SpacEscape – How a Mobile Game Impact Science Learning - 2019 Presidential Research Grant Report

This project used a laboratory trial to examine learner problem-solving in a mobile Serious Game (SG) environment designed for learning space science in middle school. It intends to understand if and how mobile game could impact learner problem-solving. To conduct the study, a team of 12 members worked together for six months on the design, development and testing the SpaceEscape mobile game for Android devices. The data was collected in a local middle school, and over 250 students participated in the study. We will share the highlights, findings, and future research in this report

Phase II SpacEscape Mobile Game for Learning Space Science 2020 Report

This project is the phase II of the awarded 2019 Presidential Research Grant Project SpacEscape (PRG 2020-07; https://www.harrisburgu.edu/spacescape/). By working with teachers and students from Mechanicsburg School District, Susquehanna Township Middle school, Crossroads Middle School, and Pequea Valley High school, the research team published the mobile science learning game SpacEscape to Google Play Store, introduced the game to more than 1,000 middle school students even during the pandemic, collected more data to understand how learner conduct problem-solving using mobile games, and presented the research at the Games for Change 2020 Virtual Conference to more than 500 attendees. In this report, we will share the activities, findings, and future research of the project

The Principle of Strain Reconstruction Tomography: Determination of Quench Strain Distribution from Diffraction Measurements

Evaluation of residual elastic strain within the bulk of engineering components or natural objects is a challenging task, since in general it requires mapping a six-component tensor quantity in three dimensions. A further challenge concerns the interpretation of finite resolution data in a way that is commensurate and non-contradictory with respect to continuum deformation models. A practical solution for this problem, if it is ever to be found, must include efficient measurement interpretation and data reduction techniques. In the present note we describe the principle of strain tomography by high energy X-ray diffraction, i.e. of reconstruction of the higher dimensional distribution of strain within an object from reduced dimension measurements; and illustrate the application of this principle to a simple case of reconstruction of an axisymmetric residual strain state induced in a cylindrical sample by quenching. The underlying principle of the analysis method presented in this paper can be readily generalised to more complex situations.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

The Principle of Strain Reconstruction Tomography: Determination of Quench Strain Distribution from Diffraction Measurements

Evaluation of residual elastic strain within the bulk of engineering components or natural objects is a challenging task, since in general it requires mapping a six-component tensor quantity in three dimensions. A further challenge concerns the interpretation of finite resolution data in a way that is commensurate and non-contradictory with respect to continuum deformation models. A practical solution for this problem, if it is ever to be found, must include efficient measurement interpretation and data reduction techniques. In the present note we describe the principle of strain tomography by high energy X-ray diffraction, i.e. of reconstruction of the higher dimensional distribution of strain within an object from reduced dimension measurements; and illustrate the application of this principle to a simple case of reconstruction of an axisymmetric residual strain state induced in a cylindrical sample by quenching. The underlying principle of the analysis method presented in this paper can be readily generalised to more complex situations.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

The Principle of Strain Reconstruction Tomography: Determination of Quench Strain Distribution from Diffraction Measurements

Evaluation of residual elastic strain within the bulk of engineering components or natural objects is a challenging task, since in general it requires mapping a six-component tensor quantity in three dimensions. A further challenge concerns the interpretation of finite resolution data in a way that is commensurate and non-contradictory with respect to continuum deformation models. A practical solution for this problem, if it is ever to be found, must include efficient measurement interpretation and data reduction techniques. In the present note we describe the principle of strain tomography by high energy X-ray diffraction, i.e. of reconstruction of the higher dimensional distribution of strain within an object from reduced dimension measurements; and illustrate the application of this principle to a simple case of reconstruction of an axisymmetric residual strain state induced in a cylindrical sample by quenching. The underlying principle of the analysis method presented in this paper can be readily generalised to more complex situations.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Formation of Ideal Rashba States on Layered Semiconductor Surfaces Steered by Strain Engineering

Spin splitting of Rashba states in two-dimensional electron system provides a promising mechanism of spin manipulation for spintronics applications. However, Rashba states realized experimentally to date are often outnumbered by spin-degenerated substrate states at the same energy range, hindering their practical applications. Here, by density functional theory calculation, we show that Au one monolayer film deposition on a layered semiconductor surface beta-InSe(0001) can possess "ideal" Rashba states with large spin splitting, which are completely situated inside the large band gap of the substrate. The position of the Rashba bands can be tuned over a wide range with respect to the substrate band edges by experimentally accessible strain. Furthermore, our nonequilibrium Green's function transport calculation shows that this system may give rise to the long-sought strong current modulation when made into a device of Datta-Das transistor. Similar systems may be identified with other metal ultrathin films and layered semiconductor substrates to realize ideal Rashba states.Comment: Nano Letters 201

AiM: Taking Answers in Mind to Correct Chinese Cloze Tests in Educational Applications

To automatically correct handwritten assignments, the traditional approach is to use an OCR model to recognize characters and compare them to answers. The OCR model easily gets confused on recognizing handwritten Chinese characters, and the textual information of the answers is missing during the model inference. However, teachers always have these answers in mind to review and correct assignments. In this paper, we focus on the Chinese cloze tests correction and propose a multimodal approach (named AiM). The encoded representations of answers interact with the visual information of students' handwriting. Instead of predicting 'right' or 'wrong', we perform the sequence labeling on the answer text to infer which answer character differs from the handwritten content in a fine-grained way. We take samples of OCR datasets as the positive samples for this task, and develop a negative sample augmentation method to scale up the training data. Experimental results show that AiM outperforms OCR-based methods by a large margin. Extensive studies demonstrate the effectiveness of our multimodal approach.Comment: Accepted to COLING 202

Steroid Treatment Causes Weakness in Spinal Dural Arteriovenous Fistula

Introduction: Spinal dural arteriovenous fistula (SDAVF) is an abnormal connection between the arterial and venous system creating an increase in blood flow and pressure into the spinal veins1 at an estimated frequency of 5-10 cases per million per year.2 Activities that increase intrathoracic and venous pressure such as Valsalva, abdominal compression and steroids2 can lead to a venous infarction, subarachnoid hemorrhage, paraplegia or tetraplegia.3 SDAVF is difficult to diagnose as it presents similarly to other neurologic disorders, but if diagnosed early, deficits can be prevented and reversed with intervention.1 Case Description: A 54-year-old male presented with lower limb progressing to upper limb weakness over months. Examination was significant for 2/5 hip flexion, 3/5 knee extension, 1/5 dorsiflexion, 4/5 plantarflexion, brisk reflexes and intact sensation up to the T4 dermatome. Cervical spine MRI demonstrated a longitudinal T2 hyperintensity along the cervical and upper thoracic cord. After intravenous steroid treatment for presumed transverse myelitis, the patient developed worsening weakness in the lower limbs, which improved days after discontinuing steroids. One month earlier, the patient noted back pain and weakness after carrying heavy tools and experienced transient increased weakness after oral steroid treatment. MRA revealed a SDAVF at the craniocervical junction. The patient ultimately underwent retrosigmoid craniotomy for ligation of the fistula. While initially recommended for comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation, the patient progressed from minimal assistance to supervision and was discharged home. Discussion: SDAVFs cause congestive myelopathy because the arteriovenous shunt increases venous pressure. The presentation can mimic transverse myelitis, and patients are often treated with steroids. Steroids are hypothesized to exacerbate neurologic symptoms by increasing venous congestion through fluid retention, resulting in congestive myelopathy which improves as the hypervolemia resolves. Studies show that treatment with steroids can cause worse outcomes in the acute and chronic period when looking at gait disturbance, neurogenic bowel and neurogenic bladder. To our knowledge, there are only a few cases of acutely worsening weakness after steroid administration leading to an eventual diagnosis of SDAVF. Conclusion: Due to their rarity and nonspecific clinical and radiological findings, SDAVFs are often misdiagnosed, resulting in inappropriate steroid treatment. SDAVFs should be cautiously considered as a differential diagnosis for a patient presenting with progressive weakness, as steroid treatment can lead to worse outcomes and early diagnosis and treatment can minimize disability.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/rmposters/1014/thumbnail.jp

Polarity and proliferation are controlled by distinct signaling pathways downstream of PI3-kinase in breast epithelial tumor cells

Loss of tissue polarity and increased proliferation are the characteristic alterations of the breast tumor phenotype. To investigate these processes, we used a three-dimensional (3D) culture system in which malignant human breast cells can be reverted to a normal phenotype by exposure to inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K). Using this assay, we find that Akt and Rac1 act as downstream effectors of PI3K and function as control points of cellular proliferation and tissue polarity, respectively. Our results also demonstrate that the PI3K signaling pathway is an integral component of the overall signaling network induced by growth in 3D, as reversion affected by inhibition of PI3K signaling also down-modulates the endogenous levels of β1 integrin and epidermal growth factor receptor, the upstream modulators of PI3K, and up-regulates PTEN, the antagonist of PI3K. These findings reveal key events of the PI3K pathway that play distinct roles to maintain tissue polarity and that when disrupted are instrumental in the malignant phenotype

Systematic inference and comparison of multi-scale chromatin sub-compartments connects spatial organization to cell phenotypes.

Chromatin compartmentalization reflects biological activity. However, inference of chromatin sub-compartments and compartment domains from chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) experiments is limited by data resolution. As a result, these have been characterized only in a few cell types and systematic comparisons across multiple tissues and conditions are missing. Here, we present Calder, an algorithmic approach that enables the identification of multi-scale sub-compartments at variable data resolution. Calder allows to infer and compare chromatin sub-compartments and compartment domains in >100 cell lines. Our results reveal sub-compartments enriched for poised chromatin states and undergoing spatial repositioning during lineage differentiation and oncogenic transformation