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Using Virtual Reality to Assist Students at Academic Risk in Human Anatomy
Get PDFLearning human anatomy presents a significant challenge for health profession students due to the difficulty in visualizing structures in three dimensions. Virtual reality (VR) has been reported to aid in understanding these relationships. In this study, students at academic risk attended VR sessions alongside their gross anatomy course. Data from post-surveys, observations, and examinations indicated VR participants performed similarly to peers, except in head/neck and pelvis/lower limb exams where performance was lower. Students valued VR for enhancing confidence and understanding. VR shows promise in supplementing anatomy education, particularly for less complex regions, and bridging gaps in traditional learning methods
Harnessing the Power of Gradient-Based Simulations for Multi-Objective Optimization in Particle Accelerators
Get PDFParticle accelerator operation requires simultaneous optimization of multiple objectives. Multi-objective optimization (MOO) is particularly challenging due to trade-offs between the objectives. Evolutionary algorithms, such as genetic algorithms (GAs), have been leveraged for many optimization problems, however, they do not apply to complex control problems by design. This paper demonstrates the power of differentiability for solving MOO problems in particle accelerators using a deep differentiable reinforcement learning (DDRL) algorithm. We compare the DDRL algorithm with model-free reinforcement learning (MFRL), GA, and Bayesian optimization (BO) for simultaneous optimization of heat load and trip rates in the continuous electron beam accelerator facility. The underlying problem enforces strict constraints on both individual states and actions as well as cumulative (global) constraints on energy requirements of the beam. Using historical accelerator data, we develop a physics-based surrogate model which is differentiable and allows for back-propagation of gradients. The results are evaluated in the form of a Pareto-front with two objectives. We show that the DDRL outperforms MFRL, BO, and GA on high dimensional problems
19.2 CEUs
Get PDF[Introduction] WLCO-2024-0077.R1 Heteronormative and cisnormative language in Southern University counseling and Title IX Offices
1. This study utilized the document analysis is a five step process including all EXCEPT
a. Gaining access to the documents via the web
b. Understanding hope and why the texts are produced.
c. Utilizing previous research to validate ideas or themes in the texts.
d. Determining the accuracy of the documents
e. Linking the documents with other website observations to triangulate results
f. Deconstructing the texts using a code book.
2. One of the most commun issues the research found was that the University websites often did not differentiate between sex and gender. True or False
3. The researchers suggest all except the following to improve LGBTQ+ inclusivity within Counseling Centers and Title IX offices:
a. Creating community
b. Creating affirming materials and spaces
c. Creating LGBTQ+ content courses
d. Creating a LGTQ+ institutional identit
A Potentially Fruitful Path Toward a Cleaner and Safer Environment: MXenes Uses in Environmental Remediation
Get PDFThe rapid industrialization of the world has resulted in severe environmental pollution, necessitating the development of new materials such as pollution remediation. Two-dimensional (2D) MXenes have emerged as a promising family of materials due to their unique physicochemical properties, making them ideal for environmental remediation. The article sheds light on the new opportunities of MXenes in the removal of organic and inorganic contaminants, including organic dyes, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, radionuclides, and gas pollutants. MXenes also show excellent performance in photocatalytic degradation, adsorption, and microbial inactivation with environmental safety. Moreover, their application in recovering valuable elements from waste streams is also being explored. While these advances are promising, challenges remain in surface chemistry, semiconducting behavior, interfacial effects, and large-scale synthesis. This review highlights the tremendous potential of MXenes in environmental remediation while also outlining the key challenges that need to be resolved to fully realize MXenes capabilities. By providing this comprehensive survey of MXene-based technologies, the paper stimulates further research and innovation in this rapidly evolving field
Reduced Set-Shifting Processing Speed in Male Rats Following Low Dose (10 cGy) Proton Exposure
Get PDFSpace radiation (SR) exposure poses significant biomedical risks, including effects on the central nervous system (CNS). These risks are particularly relevant to cognitive function during long-duration space missions. One critical cognitive skill is decision-making, which requires attentional set-shifting (ATSET)—the ability to quickly assess problems, evaluate options, and select the best actions. Previous studies have shown that exposure to However, the impact of low LET (\u3c 1 keV/μm) protons, which significantly contribute to the total radiation flux astronauts encounter within spacecraft, on ATSET performance is unknown. To address this gap, we evaluated the effects of cranial irradiation with 10 cGy of 100 MeV/n protons (LET = 0.732 keV/μm) on ATSET performance in male Sprague-Dawley rats. We also investigated whether concurrent exposure to variable gravity (hypergravity step-up, step down, purported to have the same effect as exposure to microgravity (another major spaceflight stressor) exacerbated SR-induced cognitive deficits. Our findings indicate that proton exposure alone significantly impaired ATSET performance, as evidenced by decreased processing speed while performing compound discrimination reversal and extra-dimensional shifting. Notably, no additive or synergistic effects were observed when hypergravity was combined with proton exposure. The impact that low-dose proton exposure has on CNS functionality, particularly in reducing processing speed during complex tasks, warrant further investigation. If similar cognitive deficits were to occur in astronauts exposed to galactic cosmic rays, mission success and safety could be significantly compromised
Weapons of Mass Disruption: How Small States Use Cyber to Resist Larger Powers
Get PDFThis paper examines the ways in which small states can engage larger actors using cyber- attacks. Since the end of both World Wars, small states have increased in both numbers and relevance, with strong international institutions and norms against military aggression allowing small states to gain legitimacy by the very act of participating in the international system. However, although small states can now do more than simply choose a larger, stronger benefactor to ward off their enemies, they still cannot defy larger powers outright due to the still- dramatic difference in capabilities between them. Those small states interested in confronting larger rivals can use cyber capabilities to address the difference. Cyber capabilities differ from conventional capabilities in that, by utilizing internet connections between two or more different computers, they can bypass geography and the conventional military capabilities of larger actors entirely, allowing small states to gain advantages over them and undercutting their attempts at coercion. Nonetheless, scholars have been slow to incorporate small states and cyber capabilities into international relations, due to a lack of clear criteria for “smallness” and technical barriers to entry preventing more widespread study of cyber. This work addresses these difficulties and demonstrates that small states are able to accomplish their strategic goals using cyber capabilities against larger rivals, forcing them and others to pay them attention when they otherwise would not; though larger actors may have greater cyber capabilities, the fragmented nature of cyber defense means that civilian, financial, and infrastructural targets are still vulnerable to cyber- attack
Birds Sing Inside Me
No full textBirds Sing Inside Me is a poetry collection exploring the body both in and out of control. The title comes from a line found in the penultimate poem, “Drishti,” where the speaker is searching for her focal point. This line also acts as a mantra for the entire manuscript, where birds become a motif found in many forms. The poems pose questions of love, loss, and the ways in which our bodies hold, process, and translate these emotions
Students-Generative AI Interaction Patterns and Its Impact on Academic Writing
Get PDFConsidering both the transformative opportunities and challenges presented by generative AI (GenAI) in academic writing, effectively integrating GenAI into the academic setting becomes a significant need requiring prioritization. Yet, there is limited understanding regarding the nature of interactions between different types of students, what behavioral patterns students exhibit during a student-GenAI interaction (SAI) on a given task, and how these different SAI patterns relate to the actual writing task performance. This study, therefore, aimed to identify SAI patterns of academic writing tasks depending on students’ level of AI literacy and examine the differences in academic writing performance between the identified SAI patterns. Drawing from the combination of three data sources, including think-aloud protocols, screen-recordings, and chat histories between 36 Chinese graduate students and a GenAI writing system, epistemic network analysis (ENA) was used to reveal the distinctive SAI patterns of students with different levels of AI literacy. The study found that students with a high level of AI literacy exhibited a collaborative approach to SAI, actively accepting GenAI’s suggestions and engaging GenAI in meta-cognitive-related activities such as planning, whereas students with a low level of AI literacy demonstrated much less interaction with GenAI in completing their writing tasks, instead choosing to ideate and evaluate independently. In addition, the Wilcoxon rank-sum (Mann-Whitney U) test was conducted to assess the writing task performance of the two AI literacy groups. Findings revealed statistical differences in all evaluation rubrics (content, structure/organization, expression). This study offers implications for the design and implementation of GenAI agents in writing tasks and the pedagogy of GenAI-assisted instruction
Biogenic Modification of Tidally Modified Substrates from the Micro- to Macroscopic Scale
Get PDFDigital outcrop models generated by high-resolution photogrammetric imagery permit investigations into organism-substrate interactions at the centimeter to sub-millimeter scale. This dissertation uses this three-dimensional technology to study two sedimentary successions— the Archaean Dresser Formation and Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone— by capturing images via unmanned aircraft systems and single lens reflex cameras. The ~3.48 Ga Dresser Formation provides evidence for some of the earliest life on Earth in the form of stromatolites and microbially induced sedimentary structures. Aerial imagery of the 3.5 km2 Buick Geoheritage reserve capture the site’s geologic structures and close-range imagery documents stromatolites and several microbially induced sedimentary structures (microbial mat chips and fragments, mat curls, and erosional remnants and pockets).
The Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Dakota Sandstone at the Dinosaur Ridge National Natural Landmark contains some of the most famous dinosaur trackways North America. A process-based ichnologic framework is used to study the distribution of invertebrate trace fossils across paleotopographic highs and lows generated by erosional remnants and pockets within a fossilized supratidal flat. Digital outcrop models of exposures permitted the discovery of 26 new non-avian theropod dinosaur courtship display scrapes (Ostendichnus bilobatus) and the first described horseshoe crab traces and trackways (Crescentichnus and Selenichnites) on 4 additional sedimentary surfaces. For Ostendichnus, a new means to determine the direction the trace maker faced while creating the scrapes is proposed for traces lacking footprints, anterior divergence of claw marks, posterior tapering of troughs and a sand crescent pile of excavated sediment at the posterior of the trace. Analysis of the Dinosaur Ridge sites and of 3 previously known lek sites in western Colorado—Club Gulch (n = 2) and Roubideau Creek— permit insight into the social behavior of the trace making theropods by comparisons to modern avian analogs.
These datasets will enable researchers to perform remote site evaluations, provide outreach and educational materials, and serve as a baseline for resource management and conservation efforts. Future aerial datasets allow monitoring of erosion and vandalism within the geoheritage reserve over time. This study provides valuable insights into the early evolution of life and contributes to our understanding of potential life on other planets
A City Divided: Norfolk, Virginia and Public Higher Education in the Era of Desegregation
Get PDFThis thesis examines the 1978 suggested merger of predominantly white Old Dominion University and historically Black Norfolk State College (now Norfolk State University), two neighboring public higher education institutions. That year the Federal Department of Housing, Education, and Welfare (HEW) and the Office for Civil Rights (ORC) claimed that the two universities offered nine duplicative degree programs. According to HEW and the OCR, this duplication was a violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in all public institutions receiving federal aid. The duplication also represented the last vestiges of Jim Crow segregation in the form of a dual system of education. While a formal merger never occurred, this thesis seeks to understand the nature and limitations of the interracial partnership it, and earlier HEW attempts to desegregate public higher education, created among ODU and NSC as they worked together to impede federal intervention to keep their institutions autonomous. In exploring the role of the federal government and their well-intended, one-size-fits-all desegregation policies of the 1970s, this thesis exposes the irony of federally mandated desegregation. Essentially, the suggested merger of ODU and NSC is a vehicle to understand how misguided federal intervention, cross-campus politics, and local interracial alliances ultimately perpetuated segregation in the Civil Rights age. This segregation continues today as both institutions, anchored within the urban landscape of Norfolk, Virginia, are on two different trajectories and rest within racially recognizable sides of town