Formative assessment of inquiry skills for Responsible Research and Innovation using 3D Virtual Reality Glasses and Face Recognition

This paper examines the experience and views of learners on technological innovations with a novel pedagogical model to enhance formative online assessment of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) skills with e-authentication. The authors developed the OER “virtual classroom” app based on the famous “Bletchley Park” and also an activity for learners exploring this museum in pairs with individual assessment. Participants practiced RRI skills and shared their views about their VR experience in an e-assessment activity with e-authentication through the TeSLA face recognition system. Participants were students from the UK and Brazil. Our research questions include whether the 3DVRG activities in pairs in the same physical environment support peer-learning with assessment-in-context. Findings revealed that activities that enabled physical interactions in pairs enriched the virtual interactions in the museum. The combination of authentic scenario, interactive tasks and assessment-in-context helped learners acquire new information and connect with existing knowledge. These interactions enhanced the immersive learning experience, particularly for those who did not experienced sickness with 3DVRG. Three types of interactions with the virtual space, their peer and the topic respectively enabled the virtual, social and cognitive presence

Generation and control of non-local quantum equivalent extreme ultraviolet photons

We present a high precision, self-referencing, common path XUV interferometer setup to produce pairs of spatially separated and independently controllable XUV pulses that are locked in phase and time. The spatial separation is created by introducing two equal but opposite wavefront tilts or using superpositions of orbital angular momentum. In our approach, we can independently control the relative phase/delay of the two optical beams with a resolution of 52 zs (zs = zeptoseconds). In order to explore the level of entanglement between the non-local photons, we compare three different beam modes: Bessel-like, and Gaussian with or without added orbital angular momentum. By reconstructing interference patterns one or two photons at a time we conclude that the beams are not entangled, yet each photon in the attosecond pulse train contains information about the entire spectrum. Our technique generates non-local, quantum equivalent XUV photons with a temporal jitter of 3 zs, just below the Compton unit of time of 8 zs. We argue that this new level of temporal precision will open the door for new dynamical QED tests. We also discuss the potential impact on other areas, such as imaging, measurements of non-locality, and molecular quantum tomography.Comment: 11 pages 5 figures and supplemental materials with 12 pages and 7 figure

Centimeter to decimeter hollow concretions and voids in Gale Crater sediments, Mars

Voids and hollow spheroids between ∼1 and 23 cm in diameter occur at several locations along the traverse of the Curiosity rover in Gale crater, Mars. These hollow spherical features are significantly different from anything observed in previous landed missions. The voids appear in dark-toned, rough-textured outcrops, most notably at Point Lake (sols 302-305) and Twin Cairns Island (sol 343). Point Lake displays both voids and cemented spheroids in close proximity; other locations show one or the other form. The spheroids have 1-4 mm thick walls and appear relatively dark-toned in all cases, some with a reddish hue. Only one hollow spheroid (Winnipesaukee, sol 653) was analyzed for composition, appearing mafic (Fe-rich), in contrast to the relatively felsic host rock. The interior surface of the spheroid appears to have a similar composition to the exterior with the possible exceptions of being more hydrated and slightly depleted in Fe and K. Origins of the spheroids as Martian tektites or volcanic bombs appear unlikely due to their hollow and relatively fragile nature and the absence of in-place clearly igneous rocks. A more likely explanation to both the voids and the hollow spheroids is reaction of reduced iron with oxidizing groundwater followed by some re-precipitation as cemented rind concretions at a chemical reaction front. Although some terrestrial concretion analogs are produced from a precursor siderite or pyrite, diagenetic minerals could also be direct precipitates for other terrestrial concretions. The Gale sediments differ from terrestrial sandstones in their high initial iron content, perhaps facilitating a higher occurrence of such diagenetic reactions

Consilient Discrepancy: Porosity and Atmosphere in Cinema and Architecture

Cinema constitutes a way of looking at the world, at a world – its aspect, its appearance; but it also presents how that world looks, its prospect – by the prospective glance it throws back toward us. The “look” of a film – its mood, ambiance or atmosphere – eclipses formal and aesthetics registers. It is fundamentally world-forming, and therefore both cosmogonic and ethical: cosmogonic because it produces a world in the midst of, and as, the temporality that devolves through its passage; and ethical because the world it brings about is an inhabited world, a conjugation of people and place that constructs particular ways of being-there-together. The premise here is that atmosphere, ambiance and mood have never been vague categories for cinema and need not be for architecture: rather, that they are in fact producible through deliberate organizational strategies – kinematic and narrative in film, tectonic and material in architecture – according to what might be called “consilient discrepancy” – the coexistence of disseveral systems in unaligned multiplicity that, while never fusing, resonate to produce emergent conditions. Cinema offers architecture an accessible and instructive instance of such consilient discrepancy, because, in it, atmosphere is more fully captured and the conditions that create it more evidently analyzable. To that extent, cinema provides architecture with comparative grounds for engaging with atmosphere through a properly tectonic practice that can potentially enrich the design and experience of architecture. Consilient discrepancy is evident across multiple registers in film. It can function at the level of narrative, space and time and thus puts into question verisimilitude, causality, situational and durational veracity. An example of this is the constitutive disjunctions of Jean-Luc Godard’s jump cut montage where sampled film sequences, film and photographic stills, texts and citations, ambient sound, spoken word and music, build into complex assemblages of sense (Histoire(s) du Cinema, 1998). It is evident in Nicholas Roeg’s multiple, simultaneous temporalities where past and future events interpenetrate and mutually condition the narrative present (Bad Timing, 1980). Similarly, we can find it in Michelangelo Antonioni’s sequence shots that traverse multiple timeframes across the same space – a technique that enables past and present to communicate and amplify the affective, foundational value of the unseen and off-frame (The Passenger, 1975). Another example would be David Lynch’s labyrinthine existential settings, constituted of interminable slippages between indeterminable and infinitely potentialized spaces of dreams, imagination, memory and reality (Mulholland Drive, 2001). Likewise, we could cite Michael Hanake’s persistent displacement of causality and verisimilitude through ambiguous narrative viewpoints (Caché, 2005), and Roy Andersson’s radically liminal settings and characters whose lives constitute larval pre- and/or posthuman states of existence (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, 2014). This paper will foreground two foundational characteristics of atmosphere in cinema, as evident in the works just cited, and explore their applicability to architecture. The first characteristic is the consilient discrepancy outlined here by way of introduction, and the second, related characteristic, is a spatiality of porosity and occlusion. The provisional aim of comparing cinema and architecture according to this tectonic logic is to go beyond typical ways of understanding cinema’s formal engagement with architecture. For this purpose, a detailed analysis of Béla Tarr’s film Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) will serve as a case study for how the medium of cinema generates atmosphere, ambiance and mood through visual language. This will be followed by a similarly detailed consideration of concomitant qualities created in two recent works by the architects Flores Prats, the Mills Museum and Casal Balaguer. Functioning as exemplars of how cinematic qualities can be made manifest in architecture, these precedents will further substantiate the cinematic–architectonic proposition ventured in this paper

Automated construction of variable density navigable networks in a 3D indoor environment for emergency response

Widespread human-induced or natural threats on buildings and their users have made preparedness and quick response as crucial issues for saving human lives. Available information about an emergency scene, e.g. the building structure, material and trapped people helps for decision-making and organizing rescue operations. The ability to evaluate potential scenarios for human evacuation, and then identifying the paths of egress during an emergency is critical for rescue and emergency services. Good quality models supporting real, or near-real, time decision-making and allowing the implementation of automated methods are highly desirable. In this paper, we propose a new automated method for deriving a navigable network in a 3D indoor environment, including a full 3D topological model which may be used not only for standard navigation but also for finding alternative egress routes and simulating phenomena associated with disasters such as fire spread and heat transfer

Silica nanofibrous membranes for the separation of heterogeneous azeotropes

Nanofibrous materials produced through electrospinning are characterized by a high porosity, large specific surface area, and high pore interconnectivity and, therefore, show potential for, e.g., separation and filtration. The development of more inert nanofibers with higher thermal and chemical resistance extends the application field to high-end purification. Silica nanofibrous membranes produced by direct electrospinning of a sol-gel solution without a sacrificing carrier, starting from tetraethoxysilane, meet these challenging requirements. After electrospinning the membrane is highly hydrophobic. Storage under dry conditions preserves this property. Oppositely, a superhydrophilic membrane is obtained by storage under high humidity (month scale). This switch is caused by the reaction of ethoxy groups, present due to incomplete hydrolysis of the precursor, with moisture in the air, resulting in an increased amount of silanol groups. This transition can be accelerated to hour scale by applying a heat treatment, with the additional increase in cross-linking density for temperatures above 400 degrees C, enabling applications that make use of hydrophobic and hydrophilic membranes by tuning the functionalization. It is showcased that upon designing the water repellent or absorbing nature of the silica material, fast gravity-driven membrane separation of heterogeneous azeotropes can be achieved

Reaction profiling of a set of acrylamide-based human tissue transglutaminase inhibitors

The major function of the enzyme human tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is the crosslinking of proteins via a transamidation between the γ-carboxamide of a glutamine and the ε-amino group of a lysine. Overexpression of TG2 can lead to undesirable outcomes and has been linked to conditions such as fibrosis, celiac disease and neurodegenerative diseases. Accordingly, TG2 is a tempting drug target. The most effective TG2 inhibitors to date are small-molecule peptidomimetics featuring electrophilic warheads that irreversibly modify the active site catalytic cysteine (CYS277). In an effort to facilitate the design of such TG2 inhibitors, we undertook a quantum mechanical reaction profiling of the Michael reaction between a set of six acrylamide-based known TG2 inhibitors and the TG2 CYS277. The inhibitors were docked into the active site and the coordinates were refined by MD simulations prior to modelling the covalent modification of the CYS277 thiolate. The results of QM/MM MD umbrella sampling applied to reaction coordinates driving the Michael reaction are presented for two approximations of the Michael reaction: a concerted reaction (simultaneous thiolate attack onto the acrylamide warhead and pronation from the adjacent HIS335) and a two-stage reaction (consecutive thiolate attack and protonation). The two-stage approximation of the Michael reaction gave the better results for the evaluation of acrylamide-based potential TG2 inhibitors in silico. Good correlations were observed between the experimental TG2 IC50 data and the calculated activation energies over the range 0.0061 – 6.3 µM (three orders of magnitude) and we propose that this approach may be used to evaluate acrylamide-based potential TG2 inhibitors

Centimeter to Decimeter Size Spherical and Cylindrical Features in Gale Crater Sediments

The Curiosity rover traverse in Gale crater has explored a large series of sedimentary deposits in an ancient lake on Mars. Over the nine kilometers of traverse a recurrent observation has been southward-dipping sedimentary strata, from Shaler at the edge of Yellowknife Bay to the striated units near the Kimberley. Within the sedimentary strata cm- to decimeter- size hollow spheroidal objects and some apparent cylindrical objects have been observed. These features have not been seen by previous landed missions. The first of these were observed on sol 122 in the Gillespie Lake member at Yellowknife Bay. Additional hollow features were observed in the Point Lake outcrop in the same area. More recently a spherical and apparently hollow object, Winnipesaukee, was observed by ChemCam and Mastcam on sol 653. Here we describe the settings, morphology, and associated compositions, and we discuss possible origins of these objects

Embodying compassion: A virtual reality paradigm for overcoming excessive self-criticism

Virtual reality has been successfully used to study and treat psychological disorders such as phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder but has rarely been applied to clinically-relevant emotions other than fear and anxiety. Self-criticism is a ubiquitous feature of psychopathology and can be treated by increasing levels of self-compassion. We exploited the known effects of identification with a virtual body to arrange for healthy female volunteers high in self-criticism to experience self-compassion from an embodied first-person perspective within immersive virtual reality. Whereas observation and practice of compassionate responses reduced self-criticism, the additional experience of embodiment also increased self-compassion and feelings of being safe. The results suggest potential new uses for immersive virtual reality in a range of clinical conditions.N/