Humanizująca siła narracji w akademickim nauczaniu EFL jako odpowiedź na wyzwania edukacyjne po pandemii COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic enforced rapid changes in teaching methodology, practically revising the widely applied academic practices and traditional approaches. Upon entering the spaces of classrooms after demanding remote learning, academic teachers and students encounter several challenges that pertain to building humanizing learning environments, as times differ from those before the pandemic. Therefore, promoting humanizing pedagogy in higher education is critically needed right now. The purpose of the article is to detail theoretical and practical solutions for academic teachers to inspire them to implement a narrative approach in their academic classrooms. Empirical studies support that when humanizing pedagogy is put into practice, it can strengthen reflective and dialogic approaches to teaching English, including teaching a specialist language. The practical suggestions on how to implement these approaches into teaching EFL and ESP in the context of Polish higher education distinctively show the potential of narratives and storytelling as didactic tools translating into an opportunity to design modern, high-quality English language courses.Pandemia COVID-19 wymusiła gwałtowne, nieprzewidziane zmiany w metodyce nauczania, praktycznie rewidując powszechnie stosowane praktyki akademickie i tradycyjne podejścia. Trudy nauczania zdalnego przełożyły się na jeszcze liczniejsze kolejne wyzwania, z którymi przyszło się zmierzyć nauczycielom akademickim po powrocie, mianowicie związane z tworzeniem humanizacyjnej przestrzeni edukacyjnej. Doświadczenia wywołane kryzysem covidowym jednoznacznie pokazały, że promowanie pedagogiki humanizującej w szkolnictwie wyższym jest teraz niezwykle potrzebne. Celem artykułu jest wyszczególnienie teoretycznych i praktycznych rozwiązań mających na celu zainspirowanie nauczycieli akademickich do wdrożenia podejścia narracyjnego w swoich salach wykładowych. Badania empiryczne potwierdzają, że humanizująca pedagogika może wzmocnić refleksyjne podejście do nauczania języka angielskiego, w tym do nauczania języka specjalistycznego. Praktyczne sugestie, jak wdrożyć te podejścia w kontekście polskiego szkolnictwa wyższego, wyraźnie pokazują potencjał narracji i opowiadania historii jako narzędzi dydaktycznych, przekładając się na możliwość projektowania nowoczesnych, wysokiej jakości kursów języka angielskiego

Detection of Non-Technical Losses in Smart Distribution Networks: a Review

With the advent of smart grids, distribution utilities have initiated a large deployment of smart meters on the premises of the consumers. The enormous amount of data obtained from the consumers and communicated to the utility give new perspectives and possibilities for various analytics-based applications. In this paper the current smart metering-based energy-theft detection schemes are reviewed and discussed according to two main distinctive categories: A) system statebased, and B) arti cial intelligence-based.Comisión Europea FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IT

Morphing Planar Graph Drawings with Unidirectional Moves

Alamdari et al. showed that given two straight-line planar drawings of a graph, there is a morph between them that preserves planarity and consists of a polynomial number of steps where each step is a \emph{linear morph} that moves each vertex at constant speed along a straight line. An important step in their proof consists of converting a \emph{pseudo-morph} (in which contractions are allowed) to a true morph. Here we introduce the notion of \emph{unidirectional morphing} step, where the vertices move along lines that all have the same direction. Our main result is to show that any planarity preserving pseudo-morph consisting of unidirectional steps and contraction of low degree vertices can be turned into a true morph without increasing the number of steps. Using this, we strengthen Alamdari et al.'s result to use only unidirectional morphs, and in the process we simplify the proof.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Electrospinsters Final Project Report

An electrospinning machine (EM) produces fibers and particles by means of applying a voltage process (electrohydrodynamic phenomena) to a polymer solution by incorporating the use of a receptacle, a pump, a high voltage power supply (HVPS) and a collector. EMs are typically very expensive, however, there has been work conducted by various researchers to construct in-house machines at a much lower cost. The growing applications for electrospinning continue to be a source of interest for many researchers as it is still a relatively new process. Much of the effort has been dedicated to producing nanofibers with unique properties with a focus on improving the efficiency and scalability of the process. The Electrospinsters Senior Design Team are researching and designing an in-house EM that can produce nanofibers for the team sponsor’s research and serve other educational purposes at Trinity University. The sponsor, Dr. Dany Munoz-Pinto, intends to use the results of this project to expand his research projects and goals by incorporating nanofibers into tissue scaffolds. The prototype must be a functioning EM so that a future team or the sponsor’s research students can make additions, but not struggle with the basic functions to create nanofibers. Based on published literature and additional research conducted by the team, we determined that an EM is composed of four subsystems: a syringe pump, a HVPS, a collector, and a user interface. The HVPS provides a voltage to the solution in the syringe pump which when exuded is drawn to the grounded collector due to the difference in electric potential. This drawn-out solution conglomerates on the collector which forms the scaffold. Published literature allowed us to gain a better understanding of the setup and we learned that there is not much variation in how the EM can be modified. Consequently, we chose to follow a fundamental setup with a flat collector plate due to its easy construction and compatibility with producing non-woven nanofibers with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). We designed and conducted a series of tests to validate the subsystems of the device and to test the EM against various design constraints and project requirements. Some of our constraints pertained to time and budget and our project met both of these, as we successfully created a working prototype for our sponsor by the end of the 2023 spring semester, and we only used $808.92 of our$1200 budget. Other criteria related to health and safety were met, since we complied with TU Environmental Health and Safety and OSHA standards, the voltage applied to the solution did not exceed 30 kV at any point during testing and application, and our device fit dimensional constraints and was only operated in a CSI fume hood to prevent the inhalation of nanoparticles. Our prototype operates all electrical subsystems using US standard outlets. Certain requirements correlated with certain subsystems which had specific tests designed to evaluate the flow rate, voltage, voltage display, and nanofiber diameter. The Flow Rate Variability Test evaluated the syringe pump subsystem with variable flow rates of 0.5 mL/hr, 1.0 mL/hr, and 1.5 mL/hr and deemed accurate enough for testing purposes. The Voltage Variability Test tested the active voltage of the HVPS and verified its operation is within a ±5% margin of error. The Proof-of-Concept Test verified that the EM could produce non-woven nanofibers of 200 nm and that it is within ±20% error of previously published experiments, which are acceptable results for our sponsor’s research purposes. Additionally, we tested Tip Diameter Variability and Collection Distance Variability to observe the effects on the nanofiber diameter and determined that there is not a significant difference as they are still within ±20% error, as we had expected from published literature. Overall, the Electrospinsters created a successful, working prototype to aid in our sponsor’s research. Our prototype met all requirements and constraints, and there are no remaining changes needed to achieve our final goals. However, for further improvements, we hope that a future team will improve this final prototype by integrating another type of collector that can produce aligned nanofibers while maintaining the ability to interchange collector types and implementing any other useful additions or modifications

Translating Prevention Research into Practive and Policy Through Community-Engaged Research, Evaluation and Service

How does a small, rural community effectively implement the CDC’s Community Guide recommendations for promoting physical activity?https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/prc-posters-presentations/1005/thumbnail.jp

Vedella ecològica a Catalunya reptes per a una producció sostenible

Treball presentat a l'assignatura de Deontologia i Veterinària Legal (21223

Selection of reference samples for updating multivariate calibration models used in the analysis of pig faeces

Monitoring and updating calibration models are common tasks when analytical methods are based on nearinfrared spectroscopy. This work describes a situation in which a PLS calibration model that is used routinely for the determination of phosphorus content in pig faeces in digestibility studies had to be updated in order to be used with the faeces collected in a new trial with phytases. An approach based on D-optimality is presented that selects a reduced number of the new samples to be analyzed with the reference analytical method so that the small set is used to confirm the need to update the model and validate it. The rest of the new samples that had not been selected by the algorithm were accurately predicted with the updated model. The updated model maintained its previous performance for the samples in the validation set (an RMSEP of 1.58 g kg− 1 compared with an RMSEP of 1.54 g kg− 1 before the update) and the prediction error for the new samples was RMSECV = 1.95 g kg− 1, much lower than the RMSEP = 11.38 g kg− 1 obtained before the model update. In addition, the predictive ability of the updated PLS model was significantly better than updated models selecting the reduced dataset using other sample selection methods such as Kennard-Stone, a leverage-based selection method and random selection.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Log Monitoring System using Quick Response (QR) Code: A State University’s COVID – 19 Contact Tracing System

Contact tracing is the technique employed by public health units and the national close contact service to track down persons who may have been exposed to COVID-19 by interaction with a suspect, confirmed, or probable case during their infectious period. This study focused on the development of a Log Monitoring System Using Quick Response (QR) Code in Samar State University as an institution’s tracing system for COVID – 19 preventions. The study was designed as a tool for managing the everyday logs of the employees, students, and visitors to track down the person who is in close contact to a COVID – 19 positives. The waterfall model was used in developing the system and descriptive research design was used to determine the effectiveness of the system along with functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability, and portability. The participants of the study were the employees, students, and visitors of SSU. Each participant has given an ISO 9126 quality standard questionnaire for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the system. The result revealed that using the system, the conduct of contact tracing of the possible COVID – 19 suspected individuals was done easily and with reliability

Collaborating Within to Support Systems Change: The Need For — and Limits of — Cross-Team Grantmaking

To be responsive to the many facets of communities’ challenges and solutions, the Kresge Foundation works intentionally at the intersections of its seven grantmaking areas. One way it fulfills this intention is by awarding cross-team grants, which involve financial and intellectual contributions from multiple Kresge programs in order to enable cross-sector, multidisciplinary work among grantees. As Kresge’s cross-team practice has grown and the field has increasingly expressed interest in cross-sector approaches to addressing long-standing challenges, Kresge partnered with the strategic learning firm Informing Change to explore how this approach to grantmaking and greater degree of internal collaboration is working from the point of view of Kresge staff and what enables or inhibits it, as well as whether and in what ways grantees uniquely benefit from cross-team grants. This article highlights key findings from this exploration, including grantees’ appreciation for Kresge’s cross-team approach. Nevertheless, the resource-intensive level of the foundation’s internal collaboration compelled many Kresge staff to seek evidence of impact in the short term, despite the challenges inherent in measuring complex, emergent, and unpredictable cross-sector work. Kresge’s experience with cross-team grantmaking surfaces a deeply embedded challenge across philanthropy: the historical practice of structuring grantmaking work by program content area is often misaligned with the urgent need to work across sectors to drive complex systems change. As philanthropy seeks to support collaboration among grantees and launches new multifunder collaboratives to affect systems change, structures within foundations may need to change to actualize this ideal