Dynamic phase diagram of plastically deformed amorphous solids at finite temperature

The yielding transition that occurs in amorphous solids under athermal quasistatic deformation has been the subject of many theoretical and computational studies. Here, we extend this analysis to include thermal effects at finite shear rate, focusing on how temperature alters avalanches. We derive a nonequilibrium phase diagram capturing how temperature and strain rate effects compete, when avalanches overlap, and whether finite-size effects dominate over temperature effects. The predictions are tested through simulations of an elastoplastic model in two dimensions and in a mean-field approximation. We find a new scaling for temperature-dependent softening in the low-strain rate regime when avalanches do not overlap, and a temperature-dependent Herschel-Bulkley exponent in the high strain rate regime when avalanches do overlap.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Updated to second version June 22, 202

Preparing for & Integrating the Ayahuasca Journey: What is the Role of a Western Psychotherapist?

This capstone explores the use of ayahuasca as a healing modality and whether there is a role for a counsellor or therapist in the preparation and integration of an ayahuasca journey. A literature review provides an introduction to ayahuasca as an Indigenous medicine, its traditional usage and the efficacy of ayahuasca in treating Western concerns such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. Findings suggest that ayahuasca is a highly integrative medicine that works on the biological, psychological, physiological, emotional and spiritual levels, which makes it so effective. The phases of ayahuasca are outlined, focusing primarily on preparation and integration, with a brief discussion on ceremony. Preparation includes several medical considerations and adhering to a strict diet. Integration is a critical component of an ayahuasca journey in that it involves taking insights from the medicine and applying new behaviours or learnings into participants' daily lives. Ayahuasca integration is an emerging and important field of research with considerable opportunity for further exploration. This study is critical to counselling as no standardized training or comprehensive best practices exist for integrating plant medicine. Ayahuasca is a powerful healing modality which can be challenging. Potential participants should give ayahuasca much respect and consideration before embarking on a journey. The final chapter of this capstone offers a suggested list of considerations to help participants safely work with the medicine. The guide can also provide therapists insight into the complexity of preparing for and integrating ayahuasca. The most critical component of acting as an integration therapist is significant personal experience with the medicine

Trustworthy Integration of AI in Online Learning: Supporting Student Agency and Inquiry through Open Pedagogy

Open pedagogy is a transformative educational approach that fosters innovative, inclusive, and sustainable instructional practices while addressing persistent challenges such as accessibility, equity, and the affordability of educational resources. This qualitative study explores how open pedagogy can develop AI literacy skills while supporting student agency and inquiry in online graduate education. The collaborative initiative involved two cohorts of graduate students (n = 39) who co-authored openly licensed textbooks: AI-Enhanced Instructional Design (ETAD 873, 2023) and Streamlined Instructional Design with AI (ETAD 873, 2024). A multi-phase data collection approach included analysis of student-authored chapters, structured peer review processes, and open-ended focus group interviews. The resulting open textbooks demonstrate critical engagement with generative AI technologies, highlighting the value of knowledge co-creation and innovative approaches to instructional design. Findings are synthesized into practical guidelines for empowering adult learners to responsibly and creatively utilize AI as a partner in co-designing open educational resources (OER). A significant contribution of the study is the development of a framework comprising ten open pedagogy attributes that facilitate the trustworthy integration of AI, enabling deep, meaningful, and authentic learning experiences in higher education

Ascent of Ultrahigh-Pressure Rocks in Southeastern Papua New Guinea, as Revealed by Ti-in-Quartz Thermometry and Rb-Sr Dating

Debate concerns the timing of ultra-high pressure (UHP) metamorphism and the kinematics of exhumation of the world’s youngest known eclogite-facies rocks (U-Pb ages of 4 – 8 Ma) in the Woodlark Rift of southeastern Papua New Guinea. End-member kinematic models that have been proposed for the crustal exhumation of metamorphic gneiss domes that host these young eclogites include detachment-related (asymmetric) gneiss doming (metamorphic core complexes), and pure shear-dominated (symmetric or diapiric) gneiss doming. The former is predicted to exhume the deepest structural levels of the domes adjacent to a major normal fault. The latter is predicted to yield a concentric pattern of exhumation levels with the deepest rocks located near the center of the domes. As far as can be determined, there are no mappable field gradients with respect to either the high-pressure metamorphism or the later pervasive amphibolite-facies overprint in the lower crust. This apparent uniformity contributes to uncertainty regarding the distribution of vertical strain in the body, and thus to the mode of dome emplacement. To delineate spatial differences in exhumation and cooling rates, I measured Ti content in quartz for 90 samples of quartzofeldspathic gneiss and eclogite distributed across four migmatitic gneiss domes using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. I calculated paleo-temperatures from these data using the Ti-in-quartz geothermometer (Thomas et al., 2010; Wark and Watson, 2006). The Ti concentration in quartz in these samples ranges from 10 to 20 ppm, corresponding to an apparent temperature range of 500°C to 600°C (calculated using the Wark and Watson, 2006 calibration). As the apparent temperatures do not have a clear correlation with lithology and the quartz grains exhibit amoeboid grain boundaries, I infer that the Ti content in the quartz grains is capturing information related to quartz recrystallization and grain growth during the final stages of dynamic recrystallization by high-temperature grain-boundary migration (GBM). The presence of pervasive partial melt in the rocks and of chessboard microstructures in the quartz grains implies that the rocks in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands once attained temperatures of >630°C; however the 93% of the apparent temperatures calculated here are <630°C. Based on the pervasive GBM and the Ti-in-quartz apparent temperatures, I infer that the mean Ti content in these quartz grains was chiefly dependent on the relative rates of cooling and recrystallization as the body ascended through the crust. If the recrystallization rate was less spatially variable relative to the cooling rates across the gneiss domes, more quickly exhumed rocks would retain a larger relict fraction of unrecrystallized, hightemperature quartz grains. Ti content in quartz can therefore be used to map spatial changes in mean exhumation rate. As a rule, Ti concentrations in quartz in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands increase concentrically inward from 2.5 – 25 ppm at the dome margins to 20 – >100 ppm in the core of the domes. Based on this apparent increase in Ti content in quartz, I interpret the most rapidly cooled and exhumed rocks to occur today near the center of the gneiss domes. Thus, the Ti content in quartz data presented here indicate that the gneiss domes were emplaced in the crust by predominantly pure-shear symmetric doming. The timing of rock fabric development at the (U)HP conditions and during the main amphibolite-facies retrogression at lower crustal depths in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands has not been dated. To that end, I present nine Rb-Sr internal mineral isochrons for samples of eclogite, quartzofeldspathic gneiss, and granitic rock from four gneiss domes. Rb-Sr internal mineral isochrons for two samples of eclogites from the core zone of the Mailolo gneiss dome (Fergusson Island) date the timing of the (U)HP eclogite-facies metamorphism at mantle depths to 5.7 ± 2.0 Ma and 5.6 ± 1.6 Ma (2σ), respectively. One sample preserves coesite and the other contains radial fractures around quartz inclusions in garnet, implying that coesite was once been present in this rock. From this data, I infer that the eclogites in the Mailolo dome were metamorphosed at UHP depths of >90 km at 5.6 ± 1.2 Ma (approximate 95% confidence interval for the weighted mean of the two samples). The Rb-Sr isochron ages of amphibolite-facies rock fabric development in a granodioritic orthogneiss and quartzofeldspathic gneiss from the Mailolo and Goodenough dome are 2.4 ± 1.4 Ma (2σ) and 2.38 ± 0.3 Ma (2σ) respectively. This similarity in these Rb-Sr ages implies that deformation at amphibolite-facies conditions took place nearly simultaneously in these gneiss domes. A granodiorite >40 km to the south of the Mailolo granodioritic orthogneiss yielded a Rb-Sr age of 3.90 ± 0.44 Ma. This latter age is 1.5 ± 1.1 Ma (approximate 95% confidence interval) older then the Mailolo and Goodenough samples, indicating an apparent westward younging in the age of the amphibolite-facies metamorphism in the northwestern D’Entrecasteaux Islands. Five samples of quartzofeldspathic gneiss and quartzose rock were analyzed for pressure and temperature estimates using the garnet-plagioclase-muscovite-quartz barometer, the garnet- Al2SiO5-plagioclase-quartz barometer, and the garnet-phengite exchange thermometer. These data indicate a temperature range of 640 – 720 °C and a corresponding pressure range of 10 – 17 kbar for the amphibolite-facies metamorphic overprint in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands. This pressure estimate is higher then previous estimates (7 – 11 kbar) by ~3 – 6 kbar, which implies the HP body was thicker then previously inferred when it ponded at the lower crust. Combining these new Rb-Sr ages with U-Pb zircon ages by Gordon et al. (in review), I calculate a time lag of 2.2 ± 1.2 Ma (approximate 95% confidence interval) between eclogite-facies deformation in the mantle and amphibolite-facies foliation development in the lower crust for rocks in the Mailolo dome. This time lag, when combined with the amphibolite-facies pressure estimates presented here and pressure estimates consistent with the preservation of coesite in one sample, implies a minimum unroofing rate of 19 ± 11 mm yr-1 (approximate 95% confidence interval) for the (U)HP body from the mantle to the lower crust. This minimum unroofing rate strongly supports previous inferences that the exhumation from the mantle to the surface of the gneiss domes in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands took place at plate tectonic rates

Thermally activated intermittent flow in amorphous solids

Using mean field theory and a mesoscale elastoplastic model, we analyze the steady state shear rheology of thermally activated amorphous solids. At sufficiently high temperature and driving rates, flow is continuous and described by well-established rheological flow laws such as Herschel-Bulkley and logarithmic rate dependence. However, we find that these flow laws change in the regime of intermittent flow, were collective events no longer overlap and serrated flow becomes pronounced. In this regime, we identify a thermal activation stress scale, $x_{a}(T,\dotγ)$, that wholly captures the effect of driving rate $\dotγ$ and temperature $T$ on average flow stress, stress drop (avalanche) size and correlation lengths. Different rheological regimes are summarized in a dynamic phase diagram for the amorphous yielding transition. Theoretical predictions call for a need to re-examine the rheology of very slowly sheared amorphous matter much below the glass transition.16 pages, 8 figure

Releasing hope—Women’s stories of transition from prison to community

This article embodies two key narratives among many that have emerged from a 14-year research project. The first narrative is of a community-engaged solution, a peer health mentor program, which was imagined during a prison participatory health and university research project, as described in Arresting Hope. The second is the narrative of Releasing Hope, a collection of writings by women with incarceration experience sharing their experiences, their challenges, and the barriers they face as they seek to heal from fractured and interrupted lives. A unique form of collaboration, innovation, research creation, and knowledge dissemination, Releasing Hope invites readers to reconsider communal perceptions, attitudes, and resistance towards those with incarceration experience, who struggle each day to be seen, not as former criminals, but as women capable of reimagining and enacting new lives. These two narratives illustrate the possibilities present when women are empowered with voice and agency. In the article, we aim to capture the spirit of both projects, in the interspersing of text and image, a collage of voices that speak to the experiences and learning that emerged through these two research ventures

Preparing Educators to Teach and Create With Generative Artificial Intelligence

Teachers skilled in using generative artificial intelligence (GAI) have advantages in terms of increased productivity and augmented instructional capabilities. Alongside the rapid advancement of GAI, teachers require authentic learning opportunities to build the confidence and expertise necessary for engaging with these technologies creatively and responsibly. This article provides an illustrative case of preparing preservice and in-service teachers with the knowledge, skills, and mindsets to teach and create with GAI. Using a self-study method to investigate professional practices, we analyzed the curriculum, instruction, and assessment in an upper-level undergraduate course in multimedia design and production. Thirty-five teachers engaged in experiential activities focussed on developing artificial intelligence (AI) literacy, alongside a collaborative assignment to co-author an open-access textbook, Teaching and Creating With Generative Artificial Intelligence. To support equitable and inclusive access to the educational benefits offered by AI, the Student Artificial Intelligence Literacy (SAIL) framework was developed. SAIL facilitates student AI literacy through curriculum engagement and three distinct types of interactions: cognitive, socio-emotional, and instructor-guided. Building on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the issues with technology training for teachers in Canada, five recommendations are offered to facilitate the meaningful integration of AI literacy in teacher education programs

Microscopic description of the intermittent dynamics driving logarithmic creep

Disordered materials under an imposed forcing can display creep and aging effects, accompanied by intermittent, spatially heterogeneous dynamics. We propose a unifying microscopic description of these phenomena, based on the notion that as the system ages, the density of local barriers that enable relaxation displays a slowly evolving gap. As a result, the relaxation dynamics is dominated by the activation of the lowest, extremal tail of the distribution. This framework predicts logarithmic creep, as well as correlated bursts of slow activated rearrangements, or \u27thermal avalanches\u27, whose size grows logarithmically with their duration. The time interval between events within avalanches obeys a universal power-law distribution, with a cut-off that is simply proportional to the age of the system. We show that these predictions hold both in numerical models of amorphous solids, as well as in experiments with thin crumpled sheets. This analysis suggests that the heterogeneous dynamics occurring during logarithmic creep is related to other phenomena, including dynamical heterogeneities characterising the glass transition.6 pages + 4 figures, 2 page appendix + 2 supplementary figure