2,248 research outputs found
Enhancing Critical Thinking Across The Undergraduate Experience: An Exemplar From Engineering
Faculty in a large, urban school of engineering designed a longitudinal study to assess the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students as they progressed through the engineering program. The Paul-Elder critical thinking framework was used to design course assignments and develop a holistic assessment rubric. The curriculum was re-designed to include deliberate teaching of critical thinking and assessment in at least one key course for every student each year of their undergraduate curriculum. The critical thinking scores for seniors using the holistic rubric were significantly higher than their baseline critical thinking scores as freshmen (p = .004). This case-study can serve as an exemplar for other units, departments, or programs to model or replicate
Excited electron-bubble states in superfluid helium-4: a time-dependent density functional approach
We present a systematic study on the excited electron-bubble states in
superfluid helium-4 using a time-dependent density functional approach. For the
evolution of the 1P bubble state, two different functionals accompanied with
two different time-development schemes are used, namely an accurate
finite-range functional for helium with an adiabatic approximation for electron
versus an efficient zero-range functional for helium with a real-time evolution
for electron. We make a detailed comparison between the quantitative results
obtained from the two methods, which allows us to employ with confidence the
optimal method for suitable problems. Based on this knowledge, we use the
finite-range functional to calculate the time-resolved absorption spectrum of
the 1P bubble, which in principle can be experimentally determined, and we use
the zero-range functional to real-time evolve the 2P bubble for several
hundreds of picoseconds, which is theoretically interesting due to the break
down of adiabaticity for this state. Our results discard the physical
realization of relaxed, metastable 2P electron-bubblesComment: 16 pages, 12 figure
Critical Thinking Development In Undergraduate Engineering Students From Freshman Through Senior Year: A 3-Cohort Longitudinal Study
Critical thinking is considered a necessary learning outcome for all college students and essential for academic and career success. There are many challenges to developing a comprehensive approach to teaching and assessing critical thinking skills. Although the literature has many examples of the incorporation of critical thinking and assessment into courses, longitudinal studies following engineering students through their undergraduate career are lacking. This study assessed the impact of using the Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Framework to enhance undergraduate students’ critical thinking skills with the hypothesis: There will be a significant increase in undergraduate students’ critical thinking abilities from the freshman to the senior year with the explicit and strategic incorporation of critical thinking assignments. The research question was, “How do the critical thinking skills of undergraduate engineering students change as they progress through the engineering program with the explicit and strategic incorporation of critical thinking assignments?” The study was a descriptive, longitudinal study of three engineering student cohorts as they progressed through the four year undergraduate program. The study was approved by the university’s Institutional Review Board. There was a statistically significant increase in critical thinking scores over the four years for each of the three cohorts. Integrating and evaluating critical thinking assignments into engineering curricula is possible, but a major challenge to critical thinking assessment using a holistic rubric is training engineering faculty in their use. The results are encouraging, and participating faculty agree; but sustaining these efforts to imbed critical thinking assignments throughout the engineering college curriculum will require effort and administrative support
Hadron Helicity Violation in Exclusive Processes: Quantitative Calculations in Leading Order QCD
We study a new mechanism for hadronic helicity flip in high energy hard
exclusive reactions. The mechanism proceeds in the limit of perfect chiral
symmetry, namely without any need to flip a quark helicity. The fundamental
feature of the new mechanism is the breaking of rotational symmetry of the hard
collision by a scattering plane in processes involving independent quark
scattering. We show that in the impulse approximation there is no evidence for
of the helicity violating process as the energy or momentum transfer is
increased over the region 1 GeV^2 < Q^2 < 100 GeV^2. In the asymptotic region
Q^2> 1000 GeV^2, a saddle point approximation with doubly logarithmic accuracy
yields suppression by a fraction of power of Q^2. ``Chirally--odd" exclusive
wave functions which carry non--zero orbital angular momentum and yet are
leading order in the high energy limit, play an important role.Comment: uuencoded LaTeX file (21 pages) and PostScript figure
Efficient numerical diagonalization of hermitian 3x3 matrices
A very common problem in science is the numerical diagonalization of
symmetric or hermitian 3x3 matrices. Since standard "black box" packages may be
too inefficient if the number of matrices is large, we study several
alternatives. We consider optimized implementations of the Jacobi, QL, and
Cuppen algorithms and compare them with an analytical method relying on
Cardano's formula for the eigenvalues and on vector cross products for the
eigenvectors. Jacobi is the most accurate, but also the slowest method, while
QL and Cuppen are good general purpose algorithms. The analytical algorithm
outperforms the others by more than a factor of 2, but becomes inaccurate or
may even fail completely if the matrix entries differ greatly in magnitude.
This can mostly be circumvented by using a hybrid method, which falls back to
QL if conditions are such that the analytical calculation might become too
inaccurate. For all algorithms, we give an overview of the underlying
mathematical ideas, and present detailed benchmark results. C and Fortran
implementations of our code are available for download from
http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/~globes/3x3/ .Comment: 13 pages, no figures, new hybrid algorithm added, matches published
version, typo in Eq. (39) corrected; software library available at
http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/~globes/3x3
Peer coach support in internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for college students with social anxiety disorder: efficacy and acceptability
Social anxiety disorder is common among emerging adults and is associated with serious functional impairment. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective intervention for social anxiety. An online version may increase access but low completion rates limit utility. This study investigated a self-guided, internet based CBT (ICBT) with peer coach support. Participants were 35 undergraduate students randomized for immediate treatment (IT) or wait-list control (WL) in a randomized controlled trial design. IT participants completed a six-week ICBT program on their own and met briefly with a minimally trained undergraduate student as a “coach” between each lesson. IT participants had a greater decline in social anxiety relative to WL participants. High treatment retention and satisfaction ratings demonstrate the acceptability of this online intervention with peer coach support. The higher than expected enrollment from international students suggests ICBT may serve hard-to-reach college populations. This model of care could augment traditional mental health services to expand the availability of care
Soft gluons at large angles in hadron collisions
A general discussion is presented of the single logarithmic soft factor that
appears in two scale QCD observables in processes involving four partons. We
treat it as the ``fifth form factor'', accompanying the four collinear singular
Sudakov form factors attached to colliding and outgoing hard partons. The fifth
form factor is expressed in terms of the Casimir operators (squared colour
charges) of irreducible representations in the crossing - and -channels.
As an application we revisit the problem of large angle radiation in
and give a relatively simple solution and interpretation of the results. We
found an unexpected symmetry of the soft anomalous dimension under exchange of
internal and external variables of the problem whose existence calls for
explanation.Comment: 29 pages, pictures generated with feynmf graphic packag
A Systematic Review of Recommendations for Behavioral Health Services for Transgender and Gender Diverse Adults: The Three-Legged Stool of Evidence-Based Practice is Unbalanced
There is a growing literature of clinical recommendations for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) affirming behavioral health care, yet it is unknown to what extent these recommendations are rooted in evidence-based practice (EBP). This systematic review included 65 articles published between 2009 and 2018 with recommendations for behavioral health services with TGD adults, emphasizing general clinical care. Coded variables included type of article, participant demographics, aspects of EBP, and whether care was informed by objective assessment. Most articles did not equally draw from all components of EBP. Recommendations for specific clinical problems are increasingly available and address diversity within TGD communities. More research, including clinical trials adapting established interventions, is needed to inform state-of-the-art TGD-affirmative behavioral health care
Exclusive Hadronic Processes and Color Transparency
We review the current status of high energy exclusive processes and color
transparency.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, based on talk given at International Symposium
on Nuclear Physics, Mumbai, Dec 18-22, 200
Cherenkov radio pulses from electromagnetic showers in the time-domain
The electric field of the Cherenkov radio pulse produced by a single charged
particle track in a dielectric medium is derived from first principles. An
algorithm is developed to obtain the pulse in the time domain for numerical
calculations. The algorithm is implemented in a Monte Carlo simulation of
electromagnetic showers in dense media (specifically designed for coherent
radio emission applications) as might be induced by interactions of ultra-high
energy neutrinos. The coherent Cherenkov radio emission produced by such
showers is obtained simultaneously both in the time and frequency domains. A
consistency check performed by Fourier-transforming the pulse in time and
comparing it to the frequency spectrum obtained directly in the simulations
yields, as expected, fully consistent results. The reversal of the time
structure inside the Cherenkov cone and the signs of the corresponding pulses
are addressed in detail. The results, besides testing algorithms used for
reference calculations in the frequency domain, shed new light into the
properties of the radio pulse in the time domain. The shape of the pulse in the
time domain is directly related to the depth development of the excess charge
in the shower and its width to the observation angle with respect to the
Cherenkov direction. This information can be of great practical importance for
interpreting actual data.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
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