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Students often struggle with developing understanding from expository science texts. This study explored whether training students to engage in a POE (Predict-Observe-Explain) study strategy might be beneficial when learning from texts that introduce theories by describing experiments and empirical results, a common style in social science textbooks. The main questions tested in this experiment were if training students how to use a POE study strategy while reading textbook excerpts would support better comprehension and comprehension monitoring outcomes when students engaged in future learning attempts for an introductory psychology class. In one condition students were trained to use the POE study strategy, while in a comparison condition students were simply trained to use an explanation study strategy. Analyses suggested that students in the POE strategy training condition may have become preoccupied with whether or not their experimental predictions were correct, prohibiting them from engaging with the POE strategy as intended. Although both POE and explanation strategy training helped students to improve their comprehension monitoring on a new set of texts, students in the explanation condition displayed better comprehension on those new texts than students in the POE condition.

Students tend to have poor metacomprehension when learning from text, meaning they are not able to distinguish between what they have understood well and what they have not. Although there are a good number of studies that have explored comprehension monitoring accuracy in laboratory experiments, fewer studies have explored this in authentic course contexts. This study investigated the effect of an instructional condition that encouraged comprehension-test-expectancy and self-explanation during study on metacomprehension accuracy in the context of an undergraduate course in research methods. Results indicated that when students received this instructional condition, relative metacomprehension accuracy was better than in a comparison condition. In addition, differences were also seen in absolute metacomprehension accuracy measures, strategic study behaviors, and learning outcomes. The results of the current study demonstrate that a condition that has improved relative metacomprehension accuracy in laboratory contexts may have value in real classroom contexts as well.

In this work, we describe the design, manufacturing development, and refinement of a chemical detection platform designed to identify specific odorants in the natural gas industry. As the demand for reliable and sensitive volatile organic compound (VOC) detection systems is growing, our project aimed to construct multiple prototypes to enhance our detection capabilities and provide portable detection platforms. Throughout the development process across nominally identical and duplicated instruments, various failure modes were encountered, which provided insight into the design and manufacturing challenges present when designing such platforms. We conducted a post hoc root cause analysis for each failure mode, leading to a series of design modifications and solutions. This paper details these design and manufacturing challenges, the analytical methods used to diagnose and address them, and the resulting improvements in system performance. In the end, a debugging flow chart is presented to aid future researchers in solving the possible issues that could be encountered. Our findings show the complexities of bespoke chemical sensor design for unique applications and highlight the critical importance of iterative testing and problem-solving in the development of industrial detection technologies. Achieving consistency across devices is essential for optimizing device-to-device efficiency. The work presented is the first step towards ensuring uniform performance across a production run of chemically sensitive devices. In the future, a universal device calibration model will be implemented, eliminating the need to collect data from each individual device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulation models are rapidly changing medical education, especially the training of dermatology residents. Various models are available, including cadaveric simulations. Our study evaluates the impact of a cadaveric simulation on the training of dermatology residents. Over a period of three years, cadaveric simulation was shown to increase the surgical knowledge of residents. Residents were more confident in their knowledge of surgical anatomy and also surgical skills. Cadaveric simulation may offer a positive impact on resident training in dermatology.

Nearly all cases of melioidosis in the continental United States are related to international travel to areas to which Burkholderia pseudomallei, the bacterium that causes melioidosis, is endemic. We report the diagnosis and clinical course of melioidosis in a patient from the United States who had no international travel history and the public health investigation to determine the source of exposure. We tested environmental samples collected from the patient’s home for B. pseudomallei by PCR and culture. Whole-genome sequencing was conducted on PCR-positive environmental samples, and results were compared with sequences from the patient’s clinical specimen. Three PCR-positive environmental samples, all collected from a freshwater home aquarium that had contained imported tropical fish, were a genetic match to the clinical isolate from the patient. This finding suggests a novel route of exposure and a potential for importation of B. pseudomallei, a select agent, into the United States from disease-endemic areas.

A set of four experiments assessed the effects of establishing a comprehension-test expectancy (in contrast to a memory-test expectancy) on relative metacomprehension accuracy. Typically readers show poor relative metacomprehension accuracy while learning from text (i.e., they are unable to discriminate topics they have understood well from topics they have understood poorly). In the first experiment, both readers who were given no test expectancy and those who were given a memory-test expectancy made judgments that were more predictive of performance on memory tests than inference tests. However, readers who were given a comprehension-test expectancy made judgments that were more predictive of inference-test performance. This effect was replicated and extended in two additional experiments that showed an effect of comprehension-test expectancy even when no example test items were provided, and when the expectancy was established only after reading. A fourth experiment showed that establishing a comprehension-test expectancy still had an effect on accuracy even when metacomprehension accuracy was already being improved via a self-explanation activity. The results show robust and reliable benefits to metacomprehension accuracy from a comprehension-test expectancy that serves as portable knowledge that learners can apply to monitoring future learning from text.

Many people experience illusions of understanding for explanations of scientific phenomena (Rozenbleit & Keil,2002) and readers tend to be poor at gauging how well they have understood what they have read in expository science texts(Dunlosky & Lipko, 2007; Maki, 1998; Thiede, Griffin, Wiley, & Redford, 2009). The present line of research includesstudies demonstrating that metacomprehension accuracy may be especially poor when students are presented with texts thatinclude features such as diagrams, graphs, animations, and analogical examples. Although these adjuncts are meant to improvecomprehension, they can often lead to illusions of understanding. An important theme of this research is articulating the kinds ofinstruction and skills that students may need before they can learn effectively from expository science texts including graphicsor analogies.

The main goal for the current study was to investigate whether individual differences in domain-general thinking dispositions might affect learning from multiple-document inquiry tasks in science. Middle school students were given a set of documents and were tasked with understanding how and why recent patterns in global temperature might be different from what has been observed in the past from those documents. Understanding was assessed with two measures: an essay task and an inference verification task. Domain-general thinking dispositions were assessed with a Commitment to Logic, Evidence, and Reasoning (CLEAR) thinking scale. The measures of understanding were uniquely predicted by both reading skills and CLEAR thinking scores, and these effects were not attributable to prior knowledge or interest. The results suggest independent roles for thinking dispositions and reading ability when students read to learn from multiple-document inquiry tasks in science.

PurposeProgression-free survival (PFS) in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) trials has been inconsistently defined and poorly associated with overall survival (OS). A reproducible quantitative definition of radiographic PFS (rPFS) was tested for association with a coprimary end point of OS in a randomized trial of abiraterone in patients with mCRPC.Patients and methodsrPFS was defined as ≥ two new lesions on an 8-week bone scan plus two additional lesions on a confirmatory scan, ≥ two new confirmed lesions on any scan ≥ 12 weeks after random assignment, and/or progression in nodes or viscera on cross-sectional imaging, or death. rPFS was assessed by independent review at 15% of deaths and by investigator review at 15% and 40% of deaths. rPFS and OS association was evaluated by Spearman's correlation.ResultsA total of 1,088 patients were randomly assigned to abiraterone plus prednisone or prednisone alone. At first interim analysis, the hazard ratio (HR) by independent review was 0.43 (95% CI, 0.35 to 0.52; P < .001; abiraterone plus prednisone: median rPFS, not estimable; prednisone: median rPFS, 8.3 months). Similar HRs were obtained by investigator review at the first two interim analyses (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.41 to 0.60; P < .001 and HR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.45 to 0.62; P < .001, respectively), validating the imaging data assay used. Spearman's correlation coefficient between rPFS and OS was 0.72.ConclusionrPFS was highly consistent and highly associated with OS, providing initial prospective evidence on further developing rPFS as an intermediate end point in mCRPC trials.

Dual-process theories (DPT) of cognition posit that performance differences in reasoning stem from an interplaybetween heuristics-based processing (i.e., System 1) and more controlled, rule-based processing (System 2). Emerging evidencesuggests that solving classic base-rate problems via Bayesian inference depends on adequately inhibiting the prepotentrepresentations elicited by System 1 (De Neys, 2014). We propose that DPTs may benefit probabilistic models of reasoning byproviding a framework on which to map individual difference predictions (e.g., how inhibitory capacity, prior knowledge, andmotivation influence adherence to probabilistic rules). We present a dual-process computational model that implements variousnormative (i.e., Bayesian) and non-normative rules, which in turn are probabilistically fired based on a functional relationshipbetween relative (de)activations of each system and variability in agents’ inhibitory capacity and motivation. Simulation resultsmap onto behavioral data and replicate a variety of base-rate performance patterns, including base-rate neglect

BackgroundAbiraterone acetate (an androgen biosynthesis inhibitor) plus prednisone is approved for treating patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Study COU-AA-302 evaluated abiraterone acetate plus prednisone versus prednisone alone in mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic patients with progressive mCRPC without prior chemotherapy.ObjectiveReport the prespecified third interim analysis (IA) of efficacy and safety outcomes in study COU-AA-302.Design, setting, and participantsStudy COU-AA-302, a double-blind placebo-controlled study, enrolled patients with mCRPC from April 2009 to June 2010. A total of 1088 patients were stratified by Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (0 vs 1).InterventionPatients were randomised 1:1 to abiraterone 1000mg plus prednisone 5mg twice daily by mouth versus prednisone.Outcome measurements and statistical analysisCo-primary end points were radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS) and overall survival (OS). Median times to event outcomes were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were derived using the Cox model, and treatment comparison used the log-rank test. The O'Brien-Fleming Lan-DeMets α-spending function was used for OS. Adverse events were summarised descriptively.Results and limitationsWith a median follow-up duration of 27.1 mo, improvement in rPFS was statistically significant with abiraterone treatment versus prednisone (median: 16.5 vs 8.2 mo; HR: 0.52 [95% CI, 0.45-0.61]; p2 yr.

Background: Self-regulated learning requires accurate monitoring and effective regulation of study. Little is known about how effectively younger readers regulate their study. Aims: We examined how decisions about which text to restudy affect overall comprehension for seventh-grade students. In addition to a "Participant's Choice" condition where students were allowed to pick texts for restudy on their own, we compared learning gains in two other conditions in which texts were selected for them. The "Test-Based Restudy" condition determined text selection using initial test performance--presenting the text with the lowest initial test performance for restudy, thereby circumventing potential problems associated with inaccurate monitoring and ineffective regulation. The "Judgement-Based Restudy" condition determined text selection using metacognitive judgements of comprehension--presenting the text with the lowest judgement of comprehension, thereby circumventing potential problems associated with ineffective regulation. Sample: Four hundred and eighty seventh-grade students participated. Method: Students were randomly assigned to conditions in an experimental design. Results and conclusions: Gains in comprehension following restudy were larger for the "Test-Based Restudy" condition than for the "Judgement-Based Restudy" condition or the Participant's Choice condition. No differences in comprehension were seen between the "Judgement-Based Restudy" and "Participant's Choice" conditions. These results suggest seventh graders can systematically use their monitoring to make decisions about what to restudy. However, the results highlight how inaccurate monitoring is one reason why younger students fail to benefit from self-regulated study opportunities.

This article describes several approaches to assessing student understanding using written explanations that students generate as part of a multiple-document inquiry activity on a scientific topic (global warming). The current work attempts to capture the causal structure of student explanations as a way to detect the quality of the students' mental models and understanding of the topic by combining approaches from Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, and applying them to Education. First, several attributes of the explanations are explored by hand coding and leveraging existing technologies (LSA and Coh-Metrix). Then, we describe an approach for inferring the quality of the explanations using a novel, two-phase machine-learning approach for detecting causal relations and the causal chains that are present within student essays. The results demonstrate the benefits of using a machine-learning approach for detecting content, but also highlight the promise of hybrid methods that combine ML, LSA and Coh-Metrix approaches for detecting student understanding. Opportunities to use automated approaches as part of Intelligent Tutoring Systems that provide feedback toward improving student explanations and understanding are discussed.