Capturing Children with Autism’s Engagement in Engineering Practices: A Focus on Problem Scoping

In the last two decades, pre-college engineering education has increased, with research on pre-college engineering education emerging as a nascent field. However, limited research, if any, has considered aspects of engineering thinking of children with neurodiversity. In line with calls for broadening participation in engineering education, consideration of neurodiverse children is critical. Among various neurodiverse conditions, the number of children with autism is rapidly growing. In addition, studies have shown that individuals with autism have the potential to perform well in activities that require systematizing abilities. Engineering is one such activity. Prior research has provided evidence of the importance of early engineering learning opportunities in terms of future performance and interest in engineering; therefore, it is critical that children with autism have access to appropriate engineering experiences. We thus need to gain a deeper understanding of how they engage in engineering learning activities. In this study, we conducted a qualitative single-case-study analysis in which we closely looked at ways a nine-year-old child with mild autism engaged in problem scoping along with his mother. We focused on three main components of problem scoping in engineering design: (1) Problem Framing, (2) Information Gathering, and (3) Reflection. The instances that we have seen in mother–child interactions and conversation provided evidence that the child with autism was capable of engaging in all three aspects of problem scoping. The behaviors we have observed were mostly associated with Problem Framing and Information Gathering. However, we have also seen some evidence of Reflection. We believe that the findings of this study lay a foundation for future studies of children with autism and engineering design, and how to effectively engage them in these activities

Absence of resonant decay for metastable vacua in gauge theories of scalar fields

We prove the impossibility of resonant decay of a metastable vacuum in a theory of a scalar field coupled to a gauge field. Our result extends to gauge theories of scalar fields a recent no go theorem for resonant tunneling in a pure scalar field theory.Comment: 9 pages,5 figure

Characteristics of Feedback that Influence Student Confidence and Performance during Mathematical Modeling

This study focuses on characteristics of written feedback that influence students’ performance and confidence in addressing the mathematical complexity embedded in a Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA). MEAs are authentic mathematical modeling problems that facilitate students’ iterative development of solutions in a realistic context. We analyzed 132 first-year engineering students’ confidence levels and mathematical model scores on aMEA(pre and post feedback), along with teaching assistant feedback given to the students. The findings show several examples of affective and cognitive feedback that students reported that they used to revise their models. Students’ performance and confidence in developing mathematical models can be increased when they are in an environment where they iteratively develop models based on effective feedback

Developing an Instrument to Assess the Effects of Pre-College Engineering Participation on the Experiences of First-Year Engineering Students

In this Complete Research paper, we describe the development of a survey instrument to measure the ways that students experience the transition from pre-college engineering activities to first-year engineering programs. As the number of opportunities to study and do engineering prior to matriculation in an undergraduate engineering program increases, first-year engineering students draw from a diverse range of pre-college engineering experiences that affect their transition to studying engineering at a university. The instrument utilizes a theoretical framework developed via a phenomenographic interview process that identified five distinct ways students experience the transition from pre-college to university engineering. These range from foreclosure or a feeling of entrapment in engineering, to frustration, to tedium, to connection, to the ability to help others be successful in first-year engineering. Utilizing the interview data that informed the development of these categories, we identified statements associated with each of these ways of experiencing the transition from pre-college to university engineering and used these statements to develop an initial instrument consisting of 65 Likert-type questions on students’ experiences combined with detailed questions on both the types pre-college engineering experiences the students participated in and the content of these experiences. Validation of the initial instrument involved multiple rounds of feedback from experts in both pre-college and first-year engineering education, followed by an initial administration of the instrument to the first-year student population at two universities. Analysis of these results showed that overall the instrument had good reliability, however we identified 15 low functioning items for removal, reducing the total number of items to 50. Upon completion of the development process, we administered the final instrument again to another population of first-year engineering students. Analysis of these results using Exploratory Factor Analysis yields components that align well with most elements of the aforementioned theoretical framework. However, we identified several additional independent factors related to ways that students experience disconnects or frustration when transitioning from pre-college to first-year engineering programs. Pre-college engineering is growing, but students arrive in first-year engineering programs with varying levels of prior exposure to engineering. Understanding how pre-college experiences affect students’ transitions to engineering will provide valuable data for both the creators and instructors of pre-college and first-year engineering curricula, and facilitate better alignment between these interrelated spheres of engineering education

Equidistribution Rates, Closed String Amplitudes, and the Riemann Hypothesis

We study asymptotic relations connecting unipotent averages of $Sp(2g,\mathbb{Z})$ automorphic forms to their integrals over the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties. We obtain reformulations of the Riemann hypothesis as a class of problems concerning the computation of the equidistribution convergence rate in those asymptotic relations. We discuss applications of our results to closed string amplitudes. Remarkably, the Riemann hypothesis can be rephrased in terms of ultraviolet relations occurring in perturbative closed string theory.Comment: 15 page

Eluding SUSY at every genus on stable closed string vacua

In closed string vacua, ergodicity of unipotent flows provide a key for relating vacuum stability to the UV behavior of spectra and interactions. Infrared finiteness at all genera in perturbation theory can be rephrased in terms of cancelations involving only tree-level closed strings scattering amplitudes. This provides quantitative results on the allowed deviations from supersymmetry on perturbative stable vacua. From a mathematical perspective, diagrammatic relations involving closed string amplitudes suggest a relevance of unipotent flows dynamics for the Schottky problem and for the construction of the superstring measure.Comment: v2, 17 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected, new figure added with 3 modular images of long horocycles,(obtained with Mathematica

A Tale of Two Design Contexts: Quantitative and Qualitative Explorations of Student-Instructor Interactions Amidst Ambiguity

Designers develop design skills and knowledge through experience and feedback – feedback from colleagues, clients, supervisors, users, stakeholders, the success or failure of a solution, and design educators. In this project, we focus on the feedback provided to mechanical engineering students completing their undergraduate studies and industrial design graduate students during design reviews. The design coaches (educators and industry clients) and design students must negotiate ambiguity in the process. The students must reduce ambiguity in the sense of providing clear details as they communicate their design work, reduce ambiguity in the coaches’ perceptions of the design work quality by providing evidence and rationales for their design approaches. However, they also maintain ambiguity in the sense of not converging on an idea too quickly in the design process, but instead considering many possibilities. We investigate the different forms of feedback provided by coaches, students’ responses to the feedback, and the ways the students and coaches navigate ambiguity. Finally, we characterize differences between the two environments in terms of the types of feedback given and students’ responses to the feedback

First experimental evidence of 2He decay from 18Ne excited states

Two-proton decay from 18Ne excited states has been studied by complete kinematical detection of the decay products. The 18Ne nucleus has been produced as a radioactive beam by 20Ne projectile fragmentation at 45 AMeV on a 9Be target, using the FRIBs in-flight facility of the LNS. The 18Ne at 33 AMeV incident energy has been excited via Coulomb excitation on a natPb target. The correlated 2p emission has been disentangled from the uncorrelated 2p emission using a high granularity particle detector setup allowing the reconstruction of momentum and angle correlations of the two emitted protons. The obtained results unambiguously show that the 6.15 MeV 18Ne state two-proton decay proceeds through 2He emission (31%) and democratic or virtual sequential decay (69%)

Recurrent Perineal Hernia After Benign Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery

Abstract Background: Secondary acquired perineal hernias are rare events usually associated with extensive pelvic surgery. Although most are asymptomatic, when symptoms are present surgical intervention is warranted. There is currently no consensus regarding the management of these hernias. An unusual case of a recurrent perineal hernia following sacrospinous fixation resulting in large bowel incarceration is reported. Case: A 64-year-old woman presented with an anterior vaginal wall prolapse and multiple pelvic-floor defects. She subsequently underwent a sacrospinous fixation and enterocele repair. The enterocele recurred and she underwent a second enterocele repair. Approximately 6 months later, she presented with a perineal hernia that involved an incarceration of the large bowel. Results: The hernia was reduced, the pelvic-floor defect was repaired, and a biologic, absorbable mesh was applied. Approximately 5 months later, the patient presented with a recurrence of the perineal hernia. The hernia was reduced and this time a synthetic, nonabsorbable mesh was used, and there were no signs of recurrence at 6 months' follow-up. Conclusions: Acquired perineal hernias are extremely rare events, especially when they recur and involve large bowel incarceration. Several factors may influence the development and possible recurrence of secondary acquired perineal hernias, including lifestyle, occupation, gestational history, and past medical and surgical history. The use of a nonabsorbable mesh to prevent recurrence is suggested, although current literature reports success rates that are fairly similar for users of both absorbable and nonabsorbable meshes. (J GYNECOL SURG 28:230)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98451/1/gyn%2E2011%2E0051.pd

Alpha-particle clustering in excited expanding self-conjugate nuclei

The fragmentation of quasi-projectiles from the nuclear reaction 40Ca + 12C at 25 MeV/nucleon was used to produce alpha-emission sources. From a careful selection of these sources provided by a complete detection and from comparisons with models of sequential and simultaneous decays, strong indications in favour of $\alpha$-particle clustering in excited 16O, 20Ne and 24}Mg are reported.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 12th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus collisions (NN2015), 21-26 June 2015, Catania, Ital