Changes in the Frequency of Extreme Warm-Season Surface Dewpoints in Northeastern Illinois: Implications for Cooling-System Design and Operation

Warm-season (1 May–30 September) hourly dewpoint data were examined for temporal changes at two weather stations in northeastern Illinois during a 42-yr period (1959–2000). This area has dense population (greater than 8 million), and shifts to more or less atmospheric moisture have major implications on cooling demands. The 42-yr period was analyzed as two separate arbitrarily chosen equally sized periods, the early (1959–79) and the later (1980–2000) periods. Analyses of data from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and the Greater Rockford Airport showed a statistically significant increase in the number of hours with dewpoints greater than or equal to 248C (an important cooling-plant threshold) in the latter period. Examination of heat-wave periods indicated that later (especially 1995 and after) heat waves contained many more extreme dewpoint values. These increases in extreme dewpoint characteristics in northeastern Illinois affect the operation of, and suggest shifts in design criteria for, air-conditioning systems and affect summer peak electrical loads

Application of a Theory-Driven Approach to Detect Cognitively Disengaged Test-Taker Behavior

Bottom-up, data-driven response filtering methods that exclude unrealistically fast responses from calculating test scores have been successfully applied to improve test validity. We introduce a top-down, theory-driven method to detect cognitively disengaged behavior, compare it with a data-driven method using data from a nationally representative reading assessment, and discuss its potential and limitations

Source Expertise and Question Type Effects in Conversation-Based Assessment

Conversational discourse is a cognitive and social process influenced by both discourse content and pragmaticfactors, such as the participants’ prior knowledge; these factors may also affect how simulated conversations with virtual agentsunfold, with implications for design. This study explored effects of question content and perceived expertise of a virtual agenton students’ interactions with a conversation-based assessment (CBA) measuring science inquiry skills. Twenty-four middleschool students were randomly assigned to work with a High- or Low-Knowledge virtual peer to collect data and generateweather predictions. Students evaluated their own data relative to the peer’s; they could either ”Choose” which note to keep, orto ”Agree/Disagree” with the peer’s suggested choice of note. Students rated the peer as more expert in the High-Knowledgecondition, but peer expertise did not affect performance. However, the Agree/Disagree condition improved students’ accuracyin their note choice, and yielded marginally higher pre-post learning gains

Caring assessments: challenges and opportunities

Caring assessments is an assessment design framework that considers the learner as a whole and can be used to design assessment opportunities that learners find engaging and appropriate for demonstrating what they know and can do. This framework considers learners’ cognitive, meta-cognitive, intra-and inter-personal skills, aspects of the learning context, and cultural and linguistic backgrounds as ways to adapt assessments. Extending previous work on intelligent tutoring systems that “care” from the field of artificial intelligence in education (AIEd), this framework can inform research and development of personalized and socioculturally responsive assessments that support students’ needs. In this article, we (a) describe the caring assessment framework and its unique contributions to the field, (b) summarize current and emerging research on caring assessments related to students’ emotions, individual differences, and cultural contexts, and (c) discuss challenges and opportunities for future research on caring assessments in the service of developing and implementing personalized and socioculturally responsive interactive digital assessments

Survey of serum vitamin D status across stages of swine production and evaluation of supplemental bulk vitamin D premixes used in swine diets

The objectives of this investigation were to evaluate the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations in pigs of different age groups, to determine if 25(OH)D concentrations varied with season, and to assess the quality of vitamin D supplements used in swine diets from multiple commercial suppliers. Serum samples (n = 1200) submitted to a diagnostic laboratory for routine surveillance were assayed for serum 25(OH)D concentrations. Vitamin D premix samples were obtained from suppliers and analyzed at two laboratories over a 9-month period. In all age categories, 25(OH)D concentrations in numerous serum samples were lower than reference values. In the nursery, finisher, and boar age categories, there was a difference between the months of January and June (P \u3c .05), with June samples containing higher quantities of circulating 25(OH)D. Serum samples from outdoor herds had higher 25(OH)D concentrations than samples from confined pigs (P \u3c .01). Among the supplement samples evaluated, no individual supplement had a concentration of 25(OH)D significantly lower than 500,000 IU per g. These results revealed that commercial swine may be deficient in serum vitamin D at varying times of the year, and feed-supplement concentrations may vary

Morphological and Pathological Evolution of the Brain Microcirculation in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

Key pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), including amyloid plaques, cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and neurofibrillary tangles do not completely account for cognitive impairment, therefore other factors such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular pathologies, may contribute to AD. In order to elucidate the microvascular changes that contribute to aging and disease, direct neuropathological staining and immunohistochemistry, were used to quantify the structural integrity of the microvasculature and its innervation in three oldest-old cohorts: 1) nonagenarians with AD and a high amyloid plaque load; 2) nonagenarians with no dementia and a high amyloid plaque load; 3) nonagenarians without dementia or amyloid plaques. In addition, a non-demented (ND) group (average age 71 years) with no amyloid plaques was included for comparison. While gray matter thickness and overall brain mass were reduced in AD compared to ND control groups, overall capillary density was not different. However, degenerated string capillaries were elevated in AD, potentially suggesting greater microvascular “dysfunction” compared to ND groups. Intriguingly, apolipoprotein ε4 carriers had significantly higher string vessel counts relative to non-ε4 carriers. Taken together, these data suggest a concomitant loss of functional capillaries and brain volume in AD subjects. We also demonstrated a trend of decreasing vesicular acetylcholine transporter staining, a marker of cortical cholinergic afferents that contribute to arteriolar vasoregulation, in AD compared to ND control groups, suggesting impaired control of vasodilation in AD subjects. In addition, tyrosine hydroxylase, a marker of noradrenergic vascular innervation, was reduced which may also contribute to a loss of control of vasoconstriction. The data highlight the importance of the brain microcirculation in the pathogenesis and evolution of AD

Matter manipulation with extreme terahertz light: Progress in the enabling THz technology

Terahertz (THz) light has proven to be a fine tool to probe and control quasi-particles and collective excitations in solids, to drive phase transitions and associated changes in material properties, and to study rotations and vibrations in molecular systems. In contrast to visible light, which usually carries excessive photon energy for collective excitations in condensed matter systems, THz light allows for direct coupling to low-energy (meV scale) excitations of interest, The development of light sources of strong-field few-cycle THz pulses in the 2000s opened the door to controlled manipulation of reactions and processes. Such THz pulses can drive new dynamic states of matter, in which materials exhibit properties entirely different from that of the equilibrium. In this review, we first systematically analyze known studies on matter manipulation with strong-field few-cycle THz light and outline some anticipated new results. We focus on how properties of materials can be manipulated by driving the dynamics of different excitations and how molecules and particles can be controlled in useful ways by extreme THz light. Around 200 studies are examined, most of which were done during the last five years. Secondly, we discuss available and proposed sources of strong-field few-cycle THz pulses and their state-of-the-art operation parameters. Finally, we review current approaches to guiding, focusing, reshaping and diagnostics of THz pulses. (C) 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V

Combining cognitive theory and data driven approaches to examine students’ search behaviors in simulated digital environments

Abstract Background Digital Information Literacy (DIL) refers to the ability to obtain, understand, evaluate, and use information in digital contexts. To accurately capture various dimensions of DIL, assessment designers have increasingly looked toward complex, interactive simulation-based environments that afford more authentic learner performances. These rich assessment environments can capture process data produced by students’ goal driven interactions with digital sources but linking this data to inferences about the target constructs introduces significant measurement challenges which cognitive theory can help us address. Methods In this paper, we analyzed data generated from a simulated web search tool embedded within a theoretically-grounded virtual world assessment of multiple-source inquiry skills. We describe a multi-step clustering approach to identify patterns in student’s search processes by bringing together theory-informed process data indicators and sequence clustering methods. Results We identified four distinct search behaviors captured in students’ process data. We found that these search behaviors differed both in their contribution to the web search tool subscores as well as correlations with task level multiple-source inquiry subconstructs such as locating, evaluating, and synthesizing information. We argue that the search behaviors reflect differences in how students generate and update their task goals. Conclusion The data-driven approach we describe affords a qualitative understanding of student strategy use in a complex, dynamic simulation- and scenario-based environment. We discuss some of the strengths and challenges of using a theoretical understanding of multiple-source inquiry to inform how we processed, analyzed, and interpreted the data produced from this assessment tool and the implications of this approach for future research and development