Constant-temperature molecular-dynamics algorithms for mixed hard-core/continuous potentials

We present a set of second-order, time-reversible algorithms for the isothermal (NVT) molecular-dynamics (MD) simulation of systems with mixed hard-core/continuous potentials. The methods are generated by combining real-time Nose' thermostats with our previously developed Collision Verlet algorithm [Mol. Phys. 98, 309 (1999)] for constant energy MD simulation of such systems. In all we present 5 methods, one based on the Nose'-Hoover [Phys. Rev. A 31, 1695 (1985)] equations of motion and four based on the Nose'-Poincare' [J.Comp.Phys., 151 114 (1999)] real-time formulation of Nose' dynamics. The methods are tested using a system of hard spheres with attractive tails and all correctly reproduce a canonical distribution of instantaneous temperature. The Nose'-Hoover based method and two of the Nose'-Poincare' methods are shown to have good energy conservation in long simulations.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Formulating LUTI Calibration As an Optimisation Problem: Estimation of Tranus Shadow Price and Substitution Parameters

International audienceCities and their employment catchment areas are focus points of economic activity, transportation, and social interactions. The need for land use and transport integrated modelling (LUTI modelling) as a decision aid tool in urban planning, has become apparent. Instantiating such models on cities, requires a substantial data collection, model structuring and parameter estimation effort; for conciseness, the latter is referred to here as calibration. This work is a partial effort towards the integrated calibration of LUTI models. It considers one of the most widely used LUTI models and softwares, Tranus. The usual calibration approach for Tranus is briefly reviewed. It is then reformulated as an optimisa-tion problem, in order to make it amenable to the systematic incorporation of constraints on parameters and additional data and to form a clear basis for future fully integrated calibration. The problem at hand concerns a dynamic system; an approach is shown how to " eliminate " parts of the dynamics in order to ease the parameter optimisation. We also discuss how to validate calibration results and propose to use synthetic data generated from real world problems in order to assess convergence properties and accuracy of calibration methods

Contributions to the calibration of integrated land use and transportation models

International audienceThe need for land use and transport integrated modelling (LUTI modelling) as a decision aid tool in urban planning, has become apparent. Instantiating such models on cities, requires a substantial data collection, model structur-ing and parameter estimation effort. This work is a partial effort towards the integrated calibration of LUTI models. It considers one of the most widely used LUTI models and softwares, Tranus. The usual calibration approach for Tranus is briefly reviewed, then the calibration of Tranus' land use module is reformulated as an optimisation problem, proposing a clear basis for future fully integrated calibration. We analyse the case of transportable and non-transportable economic sectors. We also discuss how to validate calibration results and propose to use synthetic data generated from real world problems in order to assess convergence properties and accuracy of calibration methods. Finally, results of this methodology are presented for real world scenarios

Cloud computing and adult literacy: How cloud computing can sustain the promise of adult learning

Adult literacy in Canada consists of a patchwork of large and small adult education providers: many of them are autonomous community societies, some are school boards, and others are community college based, as well as a range of independent community-based groups. Funding for adult literacy comes from several pockets: from different provincial and/or federal government departments and from charitable organizations. Much of the federal funding is short term in response to shifting government priorities. Indeed, Crooks et al. [1] suggest that the ongoing funding search, with the attendant application and reporting activities, detracts from the ability to provide more effectively planned and sustainable adult education programs. A major challenge for adult literacy providers is that while their client base has significant human and economic potential, low-literacy adults are not perceived as large contributors to the economy, and thus, much of the funding is intermittent—from project to project.Alpha Adult Literacy Ontari

LpL^p-Spectral theory of locally symmetric spaces with QQ-rank one

We study the $L^p$-spectrum of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on certain complete locally symmetric spaces $M=\Gamma\backslash X$ with finite volume and arithmetic fundamental group $\Gamma$ whose universal covering $X$ is a symmetric space of non-compact type. We also show, how the obtained results for locally symmetric spaces can be generalized to manifolds with cusps of rank one

A randomised phase I study of etrolizumab (rhuMAb β7) in moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.

ObjectiveEtrolizumab (rhuMAb β7, anti-β7, PRO145223) is a humanised monoclonal antibody targeting the β7 subunit of the heterodimeric integrins α4β7 and αEβ7, which are implicated in leucocyte migration and retention in ulcerative colitis (UC). This randomised phase I study evaluated the safety and pharmacology of etrolizumab in patients with moderate to severe UC.DesignIn the single ascending dose (SAD) stage, etrolizumab (0.3, 1.0, 3.0, 10 mg/kg intravenous, 3.0 mg/kg subcutaneous (SC) or placebo) was administered 4:1 (n=25) in each cohort. In the multiple dose (MD) stage, new patients received monthly etrolizumab (0.5 mg/kg SC (n=4), 1.5 mg/kg SC (n=5), 3.0 mg/kg SC (n=4), 4.0 mg/kg intravenous (n=5)) or placebo (n=5). The pharmacokinetics was studied and Mayo Clinic Score evaluated at baseline, day 29 (SAD), and days 43 and 71 (MD).ResultsIn the SAD stage, there were no dose limiting toxicities, infusion or injection site reactions. Two impaired wound healing serious adverse events occurred in two patients receiving etrolizumab. In the MD stage, there were no dose limiting toxicities, and no infusion or injection site reactions. Headache was the most common adverse event, occurring more often in etrolizumab patients. Antietrolizumab antibodies were detected in two subjects. The duration of β7 receptor full occupancy was dose related. A clinical response was observed in 12/18 patients, and clinical remission in 3/18 patients treated with etrolizumab in the MD stage, compared with 4/5 and 1/5 placebo patients, respectively.ConclusionEtrolizumab is well tolerated in moderate to severe UC. Further investigation is warranted

Performance as Truth in the LIS Classroom

Library and Information Science instructors are including art in their teaching. Ibekwe (2020) asked students “to produce artworks that illustrated how chosen information and communication theories operated in plausible, real-life, or historic contexts” (p. 427). Dali et al. (2015) describe substituting an “academically informed creative writing” option for what would typically be an academic writing assignment, “in other words, a short story that would read like fiction while touching upon the essential issues involved in dissecting and understanding the experience of reading” (p. 302). Hartel et al. (2017) proposed reinventing conventional essay assignments as a “creative deliverable,” a more spacious translation of course content into any format of the arts, including non-material manifestations such as dance or musical composition. In the LIS field, performance is most commonly associated with children’s librarianship. McDowell and Cooke (2022), discussing storytelling, note “those skills and practices have not been readily available to or understood as important for everyday libraries and librarians” (p. 373). Worthington (2017), analyzing LIS syllabi, found that the “vast majority of courses that included storytelling, puppetry, and read-alouds were childrens’ courses” (pp. 211-212). Even these courses are typically elective rather than required, and performance is often ungraded (p. 210). Vardell and Nelson’s (2020)  adventurous “Teaching Reference Interview Skills with Improv” reports on the benefits of improvisation activities, which can enhance communication, empathy, and teamwork–all essential to a librarian’s interactions with the public. Our panel will share how we incorporate performance into our LIS classrooms. We discuss performance for children’s librarians as well as for students entering other areas of the LIS profession. We examine how performance gets at Truth that can be difficult or impossible to access through other means. And, we consider the ethics of requiring student performance in a course. Exploring Soft Skills through the Fundamentals of Improv Comedy Emily Vardell will discuss how she uses improv comedy exercises to discuss and practice the soft skills necessary for successful reference service interactions. She uses the exercises as an active learning activity in a required reference services course to help LIS graduate students more organically explore soft skills. In addition to outlining the improv exercises, Emily will explore how she leads class discussions on the connections between improv and the soft skills needed to be an effective and responsive librarian. Students report that the opportunity to explore the provision of reference services through an improv lens helped them connect to many of the soft skills inherent in effective reference provision such as being flexible, meeting someone where they are at, making connections, and affirming patron needs. These soft skills are key to effective reference interviews but can be difficult to convey in a standard practice the reference interview exercise. By marrying discussions of improv comedy with reference skills, students are able to engage and explore these soft skills from a different lens. The Price of Stories is Sometimes Too High: Learning from Students’ Personal Narrative Performance Brian Sturm will share his experience in a Storytelling for Social Justice course for first year undergraduates. Designed to help them develop their own voices, the class was a bit too successful when one student used the opportunity for revenge on another student.  He’ll cover lessons learned and changes made to the course to avoid this “misuse” of storytelling in the classroom. Breathing Life into Read-Alouds Sarah Beth Nelson will discuss the read-aloud assignment in her Library Materials for Children course. She prepares students for this assignment with a workshop on “breathing life into read-alouds,” which includes recognizing the reader’s creative contribution to the story. She will also share student thoughts on authenticity and authority as they relate to reading books aloud. What if a librarian wants to share a book with children, but isn’t sure they are the right person to read it aloud? By practicing a read-aloud and giving each other feedback, students experiment with stepping into the authority that the reader role asks of them. Sarah Beth has had students perform in person during face to face class, and more recently online by recording their performance. Storytelling for Social Justice and Advocacy Nicole Cooke will discuss the creation and implementation of her Storytelling for Social Justice and Advocacy course. Incorporating a mixture of public speaking, storytelling, personal narrative, and current social justice issues, students learn and practice the processes and skills needed to orally advocate for themselves, the profession, and the issues they care about most passionately. Grounding their passion with ethics and cultural competence, Cooke, and her students, place special emphasis on the question “Is this my story to tell?” Using data and self-reflection, instead of props, puppets, and picture books, student tellers learn how to lend their voices to amplify the social justice issues in their communities

The elusive ISM of dwarf galaxies: excess submillimetre emission & CO-dark molecular gas

The Herschel Dwarf Galaxy Survey investigates the interplay of star formation activity and the the metal-poor gas and dust of dwarf galaxies using FIR and submillimetre imaging spectroscopic and photometric observations in the 50 to 550mu window of the Herschel Space Observatory. The dust SEDs are well constrained with the new Herschel and MIR Spitzer data. A submillimetre excess is often found in low metallicity galaxies, which,if tracing very cold dust, would highlight large dust masses not easily reconciled in some cases, given the low metallicities and expected gas-to-dust mass ratios. The galaxies are also mapped in the FIR fine-structure lines (63 and 145mu OI, 158mu CII, 122 and 205mu NII, 88mu OIII) probing the low density ionised gas, the HII regions and photodissociation regions. While still early in the Herschel mission we can already see, along with earlier studies, that line ratios in the metal-poor ISM differ remarkably from those in the metal-rich starburst environments. In dwarf galaxies, L[CII]/L(CO) (>10^4) is at least an order of magnitude greater than in the most metal-rich starburst galaxies. The enhanced [CII] arises from the larger photodissociation region where H2, not traced by the CO, can exist. The 88mu [OIII] line usually dominates the FIR line emission over galaxy-wide scales in dwarf galaxies, not the 158mu [CII] line which is the dominant FIR cooling line in metal-rich galaxies. All of the FIR lines together can contribute 1% to 2% of the L(TIR). The Herschel Dwarf Galaxy survey will provide statistical information on the nature of the dust and gas in low metallicity galaxies, elucidating the origin of the submm excess in dwarf galaxies, and help determine a ([CII] +CO) to H2 conversion factor, thus providing observational constraints on chemical evolution models of galaxies

With Our Own Words Librarians’ Perceptions of the Values of Storytelling in Libraries

Storytelling has been part of public library programming since the late 1800s, and its value has been widely discussed by librarians. The works of twenty-six public librarians and one schoolteacher were examined for trends in their perceptions of storytelling's value in libraries. The data reveal that, while storytelling is beneficial for librarian development and institutional promotion, the primary values are for children: (1) motivating reading, (2) developing strength of character, (3) growing their imaginations through vicarious experience, (4) exposing them to culture and history, (5) building personal relationships and emotional engagement, and (6) improving basic literacy skills