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Simulating the impacts of regional wildfire smoke on ozone using a coupled fire-atmosphere-chemistry model
Get PDFWildland fires emit pollutants such as fine particulates (PM2.5), and ozone (O3) precursors that can adversely impact air quality. To better understand processes that directly influence smoke transport and plume chemistry, this study leveraged a coupled fire-atmosphere model (WRF-SFIRE-Chem) to quantify the contributions of wildfire smoke to O3 relative to regional anthropogenic emissions. Coupled fire-atmosphere-chemistry simulations were also used to examine how aerosol radiative feedbacks, i.e., smoke shading, modifies smoke transport and plume chemistry. This study investigated a major smoke episode that occurred during the record-breaking 2020 western U.S. wildfire season. Overall, WRF-SFIRE-Chem was able to reproduce the evolution of a regional smoke plume for the August 2020 smoke event. Sensitivity simulations from WRF-SFIRE-Chem show that O3 contributions from wildfire smoke (21 ± 4.4 ppb) were much larger than O3 enhancements from regional anthropogenic emission sources (11 ± 1.3 ppb). Smoke shading also had a large impact on meteorology where incoming solar radiation and 2-m temperature underneath the smoke plume decreased by ∼400 W m−2 and 4 °C, respectively. Smoke shading also altered smoke transport and reduced O3 concentrations within the smoke plume by up to 10 ppb. These results suggest that sizable enhancements in O3 can occur, even in the absence of regional anthropogenic emissions. This research also highlights the importance of accounting for smoke shading within chemical transport models, which proved to be important in the context of both smoke transport and plume photochemistry
Burnout in agile teams: The role of mindful software development
No full textContext: Agile project management methods are widely adopted in software development, offering flexibility and efficiency. However, the dynamic and fast-paced nature of agile environments can subject team members—such as developers, business analysts, and project managers—to stress, potentially leading to work exhaustion and burnout. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the role of mindfulness as a dynamic personality trait in reducing burnout in agile software development environments. It focuses on how mindfulness influences the use of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies to mitigate burnout. We examine whether mindful agile practitioners are more likely to adopt problem-focused rather than emotion-focused coping strategies, and whether these strategies help alleviate burnout. Methods: The research draws on the theoretical foundations of mindfulness and the transactional model of stress and coping (TMSC) to develop a model for understanding the relationships between mindfulness, coping behaviors, and burnout. The proposed model was tested through a survey of 319 IT and software development professionals who use agile methods in their work. Finally, path analysis was conducted using SmartPLS to assess the hypothesized relationships. Results: The findings of this research suggest that individuals with higher levels of mindfulness in agile software development are more likely to adopt problem-focused coping behaviors, which in turn reduces burnout. In addition, the results show that mindful agile team members also use coping strategies to gain emotional stability (e.g., venting to their colleagues) although it may increase their level of burnout. Conclusion: Contextualizing the notion of mindful engagement with agile software development methods (or agile mindfulness), this paper concludes that agile mindfulness, as a dynamic resource, can be helpful in identifying solutions to reduce the stress and burnout of team members via promoting problem-solving coping behaviours. From the practical perspective, this research helps organizations and agile teams with practical recommendations to leverage mindfulness, and introduces coping behaviors that help them manage and even prevent burnout in agile environments
Coastal and anthropogenic heat impacts on PBL processes during extreme summer thunderstorm precipitation in New York City
Get PDFUrban extreme precipitation is a crucial study topic due to its growing societal impact and limited understanding of its processes. This study examines the extreme summer precipitation event that occurred in coastal New York City (NYC) on July 17, 2018, using observations and simulations. Severe flooding was caused throughout the City by the thunderstorm event, which had a maximum rainfall of 44 mm and an Urban Heat Island (UHI) intensity of 8 °C. The study employs two high-resolution weather model simulations: one uses the Building Effect Parameterization (BEP), while the other incorporates with the BEP, Building Energy Model (BEM), an anthropogenic heat source, and a variable building drag coefficient. Forensics of the event show that increasing temperatures, and a strong UHI ahead of an approaching storm in the northwest initiated an urban storm cell near Bronx borough. The northwest-moving thunderstorm merged with the active urban cell and intensified the precipitation. Surface data indicates classic UHI signatures, such as pre-storm City-warming and post-storm cooling. The BEP + BEM model performed better than the BEP-only model by better simulating anthropogenic heat flux and projecting a greater UHI effect (3.8 vs. 2 °C). This improved simulation of anthropogenic heat produced high surface temperatures that strengthened low-level moisture convergence with the City, enhancing precipitation. The results highlight the key role played by anthropogenic heat in altering mesoscale atmospheric phenomena, strengthening storm intensity in coastal-urban environments. The findings of urban and anthropogenic processes on precipitation are transferable for improved urban-weather forecast and for planning resiliency of cities
Anticolonialism and qualitative methods for culture-centered interventions
Get PDFIn this essay, we a collective of Indigenous, Black, and migrant Global South scholars engaged in experiments with the culture-centered approach (CCA) draw on our lived experiences amidst struggles against land grab, neoliberal extractivism, and capitalist exploitation to outline a framework for qualitative methods as anticolonial politics. We begin by exploring the interplays of colonialism, imperialism, and racial capitalism that have shaped the origins and uses of qualitative methods toward serving extractive agendas of global capital. This critique serves as the basis for outlining the key principles of the CCA, turning to voice, storytelling, and embodied action as the basis for situating qualitative methods amidst anticolonial struggles that resist settler colonialism and extractive neoliberal neocolonialism. Through our review of diverse culture-centered interventions, we explore the roles of voice infrastructures in anticolonial resistance, outlining the contribution made by the CCA to decolonizing research methods by offering a theoretical-methodological framework for communication interventions for social justice
Finding BERT errors by clustering activation vectors
Get PDFThe non-linear nature of deep neural networks makes it difficult to interpret the reason behind their output, thus reducing verifiability of the system where these models are applied. Understanding the patterns between activation vectors and predictions could give insight as to erroneous classifications and how to identify them. This paper explains a systematic approach to identifying the clusters with the most misclassifications or false label annotations. For this research, we extracted the activation vectors from a deep learning model, DNABERT, and visualized them using t-SNE to decode the reason behind the results that are produced. We applied K-means in a hierarchical fashion on the activation vectors for a set of training instances. We analyzed cluster mean activation vectors to find any patterns in the errors across K-means clusters. The cluster analysis revealed that the predictions were uniform, or nearly 100 percent the same, in clusters of similar activation vectors. It was found that two clusters containing most of their objects belonging to the same true class tend to be closer together than clusters of opposite classes. The means of objects of the same true label are closer if two clusters have the same predicted labels rather than opposite predicted labels, showing that the activation vectors reflect both predicted and true classes. We did a similar analysis for all 26 organisms in the dataset, showing the Euclidean distance can be used for identifying clusters with many errors. We propose a heuristic to find the clusters with a high number of misclassifications or incorrect label annotations using the vector analysis between clusters. This can aid in identifying misclassifications of DNA sequences or problems with sequence tagging
Whole grains and ancient wheats: Knowledge, attitudes, consumption behavior and sensory liking of breads among participants in the United States
Get PDFConsumer interest in ancient grains has been growing in the United States over the last 10 years. Whole grain ancient wheats incorporation into breads may be a way to increase whole grain consumption among Americans, but there is no research evaluating sensory liking of whole ancient wheat breads among American consumers. The objective of this study was to explore the sensory liking of whole ancient wheat bread types and to explore factors that may be associated with sensory preferences. The study recruited 104 untrained participants of diverse ethnicities affiliated with San José State University (San José, CA 95192, USA). Participants completed a blind sensory evaluation of whole ancient wheat breads, spelt and einkorn, and a questionnaire to assess their level of knowledge, attitudes, and consumption behaviors of whole grains, ancient grains, and breads. Data analysis revealed that participants with “positive” attitudes rated the color of the crumb of the spelt and modern conventional whole grain wheat significantly higher (scores 3.89 and 3.63, respectively) than did participants with a “less positive” attitude (scores 3.12 and 3.18, respectively) (p \u3c 0.05). Knowledge, attitude, and consumption behavior scores were positively correlated with sensory liking of many characteristics (values of r ranging from 0.200 to 0.345). White bread was significantly preferred in every sensory category except overall aroma, which received similar ratings as spelt. Spelt was significantly preferred to modern whole wheat in flavor and texture characteristics. More research is needed to determine sensory liking of ancient wheat breads mixed with different formulations and evaluated under non-blind conditions
Charting the Unknown: formulating problem statements in the age of artificial intelligence: Where human insight and machine intelligence shape systems and missions
No full textLGBTQ+ Advocacy and Inclusive School Policies Are Associated With Self-Worth Among Youth in Gender-Sexuality Alliances Over the School Year
Get PDFInclusive school policies and youth advocacy could promote well-being and positive development among youth of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Utilizing three waves of data over a 6-month period, we tested a three-level multilevel model on the extent to which youth’s advocacy in gender-sexuality alliances (GSAs; school clubs affirming youth identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or with other expansive sexual orientations or gender identities [LGBTQ+]) and attending schools that more thoroughly implemented LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices were associated with youth’s self-worth. Participants were 627 youth (87% LGBQ+ youth, 45% transgender or nonbinary youth, 48% youth of color, Mage = 15.13) in 51 GSAs. Youth who reported greater involvement in advocacy over the 6-month period reported greater self-worth than others. There was also a contextual effect at the GSA level: Youth in GSAs whose members collectively reported greater advocacy reported even greater self-worth, beyond what was associated with a youth’s own advocacy. Furthermore, GSA members in schools that more thoroughly implemented LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices reported greater self-worth over the study period. The findings highlight the importance of youth and school efforts to affirm the dignity and worth of LGBTQ+ young people
Seeing Bias Through Eye Movements: Investigating Empathy and Engagement with Authentic and Altered Refugee Imagery
Get PDFThis study investigates perceptual biases in responses to Syrian and Ukrainian refugee images using human-computer interaction (HCI) techniques. We hypothesized that media portrayals might shape empathy and influence both biases and donation behavior. Participants viewed both authentic and face-swapped images, with eye-tracking data capturing pupil size and decision-making patterns. In Experiment 1, participants\u27 eye-tracking data and donation behavior indicated higher engagement and donations for authentic images, suggesting a preference for unaltered images without ethnicity-based bias. Experiment 2 explored this further by presenting cropped refugee faces alongside neutral or intellectual art, asking participants to choose the art that best matched each face. Results showed no ethnic bias. Findings suggest that face-swapping reduces emotional engagement, and that facial authenticity is critical to empathy (Experiment 1), while no bias toward specific ethnic features emerged in the cropped face task (Experiment 2). This research underscores the value of HCI methods in uncovering implicit biases and supports the use of authentic imagery in media to foster empathy in humanitarian efforts
Without Them, There Is No You: The Role of Personal Choice and History in Resisting Political Control
Get PDFIn 2011, Korean-American journalist Suki Kim went undercover as an English teacher at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, working to teach her students while simultaneously recording everything she could about the workings of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). In 2014, her book Without You, There is No Us was published as a memoir, in part due to the inclusion of personal details considered less relevant to the story, thereby undercutting her journalistic credentials.
Here, using C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man as a theoretical framework for understanding oppressive regimes and the ways that they control the population, I am able to shed light on both the rhetorical purposes of the inclusion of personal details and the counter-function of eliminating those details in the citizenry of the DPRK. Abolition, combined with The Screwtape Letters, here function as the theory enabling the reader not only to understand the complexity of Kim’s work, but the seriousness of mechanisms of control applied to those living under the North Korean regime (and other oppressive governments) as well as the weakness of those mechanisms