North by Northwest : Information literacy at Yukon College and Lakehead University

In Northern communities, isolation is a fact of life and common southern "realities" like high-speed internet, libraries (both public and academic) within driving distance and f2f instruction are not the norm. Due to these factors, online instruction is a core component in northern academic institutions and as such requires a little bit more preparation. As well, another key factor to consider is the diverse student population: First Nations, mature, part-time, first generation university students, and professionals upgrading their credentials. The diverse academic backgrounds of these students makes designing the standard library tutorial a challenge; one size does not fit all in the north. At the same time, this might be the only way that students interact with a librarian so the online environment becomes significant to these students' academic studies (and hopefully success). So how does an academic library with such a variety of students a) reach these students? b) design online tutorials targeting a variety of learning styles? and c) assess whether any of this is working? This session will show you how to take a generic one hour information literacy class and turn it into an online session that will meet the needs of a diverse student population. The presenters will discuss effective pedagogical approaches to online instruction, how to teach specific e-resources and finally how to ensure that the students are actually finding the Library's e-resources and using them effectively and efficiently. This presentation won't focus as much on software, although we will be discussing what we use, it's more about how to use the software to teach InfoLit online effectively. We will conclude with a discussion on how to beta-test your new online approach to Information Literacy Instruction before launching it live for the students. So, come to this session and see how two northern (Ontario and Yukon) librarians are devising new and alternative methods of reaching out to students via a variety of methods and assessing their efforts. How, in fact, we have to examine "every angle" such as mode of delivery, type of student, pedagogical theory, etc. to ensure that we are serving our diverse populations well and contributing to the retention and success of these students

Shock wave initiation of the Ti5Si3 reaction in elemental powders

Elemental powder mixes were subjected to plane wave shock processing which reduced the initial porosity to essentially zero. Two powder mixes in a 5:3 Ti:Si atomic ratio were used: -325 mesh Ti and Si (<45 mu m), and -100 mesh Ti and Si (<150 mu m) with shock pressures up to 7.3 GPa and shock energies up to 671 J/g. Shock pressures were calculated using hugoniot parameters for porous elemental powder mixtures and shock energies were taken to be the work done by the shock (P Delta V/2). Shock energy thresholds for complete reaction of the elemental powders were found which depend upon powder particle size and the initial porosity of the powder. The threshold energy for the larger powder mix was found to be similar to 8O% larger than that for the smaller powder. A decrease in initial porosity from 0.49 to 0.40 caused an increase in threshold shock energy of about 75% for both powders. At shock energies slightly below the threshold energy, evidence for the reaction of solid Ti and liquid Si was observed in small isolated regions. These regions contained spherical micronodules with the composition of TiSi2 in Si. The results are compared to those of previous studies reported in the literature, and mechanisms for reaction initiation and the observed threshold values are proposed

Several Techniques for One-Dimensional Strain Shock Consolidation of Multiple Samples

We explored three methods of shock wave powder consolidation which retain the one-dimensional nature of a plane shock wave and allow multiple samples to be consolidated. The first technique uses a porous sintered metal cylinder as a shock fixture. The sintered material is chosen to match as closely as possible the solid density and compressibility of the powder to be investigated. The second method does not require a compatible porous material. A cylindrical target cavity is separated into multiple regions by thin sheet metal dividers. The dividers are of the same scale thickness as the powder size to retain a one dimensional condition in most of the compact. The third method may be the most interesting technologically. A powder media of near impedance match to the material under study is selected which resists bonding under the shock conditions to be used. Pressed greens of the material to be consolidated are then embedded in this pressure -transmitting media. The greens are then shocked along with the 'non-stick' media. In our experiment, a discontinuously reinforced metal matrix composite (MMC) was shock consolidated to near net shape by this method. Ti powder was mixed with SiC powder, pressed into a green with corners and radii, and embedded in fine zirconia powder. The shock wave generated by a 304 stainless steel flyer plate accelerated to 1.0 km/ s fully consolidated the MMC without bonding the zirconia. The compact was recovered with well defined corners and flat surfaces

North by Northwest : Information literacy at Yukon College and Lakehead University

In Northern communities, isolation is a fact of life and common southern "realities" like high-speed internet, libraries (both public and academic) within driving distance and f2f instruction are not the norm. Due to these factors, online instruction is a core component in northern academic institutions and as such requires a little bit more preparation. As well, another key factor to consider is the diverse student population: First Nations, mature, part-time, first generation university students, and professionals upgrading their credentials. The diverse academic backgrounds of these students makes designing the standard library tutorial a challenge; one size does not fit all in the north. At the same time, this might be the only way that students interact with a librarian so the online environment becomes significant to these students' academic studies (and hopefully success). So how does an academic library with such a variety of students a) reach these students? b) design online tutorials targeting a variety of learning styles? and c) assess whether any of this is working? This session will show you how to take a generic one hour information literacy class and turn it into an online session that will meet the needs of a diverse student population. The presenters will discuss effective pedagogical approaches to online instruction, how to teach specific e-resources and finally how to ensure that the students are actually finding the Library's e-resources and using them effectively and efficiently. This presentation won't focus as much on software, although we will be discussing what we use, it's more about how to use the software to teach InfoLit online effectively. We will conclude with a discussion on how to beta-test your new online approach to Information Literacy Instruction before launching it live for the students. So, come to this session and see how two northern (Ontario and Yukon) librarians are devising new and alternative methods of reaching out to students via a variety of methods and assessing their efforts. How, in fact, we have to examine "every angle" such as mode of delivery, type of student, pedagogical theory, etc. to ensure that we are serving our diverse populations well and contributing to the retention and success of these students

The Psychology of Separation: Border Walls, Soft Power, and International Neighborliness

This study assesses the impact of international border walls on evaluations of countries and on beliefs about bilateral relationships between states. Using a short video, we experimentally manipulate whether a border wall image appears in a broader description of the history and culture of a little-known country. In a third condition, we also indicate which bordering country built the wall. Demographically representative samples from the United States, Ireland, and Turkey responded similarly to these experimental treatments. Compared to a control group, border walls lowered evaluations of the bordering countries. They also signified hostile international relationships to third-party observers. Furthermore, the government of the country responsible for building the wall was evaluated especially negatively. Reactions were consistent regardless of people’s predispositions toward walls in their domestic political context. Our findings have important implications for a country’s attractiveness, or “soft power,” an important component of nonmilitary influence in international relations

The effects of late Cenozoic climate change on the global distribution of frost cracking

Frost cracking is a dominant mechanical weathering phenomenon facilitating the breakdown of bedrock in periglacial regions. Despite recent advances in understanding frost cracking processes, few studies have addressed how global climate change over the late Cenozoic may have impacted spatial variations in frost cracking intensity. In this study, we estimate global changes in frost cracking intensity (FCI) by segregation ice growth. Existing process-based models of FCI are applied in combination with soil thickness data from the Harmonized World Soil Database. Temporal and spatial variations in FCI are predicted using surface temperature changes obtained from ECHAM5 general circulation model simulations conducted for four different paleoclimate time slices. Time slices considered include pre-industrial (∼ 1850 CE, PI), mid-Holocene (∼ 6 ka, MH), Last Glacial Maximum (∼ 21 ka, LGM), and Pliocene (∼ 3 Ma, PLIO) times. Results indicate for all paleoclimate time slices that frost cracking was most prevalent (relative to PI times) in the middle- to high-latitude regions, as well as high-elevation lower-latitude areas such the Himalayas, Tibet, the European Alps, the Japanese Alps, the US Rocky Mountains, and the Andes Mountains. The smallest deviations in frost cracking (relative to PI conditions) were observed in the MH simulation, which yielded slightly higher FCI values in most of the areas. In contrast, larger deviations were observed in the simulations of the colder climate (LGM) and warmer climate (PLIO). Our results indicate that the impact of climate change on frost cracking was most severe during the PI–LGM period due to higher differences in temperatures and glaciation at higher latitudes. The PLIO results indicate low FCI in the Andes and higher values of FCI in Greenland and Canada due to the diminished extent of glaciation in the warmer PLIO climate.</p

Hindsight policy gradients

A reinforcement learning agent that needs to pursue different goals across episodes requires a goal-conditional policy. In addition to their potential to generalize desirable behavior to unseen goals, such policies may also enable higher-level planning based on subgoals. In sparse-reward environments, the capacity to exploit information about the degree to which an arbitrary goal has been achieved while another goal was intended appears crucial to enable sample efficient learning. However, reinforcement learning agents have only recently been endowed with such capacity for hindsight. In this paper, we demonstrate how hindsight can be introduced to policy gradient methods, generalizing this idea to a broad class of successful algorithms. Our experiments on a diverse selection of sparse-reward environments show that hindsight leads to a remarkable increase in sample efficiency.Comment: Accepted to ICLR 201

Reinforcement Learning in Sparse-Reward Environments with Hindsight Policy Gradients

A reinforcement learning agent that needs to pursue different goals across episodes requires a goal-conditional policy. In addition to their potential to generalize desirable behavior to unseen goals, such policies may also enable higher-level planning based on subgoals. In sparse-reward environments, the capacity to exploit information about the degree to which an arbitrary goal has been achieved while another goal was intended appears crucial to enabling sample efficient learning. However, reinforcement learning agents have only recently been endowed with such capacity for hindsight. In this letter, we demonstrate how hindsight can be introduced to policy gradient methods, generalizing this idea to a broad class of successful algorithms. Our experiments on a diverse selection of sparse-reward environments show that hindsight leads to a remarkable increase in sample efficiency

Uncovering the (un-)occupied electronic structure of a buried hybrid interface

The energy level alignment at organic/inorganic (o/i) semiconductor interfaces is crucial for any light-emitting or -harvesting functionality. Essential is the access to both occupied and unoccupied electronic states directly at the interface, which is often deeply buried underneath thick organic films and challenging to characterize. We use several complementary experimental techniques to determine the electronic structure of p-quinquephenyl pyridine (5P-Py) adsorbed on ZnO(10-10). The parent anchoring group, pyridine, significantly lowers the work function by up to 2.9 eV and causes an occupied in-gap state (IGS) directly below the Fermi level $E_\text{F}$. Adsorption of upright-standing 5P-Py also leads to a strong work function reduction of up to 2.1 eV and to a similar IGS. The latter is then used as an initial state for the transient population of three normally unoccupied molecular levels through optical excitation and, due to its localization right at the o/i interface, provides interfacial sensitivity, even for thick 5P-Py films. We observe two final states above the vacuum level and one bound state at around 2 eV above $E_\text{F}$, which we attribute to the 5P-Py LUMO. By the separate study of anchoring group and organic dye combined with the exploitation of the occupied IGS for selective interfacial photoexcitation this work provides a new pathway for characterizing the electronic structure at buried o/i interfaces

Potent Adjuvanticity of a Pure TLR7-Agonistic Imidazoquinoline Dendrimer

Engagement of toll-like receptors (TLRs) serve to link innate immune responses with adaptive immunity and can be exploited as powerful vaccine adjuvants for eliciting both primary and anamnestic immune responses. TLR7 agonists are highly immunostimulatory without inducing dominant proinflammatory cytokine responses. We synthesized a dendrimeric molecule bearing six units of a potent TLR7/TLR8 dual-agonistic imidazoquinoline to explore if multimerization of TLR7/8 would result in altered activity profiles. A complete loss of TLR8-stimulatory activity with selective retention of the TLR7-agonistic activity was observed in the dendrimer. This was reflected by a complete absence of TLR8-driven proinflammatory cytokine and interferon (IFN)-γ induction in human PBMCs, with preservation of TLR7-driven IFN-α induction. The dendrimer was found to be superior to the imidazoquinoline monomer in inducing high titers of high-affinity antibodies to bovine α-lactalbumin. Additionally, epitope mapping experiments showed that the dendrimer induced immunoreactivity to more contiguous peptide epitopes along the amino acid sequence of the model antigen.This work was supported by National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases contract HHSN272200900033C