Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Audio In Hybrid Courses

The prevalence of either completely online or hybrid courses has continued to increase over the past decade, but properly designing the delivery mode of these courses remains a challenge. Whereas fully online institutions of higher education may focus on a purely online delivery format, more traditional colleges and universities have the challenge of balancing online and traditional classroom instruction using the hybrid course format. Whereas basic hybrid courses may have relied more on visual aids of instruction, this paper focuses on the effectiveness of enhancing these hybrid courses with audio lectures. Hybrid courses were created using PowerPoint slides consisting of a mix of visual and audio instructional delivery modes, and student surveys were subsequently administered at the conclusion of the semester to determine the ultimate effectiveness of audio enhancements. This paper presents the details of this case study, the corresponding statistical analyses and interpretations, and general concluding recommendations for audio-enhanced course design. Overall, the addition of the audio component to the hybrid course structure made the hybrid course experience more effective, increased the likelihood that the students would take or recommend future hybrid courses that contained audio enhancements, and made it more likely that the students would prefer a hybrid course to a traditional classroom-only course. Continued research is necessary to provide a more active learning experience and class community during the online components, and synergistically utilize classroom time more effectively to truly capture the benefits of both online and traditional instruction using the audio-enhanced hybrid course format

A Comprehensive Student-Based Analysis Of Hybrid Courses: Student Preferences And Design Criteria For Success

Online leaning in all forms has become the largest segment of growth in the education model over the last 10 years.  Our paper focuses on the general area of computer-assisted learning, a method that uses interactive software as an aid to learning, and more specifically on blended courses - courses that are taught congruently online and in a traditional setting.  Our paper examines the methodology of such innovation and details the steps necessary to institute such a program in main-stream teaching.  Our paper will also help make more clear the learning intentions and show how students can achieve success while instructors take advantage of new-age methods to help them become more versed in the art of teaching.  We will identify the necessary steps that students must take prior to enrolling in these courses, examine the requirements, and commitments that institutions must make to implement such a curriculum and show how the instructors must prepare themselves for the rigors that lie ahead in making this course both enjoyable and educational.  A comprehensive survey and statistical analysis was conducted and the results presented in this paper to support any conclusions and recommendations.  E-learning is offered in many forms throughout the world.  Today, you can secure a bachelors, masters or even doctoral degree totally online.  Students will continue to supplement a very busy work/life balance with online education, therefore we feel our paper addresses these concerns now and in the future and show not only the importance of this methodology, but how a simple seamless integration of this process is possible for institutions of higher learning

Influence of eco-materials on Indoor Air Quality

A growing strategy to reduce the energy consumption of buildings involves a combination of increased air tightness and high levels of insulation. However, an undesirable consequence of this approach is a deterioration of the Indoor Air Quality and accumulation of airborne pollutants, resulting from the reduction in ventilation. The chemical nature and concentration of indoor air pollutants is dependent on the building materials and activities of the occupiers. Recent studies have raised awareness of the effect of Indoor Air Quality on the perceived comfort levels, health and well-being of humans. This paper investigates the role of commercially available natural building materials including lime mortars, natural fibres and wood panels on the Indoor Air Quality. Initially the emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from building materials were identified and measured. Subsequent tests then considered the adsorption and re-emission behaviour of four VOCs; toluene, limonene, dodecane and formaldehyde. The significance of this paper lies in its demonstration that emissions are dependent on the chemical composition of building materials and the production process, whereas the adsorption/desorption characteristics are related to material microstructure and polarity of the VOCs. The results allow the performance of a construction material, in terms of its influence on indoor air quality, to be deduced from a knowledge of chemical composition and microstructure. This paper provides a new approach for assessing the influence of different building materials on indoor air quality when exposed to gaseous pollutants

On the class SI of J-contractive functions intertwining solutions of linear differential equations

In the PhD thesis of the second author under the supervision of the third author was defined the class SI of J-contractive functions, depending on a parameter and arising as transfer functions of overdetermined conservative 2D systems invariant in one direction. In this paper we extend and solve in the class SI, a number of problems originally set for the class SC of functions contractive in the open right-half plane, and unitary on the imaginary line with respect to some preassigned signature matrix J. The problems we consider include the Schur algorithm, the partial realization problem and the Nevanlinna-Pick interpolation problem. The arguments rely on a correspondence between elements in a given subclass of SI and elements in SC. Another important tool in the arguments is a new result pertaining to the classical tangential Schur algorithm.Comment: 46 page

Randomly Crosslinked Macromolecular Systems: Vulcanisation Transition to and Properties of the Amorphous Solid State

As Charles Goodyear discovered in 1839, when he first vulcanised rubber, a macromolecular liquid is transformed into a solid when a sufficient density of permanent crosslinks is introduced at random. At this continuous equi- librium phase transition, the liquid state, in which all macromolecules are delocalised, is transformed into a solid state, in which a nonzero fraction of macromolecules have spontaneously become localised. This solid state is a most unusual one: localisation occurs about mean positions that are distributed homogeneously and randomly, and to an extent that varies randomly from monomer to monomer. Thus, the solid state emerging at the vulcanisation transition is an equilibrium amorphous solid state: it is properly viewed as a solid state that bears the same relationship to the liquid and crystalline states as the spin glass state of certain magnetic systems bears to the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic states, in the sense that, like the spin glass state, it is diagnosed by a subtle order parameter. In this review we give a detailed exposition of a theoretical approach to the physical properties of systems of randomly, permanently crosslinked macromolecules. Our primary focus is on the equilibrium properties of such systems, especially in the regime of Goodyear's vulcanisation transition.Comment: Review Article, REVTEX, 58 pages, 3 PostScript figure

First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. IV. Imaging the Central Supermassive Black Hole

We present the first Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) images of M87, using observations from April 2017 at 1.3 mm wavelength. These images show a prominent ring with a diameter of similar to 40 mu as, consistent with the size and shape of the lensed photon orbit encircling the "shadow" of a supermassive black hole. The ring is persistent across four observing nights and shows enhanced brightness in the south. To assess the reliability of these results, we implemented a two-stage imaging procedure. In the first stage, four teams, each blind to the others' work, produced images of M87 using both an established method (CLEAN) and a newer technique (regularized maximum likelihood). This stage allowed us to avoid shared human bias and to assess common features among independent reconstructions. In the second stage, we reconstructed synthetic data from a large survey of imaging parameters and then compared the results with the corresponding ground truth images. This stage allowed us to select parameters objectively to use when reconstructing images of M87. Across all tests in both stages, the ring diameter and asymmetry remained stable, insensitive to the choice of imaging technique. We describe the EHT imaging procedures, the primary image features in M87, and the dependence of these features on imaging assumptions.Academy of Finland [274477, 284495, 312496]; European Commission Framework Programme Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation action [731016]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University through John Templeton Foundation [60477]; Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT, Chile) [PIA ACT172033, Fondecyt 1171506, BASAL AFB-170002, ALMA-conicyt 31140007]; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT, Mexico) [104497, 275201, 279006, 281692]; Direccion General de Asuntos del Personal Academico-Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (DGAPA-UNAM) [IN112417]; European Research Council Synergy Grant "BlackHoleCam: Imaging the Event Horizon of Black Holes" [610058]; Generalitat Valenciana postdoctoral grant [APOSTD/2018/177]; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [GBMF 947, GBMF-3561, GBMF-5278]; Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) [JP17J08829]; JSPS Overseas Research Fellowships; Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) [QYZDJ-SSW-SLH057, QYZDJ-SSW-SYS008]; Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellowship; MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI [18KK0090, JP18K13594, JP18K03656, JP18H03721, 18K03709, 18H01245, 25120007]; MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) Funds; Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan [105-2112-M-001-025-MY3, 106-2112-M-001-011, 106-2119-M-001-027, 107-2119-M-001-017, 107-2119-M-001-020, 107-2119-M-110-005]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) [80NSSC17K0649]; National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFA0400704, 2016YFA0400702]; National Science Foundation (NSF) [AST-0096454, AST-0352953, AST-0521233, AST-0705062, AST-0905844, AST-0922984, AST-1126433, AST-1140030, DGE-1144085]; Natural Science Foundation of China [11573051, 11633006, 11650110427, 10625314, 11721303, 11725312, 11873028, 11873073, U1531245, 11473010]; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); National Research Foundation of Korea [2015-R1D1A1A01056807, NRF-2015H1A2A1033752, NRF-2015H1D3A1066561]; Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VICI award [639.043.513]; Spinoza Prize [SPI 78-409]; Swedish Research Council [2017-00648]; Government of Canada through the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada; Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade; Russian Science Foundation [17-12-01029]; Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad [AYA2015-63939-C2-1-P, AYA2016-80889-P]; US Department of Energy (USDOE) through the Los Alamos National Laboratory [89233218CNA000001]; Italian Ministero dell'Istruzione Universita e Ricerca through the grant Progetti Premiali 2012-iALMA [CUP C52I13000140001]; ALMA North America Development Fund; NSF [DBI-0735191, DBI-1265383, DBI-1743442, ACI-1548562]; Smithsonian Institution; Academia Sinica; National Key R&D Program of China [2017YFA0402700]; Science and Technologies Facility Council (UK); CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France); MPG (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Germany); State of Arizona; NSF Physics Frontier Center award [PHY-0114422]; Kavli Foundation; National Science Foundation [PLR-1248097]; NSF Physics Frontier Center [PHY-1125897]; KREONET (Korea Research Environment Open NETwork); Jansky Fellowship program of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO); South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), which is a facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF), an agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of South Africa; State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award [SEV-2017-0709]; Compute Ontario; Calcul Quebec; Compute Canada; IGN (Instituto Geografico Nacional, Spain); NSF; GBMF [GBMF-947]; CyVerse; [Chandra TM6-17006X]; [MM07B]; [AST-1207704]; [AST-1207730]; [AST-1207752]; [MRI-1228509]; [OPP-1248097]; [AST-1310896]; [AST-1312651]; [AST-1337663]; [AST-1440254]; [AST-1555365]; [AST-1715061]; [AST-1614868]; [AST-1615796]; [AST-1716327]; [OISE-1743747]; [AST-1816420]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The characteristics of cognitive neuroscience tests in a schizophrenia cognition clinical trial: Psychometric properties and correlations with standard measures.

In comparison to batteries of standard neuropsychological tests, cognitive neuroscience tests may offer a more specific assessment of discrete neurobiological processes that may be aberrant in schizophrenia. However, more information regarding psychometric properties and correlations with standard neuropsychological tests and functional measures is warranted to establish their validity as treatment outcome measures. The N-back and AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) are two promising cognitive neuroscience tests designed to measure specific components of working memory and contextual processing respectively. In the current study, we report the psychometric properties of multiple outcome measures from these two tests as well as their correlations with standard neuropsychological measures and functional capacity measures. The results suggest that while the AX-CPT and N-back display favorable psychometric properties, they do not exhibit greater sensitivity or specificity with functional measures than standard neurocognitive tests

First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. VI. The Shadow and Mass of the Central Black Hole

We present measurements of the properties of the central radio source in M87 using Event Horizon Telescope data obtained during the 2017 campaign. We develop and fit geometric crescent models (asymmetric rings with interior brightness depressions) using two independent sampling algorithms that consider distinct representations of the visibility data. We show that the crescent family of models is statistically preferred over other comparably complex geometric models that we explore. We calibrate the geometric model parameters using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) models of the emission region and estimate physical properties of the source. We further fit images generated from GRMHD models directly to the data. We compare the derived emission region and black hole parameters from these analyses with those recovered from reconstructed images. There is a remarkable consistency among all methods and data sets. We find that >50% of the total flux at arcsecond scales comes from near the horizon, and that the emission is dramatically suppressed interior to this region by a factor >10, providing direct evidence of the predicted shadow of a black hole. Across all methods, we measure a crescent diameter of 42 +/- 3 mu as and constrain its fractional width to be <0.5. Associating the crescent feature with the emission surrounding the black hole shadow, we infer an angular gravitational radius of GM/Dc(2) = 3.8 +/- 0.4 mu as. Folding in a distance measurement of 16.8(-0.7)(+0.8) gives a black hole mass of M = 6.5. 0.2 vertical bar(stat) +/- 0.7 vertical bar(sys) x 10(9) M-circle dot. This measurement from lensed emission near the event horizon is consistent with the presence of a central Kerr black hole, as predicted by the general theory of relativity.Academy of Finland [274477, 284495, 312496]; European Commission Framework Programme Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation action [731016]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University through John Templeton Foundation [60477]; Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT, Chile) [PIA ACT172033, Fondecyt 1171506, BASAL AFB-170002, ALMA-conicyt 31140007]; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT, Mexico) [104497, 275201, 279006, 281692]; Direccion General de Asuntos del Personal Academico-Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (DGAPA-UNAM) [IN112417]; European Research Council Synergy Grant "BlackHoleCam: Imaging the Event Horizon of Black Holes" [610058]; Generalitat Valenciana postdoctoral grant [APOSTD/2018/177]; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [GBMF 947, GBMF-3561, GBMF-5278]; Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) [JP17J08829]; JSPS Overseas Research Fellowships; Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) [QYZDJ-SSW-SLH057, QYZDJ-SSW-SYS008]; Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellowship; MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI [18KK0090, JP18K13594, JP18K03656, JP18H03721, 18K03709, 18H01245, 25120007]; MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) Funds; Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan [105-2112-M-001-025-MY3, 106-2112-M-001-011, 106-2119-M-001-027, 107-2119-M-001-017, 107-2119-M-001-020, 107-2119-M-110-005]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) [80NSSC17K0649]; National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFA0400704, 2016YFA0400702]; National Science Foundation (NSF) [AST-0096454, AST-0352953, AST-0521233, AST-0705062, AST-0905844, AST-0922984, AST-1126433, AST-1140030, DGE-1144085, AST-1207704, AST-1207730, AST-1207752, MRI-1228509]; Natural Science Foundation of China [11573051, 11633006, 11650110427, 10625314, 11721303, 11725312, 11873028, 11873073, U1531245, 11473010]; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); National Research Foundation of Korea [2015-R1D1A1A01056807, NRF-2015H1A2A1033752, NRF-2015H1D3A1066561]; Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VICI award [639.043.513]; Spinoza Prize [SPI 78-409]; Swedish Research Council [2017-00648]; Government of Canada through the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada; Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade; Russian Science Foundation [17-12-01029]; Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad [AYA2015-63939-C2-1-P, AYA2016-80889-P]; US Department of Energy (USDOE) through the Los Alamos National Laboratory [89233218CNA000001]; Italian Ministero dell'Istruzione Universita e Ricerca through the grant Progetti Premiali 2012-iALMA [CUP C52I13000140001]; ALMA North America Development Fund; NSF [DBI-0735191, DBI-1265383, DBI-1743442, ACI-1548562]; Smithsonian Institution; Academia Sinica; National Key R&D Program of China [2017YFA0402700]; Science and Technologies Facility Council (UK); CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France); MPG (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Germany); IGN (Instituto Geografico Nacional, Spain); State of Arizona; NSF Physics Frontier Center award [PHY-0114422]; Kavli Foundation; National Science Foundation [PLR-1248097]; NSF Physics Frontier Center [PHY-1125897]; South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), which is a facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF), an agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of South Africa; Compute Ontario; Calcul Quebec; Compute Canada; NSF; GBMF [GBMF-947]; CyVerse; [OPP-1248097]; [AST-1310896]; [AST-1312651]; [AST-1337663]; [AST-1440254]; [AST-1555365]; [AST-1715061]; [AST-1614868]; [AST-1615796]; [AST-1716327]; [OISE-1743747]; [AST-1816420]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Physical Origin of the Asymmetric Ring

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has mapped the central compact radio source of the elliptical galaxy M87 at 1.3 mm with unprecedented angular resolution. Here we consider the physical implications of the asymmetric ring seen in the 2017 EHT data. To this end, we construct a large library of models based on general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations and synthetic images produced by general relativistic ray tracing. We compare the observed visibilities with this library and confirm that the asymmetric ring is consistent with earlier predictions of strong gravitational lensing of synchrotron emission from a hot plasma orbiting near the black hole event horizon. The ring radius and ring asymmetry depend on black hole mass and spin, respectively, and both are therefore expected to be stable when observed in future EHT campaigns. Overall, the observed image is consistent with expectations for the shadow of a spinning Kerr black hole as predicted by general relativity. If the black hole spin and M87's large scale jet are aligned, then the black hole spin vector is pointed away from Earth. Models in our library of non-spinning black holes are inconsistent with the observations as they do not produce sufficiently powerful jets. At the same time, in those models that produce a sufficiently powerful jet, the latter is powered by extraction of black hole spin energy through mechanisms akin to the Blandford-Znajek process. We briefly consider alternatives to a black hole for the central compact object. Analysis of existing EHT polarization data and data taken simultaneously at other wavelengths will soon enable new tests of the GRMHD models, as will future EHT campaigns at 230 and 345 GHz.Academy of Finland [274477, 284495, 312496]; European Commission Framework Programme Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation action [731016]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University through John Templeton Foundation [60477]; Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT, Chile) [PIA ACT172033, Fondecyt 1171506, BASAL AFB-170002, ALMA-conicyt 31140007]; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologica (CONACYT, Mexico) [104497, 275201, 279006, 281692]; Direccion General de Asuntos del Personal Academico-Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (DGAPA-UNAM) [IN112417]; European Research Council Synergy Grant "BlackHoleCam: Imaging the Event Horizon of Black Holes" [610058]; Generalitat Valenciana postdoctoral grant [APOSTD/2018/177]; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [GBMF-947, GBMF-3561, GBMF-5278]; Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) [JP17J08829]; JSPS Overseas Research Fellowships; Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) [QYZDJ-SSW-SLH057, QYZDJ-SSW-SYS008]; Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellowship; MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI [18KK0090, JP18K13594, JP18K03656, JP18H03721, 18K03709, 18H01245, 25120007]; MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) Funds; Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan [105-2112-M-001-025-MY3, 106-2112-M-001-011, 106-2119-M-001-027, 107-2119-M-0 01-017, 107-2119-M-001-020, 107-2119-M-110-005]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) [80NSSC17K0649]; National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFA0400704, 2016YFA0400702]; National Science Foundation (NSF) [AST-0096454, AST-0352953, AST-0521233, AST-0705062, AST-0905844, AST-0922984, AST-1126433, AST-1140030, DGE-1144085, AST-1207704, AST-1207730, AST-1207752, MRI-1228509, OPP-1248097]; Natural Science Foundation of China [11573051, 11633006, 11650110427, 10625314, 11721303, 11725312, 11873028, 11873073, U1531245, 11473010]; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF-2015H1A2A1033752, 2015-R1D1A1A01056807, NRF-2015H1D3A1066561]; Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VICI award [639.043.513]; Spinoza Prize [SPI 78-409]; Swedish Research Council [2017-00648]; Government of Canada through the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada; Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade; Russian Science Foundation [17-12-01029]; Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad [AYA2015-63939-C2-1-P, AYA2016-80889-P]; US Department of Energy (USDOE) through the Los Alamos National Laboratory [89233218CNA000001]; Italian Ministero dell'Istruzione Universita e Ricerca through the grant Progetti Premiali 2012-iALMA [CUP C52I13000140001]; ALMA North America Development Fund; Sprows Family VURF Fellowship; NSERC Discovery Grant; NINS program of Promoting Research by Networking among Institutions [01421701]; NSF [ACI-1548562, DBI-0735191, DBI-1265383, DBI-1743442]; Compute Ontario; Calcul Quebec; Compute Canada; Smithsonian Institution; Academia Sinica; National Key R&D Program of China [2017YFA0402700]; Science and Technologies Facility Council (UK); CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France); MPG (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Germany); IGN (Instituto Geografico Nacional, Spain); State of Arizona; NSF; NSF Physics Frontier Center award [PHY-0114422]; Kavli Foundation; GBMF [GBMF-947]; National Science Foundation [PLR-1248097]; NSF Physics Frontier Center grant [PHY-1125897]; South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), which is a facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF), an agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of South Africa; CyVerse; [Chandra TM6-17006X]; [DD7-18089X]; [AST-1310896]; [AST-1312651]; [AST-1337663]; [AST-1440254]; [AST-1555365]; [AST-1715061]; [AST-1615796]; [AST-1716327]; [OISE-1743747]; [AST-1816420]; [AST-1614868]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]