Automated Feedback Generation for a Chemistry Database and Abstracting Exercise

Timely feedback is an important part of teaching and learning. Here we describe how a readily available neural network transformer (machine-learning) model (BERT) can be used to give feedback on the structure of the response to an abstracting exercise where students are asked to summarise the contents of a published article after finding it from a publication database. The dataset contained 207 submissions from two consecutive years of the course, summarising a total of 21 different papers from the primary literature. The model was pre-trained using an available dataset (approx. 15,000 samples) and then fine-tuned on 80% of the submitted dataset. This fine tuning was seen to be important. The sentences in the student submissions are characterised into three classes - background, technique and observation - which allows a comparison of how each submission is structured. Comparing the structure of the students' abstract a large collection of those from the PubMed database shows that students in this exercise concentrate more on the background to the paper and less on the techniques and results than the abstracts to papers themselves. The results allowed feedback for each submitted assignment to be automatically generated.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, 3 table

Longitudinal investigation of medical student perceptions of a video-based guided study resource used to facilitate an eight week module in medicine

We use an action research approach to evaluate three successive cohorts of medical student perceptions of using a multi-faceted video-based guided study resource which provides academic (skills-based), social (motivation-based) and professional (clinical-based) interventions aimed at facilitating and enriching learning across an eight week module in the second year of the MBChB medical degree. Our findings show that whilst students value these video resources both as a revision tool and an aid to learning during the semester, they have specific critiques about several areas which would improve the project. We interpret our data to evidence a tangible beneficial argument for the use video-based learning objects to support student learning that is reliably reaffirmed by our longitudinal data

A Comparative Study of Compliance Among Patients Attending an Opiate Outpatient Treatment Center in Rural Appalachia

Adults with an opiate addiction have a higher rate of noncompliance with treatment, which limits its effectiveness and increases the burden of care for society. Effective treatment decreases emergency room visits, and overdoses. The tristate area of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio has experienced increased opiate-related arrests and deaths. This study sought to measure the extent to which treatment type (medical treatment (MS) or faith-based component of service (FBS)) predicts compliance when measured by number of clean urine drug screens (UDSs) and number of kept pill count, over and above dual diagnosis, college education, and income. The on-site records of voluntary enrollees in an outpatient facility that used either MT alone or MT with FBS were reviewed. Spearman\u27s rho and multiple stepwise regression revealed that, with respect to clean UDSs or kept pill count, the association between dual diagnosis and college education was not found to be statistically significant. Rather, income explained about 5% of the variance in clean UDSs with a significant f change of .019, while type of treatment did not significantly impact clean UDSs. Dual diagnosis, income, and college education were not found to be significantly associated with the number of kept pill count. According to this study, type of treatment did not significantly impact compliance in the tristate area of Appalachia as measured by clean UDSs or kept pill count. Since MT and FBS are so similar in their relationship to compliance, attendance and participation in treatment may be areas for future study

Assessment of Variable-cycle Engines for Mach 2.7 Supersonic Transports

Three proposed SCAR propulsion systems in terms of aircraft range for a fixed payload and take-off gross weight with a design cruise Mach number 2.7 are evaluated. The effects of various noise and operational restraints are determined and sensitivities to some of the more important performance variables are presented for the most probable design noise and operational restraint case. Critical areas requiring new or improved technology for each cycle are delineated

Trajectory mapping: A tool for validation of trace gas observations

We investigate the effectiveness of trajectory mapping(TM) as a data validation tool. TM combines a dynamical model of the atmosphere with trace gas observations to provide more statistically robust estimates of instrument performance over much broader geographic areas than traditional techniques are able to provide. We present four detailed case studies selected so that the traditional techniques are expected to work well. In each case the TM results are equivalent to or improve upon the measurement comparisons performed with traditional approaches. The TM results are statistically more robust than those achieved using traditional approaches since the TM comparisons occur over a much larger range of geophysical variability. In the first case study we compare ozone data from the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) with Microwave Limb Sounder(MLS). TM comparisons appear to introduce little to no error as compared to the traditional approach. In the second case study we compare ozone data from HALOE with that from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment TT(SAGE TT). TM results in differences of less than 5% as compared to the traditional approach at altitudes between 18 and 25 km and less than 10% at altitudes between 25 and 40 km.In the third case study we show that ozone profiles generated from HALOE data using TM compare well with profiles from five European ozonesondes. In the fourth case study we evaluate the precision of MLS H20 using TM and find typical precision uncertainties of 3-7% at most latitudes and altitudes. The TM results agree well with previous estimates but are the result of a global analysis of the data rather than an analysis in the limited latitude bands in which traditional approaches work. Finally, sensitivity studies using the MLS H20 data show the following: (1) a combination of forward and backward trajectory calculations minimize uncertainties in isentropic TM; (2) although the uncertainty of the technique increases with trajectory duration,TM calculations of up to 14 days can provide reliable information for use in data validation studies; (3) a correlation coincidence criterion of 400 km produces the best TM results under most circumstances; (4) TM performs well compared to (and sometimes better than) traditional approaches at all latitudes and in most seasons and; (5) TM introduces no statistically significant biases at altitudes between 22 and 40 km

Nitric oxide production from nitrite by a series of zeolites produced via the ADOR route

We would like to thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), University of St Andrews, and CRITICAT Centre for Doctoral Training for financial support [Ph.D. studentship to SR; Grant code: EP/L016419/1]. We also thank the EPSRC for funding part of this work through grant EP/K025112/1. R.E.M. would like to acknowledge OP VVV "Excellent Research Teams", project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000417 – CUCAM.The nitric oxide (NO) production for a series of aluminosilicate zeolites, prepared using the ADOR method, was investigated. Al-UTL and Al-IPC-2,-4 and −6 were prepared and characterised to determine their elemental composition. Positive trends were found to exist between zeolite pore size and the rate and total amount of NO produced. A trend between the number of acid sites and the initial rate of NO produced by the zeolite was also discovered.PostprintPeer reviewe

Costs of hauling bulk milk from farm to plant

Also available online.Digitized 2007 AES

New avenues for mechanochemistry in zeolite science

D. N. R. would like to thank the EPSRC for funding (grant no. EP/N509759/1). R. E. M. is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant (787073 ADOR) and acknowledges the Charles University Centre of Advanced Materials (CUCAM) (OP VVV “Excellent Research Teams”, project number CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000417 – CUCAM).Zeolites are a class of microporous materials with tremendous value for large scale industrial applications such as catalysis, ion exchange, or gas separation. In addition to naturally ocurring variants, zeolites are made synthetically using hydrothermal synthesis, requiring temperatures beyond 100 °C and long reaction times up to weeks. Furthermore, specific applications may require more sophisticated synthesis conditions, expensive reagents, or post-synthetic modifications. Some of these issues can be tackled by using the reemerged technique of mechanochemistry. In 2014, Majano et al. reviewed the space and outlined several possibilities for the usage of mechanical forces in zeolite chemistry. Since then the field has seen many more publications employing mechanochemical methodology to further and improve the synthesis and properties of zeolite materials. The usage ranges from the activation of raw materials, rendering the synthesis of the widely used catalysts much more economical in terms of duration, atom efficiency, and production of waste, to post-synthetic modification of the materials leading to improved properties for target aplications. We present a short review of the advances that have been reported recently, highlight promising work and important studies, and give a perspective of potential future endeavours.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Selective oxidation of bulky organic sulphides over layered titanosilicate catalysts

The authors acknowledge the Czech Science Foundation (P106/12/G015) for the financial support.Selective oxidation of sulphides is a straightforward method of preparation of organic sulphoxides and sulphones, which are important chemical intermediates and building blocks of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Oxidation of methylphenyl sulphide (MPS), diphenyl sulphide (Ph2S), and dibenzothiophene (DBTH) over lamellar titanosilicate catalysts with the MFI and UTL-derived topology was investigated with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. Lamellar titanosilicates combine the advantages of crystalline zeolites and mesoporous molecular sieves due to accessible active sites located on the external surface of their layers. The selectivity of the MPS oxidation to methylphenyl sulphoxide is driven by the diffusion restrictions in the catalyst. A methylphenyl sulphoxide selectivity of 95% at 40% conversion was achieved using the Ti-IPC-1-PI catalyst together with an outstanding TONtot = 1418 after 30 min. The selectivity can be adjusted also by dosing of the oxidant to keep its concentration low during the reaction. The silica-titania pillared TS-1-PITi catalyst showed the highest potential of the tested catalysts in oxidative desulphuration, easily oxidising the DBTH to dibenzothiothene sulphone.PostprintPeer reviewe