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COVID-19 Oral History Project: Interview with Mia Avila
No full textThe interview discusses the interviewee\u27s lived experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and Winterstorm. The person interviewed was Mia Avila of San Antonio by Eduardo Zarate for Dr. Gene Morales’ U.S. History 1302 course. Avila discusses how her life charged throughout the pandemic, from the measures in interactions between school and community members
Water Resources Science and Technology Fall Seminar Series: Karen Bishop (San Antonio River Authority)
No full textMs. Bishop is an Executive Services Supervisor at San Antonio River Authority (SARA). She explains SARA\u27s Green Infrastructure Program to boost the resilience of the City of San Antonio amid climate change uncertainties
Adsorption-Based Atmospheric Water Harvesting: A Review of Adsorbents and Systems
Get PDFAtmospheric water harvesting (AWH) has been an appealing prospect for decades to overcome water scarcity in remote areas. Adsorption-based AWH technologies have gained popularity due to their adaptability, and applicability using low-grade heat sources. This study presents up-to-date and future possibilities of adsorbents and systems for adsorption-based AWH. In this review, in-depth advancements in adsorbent materials are compartmentalized into adsorption equilibrium/isotherms, adsorption kinetics, and thermal conductivity. Various systems designs and modifications have been reviewed and classified accordingly. Liquid desiccants i.e., CaCl2 and LiCl-based AWH systems produced in between 0.63 to 1.0 kg/m/d of water. Recently, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are realized as effective adsorbents for AWH. Their excellent hydrophilicity, structural integrity, and tailorable structures can provide water in high and low relative humidity (RH) areas. MOF-841 and MOF-801 yielded maximum adsorption uptakes at 25 °C i.e., 0.5 and 0.3 g/g, respectively. MOF-801 showed an excellent water production of 0.2-0.3 L/kg/d at 5%-40% RH and 20-40°C. MOF-303 delivered ~0.7 L/kg/d at 10% RH and 27oC. Cr-soc-MOF-1 and MIL-101(Cr) resulted in maximum adsorption uptakes i.e., 1.9 g/g and 1.4 g/g, respectively. Future possibilities regarding these captivating and emerging adsorption technologies are discussed as concluding remarks
Pay It Forward: Realizing The Promise of OER for the Next Generation of Learners
Get PDFUsing Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice explores the opportunities and challenges of moving the discussion about open educational resources (OER) beyond affordability to address structural inequities found throughout academia and scholarly publishing. OER have the potential to celebrate research done by marginalized populations in the context of their own communities, to amplify the voices of those who have the knowledge but have been excluded from formal prestige networks, and to engage students as co-creators of learning content that is relevant and respectful of their cultural contexts. Edited by academic librarians with experience advocating across campus, Using Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice takes a multidisciplinary approach and is filled with examples of the ways OER and open pedagogy can be used to support social justice in education. In five sections, it covers a wide range of topics from theoretical critiques to multidisciplinary examples of OER development in practice to examinations of institutional support for OER development. Using Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice offers something for everyone who advocates for open pedagogy and OER across campus, from librarians to teaching faculty to centers for teaching and learning. It demonstrates ways that open pedagogy--and especially practices that encourage students to participate in building or localizing OER--can provide a way to incorporate a wider range of perspectives into original research projects and add these crucial perspectives into the scholarly discourse
An integrative re-evaluation of Typhlatya shrimp within the karst aquifer of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico.
No full textThe Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico is a carbonate platform well-known for extensive karst networks of densely stratified aquifer ecosystems. This aquifer supports diverse anchialine fauna, including species of the globally distributed anchialine shrimp genus Typhlatya (Atyidae). Four species (T. campecheae, T. pearsei, T. dzilamensis and T. mitchelli) are endemic to the Peninsula, of which three are federally listed in Mexico. This first integrative evaluation (i.e., molecular, morphological, broad geographic and type locality sampling, and environmental data) of Yucatán Typhlatya reveals considerable species identity conflict in prior phylogenetic assessments, broad species ranges, syntopy within cave systems and five genetic lineages (of which two are new to science). Despite sampling from the type locality of endangered T. campecheae, specimens (and molecular data) were indistinguishable from vulnerable T. pearsei. Ancestral/divergence reconstructions support convergent evolution of a low-salinity ancestor for a post-Paleogene arc Yucatán + Cuba Typhlatya clade within the anchialine Atyidae clade. A secondary adaptation for the coastal-restricted euryhaline (2-37 psu), Typhlatya dzilamensis (unknown conservation status) was identified, while remaining species lineages were low-salinity (\u3c 5 psu) adapted and found within the meteoric lens of inland and coastal caves. This study demonstrates the need for integrative/interdisciplinary approaches when conducting biodiversity assessments in complex and poorly studied aquifers
Let All Voices Be Heard: Creating an Engaging and Inclusive Asynchronous QR Classroom
Get PDFWith the shift to remote teaching, many instructors used Zoom for synchronous work. However, this presented issues (fatigue, turning cameras off, inequitable technical hurdles) that motivated quantitative reasoning (QR) instructors to look for asynchronous alternatives. A common technique has been text-based online discussions, which can be difficult for students to find engaging. This mixed method study (N = 41) describes an inclusive video alternative, specifically for teaching QR and quantitative fluency skills, which was piloted in two asynchronous sections and one hybrid section of the same course. Students posted their video responses, watched their classmates’ videos, and wrote short lessons-learned papers. After measuring how many students addressed a set of QR questions and the length of video and written submissions, two coders independently rated the quality of students’ written reflections as well as the reasonableness of their oral arguments. Fewer than half of the students addressed most QR questions, about a third presented arguments with medium to high reasonableness, and approximately 40% of students reflected substantively, with no significant differences found by class format. Students in the hybrid section had medium reasonableness of QR arguments, which differed significantly from online students whose arguments had low reasonableness. The length of videos and written submissions were significantly and positively correlated with the number of QR questions addressed. The findings suggest a QR activity with asynchronous videos, which allows students to see and hear each other, may be an effective pedagogical option to improve engagement and accessibility in online courses
Fake News Detection on Social Media: A Word Embedding-Based Approach
Get PDFThe rapid development of social media, together with the large number of user-generated content on them, has not only connected an unprecedented number of people together to do good stuff, but also has provided convenient platforms to spread misleading pieces of information such as fake news. Existing research has attempted to leverage machine learning to automatically classify fake news. In this paper, we extend such literature by proposing an approach that utilize word embedding and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network algorithm. Unlike existing studies, we used two publicly available datasets of news articles to evaluate the proposed model. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of our model against the baseline machine learning models with accuracy of 99% and 96% using the first and second datasets respectively. These comparatively better results and effectiveness compared to existing models demonstrate that pre-trained word embedding models play a significant role in the fake news detection. Keywor
Perceptions and Experiences of First-Generation College Students
Get PDFThe experiences of first-generation college students (FGCS) can guide the development of effective practices for supporting and retaining these students. Open-ended interviews with 10 FGCS produced themes related to challenges and strategies for success. Applied thematic analysis identified barriers in school, home, and work settings, including a lack of knowledge of administrative processes, financial stress, instructor communication, and familial support. Strategies and needs of FGCS included developing social supports, time management skills, clear and explicit communication, and acknowledgment and reinforcement of academic successes. Findings align with previous research showing FGCS to be underprepared and under-supported in applying for, enrolling in, and paying for college. Implications and future research are discussed
Self-Determination Skills: Building a Foundation for Student Success
Get PDFAmong different transitions that happen in a young person’s life, transition to adulthood can be one of the most challenging. The new post-school environment requires increased self-determination, including self-awareness, self-advocacy, self-management, and other important skills that help one function as an independent adult. Because it takes time to develop and nurture self-determination skills, it is important to begin early and continue infusing self-determination into various aspects of instruction. Discussed in this article are SCORE strategies for embedding self-determination skills into classroom settings. Multiple tools and resources are provided to aid with the selection and application processes. A vignette is offered to illustrate guidance for implementation with the goal of improved self-determination skills and enhanced experiences for all learners while in school and beyond
