A Snapshot Semester: Students’ Reflections of Performance and Mental State throughout a Graduate Course

Graduate students are anecdotally reputed to be among the most stressed groups of young adults. Common sources of stress for graduate students have included coursework, assistantships, finances, career preparation, and family (Wyatt & Oswalt, 2013; Mazzola, Walker, Shockley & Spector, 2011; Oswalt & Riddock, 2007). Guided reflection can be used by educators to assist students in both learning (Boud, Keogh & Walker, 2013; Kolb, 1984) and managing stress (Shoulders, Whitehead, & Morrison, 2018). By understanding how students’ progress through a semester in terms of both their learning and their management of stress, instructors and academic advisors can better anticipate times of struggle among their students, giving them greater opportunity to meet their students’ needs with appropriate guidance and instruction. This study explored students’ perceptions of their performance and mental state throughout a semester-long course. The purpose of this study was to explore graduate students’ perceptions of their own academic and coping experiences throughout a Research Methods course. The purpose was fulfilled by the following research questions: 1) how do students perceive their engagement with course content as a piece in their holistic lives? 2) how do online versus FTF students perceive their engagement with course content as a piece in their holistic lives? Students enrolled in the Fall 2018 Research Methods in the Social Sciences at the University of Arkansas (N = 43) were assigned to submit weekly visual reflections that portrayed their relationship with the class, along with a written justification for the image selected. Students submitted the visual reflection on Friday for 16 weeks in the semester. Data was analyzed using a constant comparative method (Glaser, 1965). From these reflections, 130 themes were identified from the 16 weeks. Nine overarching themes were then developed over the entirety of the semester. Once a holistic description of each theme throughout the semester was completed, the students were grouped as online or face-to-face (FTF) students. Each theme was re-examined to group them based on their association with online students, FTF students, or both. By examining these experiences, professors can better prepare their teaching methods to match students’ needs

New family of potentials with analytical twiston-like solutions

In this letter we present a new approach to find analytical twiston models. The effective two-field model was constructed by a non-trivial combination of two one field systems. In such an approach we successfully build analytical models which are satisfied by a combination of two defect-like solutions, where one is responsible to twist the molecular chain by $180^{\,0}$, while the other implies in a longitudinal movement. Such a longitudinal movement can be fitted to have the size of the distance between adjacent molecular groups. The procedure works nicely and can be used to describe the dynamics of several other molecular chains.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Genetic algorithms to determine the optimal parameters of an ensemble local mean decomposition

An optimization method for an ensemble local mean decomposition (ELMD) parameters selection using genetic algorithms is proposed. The execution of this technique depends heavily on the correct choice of the parameters of its model as pointed out in previous works. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated using synthetic signals, discussed by several authors. The resulting algorithm obtained similar results to OELMD, but with an 82% reduction in processing time. Actual vibration signals were also analysed, presenting satisfactory results

Two loops calculation in chiral perturbation theory and the unitarization program of current algebra

In this paper we compare two loop Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) calculation of pion-pion scattering with the unitarity second order correction to the current algebra soft-pion theorem. It is shown that both methods lead to the same analytic structure for the scattering amplitude.Comment: 13 pages, Revtex 3.0, no figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Fertilizantes para fertirrigação.

Formas de fertilizantes; Fertilizantes sólidos; Fertilizantes líquidos; Misturas em suspensão; Compatibilidade entre os fertilizantes; Poder de corrosão dos fertilizantes; Solubilidade dos fertilizantes; Salinidade dos fertilizantes; Acidificação dos fertilizantes; Tipos de fertilizantes: Fertilizantes nitrogenados; Fertilizantes fosfatados; Fertilizantes potássicos; Fertilizantes com cálcio, magnésio e enxofre; Fertilizantes com micronutrientes