93887 research outputs found
Sort by
EIPECK: Assessing Educators’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Engineering Integration in K-12
Get PDFGlobal efforts are underway to include engineering in pre-college curricula. In the USA, this pursuit led to the inclusion of engineering content in the most recent version of the Next Generation Science Standards that guide K-12 science. As these standards become part of the K-12 curriculum, teachers face the challenge of gaining basic engineering literacy, while developing the associated inclusive pedagogies necessary to integrate engineering content into their classrooms. In this context, teacher preparation programs can benefit from easy-to-implement tools that measure preservice teachers’ readiness to integrate engineering content in their future classrooms. This work describes the development and validation of an instrument to help assess educators’ perceived levels of pedagogical content knowledge for engineering integration at single or multiple time points throughout their academic preparation. The proposed instrument can complement other assessment methods, such as classroom observations, interviews, and journal entries. Additionally, the instrument can be used to help discern the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs in preparing future teachers to integrate engineering
Service Dogs: A Scoping Review of Interdisciplinary Research
Get PDFDespite a long history of service dogs (SDs) being paired with human partners as a systematic intervention and increasing numbers of and roles for SDs, there remains a lack of empirical knowledge and professional guidance regarding the implementation of SDs into treatment plans for individuals with disabilities. The purpose of this scoping review was to review the peer-reviewed literature specific to SDs and their handlers, to identify successful search term strategies, and to determine in what disciplines research is being conducted. Terminology used in referring to service dogs continues to be a challenge. Through a series of preliminary searches, search terms and search methodologies were established and 259 articles published from 1958 through 2019 were identified, reviewed, and coded. Identified articles were further categorized into those describing knowledge and context, management and health care, handler and team elements, and a combination of these factors. Because many of the identified articles focused specifically on guide dogs and teams, articles were further coded and grouped on SD type (e.g., guide dog, hearing dog, autism support dog, etc.). Much of the current literature focuses on history, legal and policy discussions, and the health and management of service dogs. Relatively few articles (24) have been published specifically on service dog teams and handler support, and all of those identified were specific to guide dogs. Gaps in research were identified, including areas such as cross-discipline research, diverse disability demographics of handlers, types of service dogs, and the mental state of SDs themselves. While the literature is expanding on the topic of SDs (over half of the articles were published in the past 6 years of the search time frame), continued research is needed, particularly in the area of SD handler experiences and guidelines for service providers
Les expositions Turnus, une page d’histoire transnationale des beaux-arts en Suisse à la fin du XIXe siècle. Et comment découvrir les humanités numériques
Get PDFCet article présente le travail de la classe d’introduction aux humanités numériques de l’Université de Genève sur les expositions Turnus en Suisse à partir des années 1840. Près de 50 catalogues ont été retranscrits, décrits et structurés à l’aide de scripts Python, puis géolocalisés. Les données ont été ajoutées à BasArt, le répertoire mondial de catalogues d’expositions d’Artl@s (https://artlas.huma-num.fr/map). Elles permettent de mieux comprendre les premières années de ces expositions et leurs dynamiques locales, fédérales et internationales. Le Turnus fut une plaque tournante pour les artistes suisses, voire un tremplin vers le marché européen de l’art
Rethinking the Critical Paradigm in Education: A Turn to Affective Pragmatism
No full textThis dissertation is a philosophical inquiry into the pragmatics of emotion as an inherent dimension of the learning self (Ellsworth, 2005). This inquiry first establishes the socio-political context regarding emotional responses to critical forms of pedagogy currently rising across the United States. Secondly, this inquiry explores philosophical conceptualizations of emotions as pedagogical within the fields of public pedagogy, affect theory, and arts-based educational research, as well as the paradigmatic contexts underlying these philosophies. Finally, this inquiry “thinks-with” (Jackson & Mezzei, 2017) these conceptualizations by enacting an affective pragmatic inquiry, centering emotions and embodied experiences of learning through my own neurotypicality as pedagogical inquiry via an arts-based empirical component, consisting of my enrollment in a community pottery class over the course of 40 weeks. I advocate for the need to reconsider the current paradigm around critical forms of pedagogy toward a pragmatist paradigm that uses emotions and value systems of learners to facilitate ethical pedagogical response-abilities (Haraway, 2016) for what to do, pragmatically, with complicated knowledge about social problems that result in ideological and axiological impasses
New Approaches Towards Online, Distributed, and Robust Learning of Statistical Properties of Data
No full textIn this thesis, we present algorithms to allow agents to estimate certain properties in a robust, online, and distributed manner. Each agent receives a sequence of observations, and through communication, collectively infers properties of the data gathered by all agents by communicating.In the first part of the thesis, we provide algorithms to infer the correlations between interacting entities from these large datasets. Gaussian graphical models have been well studied to represent the relationships between the various random variables which generate data, and numerous algorithms have been proposed to learn the dependencies in such models. However, existing algorithms typically process data in a batch at a central location, limiting their applications in scenarios where data arrive in real-time and are gathered by different agents.To address these challenges, first, we propose an online sparse inverse covariance algorithm to infer the static network structure (i.e., dependencies between nodes) in real-time from time-series data, in a centralized location. Subsequently, we propose a distributed algorithm to cooperatively learn the network structure in real-time from data collected by distributed agents. We characterize the theoretical convergence properties and provide simulations using synthetic datasets and real-world hurricane Twitter datasets in disaster management applications.The second part of this thesis addresses the robustness of online and distributed learning under arbitrary data corruption. We propose online and distributed algorithms for robust mean, covariance, and sparse inverse covariance estimation. These algorithms are capable of operating effectively even in the presence of adversarial data attacks. We provide theoretical bounds on the error and rate of convergence of these methods and evaluate their performance under various settings.Finally, we consider the problem of classification with a network of heterogeneous and partially informative agents, each receiving local data from an underlying true class, and equipped with a classifier that only distinguishes between a subset of the entire set of classes. We propose an iterative algorithm that uses the posterior probabilities of any classifier and recursively updates each agent’s local belief based on its local signals and belief information from its neighbors. We then adopt a novel distributed min-rule to update each agent’s global belief and enable learning of the true class for all agents. We analyze the convergence properties of our proposed algorithm, and subsequently, demonstrate and compare its performance with local averaging and global average consensus through simulations and with a visual image dataset
Empirical Essays on Price Discovery Through Venture Capital Investments
No full textIn the first chapter I examine the effect of syndication among venture capital (VC) funds on the funds’ incentives to manipulate their performance measures. I show that the presence of new syndicate partners reduces misreporting by VC funds. About half of the reduction in manipulation is during the follow-on fundraising period. To identify that syndicate partners reduce performance misreporting I use: (i) a triple-difference approach around fundraising and (ii)availability-of-syndicate-partners as an instrument for the number of new syndicate partners. The implications of my findings are that LPs should better monitor VC funds with fewer new syndicate partners and regulators should consider the presence of peer-monitoring among VC funds before imposing disclosure requirements.Chapter two includes John J. McConnell, Timothy E. Trombley, and M. Deniz Yavuz as coauthors. In this chapter we report evidence consistent with institutional investors using industry-level information that they obtain from their investments in venture capital (VC) funds to earn excess returns in publicly-traded equities. We use court rulings regarding the Freedom of Information Act as an exogenous shock affecting the information flow between VC firms and institutional investors to show that the excess returns are explained by information received via this channel. Thus, institutional investors serve as conduits of information, making publicly-traded stock prices more efficient. In the process, institutional investors earn higher returns from their VC investments than implied by the cash flows thereby received
Multiple Signals of Opportunity for Land Remote Sensing
No full textMultiple Signals of Opportunity (multi-SoOp) across different frequencies and polarizations offer a potential breakthrough for remote sensing of root-zone soil moisture (RZSM). Deeper penetration depths of existing communication transmissions in the frequency ranges of 137–138, 240–270, and 360–380 MHz enable the estimation of RZSM by complementing global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R) in L-band. The small form factor of the multi-SoOp observatory allows for high spatiotemporal coverage of RSZM by a satellite constellation in a cost-effective manner. This study aims to develop models and tools to define mission requirements for various system parameters that affect observation accuracy and coverage, for the advancement of spaceborne multi-SoOp remote sensing. These parameters include frequency and polarization combinations, observation error, inter-frequency temporal coincidence, and configuration of the satellite constellation. We present the development of a retrieval algorithm and the sensitivity analysis of retrieval accuracy. The retrieval algorithm was evaluated using synthetic observations generated from multiyear time series of in-situ soil moisture (SM) and satellite-based vegetation data. The combined use of both high and low frequencies improves retrieval accuracy by limiting uncertainties from vegetation and surface SM and providing sensitivity to deeper layers. A bivariate model, derived from the sensitivity analysis, facilitates error prediction for future science missions. We introduce a framework for tradespace exploration of the multi-SoOp satellite constellation. A constellation design study indicates that a Walker constellation comprising 24 satellites with 3 orbital planes at 500 km and 50° inclination optimizes the coverage and mission cost under mission requirements. A tower-based field experiment validated the performance of a prototype antenna for multi-SoOp using the interference pattern technique. More field experiments with improved instruments are required to further advance the multi-SoOp technique
Countermeasures for Cyanide: Organometallics as Novel Cyanide Scavengers
No full textExposure to cyanide occurs more commonly in everyday life than many would believe, although most exposure is rather innocuous. However, the main concern is the misuse of cyanide in mass casualty events. Misuse of cyanide as a poison has been documented since before World War II. 1 The potential for malicious use still pervades in our society. Current scavenging treatments center on cobalt ions to bind cyanide in the blood. 2,3 Unfortunately, these treatments require high doses of cobalt that can be associated with some significant toxic side effects when used in higher doses, possibly resulting in a dose limiting toxicity. 4–6 When administered shortly after cyanide exposure, cobalt-based scavengers only improves survival by 50-70%, thus adding concern over the therapeutic options.6–10 In addition, the delivery of the FDA approved scavenger, hydroxocobalamin requires intravenous infusion over several minutes, adding delays to treatment time. Slow delivery has been demonstrated to reduce the chance of survival in patients suffering from cyanide exposure.5Therefore, there is an ever-pressing need for the rapid delivery of an effective scavenger to mitigate the morbidity and mortality associated with high levels of exposure. Chapter 1 is a literature review for topics related to cyanide poisoning, current scavengers, and emerging solutions in development for treating cyanide in.Previous work with platinum demonstrated the capacity to mitigate cyanide-associated toxicity in both zebrafish and mice when exposed to lethal levels.11 The resulting Pt-sulfide complexes might have been acting as a cis or trans-directing ligand that was later hypothesized to have contributed to the efficacious response. Mechanistically, Pt-S interactions may activate platinum, improving the rate of cyanide substitution onto the platinum center. 12–15 A possible advantage of platinum complexes over cobalt lies in the fact that little evidence supports strong interactions between sulfur and cobalt, which would limit the usefulness of the trans effect in these complexes. Interactions of cobalt with amino acids would occur primarily through carboxylate and amines, which have stronger bonds and would limit cyanide reactivity.16,17 Chapter 2 focuses on identifying suitable Pt-sulfide complexes using a combination of in vitro and in vivotesting.The overall project aims to identify suitable formulation conditions which maintain efficacy by intramuscular injection. Associative properties of ligands (e.g. amine and hydroxide) on platinum might be influenced by hydrogen ion concentration (pH) in solution.18,19 Regarding the trans effect, a conversion to related isomers may change the reactivity between platinum and cyanide. Chapter 3 begins identifying the relationship between formulation pH, cyanide scavenging, and efficacy. One of the leading adverse reactions with platinum drugs is acute kidney injury (AKI), which leads to renal disfunction.20 Sulfides have been found to modulate renal injury in vivo, suggesting sulfide complexed to platinum might reduce nephrotoxicity from platinum.21 One such example, thioethers (e.g. methionine) co-administered with cisplatin almost completely removed symptoms of renal injury in rats.22,23Chapter 3 also describes our investigation of the risk of AKI and lingering renal injury for the most efficacious platinum complexes identified in chapter 2. Furthermore, we highlight a potential strategy to mitigate AKI with the complexes
Unraveling Reaction Acceleration in Microdroplets: Exploring Unique Chemistry at the Gas/Solution Interface
No full textChemical reactions in micron-sized droplets under ambient conditions are often orders of magnitude faster than the equivalent bulk reactions due to the large interfacial effects. The investigation of the underlying mechanisms driving the unique surface chemistry of droplets, as well as their applications and implications in synthesis, has garnered considerable interest. This dissertation delves into three key subtopics: (1) Exploring partial solvation as a mechanism for accelerating reactions in microdroplets, (2) Investigating the spontaneous oxidation and reduction of heteroatom double bonds induced by water radical cations and anions generated from water, and (3) Examining the role of oxazolone intermediates in prebiotic peptide synthesis and the emergence of homochirality in living systems.Chemical reactions can be accelerated in microdroplets but with previously unclear mechanisms. Here we report a systematic study of organic reactions of common types in microvolumes and compare their rates with those in bulk solution. The observed interfacial area effect, molecularity effect and solvent effect provided experimental evidence for partial solvation at gas/liquid interface as one of the major contributors to the observed more than 104 -fold acceleration in microdroplets.Recent spectroscopic results as well as computations demonstrate the existence of a strong electric field at aqueous droplet surfaces, which can result in microdroplet-specific reactions, especially their intrinsic redox properties. Spontaneous oxidation or reduction without external oxidants or reductants has been reported. One explanation for the existence of active species is dissociation of the radical cation/anion pair (H2O +∙/ H2O-∙ ), recently argued to occur in pure bulk water, to provide the free radical cation and radical anion. In this work, we reported spontaneous oxidation of heteroatom double bonds (e.g. sulfone to sulfonic acid, ketone to carboxylic acid) in non-aqueous microdroplets containing traces of water (\u3c1%). Meanwhile, the simultaneous oxidation and reduction of several phosphonates was discovered, supporting the radical pair as the source of reactive species in water microdroplets.One implication of microdroplet chemistry lies in its connection to prebiotic synthesis. Peptide formation from amino acids is thermodynamically unfavorable but a recent study provided evidence that the reaction occurs at the air/solution interfaces of aqueous microdroplets. Here we show that (i) the suggested amino acid complex in microdroplets undergoes dehydration to form oxazolone; (ii) addition of water to the oxazolone forms the dipeptide; and (iii) reaction of oxazolone with other amino acids forms tripeptides. Furthermore, the chirality of the reacting amino acids is preserved in the oxazolone, and strong chiral selectivity is observed when converting the oxazolone to tripeptide. This last fact ensures that optically impure amino acids will undergo chain extension to generate homochiral peptides. Peptide formation in bulk by wet-dry cycling shares a common pathway with the microdroplet reaction, both involving the oxazolone intermediate