Socratic seminars : fostering an environment of critical thinking and self-confidence in the classroom

This action research investigates how Socratic seminars can foster a classroom environment whereby students are challenged to exhibit habits of mind but also feel comfortable enough to share their thoughts. The curriculum was built around the Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC) template and modules developed by a task force of CSU professors to prepare high school students for college-level course work. After reading non-fiction texts and completing various pre-reading and reading activities to prepare for the conversations, 18 senior English students engaged in four Socratic seminars. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, I analyzed classroom observation notes, student evaluation rubrics, interview transcripts, student surveys, and student writing samples. The findings revealed that as the students engaged in dialogue, they enjoyed being in command of their learning and believed they gained in critical thinking from the Socratic method of teaching

A demonstrator for the experimental assessment of the through-process modeling of injection-molded parts made of short-fiber-reinforced polymers

Through process modelling of injection moulded parts is nowadays the industry standard approach to the structural analysis of parts made of short fibre-reinforced polymers. The designer has to face challenging tasks, in order to conduct accurate and reliable analyses. Complex geometries, weld lines and multiple flows make it difficult to transfer results of tests conducted on simple specimens to the assessment of the real parts. We have designed a mould allowing for manufacturing a demonstrator, i.e., a part of sufficiently complex shape, typical of injection-moulded structural parts, allowing for creating different conditions in terms of fibre orientation, presence of weld lines and multiple injection points. The part is designed to be tested under three- or four-point bending conditions. By simulating the test conditions, the designer can compare experimental results with numerical solutions, in order to better understand the potential of the software packages he is using

A demonstrator for the experimental assessment of the through-process modeling of injection-molded parts made of short-fiber-reinforced polymers

Through process modelling of injection moulded parts is nowadays the industry standard approach to the structural analysis of parts made of short fibre-reinforced polymers. The designer has to face challenging tasks, in order to conduct accurate and reliable analyses. Complex geometries, weld lines and multiple flows make it difficult to transfer results of tests conducted on simple specimens to the assessment of the real parts. We have designed a mould allowing for manufacturing a demonstrator, i.e., a part of sufficiently complex shape, typical of injection-moulded structural parts, allowing for creating different conditions in terms of fibre orientation, presence of weld lines and multiple injection points. The part is designed to be tested under three- or four-point bending conditions. By simulating the test conditions, the designer can compare experimental results with numerical solutions, in order to better understand the potential of the software packages he is using

Exploring a text corpus via a knowledge graph

Semantic enrichment methods may be used to identify relevant entities in textual documents. These extracted entities are part of knowledge graphs and thus linked by semantic relationships. This work explores the idea of navigating the semantic relationships among extracted entities as a way to search a text corpus. A modular software system (including document management, semantic enrichment, data consolidation, and data integration) has been designed, to offer a visual user interface for such navigation on top of an arbitrary corpus of textual documents. The software, called arca, has been used in a real use case: to search in the book catalogue of a publishing house. The evaluation carried out with a set of potential users has shown so far the feasibility and effectiveness of the approach. Critical issues and potential limitations of the paradigm have also been found and are discussed

Effect of "spraying" by fighting honey bee queens (Apis mellifera L.) on the temporal structure of fights

To reproduce, social insect colonies rear sexual progeny, and young queens start a new colony either without (independently) or with the help of workers (dependently). When colony reproduction is dependent and young queens are produced in excess, conflicts are predicted to occur. Honey bee colonies reproduce dependently by swarming. The mother queen leaves with a Óprime swarmÓ before daughter queens reach adulthood. More queens are produced than can obtain sufficient worker force, and emerging queens often fight to death. Surviving queen(s) inherit the established nest or a portion of workers which then depart in an ÓafterswarmÓ. Honey bee queens show numerous adaptations for fighting and conflict with other queens, such as early venom production and fast development. During fights one queen often releases rectal fluid. The function of this ÓsprayingÓ behaviour is unclear. Previous studies have reported that it can both attract and repel workers, and observations that it also interrupts fights. Possible functions of spraying are to affect worker intervention in fights, act as a chemical weapon, or lower worker attention towards contaminated queens. We staged fights between 24 queen pairs to investigate the temporal pattern of behaviour in spraying and non-spraying fights. Spraying occurred in 67% of the fights. In the majority of spraying fights (87%) it occurred upon physical contact. Spraying fights were characterized by significantly lower proportion of escalated aggression and a significantly shorter first escalated bout. This provides quantitative evidence that spraying interrupts fights and suggests that its function is to directly provide a temporary respite to queens

MODELLING ELASTICITY OF INJECTION MOULDED SHORT FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMERS: COMPARISON BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL AND ANALYTICAL APPROACHES

In this work we analysed a sample of short fibre reinforced polyamide extracted from an injection moulded plate. We derived local values of the elastic constants by two different numerical methods, one based on simulation and one based on the reconstruction of the sample's microstructure by micro - CT. Results were compared in terms of moduli of elasticity, assuming an orthotropic material model. Fibre orientation was first simulated by process simulation and results were checked against experimental data obtained by the optical section method. Then, fibre orientation data were used for micro-mechanical modelling of the elastic behaviour by means of mean field homogenisation tools. The experimentally based approach was based on micro computed tomography reconstructions of the inner structure of samples extracted from the injection moulded plate. Using numerical models based on the Cell Method, the elastic behaviour of the reconstructed volume was simulated and results were compared with analytical models based on process simulations and homogenization

Photoelasticity of sodium silicate glass from first principles

Based on density-functional perturbation theory we have computed the photoelastic tensor of a model of sodium silicate glass of composition (Na$_2$O)$_{0.25}$(SiO$_2$)$_{0.75}$ (NS3). The model (containig 84 atoms) is obtained by quenching from the melt in combined classical and Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations. The calculated photoelastic coefficients are in good agreement with experimental data. In particular, the calculation reproduces quantitatively the decrease of the photoelastic response induced by the insertion of Na, as measured experimentally. The extension to NS3 of a phenomenological model developed in a previous work for pure a-SiO$_2$ indicates that the modulation upon strain of other structural parameters besides the SiOSi angles must be invoked to explain the change in the photoelstic response induced by Na