Teachers’ beliefs and their intention to use interactive simulations in their classrooms

In this pilot study, we sought to examine the influence of the beliefs of Grade 10 to 12 physical science teachers on their intended and actual usage of interactive simulations (Physics Education Technology, or PhET) in their classrooms. A combination of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the Technology Acceptance Model and the Innovation Diffusion Theory was used to examine the influence of teachers’ attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control on their intention to use simulations in their classrooms. Using regression and factor analyses, it was found that beliefs about the perceived usefulness and the pedagogical compatibility of PhET have a significant effect on teachers’ attitude towards the use of the simulations in their classrooms. The expectations of the teachers’ colleagues contribute to the subjective norm of these teachers. The regression and partial correlation result also highlights the importance of teachers’ general technology proficiency. Although we were not able to confirm a direct link between attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, and the teachers’ behaviour intention we show the influence of behaviour intention on the actual use of the simulations with an accuracy of 70.83%.Keywords: interactive simulations; PhET project; physics; teacher beliefs;Theory of Planned Behaviou

Performance of Geant4 in simulating semiconductor particle detector response in the energy range below 1 MeV

Geant4 simulations play a crucial role in the analysis and interpretation of experiments providing low energy precision tests of the Standard Model. This paper focuses on the accuracy of the description of the electron processes in the energy range between 100 and 1000 keV. The effect of the different simulation parameters and multiple scattering models on the backscattering coefficients is investigated. Simulations of the response of HPGe and passivated implanted planar Si detectors to \beta{} particles are compared to experimental results. An overall good agreement is found between Geant4 simulations and experimental data

A hybrid stabilization technique for simulating water wave - Structure interaction by incompressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (ISPH) method

The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method is emerging as a potential tool for studying water wave related problems, especially for violent free surface flow and large deformation problems. The incompressible SPH (ISPH) computations have been found not to be able to maintain the stability in certain situations and there exist some spurious oscillations in the pressure time history, which is similar to the weakly compressible SPH (WCSPH). One main cause of this problem is related to the non-uniform and clustered distribution of the moving particles. In order to improve the model performance, the paper proposed an efficient hybrid numerical technique aiming to correct the ill particle distributions. The correction approach is realized through the combination of particle shifting and pressure gradient improvement. The advantages of the proposed hybrid technique in improving ISPH calculations are demonstrated through several applications that include solitary wave impact on a slope or overtopping a seawall, and regular wave slamming on the subface of open-piled structure

Optimizing dual energy cone beam CT protocols for preclinical imaging and radiation research

Objective: The aim of this work was to investigate whether quantitative dual-energy CT (DECT) imaging is feasible for small animal irradiators with an integrated cone-beam CT (CBCT) system. Methods: The optimal imaging protocols were determined by analyzing different energy combinations and dose levels. The influence of beam hardening effects and the performance of a beam hardening correction (BHC) were investigated. In addition, two systems from different manufacturers were compared in terms of errors in the extracted effective atomic numbers (Z(eff)) and relative electron densities (rho(e)) for phantom inserts with known elemental compositions and relative electron densities. Results: The optimal energy combination was determined to be 50 and 90kVp. For this combination, Z(eff) and r rho(e) can be extracted with a mean error of 0.11 and 0.010, respectively, at a dose level of 60cGy. Conclusion: Quantitative DECT imaging is feasible for small animal irradiators with an integrated CBCT system. To obtain the best results, optimizing the imaging protocols is required. Well-separated X-ray spectra and a sufficient dose level should be used to minimize the error and noise for Z(eff) and rho(e). When no BHC is applied in the image reconstruction, the size of the calibration phantom should match the size of the imaged object to limit the influence of beam hardening effects. No significant differences in Z(eff) and rho(e) errors are observed between the two systems from different manufacturers. Advances in knowledge: This is the first study that investigates quantitative DECT imaging for small animal irradiators with an integrated CBCT system

Systematic Study of Accuracy of Wall-Modeled Large Eddy Simulation using Uncertainty Quantification Techniques

The predictive accuracy of wall-modeled large eddy simulation is studied by systematic simulation campaigns of turbulent channel flow. The effect of wall model, grid resolution and anisotropy, numerical convective scheme and subgrid-scale modeling is investigated. All of these factors affect the resulting accuracy, and their action is to a large extent intertwined. The wall model is of the wall-stress type, and its sensitivity to location of velocity sampling, as well as law of the wall's parameters is assessed. For efficient exploration of the model parameter space (anisotropic grid resolution and wall model parameter values), generalized polynomial chaos expansions are used to construct metamodels for the responses which are taken to be measures of the predictive error in quantities of interest (QoIs). The QoIs include the mean wall shear stress and profiles of the mean velocity, the turbulent kinetic energy, and the Reynolds shear stress. DNS data is used as reference. Within the tested framework, a particular second-order accurate CFD code (OpenFOAM), the results provide ample support for grid and method parameters recommendations which are proposed in the present paper, and which provide good results for the QoIs. Notably, good results are obtained with a grid with isotropic (cubic) hexahedral cells, with $15\, 000$ cells per $\delta^3$, where $\delta$ is the channel half-height (or thickness of the turbulent boundary layer). The importance of providing enough numerical dissipation to obtain accurate QoIs is demonstrated. The main channel flow case investigated is ${\rm Re}_\tau=5200$, but extension to a wide range of ${\rm Re}$-numbers is considered. Use of other numerical methods and software would likely modify these recommendations, at least slightly, but the proposed framework is fully applicable to investigate this as well

Determining the Supernova Direction by its Neutrinos

Supernova neutrinos, which arrive at Earth earlier than light, allow for the earliest determination of the direction of the supernova. The topic of this paper is to study how accurately we can determine the supernova direction. We simulate supernova neutrino events at the SuperKamiokande detector, using a realistic supernova model and several realistic neutrino oscillation models. With the results of our simulation, we can restrict the supernova direction to be within a circle of radius $9^\circ$. In several neutrino oscillation models, this accuracy is increased to $8^\circ$. We also discuss the influence of an accident that occurred at the SuperKamiokande detector. After repair of the detector, using the remaining PMTs, the accuracy becomes about $12^\circ$ for no oscillation.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, Prog. Theor. Phys., accepte

The Time Structure of Hadronic Showers in highly granular Calorimeters with Tungsten and Steel Absorbers

The intrinsic time structure of hadronic showers influences the timing capability and the required integration time of hadronic calorimeters in particle physics experiments, and depends on the active medium and on the absorber of the calorimeter. With the CALICE T3B experiment, a setup of 15 small plastic scintillator tiles read out with Silicon Photomultipliers, the time structure of showers is measured on a statistical basis with high spatial and temporal resolution in sampling calorimeters with tungsten and steel absorbers. The results are compared to GEANT4 (version 9.4 patch 03) simulations with different hadronic physics models. These comparisons demonstrate the importance of using high precision treatment of low-energy neutrons for tungsten absorbers, while an overall good agreement between data and simulations for all considered models is observed for steel.Comment: 24 pages including author list, 9 figures, published in JINS