Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace-vehicle Design (IPAD) system. Volume 2: Characterization of the IPAD system, phase 1, task 1

The aircraft design process is discussed along with the degree of participation of the various engineering disciplines considered in this feasibility study

Monological Practices, Authoritative Discourses and the Missing C in Digital Communities

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher decisions surrounding opportunities for student voice, experiences and beliefs in digital classroom communities. The teachers’ decisions reflect monologic rather than dialogic teacher pedagogies which prompted the authors to ask the following question: What led to these teacher-centered practices in digital environments? Authoritative discourses in school policies and a missing connection between critical pedagogies and teachers’ technology practices are examined in light of teachers’ decisions to engage in monologic and/or dialogic teaching practices. The authors propose professional development and research that emphasize pedagogy that supports student voice as foundational to practices involving digital literacies. Examination of the teachers’ decisions showed monologic practices void of student opportunities to critically engage in digital environments. Dominant discourses imposed through protectionist and digital citizenship policies of schools as well as lack of opportunity through professional development to connect critical pedagogy to technology impacted the teachers’ decisions. Current research surrounding teachers’ digital literacies uses the TPACK framework to examine technology integration practices. Missing is a critical component that addresses and works to dismantle the dominant discourses and power structures in digital communities (Hosek, 2018). The authors build on research in critical digital literacies to argue for adding the critical missing “C” into the TPACK framework (C-TPACK) to move researchers and educators to consider pedagogies that examine ideologies at work in digital communities to provide opportunities for student voice. Keywords: Digital literacy, TPACK, Authoritative discourse, C-TPACK, Critical digital literacy, Dominant discours

The Association between Use of Online Social Networks to Find Sex Partners and Sexually Transmitted Infection Diagnosis among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women Living with HIV.

We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from the Adolescent Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions to examine the association between the use of social media sites to find sex partners and recent diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among 13- to 24-year-old men who have sex with men and transgender women living with HIV. We used linear regression to determine the relationship between the number of STIs and the number of social media sites used to find sex partners with each type of sex act included in the analysis. Secondary analyses substituted frequency of social media site use for number of social media sites. Among 741 participants, for every 1 social media account used to find sex partners, there was a 2.53% (95% confidence interval: 0.28-5.54) increase in STIs. This association was mediated through condomless receptive anal intercourse or condomless insertive anal intercourse but not barrierless oral intercourse. Similar but attenuated associations were found when frequency of social media site use was substituted for number of social media sites. Future research should examine innovative interventions on these social media sites with respect for its users

Using In-Class Versus Out-of-Class Peer Workshops to Improve Presentational Speaking

This study sought to determine whether there is a difference in the effect of in-class and out-of-class peer workshops on Cognitive Learning, Affective Learning, speech grades, Public Speaking Anxiety, Connected Classroom Climate, and Perceived Workshop Value. This study used a within-subjects modified switching-replications design and found that there were no significant differences in the effects of the two types of workshops. However, students preferred in-class workshops, and there is slight evidence that there might be benefits for doing an in-class workshop first so that students can build trust and learn to give and receive better feedback before considering out-of-class workshops

Bulk elastic properties of chicken embryos during somitogenesis

We present measurements of the bulk Young's moduli of early chick embryos at Hamburger-Hamilton stage 10. Using a micropipette probe with a force constant k ~0.025 N/m, we applied a known force in the plane of the embryo in the anterior-posterior direction and imaged the resulting tissue displacements. We used a two-dimensional finite-element simulation method to model the embryo as four concentric elliptical elastic regions with dimensions matching the embryo's morphology. By correlating the measured tissue displacements to the displacements calculated from the in-plane force and the model, we obtained the approximate short time linear-elastic Young's moduli: 2.4 ± 0.1 kPa for the midline structures (notocord, neural tube, and somites), 1.3 ± 0.1 kPa for the intermediate nearly acellular region between the somites and area pellucida, 2.1 ± 0.1 kPa for the area pellucida, and 11.9 ± 0.8 kPa for the area opaca

A Direct Stellar Metallicity Determination in the Disk of the Maser Galaxy NGC4258

We present the first direct determination of a stellar metallicity in the spiral galaxy NGC4258 (D=7.6 Mpc) based on the quantitative analysis of a low-resolution (~5 AE) Keck LRIS spectrum of a blue supergiant star located in its disk. A determination of stellar metallicity in this galaxy is important for the absolute calibration of the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation as an anchor for the extragalactic distance scale and for a better characterization of its dependence as a function of abundance. We find a value 0.2 dex lower than solar metallicity at a galactocentric distance of 8.7 kpc, in agreement with recent HII region studies using the weak forbidden auroral oxygen line at 4363 AE. We determine the effective stellar temperature, gravity, luminosity and line-of-sight extinction of the blue supergiant being studied. We show that it fits well on the flux-weighted gravity--luminosity relation (FGLR), strengthening the potential of this method as a new extragalactic distance indicator.Comment: Accepted for publication by ApJ Letters, 5 pages, 5 figure

Trump-induced anxiety among Latina/os

During the 2016 election, Donald Trump castigated unauthorized immigrants as “murderers and rapists.” During his presidency, he continued the use of this rhetoric, explicitly linking unauthorized migrants to threatening narratives. Here, we consider three questions: Did Donald Trump and his immigration positions serve as an “anxiety trigger” for Latina/os? Are individuals with contextually stigmatized attributes especially sensitive to Trump and his policy proposals? Is Spanish language itself, an attribute negatively stigmatized in the context of the immigration issue, sufficient to increase deportation anxiety? Utilizing survey experiments of Latina/os, we demonstrate that exposure to a Trump immigration cue is sufficient to increase anxiety about deportation. We also demonstrate that stigmatized attributes predict anxiety, but do not moderate the effect of the Trump cue. Lastly, we provide evidence that survey language affects anxiety among Latina/os. In Studies 1 (n = 736) and 2 (n = 1,040), we show that exposure to information about Trump’s immigration agenda significantly increases reports about deportation anxiety. In Study 3 (n = 1,734), we show that the Trump exposure condition induces heightened anxiety but that Latina/o attributes (language proficiency and use, immigration status, assessed phenotype) and identity strength have an independent effect on deportation anxiety. In Study 4 (n = 775), we randomized bilingual respondents into Spanish or English language survey protocols and found that comparable bilinguals exposed to Spanish language report higher levels of anxiety compared to English-language survey takers

HIV Prevention Interventions for Adolescents

Purpose of Review: The goal of this paper is to review recent data on biomedical, behavioral, and structural HIV prevention interventions for adolescents and young adults. Recent Findings: While it is accepted that HIV prevention interventions must take an integrated approach to achieve maximum effectiveness, to date, there have been limited, rigorously evaluated combination prevention interventions for adolescents. There are currently a range of effective biomedical, behavioral, and structural approaches that can be integrated into prevention packages to address the prevention needs of adolescents, including oral PrEP, male circumcision, rapid HIV testing, numerous behavioral interventions, and structural interventions such as cash transfers and community mobilization to address gender-based violence. Summary: There is still a need for rigorously evaluated, innovative combination prevention packages for adolescents. Prevention approaches must take into account the context of young people’s lives and address the multiple levels of influence on their lives including parents, partners, and communities