Using the Developmental Path of Cause to Bridge the Gap between AWE Scores and Writing Teachers’ Evaluations

Supported by artificial intelligence (AI), the most advanced Automatic Writing Evaluation (AWE) systems have gained increasing attention for their ability to provide immediate scoring and formative feedback, yet teachers have been hesitant to implement them into their classes because correlations between the grades they assign and the AWE scores have generally been low. This begs the question of where improvements in evaluation may need to be made, and what approaches are available to carry out this improvement. This mixed-method study involved 59 cause and effect essays collected from English language learners enrolled in six different sections of a college level academic writing course and utilized theory proposed by Slater and Mohan (2010) regarding the developmental path of cause. The study compared the results of raters who used this developmental path with the accuracy of AWE scores produced by Criterion, an AWE tool developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS), and the grades reported by teachers.Findings suggested that if Criterion is to be used successfully in the classroom, writing teachers need to take a meaning-based approach to their assessment, which would allow them and their students to understand more fully how language constructs cause and effect. Using the developmental path of cause as an analytical framework for assessment may then help teachers assign grades that are more in sync with AWE scores, which in turn can help students gain more trust in the scores they receive from both their teachers and Criterion

Connecting Criterion scores and Classroom Grading Contexts: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Model for Teaching and Assessing Causal Language

This study utilized theory proposed by Mohan, Slater, Luo, and Jaipal (2002) regarding what they refer to as the Developmental Path of Cause to examine issues of AWE score use in classroom contexts. Utilization of this model enabled this study to investigate the accuracy of the AWE scores by comparing them to ratings based on teachers’ intuition as well as to scores generated based on existing rubrics. The qualitative data collected from focus group interviews of three experienced teachers’ justifications for their intuitive evaluations of essays suggested that the Developmental Path of Cause helped teachers articulate their intuitions, identifying the core features of the model. The quantitative results showed that the grades provided by raters trained to use the Developmental Path of Cause tended to support Criterion scores more strongly than did instructor grades. The findings from this study suggest that AWE scores from Criterion not only closely correlated with teachers’ intuitions and with raters trained to use the Developmental Path of Cause, but that the use of the Developmental Path of Cause for teaching may support the use of AWE systems in the classroom context, and would help students focus on the core of a cause-effect essay: appropriateness and sophistication of causal language

Narrative Medicine: A Reflective Writing Workshop Series for Interprofessional Healthcare Students at Thomas Jefferson University

Introduction: Narrative medicine (NM) teaches reflective writing and close reading to help healthcare professionals think critically about themselves and others in order to offer more effective, empathic care. Few reports of NM methods document its value to facilitating collaboration and communication across students of different professional backgrounds. This study examines the effects of NM workshops on Thomas Jefferson University interprofessional healthcare students, and their utility to achieving these aims: 1) supporting thoughtfulness, mindfulness, and curiosity; 2) supporting the development and use of narrative in understanding the lives/contexts for self and others; 3) improving interactions and communication with others in professional and clinical contexts; 4) supporting humanism and whole person care (including self-care). Methods: Six bi-weekly, one-hour long NM reflective writing workshops were offered as a voluntary elective for interprofessional healthcare students. Participants completed a post-series questionnaire. Closed-ended responses were summarized, open-ended questions were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Twelve participants completed the questionnaire (8 medical students of different years, 1 MD/PhD student, 2 nursing students, 1 occupational therapy student). All participants reported that main aims 1) and 2) were achieved. 92% of participants reported that main aims 3) and 4) were achieved. 83% found the narrative exercises valuable to facilitating relationships with others of different professional backgrounds in the workshops, and to facilitating or advancing relationships with peers/colleagues outside of the workshops. 83% found the exercises helpful to reducing divides between interprofessional students. Qualitative analysis facilitated the organization of codes into 4 thematic categories: change, understanding, reflection, difference. Discussion: A NM intervention providing consistent exposure to NM methods was successfully implemented. This was a feasible, effective method for promoting reflection, understanding of self/others, whole person care/self-care, and communication and collaboration amongst interprofessional healthcare students. Workshop objectives were achieved, and participants reported personal and professional value and utility in participation

Isolated PdO sites on SiO2-supported NiO nanoparticles as active sites for allylic alcohol selective oxidation

Silica-supported NiO nanoparticles as hosts for isolated PdO catalytic sites. Isolate PdO is confirmed as the species responsible for the chemoselective oxidation of cinnamyl alcohol to cinnamaldehyde by operando X-ray absorption spectroscop

Evaluation of renal perfusion in hyperthyroid cats before and after radioiodine treatment

Background: Hyperthyroidism and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are common in elderly cats. Consequently, both diseases often occur concurrently. Furthermore, renal function is affected by thyroid status. Because changes in renal perfusion play an important role in functional renal changes in hyperthyroid cats, investigation of renal perfusion may provide novel insights. Objectives: To evaluate renal perfusion in hyperthyroid cats with contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). Animals: A total of 42 hyperthyroid cats was included and evaluated before and 1 month after radioiodine treatment. Methods: Prospective intrasubject clinical trial of contrast-enhanced ultrasound using a commercial contrast agent (SonoVue) to evaluate renal perfusion. Time-intensity curves were created, and perfusion parameters were calculated by off-line software. A linear mixed model was used to examine differences between pre-and post-treatment perfusion parameters. Results: An increase in several time-related perfusion parameters was observed after radioiodine treatment, indicating a decreased blood velocity upon resolution of the hyperthyroid state. Furthermore, a small post-treatment decrease in peak enhancement was present in the renal medulla, suggesting a lower medullary blood volume. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound indicated a higher cortical and medullary blood velocity and higher medullary blood volume in hyperthyroid cats before radioactive treatment in comparison with 1-month post-treatment control

Subresultants in multiple roots: an extremal case

We provide explicit formulae for the coefficients of the order-d polynomial subresultant of (x-\alpha)^m and (x-\beta)^n with respect to the set of Bernstein polynomials \{(x-\alpha)^j(x-\beta)^{d-j}, \, 0\le j\le d\}. They are given by hypergeometric expressions arising from determinants of binomial Hankel matrices.Comment: 18 pages, uses elsart. Revised version accepted for publication at Linear Algebra and its Application

Short stack and full system test using a ceramic A-site deficient strontium titanate anode

Funding acknowledgement: SCOTAS FCHJU 256730A lanthanum and calcium co-doped A-site deficient strontium titanate (LSCTA–) was used as alternative anode material in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) with an active area of 100 cm2. Cell performance was tested in both short (5 cell) stack configuration, as well as a full HEXIS Galileo system (nominally 1 kW AC). Impregnation with various electrocatalysts, such as nickel and ceria, yielded promising fuel cell performance at this scale. The system test initially produced 70% of the nominal output power and is to the authors' knowledge the first all-oxide SOFC test on this scale. The strontium titanate backbone provides sufficient electronic conductivity to ensure acceptable ohmic losses. Power densities up to 200 mA cm−2 could be obtained at 900 °C, which compares well with Ni-cermet based anodes. Degradation is however severe at 900 °C, due to impregnate coarsening, but operation at 850 °C minimizes this effect. Short stacks could be stably operated for 1,600 hours with an output power of 100 mA cm−2. Stacks are redox stable, but currently not sulphur tolerant.PostprintPeer reviewe

Mott Transition vs Multicritical Phenomenon of Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism -- Application to κ\kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2_2X --

Interplay between the Mott transition and the multicritical phenomenon of d-wave superconductivity (SC) and antiferromagnetism (AF) is studied theoretically. We describe the Mott transition, which is analogous to a liquid-gas phase transition, in terms of an Ising-type order parameter $\eta$. We reveal possible mean-field phase diagrams produced by this interplay. Renormalization group analysis up to one-loop order gives flows of coupling constants, which in most cases lead to fluctuation-induced first-order phase transitions even when the SO(5) symmetry exists betwen the SC and AF. Behaviors of various physical quantities around the Mott critical point are predicted. Experiments in $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$X are discussed from this viewpoint.Comment: 4 pages, 9 figures, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Embodiment and Presence in Virtual Reality After Stroke. A Comparative Study With Healthy Subjects

[EN] The ability of virtual reality (VR) to recreate controlled, immersive, and interactive environments that provide intensive and customized exercises has motivated its therapeutic use after stroke. Interaction and bodily presence in VR-based interventions is usually mediated through virtual selves, which synchronously represent body movements or responses to events on external input devices. Embodied self-representations in the virtual world not only provide an anchor for visuomotor tasks, but their morphologies can have behavioral implications. While research has focused on the underlying subjective mechanisms of exposure to VR on healthy individuals, the transference of these findings to individuals with stroke is not evident and remains unexplored, which could affect the experience and, ultimately, the clinical effectiveness of neurorehabilitation interventions. This study determined and compared the sense of embodiment and presence elicited by a virtual environment under different perspectives and levels of immersion in healthy subjects and individuals with stroke. Forty-six healthy subjects and 32 individuals with stroke embodied a gender-matched neutral avatar in a virtual environment that was displayed in a first-person perspective with a head-mounted display and in a third-person perspective with a screen, and the participants were asked to interact in a virtual task for 10 min under each condition in counterbalanced order, and to complete two questionnaires about the sense of embodiment and presence experienced during the interaction. The sense of body-ownership, self-location, and presence were more vividly experienced in a first-person than in a third-person perspective by both healthy subjects (p < 0.001, eta(2)(p) = 0.212; p = 0.005, eta(2)(p) = 0.101; p = 0.001, eta(2)(p) = 0.401, respectively) and individuals with stroke (p = 0.019, eta(2)(p) = 0.070; p = 0.001, eta(2)(p) = 0.135; p = 0.014, eta(2)(p) = 0.077, respectively). In contrast, no agency perspective-related differences were found in any group. All measures were consistently higher for healthy controls than for individuals with stroke, but differences between groups only reached statistical significance in presence under the first-person condition (p < 0.010, eta(2)(p) = 0.084). In spite of these differences, the participants experienced a vivid sense of embodiment and presence in almost all conditions. 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Characterizing embodied interaction in First and Third Person Perspective viewpoints. 2015 IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI). doi:10.1109/3dui.2015.7131728Burin, D., Livelli, A., Garbarini, F., Fossataro, C., Folegatti, A., Gindri, P., & Pia, L. (2015). Are Movements Necessary for the Sense of Body Ownership? Evidence from the Rubber Hand Illusion in Pure Hemiplegic Patients. PLOS ONE, 10(3), e0117155. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117155Post-stroke cognitive disorders TeasellR SalterK FaltynekP CotoiA EskesG Evidence-Based Review of Stroke Rehabilitatio