Flop to Flip: Integrating Technology and Team-based Learning to Improve Student Engagement

Purpose: The first attempt to develop and instruct a new course in evidence-based practice in a physical therapy curriculum proved problematic. The purpose of this paper is to describe the method of revising this traditionally taught course using a combination of flipping the classroom, team-based learning, and technology. Methods: Working with an Instructional Design Specialist, a weekly online preparatory module was created for each content topic using a variety of multimedia learning provisions including micro learning videos (PowerPoint with voiceover), transcript of the PowerPoint, a list of vocabulary words, reading, Quizlet, Flipgrids and Concept Checks. Each week’s module was introduced with a listing of objectives, goals, time to complete tasks and a description of the in-class activities. Class began with a weekly 10-question vocabulary quiz to hold students accountable for their preparation. A short summary lecture followed. Students were then given an in-class assignment to complete either in pairs or small groups. Discussion of the assignment completed the session. Most of the assignments were submitted electronically prior to discussion for grading purposes. Several also utilized a team-based learning format. Pairs of students complete an assignment; students then convene with their group and discuss and complete the same assignment. This process facilitates a more active learning environment. Result: Students were consistently prepared for class as evidenced by their quiz performance. Informal assessment of the online preparatory modules was performed using a “One-Minute Paper” assessment. Students reported that the PowerPoint with voiceover, Quizlet, Concept Checks, and the weekly list of vocabulary terms were most helpful, whereas Flipgrids and reading were not helpful. In-class activities were interactive and facilitated deeper conversations about the content. Conclusion and Recommendations: The outcomes provided reflect student perception solely, which may have been biased by the instructor’s presence in the course. Formal assessment of changes was not possible using student performance as a measure because the course had dramatically changed from year one to year two. A more formal, scientific assessment is recommended to determine if and how course changes affected student performance

Age estimation using tooth cementum annulations: bias and sources of inaccuracy

Background: Counting the tooth cementum annulations (TCA) is a method for estimating the age at death of adults by sections of their tooth root. The objective of this study was to assess the precision of counting the cementum incremental lines and the congruence between known age and age estimates. Possible factors affecting the accuracy of the estimate were also analyzed. Methods: A sample of 67 permanent teeth extracted from individuals with known age (18 84 years) and sex was analyzed to calculate the dental age. Results: Results demonstrate an excellent inter- and intra-observer reliability of annuli counting, with dissimilarities within the limits of agreement. A moderate positive correlation was found between chronological age and TCA. Our results showed that age congruence rates differed across age groups (85% congruence in individuals <= 30 years; 75% in individuals aged 31-60 years; 60% in the over 60s). Considering the bias, this method showed a clear tendency to underestimate age in specimens from old people. After age 43, the TCA estimate is highly inaccurate exceeding the underestimation of 10 years, on average, in comparison to the chronological age. Both chronological age and dental arch seem to influence the accuracy of estimates, unlike sex and the tooth root number. Conclusions: TCA analysis is characterized by high precision and low accuracy, decreasing with age. Therefore, its applicability is limited in elderly subjects. The choice of methods for age estimation in adult skeletal remains should take into account the particular age range of individuals. We recommend using different age estimation methods to verify the reliability of the performed assessments

Atypical audiovisual speech integration in infants at risk for autism

The language difficulties often seen in individuals with autism might stem from an inability to integrate audiovisual information, a skill important for language development. We investigated whether 9-month-old siblings of older children with autism, who are at an increased risk of developing autism, are able to integrate audiovisual speech cues. We used an eye-tracker to record where infants looked when shown a screen displaying two faces of the same model, where one face is articulating/ba/and the other/ga/, with one face congruent with the syllable sound being presented simultaneously, the other face incongruent. This method was successful in showing that infants at low risk can integrate audiovisual speech: they looked for the same amount of time at the mouths in both the fusible visual/ga/− audio/ba/and the congruent visual/ba/− audio/ba/displays, indicating that the auditory and visual streams fuse into a McGurk-type of syllabic percept in the incongruent condition. It also showed that low-risk infants could perceive a mismatch between auditory and visual cues: they looked longer at the mouth in the mismatched, non-fusible visual/ba/− audio/ga/display compared with the congruent visual/ga/− audio/ga/display, demonstrating that they perceive an uncommon, and therefore interesting, speech-like percept when looking at the incongruent mouth (repeated ANOVA: displays x fusion/mismatch conditions interaction: F(1,16) = 17.153, p = 0.001). The looking behaviour of high-risk infants did not differ according to the type of display, suggesting difficulties in matching auditory and visual information (repeated ANOVA, displays x conditions interaction: F(1,25) = 0.09, p = 0.767), in contrast to low-risk infants (repeated ANOVA: displays x conditions x low/high-risk groups interaction: F(1,41) = 4.466, p = 0.041). In some cases this reduced ability might lead to the poor communication skills characteristic of autism

A comparison of the development of audiovisual integration in children with autism spectrum disorders and typically developing children

This study aimed to investigate the development of audiovisual integration in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Audiovisual integration was measured using the McGurk effect in children with ASD aged 7–16 years and typically developing children (control group) matched approximately for age, sex, nonverbal ability and verbal ability. Results showed that the children with ASD were delayed in visual accuracy and audiovisual integration compared to the control group. However, in the audiovisual integration measure, children with ASD appeared to ‘catch-up’ with their typically developing peers at the older age ranges. The suggestion that children with ASD show a deficit in audiovisual integration which diminishes with age has clinical implications for those assessing and treating these children

Joule-assisted silicidation for short-channel silicon nanowire devices

We report on a technique enabling electrical control of the contact silicidation process in silicon nanowire devices. Undoped silicon nanowires were contacted by pairs of nickel electrodes and each contact was selectively silicided by means of the Joule effect. By a realtime monitoring of the nanowire electrical resistance during the contact silicidation process we were able to fabricate nickel-silicide/silicon/nickel- silicide devices with controlled silicon channel length down to 8 nm.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Multifunctional Devices and Logic Gates With Undoped Silicon Nanowires

We report on the electronic transport properties of multiple-gate devices fabricated from undoped silicon nanowires. Understanding and control of the relevant transport mechanisms was achieved by means of local electrostatic gating and temperature dependent measurements. The roles of the source/drain contacts and of the silicon channel could be independently evaluated and tuned. Wrap gates surrounding the silicide-silicon contact interfaces were proved to be effective in inducing a full suppression of the contact Schottky barriers, thereby enabling carrier injection down to liquid-helium temperature. By independently tuning the effective Schottky barrier heights, a variety of reconfigurable device functionalities could be obtained. In particular, the same nanowire device could be configured to work as a Schottky barrier transistor, a Schottky diode or a p-n diode with tunable polarities. This versatility was eventually exploited to realize a NAND logic gate with gain well above one.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Modelling semiconductor spin qubits and their charge noise environment for quantum gate fidelity estimation

The spin of an electron confined in semiconductor quantum dots is currently a promising candidate for quantum bit (qubit) implementations. Taking advantage of existing CMOS integration technologies, such devices can offer a platform for large scale quantum computation. However, a quantum mechanical framework bridging a device's physical design and operational parameters to the qubit energy space is lacking. Furthermore, the spin to charge coupling introduced by intrinsic or induced Spin-Orbit-Interaction (SOI) exposes the qubits to charge noise compromising their coherence properties and inducing quantum gate errors. We present here a co-modelling framework for double quantum dot (DQD) devices and their charge noise environment. We use a combination of an electrostatic potential solver, full configuration interaction quantum mechanical methods and two-level-fluctuator models to study the quantum gate performance in realistic device designs and operation conditions. We utilize the developed models together alongside the single electron solutions of the quantum dots to simulate one- and two- qubit gates in the presence of charge noise. We find an inverse correlation between quantum gate errors and quantum dot confinement frequencies. We calculate X-gate fidelities >97% in the simulated Si-MOS devices at a typical TLF densities. We also find that exchange driven two-qubit SWAP gates show higher sensitivity to charge noise with fidelities down to 91% in the presence of the same density of TLFs. We further investigate the one- and two- qubit gate fidelities at different TLF densities. We find that given the small size of the quantum dots, sensitivity of a quantum gate to the distance between the noise sources and the quantum dot creates a strong variability in the quantum gate fidelities which can compromise the device yields in scaled qubit technologies.Comment: 23 pages , 16 figure

Argon milling induced decoherence mechanisms in superconducting quantum circuits

The fabrication of superconducting circuits requires multiple deposition, etch and cleaning steps, each possibly introducing material property changes and microscopic defects. In this work, we specifically investigate the process of argon milling, a potentially coherence limiting step, using niobium and aluminum superconducting resonators as a proxy for surface-limited behavior of qubits. We find that niobium microwave resonators exhibit an order of magnitude decrease in quality-factors after surface argon milling, while aluminum resonators are resilient to the same process. Extensive analysis of the niobium surface shows no change in the suboxide composition due to argon milling, while two-tone spectroscopy measurements reveal an increase in two-level system electrical dipole moments, indicating a structurally altered niobium oxide hosting larger two-level system defects. However, a short dry etch can fully recover the argon milling induced losses on niobium, offering a potential route towards state-of-the-art overlap Josephson junction qubits with niobium circuitry.Comment: Main text: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. 5 appendices, with 6 additional figures and 3 additional tables. 62 reference

Reading faces: differential lateral gaze bias in processing canine and human facial expressions in dogs and 4-year-old children

Sensitivity to the emotions of others provides clear biological advantages. However, in the case of heterospecific relationships, such as that existing between dogs and humans, there are additional challenges since some elements of the expression of emotions are species-specific. Given that faces provide important visual cues for communicating emotional state in both humans and dogs, and that processing of emotions is subject to brain lateralisation, we investigated lateral gaze bias in adult dogs when presented with pictures of expressive human and dog faces. Our analysis revealed clear differences in laterality of eye movements in dogs towards conspecific faces according to the emotional valence of the expressions. Differences were also found towards human faces, but to a lesser extent. For comparative purpose, a similar experiment was also run with 4-year-old children and it was observed that they showed differential processing of facial expressions compared to dogs, suggesting a species-dependent engagement of the right or left hemisphere in processing emotions