The Use of Virtual Reality For Student Training on Bias And Microaggressions

Virtual reality (VR) is an immersive innovative technology that can be used with occupational therapy students for bias training in preparation for fieldwork and clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of VR as a complementary educational tool in bias and microaggressions (MA) training for entry-level occupational therapy students. We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected in an 8-week course on diversity, equity, inclusion, and professional skills with a total of 48 first-year entry-level occupational therapy students. We used eight simulated VR cases for all students. Data was collected using a mixed-method survey to capture the students’ experiences with VR. The results showed that the majority of students found the VR module helpful in identifying bias and MA (n=47; 97.92%), enhancing their confidence to report bias and MA (n=48; 100%), offering opportunities to respond to bias and MA (n=39; 81.25%), and articulating why certain behaviors can be perceived as MA (n=45; 93.75%). Thematic analysis of qualitative data showed that the VR enhanced students’ ability to detect bias and MA, and increased the sense of empathy, and ability to be an ally or advocate for targets of bias. The findings indicate that VR is an immersive, engaging technology that can be used for bias and MA training for students and potentially clinicians. It offers a private, inclusive, pressure-reduced learning space for students to learn about bias and MA in preparation for fieldwork education and clinical practice

Sandstone matrix acidizing knowledge and future development

To meet rising global demands for energy, the oil and gas industry continuously strives to develop innovative oilfield technologies. With the development of new enhanced oil recovery techniques, sandstone acidizing has been significantly developed to contribute to the petroleum industry. Different acid combinations have been applied to the formation, which result in minimizing the near wellbore damage and improving the well productivity. A combination of hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid (HF:HCl) known as mud acid has gained attractiveness in improving the porosity and permeability of the reservoir formation. However, high-temperature matrix acidizing is now growing since most of the wells nowadays become deeper and hotter temperature reservoirs, with a temperature higher than 200 °F. As a result, mud acid becomes corrosive, forms precipitates and reacts rapidly, which causes early consumption of acid, hence becoming less efficient due to high pH value. However, different acids have been developed to combat these problems where studies on retarded mud acids, organic-HF acids, emulsified acids, chelating agents have shown their effectiveness at different conditions. These acids proved to be alternative to mud acid in sandstone acidizing, but the reaction mechanism and experimental analysis have not yet been investigated. The paper critically reviews the sandstone acidizing mechanism with different acids, problems occurred during the application of different acids and explores the reasons when matrix stimulation is successful over fracturing. This paper also explores the future developing requirement for matrix acidizing treatments and new experimental techniques that can be useful for further development, particularly in developing new acids and acidizing techniques, which would provide better results and information of topology, morphology and mineral dissolution and the challenges associated with implementing these “new” technologies

Flowback cleanup mechanisms of post-hydraulic fracturing in unconventional natural gas reservoirs

This work investigates the fracturing fluid cleanup mechanisms of post-hydraulic fracturing in unconventional gas formations by studying a large number of wide-ranging parameters simultaneously. In this work, different scenarios of the cleanup operation of the hydraulic fracturing process are considered. This study consists of investigating the post-fracturing cleanup operation of hydraulically fractured vertical wells (VW) and multiple fractured horizontal wells (MFHWs). Additionally, the impact of soaking time, the range of the matrix permeability, applied drawdown pressure, injected fracturing fluid (FF) volume, fracture spacing and horizontal well length has been investigated by running different sets. Results show that that the trend of the impact of relevant parameters for VWs and MFHWs are analogous excepting the matrix permeability, km. That is, in the MFHW base reference set, the effect of matrix permeability on capillary pressure is more significant than that on fluid flow while the reverse is observed for VW. The difference in the impact of km in VWs and MFHWs is attributed to the geometry of the fluid flow towards the production well and different well completion scheme. It is also concluded that the impact of parameters affecting the capillary pressure in the matrix is more significant for MFHWs whereas matrix and fracture mobility pertinent parameters are more important for VWs than MFHWs. As a result, larger matrix capillary pressure values are more vital in the cleanup of MFHWs because of more imbibition of FF into the matrix and subsequently lower conflict between the flow of gas and FF in the fracture. The other part of this research concentrates on the impact of IFT reducing agents on the post-fracturing production in different formations. In hydraulic fracturing operations, these agents are commonly used as an additive in fracturing fluid to facilitate its backflow by reducing Pc and subsequently enhancing gas production. The results of this work recommend that using such agents enhances the gas production rate for ultratight formations but not for tight formations (it reduces the gas production rate). Therefore it is not suggested to use such agents in tight formations. The findings of this work improve the understanding of fracture cleanup leading to better design of hydraulic fracturing operations in unconventional formations

Ring-Exchange Interaction Effects on Magnons in Dirac Magnet CoTiO3_3

In magnetically ordered materials with localized electrons, the fundamental magnetic interactions are due to exchange of electrons [1-3]. Typically, only the interaction between pairs of electrons' spins is considered to explain the nature of the ground state and its excitations, whereas three-, four-, and six-spin interactions are ignored. When these higher order processes occur in a loop they are called cyclic or ring exchange. The ring-exchange interaction is required to explain low temperature behavior in bulk and thin films of solid $^3$He [4-8]. It also plays a crucial role in the quantum magnet La$_2$CuO$_4$ [9,10]. Here, we use a combination of time domain THz (TDTS) and magneto-Raman spectroscopies to measure the low energy magnetic excitations in CoTiO$_3$, a proposed Dirac topological magnon material [11,12] where the origin of the energy gap in the magnon spectrum at the Brillouin zone center remains unclear. We measured the magnetic field dependence of the energies of the two lowest energy magnons and determine that the gap opens due to the ring-exchange interaction between the six spins in a hexagon. This interaction also explains the selection rules of the THz magnon absorption. Finally, we clarify that topological surface magnons are not expected in CoTiO$_3$. Our study demonstrates the power of combining TDTS and Raman spectroscopies with theory to identify the microscopic origins of the magnetic excitations in quantum magnets.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures in main text, 26 pages and 11 figures in supplemen

Applying asynchronous transfer mode to the Marine Corps Base level information infrastructure

This thesis reports the findings of a simulation comparing network architecture configurations in terms of interactions and performance in the face of varying traffic demand. It models the U. S. Marine Corps Base Level Information Infrastructure using a top-down approach. Extend(R) queuing theory modeling software was used to decompose the network model with a bottom-up approach to testing and integration. Feasible network configurations were identified and modeled under varying load parameters. Asynchronous Transfer Mode was found to be suited as a distribution protocol at the infrastructure levels of backbone and area distribution node. Fast Ethernet and Ethernet were found to be 0 optimal at lower levels of infrastructure. Network design recommendations are made for network engineers.http://archive.org/details/applyingsynchron1094513505U.S. Marine Corps (U.S.M.C.) author.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited