Simple Facts Research Articles

Covering dimension using toric varieties

In this paper we deduce the Lebesgue and the Knaster–Kuratowski–Mazurkiewicz theorems on the covering dimension, as well as their certain generalizations, from some simple facts of toric geometry. This provides a new point of view on this circle of results.

Volume or value: A policy decision for Turkey׳s tourism industry

Abstract Turkey has seen an overall increase in both international tourist arrivals and receipts over the past decade. While this would normally be seen unequivocally as a good news story, the simple facts may be deceiving. Although tourist arrival figures and tourism receipts are still increasing, there has been a decline in the rate of growth of both. Moreover, the rate of growth for tourism receipts has decreased more than the rate of growth for tourist arrivals. If this trend continues, it is likely to create a situation where one could begin to question the future economic sustainability of Turkey׳s tourism industry. Is this reduction in the rate of growth a sign that Turkey has reached the consolidation stage of the destination life cycle or, even worse, the stagnation stage? This regional spotlight takes a historical look at Turkey׳s nine ‘five-year-development plans’ and identifies the factors that have caused the rate of growth of tourism receipts to decline. The paper then focuses on how the ‘Tourism Strategy of Turkey – 2023’ might assist in slowing down, arresting or even reversing this rate of decline. This regional spotlight provides insight to practitioners and academics on how tourism development policies can directly influence the growth of tourism receipts in mature, mass-market tourist destinations.

Challenges Facing the Sustainability of Adult and Continuing Education Programmes in Kenya

Generally, not much research has been done in the area of Adult and Continuing Education Programmes (ACE) programmes in Kenya just as in other parts of the world. According to (Carron, 1990) Adult literacy has been a neglected area in terms of data collection and research, so much that finding even precise information about simple facts like the number of enrolled adults or instructors has been difficult in most cases. The few studies done however, indicate a lack of genuine commitment and seriousness in the recognition and actual implementation of the programmes to the extent they are not achieving the goal of adult literacy. This spaper therefore seeks to discuss the challenges facing the sustainability of the ACE programmes in Kenya. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n5p159

Test-enhanced learning and its effect on comprehension and diagnostic accuracy

In health professions education, tests have traditionally been used to assess the skills and knowledge of learners. More recently, research in psychology and education has shown that tests can also be used to enhance student memory; a phenomenon called the 'testing effect'. Much of the research in this domain has focused on enhancing rote memory of simple facts, and not on the deeper comprehension and application of complex theoretical knowledge necessary to diagnose and manage patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of testing on students' comprehension of the basic science mechanisms and diagnostic accuracy. Undergraduate dental and dental hygiene students (n=112) were taught the radiographic features and pathophysiology underlying four intrabony abnormalities. Participants were divided into two groups: the test-enhanced (TE) condition and the study (ST) condition. Following the learning phase, the TE condition group completed an interventional test that tested the basic science mechanisms and the ST condition group was given additional study passages without being tested. Participants in both groups then completed a diagnostic test and a memory test immediately after the learning phase and 1week later. A main effect of testing condition was found. The participants in the TE condition group outperformed those in the ST condition group on immediate and delayed testing. Unlike the diagnostic test, the memory test showed no difference between the groups. The inclusion of the basic science test appears to have improved the students' understanding of the underlying disease mechanisms learned and also improved their performance on a test of diagnostic accuracy.

Signaling topic structure via headings or preview sentences

Two experiments compared the effects on text processing of headings and preview sentences that were designed to communicate the same information about the texts’ topics and their organization. In Experiment 1, college students read a text for understanding then were tested on memory for the subtopics and memory for simple facts presented in the text. Memory for subtopics was better for the text with headings; there was no difference between headings and preview sentences on memory for facts. In Experiment 2, participants read a text in order to outline it. Outlining was better if the text contained signals to topic structure than if the text did not contain signals, but there were no reliable differences between previews and headings. The findings show that previews function similarly to headings in a task that emphasizes the relevance of topic structure information, but they do not elicit readers’ attention to topic information as readily as headings do. These results have implications for textbook design and instruction of comprehension strategies.

Teaching Young Children a Theory of Nutrition

In two experiments, we used a novel approach to educating young children about nutrition. Instead of teaching simple facts, we provided a rich conceptual framework that helped children understand the need to eat a variety of healthy foods. Using the insight that children’s knowledge can be organized into coherent belief systems, or intuitive theories, we (a) analyzed the incipient knowledge that guides young children’s reasoning about the food-body relationship, (b) identified the prerequisites that children need to conceptualize food as a source of nutrition, and (c) devised a strategy for teaching young children a coherent theory of food as a source of diverse nutrients. In these two experiments, we showed that children can learn and generalize this conceptual framework. Moreover, this learning led children to eat more vegetables at snack time. Our findings demonstrate that young children can benefit from an intervention that capitalizes on their developing intuitive theories about nutrition.

Searching the Web for conflicting topics: Page and user factors

Web users tend to search only the pages displayed at the top of the search engine results page (the ‘top link’ heuristic). Although it might be reasonable to use this heuristic to navigate simple and unambiguous facts, it might be risky when searching for conflicting socio-scientific topics, such as potential measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the present study, we explored the extent to which students consider other Web page characteristics, such as topic relevance and trustworthiness, when searching and bookmarking pages concerning a conflicting topic. We also examined the extent to which prior background knowledge moderates students’ behavior. The results revealed that while the study participants actually used a ‘top link’ heuristic to navigate the results, they engaged in more systematic processes to bookmark pages for further study. Furthermore, the students’ background knowledge was related to the assessment of Web page trustworthiness. We discuss these results from the perspective of a dual-processing model.

A Call for Investment in Education of US Minorities in the 21st Century

A Call for Investment in Education of US Minorities in the 21st Century

Going underground

Viv Hampshire provides some simple facts and activities to introduce children to the hidden world lying just beneath their feet.

Failures to replicate hyper-retrieval-induced forgetting in arithmetic memory.

Campbell and Phenix (2009) observed retrieval-induced forgetting (slower response time) for simple addition facts (e.g., 3 + 4) immediately following 40 retrieval-practice blocks of their multiplication counterparts (3 × 4 = ?). A subsequent single retrieval of the previously unpracticed multiplication problems, however, produced an retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) effect about twice as large for their addition counterparts. Thus, a single retrieval of a multiplication fact appeared to produce much larger RIF of the addition counterpart than did many multiplication retrieval-practice trials. In several subsequent similar studies, however, we failed to observe this hyper-RIF effect. Here, we attempted an exact replication of the Campbell and Phenix experiment, but found no evidence of hyper-RIF. We conclude that the hyper-RIF effect reported by Campbell and Phenix is an elusive phenomenon; consequently, it cannot at this time be considered an important result in the RIF literature.

Positive Psychology, Positivism and Indian Heritage

Positive Psychology is a recent branch of psychology the purpose of which was summed up in 2000 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as psychology of positive human functioning .The goal of Positive Psychology is to achieve a scientific understanding and effective intervention to build thriving in individuals, families and communities. What's right about instead of what's wrong with motivate the psychologists to learn how to build the qualities that may help individuals and communities not just to endure and survive but also to flourish.Psychologists are trying to help people to actualize their potentialities of becoming happy and satisfied within the range of possibilities available in their respective cultures. Positive Psychologists have proposed the revolutionary ideas of focusing on human strengths and virtues in place of emotional problems and mental illnesses to improve our well being. This seems entirely in line with the objectives of World Health Organization which states that:Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO, 1946).Positive Psychologists have taken this objective seriously and have attempted to define the positive experiences, attitudes and emotions that can give us greater well being and happiness. Enhancing the life of enjoyment (pleasant life), creating the life of engagement (good life) and promoting the life of affiliation (meaningful life) are the goals of Positive Psychologists.But when we look at these objectives in the context of our Indian heritage, certain questions arise in our minds and we find some important things missing.Firstly Positive psychology promises to achieve immediate results quickly by applying simple scientific facts to emotional problems and principles of human nature (nurturing human strengths and savoring positive experiences). Can we get instant solution to those problems whose seeds are buried deep inside our level of consciousness? If yes, then it will not be sustainable and only be for a short period of time.Secondly As mentioned earlier according to Positive Psychologists, the highest human good is happiness but it is highly questionable in the light of the complexity of existence. Can we relieve ourselves from the worries, anxieties and tensions of our daily hurried living by the skills of emotional well being? Or it may add another dimension of obligation when being happy or achieving mastery over ones emotional life becomes a new duty and modem standard.Thirdly Positive psychology focuses more on the positive aspect of human nature and considers that Psychology is not just the study of pathology, weakness, and damage; it is also the study of strengths and virtues. Treatment is not just fixing what is broken; it is nurturing what is best. But focusing either on positive or negative side of human life will be half of the entire story. Positive Psychologists and therapists argue that they are simply trying to rebalance the negative thoughts and habits with positive ones. The question here arises that do we want our thoughts and habits to get interfered with in this manner? Will it not leave certain things unsettled and disconcerting? Does it not give an idea of social and emotional engineering? Human being is the combination of strengths and weaknesses. Life is not all rainbows and joy. While positive things are what humans tend to focus on, negative things are still a part of the order of life and nature. Sometimes negative emotions and experiences may be more urgent and therefore override positive ones. This would make evolutionary sense. Since negative emotions often reflect immediate problems or objective dangers, they should be powerful enough to force us to stop, increase vigilance, reflect on our behavior, and change our actions if necessary.Fourthly In Positive psychology happiness, satisfaction and wellbeing is possible without following the hard earned path of self realization. …

Targeting nutrient retrieval by Francisella tularensis

Targeting nutrient retrieval by Francisella tularensis

Nonlinear Generalized Functions: their origin, some developments and recent advances

We expose some simple facts at the interplay between math- ematics and the real world, putting in evidence mathematical objects " nonlinear generalized functions" that are needed to model the real world, which appear to have been generally neglected up to now by mathematicians. Then we describe how a "nonlinear theory of gen- eralized functions" was obtained inside the Leopoldo Nachbin group of innite dimensional holomorphy between 1980 and 1985 **. This

Trust in the Police: Cross-country Comparisons

Using different cross-country data sets and simple econometric techniques we study public attitudes towards the police. More positive attitudes are more likely to emerge in the countries that have better functioning democratic institutions, less prone to corruption but enjoy more transparent and accountable police activity. This has a stronger impact on the public opinion (trust and attitudes) than objective crime rates or density of policemen. Citizens tend to trust more in those (policemen) with whom they share common values and can have some control over. The latter is a function of democracy. In authoritarian countries — “police states” — this tendency may not work directly. When we move from semi-authoritarian countries to openly authoritarian ones the trust in the police measured by surveys can also rise. As a result, the trust appears to be U-shaped along the quality of government axis. This phenomenon can be explained with two simple facts. First, publicly spread information concerning police activity in authoritarian countries is strongly controlled; second, the police itself is better controlled by authoritarian regimes which are afraid of dangerous (for them) erosion of this institution.

Globalization and extraterritorial application of economic regulation: crisis in international law and balancing interests

There are two developments the combination of which has led to new challenges to international law: the growth of economic regulations and globalisation. While the modern economies are associated with the proliferation of regulatory laws which are rooted in the national economic and social policies, the loosening of the national borders and globalisation has led to conflicts of economic regulations. Such developments have posed various risks of violations of national economic regulations by the economic actors and could lead to tension among national states which have jurisdiction over multinational enterprises in one way or another. The private parties involved in such a situation could somehow avoid such risks by their own initiatives and contractual arrangements but in most cases such measures do now work and the conflict has to be resolved through the cooperation between the countries involved. The paper investigates the potentials for public international law to come up with rules, principles and norms to resolve such complex disputes which touch up issues such as non-intervention, equality of sovereign states, state immunity, self-determination and other principles of international law. Unlike certain area of international law such as law of sea where a few factors involved and the disputes could be resolved by relying on simple facts and rules, the application of national economic regulations extraterritorially creates tensions among the nation states in respect of the demarcation of national jurisdictions. It is here that public international faces a new challenges and need to come up with new approaches such a balancing of interests of the states involved in the conflicts.

Four facts about dividend payouts and the 2003 tax cut

Recent literature has claimed that the 2003 U.S. dividend tax cut caused a large increase in aggregate dividend payouts. I document four simple facts that call this claim into question. First, the post-tax cut increase in dividend payouts coincided with a surge in corporate profits, such that the dividend payout ratio did not rise. Second, share repurchases increased even more rapidly than dividend payouts. Third, dividend payouts by Real Estate Investment Trusts also rose sharply, even though they did not qualify for reduced taxation. Finally, the stock market was forecasting an increase in dividend initiations by mid-2002, before the tax cut had been proposed.

The Empirical Evidence Against Utility Maximization

Current Economics Textbooks and Economists justify a theory of consumer behavior based on utility maximization on a priori grounds. This methodology follows Lionel Robbins’ idea that economic theory is based on logical deduction from postulates which are 'simple and indisputable facts of experience.' Strong evidence has emerged from many different lines of research that these 'simple and indisputable facts of experience' are contradicted by human behavior. In this article, we summarize some of main contradictions between predictions of utility theory and actual human behavior. Efforts to resolve these contradictions continue to be made within orthodox frameworks, but it appears likely that a paradigm shift is required.

스마트폰 이용자들의 정보탐색행태에 관한 연구

This study aims to understand the information search behavior of smart phone users. The focus is on the subjects of sought information and the factors considered by the users during information seeking process. To gather the research data, a questionnaire survey was conducted. Some of the findings include that simple facts and the real-time updated topics were searched more often than the ones requiring complicated queries. It was also found that most of the important factors found to be relevant on the Web, and mobile information use environments were equally applicable to the smart phone information seeking cases.

JBInsTrace: A tracer of Java and JRE classes at basic-block granularity by dynamically instrumenting bytecode

Understanding what happens during the runtime of a Java program is difficult. Tracking runtime flow can bring valuable information for program understanding and behavior analysis. Polymorphism, thread concurrency or even simple facts like the number of method invocations and the number of executed bytecodes are valuable information to track, but are difficult to compute outside the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) on running programs. In this paper, we present JBInsTrace, a new tool that instruments and traces Java bytecode. It produces static information about source code and a very fine grained trace of Java software execution, combining them to allow detailed analysis of the runtime. Our tool differs from others because it does not only trace program classes but also JRE classes, and does so at basic block level, without altering the JVM and without statically modifying class files. We explain JBInsTrace design, focused towards efficiency, which results in reasonable performance penalty.

Abstract 3024: School is Out : Creating Stroke Detectives through Summer Challenge

Background: Childhood obesity and early-onset diabetes are on the rise. The American Heart Association Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics indicate that the unhealthy behaviors that are the risk factors for stroke begin with school-aged children. In 2009, our organization created a stroke awareness program for high schools and youth groups that demonstrated retention of knowledge in a pre-post test format. The content was developed to be relevant for that specific age group. Purpose: Building on that success and the need for earlier education, we developed a Stroke Detective Summer Challenge for elementary age children. Method: This independent, structured program was made available through the stroke center website. Packets were also placed at three local libraries and provided to 3 rd graders at a local summer day camp. The program content included the stroke detective pledge (written by the stroke program coordinator), an activity book, an exercise & healthy eating log, and a scavenger hunt. To qualify as a stroke detective, participants were required to: 1) sign the pledge; 2) share their stroke knowledge with 5 people by giving them a F.A.S.T. (face, arm, speech, time) card and getting their signatures; and 3) return the signature page along with their completed exercise & healthy eating log and their T-shirt size. Results: A summer’s end celebration for the 22 new “stroke detectives” included stations for making a healthy snack and for some simple physical activity competitions. They each received a detective bag, healthy snack recipes, giveaways, and a Stroke Detective T-shirt. These young detectives, along with their parents and siblings were greeted by our hospital mascot and were given a tour of our helicopter. The students, supported by their parents, enthusiastically described their pride in becoming stroke detectives. Conclusions: Our previous successful experience with making educational content relevant for specific age groups was repeated in this unique initiative. We demonstrated that stroke awareness education does NOT have to be complex or scary; in fact, by introducing simple facts at a young age, we may help eliminate the fear and ignorance that has made community awareness of stroke such a challenge in the past. They could become the first generation of adults to know that a stroke does not occur in the heart.