The Execution of Private McGuffin

A fictional take on the discipline meted out by a cavalry unit fighting on the Great Plains. Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit

Student understanding of the Boltzmann factor

We present results of our investigation into student understanding of the physical significance and utility of the Boltzmann factor in several simple models. We identify various justifications, both correct and incorrect, that students use when answering written questions that require application of the Boltzmann factor. Results from written data as well as teaching interviews suggest that many students can neither recognize situations in which the Boltzmann factor is applicable, nor articulate the physical significance of the Boltzmann factor as an expression for multiplicity, a fundamental quantity of statistical mechanics. The specific student difficulties seen in the written data led us to develop a guided-inquiry tutorial activity, centered around the derivation of the Boltzmann factor, for use in undergraduate statistical mechanics courses. We report on the development process of our tutorial, including data from teaching interviews and classroom observations on student discussions about the Boltzmann factor and its derivation during the tutorial development process. This additional information informed modifications that improved students' abilities to complete the tutorial during the allowed class time without sacrificing the effectiveness as we have measured it. These data also show an increase in students' appreciation of the origin and significance of the Boltzmann factor during the student discussions. Our findings provide evidence that working in groups to better understand the physical origins of the canonical probability distribution helps students gain a better understanding of when the Boltzmann factor is applicable and how to use it appropriately in answering relevant questions

Insights on the Effectiveness of the Hamburger Method

This empirical research study examined the use and effectiveness of the Hamburger Method, a writing strategy to teach organization and development similar to the famous, or perhaps infamous, Five-Paragraph Theme. This method of writing teaches students to write an introduction that includes their thesis (the top bun); three body paragraphs containing evidence (the meat and condiments); and then a conclusion that reverses the introduction and ends the essay (the bottom bun). Notably, the approach is generally introduced during elementary school as it has obvious appeal to children. The research reveals, though, in more advanced settings, secondary school English classrooms and even at times, college courses. The main goal of the study was to gain a picture of how this method is introduced and used, and how it may affect students’ writing long-term. Methods used for this study were a combination of textual analysis and ethnography by surveying current college students and interviewing secondary writing educators. What are the advantages of a convenient easy-to-follow structural guide for students to follow? Are there issues with rigid rules as students advance their education? In short, is the Hamburger Method overdone or even underdone?https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/fsrs2021/1012/thumbnail.jp

Race to the surface: modelling bacterial and human cell growth on dental implant surfaces

Two barriers to successful dental implant surgery are (1) the possibility of infection and (2) poor compatibility with native human cells. The mouth is colonised by millions of bacteria, living in communities called biofilms. Human cells in the mouth are in competition with these bacteria to occupy the implant surface. Infection can result in the need for implant removal, which is both costly and very painful. New materials for implants are continuously being developed, but are not making it into clinics. Testing innovative materials is challenging due to the highly complex oral environment. We are combining models of oral tissue with bacterial biofilms, to better understand how we can help human cells win the 'race to the surface'

Identifying Student Difficulties with Entropy, Heat Engines, and the Carnot Cycle

We report on several specific student difficulties regarding the Second Law of Thermodynamics in the context of heat engines within upper-division undergraduates thermal physics courses. Data come from ungraded written surveys, graded homework assignments, and videotaped classroom observations of tutorial activities. Written data show that students in these courses do not clearly articulate the connection between the Carnot cycle and the Second Law after lecture instruction. This result is consistent both within and across student populations. Observation data provide evidence for myriad difficulties related to entropy and heat engines, including students' struggles in reasoning about situations that are physically impossible and failures to differentiate between differential and net changes of state properties of a system. Results herein may be seen as the application of previously documented difficulties in the context of heat engines, but others are novel and emphasize the subtle and complex nature of cyclic processes and heat engines, which are central to the teaching and learning of thermodynamics and its applications. Moreover, the sophistication of these difficulties is indicative of the more advanced thinking required of students at the upper division, whose developing knowledge and understanding give rise to questions and struggles that are inaccessible to novices

Neo-liberal theology in the thought of Walter Marshall Horton

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe problem of this dissertation is to contribute to the drafting of a more precise definition of the term "neoliberalism." It centers in the thought of Walter Marshall Horton, who is an outstanding contributor to the development of such a theology. The following method is employed: (1) Horton's theological biography is presented. (2) A working criterion of neo-liberalism is established on the basis of the thought of John C. Bennett and L. Harold DeWolf whom Horton cites as examples of neo-liberals. (3) A criterion of liberalism is established on the basis of the thought of the important American liberal theologians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (4) An intensive study of Horton's thought (1919 to 1958) is made and all liberal, non-liberal, and post-liberal elements are identified. (5) His thought is related to the liberal and neo-liberal criteria in order to determine its relation to the old and new liberalism. (6) Horton's thought is summarized with regard to the liberal and non-liberal elements and evaluated as to originality. The dissertation concludes with a definition of neo-liberalism. The chronological analysis of Horton's thought shows how his mature thought combines liberal, non-liberal, and postliberal elements. His method combines the use of reason with an emphasis upon the importance of Biblical revelation. His doctrine of God recognizes both the personal love and the holy wrath of God. In his doctrine of man he balances "titanism" and "nihilism." His Christology is liberal with regard to the Incarnation but tends toward nee-orthodoxy in ita emphasis upon the objective factor in the Atonement and the doctrine of the Parousia. His doctrine of the Church draws heavily on data from the ecumenical movement and reveals a high regard for Catholic concepts. His doctrine of the Kingdom of God includes both liberal activism and orthodox eternalism. The manner in which Horton has drawn these various elements into one comprehensive theology closely parallels the efform of Bennett and DeWolf. The conclusion is that Horton's thought is predominantly liberal but merits the prefix "neo" for two reasons. (1) The incorporation of many of the elements of the older liberalism into his mature thought witnesses to the fact that liberalism is making a "new" appearance, i.e., appearing again. In this sense, Horton's thought is not original but "new" to much contemporary thought. (2) The outstanding characteristic of Horton's mature thought is the balancing of liberal, neeorthodox, and Catholic concepts. This re-stating and modifying of liberal ideas within an ecumenical framework witnesses to the fact that liberalism is appearing in a new guise. The fact that Horton's thought, though basically liberal, has been greatly enriched by ideas from non-liberal sources, justifies his appropriation of the term neo-liberal. The similarity of his thought to that of Bennett and DeWolf suggests that the term can serve as a common label for their systems. Neo-liberalism is a theological system which retains the characteristic features of the older liberalism, e.g., respect for human reason and concern that men respond actively to the ideal of the Kingdom, but has been enriched by emphases derived from neo-orthodox thought, e.g., regard for the seriousness of human sin and recognition of the eternal dimensions of the Kingdom that transcends history, and Catholic theology, e.g., recognition of the importance of the Church and insistence upon its essential unity, and is especially marked by an ecumenical quality, e.g., appreciation for the contributions which all the branches of the Church can make to the continuing world-wide conversation between the churches

Cluster synchronization in an ensemble of neurons interacting through chemical synapses

In networks of periodically firing spiking neurons that are interconnected with chemical synapses, we analyze cluster state, where an ensemble of neurons are subdivided into a few clusters, in each of which neurons exhibit perfect synchronization. To clarify stability of cluster state, we decompose linear stability of the solution into two types of stabilities: stability of mean state and stabilities of clusters. Computing Floquet matrices for these stabilities, we clarify the total stability of cluster state for any types of neurons and any strength of interactions even if the size of networks is infinitely large. First, we apply this stability analysis to investigating synchronization in the large ensemble of integrate-and-fire (IF) neurons. In one-cluster state we find the change of stability of a cluster, which elucidates that in-phase synchronization of IF neurons occurs with only inhibitory synapses. Then, we investigate entrainment of two clusters of IF neurons with different excitability. IF neurons with fast decaying synapses show the low entrainment capability, which is explained by a pitchfork bifurcation appearing in two-cluster state with change of synapse decay time constant. Second, we analyze one-cluster state of Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) neurons and discuss the difference in synchronization properties between IF neurons and HH neurons.Comment: Notation for Jacobi matrix is changed. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

SeNA-CNN: Overcoming Catastrophic Forgetting in Convolutional Neural Networks by Selective Network Augmentation

Lifelong learning aims to develop machine learning systems that can learn new tasks while preserving the performance on previous learned tasks. In this paper we present a method to overcome catastrophic forgetting on convolutional neural networks, that learns new tasks and preserves the performance on old tasks without accessing the data of the original model, by selective network augmentation. The experiment results showed that SeNA-CNN, in some scenarios, outperforms the state-of-art Learning without Forgetting algorithm. Results also showed that in some situations it is better to use SeNA-CNN instead of training a neural network using isolated learning.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio