An Expert System for an Idiosyncratic Domain: Love, Intimacy, and Friendship.

No abstract available

A systematic review of whole class, subject based, pedagogies with reported outcomes for the academic and social inclusion of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms

Schools across the world have responded to international and national initiatives designed to further the development of inclusive education. In England, there is a statutory requirement for all schools to provide effective learning opportunities for all pupils (QCA, 2000) and children with special educational needs (SEN) are positioned as having a right to be within mainstream classrooms accessing an appropriate curriculum (SENDA, 2001). Previous reviews which have sought to identify classroom practices that support the inclusion of children with SEN have been technically non-systematic and hence a need for a systematic review within this area has been identified (Nind et al., 2004; Rix et al., 2006). This systematic literature review is the last in a series of three

Plagiarism: Bringing Economics and Education Together (With a Little Help from IT)

Plagiarism has been acknowledged to be a growing problem for Higher Education Institutions, and indeed in other areas of society. Various reasons have been advanced to explain the growth of this problem, including improvements in IT in general and the Internet in particular, along with changed attitudes towards study amongst some of today’s students. Improved access to the Internet, combined with the development of simple-to-use search tools such as Google, have enabled students quickly and easily to locate relevant material, while improvements in IT training have meant that a greater number of students possess the skills for copying, pasting and reformatting text. In addition a number websites have sprung up offering for sale essays and dissertations to order. Universities have sought to combat plagiarism by making use of text matching tools linked to databases of essays and other content to track down plagiarists. They have also sought to educate both students and staff about what is meant by plagiarism and how to avoid it. This paper describes the experience of one department in a university that has been running a pilot project using the Turnitin software available via JISCiPAS (the JISC Internet Plagiarism Advisory Service) as part of an anti-plagiarism initiative. The discussion also reports on a research project that is underway in the department which seeks to set the problem of plagiarism in an economic context.

Design for assembly : re-design of an electrical switch for the ease of automatic assembly

A design for assembly (DFA) method is used to analyze the existing design of parts of an electrical switch, and to reduce and re-design them, for the ease of automatic assembly. The procedure for the selection of suitable and economical assembly method is presented based on the Boothroyd & Dewhurst methods. Analysis of the initial design for manual assembly and the re-design for automatic assembly are presented. An algorithmic approach for simplified generation of all mechanical assembly sequences and selecting the good assembly sequences is presented with graphical representations. A work station needed for the automatic assembly is developed, which incorporates vibratory bowl feeders, an indexing machine and other equipment

22 GHz Water Maser Search in 37 Nearby Galaxies - Four New Water Megamasers in Seyfert 2 and OH Maser/Absorber Galaxies

We report four new 22 GHz water masers found in a Green Bank Telescope search toward 37 nearby objects. Our goal was to find new maser galaxies, AGN disk-masers, and objects where both hydroxyl and water maser species coexist. We observed 37 sources within 250 Mpc that were selected by high X-ray luminosity (L_X > 10^40 W) and high absorbing column density (N_H ~ 10^22 cm^-2). Sources also included dual or triple AGN and interacting systems. We further included objects detected in hydroxyl (OH). The selection consisted of 16 new sources, 13 previous non-detections to follow up with a factor ten higher sensitivity, 10 OH masers and one deep OH absorber, of which 37 were observed. Water megamasers were detected towards the Sy 2 galaxy 2MFGC 13581 (a disk-maser), towards the 6 GHz OH absorber NGC 4261 (3C 270 with a twin-jet and dusty torus; broad water maser emission), and towards the two 1.6 GHz OH maser sources IRAS 17526+3253 and IRAS 20550+1656 (possible star formation water masers). We set upper limits on 33 non-detections. The search increased the number of known "dual-species" objects containing both OH and H2O masers to eight. The detection rate was 25 % in OH galaxies and 11 % overall. Combined with other searches, a total of 95 objects have now been searched for both OH and H2O masers. We found the overall dual-species detection rate (8 in 95) to be of the order of the joint probability of both species independently occurring in the same object (1 % lower bound). However, this needs to be verified by a more detailed analysis of selection criteria. Lastly, we see a lack of H2O kilomasers in OH megamaser objects already noted by Tarchi et al. (2011). This may be due to sensitivity bias rather than astrophysical reasons.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted and to be published in A&

Embracing AI/ML in Genetic Counseling: A Nationwide Survey on Program Leaderships’ Perspectives and Curriculum Integration

This study aimed to examine the attitudes and preparedness of genetic counseling program directors and faculty leadership in incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) into their curricula and its effect on core competency proficiency. AI/ML has been instrumental in creating and maintaining vital analytical tools and models employed by genetic counselors (GCs). However, research on the attitudes of faculty leadership in charge of training future GCs is limited. A nationwide survey conducted between November 2022 and February 2023 gathered 15 respondents holding diverse academic positions in genetic counseling program curriculum development. The majority of respondents had encountered AI/ML in academic settings, primarily through conference presentations (66.7%). They demonstrated neutral attitudes toward the challenges and limitations of integrating AI/ML into the curriculum, with an average mean score of 4.17 (SD = 1.61) on a 7-point Likert scale. Nevertheless, respondents somewhat disagreed that AI/ML integration is unnecessary (M = 3.57) and somewhat agreed that insufficient faculty expertise poses a potential barrier (M = 4.86). Respondents considered AI/ML to have the least impact on interpersonal, psychosocial, and counseling skills, highlighting the value of human expertise in these areas. No significant correlations emerged between program age and faculty members\u27 perceptions of barriers and limitations to AI/ML integration. However, a positive correlation was observed between program age and the belief that AI/ML curriculum integration is unnecessary (r = 0.48). Despite low response rates and restricted generalizability, our findings indicate that AI/ML integration in genetic counseling education is in its infancy and requires further investigation and development. Future research should broaden the sample population, assess respondents\u27 knowledge of AI/ML tools, and conduct in-depth interviews with program leadership to better comprehend factors influencing attitudes toward AI/ML curriculum integration

Co-option and adaptation of novel gene duplications for pheromone activity in a dusky salamander.

For more than a hundred million years, male plethodontid salamanders have utilized non-volatile, proteinaceous courtship pheromones to regulate female mating receptivity and promote mating success. These pheromones - which are delivered after courtship has commenced and do not act as chemical attractants - are delivered from a male\u27s submandibular (mental) gland to the female salamander either by an olfactory mode or transdermally. For approximately 20 years, research on plethodontid courtship pheromones has focused on those involved in olfaction, using the red-legged salamander (Plethodon shermani) as a model. However, the olfactory system is a relatively recent adaptation (~20 million years ago) employed only by a single clade of large eastern Plethodon species. In contrast, for the majority of plethodontids (~350/380 species) the male scratches the back of the female with hypertrophied premaxillary teeth and rubs his gland over the abraded site to transdermally deliver pheromones. Desmognathus ocoee has served as the model for transdermal delivery, however less is known about this species. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hypothesis that sexual selection has favored unique pheromone composition and structural motifs in different modes of pheromone delivery

Enhancement Of The Performance Of Lignin-Derived Hard Carbons For Battery Applications By Chemical Pretreatment

Because of lignin\u27s renewable and low-cost characteristics, lignin-derived hard carbons have been extensively studied as electrode materials for energy storage applications. However, the formation of solid electrolyte interface (SEI) during the first cycle in electrode materials and the loss of lithium/sodium ions during long-term cycling has a fatal impact on the performance of batteries. Recent technology is needed to improve lignin-based electrode materials\u27 initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE). In this study, pre-lithiation/pre-sodiation through the spontaneous chemical reaction between the aryl etherification reagent was used to improve the low ICE of the lignin-based anode material. Our results show that the ICE of the lignin-based anode material can be significantly improved with only a few minutes of treatment. It indicates that the treated is a promising renewable electrode material for battery applications. It can be used in electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices, such as supercapacitors, fuel cells, etc