833 research outputs found
All Active All the Time? What are the Implications of Teaching a Traditional Content-Rich Machine Components/Mechanical Systems Design Course Using Active Learning?
This paper examines the use of research-proven Active Learning techniques to transform the teaching of a traditional Machine Components/Mechanical Systems Design class. We know from research in Active learning that use of these methods can often lead to greater conceptual understanding and greater engagement of the students with engineering course materials, yet a common concern among engineering faculty is that the adoption of Active learning techniques will not allow the full breadth and depth of traditional content coverage. In this work, the authors reimagined one of the most content-heavy courses in a traditional Mechanical Engineering curriculum by including many Active Learning teaching and learning techniques. In this practice-based research project, the authors attempted to answer the following questions: 1) Could the students learn the breadth and depth of the content via Active Learning, 2) How do the students value the Active Learning experience as compared to a traditional approach and 3) Is the faculty experience such that it would motivate them to use Active Learning techniques in the future? In order to answer these questions, the course was redesigned to eliminate traditional lecturing and the solving of example problems by the instructor. Instead example problems are placed online to be reviewed by the student at their convenience (an element of the Flipped classroom) thus freeing up class time for various Active Learning experiences including conceptual questions, Think-Pair-Share activities, Ranking tasks, individual and team quizzes, and collaborative problem solving. Project Based Learning (PBL) was used through two large team-based design projects undertaken during a weekly laboratory session. A mixed-methods assessment strategy was employed to evaluate the success of these approaches. Quantitative data was obtained from final exam performance for both conceptual understanding and problem solving competency which was compared directly to the same class taught in a traditional manner. Other quantitative and qualitative data, including student’s attitudes and experiences, was gathered through a post class survey
Brachial plexus injury mimicking a spinal-cord injury.
Objective High-energy impact to the head, neck, and shoulder can result in cervical spine as well as brachial plexus injuries. Because cervical spine injuries are more common, this tends to be the initial focus for management. We present a case in which the initial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was somewhat misleading and a detailed neurological exam lead to the correct diagnosis.Clinical presentation A 19-year-old man presented to the hospital following a shoulder injury during football practice. The patient immediately complained of significant pain in his neck, shoulder, and right arm and the inability to move his right arm. He was stabilized in the field for a presumed cervical-spine injury and transported to the emergency department.Intervention Initial radiographic assessment (C-spine CT, right shoulder x-ray) showed no bony abnormality. MRI of the cervical-spine showed T2 signal change and cord swelling thought to be consistent with a cord contusion. With adequate pain control, a detailed neurological examination was possible and was consistent with an upper brachial plexus avulsion injury that was confirmed by CT myelogram. The patient failed to make significant neurological recovery and he underwent spinal accessory nerve grafting to the suprascapular nerve to restore shoulder abduction and external rotation, while the phrenic nerve was grafted to the musculocutaneous nerve to restore elbow flexion.Conclusion Cervical spinal-cord injuries and brachial plexus injuries can occur by the same high energy mechanisms and can occur simultaneously. As in this case, MRI findings can be misleading and a detailed physical examination is the key to diagnosis. However, this can be difficult in polytrauma patients with upper extremity injuries, head injuries or concomitant spinal-cord injury. Finally, prompt diagnosis and early surgical renerveration have been associated with better long-term recovery with certain types of injury
Development and Implementation of a Long-Term Freshmen Service Project: The Design and Deployment of an Engineering Outreach Experience for Underserved Populations
Freshmen year programs in engineering have received recent and growing attention as a method to engage first year students in their profession and start them on a path to success. Service learning is a well-known pedagogical method that has been shown to improve retention, especially of underrepresented groups in engineering, and to promote deeper learning through reflection. This paper describes the implementation of a new long-term (full year) service learning project where 240 freshmen mechanical engineering students worked together in small teams to design and deploy an engineering outreach experience for a designated age-group of 4th-11th grade students. This educational experience is designed to expose the freshmen engineering students to a variety of concepts and skills necessary for successful negotiation of their engineering careers. The project encourages the freshmen to challenge their assumptions and conceptions of what an engineer is and does. Other knowledge and skills gained include understanding and using the engineering design process, effectively working on engineering teams, effectively communicating, planning and making decisions, all while solving an open-ended problem. The experience also asks the freshmen to consider diverse perspectives as they design for the targeted populations. The paper describes the project implementation and presents results from student reflections and from a survey. Lessons learned and recommendations for best practices are also presented
Post-mortem culture of Balamuthia mandrillaris from the brain and cerebrospinal fluid of a case of granulomatous amoebic meningoencephalitis, using human brain microvascular endothelial cells
The first isolation in the UK of Balamuthia mandrillaris amoebae from a fatal case of granulomatous amoebic meningoencephalitis is reported. Using primary cultures of human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs), amoebae were isolated from the brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The cultures showed a cytopathic effect at 20–28 days, but morphologically identifiable B. mandrillaris amoebae were seen in cleared plaques in subcultures at 45 days. The identification of the organism was later confirmed using PCR on Chelex-treated extracts. Serum taken while the patient was still alive reacted strongly with slide antigen prepared from cultures of the post-mortem isolate, and also with those from a baboon B. mandrillaris strain at 1 : 10 000 in indirect immunofluorescence, but with Acanthamoeba castellanii (Neff) at 1 : 160, supporting B. mandrillaris to be the causative agent. If the presence of amoebae in the post-mortem CSF reflects the condition in life, PCR studies on CSF and on biopsies of cutaneous lesions may also be a valuable tool. The role of HBMECs in understanding the interactions of B. mandrillaris with the blood–brain barrier is discussed
Coupled Replicator Equations for the Dynamics of Learning in Multiagent Systems
Starting with a group of reinforcement-learning agents we derive coupled
replicator equations that describe the dynamics of collective learning in
multiagent systems. We show that, although agents model their environment in a
self-interested way without sharing knowledge, a game dynamics emerges
naturally through environment-mediated interactions. An application to
rock-scissors-paper game interactions shows that the collective learning
dynamics exhibits a diversity of competitive and cooperative behaviors. These
include quasiperiodicity, stable limit cycles, intermittency, and deterministic
chaos--behaviors that should be expected in heterogeneous multiagent systems
described by the general replicator equations we derive.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures,
http://www.santafe.edu/projects/CompMech/papers/credlmas.html; updated
references, corrected typos, changed conten
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The High-Density Ionized Gas in the Central Parsec of the Galaxy
We report a study of the line emission at 1.3 mm from the region around Sgr A* made with the Submillimeter Array at a resolution of 2'' over a field of 60'' (2 pc) and a velocity range of . This field encompasses most of the Galactic center's "minispiral." With an isothermal homogeneous H II model, we determined the physical conditions of the ionized gas at specific locations in the Northern and Eastern Arms from the line data along with Very Large Array data from the line at 3.6 cm and from the radio continuum emission at 1.3 cm. The typical electron density and kinetic temperature in the minispiral arms are and 5000-13,000 K, respectively. The and line profiles are broadened due to the large velocity shear within and along the beam produced by dynamical motions in the strong gravitational field near Sgr A*. We constructed a three-dimensional model of the minispiral using the orbital parameters derived under the assumptions that the gas flows are in Keplerian motion. The gas in the Eastern Arm appears to collide with the Northern Arm flow in the "Bar" region, which is located 0.1-0.2 pc south of and behind Sgr A*. Finally, a total Lyman continuum flux of photons is inferred from the assumption that the gas is photoionized and the ionizing photons for the high-density gas in the minispiral arms are from external sources, which is equivalent to ~250 O9-type zero-age-main-sequence stars.Astronom
Empirically Constrained Color-Temperature Relations. II. uvby
(Abriged) A new grid of theoretical color indices for the Stromgren uvby
photometric system has been derived from MARCS model atmospheres and SSG
synthetic spectra for cool dwarf and giant stars. At warmer temperatures this
grid has been supplemented with the synthetic uvby colors from recent Kurucz
atmospheric models without overshooting. Our transformations appear to
reproduce the observed colors of extremely metal-poor turnoff and giant stars
(i.e., [Fe/H]<-2). Due to a number of assumptions made in the synthetic color
calculations, however, our color-temperature relations for cool stars fail to
provide a suitable match to the uvby photometry of both cluster and field stars
having [Fe/H]>-2. To overcome this problem, the theoretical indices at
intermediate and high metallicities have been corrected using a set of color
calibrations based on field stars having accurate IRFM temperature estimates
and spectroscopic [Fe/H] values. Encouragingly, isochrones that employ the
transformations derived in this study are able to reproduce the observed CMDs
(involving u-v, v-b, and b-y colors) for a number of open and globular clusters
(including M92, M67, the Hyades, and 47Tuc) rather well. Moreover, our
interpretations of such data are very similar, if not identical, with those
given by VandenBerg & Clem (2003, AJ, 126, 778) from a consideration of BV(RI)c
observations for the same clusters. In the present investigation, we have also
analyzed the observed Stromgren photometry for the classic Population II
subdwarfs, compared our "final" (b-y)-Teff relationship with those derived
empirically in a number of recent studies, and examined in some detail the
dependence of the m1 index on [Fe/H].Comment: 70 pages, 26 figures. Accepted for publication in AJ (Feb 2004).
Postscript version with high resolution figures and complete Table 3
available at http://astrowww.phys.uvic.ca/~jclem/uvb
Deep Markov Random Field for Image Modeling
Markov Random Fields (MRFs), a formulation widely used in generative image
modeling, have long been plagued by the lack of expressive power. This issue is
primarily due to the fact that conventional MRFs formulations tend to use
simplistic factors to capture local patterns. In this paper, we move beyond
such limitations, and propose a novel MRF model that uses fully-connected
neurons to express the complex interactions among pixels. Through theoretical
analysis, we reveal an inherent connection between this model and recurrent
neural networks, and thereon derive an approximated feed-forward network that
couples multiple RNNs along opposite directions. This formulation combines the
expressive power of deep neural networks and the cyclic dependency structure of
MRF in a unified model, bringing the modeling capability to a new level. The
feed-forward approximation also allows it to be efficiently learned from data.
Experimental results on a variety of low-level vision tasks show notable
improvement over state-of-the-arts.Comment: Accepted at ECCV 201
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Electronic data capture in a rural African setting: evaluating experiences with different systems in Malawi
Background
As hardware for electronic data capture (EDC), such as smartphones or tablets, becomes cheaper and more widely available, the potential for using such hardware as data capture tools in routine healthcare and research is increasing.
Objective
We aim to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of four EDC systems being used simultaneously in rural Malawi: two for Android devices (CommCare and ODK Collect), one for PALM and Windows OS (Pendragon), and a custom-built application for Android (Mobile InterVA – MIVA).
Design
We report on the personal field and development experience of fieldworkers, project managers, and EDC system developers.
Results
Fieldworkers preferred using EDC to paper-based systems, although some struggled with the technology at first. Highlighted features include in-built skip patterns for all systems, and specifically the ‘case’ function that CommCare offers. MIVA as a standalone app required considerably more time and expertise than the other systems to create and could not be customised for our specific research needs; however, it facilitates standardised routine data collection. CommCare and ODK Collect both have user-friendly web-interfaces for form development and good technical support. CommCare requires Internet to build an application and download it to a device, whereas all steps can be done offline with ODK Collect, a desirable feature in low connectivity settings. Pendragon required more complex programming of logic, using a Microsoft Access application, and generally had less technical support. Start-up costs varied between systems, and all were considered more expensive than setting up a paper-based system; however running costs were generally low and therefore thought to be cost-effective over the course of our projects.
Conclusions
EDC offers many opportunities for efficient data collection, but brings some issues requiring consideration when designing a study; the decision of which hardware and software to use should be informed by the aim of data collection, budget, and local circumstances
Spitzer observations of the Orion OB1 association: second generation dust disks at 5-10 Myr
We report new Spitzer observations of intermediate mass stars in two regions
of the Orion OB1 association located in the subassociations OB1a (10 Myr)
and OB1b (5 Myr). In a representative sample of stars earlier than F5 of
both stellar groups, we find a population of stars surrounded of debris disks,
without excess in the IRAC bands and without emission lines in their optical
spectra, but with a varying degree of 24{\micron} excess. Comparing our samples
with 24{\micron} observations of intermediate mass stars in other stellar
groups, spanning a range of ages from 2.5 Myr to 150 Myr, we find that debris
disks are more frequent and have larger 24{\micron} excess at 10 Myr (OB1a).
This trend agrees with predictions of models of evolution of solids in the
outer regions of disks (30 AU), where large icy objects (1000 Km)
begin to form at 10 Myr; the presence of these objects in the disk
initiates a collisional cascade, producing enough dust particles to explain the
relatively large 24 {\micron} excess observed in OB1a. The dust luminosity
observed in the stellar groups older than 10 Myr declines roughly as predicted
by collisional cascade models. Combining Spitzer observations, optical spectra
and 2MASS data, we found a new Herbig Ae/Be star (HD290543) and a star
(HD36444) with a large 24 {\micron} excess, both in OB1b. This last object
could be explained as a intermediate stage between HAeBe and true debris
systems or as a massive debris disk produced by a collision between two large
objects (1000 Km).Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. To be published in Astrophysical
Journal (Acepted: 24 Jul 2006
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