1,426 research outputs found
Promoting Education for Sustainable Development with an Interactive Digital Learning Companion Students Use to Perform Collaborative Phosphorus Recovery Experiments and Reporting
Multitouch learning books (MLBs) are learning companions that support learning within a series, independent of the learning location. These MLBs can accompany an experiment itself or an entire learning process. In addition to providing interactive tasks, an all-in-one solution can provide pupils with additional information, supporting and differentiating aids, in-depth exercises, and collaborative tasks in one location. This Article presents an interactive learning companion that facilitates student learning through digital interaction while also developing concepts of sustainability in studentsâ minds. For this purpose, a learning scenario was developed that simulates a virtual learning company in an interactive e-book that corresponds to real experiments carried out in a laboratory. Using this interactive e-book, pupils receive e-mail messages from their âsupervisors,â give account to the âboard of directors,â and finally evaluate four real processes for phosphorus recovery. The entire series was qualitatively tested with 89 tenth-grade students. Assessment of these students found a significant increase in their use and understanding of digital tools and awareness of education for sustainable development concepts
The Effects of Diffuse Ionized Gas and Spatial Resolution on Metallicity Gradients: TYPHOON Two-Dimensional Spectrophotometry of M83
We present a systematic study of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) in M83 and its
effects on the measurement of metallicity gradients at varying resolution
scales. Using spectrophotometric data cubes of M83 obtained at the 2.5m duPont
telescope at Las Campanas Observatory as part of the TYPHOON program, we
separate the HII regions from the DIG using the [SII]/H ratio, HIIphot
(HII finding algorithm) and the H surface brightness. We find that the
contribution to the overall H luminosity is approximately equal for the
HII and DIG regions. The data is then rebinned to simulate low-resolution
observations at varying resolution scales from 41 pc up to 1005 pc. Metallicity
gradients are measured using five different metallicity diagnostics at each
resolution. We find that all metallicity diagnostics used are affected by the
inclusion of DIG to varying degrees. We discuss the reasons of why the
metallicity gradients are significantly affected by DIG using the HII dominance
and emission line ratio radial profiles. We find that applying the
[SII]/H cut will provide a closer estimate of the true metallicity
gradient up to a resolution of 1005 pc for all metallicity diagnostics used in
this study.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures + Appendix/Supplementary Material, accepted for
publication by MNRA
Starburst-AGN mixing: TYPHOON observations of NGC 1365, NGC 1068, and the effect of spatial resolution on the AGN fraction
We demonstrate a robust method of resolving the star-formation and AGN
contributions to emission lines using two very well known AGN systems: NGC
1365, and NGC 1068, using the high spatial resolution data from the
TYPHOON/PrISM survey. We expand the previous method of calculating the AGN
fraction by using theoretical-based model grids rather than empirical points.
The high spatial resolution of the TYPHOON/PrISM observations show evidence of
both star formation and AGN activity occurring in the nuclei of the two
galaxies. We rebin the data to the lower resolutions, typically found in other
integral field spectroscopy surveys such as SAMI, MaNGA, and CALIFA. The
results show that when rebinned from the native resolution of TYPHOON (< 200
pc/pixel) to 1 kpc/pixel, the effects include a roughly 3 kpc increase in the
radius of measured AGN activity, and a factor of 2 to 7 increase in the
detection of low surface brightness features such as shocks. All of this
information is critical, because information on certain physical processes may
be lost at varying resolutions. We make recommendations for analysing data at
current IFU survey resolutions.Comment: 30 pages, 28 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA
Comparing the aesthetic experience of classicâromantic and contemporary classical music: An interview study (Online First)
Current models of aesthetic experience of music (AEM) have emerged in the recent years capitalizing on evidence from psychology and neuroscience research, thus modeling mainly cognitive and information processes in the brain. However, a large part of the empirical research on which these models are based is related to Western tonal music, while another style of Western music, namely, contemporary classical music (CCM), has been almost neglected. CCM is often dissonant and lacks a tonal hierarchical structure, as, for example, in serial musical pieces. The current study qualitatively explored aesthetic dimensions of a CCM experience by contrasting it to classicâromantic music (CM). To this end, 16 semi-structured interviews with experts of both CCM (nâ=â8) and CM (nâ=â8) were conducted. The interview guide consisted of questions relating to physiological, affective, and cognitive dimensions of music listening. We applied qualitative content analysis on the textual material and compared the emerging main and sub-themes between the groups. Our findings show that especially the categories of expectations, physiological and emotional responses, pleasurable aspects, and, lastly, existential relevance revealed striking differences which allow us to conclude that CM and CCM afford distinguishable types of AEM in listeners
Synthetic Mudscapes: Human Interventions in Deltaic Land Building
In order to defend infrastructure, economy, and settlement in Southeast Louisiana, we must construct new land to
mitigate increasing risk. Links between urban environments and economic drivers have constrained the dynamic delta
landscape for generations, now threatening to undermine the ecological fitness of the entire region. Static methods of
measuring, controlling, and valuing land fail in an environment that is constantly in flux; change and indeterminacy are
denied by traditional inhabitation.
Multiple land building practices reintroduce deltaic fluctuation and strategic deposition of fertile material to form the
foundations of a multi-layered defence strategy. Manufactured marshlands reduce exposure to storm surge further
inland. Virtual monitoring and communication networks inform design decisions and land use becomes determined
by its ecological health. Mudscapes at the threshold of land and water place new value on former wastelands. The
social, economic, and ecological evolution of the region are defended by an expanded web of growing land
Shallow-groundwater-level time series and a groundwater chemistry survey from a boreal headwater catchment, Krycklan, Sweden
Shallow groundwater can respond quickly to precipitation and is the main contributor to streamflow in most catchments in humid, temperate climates. Therefore, it is important to have high-spatiotemporal-resolution data on groundwater levels and groundwater chemistry to test spatially distributed hydrological models. However, currently, there are few datasets on groundwater levels with a high spatiotemporal resolution because of the large effort required to collect these data. To better understand shallow groundwater dynamics in a boreal headwater catchment, we installed a network of groundwater wells in two areas in the Krycklan catchment in northern Sweden for a small headwater catchment (3.5âha; 54 wells) and a hillslope (1âha; 21 wells). The average well depth was 274âcm (range of 70â581âcm). We recorded the groundwater-level variation at 10â30âmin intervals between 18 July 2018â1 November 2020. Manual water-level measurements (0â26 per well) during the summers of 2018 and 2019 were used to confirm and re-calibrate the automatic water-level measurements. The groundwater-level data for each well was carefully processed using six data quality labels. The absolute and relative positions of the wells were measured with a high-precision GPS and terrestrial laser scanner to determine differences in absolute groundwater levels and calculate groundwater gradients. During the summer of 2019, all wells with sufficient water were sampled once and analyzed for electrical conductivity, pH, absorbance, and anion and cation concentrations, as well as the stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen. The data are available at https://doi.org/10.5880/fidgeo.2022.020 (ErdbrĂŒgger et al., 2022). This combined hydrometric and hydrochemical dataset can be useful for testing models that simulate groundwater dynamics and evaluating metrics that describe subsurface hydrological connectivity.</p
NGC922 â a new drop-through ring galaxy
We have found the peculiar galaxy NGC 922 to be a new drop-through ring galaxy using multiwavelength (ultravioletâradio) imaging and spectroscopic observations. Its âCâ-shaped morphology and tidal plume indicate a recent strong interaction with its companion which was identified with these observations. Using numerical simulations we demonstrate that the main properties of the system can be generated by a high-speed off-axis drop-through collision of a small galaxy with a larger disc system, thus making NGC 922 one of the nearest known collisional ring galaxies. While these systems are rare in the local Universe, recent deep Hubble Space Telescope images suggest they were more common in the early Universe
Azimuthal variations of gas-phase oxygen abundance in NGC 2997
13 pages, 17 figures, accepted to A&A Reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics. © 2018 ESO.The azimuthal variation of the HII region oxygen abundance in spiral galaxies is a key observable for understanding how quickly oxygen produced by massive stars can be dispersed within the surrounding interstellar medium. Observational constraints on the prevalence and magnitude of such azimuthal variations remain rare in the literature. Here, we report the discovery of pronounced azimuthal variations of HII region oxygen abundance in NGC 2997, a spiral galaxy at approximately 11.3 Mpc. Using 3D spectroscopic data from the TYPHOON Program, we study the HII region oxygen abundance at a physical resolution of 125 pc. Individual HII regions or complexes are identified in the 3D optical data and their strong emission line fluxes measured to constrain their oxygen abundances. We find 0.06 dex azimuthal variations in the oxygen abundance on top of a radial abundance gradient that is comparable to those seen in other star-forming disks. At a given radial distance, the oxygen abundances are highest in the spiral arms and lower in the inter-arm regions, similar to what has been reported in NGC 1365 using similar observations. We discuss whether the azimuthal variations could be recovered when the galaxy is observed at worse physical resolutions and lower signal-to-noise ratios.Peer reviewe
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