, if it's hard to understand, you try harder.

Lectura y comprensión lectora mediante las tecnologías de la información y comunicación en educación básica

Reading plays an important role in the integral development of students, strengthening and enhancing their abilities of interpretation, understanding and basic communication skills for good school performance. The study sought to strengthen reading and reading comprehension through Information and Communication Technologies (TIC) in basic education. With a qualitative methodological design under the participatory action research (IAP) model, the data collection techniques used were the participant observation and the field diary. There were one hundred twenty-nine (129) participants from the Francisco de Paula Santander educational institution, José Maria Córdoba headquarters. The results of the observation showed weaknesses in the reading and reading comprehension processes, omitting and confusing letters, low verbal fluency and lack of interest in reading, for which the teachers designed pedagogical strategies based on ICT to solve this problem.

Two‐step tier three interventions for children in grade three with low reading fluency

The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a tier three intervention, response‐to‐intervention design, on children with low reading ability in grade three. Twenty‐eight children (12 females and 16 males) participated in this study. The participants were given out a battery of reading tests including decoding and reading comprehension tests, and in total, the children received 20 reading intervention sessions in two waves, during 4 weeks. The results showed substantial gains with large effect sizes (d 0.78–2.95) on all the reading tests after the intervention period. A short, intensive and individualised intervention has a substantially positive effect on children's reading ability. For a majority of the children, the increased ability sustains even 4 years after the end of the interventions. However, as boys seem to have the greatest problem to sustain their increased ability, the authors claim that it is important to continue the intervention even after the research interventions have ended.

A paradigm for emulating the early learning stage of handwriting: Performance comparison between healthy controls and Parkinson’s disease patients in drawing loop shapes

We present a novel paradigm, aimed at emulating the early stage of handwriting learning in proficient writers, by asking them to produce a familiar shape through a novel (unfamiliar) motor plan. Handwriting of beginner writers is characterized by slower movements, reduced spatial precision, lower fluency and reduced force regulation compared to those observed in the handwriting production of proficient writers. Features observed in the ink trace obtained with the novel motor plan and performance comparison of the handwriting obtained by familiar and unfamiliar motor plan suggest that the proposed paradigm is able to elicit non-automated movements in proficient writers.As that produced by beginner writers, handwriting of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients is characterized by lack of fluency, slowness and abrupt changes of direction. Furthermore, PD patients show impaired performance in learning novel motor behaviors, as well as in executing motor behaviors acquired before the onset of the disease. We used the proposed paradigm for comparing the performance achieved by healthy controls in writing a familiar shape through a novel motor plan with those obtained by PD patients performing a well-known motor plan for drawing the same shape. Our analysis points out some similarities between performance obtained by healthy controls and those obtained by PD patients, sustaining the hypothesis that the fine tuning of the motor plan parameters involved in the handwriting production is impaired by PD.

Executive, language, or both? An examination of the construct validity of verbal fluency measures

ABSTRACTThe purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether phonemic and semantic verbal fluency were more related to aspects of language processing than executive functioning (EF). An exploratory factor analysis was performed on a college-aged sample of 320 healthy participants using principle axis factoring and promax rotation on nine measures of EF. The first three factors, labeled: working memory, fluid reasoning, and shifting/updating, were extracted and used as latent executive variables. Participants were also split into low, medium, and high phonemic and semantic verbal fluency ability groups. Phonemic and semantic fluency correlated similarly across all three extracted EF factors and word knowledge. Using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVAs), there was a main effect for both phonemic and semantic verbal fluency groups and all outcome variables (i.e., the EF factors and word knowledge). Tukey HSD post hoc analyses showed that those in the low verbal fluency ability groups had significantly lower scores across all outcome measures compared to the high verbal fluency ability groups. Across all analyses, semantic fluency had stronger relations with the EF factors, signifying a large executive component involved in the task. Both phonemic and semantic fluency were similarly related to multiple dimensions of EF and word knowledge and should be considered executive language tasks.

Observation of Nanosecond Hot Carrier Decay in Graphene.

An extremely long decay time of hot carriers in graphene at room temperature was observed for the first time by monitoring the photoinduced thermionic emission using a highly sensitive time-of-flight angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy method. The emission persisted beyond 1 ns, two orders of magnitude longer than previously reported carrier decay. The long lifetime was attributed to the excitation of image potential states at very low laser fluencies.

Make It Short and Easy: Username Complexity Determines Trustworthiness Above and Beyond Objective Reputation.

Can the mere name of a seller determine his trustworthiness in the eye of the consumer? In 10 studies (total N = 608) we explored username complexity and trustworthiness of eBay seller profiles. Name complexity was manipulated through variations in username pronounceability and length. These dimensions had strong, independent effects on trustworthiness, with sellers with easy-to-pronounce or short usernames being rated as more trustworthy than sellers with difficult-to-pronounce or long usernames, respectively. Both effects were repeatedly found even when objective information about seller reputation was available. We hypothesized the effect of name complexity on trustworthiness to be based on the experience of high vs. low processing fluency, with little awareness of the underlying process. Supporting this, participants could not correct for the impact of username complexity when explicitly asked to do so. Three alternative explanations based on attributions of the variations in name complexity to seller origin (ingroup vs. outgroup), username generation method (seller personal choice vs. computer algorithm) and age of the eBay profiles (10 years vs. 1 year) were tested and ruled out. Finally, we show that manipulating the ease of reading product descriptions instead of the sellers’ names also impacts the trust ascribed to the sellers.

Ease-of-learning judgments are based on both processing fluency and beliefs

ABSTRACTProcessing fluency influences many types of judgments. Some metacognitive research suggests that the influence of processing fluency may be mediated by participants’ beliefs. The current study explores the influence of processing fluency and beliefs on ease-of-learning (EOL) judgments. In two experiments (Exp 1: n = 94; Exp 2: n = 146), participants made EOL judgments on 24 six-letter concrete nouns, presented in either a constant condition (high fluency) with upper-case letters (e.g., BUCKET) or an alternating condition (low fluency) with mixed upper- and lower-case letters (e.g., bUcKeT). After judging words individually, participants studied the words and completed a free recall test. Finally, participants indicated what condition they believed made the words more likely to be learned. Results show constant-condition words were judged as more likely to be learned than alternating condition words, but the difference varied with beliefs. Specifically, the difference was biggest when participants believed the constant condition made words more likely to be learned, followed by believing there was no difference, and then believing the alternating condition made words more likely to be learned. Thus, we showed that processing fluency has a direct effect on EOL judgments, but the effect is moderated by beliefs.

The different patterns of seizure-induced aphasia in temporal lobe epilepsies

ObjectivesIctal language disturbances may occur in dominant hemisphere temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), but little is known about the precise anatomoelectroclinical correlations. This study investigated the different facets of ictal aphasia in intracerebrally recorded TLE. MethodsVideo-stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) recordings of 37 seizures in 17 right-handed patients with drug-resistant TLE were analyzed; SEEG electroclinical correlations between language disturbance and involvement of temporal lobe structures were assessed. In the clinical analysis, we separated speech disturbance from loss of consciousness. ResultsAccording to the region involved, different patterns of ictal aphasia in TLE were identified. Impaired speech comprehension was associated with posterior lateral involvement, anomia and reduced verbal fluency with anterior mediobasal structures, and jargonaphasia with basal temporal involvement. The language production deficits, such as anomia and low fluency, cannot be simply explained by an involvement of Broca's area, since this region was not affected by seizure discharge. SignificanceAssessment of language function in the early ictal state can be successfully performed and provides valuable information on seizure localization within the temporal lobe as well as potentially useful information for guiding surgery.

Nanostructure Self-Organization as Cause of Wavelike Radiation Embrittlement of the RPV Steel

Influence of neutron irradiation on reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel degradation are examined with reference to the possible reasons of the substantial experimental data scatter and furthermore-nonstandard (non-monotonous) and oscillatory embrittlement behavior. In our glance this phenomenon may be explained by presence of the wavelike recovering component in the embrittlement kinetics. In our opinion controversy in the estimation on neutron flux on radiation degradation impact may be explained by presence of the wavelike component in the embrittlement kinetics. Therefore flux effect manifestation depends on fluence level. At low fluencies radiation degradation has to exceed normative value, then approaches to normative meaning and finally became sub normative. As a result of dose rate effect manifestation peripheral RPV’s zones in some range of fluencies have to be damaged to a large extent than situated closely to core. Moreover as a hypothesis we suppose that at some stages of irradiation damaged metal have to be partially restored by irradiation i.e. neutron bombardment. Nascent during irradiation nanostructure undergo occurring once or periodically evolution in a direction both degradation and recovery of the initial properties. According to our hypothesis at some stage(s) of metal nanostructure degradation neutron bombardment became recovering factor. As a result oscillation arise that in tern lead to enhanced data scatter. In this case we have to consider irradiation as a recovery factor. Disclosure of the steel degradation oscillating is a sign of the steel nanostructure cyclic self-recovery transformation as it take place in self-organization processes.

The evaluation of laser cleaning of silica nanowires

The aim of this work is to investigate the laser cleaning of contaminants from surfaces of silica nanowires. Experimental parameters affected particle removal were explored using pulsed fiber laser radiation at a wavelength of 1064 nm. The laser beam was focused and scanned across the surfaces of the nanowires. The interaction between laser radiation and a certain thickness in the contaminant layers was analyzed. The results suggest that low laser fluencies allow greater control over the removal depth reducing the risk of damage. The cleaning efficiency was determined. The laser cleaning technique can open up completely challenges in applications of nanophotonics.

Consumer skepticism towards CSR messages

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the joint effect of three factors – processing fluency, the individuals’ need for cognition (NFC) and mood – on consumer skepticism toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages.Design/Methodology/ApproachStudy 1 uses a 2 (fluency: high versus low) × 2 (NFC: high versus low) design. In Study 2, a three-way interaction between fluency, NFC and mood was explored.FindingsIndividuals high in need for cognition responded more positively after reading a CSR message that is difficult to process. On the other hand, people low in NFC exhibited a higher level of skepticism toward CSR messages with low processing fluency. In addition, such an effect was moderated by mood. Positive mood (versus negative mood) increased dopamine levels, which further reduced skepticism.Practical implicationsHospitality marketers should not simply assume that all consumers process information in the same fashion and, therefore, design their CSR message using the “one size fits all” strategy. It is critical for them to understand the importance of how to present the CSR messages to communicate with customers more effectively.Originality/valueCSR has been increasingly used as a marketing tool by firms because of its positive effect on company reputation and customers’ purchase intentions. However, one of the greatest challenges corporate marketers are facing with regard to CSR programs is consumer skepticism. No prior research investigated the impact of processing fluency, individuals’ need for cognition and mood on consumer skepticism. This study fills this gap in the hospitality literature.

Low Processing Fluency Strengthens the Impact of Consumer Reviews: Implications for the Visual Design of Consumer Reviews

Inspired by the literature on website visual design and feelings-as-information theory, the present research demonstrates that font may affect the impact of online reviews without changing review content. Specifically, two experiments show that the effect of review valence (positive vs. negative) on consumers’ product/service evaluation is stronger when the reviews are written in a difficult-to-read (vs. easy-to-read) font. However, this effect of font diminishes among high-involvement consumers. This research suggests that the processing ease of the reviews, which could be manipulated through the visual elements of online reviews may affects processing depth and thus the impact of the reviews.

Working memory strategies during rational number magnitude processing.

Rational number understanding is a critical building block for success in more advanced mathematics; however, how rational number magnitudes are conceptualized is not fully understood. In the current study, we used a dual-task working memory (WM) interference paradigm to investigate the dominant type of strategy (i.e., requiring verbal WM resources vs. requiring primarily visuospatial WM resources) used by adults when processing rational number magnitudes presented in both decimal and fraction notation. Analyses revealed no significant differences in involvement of verbal and visuospatial WM, regardless of notation (fractions vs. decimals), indicating that adults rely upon a mix of strategies and WM resources when processing rational number magnitudes. However, this pattern interacted with algebra ability such that those performing better on the algebra assessment relied upon both verbal and visuospatial WM when engaging in rational number comparisons, whereas rational number performance by adults with low algebra fluency was affected only by a simultaneous verbal WM task. Together, results support previous work implicating the involvement of WM resources in rational number processing and is the first study to indicate that the involvement of both verbal and visuospatial WM, as opposed to relying primarily on verbal WM, when processing rational number magnitudes may be indicative of higher mathematical proficiency in the domain of algebra. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Evaluation on application of China Disease Prevention and Control Information System of Hydatid Disease II System integration and simulation tests

To report the integrated progress of the hydatid disease information management system, and to provide the reference for further system improvements by analysis of results on simulation test feedback. The work of institutional code matching by collecting fundamental and integrated information of the system in epidemic areas of hydatid disease was carried out, and professional control agencies were selected to carry out the simulation test. The results of agencies code matching at stage indicated the average completion rate was 94.30% on administrative agencies, 69.94% on registered professional agencies and 56.40% on professional institutions matching related to hydatid disease prevention and control implements in seven provinces (autonomous regions) and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Meanwhile, the response rate of open-ended proposals was 93.33% on fifteen feedbacks, and the statistics showed 21.43% believed the system was low fluency, 64.29% considered the system was inconvenience for data inputs and 42.86% considered it would be improved on system statistics functions, of which 27.78% were provincial users, 22.22% were the city users and 50.00% were the county users. The hydatid disease prevention information management system meets the fundamental needs of the majority agencies in hyperendemic areas of echinococcosis, it needs to develop the further test with more agencies joining after the work of the institutional code matching completion and the system service improvement in the next stage.

An Analysis of First-Grade Writing Profiles and Their Relationship to Compositional Quality

To help all students meet the writing expectations of the Common Core State Standards, researchers need a deeper understanding of the characteristics of struggling writers. The purpose of this study was to explore the writing profiles of students including those who have or are at risk for writing disabilities. First-grade students (N = 391) were assessed at the end of the school year using three writing assessments (spelling, sentence writing fluency, writing achievement). The researchers used latent profile analysis to identify students as fitting into one of five profiles (At Risk, Low Fluency, Low Writing, Average, and Above Average). Students also wrote narrative and descriptive texts that were scored multiple ways. The researchers used confirmatory factor analysis to identify four common factors: quality/length, spelling, mechanics, and syntax. Students in the At Risk profile wrote narratives and descriptions that scored lower on all aspects of writing when compared to students in the Average and Above Average profiles. These findings provide further evidence of the distinct difference among writers as early as first grade, and they offer insight into the characteristics of at-risk writers. The implications of these findings for instruction and assessment and directions for future research are described.