Analyzing patterns of writing and sketching in the product design process

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2009."June 2009." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 23).Design notebooks, or logbooks, are typically used to record notes during the design process. These notes consist of text entries as well as sketches with varying levels of detail. Previous research on the design process has focused on sketches, including their effect on design outcome, differences based on prior sketching experience, and more. This paper looks at the interplay between text entries and sketches in design notebooks, and analyzes patterns that appear over the course of the design process. Data collected from eighteen logbooks from the class Design-a-palooza shows that trends exist between writings and drawings in the design process. The results of analysis of this data show that the number of sketches in a logbook increases following drawing instruction, and the design process typically starts with more text entries in logbooks, including customer needs research, followed by this increased number of sketches and then a decrease in all entries as prototyping occurs. The analysis was inconclusive in determining if students who write more ideas with text will sketch fewer ideas, as well as the relationship between partners' logbook entries. Recommendations for future research in these areas of design research are presented.by Rebecca A. Smith.S.B

Reefer Madness In Business: What\u27s the Library\u27s Potential Stash for the 420 Industry?

Lightning Talk about why business librarians will want to pay attention to the cannabis industry and a libguide of selected resources will be shared

Culturally Responsive Language Arts Teaching: Refiguring Curriculum with Counternarratives

This paper offers culturally responsive teaching methods for secondary English Language Arts educators to reform curriculum to honor and integrate counternarratives. We provide a sample Herstory unit plan framework for teachers to use as a model for revisioning curriculum to better meet the needs of all students. We offer examples of both traditional canonical and contemporary texts teachers can use to teach counternarratives

Chapter 03 - Find & Evaluate Information Sources at Western Libraries

Learn to identify and evaluate information sources that can support your research.https://cedar.wwu.edu/research_process/1007/thumbnail.jp

Differences in home food availability of high- and low-fat foods after a behavioral weight control program are regional not racial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few studies, if any, have examined the impact of a weight control program on the home food environment in a diverse sample of adults. Understanding and changing the availability of certain foods in the home and food storage practices may be important for creating healthier home food environments and supporting effective weight management.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Overweight adults (n = 90; 27% African American) enrolled in a 6-month behavioral weight loss program in Vermont and Arkansas. Participants were weighed and completed measures of household food availability and food storage practices at baseline and post-treatment. We examined baseline differences and changes in high-fat food availability, low-fat food availability and the storage of foods in easily visible locations, overall and by race (African American or white participants) and region (Arkansas or Vermont).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At post-treatment, the sample as a whole reported storing significantly fewer foods in visible locations around the house (-0.5 ± 2.3 foods), with no significant group differences. Both Arkansas African Americans (-1.8 ± 2.4 foods) and Arkansas white participants (-1.8 ± 2.6 foods) reported significantly greater reductions in the mean number of high-fat food items available in their homes post-treatment compared to Vermont white participants (-0.5 ± 1.3 foods), likely reflecting fewer high-fat foods reported in Vermont households at baseline. Arkansas African Americans lost significantly less weight (-3.6 ± 4.1 kg) than Vermont white participants (-8.3 ± 6.8 kg), while Arkansas white participants did not differ significantly from either group in weight loss (-6.2 ± 6.0 kg). However, home food environment changes were not associated with weight changes in this study.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Understanding the home food environment and how best to measure it may be useful for both obesity treatment and understanding patterns of obesity prevalence and health disparity.</p

The antibody loci of the domestic goat (Capra hircus)

The domestic goat (Capra hircus) is an important ruminant species both as a source of antibody-based reagents for research and biomedical applications and as an economically important animal for agriculture, particularly for developing nations that maintain most of the global goat population. Characterization of the loci encoding the goat immune repertoire would be highly beneficial for both vaccine and immune reagent development. However, in goat and other species whose reference genomes were generated using short-read sequencing technologies, the immune loci are poorly assembled as a result of their repetitive nature. Our recent construction of a long-read goat genome assembly (ARS1) has facilitated characterization of all three antibody loci with high confidence and comparative analysis to cattle. We observed broad similarity of goat and cattle antibody-encoding loci but with notable differences that likely influence formation of the functional antibody repertoire. The goat heavy-chain locus is restricted to only four functional and nearly identical IGHV genes, in contrast to the ten observed in cattle. Repertoire analysis indicates that light-chain usage is more balanced in goats, with greater representation of kappa light chains (~ 20-30%) compared to that in cattle (~ 5%). The present study represents the first characterization of the goat antibody loci and will help inform future investigations of their antibody responses to disease and vaccination

Anatomy integration: Effective change or change of affect?

Anatomy is fundamental to clinical practice, and is key to professional identity formation. Many US medical schools are integrating anatomy into an organ–based preclinical curricula. This curricular change could affect one or more of the three domains of learning: cognitive, affective and psychomotor, including learner preparation to work in teams. Our previous study prospectively queried the effects of integrating anatomy into the existing organ-­based curriculum at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Results showed that students with integrated anatomy initially increased content acquisition, but had similar mastery of anatomical concepts at the end of the first year of the pre-­clinical curriculum. Interestingly, attitudinal differences towards anatomy dissection, working in teams, reflective practices and professional identity formation were seen between students in the two curricula. The current study set out to test the hypothesis that the differences in attitudes would persist as students progressed through the pre-­clinical curriculum. It also asked if additional changes in the affective domain could be detected that may impact content mastery and patient care

“Eat Yourself Full, Leave Your Plate Empty”: Or Why Student and Faculty Appetite for Data Is Like an Offensive Lineman at a Buffet

From an old postcard of Millers’s Smorgasbord (on the Lincoln Highway east of Lancaster, Pennsylvania) we see the sign that stands over the scrumptious buffet welcoming all patrons at the restaurant: “Eat Yourself Full, Leave Your Plate Empty.” The notion is simple, take what you can eat but do not waste food. But in many ways, the whole premise of a buffet is the ability to try, sample, nibble, and experiment with foods that you might not order otherwise order. And we all pay the same, even if we are a college football offensive lineman with a legendary appetite. It is this conundrum that leads us into problems between libraries and the database vendors. Librarians scramble to keep the balance between the students’ needs of getting and analyzing data with the vendors’ needs to keep the systems working and not to be overburdened with royalty payments to the publishers. Increasingly, we see faculty and students wanting to download more data, but vendors too quick to install restrictions out of intellectual property concerns. In this “Eat Yourself Full” database environment, our students and faculty want to download more and more to analyze and interpret on their own. The presenters will explore the issues of downloading caps and other obstacles at the business libraries of three large U.S. public universities (Illinois, Michigan, and UCLA). Among the topics discussed will be the topics that drive this research, the types of resources they wish to use, the impact of the limits imposed on the students and faculty, and the workarounds that connected the user to the data that they needed

Black Girl Glare: Uplifting and edifying your sister

The purpose of this proposal is to use original spoken word poetry to illustrate the challenges black women face with social support. The poetry will highlight the unspoken black girl glare that many women project onto each other largely due to internalized oppression and racism. The psychosocial manifestation of this internalization is low self-esteem, lack of awareness, and general insecurities. The presenters will use elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to assist participants with developing cognitive awareness, increasing their knowledge and skills to edify themselves and their sisters