Using Debate In Helping Students Discuss Controversial Topics

We used 2 debates over the course of a semester to encourage upper level psychology students to engage in discussion about controversial issues.  The debates considered issues in Affirmative Action and sexual diversity.  Students completed a survey assessing their experiences both individually and as a team member.  Students found it easier to discuss controversial subjects in the classroom during a structured debate as compared to traditional open discussions.  In addition, most of the students enjoyed the debate, would like to participate in a debate in the future, and felt empowered by the experience.  The debate itself elicited some strong emotions, both positive and negative.  Debate is a useful tool to facilitate verbal participation by students in classes where the subject matter is controversial

Splay Leg in a Dutch Laboratory Rabbit Colony: Detection Methods and Effective Elimination Procedure

ABSTRACT In rabbits, especially in some races, limb movement disorder called splay legs, are mostly unilateral or bilateral in front or hind legs at an early age. The severity ranges from mild to severe in this case. In breeding colony of albino Dutch laboratory rabbits, the splay leg disorder has been observed over the years permanently.Within the scope of this research, 1.5-2.5% of 700-750 number of colonies population, were affected. Splay legs were observed in 20-50 days old infants of both sexes. According to breeding system in metallic cages, it was thought that the mechanical trauma and damage to limbs has been the main cause of this problem. In this study, the accurate survey in histopathology and radiography of suffering organs was performed but any agent was seen. As some nutritional deficiencies lead to muscular atrophy and paralysis, feed analysis was also performed. In analysis of nutrients, all of the nutritional factors were in normal ranges. As is regarded, in laboratory rabbits especially in Dutch strain, effect of hereditary factors to creation of the splay legs, are listed in some valid reports. During the 8 gestation periods in 2 years, suffering infants with their apparently healthy family (other infants and their parents) that could act as gene carriers were identified and eliminated. After the next four gestation periods, the colony was controlled again. During this time, no case of affected animal was seen. With this action, the percentage of splay leg observation have reached to zero and it was completely eliminated

Pattern recognition of acoustic emission signal during the mode I fracture mechanisms in carbon- epoxy composite

The aim of the paper is to use Acoustic Emission technique to distinguish the micro/macro failure mechanisms of carbon-epoxy composite laminates during Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) tests. In order to recognize and detect different damage mechanisms, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) method has been used to cluster the AE signals according with the fracture mode that originated them. In addition, most significate Learning vector quantization (LVQ) program has been applied to verify the signals. Five AE features were selected as main parameters: Rise-time, Counts, Energy, Duration and Amplitude. The results highlighted that different signals can be recognized and classified related to their origin. The failure mechanisms detected are Matrix cracking, delamination, and fiber breakage. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images validate the results. Mathematics data and experimental results confirmed a good converging of AE dat

Skills Required for Nursing Career Advancement: A Qualitative Study

Background: Nurses require certain skills for progression in their field. Identifying these skills can provide the context for nursing career advancement. Objectives: This study aimed to identify the skills needed for nurses’ career advancement. Materials and Methods: A qualitative approach using content analysis was adopted to study a purposive sample of eighteen nurses working in teaching hospitals affiliated with the Qazvin, Shahid Beheshti, and Iran Universities of Medical Sciences. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and analyzed using conventional content analysis. Results: The three themes extracted from the data included interpersonal capabilities, competency for career success, and personal capacities. The results showed that acquiring a variety of skills is essential for career advancement. Conclusions: The findings showed that personal, interpersonal, and functional skills can facilitate nurses’ career advancement. The effects of these skills on career advancement depend on a variety of conditions that require further studies

Terahertz-driven linear electron acceleration

The cost, size and availability of electron accelerators is dominated by the achievable accelerating gradient. Conventional high-brightness radio-frequency (RF) accelerating structures operate with 30-50 MeV/m gradients. Electron accelerators driven with optical or infrared sources have demonstrated accelerating gradients orders of magnitude above that achievable with conventional RF structures. However, laser-driven wakefield accelerators require intense femtosecond sources and direct laser-driven accelerators and suffer from low bunch charge, sub-micron tolerances and sub-femtosecond timing requirements due to the short wavelength of operation. Here, we demonstrate the first linear acceleration of electrons with keV energy gain using optically-generated terahertz (THz) pulses. THz-driven accelerating structures enable high-gradient electron or proton accelerators with simple accelerating structures, high repetition rates and significant charge per bunch. Increasing the operational frequency of accelerators into the THz band allows for greatly increased accelerating gradients due to reduced complications with respect to breakdown and pulsed heating. Electric fields in the GV/m range have been achieved in the THz frequency band using all optical methods. With recent advances in the generation of THz pulses via optical rectification of slightly sub-picosecond pulses, in particular improvements in conversion efficiency and multi-cycle pulses, increasing accelerating gradients by two orders of magnitude over conventional linear accelerators (LINACs) has become a possibility. These ultra-compact THz accelerators with extremely short electron bunches hold great potential to have a transformative impact for free electron lasers, future linear particle colliders, ultra-fast electron diffraction, x-ray science, and medical therapy with x-rays and electron beams

Supervised and non-supervised AE data classification of nanomodified CFRP during DCB tests

Aim of the paper is to use acoustic emissions to study the effect of electrospun nylon 6,6 Nanofibrous mat on carbon-epoxy composites during Double Cantilever beam (DCB) tests. In order to recognize the effect of the nanofibres and to detect different damage mechanisms, k-means clustering of acoustic emission signals applied to rise time, count, energy, duration and amplitude of the events is used. Supervised neural network (NN) is then applied to verify clustered signals. Results showed that clustered acoustic emission signals are a reliable tool to detect different damage mechanisms; neural network showed the method has a 99% of accuracy