From Tech Skills to Life Skills: Google Online Marketing Challenge and Experiential Learning

The Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) is a global, online student competition sponsored by Google. It is a prime example of an experiential learning activity that includes using real money ($250 sponsored by Google) with a real client. The GOMC has yielded compelling results in student engagement and learning objectives related to the direct digital marketing skills addressed. However, few studies have systematically scrutinized the broader personal and life skills inherent in experience-based learning. The current study explores learning outcomes of the GOMC from a student perspective including both the direct technical skills as well as broader, multidisciplinary life skills that are developed or enhanced. The study takes an inductive approach to examine the life skills endorsed by a pilot group of GOMC participants and subsequently examines these learning outcomes in a preliminary quantitative survey of 15 GOMC participants from an undergraduate Information Systems course. Study findings yielded perceived learning outcomes in the following areas: interpersonal life skills, digital technical skills directly related to course and challenge content, intrapersonal life skills (self-awareness, reflection, and strategic planning), and adaptive applied skills. The students’ overall perceptions, challenges experienced, and reported implementation preferences are also discussed

Cultural Historical Context of Qwu?gwes (Puget Sound, USA): A Preliminary Investigation

Recent research at the Puget Sound site of Qwu?gwes indicates that it contains a Late Period component of stone, bone-antler and shell artifacts, as well as a waterlogged section containing basketry, cordage and wooden artifacts and associated manufacturing debris. In order to place Qwu?gwes into the culture historical context of the Central Northwest Coast, we have applied cladistic tree-building methods to data derived from these artifacts and from artifacts commonly found in the northern part of Puget Sound, the Gulf of Georgia, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington State, and Vancouver Island. The tree derived from the stone, bone-antler and shell data differs from the trees derived from the basketry data. This suggests that there was a difference in the transmission of information regarding the manufacture and use of the two groups of artifacts. Ideas pertaining to the artifacts made of stone, bone-antler and shell seem to have been shared widely, whereas ideas associated with the artifacts made of basketry were not. There are several possible explanations for this difference, but ethnographic evidence suggests that it is probably primarily a result of the basketry artifacts playing a role in ethnic identity signaling in a way that the stone, bone-antler and shell artifacts did not

Characterization of bacterial communities associated with Brassica napus L. growing on a Zn-contaminated soil and their effects on root growth

peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=bijp20The attached document is the author's final accepted/submitted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it

Mean Field Renormalization Group for the Boundary Magnetization of Strip Clusters

We analyze in some detail a recently proposed transfer matrix mean field approximation which yields the exact critical point for several two dimensional nearest neighbor Ising models. For the square lattice model we show explicitly that this approximation yields not only the exact critical point, but also the exact boundary magnetization of a semi--infinite Ising model, independent of the size of the strips used. Then we develop a new mean field renormalization group strategy based on this approximation and make connections with finite size scaling. Applying our strategy to the quadratic Ising and three--state Potts models we obtain results for the critical exponents which are in excellent agreement with the exact ones. In this way we also clarify some advantages and limitations of the mean field renormalization group approach.Comment: 16 pages (plain TeX) + 8 figures (PostScript, appended), POLFIS-TH.XX/9

SOT-MRAM 300mm integration for low power and ultrafast embedded memories

We demonstrate for the first time full-scale integration of top-pinned perpendicular MTJ on 300 mm wafer using CMOS-compatible processes for spin-orbit torque (SOT)-MRAM architectures. We show that 62 nm devices with a W-based SOT underlayer have very large endurance (> 5x10^10), sub-ns switching time of 210 ps, and operate with power as low as 300 pJ.Comment: presented at VLSI2018 session C8-

Multi-interaction mean-field renormalization group

We present an extension of the previously proposed mean-field renormalization method to model Hamiltonians which are characterized by more than just one type of interaction. The method rests on scaling assumptions about the magnetization of different sublattices of the given lattice and it generates as many flow equations as coupling constants without arbitrary truncations on the renormalized Hamiltonian. We obtain good results for the test case of Ising systems with an additional second-neighbor coupling in two and three dimensions. An application of the method is also done to a morphological model of interacting surfaces introduced recenlty by Likos, Mecke and Wagner [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf{102}}, 9350 (1995)]. PACS: 64.60.Ak, 64.60.Fr, 05.70.JkComment: Tex file and three macros appended at the end. Five figures available upon request to: [email protected], Fax: [+]39-40-224-60

PTPBR7 Binding Proteins in Myelinating Neurons of the Mouse Brain

Mouse protein tyrosine phosphatase PTPBR7 is a receptor-like, transmembrane protein that is localized on the surface of neuronal cells. Its protein phosphatase activity is reduced upon multimerization, and PTPBR7-deficient mice display motor coordination defects. Extracellular molecules that may influence PTPBR7 activity, however, remain to be determined. We here show that the PTPBR7 extracellular domain binds to highly myelinated regions in mouse brain, in particular the white matter tracks in cerebellum. PTPBR7 deficiency does not alter this binding pattern, as witnessed by RAP in situ staining of Ptprr-/- mouse brain sections. Additional in situ and in vitro experiments also suggest that sugar moieties of heparan sulphate and chondroitin sulphate glycosaminoglycans are not critical for PTPBR7 binding. Candidate binding proteins were affinity-purified exploiting the PTPBR7 extracellular domain and identified by mass spectrometric means. Results support the suggested link between PTPRR isoforms and cerebellar calcium ion homeostasis, and suggest an additional role in the process of cell-cell adhesion

Strategies for achieving viral hepatitis C micro-elimination in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is striving to achieve national elimination of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) as one of the first countries worldwide. The favorable HCV epidemiology with both low prevalence and incidence, together with access to care and treatment, present excellent conditions to further build on towards this objective. The Dutch national plan on viral hepatitis, introduced in 2016, defines targets in the HCV healthcare cascade and provides a structural framework for the development of elimination activities. Since many different stakeholders are involved in HCV care in the Netherlands, focus has been placed on micro-elimination initiatives as a pragmatic and efficient approach. These numerous micro-eliminations projects have brought the Netherlands closer to HCV elimination. In the near future, efforts specifically have to be made in order to optimize case-finding strategies and to successfully accomplish the nationwide implementation of the registration and monitoring system of viral hepatitis mono-infections, before this final goal can be reached. The upcoming years will then elucidate if the Dutch' hands on approach has resulted in sufficient progress against HCV and if the Netherlands will lead the way towards nationwide HCV elimination