Fostering Emotional Engineers: Revisiting Constructive Thinking in Engineering Education

For the past decade, engineering education efforts at the postsecondary level have sought to create a more holistic type of critical thinker (Felder & Brent, 2015; Grasso & Burkins, 2010). As part of this initiative, engineers are encouraged to develop skills associated with constructive thinking—a pedagogical concept rooted in the belief that knowledge is constructed through continual interaction with peers and the environment (Anderson, 2013; Driscoll, 2005; Shayer, 2003). However, despite the positive ramifications linked with this pedagogical shift, studies have demonstrated that the increased use of collaborative aspects associated with constructivist teaching practices may be negatively impacting female students (Rosser, 2009; Tonso, 1996; Wolfe & Powell, 2009a, 2009b). Taking a primarily philosophical approach, the contribution of emotions to constructive thinking is explored utilizing Thayer-Bacon’s (2000) conceptualization of the concept to argue that the pedagogical shift within engineering has not fully incorporated a holistic approach to learning. The results of recent studies in engineering education are analyzed to highlight the negative consequences associated with overlooking emotions as contributors to constructive thinking primarily for female students in the field (Jones et al., 2013; Tonso, 1996, 2006; Wolfe & Powell, 2006). To conclude, the value of emotions for the engineering discipline is underscored by using work by Jaggar (1992, 1998) to explore its historical association with female thought and its overall impact on the construction of knowledge

UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF POWER IN INTERDISCIPLINARY, UNDERGRADUATE, STUDENT TEAMS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

This dissertation is a cultural studies project that aims to understand how power manifests and influences knowledge construction between students working in an undergraduate, interdisciplinary, collaborative learning environment. Power – which holds the potential to empower and/or silence students - is intrinsic in social interaction and therefore inherent in collaboration. Exploring how power influences new knowledge construction in undergraduate, collaborative learning environments has the potential to uncover what type of interactions are valued and integrated or marginalized and excluded as part of these communicative exchanges.The purpose of this dissertation is thus not only to improve student learning within collaborative contexts, but also to further the implications to teaching that could help advance interdisciplinary communication and new knowledge construction. To explore these dynamics, a two part analysis employing James Gee’s approach to critical discourse analysis was applied to archival data collected from an undergraduate interdisciplinary course entitled, Clinical Immersion at Disciplinary Interfaces (CIDI). This unique, interdisciplinary course required teams composed of chemical engineering and nursing students to develop a prototype of innovative technology that addressed real-world problems in the healthcare profession.The findings emphasize that the manifestation of power and its influence on knowledge construction was primarily accomplished via students’ association with a specific disciplinary cultural model. The affiliation to a specific disciplinary cultural model determined several of the ways in which students engaged within particular social contexts embedded within the CIDI course including: how they positioned themselves (as either insiders or outsiders within that space); their expectations regarding how they understood that space and made situated meanings; and ultimately, their perceived ability to contribute within that space based on their fluency of the associated social language or Discourses. Utilizing a cultural studies lens, scholarship from this field of study is integrated to emphasize how manifestations of power impacted the context of the CIDI course in three ways: through space, language, and disciplinary beliefs. Five pedagogical implications are underscored as part of the concluding remarks

As mulheres à margem do direito medieval - transgressoras, infratoras e pecadoras

Com a presente Dissertação procurámos compreender que mulheres eram marginalizadas pelo Direito na Idade Média tardia portuguesa, e o porquê dessa marginalização. Para o efeito, procurámos aferir o padrão do feminino enquanto construção cultural e social medieva - a mulher honrada - no seu cotejo com a transgressora, segundo as categorias definidas pelo Direito. Quisemos, assim, determinar os comportamentos femininos passíveis de desvalor jurídico e de acarretarem uma punição pela transgressão. Sob o ponto de vista metodológico, a tipologia das infrações baseou-se no levantamento das diferentes fontes jurídico-documentais, com especial enfoque nos séculos XIV e XV, mormente nas Ordenações do Senhor Rey D. Affonso V, nas Ordenações d'el Rei D. Duarte e no Livro das Leis e Posturas, alicerçada em bibliografia especializada; Women at the margins of medieval law - transgressors, offenders and sinners Abstract With this Dissertation, we sought to understand which women were marginalized by Law in the late Portuguese Middle Ages, and the justification for this marginalization. For this purpose, we pursued to assess the feminine standard as a cultural and social construction - the honorable woman - when compared with the transgressor, according to the categories defined by Law. Thus, we sought to ascertain the feminine behaviors subject to legal devaluation and punishment for transgression. From the methodological point of view, the typology of the infractions was based on a survey of the different legal documentation sources, with special focus on the 14th and 15th centuries, notably the Ordenações do Senhor Rey D. Affonso V, the Ordenações d'el Rei D. Duarte and the Livro das Leis e Posturas, supported by specialized bibliography

Automated calibration of the EPA-SWMM model for a small suburban catchment using PEST: a case study

Rainfall-runoff models must be calibrated and validated before they can be used for urban stormwater management. Manual calibration is very difficult and time-consuming due to the large number of model parameters that must be estimated concurrently. Automatic calibration offers as a promising alternative, ideally supporting a user-independent and time-efficient approach to model parameters estimation. In this article, we test the use of a state-of-the-art standard package (PEST, Parameter ESTimation, http://www.pesthomepage.org/) for the automatic calibration of a rainfall-runoff EPA-SWMM (Storm Water Management Model) model developed for a small suburban catchment. Results reported in the paper demonstrate that the performance of automatically calibrated models still depends on a number of user-dependent choices (the level of catchment discretization, the selection of significant parameters, the optimization techniques adopted). Through a systematic analysis of the results, we try to identify the guidelines for the effective use of automatic calibration procedures based on modeling assumptions and target of the analysis

Hyperglycemia Aggravates Diet-Induced Coronary Artery Disease and Myocardial Infarction in SR-B1-Knockout/ApoE-Hypomorphic Mice

Diabetes is a risk factor for development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Animal model studies in mice revealed that hyperglycemia increases development of atherosclerosis in the aorta as well as myocardial fibrosis in surgical models of coronary artery ligation; however, the impact of hyperglycemia on coronary artery atherosclerosis and subsequent heart disease is less clear. To investigate the effect of hyperglycemia on atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, we used a mouse model of diet-induced coronary artery atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction, the high fat/high cholesterol (HFC) diet fed SR-B1 knockout (KO)/apoE-hypomorphic (HypoE) mouse. Hyperglycemia was induced in these mice by streptozotocin (STZ) treatment. This increased HFC diet-dependent atherosclerosis development (p = 0.02) and necrotic core formation (p = 0.0008) in atherosclerotic plaques in the aortic sinus but did not increase the extent of atherosclerosis in coronary arteries. However, it did increase the extent of platelet accumulation in atherosclerotic coronary arteries (p = 0.017). This was accompanied by increased myocardial fibrosis (p = 0.005) and reduced survival (p = 0.01) compared to control-treated, normoglycemic mice. These results demonstrate that STZ-treatment exerted differential effects on the level of atherosclerosis in the aortic sinus and coronary arteries. These results also suggest that SR-B1-KO/HypoE mice may be a useful non-surgical model of diabetic cardiomyopathy in the context of coronary artery atherothrombosis

Follicular fluid high density lipoprotein-associated micronutrient levels are associated with embryo fragmentation during IVF

To investigate whether follicular fluid lipid-soluble micronutrients are associated with embryo morphology parameters during IVF. Follicle fluid and oocytes were obtained prospectively from 81 women. Embryo morphology parameters were used as surrogate markers of oocyte health. HDL lipids and lipid-soluble micronutrients were analyzed by high-pressure liquid chromatography. Non-parametric bi-variate analysis and multivariable ordinal logistic regression models were employed to examine associations between biochemical and embryo morphology parameters. Follicular fluid HDL cholesterol (r = −0.47, p < 0.01), α-tocopherol (r = −0.41, p < 0.01), δ-tocopherol (r = −0.38, p < 0.05) and β-cryptoxanthine (r = −0.42, p < 0.01) are negatively correlated with embryo fragmentation. Ordinal logistic regression models indicate that a 0.1 μmol/L increase in β-cryptoxanthine, adjusted for γ-tocopherol, is associated with a 75% decrease in the cumulative odds of higher embryo fragmentation (p = 0.010). Follicular fluid HDL micronutrients may play an important role in the development of the human oocyte as evident by embryo fragmentation during IVF

Biomarkers of coagulation, endothelial function, and fibrinolysis in critically ill patients with COVID-19: A single-center prospective longitudinal study

Background: Immunothrombosis and coagulopathy in the lung microvasculature may lead to lung injury and disease progression in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aim to identify biomarkers of coagulation, endothelial function, and fibrinolysis that are associated with disease severity and may have prognostic potential. Methods: We performed a single-center prospective study of 14 adult COVID-19(+) intensive care unit patients who were age- and sex-matched to 14 COVID-19(−) intensive care unit patients, and healthy controls. Daily blood draws, clinical data, and patient characteristics were collected. Baseline values for 10 biomarkers of interest were compared between the three groups, and visualized using Fisher\u27s linear discriminant function. Linear repeated-measures mixed models were used to screen biomarkers for associations with mortality. Selected biomarkers were further explored and entered into an unsupervised longitudinal clustering machine learning algorithm to identify trends and targets that may be used for future predictive modelling efforts. Results: Elevated D-dimer was the strongest contributor in distinguishing COVID-19 status; however, D-dimer was not associated with survival. Variable selection identified clot lysis time, and antigen levels of soluble thrombomodulin (sTM), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), and plasminogen as biomarkers associated with death. Longitudinal multivariate k-means clustering on these biomarkers alone identified two clusters of COVID-19(+) patients: low (30%) and high (100%) mortality groups. Biomarker trajectories that characterized the high mortality cluster were higher clot lysis times (inhibited fibrinolysis), higher sTM and PAI-1 levels, and lower plasminogen levels. Conclusions: Longitudinal trajectories of clot lysis time, sTM, PAI-1, and plasminogen may have predictive ability for mortality in COVID-19