Data visualisation literacy in higher education: an exploratory study of understanding of a learning dashboard tool

The visualisation of data has become ubiquitous. Visualisations are used to represent data in a way that is easy to understand and useful in our lives. Each data visualisation needs to be suitable to extract the correct information to complete a task and make an informed decision while minimising the impact of biases. To achieve this, the ability to create and read visualisations has become as important as the ability to read and write. Therefore, the Information Visualisation community is applying more attention to literacy and decision making in data visualisations. Until recently, researchers lacked valid and reliable test instruments to measure the literacy of users or the taxonomy to detect biased judgement in data visualisations. A literature review showed there is relatively little research on data visualisations for different user data literacy levels in authentic settings and a lack of studies that provide evidence for the presence of cognitive biases in data visualisations. This exploratory research study was undertaken to develop a method to assess perceived usefulness and confidence in reporting dashboards within higher education by adapting existing research instruments. A survey was designed to test perceived usefulness, perceived skill and 24 multiple-choice test items covering six data visualisations based on eight tasks. The study was sent to 157 potential participants, with a response rate of 20.38%. The results showed data visualisations are useful, but the purpose of some data visualisations is not always understood. Also, we showed there is a consensus that respondents perceive their data visualisation literacy is higher than they believe their peers to be. However, the higher their overconfidence, the lower their actual data visualisation literacy score. Finally, we discuss the benefits, limitations and possible future research areas

Interview of David Diehl

Mr. David Diehl has been a faculty member, administrator and coach at La Salle College High School for 47 years (since 1961). He is also a graduate of LSCHS in 1955. Mr. Diehl has served La Salle in many capacities including teacher, coach, disciplinarian and principal. His leadership skills led La Salle into the twentieth century overseeing the schools advancements in technology and the building of La Salle’s St. Michael’s Hall, and the West Wing. I met Mr. Diehl on two consecutive days during second period, which is from 9:00-9:40 AM. We met in his office on the first floor of La Salle’s original academic wing, McLean Hall

Changes in ITCZ location and cross-equatorial heat transport at

Tropical paleoclimate records provide important insights into the response of precipitation patterns and the Hadley circulation to past climate changes. Paleo-records are commonly interpreted as indicating north-south shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), with the ITCZ's mean position moving toward the warmer hemisphere in response to changes in cross-equatorial temperature gradients. Though a number of records in tropical Central and South America, North Africa, Asia and the Indo-Australian region are consistent with this interpretation, the magnitudes and regional variability of past ITCZ shifts are poorly constrained. Combining estimates of past tropical sea surface temperature (SST) gradients with the strong linear relationship observed between zonally averaged ITCZ position and tropical SST gradients in the modern seasonal cycle and in models of past climates, we quantify past shifts in zonally averaged ITCZ position. We find that mean ITCZ shifts are likely less than 1 • latitude during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1) and mid-Holocene (6 ka) climates, with the largest shift during HS1. The ITCZ's position is closely tied to heat transport between the hemispheres by the atmosphere and ocean; accordingly, these small mean ITCZ shifts are associated with relatively large (∼0.1-0.4 PW) changes in cross-equatorial atmospheric heat transport (AHT EQ ). These AHT EQ changes point to changes in cross-equatorial ocean heat transport or net radiative fluxes of the opposite sign. During HS1, the increase in northward AHT EQ is large enough to compensate for a partial or total shutdown in northward heat transport by the Atlantic Ocean's meridional overturning circulation. The large AHT EQ response for small changes in mean ITCZ position places limits on the magnitude of past shifts in the globally averaged ITCZ. Large ( 5 • ) meridional displacements of the ITCZ inferred from regional compilations of proxy records must be limited in their zonal extent, and ITCZ shifts at other longitudes must be near zero, for the global mean shift to remain 1 • as suggested by our results. Our examination of model results and modern observations supports variable regional and seasonal changes in ITCZ precipitation. This work thus highlights the importance of a dense network of tropical precipitation reconstructions to document the regional and seasonal heterogeneity of ITCZ responses to past climate changes

Changes in ITCZ location and cross-equatorial heat transport at

Tropical paleoclimate records provide important insights into the response of precipitation patterns and the Hadley circulation to past climate changes. Paleo-records are commonly interpreted as indicating north-south shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), with the ITCZ's mean position moving toward the warmer hemisphere in response to changes in cross-equatorial temperature gradients. Though a number of records in tropical Central and South America, North Africa, Asia and the Indo-Australian region are consistent with this interpretation, the magnitudes and regional variability of past ITCZ shifts are poorly constrained. Combining estimates of past tropical sea surface temperature (SST) gradients with the strong linear relationship observed between zonally averaged ITCZ position and tropical SST gradients in the modern seasonal cycle and in models of past climates, we quantify past shifts in zonally averaged ITCZ position. We find that mean ITCZ shifts are likely less than 1 • latitude during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1) and mid-Holocene (6 ka) climates, with the largest shift during HS1. The ITCZ's position is closely tied to heat transport between the hemispheres by the atmosphere and ocean; accordingly, these small mean ITCZ shifts are associated with relatively large (∼0.1-0.4 PW) changes in cross-equatorial atmospheric heat transport (AHT EQ ). These AHT EQ changes point to changes in cross-equatorial ocean heat transport or net radiative fluxes of the opposite sign. During HS1, the increase in northward AHT EQ is large enough to compensate for a partial or total shutdown in northward heat transport by the Atlantic Ocean's meridional overturning circulation. The large AHT EQ response for small changes in mean ITCZ position places limits on the magnitude of past shifts in the globally averaged ITCZ. Large ( 5 • ) meridional displacements of the ITCZ inferred from regional compilations of proxy records must be limited in their zonal extent, and ITCZ shifts at other longitudes must be near zero, for the global mean shift to remain 1 • as suggested by our results. Our examination of model results and modern observations supports variable regional and seasonal changes in ITCZ precipitation. This work thus highlights the importance of a dense network of tropical precipitation reconstructions to document the regional and seasonal heterogeneity of ITCZ responses to past climate changes

Does Restricting Pack Size of Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) Reduce Suicides?

The authors discuss a new study that examined the change in deaths attributed to paracetamol poisoning in England and Wales in the six years before and after a legislated reduction in the maximum pack size

Investigations of biomimetic light energy harvesting pigments

This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Nature uses chlorophyll and other porphyrinic pigments to capture and transfer light energy as a preliminary step in photosynthesis. The design of synthetic assemblies of light harvesting and energy directing pigments has been explored through synthesis and characterization of porphyrin oligomers. In this project, pigment electronic and vibrational structures have been explored by electrochemistry and dynamic and static optical measurements. Transient absorption data reveal energy transfer between pigments with lifetimes on the order of 20--200 picoseconds, while Raman data reveal that the basic porphyrin core structure is unperturbed relative to the individual monomer units. These two findings, along with an extensive series of experiments on the oxidized oligomers, reveal that coupling between the pigments is fundamentally weak, but sufficient to allow facile energy transfer as the predominant excited state process. Modeling of the expected quantum yields for energy transfer within a variety of arrays was accomplished, thereby providing a tool to guide synthetic goals