Search results for "Mental Model"

Technical assessment and evaluation of environmental models and software: Letter to the Editor

2011

International audience; This letter details the collective views of a number of independent researchers on the technical assessment and evaluation of environmental models and software. The purpose is to stimulate debate and initiate action that leads to an improved quality of model development and evaluation, so increasing the capacity for models to have positive outcomes from their use. As such, we emphasize the relationship between the model evaluation process and credibility with stakeholders (including funding agencies) with a view to ensure continued support for modelling efforts. Many journals, including EM&S, publish the results of environmental modelling studies and must judge the w…

Modelling PM10 Crisis Peaks Using Multi-agent Based Simulation: Application to Annaba City, North-East Algeria

2015

The paper describes a MAS (multi-agent system) simulation approach for controlling PM10 (Particulate Matter) crisis peaks. A dispersion model is used with an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to predict the PM10 concentration level. The dispersion and ANN models are integrated into a MAS system. PM10 source controllers are modelled as software agents. The MAS is composed of agents that cooperate with each other for reducing their emissions and control the air pollution peaks. Different control strategies are simulated and compared using data from Annaba (North-East Algeria). The simulator helps to compare and assess the efficiency of policies to control peaks in PM10.

Differences in tissue distribution of iron from various clinically used intravenous iron complexes in fetal avian heart and liver.

2015

Abstract Nanomedicines are more complex than most pharmacologically active substances or medicines and have been considered as non-biological complex drugs. For nanomedicines pivotal pharmacokinetic properties cannot be assessed by plasma concentration data from standard bioequivalence studies. Using intravenous iron complexes (IICs) as model we show that fetal avian tissues can be used to study time dependent tissue concentrations in heart and liver. Clear differences were found between equimolar doses of sucrose, gluconate or carboxymaltose coated iron particles. The range in tissue iron concentrations observed with these clinically widely used IICs provides an orientation as to what shou…

Dynamic Diagrams: A Composition Alternative

2012

A major problem that learners face in comprehending animated diagrams is in decomposing the presented information into a form that furnishes appropriate raw material for building high quality mental models. This paper proposes an alternative to existing design approaches that shifts the prime focus from the nature of the external representation to the internal composition activity learners engage in during mental model construction.

Using A Heating Cable Within The Abdomen To Make Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy Easier: Feasibility And Safety Study In The Swine

2009

International audience; BACKGROUND: Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is a complex, expensive and time-consuming procedure. Despite its good results in the treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis, these factors have precluded the wider use of this procedure around the world. We hypothesized that HIPEC could be performed by heating the liquid within the abdomen and thus avoiding the need for an external heating circuit and a pump. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and safety of an internal heating device for hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in an experimental model. METHODS: Four large-white pigs underwent one-hour open intraperitoneal hyperthermia w…

Play together, think alike: Shared mental models in expert music improvisers

2015

International audience; When musicians improvise together, they tend to agree beforehand on a common structure (e.g. a jazz standard) which helps them coordinate. However, in the particular case of collective free improvisation (CFI), musicians deliberately avoid having such a referent. How, then, can they coordinate? We propose that CFI musicians who have experience playing together come to share higher-level knowledge, which is not piece-specific but rather task-specific: an implicit mental model of what it is to improvise freely. We tested this hypothesis on a group of 19 expert improvisers from the Parisian CFI community, who had various degrees of experience playing with one another. D…

Cellusim: Un simulador 3D en entorno videojuego para la docencia del laboratorio de cultivos celulares

2018

[EN] Cell cultures allow the maintenance of living cells outside the body. This technique is fundamental to study the biological, biochemical and physiological properties of cells and can be used as an experimental model in vitro in the field of biomedical research. The teaching in the laboratory of this technique presents numerous difficulties at a practical, logistical and economic level. On the other hand, the learning of cell culture protocols is an important part of the student's training in Cell Biology. Based on the routine practices carried out within a cell culture laboratory, we have developed the virtual 3D simulator of a cell culture laboratory "Cellusim". In "Cellusim" you can …

Reconsidering Some Aspects of Inquiry Based Science Education: A Case Study on Model Based Inquiry

2014

Assessment of data availability influence on integrated urban drainage modelling uncertainty

2009

In urban water quality management, several models are connected and integrated for analysing the fate of pollutants from the sources in the urban catchment to the final recipient; classical problems connected with the selection and calibration of parameters are amplified by the complexity of the modelling approach increasing their uncertainty. The present paper aims at studying the influence of reductions in available data on the modelling response uncertainty with respect to the different integrated modelling outputs (both considering quantity and quality variables). At this scope, a parsimonious integrated home-made model has been used allowing for analysing the combinative effect of data…

Transforming food systems at local levels: using participatory system dynamics in an interactive manner to refine small-scale farmers’ mental models

2017

Food systems will need to undergo considerable transformation. To be better prepared for and resilient to uncertainty and disturbances in the future, resource users and managers need to further develop knowledge about the food and farming system, with its dominating feedback structures and complexities, and to test robust and integrated system-based solutions. This paper investigates how participatory system dynamics modeling can be adapted to groups at the community level with low or no formal educational background. The paper also analyses the refinement of workshop participants’ mental models as a consequence of a participatory system dynamics intervention. For this purpose, we ran two w…