Introduction to the Anthropocene

https://nanocrit.com/issues/issue13/Editors-Introduction-for-NANO-Special-Issue-13-The-Anthropocenehttps://nanocrit.com/issues/issue13/Editors-Introduction-for-NANO-Special-Issue-13-The-AnthropoceneAccepted manuscrip

Observational experiential learning facilitated by debriefing for meaningful learning : exploring student roles in simulation

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Simulation is an educational strategy used in prelicensure nursing education that has been demonstrated to effectively replace selected clinical experiences. Simulation experiences may include the use of differing roles including the active participant, who makes decisions during the simulation and the passive observer, who watches the simulation unfold. There is a lack of rigorous research testing whether students in the passive observer role during simulations demonstrate and retain knowledge similarly to those in active participant roles. In addition, differences in knowledge applied to a contextually similar case between those who actively participate and passively observe have not been studied. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between nursing student’s roles in simulation and cognitive knowledge demonstration, retention, and application about two contextually similar cases of respiratory distress. An experimental, pretest-multiple posttest, repeated measures study was conducted with a convenience sample of 119 baccalaureate prelicensure nursing students from a large multi-campus Southwestern university. Two knowledge instruments were administered throughout different stages of the simulation and four weeks later. Associations between role in simulation and scores on the knowledge instruments were examined using t-tests and mixed repeated measures-analysis of variance. Of the 59 active participants and 60 observers, there were no significant differences in knowledge demonstrated or retained after simulation, after debriefing, or four weeks later. Additionally, there were no significant differences in knowledge demonstrated when applied to a contextually similar case after debriefing or four weeks later between active participant and observer. Future research is needed to examine these relationships in larger and more diverse samples and different contextual clinical situations in simulation. These results will contribute to the further testing and implementation of using observation as a strategy for teaching and learning with simulation for nursing and health professions education

ARISTOTLE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POLITICS AND THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS AND ITS RELATION TO TODAY

While much of Aristotle\u27s works are preserved in various volumes, two of his famous works are the Nichmachean Ethics and the Politics, both of which contain a rich compilation of ethical and political thought. In the Ethics, Aristotle describes a thorough understanding of ethical and intellectual virtue. By pursuing these virtues, Aristotle argues that a person can achieve a life of fulfilling happiness. The ideal polis as described in the Politics serves as a place where the virtuous life is attained in the best manner.Citizens who pursue virtue make the polis better, and the rulers that guide the polis ensure that the citizens have every opportunity to pursue the virtuous life. In this thesis, I see how relevant Aristotle\u27s theory is by laying out the basic principles of the Ethics and the Politics and the connections between the two works. Indoing so, I found that Aristotle\u27s ideal theory points out a significant flaw in our political system: the fact that we do not share a common moral conception such as the one concerned with the virtuous life as Aristotle proposes. This does not suggest thatAristotle\u27s view was actualized during his time period, but that Aristotle conceives of an ideal life and an ideal polis that could be realized. Certainly there are issues with Aristotle\u27s thesis concerning the inferiority of slaves and women. But what is morepoignant is the impracticality of instituting a shared common conception when today\u27s political system permits various ideas about ethics and morality

The Effect of Games on Engagement and Performance in Intelligent Tutoring Systems

The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the relation between game-like elements, individual differences in gameplay, and engagement within an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). The current studies examined the incorporation of a game into an existing ITS, iSTART. The game, Self-explanation Showdown (Showdown) added game-like elements into the iSTART practice sessions. Incorporating games was expected to increase engagement while not affecting participants’ overall performance. However, the results of Experiment 1 indicated that game-based practice (Showdown) was more engaging than the non-game-based practice (Coached Practice), but produced lower quality self-explanation performance. The decrease in performance was attributed to the amount of pedagogical information available during the learning task. In Experiment 2, a second version of Showdown was created that added pedagogical feedback similar to the feedback provided in Coached Practice. The feedback-added version of Showdown (Showdown-FB) was expected to retain the benefits of engagement while mitigating the deficits in performance. Instead, Showdown-FB demonstrated a reduction in participants’ engagement to a level which was no longer significantly different from Coached Practice, and did not increase performance relative to the original version of Showdown. Finally, Experiment 3 investigated whether opponent difficulty would affect gameplay and how those effects may vary as a function of different types of game players (Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, Killers). The results of Experiment 3 indicated that opponent difficulty affected both performance and engagement. Participants were more engaged and produced higher quality self-explanations when playing against a highly skilled opponent. Follow-up analyses indicated that the differences in performance were likely a result of modeling responses from a highly skilled opponent. However, the effects of opponent difficulty were not affected by a participant’s gamer type

Grace, Obedience, and the Hermeneutics of Agency: Paul and his Jewish Contemporaries on the Transformation of the Heart

This thesis examines how convictions about gift and grace integrate with conceptions of agency and obedience for Paul and for his Jewish contemporaries. While post-Sanders scholarship has rightly noted the coexistence of grace and works in the Pauline and Jewish literature, it has failed to account for the diverse and sophisticated ways in which those two concepts can coexist. Following recent intertextual studies, this thesis argues that ancient Jews read descriptions of ‘heart-transformation’ in Deuteronomy 30, Jeremiah 31–32 and Ezekiel 36 as the solution to human ineptitude. Paul was no exception and his reading of those texts had a profound influence on his articulations of divine grace and human agency. On Paul’s complex understanding moral competence is dependent upon divine agency and divine and human agencies co-exist and coinhere in, but never outside of, Christ. Beyond advancing our understanding of the apostle’s agency dynamics, this thesis shows how Second Temple interpretations of texts that concern heart-transformation provide fruitful ways of comparing Paul and his contemporaries’ respective views regarding divine grace, human transformation, and humanity’s ability to obey God. While most Jews in this period did not set divine and human agency or grace and obedience in competition with one another, the precise forms grace took, the functions it performed, the spheres in which it operated, and the qualification for its receptions differed markedly and this would have contributed to vehement disagreements between Jews. Paul would not have been immune from such debates. While his views about grace and agency are not sui generis in every respect, he would have still appeared radical to most of his contemporaries

MURAC: A unified machine model for heterogeneous computers

Includes bibliographical referencesHeterogeneous computing enables the performance and energy advantages of multiple distinct processing architectures to be efficiently exploited within a single machine. These systems are capable of delivering large performance increases by matching the applications to architectures that are most suited to them. The Multiple Runtime-reconfigurable Architecture Computer (MURAC) model has been proposed to tackle the problems commonly found in the design and usage of these machines. This model presents a system-level approach that creates a clear separation of concerns between the system implementer and the application developer. The three key concepts that make up the MURAC model are a unified machine model, a unified instruction stream and a unified memory space. A simple programming model built upon these abstractions provides a consistent interface for interacting with the underlying machine to the user application. This programming model simplifies application partitioning between hardware and software and allows the easy integration of different execution models within the single control ow of a mixed-architecture application. The theoretical and practical trade-offs of the proposed model have been explored through the design of several systems. An instruction-accurate system simulator has been developed that supports the simulated execution of mixed-architecture applications. An embedded System-on-Chip implementation has been used to measure the overhead in hardware resources required to support the model, which was found to be minimal. An implementation of the model within an operating system on a tightly-coupled reconfigurable processor platform has been created. This implementation is used to extend the software scheduler to allow for the full support of mixed-architecture applications in a multitasking environment. Different scheduling strategies have been tested using this scheduler for mixed-architecture applications. The design and implementation of these systems has shown that a unified abstraction model for heterogeneous computers provides important usability benefits to system and application designers. These benefits are achieved through a consistent view of the multiple different architectures to the operating system and user applications. This allows them to focus on achieving their performance and efficiency goals by gaining the benefits of different execution models during runtime without the complex implementation details of the system-level synchronisation and coordination

Measurement of Heavy Flavor Yield and Azimuthal Anisotropy at Forward Angles in \u3ci\u3eCu\u3c/i\u3e + \u3ci\u3eAu\u3c/i\u3e Collisions at a Center-of-Mass Collision Energy Per Nucleon of 200 GeV

Heavy flavor quarks are produced early in heavy ion collisions and will experience the full evolution of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). Measurements at forward rapidity may be influenced as much, or more, by the cold nuclear matter effects as by the hot nuclear matter effects associated with a QGP. As the medium evolves, the initial spatial anisotropy of participants is converted to an azimuthal anisotropy in the momentum space of outgoing particles. Therefore, the momentum spectra modification and anisotropy parameters provide useful information about the heavy quark interaction with the bulk medium. Asymmetric heavy ion collisions, such as Cu+Au, provide a unique geometry with which to study the dynamics of the heavy quarks, relative to that in symmetric collisions. In particular, asymmetries in the yields between the Cu-going and Au-going directions may help unentangle the so-called cold nuclear matter effects from the hot nuclear matter effects indicative of a QGP. In addition, the parameters v2 and v3 in asymmetric collisions may be modified relative to the symmetric collisions due to the unique geometry provided in mid-central Cu+Au collisions. This dissertation presents the measurement of the yield and azimuthal anisotropy of single muons originating from heavy flavor decays in √ SNN [center-of-mass energy per nucleon] = 200 GeV Cu+Au collisions

The influence of anxiety, depression, and negative affect on recall of dental pain

Research suggests mood can influence recall of emotionally-relevant information. Yet, despite multiple studies examining the association of anxiety and exaggerated prediction and recall of dental pain, the influence of other moods on prediction and recall of dental pain remains poorly investigated. Further, the potential moderation and mediation effects for dental fear, fear of pain, and mood state have not been properly researched. The present study investigated variables associated with predicted pain (pain expected during the dental procedure) and recalled pain in oral surgery patients. Data were provided by a sample of 157 patients undergoing tooth extraction under local anesthetic. Patients completed measures of depression, anxiety, and negative affect both at the time of surgery and at a 1-month follow-up. Dental fear and fear of pain also were assessed prior to extraction. Path analysis was used to examine relations among variables, including mediation effects of mood state between dental fear or fear of pain and report of pain; moderation effects of dental fear and fear of pain on report of pain were examined using regression equations. The best fitting models suggested mood prior to extraction was related to current pain prior to extraction (beta = .18--.23), but not predicted or recalled pain. Dental fear, however, was related to predicted pain (beta = .25--.26). Predicted pain was associated with recalled pain and also influenced recalled pain through its relation with pain during extraction. In a final exploratory model, the influence of negative affect on current pain became non-significant when accounting for the influence of anxiety and depression. Additionally, fewer prior extractions and shorter duration of dental pain prior to extraction were associated with more predicted pain; greater chronic pain rating and injection of an additional anesthetic were related to more recalled pain. Dental fear proved a theoretically and clinically relevant construct in the oral surgery context, especially in relation to prediction of pain; reduction of dental fear may reduce aversive experiences and report of pain during dental procedures. Future research should clarify more specific relations between mood and pain over time, including patterns of change or stability

Screen Printing Scheduling Methodology

As the shift towards offshore business within the screen printing industry increases, American businesses must find a way to remain competitive. Due to manufacturing costs and regulation it is impossible for Americans to compete with the low per unit cost of foreign suppliers. By decreasing the time to market, American businesses will be able to remain competitive and recover lost business. In order to achieve this, a flexible scheduling model must be developed in order to increase throughput of a production process. This model serves to account for variables and variances that occur within the screen printing process, allowing for effective continuation of production