Effect of Stress Mindset and Adverse Childhood Experiences on College Students\u27 Academic Success and Psychological Well-Being

Adverse life events that occur in childhood may decrease an individual’s ability to effectively cope with challenges throughout their lives. The proper management of stress is essential to avoid problems that can crop up in all areas of life. College students who employ stress management tactics are better able to achieve well-being and academic success. This study examined the potential moderating association between “from within” coping supports or internal risk factors and academic success, mental health, and resilience qualities. Using a sample of college students at a large public university in the southeastern United States, this study demonstrates that viewing stress in a negative way may increase a student’s chances of failing to cope well with difficulty. Similarly, results of the analysis demonstrate that high perceived stress increases college students’ mental health issues and may diminish their capacity to cope with the challenges of the college environment. University officials may use the results from this study to inform policy and practice to address students’ ability to cope with stress and succeed academically

Enhanced and reduced atom number fluctuations in a BEC splitter

We measure atom number statistics after splitting a gas of ultracold 87Rb atoms in a purely magnetic double-well potential created on an atom chip. Well below the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation T_c, we observe reduced fluctuations down to -4.9dB below the atom shot noise level. Fluctuations rise to more than +3.8dB close to T_c, before reaching the shot noise level for higher temperatures. We use two-mode and classical field simulations to model these results. This allows us to confirm that the super-shot noise fluctuations directly originate from quantum statistics

From Structural Inequalities to Speaking Out: Youth Participatory Action Research in College Access Collaborations

In recent years, participatory action research projects aimed at addressing local social issues have gained interest in academic settings. These projects can contribute to university-community partnerships, but communication about such projects remains somewhat limited. This article contributes to these developing discussions by describing how a youth participatory action research project (YPAR) supported an ongoing university-community partnership between South University, a mid-sized private liberal arts school, and the local public school community. This educational partnership led to the Anchor Academy, a college access and success program for high school youth with limited financial resources and little or no family history of college. In 2010-2011, Anchor initiated a YPAR project to study the challenges limited-income, first-generation, and minority students faced on their path to college. This article describes how the project deepened university-community relationships, shaped broader awareness and local programming, and inspired a ripple effect of new partnerships that help to sustain the work of supporting marginalized students in their journeys toward college futures. It addresses the struggles faced by the project as well as the positive outcomes, ultimately arguing for the potential for critical, participatory research methodologies to serve as a particularly meaningful platform for collaboration between universities and their communities

Developing a Decision Model for Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) Proposal Selection

This research uses decision analysis to develop a structured, repeatable and most importantly defensible decision model for the evaluation of proposed IED defeat solutions submitted to the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). Additive value models using Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) are examined as possible methodologies. VFT is determined to be the best fit for JIEDDO\u27s decision situation in which proposals are submitted continuously and must be scored independently of previous proposals. VFT is first used to determine desirable qualities in IED defeat options, and then to generate a hierarchal value model to evaluate these qualities in a selected group of alternatives. The most important criteria for IED defeat proposal evaluation are: Need for the Capability, Operational Effectiveness, and Usability. A group of 30 proposals, previously assessed by the current JIEDDO process, is evaluated suing the VFT decision model and the rank ordered results are compared with JIEDDO\u27s previous selection decisions. The VFT decision model results support JIEDDO\u27s past decisions to accept or reject IED defeat proposals, validating the model. Sensitivity analysis is then conducted to allow further insight to the robustness of the model. The resulting effort creates a decision model that, when consistently applied, provides a repeatable and defensible decision support model that reflects JIEDDO\u27s priorities for proposal selection

Water research in support of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 : a case study in Belgium

Reaching the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 on water and sanitation is fundamentally important and conditional to the achievement of all the other SDGs. Nonetheless, achieving this goal by 2030 is challenging, especially in the Global South. Science lies at the root of sustainable development and is a key to new solutions for addressing SDG 6. However, SDG 6-related scientific outputs are often unknown, forming disconnections between academic world and practitioners implementing solutions. This study proposed a bibliometric and text mining method to qualitatively and quantitatively characterize the contribution of water research to the achievement of SDG 6. The method was applied for water research produced by Belgian-affiliated authors with a focus on the Global South collaboration. Despite accounting for less than one percent of the total global publications, Belgian water research has had a relatively high publication rate compared to its neighboring countries. We observed longstanding collaborations between Belgian and scientists from worldwide countries, and an increasing collaboration rate with countries from the Global South. The biggest share of publications focused on topics related to the targets 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, and 6.6, with the main hotspots for Belgian water research being water treatment, water stress, water pollution, climate change, and water modeling. The findings of the bibliometric search have been integrated into an online, user-friendly dashboard to facilitate the identification of research body and experts for practitioners and policy makers. The presented methodology is sufficiently generic and can be used to optimize other science programs in relation to the 2030 Agenda in other countries and regions. In this case study, the findings support shaping the Belgian cooperation and development policy in the water sector, and creating appropriate synergies between Belgian water researchers and their counterparts in the Global South

Driving with LLMs: Fusing Object-Level Vector Modality for Explainable Autonomous Driving

Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown promise in the autonomous driving sector, particularly in generalization and interpretability. We introduce a unique object-level multimodal LLM architecture that merges vectorized numeric modalities with a pre-trained LLM to improve context understanding in driving situations. We also present a new dataset of 160k QA pairs derived from 10k driving scenarios, paired with high quality control commands collected with RL agent and question answer pairs generated by teacher LLM (GPT-3.5). A distinct pretraining strategy is devised to align numeric vector modalities with static LLM representations using vector captioning language data. We also introduce an evaluation metric for Driving QA and demonstrate our LLM-driver's proficiency in interpreting driving scenarios, answering questions, and decision-making. Our findings highlight the potential of LLM-based driving action generation in comparison to traditional behavioral cloning. We make our benchmark, datasets, and model available for further exploration

[Letter] Size selection of liquid-exfoliated 2D nanosheets

Here we present a size selection model for liquid-exfoliated two-dimensional nanosheets. The ability to consistently select exfoliated nanosheets with desired properties is important for development of applications in all areas. The model presented facilitates determination of centrifugation parameters for production of dispersions with controlled size and thickness for different materials, solvents and exfoliation processes. Importantly, after accounting for the influence of viscosity on exfoliation, comparisons of different solvents are shown to be well described by the surface tension and Hansen parameter matching. This suggests that previous analyses may have overestimated the relative performance of more viscous solvents. This understanding can be extended to develop a model based on the force balance of nanosheets falling under viscous drag during centrifugation. By considering the microscopic aspect ratio relationships, this model can be both calibrated for size selection of nanosheets and compare the exfoliation processes themselves

Promoting natural regeneration for the restoration of Juniperus communis: a synthesis of knowledge and evidence for conservation practitioners

Questions: Natural regeneration is central to plant conservation strategies. Worldwide, many Juniperus species are threatened due to their failure to regenerate. We focus on Juniperus communis in areas of NW Europe where it is declining and ask: what advice is available to land managers on natural regeneration methods, and when applied, how effective has this been? Methods: We synthesize knowledge on the efficacy of management interventions and conditions associated with J. communis regeneration. In field trials, we test interventions where knowledge is lacking. We assess regeneration of J. communis, creation of regeneration microsites and germination of sown seed in response to the interventions. Results: Although J. communis occurs in different habitats, there is consistency in site conditions important for regeneration (unshaded/open, short ground vegetation, disturbed/bare ground, low herbivore pressure). In calcareous grasslands, areas with regeneration are stony/bare or vegetation is short or sparse; in upland acid grasslands and dry heathlands regeneration locations are disturbed areas sometimes with a moss cover. Several interventions (grazing, scarification, turf stripping) can create regeneration conditions. The synthesis identified cattle grazing and ground scarification for further testing on upland acid grasslands. In the resulting field trials, regeneration was rare and recorded on only one cattle-grazed site. An exposed moss layer characterized regeneration microsites but there was insufficient evidence that either intervention increased regeneration microsite frequency. Few sown seeds germinated. Conclusions: Different interventions or intensities of these appear to be required depending on habitat type. Broadly, on calcareous grassland intense scarification or soil stripping is needed, while on dry heathlands light scarification is suitable. On upland acid grassland, cattle grazing and ground scarification do not reliably result in regeneration. Creation of favourable mossy regeneration microsites is unlikely following intervention, unless soil fertility is low. Land-use change, increased climate warming and pollution are pressures acting on J. communis and may cause habitat loss and altered site conditions (e.g. soil fertility), making it difficult to create regeneration microsites at all J. communis sites. Other constraints on regeneration may operate (e.g. seed predation and low seed viability) and managers should assess population and site potential before undertaking management