Exploring Matrix Multiplication with Manipulatives

The study of matrix operations and applications is required for students planning to take advanced courses, such as calculus, advanced statistics, or discrete mathematics.  Furthermore, matrices appear on the ACT test and both SAT Mathematics Level 1 and Mathematics Level 2 subject tests.   The student-centered activity presented here utilizes hands-on manipulatives, an attentiveness to student learning styles, group collaborative work, and whole-class reflective discourse.  Finally, the activity engages students in several of the Standards for Mathematical Practice and helps students develop more robust meanings for matrix multiplication

From the Editors

Welcome to the latest edition of the Jefferson Interprofessional Education and Care Newsletter. In our past newsletter we described a meeting that took place February 2011 that previewed the core competencies presented by IPEC. We are pleased to announce that TJU has adopted four IPE core competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice, they are; Values/Ethics‐ Respect the unique cultures, values, roles/responsibilities and expertise of other health professionals; Roles/ Responsibilities‐ Explain the roles and responsibilities of other health/healthcare providers and how the team works together to provide care; Interprofessional Communication‐ Work to ensure common understanding of information, treatment, and health/healthcare decisions by listening actively, communicating effectively, encouraging ideas and opinions of other team members and expressing one’s knowledge and opinions with confidence clarity and respect; Team and Teamwork‐ Reflect on the attributes of highly functioning teams and demonstrate the responsibilities and practices of effective team member(s)

Daily energy expenditure and water turnover in two breeds of laying hens kept in floor housing

Acknowledgements The authors thank Gabriele Kirchhof, Silke Werner, Klaus Gerling and Karsten Knop from the Institute of Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut for technical help and Catherine Hambly from the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences of the University of Aberdeen for the isotope analysis. Financial support statement This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectionPeer reviewedPublisher PD

From the Editors

Welcome to the Fall 2013 edition of the Jefferson Interprofessional Education and Care newsletter. In this edition you will read about Collaborating Across Borders, IV, the largest IPE meeting to date, where the work of developing, integrating, and sustaining interprofessional education and collaborative practice was shared by over 700 participants. The clear message of CAB IV – interprofessional education is being recognized and adopted by health professions education programs in a way not seen before, but the work of clearly identifying optimum education strategies and documenting impact on patient care must be a high priority for all of us in the IPE community

From the Editors

Welcome to the latest edition of the JCIPE Interprofessional Education and Care Newsletter! Since our last edition, we have had some changes at JCIPE. First, founding Co-Director Dr. Molly Rose has begun a phased retirement and stepped down from her JCIPE position. Although parting is always bittersweet, we are thrilled that Molly is continuing to champion interprofessional education from her position in the Jefferson School of Nursing (JSN), and also still serving as chair of our Evaluation Workgroup. At the same time, transitions bring us the joy of new partners – and we are delighted to introduce Elizabeth Speakman, EdD, RN, CDE, ANEF as the new Co-Director of JCIPE. Liz has been a nurse educator for 27 years. She came to JSN in 2003. She has served as Assistant Dean of the RN-to-BSN program and most recently as Associate Dean for Student Affairs

Thyroid hormones correlate with resting metabolic rate, not daily energy expenditure, in two charadriiform seabirds

K. Woo, M. Le Vaillant, T. van Nus, and especially A. Wesphal, J. Schultner and I. Dorresteijn, assisted with field work, often under unpleasant conditions. K. Wauthier was instrumental in wrestling the gamma counter into submission. P. Redman and C. Hambly conducted the isotopic analyses. K. Scott and K. Campbell provided the FoxBox. K.H.E. benefited from a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Vanier Scholarship, Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies Garfield Weston Northern Studies Award and the Arctic Institute of North America Jennifer Robinson Scholarship. Research support came from Bird Studies Canada/Society of Canadian Ornithologists James Baillie Award, Animal Behavior Society Research Grant, American Ornithologists’ Union Research Grant, Frank Chapman Research Grant, the Waterbird Society Nisbet Grant and NSERC Discovery Grants to J.F.H. and W.G.A. Any use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Trapped in the darkness of the night: thermal and energetic constraints of daylight flight in bats

Bats are one of the most successful mammalian groups, even though their foraging activities are restricted to the hours of twilight and night-time. Some studies suggested that bats became nocturnal because of overheating when flying in daylight. This is because—in contrast to feathered wings of birds—dark and naked wing membranes of bats efficiently absorb short-wave solar radiation. We hypothesized that bats face elevated flight costs during daylight flights, since we expected them to alter wing-beat kinematics to reduce heat load by solar radiation. To test this assumption, we measured metabolic rate and body temperature during short flights in the tropical short-tailed fruit bat Carollia perspicillata at night and during the day. Core body temperature of flying bats differed by no more than 2°C between night and daytime flights, whereas mass-specific CO2 production rates were higher by 15 per cent during daytime. We conclude that increased flight costs only render diurnal bat flights profitable when the relative energy gain during daytime is high and risk of predation is low. Ancestral bats possibly have evolved dark-skinned wing membranes to reduce nocturnal predation, but a low degree of reflectance of wing membranes made them also prone to overheating and elevated energy costs during daylight flights. In consequence, bats may have become trapped in the darkness of the night once dark-skinned wing membranes had evolved

Autopia: An AI Collaborator for Live Coding Music Performances

Live coding is “the activity of writing (parts of) a program while it runs” (Ward et al., 2004). One significant application of live coding is in algorithmic music, where the performer modifies the code generating the music in a live context. Utopia is a software tool for collaborative live coding performances, allowing several performers (each with their own laptop producing its own sound) to communicate and share code during a performance. We have made an AI bot, Autopia, which can participate in such performances, communicating with human performers through Utopia. This form of human-AI collaboration allows us to explore the implications of computational creativity from the perspective of live coding