Kohlberg and Fowler: Two Models for Considering the Moral Progress of College Students

Fostering moral development has been an important goal of American higher education throughout its history. This goal has become especially prominent in light of recent developments related to crime, ethical indifference and deteriorating social structures. This topic is of particular relevance to faith-based institutions as the fostering of moral development is vitally related to their collective mission and purposes. The literature of moral development contains a number of prominent and plausible theoretical approaches. However, two of the most prominent and highly developed are, Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral judgment development and James Fowler’s theory of faith development. Each of these approaches characterizes moral development in distinct ways. In keeping with the uniqueness of these approaches, each model yields distinctive insights and conceptual strengths. Specifically this review attempts to identify the major conceptual elements of each theoretical perspective in order to consider the implications of using either as a basis for future research initiatives. Additional consideration is given to available methods of assessment and the theoretical fit of the two models with the specific interests of faith-based colleges. Finally, this review explores implications for future research and emerging research questions

Development of an excitation and reception system for primate imaging on a 7 Tesla ultra-high field human whole-body MRI system

Die Ultrahochfeld-Magnetresonanztomographie (MRT) stellt neuartige technische Anforderungen, vor allem an die Anregung und Detektion. Neben den in den letzten Jahren entwickelten Mehrkanal-Spulen wurde ein weiteres interessantes Prinzip entwickelt, das die Abschirmung des Gradientensystems (RF-Shield) als Wellenleiter für die Anregung nutzt. Das Hauptziel dieser Arbeit war die Konstruktion und Evaluierung eines Anregungs- und Empfangssystems zur Prima- ten-Bildgebung, das vergleichbar einem entfernbaren Insert für ein Human-Ganzkörper 7 Tesla Ultrahochfeld (UHF) Magnetresonanztomographie-System (nachfolgend 7 T MRT-System genannt) entwickelt werden sollte. Wichtige Anforderungen an das Anregungs- und Empfangssystem waren ein hohes Signal-Rausch-Verhältnis (SNR) und eine hohe Homogenität des eingestrahlten B1+-Feldes, das als Teil des B1-Feldes der Anregung dient. Insbesondere die funktionelle MRT (fMRT) benötigt für ihre Untersuchungen MR-HF-Spulen, welche bei der visuellen und auditorischen Stimulation für den hier anzuwendenden experimentellen Aufbau ausreichende Flexibilität bieten. Bei Systemen mit tieferen Feldern (1,5 T und 3 T) wird eine homogene B1+-Feldanregung in der Regel über Ganzkörper-Resonatoren erzeugt. Bei 7 T MRT-Systemen fehlen diese Ganzkörper-Resonatoren, da die Standard Birdcage-Ganzkörper-Resonatorarchitektur nur bedingt bei einer Systemfrequenz von 297,2 MHz einsetzbar ist. In dieser Arbeit wurde die Anwendung des Travelling-Wave (TW) Verfahrens als neuartiges Anregungssystem für ein 7 T MRT-System (Siemens) zur Primaten-Bildgebung untersucht. Das hierfür entwickelte Gesamt- konzept wird als Travelling-Wave Primatensystem bezeichnet. Das TW-Primatensystem benutzt das RF-Shield des Gradienten-Systems als Hohlwellenleiter, in welchem sich der TE11-Mode ausbreiten kann. Unter Verwendung von Feldsimulationssoftware wurde eine für das 7 T MRT- System angepasste 2-Port Patchantenne (Systemfrequenz 297,2 MHz) entwickelt, die ein zirkular polarisiertes B1-Feld generiert. Für den Empfang wurde eine 3-Elemente Phased-Array-Primatenkopfspule speziell für die Hirn-Bildgebung bei Makaken konstruiert, die eine auditorische Stimulation zulässt und ein hohes SNR gewährleistet. Um die Homogenität des erzeugten B1+-Feldes für einen größeren Bereich mit der entwickelten Patchantenne zu untersuchen und mit einer Birdcagearchitektur zu vergleichen, wurde zusätzlich eine 8-Elemente Phased-Array-Empfangsspule konstruiert. Eine Vergleichsmessung des generierten B1+-Feldes wurde unter Verwendung einer FLASH (Fast Low Angle Shot)-basierten B1+-Flipwinkelmap Sequenz mit einem Silikonöl-Kugelphantom als Beladung durchgeführt. Es konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass die Homogenität für Volumina bis ca. 10 cm Durchmesser vergleichbar ist zur Birdcagearchitektur. Zur Validierung des TW-Primatensystems wurden mehrere in vivo Messungen mit Makaken durchgeführt, wobei Turbo-Spin-Echo (TSE) und Echoplanar (EPI) Sequenzen verwendet wurden, um anatomische Datensätze mit hohem Kontrast und hoher nomineller Auflösung 0,46x0,46x0,5 mm3 (TSE) bzw. 0,64x0,58x0,2 mm3 (EPI) zu akquirieren. Hierdurch wurde erfolgreich die prinzipielle Anwendbarkeit von fMRT Messungen mit dem entwickelten TW-Primatensystem evaluiert. Damit bildet das TW-Primatensystem die weltweit erste Applikation für Makaken Messungen mit guten räumlichen Stimulationsmöglichkeiten an einem 7 T Human-Ganzkörper MRT-System.Ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imposes novel technical requirements, especially for excitation and detection. In addition to the developing multi-channel RF coils in recent years, another interesting concept was developed that uses the RF shield of the gradient system as a waveguide for excitation. The main objective of this work was the design and evaluation of an excitation and receiver system for primate imaging, comparable to a removable insert for a human whole-body 7 Tesla ultra-high field (UHF) MRI system (7 T MRI system). Important requirements for this excitation and reception system were a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and a high homogeneity of the irradiated B1+ field which serves for the excitation as a part of the B1 field. Especially functional MRI (fMRI) needs RF coils which provide sufficient flexibility for visual and auditory stimulation within the experimental setting. For systems with lower fields (1.5 T and 3 T) the homogeneous B1+ field excitation is usually provided by whole-body resonators. At 7 T whole-body MRI systems, these resonators are not available because the standard birdcage architecture is only limited usable at system frequency of 297.2 MHz. In this work the application of the traveling-wave (TW) approach as a novel excitation system for a 7 T MRI system (Siemens) was studied for primate imaging. The developed overall concept is called Traveling-Wave-Primate-System. The TW-Primate-System uses the RF shield of the gradient system as a waveguide in which the TE11-mode can propagate. A 2-port patch antenna (system frequency 297.2 MHz) which generates a circularly polarized B1 field was designed for the 7 T MRI system using field simulation software. For receive a 3-element phased array primate head coil primates was specifically designed for brain imaging of macaques which allowed an auditory stimulation and ensured a high SNR. To study the homogeneity of the B1+ field generated by the developed patch antenna for a larger range and comparing it with Birdcage architecture, an 8-element phased array receiving coil was additionally designed. A comparative measurement of the generated B1+ field was performed using a FLASH (fast low angle shot)-based B1+ flip angle map sequence with a silicone oil spherical phantom as a load. It was shown that the homogeneity for volumes up to approx. 10 cm diameter is comparable to the Birdcage architecture. To validate the TW-Primate-System, several in vivo measurements with macaques were performed. Turbo Spin Echo (TSE) and Echo Planar (EPI) sequences were used to acquire anatomical data with high contrast and high nominal resolution of 0.46x0.46x0.5 mm3 (TSE) respectively 0.64x0.58x0.2 mm3 (EPI). These results prove the feasibility of fMRI measurements was successfully evaluated for the developed TW-Primate-System. Thus, the TW-Primate-System is the world's first application of macaques measurements with good spatial stimulation options at a 7 T human whole-body MRI system

On the Use of Neural Networks for Full Waveform Inversion

Neural networks have recently gained attention in solving inverse problems. One prominent methodology are Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) which can solve both forward and inverse problems. In the paper at hand, full waveform inversion is the considered inverse problem. The performance of PINNs is compared against classical adjoint optimization, focusing on three key aspects: the forward-solver, the neural network Ansatz for the inverse field, and the sensitivity computation for the gradient-based minimization. Starting from PINNs, each of these key aspects is adapted individually until the classical adjoint optimization emerges. It is shown that it is beneficial to use the neural network only for the discretization of the unknown material field, where the neural network produces reconstructions without oscillatory artifacts as typically encountered in classical full waveform inversion approaches. Due to this finding, a hybrid approach is proposed. It exploits both the efficient gradient computation with the continuous adjoint method as well as the neural network Ansatz for the unknown material field. This new hybrid approach outperforms Physics-Informed Neural Networks and the classical adjoint optimization in settings of two and three-dimensional examples

Listen to the customer: Model-driven database design

In modern IT landscapes, databases are subject to a major role change. Especially in Service-Oriented Architectures, databases are more and more frequently dedicated to a single application. Therefore, it is even more important to reflect the application requirements in their design. Software developers and application experts formulate application requirements in software models. Hence, we obviously need to bridge the gap to the software world and directly derive a database design from the software models used in application development and maintenance. We introduce this concept as model-driven database design. In this paper, we present the architecture principles of a model-driven database design tool and details on the enumeration and evaluation of logical database designs

Structurally constrained inversion by means of a Minimum Gradient Support regularizer: examples of FD-EMI data inversion constrained by GPR reflection data

Many geophysical inverse problems are known to be ill-posed and, thus, requiring some kind of regularization in order to provide a unique and stable solution. A possible approach to overcome the inversion ill-posedness consists in constraining the position of the model interfaces. For a grid-based parameterization, such a structurally-constrained inversion can be implemented by adopting the usual smooth regularization scheme in which the local weight of the regularization is reduced where an interface is expected. By doing so, sharp contrasts are promoted at interface locations while standard smoothness constraints keep affecting the other regions of the model. In this work, we present a structurally-constrained approach and test it on the inversion of frequency-domain electromagnetic induction (FD-EMI) data using a regularization approach based on the Minimum Gradient Support (MGS) stabilizer, which is capable to promote sharp transitions everywhere in the model, i.e., also in areas where no structural a priori information is available. Using 1D and 2D synthetic data examples, we compare the proposed approach to a structurally-constrained smooth inversion as well as to more standard (i.e., not structurally-constrained) smooth and sharp inversions. Our results demonstrate that the proposed approach helps in finding a better and more reliable reconstruction of the subsurface electrical conductivity distribution, including its structural characteristics. Furthermore, we demonstrate that it allows to promote sharp parameter variations in areas where no structural information are available. Lastly, we apply our structurally-constrained scheme to FD-EMI field data collected at a field site in Eastern Germany to image the thickness of peat deposits along two selected profiles. In this field example, we use collocated constant offset ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data to derive structural a priori information to constrain the inversion of the FD-EMI data. The results of this case study demonstrate the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed approach

Model-based process design under consideration of production performance for battery cell production: A coating and drying study

The production of lithium-ion battery cells is composed of heterogeneous processes, each defined by parameters that influence the properties of intermediate and final products. Due to these complex interdependencies, process variations also affect production performance. Against this background, this works proposes a process design concept that combines process and production-oriented models. The case study investigates different coating speeds and drying temperatures considering process quality criteria, throughput, machine utilisation, and total energy demand. The results show that process-specific changes affect unequally the entire process chain and highlight the importance of a comprehensive approach targeting quality and energy efficiency