The Experience of Burmese Refugee Students in Higher Education: Blooming out of Concrete

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)The United States is the world’s top resettlement country for refugees and the third largest community of Burmese refugees lives in the state of Indiana. Many refugee families look to their college-age youth to enhance their well-being. This study explored the lived experiences of Burmese refugee college students’ resettlement and the role that social support plays in that approach. In order to explore the refugee students’ resettlement experiences and the role of social support, social support theory and conservation of resources theory were used to explain the importance of social support for refugee students’ successful resettlement. A qualitative study using thematic analysis was conducted using 32 in-depth individual interviews with Burmese refugee students in higher education. Through an indepth examination of the lived experiences of Burmese refugee college students’ resettlement, four main themes were identified: challenges of resettlement, resettlement needs, the resources of social support, and resettlement experiences. Refugee students actively cultivated their life and showed aspirations of being successful members of this new environment. Even though they faced many challenges and needs identified through interviews, the participants overcame these barriers including a different culture and language and prosper in their lives in the host country. The social support from the coethnic community and people in the host country both affected the participants’ successful resettlement. Co-ethnic community also plays an important role to pursue higher education. The study findings will be used by social work practice, programs, and policies to improve the success of Burmese refugee students' resettlement. This study would serve as a foundation for enhancing refugee students’ resettlement and understanding the critical role of social support resources during the resettlement period. Burmese refugee students would be an important avenue to develop international relations and achieve social justice. In spite of a variety of barriers and prejudices, Burmese refugee students bloom and flourish in their new environment in the United States. They are beneficiaries but also currently benefactors. The perspectives on refugees need to change and move from victims to the citizens of the world

Cultural Diversity in the MSW Learning Space: Exploring Student Awareness, Acceptance, and Perceptions

This exploratory study assesses MSW students’ awareness, acceptance, and perceptions with regard to cultural diversity in the MSW learning space. Within this study, cultural diversity encompasses racial and ethnic identities. Through a stepwise multiple regression analysis, seven predictor variables were inputted to assess their predictive qualities on the criterion of perceptions of cultural diversity in the MSW learning space. An anonymous, online survey was the method for data collection. Participants from the study consisted of MSW students from a large, public Midwestern university (N = 146). Three of the seven factors appeared to be significant predictors of perception: acceptance of cultural diversity, completion of the MSW social justice education course, and students' BSW status. The findings from this study can be attributed to social work education and practice with regard to cultural diversity, especially with regard to students’ development of a more critical eye to racial/ethnic diversity’s presence in the learning space

Cultural Diversity in the MSW Learning Space: Exploring Awareness, Acceptance, and Perceptions

This exploratory study assesses MSW students’ awareness, acceptance, and perceptions with regard to cultural diversity in the MSW learning space. Through a stepwise multiple regression analysis, seven predictor variables were inputted to assess their predictive qualities on the criterion of perceptions of cultural diversity in the MSW learning space

Challenges of diet planning for children using artificial intelligence

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Diet planning in childcare centers is difficult because of the required knowledge of nutrition and development as well as the high design complexity associated with large numbers of food items. Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to provide diet-planning solutions via automatic and effective application of professional knowledge, addressing the complexity of optimal diet design. This study presents the results of the evaluation of the utility of AI-generated diets for children and provides related implications.MATERIALS/METHODS: We developed 2 AI solutions for children aged 3-5 yrs using a generative adversarial network (GAN) model and a reinforcement learning (RL) framework. After training these solutions to produce daily diet plans, experts evaluated the human-and AI-generated diets in 2 steps.RESULTS: In the evaluation of adequacy of nutrition, where experts were provided only with nutrient information and no food names, the proportion of strong positive responses to RL-generated diets was higher than that of the human-and GAN-generated diets (P < 0.001). In contrast, in terms of diet composition, the experts' responses to human-designed diets were more positive when experts were provided with food name information (i.e., composition information).CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the development and evaluation of AI to support dietary planning for children. This study demonstrates the possibility of developing AI-assisted diet planning methods for children and highlights the importance of composition compliance in diet planning. Further integrative cooperation in the fields of nutrition, engineering, and medicine is needed to improve the suitability of our proposed AI solutions and benefit children's well-being by providing high-quality diet planning in terms of both compositional and nutritional criteria

A Self-Regulatory Circuit of CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED1 Underlies the Circadian Clock Regulation of Temperature Responses in Arabidopsis

The circadian clock synchronizes biological processes to daily cycles of light and temperature. Clock components, including CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED1 (CCA1), are also associated with cold acclimation. However, it is unknown how CCA1 activity is modulated in coordinating circadian rhythms and cold acclimation. Here, we report that self-regulation of Arabidopsis thaliana CCA1 activity by a splice variant, CCA1β, links the clock to cold acclimation. CCA1β interferes with the formation of CCA1α-CCA1α and LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY)-LHY homodimers, as well as CCA1α-LHY heterodimers, by forming nonfunctional heterodimers with reduced DNA binding affinity. Accordingly, the periods of circadian rhythms were shortened in CCA1β-overexpressing transgenic plants (35S:CCA1β), as observed in the cca1 lhy double mutant. In addition, the elongated hypocotyl and leaf petiole phenotypes of CCA1α-overexpressing transgenic plants (35S:CCA1α) were repressed by CCA1β coexpression. Notably, low temperatures suppressed CCA1 alternative splicing and thus reduced CCA1β production. Consequently, whereas the 35S:CCA1α transgenic plants exhibited enhanced freezing tolerance, the 35S:CCA1β transgenic plants were sensitive to freezing, indicating that cold regulation of CCA1 alternative splicing contributes to freezing tolerance. On the basis of these findings, we propose that dynamic self-regulation of CCA1 underlies the clock regulation of temperature responses in Arabidopsis

Assessment of foodservice quality and identification of improvement strategies using hospital foodservice quality model

The purposes of this study were to assess hospital foodservice quality and to identify causes of quality problems and improvement strategies. Based on the review of literature, hospital foodservice quality was defined and the Hospital Foodservice Quality model was presented. The study was conducted in two steps. In Step 1, nutritional standards specified on diet manuals and nutrients of planned menus, served meals, and consumed meals for regular, diabetic, and low-sodium diets were assessed in three general hospitals. Quality problems were found in all three hospitals since patients consumed less than their nutritional requirements. Considering the effects of four gaps in the Hospital Foodservice Quality model, Gaps 3 and 4 were selected as critical control points (CCPs) for hospital foodservice quality management. In Step 2, the causes of the gaps and improvement strategies at CCPs were labeled as "quality hazards" and "corrective actions", respectively and were identified using a case study. At Gap 3, inaccurate forecasting and a lack of control during production were identified as quality hazards and corrective actions proposed were establishing an accurate forecasting system, improving standardized recipes, emphasizing the use of standardized recipes, and conducting employee training. At Gap 4, quality hazards were menus of low preferences, inconsistency of menu quality, a lack of menu variety, improper food temperatures, and patients' lack of understanding of their nutritional requirements. To reduce Gap 4, the dietary departments should conduct patient surveys on menu preferences on a regular basis, develop new menus, especially for therapeutic diets, maintain food temperatures during distribution, provide more choices, conduct meal rounds, and provide nutrition education and counseling. The Hospital Foodservice Quality Model was a useful tool for identifying causes of the foodservice quality problems and improvement strategies from a holistic point of view

3DTeethSeg'22: 3D Teeth Scan Segmentation and Labeling Challenge

Teeth localization, segmentation, and labeling from intra-oral 3D scans are essential tasks in modern dentistry to enhance dental diagnostics, treatment planning, and population-based studies on oral health. However, developing automated algorithms for teeth analysis presents significant challenges due to variations in dental anatomy, imaging protocols, and limited availability of publicly accessible data. To address these challenges, the 3DTeethSeg'22 challenge was organized in conjunction with the International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) in 2022, with a call for algorithms tackling teeth localization, segmentation, and labeling from intraoral 3D scans. A dataset comprising a total of 1800 scans from 900 patients was prepared, and each tooth was individually annotated by a human-machine hybrid algorithm. A total of 6 algorithms were evaluated on this dataset. In this study, we present the evaluation results of the 3DTeethSeg'22 challenge. The 3DTeethSeg'22 challenge code can be accessed at: https://github.com/abenhamadou/3DTeethSeg22_challengeComment: 29 pages, MICCAI 2022 Singapore, Satellite Event, Challeng

Status report on emerging photovoltaics

This report provides a snapshot of emerging photovoltaic (PV) technologies. It consists of concise contributions from experts in a wide range of fields including silicon, thin film, III-V, perovskite, organic, and dye-sensitized PVs. Strategies for exceeding the detailed balance limit and for light managing are presented, followed by a section detailing key applications and commercialization pathways. A section on sustainability then discusses the need for minimization of the environmental footprint in PV manufacturing and recycling. The report concludes with a perspective based on broad survey questions presented to the contributing authors regarding the needs and future evolution of PV