Becoming a physicist: The roles of research, mindsets, and milestones in upper-division student perceptions

Citation: Irving, P. W., & Sayre, E. C. (2015). Becoming a physicist: The roles of research, mindsets, and milestones in upper-division student perceptions. Physical Review Special Topics-Physics Education Research, 11(2), 21. doi:10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.020120[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Upper Division Physics Courses.] As part of a longitudinal study into identity development in upper-level physics students, we used a phenomenographic research method to examine students' perceptions of what it means to be a physicist. Analysis revealed six different categories of perception of what it means to be a physicist. We found the following themes: research and its association with being a physicist, differences in mindset, and exclusivity of accomplishments. The paper highlights how these perceptions relate to two communities of practice that the students are members of, and also highlights the importance of undergraduate research for students to transition from the physics undergraduate community of practice to the community of practicing physicists

Brief, embedded, spontaneous metacognitive talk indicates thinking like a physicist

Citation: Sayre, E. C., & Irving, P. W. (2015). Brief, embedded, spontaneous metacognitive talk indicates thinking like a physicist. Physical Review Special Topics-Physics Education Research, 11(2), 17. doi:10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.020121[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Upper Division Physics Courses.] Instructors and researchers think "thinking like a physicist" is important for students' professional development. However, precise definitions and observational markers remain elusive. We reinterpret popular beliefs inventories in physics to indicate what physicists think thinking like a physicist entails. Through discourse analysis of upper-division students' speech in natural settings, we show that students may appropriate or resist these elements. We identify a new element in the physicist speech genre: brief, embedded, spontaneous metacognitive talk (BESM talk). BESM talk communicates students' in-the-moment enacted expectations about physics as a technical field and a cultural endeavor. Students use BESM talk to position themselves as physicists or nonphysicists. Students also use BESM talk to communicate their expectations in four ways: understanding, confusion, spotting inconsistencies, and generalized expectations

Reduced healthcare utilisation following successful HCV treatment in HIV co-infected patients with mild liver disease

New direct-acting antivirals (DAA) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection have achieved high cure rates in many patient groups previously considered difficult-to-treat, including those HIV/HCV co-infected. The high price of these medications is likely to limit access to treatment, at least in the short term. Early treatment priority is likely to be given to those with advanced disease, but a more detailed understanding of the potential benefits in treating those with mild disease is needed. We hypothesized that successful HCV treatment within a co-infected population with mild liver disease would lead to a reduction in the use and costs of healthcare services in the 5 years following treatment completion. We performed a retrospective cohort study of HIV/HCV-co-infected patients without evidence of fibrosis/cirrhosis who received a course of HCV therapy between 2004 and 2013. Detailed analysis of healthcare utilization up to 5 years following treatment for each patient using clinical and electronic records was used to estimate healthcare costs. Sixty-three patients were investigated, of whom 48 of 63 (76.2%) achieved sustained virological response 12 weeks following completion of therapy (SVR12). Individuals achieving SVR12 incurred lower health utilization costs (£5000 per-patient) compared to (£10 775 per-patient) non-SVR patients in the 5 years after treatment. Healthcare utilization rates and costs in the immediate 5 years following treatment were significantly higher in co-infected patients with mild disease that failed to achieve SVR12. These data suggest additional value to achieving cure beyond the prevention of complications of disease

An experimental approach to quantify strain transfer efficiency of fibre bragg grating sensors to host structures

This paper developed a method to evaluate the strain transfer efficiency of fibre Bragg grating sensors to host structures. Various coatings were applied to fibre Bragg grating sensors after being fabricated. They were epoxy, silane agent and polypropylene, representing different surface properties. A neat epoxy resin plate was used as the host in which the coated fibre sensors were embedded in the central layer. The tensile strain output from the FBGs was compared with that obtained from electrical strain gauges which were attached on the surface of the specimen. A calculating method based on the measured strains was developed to quantify the strain transfer function of different surface coatings. The strain transfer coefficient obtained from the proposed method provided a direct indicator to evaluate the strain transfer efficiency of different coatings used on the FBG sensors, under either short or long-term loading. The results demonstrated that the fibre sensor without any coating possessed the best strain transfer, whereas, the worst strain transfer was created by polypropylene coating. Coatings play a most influential role in strain measurements using FBG sensors

Finding large stable matchings

When ties and incomplete preference lists are permitted in the stable marriage and hospitals/residents problems, stable matchings can have different sizes. The problem of finding a maximum cardinality stable matching in this context is known to be NP-hard, even under very severe restrictions on the number, size, and position of ties. In this article, we present two new heuristics for finding large stable matchings in variants of these problems in which ties are on one side only. We describe an empirical study involving these heuristics and the best existing approximation algorithm for this problem. Our results indicate that all three of these algorithms perform significantly better than naive tie-breaking algorithms when applied to real-world and randomly-generated data sets and that one of the new heuristics fares slightly better than the other algorithms, in most cases. This study, and these particular problem variants, are motivated by important applications in large-scale centralized matching schemes

Interviewing suspects: examining the association between skills, questioning, evidence disclosure, and interview outcomes

The interviewing of suspects is an important element in the investigation of crime. However, studies concerning actual performance of investigators when undertaking such interviews remain sparse. Nevertheless, in England and Wales, since the introduction of a prescribed framework over 20 years ago, field studies have generally shown an improvement in interviewing performance, notwithstanding ongoing concerns largely relating to the more demanding aspects (such as building/maintaining rapport, intermittent summarising and the logical development of topics). Using a sample of 70 real-life interviews, the present study examined questioning and various evidence disclosure strategies (which have also been found demanding), examining their relationships between interview skills and interview outcomes. It was found that when evidence was disclosed gradually (but revealed later), interviews were generally both more skilled and involved the gaining of comprehensive accounts, whereas when evidence was disclosed either early or very late, interviews were found to be both less skilled and less likely to involve this outcome. These findings contribute towards an increased research base for the prescribed framework

First-Digit Law in Nonextensive Statistics

Nonextensive statistics, characterized by a nonextensive parameter $q$, is a promising and practically useful generalization of the Boltzmann statistics to describe power-law behaviors from physical and social observations. We here explore the unevenness of the first digit distribution of nonextensive statistics analytically and numerically. We find that the first-digit distribution follows Benford's law and fluctuates slightly in a periodical manner with respect to the logarithm of the temperature. The fluctuation decreases when $q$ increases, and the result converges to Benford's law exactly as $q$ approaches 2. The relevant regularities between nonextensive statistics and Benford's law are also presented and discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, published in Phys. Rev.

Serological Survey of Pigs From a Slaughterhouse in Jakarta, Indonesia

Maksud dan tujuan dari survey ini ialah untuk mempelajari akan kemungkinannya he­wan-hewan babi memegang peranan sebagai reservoir ataupun amplifier dari penyakit-penyakit zoonotic di Pulau Jawa. Survey ini di­jalankan bersama-sama dengan Namru-2 di Jakarta. Sebagian besar specimens yang berupa darah, berasal dari babi babi yang akan dipotong dirumah pemotongan hewan babi di Jakarta Barat, babi-babi tersebut ada yang berasal dari Jawa Tengah, Jawa Barat, serta sebagian lagi berasal dari babi-babi milik rakyat di daerah Kapok. Pengambilan specimens dilakukan sehari sebelum babi-babi tadi dipotong. Setiap pagi lebih kurang 150 ekor babi dipotong, dimana umurnya berkisar antara enam hingga 24 bulan. Pada survey ini telah dikumpulkan 399 specimens, sebanyak 227 specimens berasal dari babi-babi betina, 159 specimens berasal dari babi-babi jantan, serta 13 specimens berasal dari babi-babi jantan kebiri. Hasil Pemeriksaan Laboratorium. Pemeriksaan terhadap Toxoplasma. Dari 166 sera yang berasal dari babi-babi Jawa Barat sebanyak 46 (28 percent) me-nunjukan hasil positif (titer 1 : 8 atau lebih j Sedangkan 235 sera berasal dari babi-babi Jawa Tengah , hany a sebanyak 17(7percent yang menunjukan hasil positif (titer 1 : 8). Titer yang lebih tinggi (1 : 1024) juga di­temukan pada babi-babi yang berasal dari Jawa Barat.Pemeriksaan terhadap Brucella suis. Titer 1 : 320 masih diketemukan pada semua group, akan tetapi sebagian besar serum me­nunjukan hasil negatip. Sebagian kecil sera yang berasal dari babi-babi tua dari Jawa-Barat menunjukan adanya anti­body yang lebih tinggi dari pada babi-babi muda.Pemeriksaan terhadap penyakit Japanese Encephalitis. Pada semua golongan umur dari geographical-group dari babi-babi menunjuk­an adanya anti-body terhadap J.E. Sera yang negatip lebih banyak berasal dari babi-babi Jawa Tengah.Pemeriksaan terhadap penyakit Influenza. Titer yang menyolok terhadap penyakit Influenza A2 Hongkong terdapat pada babi-babi golongan muda maupun tua baik yang berasal dari Jawa Tengah maupun yang ber­asal dari Jawa-Barat. Meskipun demikian, babi-babi dari Jawa Barat lebih banyak menunjukan hasil yang positip dari pada berasal dari Jawa Tengah.Pemeriksaan terhadap Leptospira. Kebanyakan serum menunjukan adanya anti-body terhadap L. sentot L. pomona dan L. bangkinang. Sebagian besar serum yang positip berasal dari babi-babi Jawa Tengah