Enhancing Your Teaching Methods: An Information Literacy-Based Approach to Developing Course Assignments

As information becomes more abundant and accessible, today’s workers will find it critical to develop the soft skills of information literacy. Prior to graduation, students need regular practice evaluating the credibility of common business information sources. To support these goals, we propose and describe a teaching methodology that borrows from the field of librarianship and uses concepts, mindsets, and practices from the study of information literacy. In addition to providing an information literacy-based framework for use when developing course assignments, we offer an extended example that makes use of this approach

Optimal Neural Spike Classification

Being able to record the electrical activities of a number of neurons simultaneously is likely to be important in the study of the functional organization of networks of real neurons. Using one extracellular microelectrode to record from several neurons is one approach to studying the response properties of sets of adjacent and therefore likely related neurons. However, to do this, it is necessary to correctly classify the signals generated by these different neurons. This paper considers this problem of classifying the signals in such an extracellular recording, based upon their shapes, and specifically considers the classification of signals in the case when spikes overlap temporally

Long sandwich modules for photon veto detectors

Long lead-scintillator sandwich modules developed for the BNL experiment KOPIO are described. The individual 4 m long module consists of 15 layers of 7 mm thick extruded scintillator and 15 layers of 1 mm lead absorber. Readout is implemented via WLS fibers glued into grooves in a scintillator with 7 mm spacing and viewed from both ends by the phototubes. Time resolution of 300 ps for cosmic MIPs was obtained. Light output stability monitored for 2 years shows no degradation beyond the measurement errors. A 4 m long C-bent sandwich module was also manufactured and tested.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl

The von Economo neurons in frontoinsular and anterior cingulate cortex in great apes and humans

The von Economo neurons (VENs) are large bipolar neurons located in frontoinsular (FI) and anterior cingulate cortex in great apes and humans, but not other primates. We performed stereological counts of the VENs in FI and LA (limbic anterior, a component of anterior cingulate cortex) in great apes and in humans. The VENs are more numerous in humans than in apes, although one gorilla approached the lower end of the human range. We also examined the ontological development of the VENs in FI and LA in humans. The VENs first appear in small numbers in the 36th week post-conception, are rare at birth, and increase in number during the first 8 months after birth. There are significantly more VENs in the right hemisphere than in the left in FI and LA in postnatal brains of apes and humans. This asymmetry in VEN numbers may be related to asymmetries in the autonomic nervous system. The activity of the inferior anterior insula, which contains FI, is related to physiological changes in the body, decision-making, error recognition, and awareness. The VENs appear to be projection neurons, although their targets are unknown. We made a preliminary study of the connections of FI cortex based on diffusion tensor imaging in the brain of a gorilla. The VEN-containing regions connect to the frontal pole as well as to other parts of frontal and insular cortex, the septum, and the amygdala. It is likely that the VENs in FI are projecting to some or all of these structures and relaying information related to autonomic control, decision-making, or awareness. The VENs selectively express the bombesin peptides neuromedin B (NMB) and gastrin releasing peptide (GRP) which are also expressed in another population of closely related neurons, the fork cells. NMB and GRP signal satiety. The genes for NMB and GRP are expressed selectively in small populations of neurons in the insular cortex in mice. These populations may be related to the VEN and fork cells and may be involved in the regulation of appetite. The loss of these cells may be related to the loss of satiety signaling in patients with frontotemporal dementia who have damage to FI. The VENs and fork cells may be morphological specializations of an ancient population of neurons involved in the control of appetite present in the insular cortex in all mammals. We found that the protein encoded by the gene DISC1 (disrupted in schizophrenia) is preferentially expressed by the VENs. DISC1 has undergone rapid evolutionary change in the line leading to humans, and since it suppresses dendritic branching it may be involved in the distinctive VEN morphology

A Green Synthesis of Iron/Copper Nanoparticles as a Catalytic of Fenton-like Reactions for Removal of Orange G Dye

تدرس هذه الورقة البحثية استخدام طريقة صديقة للبيئة وغير مكلفة لإزالة الصبغة البرتقالية G (OG) من المحلول المائي، حيث تم استخدام مستخلص أوراق شجرة الفيكس لغرض التخليق الأخضر لجسيمات الحديد/نحاس ثنائية الفلز النانوية (G-Fe/Cu-NPs). بعد أن تم تحضير G-Fe/Cu-NPs تم تشخيصها باستخدام مجهر الماسح الالكتروني، BET، مجهر القوة الذرية، مطياف الطاقة المشتتة، مطيافية الأشعة تحت الحمراء، و مقياس زيتا. أظهرت نتائج التشخيص بأن شكل G-Fe/Cu-NPs كان مستدير شبه كروي ويتراوح الحجم بين 32-59 نانومتر بينما كانت مساحتها السطحية 4.452 م2/غم. فيما بعد اُستخدمت الجسيمات النانوية الناتجة كعامل مساعد في تفاعلات الأكسدة الشبيهة بالفنتون. حيث أن كفاءة تحلل صبغة OG اعتمدت بشكل كبير على تركيز الهيدروجين بيروكسايد (1.7-5.28 ملي مولاري)، كمية العامل المساعد (0.4-1.6 غم/لتر)، درجة الحامضية (2-7)، تركيز OG الابتدائي (25-75 ملغم/لتر) ودرجة الحرارة (20-50 درجة مئوية). أظهرت التجارب الدفعية أن 94.8% لتركيز 50 ملغم/لتر من صبغة OG تمت ازالته عند الظروف المثلى للهيديروجين بيروكسايد، كمية العامل المساعد، درجة الحامضية، ودرجة الحرارة والتي كانت 3.52 ملي مولاري،1غم/لتر، 3، و 40 درجة مئوية على التوالي خلال زمن مقداره 30 دقيقة. أيضاً أظهرت نتائج دراسة النماذج الحركية بأن ازالة صبغة OG تتبع نموذج  حركي من الدرجة الثانية. أخيراً، تم دراسة الديناميكية الحرارية للتفاعل وخلُصت إلى ان التفاعل ماصاً للحرارة وله طاقة تنشيط مقدارها 29.725 كيلوجول/مول.This research paper studies the use of an environmentally and not expensive method to degrade Orange G dye (OG) from the aqueous solution, where the extract of ficus leaves has been used to fabricate the green bimetallic iron/copper nanoparticles (G-Fe/Cu-NPs). The fabricated G‑Fe/Cu-NPs were characterized utilizing scanning electron microscopy, BET, atomic force microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and zeta potential. The rounded and shaped as like spherical nanoparticles were found for G-Fe/Cu‑NPs with the size ranged 32-59 nm and the surface area was 4.452 m2/g. Then the resultant nanoparticles were utilized as a Fenton-like oxidation catalyst. The degradation efficiency of OG dye highly depends on H2O2 concentration (1.7-5.28 mM), catalyst dose (0.4-1.6 g/L), pH (2-7), initial OG concentration (25-75 mg/L), and temperature (20-50 ℃). Batch experiments showed that 94.8 % of 50 mg/L of OG dye was removed within the optimum peroxide concentration, dose, pH and temperature which were 3.52 mM, 1 g/L, 3, and 40℃ respectively along with 30 min contact time. The results of kinetic models showed that OG removal followed the second-order model. Finally, the thermodynamic study of reaction was also examined and concluded to endothermic reaction with 29.725 kJ/mol activation energy

Search for the decay K+→π+ννˉK^+\to \pi^+ \nu \bar\nu in the momentum region Pπ<195 MeV/cP_\pi < 195 {\rm ~MeV/c}

We have searched for the decay $K^+ \to \pi^+ \nu \bar\nu$ in the kinematic region with pion momentum below the $K^+ \to \pi^+ \pi^0$ peak. One event was observed, consistent with the background estimate of $0.73\pm 0.18$. This implies an upper limit on $B(K^+ \to \pi^+ \nu \bar\nu)< 4.2\times 10^{-9}$ (90% C.L.), consistent with the recently measured branching ratio of $(1.57^{+1.75}_{-0.82}) \times 10^{-10}$, obtained using the standard model spectrum and the kinematic region above the $K^+ \to \pi^+ \pi^0$ peak. The same data were used to search for $K^+ \to \pi^+ X^0$, where $X^0$ is a weakly interacting neutral particle or system of particles with $150 < M_{X^0} < 250 {\rm ~MeV/c^2}$.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Optoelectronic Reservoir Computing

Reservoir computing is a recently introduced, highly efficient bio-inspired approach for processing time dependent data. The basic scheme of reservoir computing consists of a non linear recurrent dynamical system coupled to a single input layer and a single output layer. Within these constraints many implementations are possible. Here we report an opto-electronic implementation of reservoir computing based on a recently proposed architecture consisting of a single non linear node and a delay line. Our implementation is sufficiently fast for real time information processing. We illustrate its performance on tasks of practical importance such as nonlinear channel equalization and speech recognition, and obtain results comparable to state of the art digital implementations.Comment: Contains main paper and two Supplementary Material

RR-Parity Violation in Flavor Changing Neutral Current Processes and Top Quark Decays

We show that supersymmetric $R$-parity breaking ($\not R_p$) interactions always result in Flavor Changing Neutral Current (FCNC) processes. Within a single coupling scheme, these processes can be avoided in either the charge $+2/3$ or the charge $-1/3$ quark sector, but not both. These processes are used to place constraints on \Rp couplings. The constraints on the first and the second generations are better than those existing in the literature. The \Rp interactions may result in new top quark decays. Some of these violate electron-muon universality or produce a surplus of $b$ quark events in $t\bar{t}$ decays. Results from the CDF experiment are used to bound these \Rp couplings.Comment: LaTeX, 20 pages, spelling corrected from origina