Graduate Student Use of and Preference for Unlimited-Use e-Books as Textbooks: Preliminary Results

This study investigated the preference of master’s level library science graduate students for required textbooks in print or unlimited-use ebook format in the context of alternate educational materials provided by the university library. Surveys with both fixed-response and open-ended questions were completed as a class exercise by 151 students enrolled in four sections of a collection management class and four sections of a research methods class. Results show a strong preference for print but indicate that cost to students influences etextbook use

Coherence and Intermittency of Electron Density in Small-Scale Interstellar Turbulence

Spatial intermittency in decaying kinetic Alfven wave turbulence is investigated to determine if it produces non Gaussian density fluctuations in the interstellar medium. Non Gaussian density fluctuations have been inferred from pulsar scintillation scaling. Kinetic Alfven wave turbulence characterizes density evolution in magnetic turbulence at scales near the ion gyroradius. It is shown that intense localized current filaments in the tail of an initial Gaussian probability distribution function possess a sheared magnetic field that strongly refracts the random kinetic Alfven waves responsible for turbulent decorrelation. The refraction localizes turbulence to the filament periphery, hence it avoids mixing by the turbulence. As the turbulence decays these long-lived filaments create a non Gaussian tail. A condition related to the shear of the filament field determines which fluctuations become coherent and which decay as random fluctuations. The refraction also creates coherent structures in electron density. These structures are not localized. Their spatial envelope maps into a probability distribution that decays as density to the power -3. The spatial envelope of density yields a Levy distribution in the density gradient.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figures. Replacement contains short additions to Secs. 6 and

Expressive and receptive use of speech and graphic symbols by typically developing children: What skills contribute to performance on structured sentence-level tasks?

Purpose: To explore expressive and receptive use of speech and graphic symbols and relationships with linguistic and cognitive skills in children with typical development. Method: Participants were 82 children with typical development (4 to 9 years). Measures of memory, visual analysis skills, and receptive language were used, along with five experimental tasks with speech or symbols as input (stimulus) or output (response), using single clause and compound clause stimuli. Cluster analysis grouped participants with similar performances patterns, who were then compared on linguistic and cognitive skill measures. Result: The lowest performing group sometimes accurately interpreted graphic symbol utterances that were visible during responding. The mid-performing group was stronger on expressive than receptive symbol utterances when the model did not remain visible. The highest group was comparable on expressive and receptive symbol tasks, but nonetheless stronger with spoken utterances. Relationships of linguistic and cognitive skills with task performance differed across the clusters. Conclusion: The findings help clarify the input-output modality asymmetry in graphic symbol communication. Spoken language proficiency does not directly transfer to sentence-level expressive and receptive graphic symbol use. Exploring potentially challenging sentence-level phenomena is important. Research is warranted to explore developmental progressions and potential clinical applications more systematically

Rapid resilience: Use of discussion circles in the time of covid-19

This paper describes the successful use of Discussion Circles to support student learning and promote continuing student engagement when our previously hybrid delivery MLS program courses were forced to move to entirely online delivery in Spring 2020 due to COVID-19. Although Discussion Circles, or literature circles as they are sometimes called, are not a new pedagogical technique, the use to which we put them in this unique situation is worthy of note, as are the outcomes of their use. Outcomes are described and observations are shared from the perspective of faculty both experienced in and new to hybrid course delivery and the use of Discussion Circles as well as the student experience of Discussion Circles

Smart Medical Systems with Application to Nutrition and Fitness in Space

Smart medical systems are being developed to allow medical treatments to address alterations in chemical and physiological status in real time. In a smart medical system sensor arrays assess subject status, which are interpreted by computer processors which analyze multiple inputs and recommend treatment interventions. The response of the subject to the treatment is again assessed by the sensor arrays, closing the loop. An early form of "smart medicine" has been practiced in space to assess nutrition. Nutrient levels are assessed with food frequency questionnaires, which are interpreted by flight surgeons to recommend in-flight alterations in diet. In the future, sensor arrays will directly probe body chemistry. Near infrared spectroscopy can be used to noninvasively measure several blood and tissue parameters which are important in the assessment of nutrition and fitness. In particular, this technology can be used to measure blood hematocrit and interstitial fluid pH. The noninvasive measurement of interstitial pH is discussed as a surrogate for blood lactate measurement for the development and real-time assessment of exercise protocols in space. Earth-based application of these sensors are also described

Overview of the BlockNormal Event Trigger Generator

In the search for unmodeled gravitational wave bursts, there are a variety of methods that have been proposed to generate candidate events from time series data. Block Normal is a method of identifying candidate events by searching for places in the data stream where the characteristic statistics of the data change. These change-points divide the data into blocks in which the characteristics of the block are stationary. Blocks in which these characteristics are inconsistent with the long term characteristic statistics are marked as Event-Triggers which can then be investigated by a more computationally demanding multi-detector analysis.Comment: GWDAW-8 proceedings, 6 pages, 2 figure

Map-making in small field modulated CMB polarisation experiments: approximating the maximum-likelihood method

Map-making presents a significant computational challenge to the next generation of kilopixel CMB polarisation experiments. Years worth of time ordered data (TOD) from thousands of detectors will need to be compressed into maps of the T, Q and U Stokes parameters. Fundamental to the science goal of these experiments, the observation of B-modes, is the ability to control noise and systematics. In this paper, we consider an alternative to the maximum-likelihood method, called destriping, where the noise is modelled as a set of discrete offset functions and then subtracted from the time-stream. We compare our destriping code (Descart: the DEStriping CARTographer) to a full maximum-likelihood map-maker, applying them to 200 Monte-Carlo simulations of time-ordered data from a ground based, partial-sky polarisation modulation experiment. In these simulations, the noise is dominated by either detector or atmospheric 1/f noise. Using prior information of the power spectrum of this noise, we produce destriped maps of T, Q and U which are negligibly different from optimal. The method does not filter the signal or bias the E or B-mode power spectra. Depending on the length of the destriping baseline, the method delivers between 5 and 22 times improvement in computation time over the maximum-likelihood algorithm. We find that, for the specific case of single detector maps, it is essential to destripe the atmospheric 1/f in order to detect B-modes, even though the Q and U signals are modulated by a half-wave plate spinning at 5-Hz.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, MNRAS accepted v2: content added (inc: table 2), typos correcte

Multicomponent frailty assessment tools for older people with psychiatric disorders: a systematic review

Objective: To review evidence evaluating the use of multi-component frailty assessment tools in assessing frailty in older adults with psychiatric disorders. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify all multi-component frailty assessment tools (i.e. a tool that assesses ≥2 indicators of frailty). The items of each frailty assessment tool were compared to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for psychiatric disorders to assess construct overlap. Studies conducted in community, inpatient and outpatient clinical settings were considered for inclusion. Participants: Adults aged ≥60 years old. Results: 5,639 studies in total were identified following the removal of duplicates; 97 of which were included for review. Of the 48 multi-component frailty assessment tools identified, no tool had been developed for, or validated in, older adult populations with psychiatric disorder. 24/48 frailty assessment tools contained a psychological assessment domain, with 18/48 tools using presence of depressed mood and/or anxiety as a frailty indicator. Common areas of construct overlap in frailty assessment tools and DSM-5 diagnostic criteria included weight loss (29/48) and fatigue (21/48). Conclusions: Significant construct overlap exists between the indicators of frailty as conceptualised in existing frailty assessment tools and DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for common psychiatric disorders, including Major Depressive Episode and Generalised Anxiety Disorder, which has the potential to confound frailty assessment results. Further research is necessary to establish a reliable and valid tool to assess frailty in this population