2T2 Preschool Transition Plan

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the College of Education at Morehead State University by Barbara J. Cook on November 30, 2013

Low-Power Embedded Design Solutions and Low-Latency On-Chip Interconnect Architecture for System-On-Chip Design

This dissertation presents three design solutions to support several key system-on-chip (SoC) issues to achieve low-power and high performance. These are: 1) joint source and channel decoding (JSCD) schemes for low-power SoCs used in portable multimedia systems, 2) efficient on-chip interconnect architecture for massive multimedia data streaming on multiprocessor SoCs (MPSoCs), and 3) data processing architecture for low-power SoCs in distributed sensor network (DSS) systems and its implementation. The first part includes a low-power embedded low density parity check code (LDPC) - H.264 joint decoding architecture to lower the baseband energy consumption of a channel decoder using joint source decoding and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS). A low-power multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and H.264 video joint detector/decoder design that minimizes energy for portable, wireless embedded systems is also designed. In the second part, a link-level quality of service (QoS) scheme using unequal error protection (UEP) for low-power network-on-chip (NoC) and low latency on-chip network designs for MPSoCs is proposed. This part contains WaveSync, a low-latency focused network-on-chip architecture for globally-asynchronous locally-synchronous (GALS) designs and a simultaneous dual-path routing (SDPR) scheme utilizing path diversity present in typical mesh topology network-on-chips. SDPR is akin to having a higher link width but without the significant hardware overhead associated with simple bus width scaling. The last part shows data processing unit designs for embedded SoCs. We propose a data processing and control logic design for a new radiation detection sensor system generating data at or above Peta-bits-per-second level. Implementation results show that the intended clock rate is achieved within the power target of less than 200mW. We also present a digital signal processing (DSP) accelerator supporting configurable MAC, FFT, FIR, and 3-D cross product operations for embedded SoCs. It consumes 12.35mW along with 0.167mm2 area at 333MHz

Sustainable Management of Urban Water Resources

It is well known that 55% of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas, and this figure is predicted to grow to 68% by 2050, adding more than 2.5 billion people to urban populations. It is also projected that there will be 43 megacities worldwide by 2030, with populations of more than 10 million inhabitants. The United Nations World Water Development Report, 2018, warned that by 2030, the global demand for fresh water is likely to exceed supply by 40%. Added to population growth, climate change has the potential to lead to changes in rainfall regimes, with the potential of increased flooding and drought. Currently, 1.2 billion people are at risk from flooding, but this is predicted to increase to about 1.6 billion, i.e., nearly 20% of the total world population, by 2050. In line with this, replacing deteriorating water management infrastructure that can no longer cope is economically unfeasible, impracticable from a construction point of view, and likely to fail in the long term. To address these issues, approaches are needed that are flexible and have multiple benefits. In its World Water Development Report, 2018, the UN promotes the use of nature-based solutions to some of these problems, with the focus of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (making sure that everyone has access to a safe and affordable supply of potable water and sanitation by 2030) requiring investment in suitable infrastructure across the world. This Special Issue covers the challenges faced in managing urban water in all its forms, from potable supplies to reuse and harvesting, as well as resilient and sustainable approaches developed to address flooding and drought

Haptics Rendering and Applications

There has been significant progress in haptic technologies but the incorporation of haptics into virtual environments is still in its infancy. A wide range of the new society's human activities including communication, education, art, entertainment, commerce and science would forever change if we learned how to capture, manipulate and reproduce haptic sensory stimuli that are nearly indistinguishable from reality. For the field to move forward, many commercial and technological barriers need to be overcome. By rendering how objects feel through haptic technology, we communicate information that might reflect a desire to speak a physically- based language that has never been explored before. Due to constant improvement in haptics technology and increasing levels of research into and development of haptics-related algorithms, protocols and devices, there is a belief that haptics technology has a promising future

LISA Metrology System - Final Report

Gravitational Waves will open an entirely new window to the Universe, different from all other astronomy in that the gravitational waves will tell us about large-scale mass motions even in regions and at distances totally obscured to electromagnetic radiation. The most interesting sources are at low frequencies (mHz to Hz) inaccessible on ground due to seismic and other unavoidable disturbances. For these sources observation from space is the only option, and has been studied in detail for more than 20 years as the LISA concept. Consequently, The Gravitational Universe has been chosen as science theme for the L3 mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision program. The primary measurement in LISA and derived concepts is the observation of tiny (picometer) pathlength fluctuations between remote spacecraft using heterodyne laser interferometry. The interference of two laser beams, with MHz frequency difference, produces a MHz beat note that is converted to a photocurrent by a photodiode on the optical bench. The gravitational wave signal is encoded in the phase of this beat note. The next, and crucial, step is therefore to measure that phase with µcycle resolution in the presence of noise and other signals. This measurement is the purpose of the LISA metrology system and the subject of this report

Quantum simulations of gauge theories and topological phases

Gauge theories and topological phases play a fundamental role in different areas of physics. The first ones are at the basis of the Standard Model in the field of particle physics, describing the electroweak and strong interactions through a non-Abelian gauge theory. In condensed matter and statistical physics, gauge theories arise as low-energy effective descriptions of strongly correlated phenomena, such as quantum spin liquids and quantum Hall effect. In this realm there is a strong connection with topological phases and order, as emergent gauge fermions and bosons often describe collective excitations of new exotic states of matter of spin models. The discretization on a lattice is a possible way of dealing with the strongly coupled nature of these theories, due to the fact that this formulation at finite volume provides natural regularizing cut-offs, i.e. the lattice size and spacing. This allows for the investigation of different non-perturbative properties both numerically and analytically. Despite the success of these methods, there are various aspects which remain intractable due to the sign or complex action problems, like the out of equilibrium real time evolution or the analysis of quantum chromodynamics with finite chemical potential. In this respect, quantum simulators of many-body systems to simulate high energy physics arise as promising alternatives to face these problems in the near future. They are quantum systems that can be controlled and used to simulate more complicated systems, whose properties could not be analysed with classical computational, experimental or theoretical tools. In the last decades, there has been a huge development in the fields of quantum optics and atomic physics, allowing for the realization highly precise and controllable platforms by means of trapped ions, superconducting circuits, Rydberg atoms and ultracold atoms in optical lattices. This work of Thesis is part of these fields and has different purposes, all of them connected with the study of gauge theories and topological phases. Firstly, we want to develop a reformulation of lattice gauge theories in terms of gauge invariant fields, in a way to deal solely with physical variables directly in the action. Among several possible advantages, a crucial point is that this can be particularly helpful for the construction of consistent approximation schemes, such as mean-field theories, in order to understand and capture some of the physical features of the theory and make the mean-field approximation consistent with the Elitzur theorem, stating that a local gauge symmetry can not be spontaneously broken. As a second point, we face the problem of simulating higher dimensional gauge theories with ultracold atoms. One of the challenges in more than one dimension is indeed the realization of plaquette interaction terms in the Hamiltonian of lattice gauge theories: these can be engineered through four correlated hoppings in perturbation theory, or by means of constrained hoppings in the dual formulation. In this respect, our main target is to set up an ultracold atomic platform generating the plaquette term in two dimensions using only two correlated hoppings, and protecting gauge invariance through angular momentum conservation. The last point we address in the Thesis is related to the analysis of particles moving in static background gauge potentials, i.e. when the considered gauge field has no dynamical term in the action of the system. Indeed, the dynamics of quantum particles in the presence of static gauge fields gives rise to intriguing physical phenomena. In particular, using ultracold atom setups, the realization of artificial gauge potentials can be used to investigate the physics of topological semimetals, such as Weyl or Dirac type. In the last ten years, a lot of attention has been paid to their characterization, due to the appearence of clear theoretical predictions and very well-controlled experimental techniques. We investigate here the relation between topological phase transitions and van Hove singularities, i.e. the discontinuities in the energy derivative of the density of states, in three-dimensional gapless systems. In such materials, topological phase transitions can be defined by changes of the topological invariants of the Fermi sheets, happening at specific singular points. Moreover, Fermi surface singularities result in the presence of the so-called van Hove points. We then present a general argument to relate topological phase transitions and van Hove singularities, and show observable consequences that are related to the transport properties of the system. We exemplify our argument in Weyl systems by analyzing the three-dimensional Hofstadter model for various commensurate fluxes, which offers the opportunity to consider different kinds of Weyl metals and to understand the features of their density of states

Hair Trigger 22

An anthology, edited by students, featuring the fiction, prose and creative non-fiction work of students, alumni, and staff. Editors: Mark Child, Michael Curtin, Cristina Fisher, Josephina Gasca, Kevin Higdon, Lott Hill, Deb R. Lewis, Thomas Popp, Audrey Qween Roy, Amanda Snyder, Doug Whippo, Victor Yipp. Cover photograph: Mary Ellen Mark. 294 pages.https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/hairtrigger/1019/thumbnail.jp

National Educators' Workshop: Update 1991. Standard Experiments in Engineering Materials Science and Technology

Given here is a collection of experiments presented and demonstrated at the National Educators' Workshop: Update 91, held at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on November 12-14, 1991. The experiments related to the nature and properties of engineering materials and provided information to assist in teaching about materials in the education community

Uidates mtDNA fülogeneesi radadel; essee väikeste kõrvalepõigetega sellest, mida see meile inimese migratsioonidest kõnelda võib

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneMeie genoomidesse on kirjutatud kogu informatsioon, mida rakuline masinavärk inimolendi kokkupanekuks vajab. Ja mitte ainult. Kasutades ad hoc raamistikku on võimalik kaasaegsete inimeste genoomide alusel mineviku inimese migratsioone rekonstrueerida. Pikka aega on sellealaste uuringute musternäidiseks olnud mitokondriaalne DNA (mtDNA) ja Y-kromosoom, eelkõige seetõttu, et need on haploidsed ja mitterekombineeruvad - nende fülogeneesi on autosoomidega võrreldes lihtsam rekonstrueerida. Fülogeneesis kajastub paljude evolutsioonitegurite, sealhulgas migratsioonide mõju, seega – teoreetiliselt on võimalik fülogeneesi uurides inimese rännetega seotud küsimustele vastuseid leida. Üks tee antud küsimustele vastamiseks on uurida meid huvitavate populatsioonide üldist varieeruvust ja paigutada see laiemasse perspektiivi. Näiteks selgub meie tööst, et Euraasiale ja Aafrikale iseloomulike liinide üldine osakaal on Etioopia ja Jeemeni mtDNA geenitiigis peaaegu identne, suurem lahutusaste toob aga esile nende märkimisväärseid erinevusi. Prantsusmaa puhul ilmneb, et kui üldisel tasemel ei erineta lähedastest naabermaadest, siis geograafilist fookust kintsendades kerkivad esile Püreneedest põhjas või lõunas elavate baskide vahelised erinevused. Samuti tuleb esile, Bretagne´i administratiivüksuste seas on Finistère`l teistest tugevamad seosed Suurbritannia ja Skandinaaviaga. Kaugel ida pool, Kesk-Aasias Hindukuši Afganistaani-osa paljusid erinevaid etnilisi populatsioone uurides saime tuge seisukohale, et Kesk-Aasia on olnud paljude migratsioonilainete risteel ja nende mõjud on kaasaegsetesse populatsioonidesse jätnud märgatava jälje. Teise võimaluse küsimustele vastuseid leida andis fookuse suunamine üksikutele spetsiifilistele haplogruppidele. Haplogruppide M1 ja U6 fülogeneesi uurimine lükkas ümber varasema hüpoteesi nende samaaegsest levikust. Me ei leidnud ka kindlaid tõendeid seoste kohta nende haplogruppide ja afroaasia keelte leviku vahel.Inscribed in our genomes, there is all the necessary information for the cellular machinery to build a human being. And then some. Using an ad hoc framework, it is possible to attempt to infer past human migrations by looking at the current variation present in these genomes. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the Y chromosome have long been the poster child for doing it, chiefly thanks to their haploid and non-recombining nature, allowing to reconstruct their phylogeny in a more straightforward way than for the autosomes. These phylogenies have been shaped by evolutionary forces, amongst them migrations. Hence, by studying the former, it is theoretically possible to tackle questions germane to the latter. One way to address our questions is to study the general composition of a specific population or several, and to place it into a broader perspective. For instance, we showed that, whilst the overall proportion of Eurasian and African specific lineages is almost identical in Ethiopian and Yemeni mtDNA gene pool, a finer level of resolution revealed marked differences in them. In the case of France, it is globally not dissimilar from its close neighbours, yet narrowing down the geographical focus exposes dissimilarities between the Basques living north of the Pyrénées from those south of them. And amongst the administrative departments of Brittany, Finistère displays tighter connections with Britain and Scandinavia. Much further east, in Central Asia, exploring various ethnic populations of the Afghan Hindu Kush gave support to the notion that Central Asia has been a long-standing cross-road of multiple waves of migrations, each leaving perceptible traces in the extant populations. As for another way of answering questions, we shifted our focus to some specific haplogroups, with a new examination of M1 and U6 phylogenies that confuted the previously purported concomitance of their spread. We also did not find strong evidence of connections between their spread and that of the Afro-Asiatic languages.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5257709~S

Playing to engage: Fostering engagement for children and teachers in low socioeconomic regions through science and mathematics play-based learning

Commitment to improving the literacy and numeracy results of children from low Socio Economic Backgrounds (SES) has long been a priority of the Australian Federal and State Governments. Upon entering formal schooling these children frequently start on a back foot compared with their middle and high SES counterparts. Often this is because of differences in their upbringing, including limited access to educational toys, more limited vocabulary as they engage with adults and other children and infrequent attendance at early learning facilities. Over the past decade, as identified by the Australian Chief Scientist, the number of children selecting career pathways into areas such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has been steadily decreasing. Lack of engagement in these subject areas will limit job opportunities for children in the future, cause problems for the economy and diminish Australia’s capacity to develop new technologies and advance science research. For these reasons it is imperative schools provide positive, engaging experiences in these areas. To help address the specific needs of low SES children in improving their academic results and building greater capacity for engagement in the areas of science and mathematics, this thesis explored the implementation and evaluation of a study entitled Playing to Engage in a formal school setting. Specifically, Playing to Engage encompassed the development and implementation of a play-based program, Active Learning in a series of lower primary classrooms. Simultaneously, to help support and strengthen the outcomes from this program, a professional development package targeting science and mathematics play-based experiences was created, and a strategic campaign was implemented to engage parents and promote this style of learning in the classroom. This study utilised a mixed methodology approach incorporating a single case study with action research and participant evaluation to present an holistic interpretation of the research. These approaches provided a cohesive environment where the researcher was able to transition between leading the study and also being a participant, which added an innovative double helix representation to the traditional action research model. A significant focus of the methodological approach was helping teachers to evolve from a passive recipients of professional development, moving along the continuum into andragogy and ultimately higher order heutagogical dimensions where they were able to identify gaps in their own learning and source methods conducive to their personal learning style to meet their learning needs. Throughout the study four meta-themes intertwined to impact on the discussion and findings. These included 1) teacher, parent and children’s differing interpretations of the term play in a primary school context, 2) implementing an inclusive Lesson Study model of professional development specifically linked to play-based learning, science and mathematics to build confidence and versatility in teachers, 3) identifying the significance of and nurturing the development of 21st century skills in both children and teachers in preparation for an unknown, evolving future, and 4) the impact of an Active Learning play-based program on academic achievement including NAPLAN results. Without these four elements interacting with one another, the research would have been incomplete; together they cohesively encapsulate the vision of the study to improve engagement levels in children and teachers in low socioeconomic regions through science and mathematics play-based learning, and their achievement in national testing