Developing STEM Identity of Nez Perce Students: Identifying Entry-Level Competencies for Forestry and Fire Management

The purpose of this study was to identify the competencies that are required for entry-level forestry and fire management technicians. The strategy is a part of a larger goal to develop the STEM identity of Nez Perce students through the integration of relevant competencies in middle and high school curriculums. The DACUM process was used. Through this groupware process, nine experts from the Nez Perce Natural Resources produced a competency profile consisting of 12 duties and 79 tasks, along with general knowledge and skills, attitudes, tools, and future trends. Findings indicate that the experts view relevant cultural competencies as central to the function of the job and not as mere enablers. This has implications for how content is integrated, taught, and assessed in schools

Single and binary protein electroultrafiltration using poly(vinyl-alcohol)-carbon nanotube (PVA-CNT) composite membranes.

Electrically conductive composite ultrafiltration membranes composed of carbon nanotubes have exhibited efficient fouling inhibition in wastewater treatment applications. In the current study, poly(vinyl-alcohol)-carbon nanotube membranes were applied to fed batch crossflow electroultrafiltration of dilute (0.1 g/L of each species) single and binary protein solutions of α-lactalbumin and hen egg-white lysozyme at pH 7.4, 4 mM ionic strength, and 1 psi. Electroultrafiltration using the poly(vinyl-alcohol)-carbon nanotube composite membranes yielded temporary enhancements in sieving for single protein filtration and in selectivity for binary protein separation compared to ultrafiltration using the unmodified PS-35 membranes. Assessment of membrane fouling based on permeate flux, zeta potential measurements, and scanning electron microscopy visualization of the conditioned membranes indicated significant resulting protein adsorption and aggregation which limited the duration of improvement during electroultrafiltration with an applied cathodic potential of -4.6 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). These results imply that appropriate optimization of electroultrafiltration using carbon nanotube-deposited polymeric membranes may provide substantial short-term improvements in binary protein separations

An algorithm for computing the centered Hausdorff measure of self-similar sets

We provide an algorithm for computing the centered Hausdorff measure of self-similar sets satisfying the strong separation condition. We prove the convergence of the algorithm and test its utility on some examples

Network-Based Analysis of Early Pandemic Mitigation Strategies: Solutions, and Future Directions

Despite the large amount of literature on mitigation strategies for pandemic spread, in practice, we are still limited by na\ ive strategies, such as lockdowns, that are not effective in controlling the spread of the disease in long term. One major reason behind adopting basic strategies in real-world settings is that, in the early stages of a pandemic, we lack knowledge of the behavior of a disease, and so cannot tailor a more sophisticated response. In this study, we design different mitigation strategies for early stages of a pandemic and perform a comprehensive analysis among them. We then propose a novel community-based isolation method and show its efficacy in reducing the speed of the spread by a large margin as compared to current methods. We also show that the test-trace-isolation strategy can outperform lockdown and random test-trace in reducing the economic impact and spread of the disease if combined with k-hop neighborhood ranking. The novelty of our work lies in using network structural properties (local and global) to design a strategy for the early stages of a pandemic. Our results encourage further investigation into community-based mitigation strategies and shed more light on the differences between current methods of choice in practical setting

Contemporary Religious Education Model on the Challenge of Indonesian Multiculturalism

This paper discusses the issue of religious education in relation to the challenge of religious multiculturalism in Indonesia. The focus of this paper is to find out the kind of religious education that is compatible with the challenge of religious multiculturalism. By employing the concept of religious multiculturalism and theory of religious education, this paper argues that to face the challenge of religious multiculturalism it is necessary to change the model of religious education from within, at and beyond the wall. Religious education “in” the wall contributes to shape an exclusive model of religiosity; while religious education “at” and “beyond” the wall contributes to shape an inclusive multiculturalistic model of religiosity. The last two models are applicable in Indonesia in order to face the challenge of multiculturalism, because both of them help students to accept, respect, and value religious differences. Religious education should show that the common enemy of religion is not people of different faiths, but poverty, corruption, violence, ignorance, and the like, and they have to stand together to fight against these true enemies

Modeling of MZM-Based Photonic Link Power Budget

An accurate methodology for analyzing the Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) based optical link power budget is presented. It optimizes the transceiver’s system-level performance to meet the specifications of the optical links with N-level (N=2,4,8) pulse amplitude modulation format for high-speed signaling

Performance and Security Evaluations of Identity-and Pairing-based Digital Signature Algorithms on Windows, Android, and Linux Platforms: Revisiting the Algorithms of Cha and Cheon, Hess, Barreto, Libert, McCullagh and Quisquater, and Paterson and Schuldt

Bilinear pairing, an essential tool to construct-efficient digital signatures, has applications in mobile devices and other applications. One particular research challenge is to design cross-platform security protocols (e.g. Windows, Linux, and other popular mobile operating systems) while achieving an optimal security-performance tradeoff. That is, how to choose the right digital signature algorithm, for example, on mobile devices while considering the limitations on both computation capacity and battery life. In this paper, we examine the security-performance tradeoff of four popular digital signature algorithms, namely: CC (proposed by Cha and Cheon in 2003), Hess (proposed by Hess in 2002), BLMQ (proposed by Barreto et al. in 2005), and PS (proposed by Paterson and Schuldt in 2006), on various platforms. We empirically evaluate their performance using experiments on Windows, Android, and Linux platforms, and find that BLMQ algorithm has the highest computational efficiency and communication efficiency. We also study their security properties under the random oracle model and assuming the intractability of the CDH problem, we reveal that the BLMQ digital signature scheme satisfies the property of existential unforgeable on adaptively chosen message and ID attack. The efficiency of PS algorithm is lower, but it is secure under the standard model