Bringing Computational Thinking to STEM Education

AbstractToday, as advanced technologies and cloud computing tools emerge, it is imperative that such innovations are sustained with knowledge and skill set among STEM educators and practitioners. In this paper, the author reports on a project, HBCU-UP II, that works on bringing Computational Thinking to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. A Computational-Thinking based strategy is adopted to enforce thinking computationally in STEM gate-keeping courses. The paper presents framework, implementation and outcomes. This on-going project contributes to efforts to establish computational thinking as a universally applicable attitude that is meshed within STEM conversations, education, and curricula. This paper will be particularly useful for researchers interested in Computational Thinking and its applications in STEM education, in particular and higher education in genera

The marginal gap and internal fit of monolithic crowns milled with different luting spaces

Three of the more promising materials for CAD/CAM restorations are Zirconia (VITA Zahnfabrik, Germany), Enamic (VITA Zahnfabrik, Germany), and the composite material Brilliant Crios (Coltene, Switzerland). Zirconia has been tested for the marginal gap and internal fit; Enamic and Crios have not been tested for marginal gap and internal fit and no studies have tested the effect of different luting spaces. A standardised crown preparation on a typodont mandibular first molar tooth was scanned and imaged (CEREC CAD/CAM, Germany). The marginal gap was measured using a Reflex microscope in both two- and three-dimensions. The internal fit was calculated using the properties of the luting agent and the surface area of the preparation. The 3D measurements were significantly higher, but only on average 10µm higher. The marginal gaps of the crowns milled with a 200µm luting space were significantly smaller than for those milled with a 100µm luting space. The smallest mean gap was recorded by Enamic at 31.7µm followed by Crios at 32.5µm, and Zirconia at 33.1µm. All of these measurements are well within acceptable clinical limits. All crowns milled, regardless of the luting space used, provided excellent marginal and internal fit, well within clinically acceptable parameters. The 3D measurements are more clinically relevant than 2D measurements. The smallest marginal gaps were found in the crowns milled with a 200µm luting space. However, this can present problems with non-axial seating and so it may be advisable to use the 100µm luting space paramete

Developing an Instrument for Measuring Electronic Shopping Service Quality: E-SQUAL

In contrast to service quality in traditional facilities (e.g., stores, restaurants, clinics) that enjoyed an extensive research during the last 20 years and resulted in a solid base for service quality measurement and management, service quality that is delivered via the web, termed here electronic service quality, lacks maturity. The present study develops and validates an instrument for measuring electronic service quality of online shopping sites. Using two independent datasets, a conceptual framework of e-service quality is proposed and empirically tested. This research develops an E-SQUAL scale consisting of six dimensions: information quality, web usability, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and personalization. The developed scale demonstrates strong psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity. Conclusion, implications and limitations of the study are presented

Undergraduate Research Experience For STEM Students: Efforts And Outcomes

Undergraduate research for STEM students involves students who are attending college or universities pursuing a bachelor's degree, majoring in fields related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics(STEM).  Research experience for STEM undergraduates has been viewed as a positive experience that has several benefits such as developing intellectual mentality, enhancing teamwork skills and improving preparation for graduate study.  In this paper, we provide an overview of HBCU-UP research experience with STEM students at Philander Smith College for the last few years. Projects in Bioinformatics and Human-Computer Interaction of two Computer Science faculty and their teams are shared.  Efforts in implementing research experiences and outcomes of these efforts are discussed.&nbsp

Key Dimensions of E-commerce Service Quality and Its Relationships to Satisfaction and Loyalty

Evidence exists that one successful strategy to satisfy and retain customers is offering superior service quality. Motivated by the growing interest in e-commerce, we focus our research questions on identifying the key dimensions of e-commerce service quality and its relationships to customer satisfaction and loyalty. In exploring answers to our research questions a hypothesized model is proposed and empirically tested using a research survey with 370 online shoppers. Salient results include: (1) key dimensions of e-commerce service quality are website usability, information quality, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and personalization; (2) customer satisfaction is influenced mostly with the perception of reliability, while customer loyalty is affected by the perception of assurance; (3) customer retention is predicted by the customer satisfaction index. Results of the study contribute to the nascent body of research in e-service quality and offer unique insights for managers of online firms on how to manage the quality of their e-commerce e-service

The prevalence of <i>Rickettsia felis</i> DNA in fleas collected from cats and dogs in the UK

In a large-scale survey in the UK, recruited veterinary practices were asked to inspect client-ownedcats and dogs, selected at random between April and June 2018, following a standardised flea inspection protocol. A total of 326 veterinary practices participated and 812 cats and 662 dogs were examined during the 3-month period. Fleas were collected, identified to species level and fleas of the same species collected from a single animal were pooled together and treated as a single sample. A total of 470 pooled flea samples were screened by PCR and DNA sequence analysis for a subset of Rickettsia species including R. felis and R. typhi. On analysis, 27 (5.7%) of the pooled flea samples were positive for R. felis DNA; these were predominantly in the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis, but one dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis was also positive for this pathogen

Ticks infesting domestic dogs in the UK:a large-scale surveillance programme

Background: Recent changes in the distribution of tick vectors and the incidence of tick-borne disease, driven variously by factors such as climate change, habitat modification, increasing host abundance and the increased movement of people and animals, highlight the importance of ongoing, active surveillance. This paper documents the results of a large-scale survey of tick abundance on dogs presented to veterinary practices in the UK, using a participatory approach that allows relatively cost- and time-effective extensive data collection. Methods: Over a period of 16 weeks (April-July 2015), 1094 veterinary practices were recruited to monitor tick attachment to dogs and provided with a tick collection and submission protocol. Recruitment was encouraged through a national publicity and communication initiative. Participating practices were asked to select five dogs at random each week and undertake a thorough, standardized examination of each dog for ticks. The clinical history and any ticks were then sent to the investigators for identification. Results: A total of 12,000 and 96 dogs were examined and 6555 tick samples from infested dogs were received. Ixodes ricinus (Linnaeus) was identified on 5265 dogs (89 %), Ixodes hexagonus Leach on 577 (9.8 %) and Ixodes canisuga Johnston on 46 (0.8 %). Ten dogs had Dermacentor reticulatus (Fabricius), one had Dermacentor variabilis (Say), three had Haemaphysalis punctata Canesteini & Fanzago and 13 had Rhipicephalus sanguineus Latreille. 640 ticks were too damaged for identification. All the R. sanguineus and the single D. variabilis were on dogs with a recent history of travel outside the UK. The overall prevalence of tick attachment was 30 % (range 28-32 %). The relatively high prevalence recorded is likely to have been inflated by the method of participant recruitment. Conclusion: The data presented provide a comprehensive spatial understanding of tick distribution and species abundance in the UK against which future changes can be compared. Relative prevalence maps show the highest rates in Scotland and south west England providing a valuable guide to tick-bite risk in the UK

Note on the Non-CO2 Mitigation Potential of Hybrid-Electric Aircraft Using "Eco-Switch"

Non-CO2 effects, like ozone production and contrail cirrus formation, account for about 50-75% of aviation's climate impact, which can be effectively mitigated by re-routing flights around highly climate-sensitive areas, like ice-supersaturated regions (ISSRs). With electric drives forming no contrails and binding all life-cycle emissions to the ground, also hybrid-electric aircraft (HEA) offer the capability to mitigate non-CO2 effects by switching to full-electric mode while passing those areas. For investigating the eco-switch HEA mitigation potential, a cost-benefit assessment of eco-switch trajectories is performed for two weather situations and benchmarked against the mitigation potential of climate-optimized re-routings. We studied the impact of the HEA fuel flow and the cruising time in a full-electric operation and identified distinct weather-related differences. If the eco-switch concept is applied while passing ISSRs, we found a significant mitigation potential for all combinations of full-electric cruise times and HEA fuel flow levels. This strongly implies that the climate impact of flights dominated by contrail-cirrus is largely driven by the level of climate sensitivities along the trajectory, rather than by emission levels (aircraft design). If no ISSR is crossed, the climate impact is increasing with increasing HEA fuel flow, implying that the emission volume outweighs the local climate sensitivity

A validated methodology for the prediction of heating and cooling energy demand for buildings within the Urban Heat Island: Case-study of London

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Solar Energy. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.This paper describes a method for predicting air temperatures within the Urban Heat Island at discreet locations based on input data from one meteorological station for the time the prediction is required and historic measured air temperatures within the city. It uses London as a case-study to describe the method and its applications. The prediction model is based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) modelling and it is termed the London Site Specific Air Temperature (LSSAT) predictor. The temporal and spatial validity of the model was tested using data measured 8 years later from the original dataset; it was found that site specific hourly air temperature prediction provides acceptable accuracy and improves considerably for average monthly values. It thus is a very reliable tool for use as part of the process of predicting heating and cooling loads for urban buildings. This is illustrated by the computation of Heating Degree Days (HDD) and Cooling Degree Hours (CDH) for a West–East Transect within London. The described method could be used for any city for which historic hourly air temperatures are available for a number of locations; for example air pollution measuring sites, common in many cities, typically measure air temperature on an hourly basis.EPSR