Mathematics Course Placement Using Holistic Measures: Possibilities for Community College Students.

Background/Context: Most community colleges across the country use a placement test to determine students’ readiness for college-level coursework, yet these tests are admittedly imperfect instruments. Researchers have documented significant problems stemming from overreliance on placement testing, including placement error and misdiagnosis of remediation needs. They have also described significant consequences of misplacement, which can hinder the educational progression and attainment of community college students. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: We explore possibilities for placing community college students in mathematics courses using a holistic approach that considers measures beyond placement test scores. This includes academic background measures, such as high school GPA and math courses taken, and indicators of noncognitive constructs, such as motivation, time use, and social support. Setting: The study draws upon administrative data from a large urban community college district in California that serves over 100,000 students each semester. The data enable us to link students’ placement testing results, survey data, background information, and transcript records. Research Design: We first use the supplemental survey data gathered during routine placement testing to conduct predictive exercises that identify severe placement errors under existing placement practices. We then move beyond prediction and evaluate student outcomes in two colleges where noncognitive indicators were directly factored into placement algorithms. Findings/Results: Using high school background information and noncognitive indicators to predict success reveals as many as one quarter of students may be misassigned to their math courses by status quo practices. In our subsequent analysis we find that students placed under a holistic approach that considered noncognitive indicators in addition to placement test scores performed no differently from higher scoring peers in the same course. Conclusions/Recommendations: The findings suggest a holistic approach to mathematics course placement may improve placement accuracy and provide access to higher level mathematics courses for community college students without compromising their likelihood of success

Designing interactive digital installation for human-human interaction in live music events

In the 21st century, there is a strong trend of the audience’s personal technology-dependent behavior in live music events, specifically music concerts and music festivals. This project, Interplaying, investigates the way technology is used to encourage the audience’s human-human interaction in such events in order to allow audience members to better engage in live-music-listening experience’s benefits such as socialization. My paper finds a lesson from human-human interaction in cultural/community festivals. Also, it does not criticize the presence of technology itself in the events. The project rather provides the way technology can bring the audience back to real environment from virtual communication. The prototype of Interplaying tangibly embodies the possibility of technology encouraging live social interaction amongst audience members

Energetic Effects of Hole Transporting Materials on the Performance of Organometal Halide Perovskite Photovoltaic Cells

Efficient, inexpensive, lightweight and flexible solar cells are desired to help meet the world’s growing energy needs. Organometal halide perovskite (OMHP) photovoltaic (PV) cells have shown dramatic increases in solar cell efficiencies increase over the last 5 years. OMHP PV cells have attracted significant attention due to their broad absorption spectra, high electron and hole mobility, and low production cost. The interface between hole transporting layer (HTL) and perovskite thin films have a significant influence on charge transfer and overall solar cell performance. 2,2’,7,7’-tetrakis(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)9,9’-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD) is a small molecule largely used as HTL in perovskite solar cells. However, this material suffers from low charge-carrier mobilities and inappropriate energy level alignments with some perovskites. In this work we investigate the effect of the HTL energetics on the performance of perovskite solar cells. This is accomplished through employing a range of HTLs with varying ionization energies (IEs). We find that the solar cell device performance is relatively insensitive to the IE of the HTL within a 0.4 eV range. We also demonstrate that modification of the HTL surface with different alcohols helps in increasing the solar cell performances

Role of Transcription in Mammalian Copy Number Variant Formation

Genome instability, defined as an increased tendency of genome alteration, is the cause of many human diseases and conditions. It is a hallmark of human cancer and plays a role in aging and the development and function of the nervous system. Genome instability can manifest in several ways, including gaps and breaks at Common Fragile Sites (CFSs) and Copy Number Variants (CNVs). CFSs are sites on human metaphase chromosomes prone to forming gaps or breaks following replication stress. CNVs are submicroscopic genomic alternations that change the copy number of the affected region, also often following replication stress. The genome regions most prone to replication stress-induced CNVs, called “hotspots,” coincide with CFSs. In spite of their implications for human health, mechanisms leading to instability at CFSs and CNV hotspots are unclear. CFSs/CNV hotspots are AT-rich and late replicating, but those properties are not sufficient for the sites’ instability. DNA sequence at CFSs/CNV hotspots is shared among all cells, but instability is cell line-specific. We also found that while about 20% of the genome replicates late, hotspots only comprise 0.4% of the genome. Hence, instability at hotspots is determined by properties that vary between different cell lines and genomic regions. Transcription is one such property. We found that CFSs/CNV hotspots are enriched in large (>500kb), transcribed genes and that given a cell line’s transcription profile we can predict where CFSs/CNV hotspots will be in that cell line. I further show that abrogating expression of a large hotspot gene leads to a reduced number of aphidicolin-induced CNVs. These results established transcription of large genes as a determining factor for instability at hotspots. We propose that a conflict between transcription of large genes and DNA replication drives hotspot instability. I tested a model in which R-loops (RNA/DNA hybrids) create a physical interference for the replication fork and cause the fork to stall and initiate genomic alteration. R-loop manipulation by altering expression of RNase H1 had no significant effect on the frequency of APH-induced instability at hotspots, implying that R-loops do not play a central role in driving APH-induced CNVs, unlike a prior study showing that R-loop manipulation changes CFS instability. However, R-loop accumulation changes the location of breakpoints of these CNVs and change the frequency of the spontaneous CNVs, suggesting that R-loops may still play a role in both APH-induced and spontaneous CNV formation. In sum, the studies in this dissertation reveal that transcription of unusually large genes plays a pivotal role in instability at CFSs/CNV hotspots during replication stress, but not via an R-loop-associated mechanism. Nonetheless, R-loops threaten genome instability and affect CNV formation outside of hotspots. Future studies are necessary to explore other transcription-replication conflict models at CFSs/CNV hotspots and further characterize R-loop induced CNVs.PHDHuman GeneticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147729/1/sohae_1.pd

EFFECTS OF HOLE TRANSPORTING LAYERS AND SURFACE LIGANDS ON INTERFACE ENERGETICS AND PHOTOVOLTAIC PERFORMANCE OF METHYLAMMONIUM LEAD IODIDE PEROVSKITES

Organic metal halide perovskites are promising materials for various optoelectronic device applications such as light emitting diodes (LED) and photovoltaic (PV) cells. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have shown dramatic increases in power conversion efficiency over the previous ten years, far exceeding the rate of improvement of all other PV technologies. PSCs have attracted significant attention due to their strong absorbance throughout the visible region, high charge carrier mobilities, color tunability, and ability to make ultralight weight devices. However, organic metal halide perovskites still face several challenges. For example, their environmental stability issue must be overcome to enable widespread commercialization. Meeting this challenge involves material and interface development and optimization throughout the whole PV device stack. Fundamental understanding of the optical properties, electrical properties, interfacial energetics, and device physics is key to overcome current challenges with PSCs. In this dissertation, we report a new family of triarylaminoethynyl silane molecules as hole transport layers (HTLs), which are in part used to investigate how the PV performance depends on the ionization energy (IE) of the HTL and provide a new and versatile HTL material platform. We find that triarylaminoethynyl silane HTLs show comparable PV performance to the state-of-the art HTLs and demonstrate that different processing conditions can influence the IE of methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3). Surface ligand treatment provides a promising approach to passivate defect states and improve the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), charge-carrier mobilities, material and device stability, and performance of PSCs. Numerous surface treatments have been applied to perovskite films and shown to passivate defect states and improve the PLQY and performance of PSCs, but it is not clear which surface ligands bind to the surface and to what extent. As surface ligands have the potential to passivate defect states, alter interface energetics, and manipulate material and device stability, it is important to understand how different functional groups interact with the surfaces of perovskite films. We investigate a series of ligand binding groups and systematically probe the stability of the bound surface ligands, how they influence energetics, PLQYs, film stability, and PV device performance. We further explore ligand penetration and whether surface ligands prefer to remain on the surface or penetrate into the perovskite. Three variations of tail groups including aryl groups with varying extents of fluorination, bulky groups of varying size, and linear alkyl groups of varying length are examined to probe ligand penetration and the impact on material stability

WSPÓŁISTNIENIE MUZYKI KLASYCZNEJ I TRADYCYJNEJ (GUGAK) W KULTURZE KOREAŃSKIEJ

Classical music and Korean traditional music ‘Gugak’ in Korean culture try various ways such as creating new music and culture through mutual interchange and fusion for coexistence. The purpose of this study is to investigate the present status of Classical music in Korea that has not been 200 years old during the flowering period and the Japanese colonial period, and the classification of Korean traditional music and musical instruments, and to examine the preservation and succession of traditional Gugak, new Korean traditional music and fusion Korean traditional music. Finally, it is exemplified that Gugak and Classical music can converge and coexist in various collaborations based on the institutional help of the nation. In conclusion, Classical music and Korean traditional music try to create synergy between them in Korean culture by making various efforts such as new attempts and conservation.Muzyka klasyczna oraz tradycyjna muzyka koreańska nazywana gugak tworzą nową muzykę i kulturę w drodze wymiany i połączenia. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest analiza obecnego statusu muzyki klasycznej w Korei (która w Korei zaczęła być zauważalna niecałe 200 lat temu) w okresie jej rozwoju oraz okresie okupacji japońskiej, klasyfikacja koreańskiej muzyki tradycyjnej z omówieniem instrumentów muzycznych jak i zachowanie i kultywowanie muzyki tradycyjnej, współczesnej muzyki tradycyjnej i muzyki typu fusion. Autorka podnosi, że muzyka klasyczna i tradycyjna muzyka koreańska mogą się przenikać i współistnieć w wielu projektach przy wsparciu instytucjonalnym ze strony państwa. Dzięki rozlicznym wysiłkom kultywowania i nowych wizji w tworzeniu synergii w kulturze koreańskiej, muzyka tradycyjna i klasyczna mogą tworzyć nowe pola do działania