Analytical treatment of ice sublimation and test of sublimation parameterisations in two–moment ice microphysics models

We derive an analytic solution to the spectral growth/sublimation equation for ice crystals and apply it to idealised cases. The results are used to test parameterisations of the ice sublimation process in two–moment bulk microphysics models. Although it turns out that the relation between number loss fraction and mass loss fraction is not a function since it is not unique, it seems that a functional parameterisation is the best that one can do in a bulk model. Testing a more realistic case with humidity oscillations shows that artificial crystal loss can occur in simulations of mature cirrus clouds with relative humidity fluctuating about ice saturation

Confusing Clarity: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act After \u3cem\u3eYoung v. UPS, Inc.\u3c/em\u3e

On March 25, 2015, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Young v. UPS, Inc.—the most recent case in the Court’s pregnancy discrimination jurisprudence. Young focused on an interpretation of one clause of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) and how that interpretation would shape claims of employment discrimination by pregnant employees seeking work accommodations. This Comment argues that the majority opinion in Young did not clarify, but only muddied the waters: the Young framework presents challenges for the lower courts tasked with applying the framework and creates uncertainty for future pregnancy discrimination litigation. Part I of this Comment provides background on the PDA and describes the Court’s approach to pregnancy discrimination prior to Young. Part II summarizes the facts and procedural history of the case, and Part III explains the majority opinion by Justice Breyer. Part IV analyzes three main weaknesses in the majority’s argument: (i) the uncertainty and problems resulting from the Court’s new framework, (ii) the uncertainty surrounding how to handle Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, and (iii) the confusion that will result from the Court’s failure to address new statutory changes. Part IV then concedes the major strengths of the Court’s argument: (i) consistency with respect to “most-favored-nation” status for employee accommodations, and (ii) the Court’s clear application of rules of statutory interpretation

Confusing Clarity: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act After \u3cem\u3eYoung v. UPS, Inc.\u3c/em\u3e

On March 25, 2015, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Young v. UPS, Inc.—the most recent case in the Court’s pregnancy discrimination jurisprudence. Young focused on an interpretation of one clause of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) and how that interpretation would shape claims of employment discrimination by pregnant employees seeking work accommodations. This Comment argues that the majority opinion in Young did not clarify, but only muddied the waters: the Young framework presents challenges for the lower courts tasked with applying the framework and creates uncertainty for future pregnancy discrimination litigation. Part I of this Comment provides background on the PDA and describes the Court’s approach to pregnancy discrimination prior to Young. Part II summarizes the facts and procedural history of the case, and Part III explains the majority opinion by Justice Breyer. Part IV analyzes three main weaknesses in the majority’s argument: (i) the uncertainty and problems resulting from the Court’s new framework, (ii) the uncertainty surrounding how to handle Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, and (iii) the confusion that will result from the Court’s failure to address new statutory changes. Part IV then concedes the major strengths of the Court’s argument: (i) consistency with respect to “most-favored-nation” status for employee accommodations, and (ii) the Court’s clear application of rules of statutory interpretation

Shifting Sands: The Art of Ecological Place-Based Education

Ecological place-based education is defined by the inextricable overlap of the places where society, politics, culture, and the environment meet in intricate and interdependent ways. It encompasses the development of the skills, knowledge, understanding, and characteristics that we need to live well on this earth and with one another. This research observed and evaluated the experiences, expectations, and practices of three traditionally minded teachers and the participant-researcher as they encountered and implemented ecological place-based education for the first time, in a new school. I used the methodology of educational criticism and connoisseurship, and I applied an ecological aesthetic framework to the analysis and interpretation. This study explored the experience of creating an ecological school and focused on the art and craft of the educators through an ecological aesthetic lens and Eisner’s school ecology. Of particular interest were the participants’ intentions and expectations in their roles, as well as how they were or were not realized within their teaching practice. Participants’ intentions illuminated themes of hopeful vision, holistic learning, and responsive action; imaginative diligence, open-hearted connection, and deliberate spontaneity emerged as expressions of teaching artistry in action. The import of using magical realism within educational criticism was also examined with a focus on improving education. The implication could influence teacher preparation and professional development programs. In particular, the findings suggest a need to meet teachers where they are with regards to developing educators’ knowledge of place, ecological mindedness and understanding, and celebrating their personal professional growth, no matter how small. Additionally, recommendations are offered with regards to institutional and educational design to support ecological place-based education across the curriculum

Generalization of Social Skills Learned via Video-Modeling in Children with ASD

Impairments in reciprocal pretend play are well documented in children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The effectiveness of many different behavioral teaching techniques has been examined in order to teach play skills to children with autism. Central to our purpose is the application of video-modeling to the training of new skills in children with ASD. Research has provided ample support for the notion that new skills may be acquired by observation of video-modeled behavior. Our study will examine the cooperative social behavior of children with ASD and the probability of generalization of social skills learned from video modeling. Further, we hope to discern whether video-modeling alone is sufficient or whether video-modeling must be paired with other techniques, such as prompting, to be effective in training social response in children. This project aims to reveal the level of effectiveness of video-modeling in training new social interaction skills to children with ASD. This information will be of significant benefit to therapists, parents, and caregivers as they strive to identify the most effective treatments for their children

The Use of Multi-Scale Fiducial Markers To Aid Takeoff and Landing Navigation by Rotorcraft

This paper quantifies the impact of adverse environmental conditions on the detection of fiducial markers (i.e., artificial landmarks) by color cameras mounted on rotorcraft. We restrict our attention to square markers with a black-and-white pattern of grid cells that can be nested to allow detection at multiple scales. These markers have the potential to enhance the reliability of precision takeoff and landing at vertiports by flying vehicles in urban settings. Prior work has shown, in particular, that these markers can be detected with high precision (i.e., few false positives) and high recall (i.e., few false negatives). However, most of this prior work has been based on image sequences collected indoors with hand-held cameras. Our work is based on image sequences collected outdoors with cameras mounted on a quadrotor during semi-autonomous takeoff and landing operations under adverse environmental conditions that include variations in temperature, illumination, wind speed, humidity, visibility, and precipitation. In addition to precision and recall, performance measures include continuity, availability, robustness, resiliency, and coverage volume. We release both our dataset and the code we used for analysis to the public as open source.Comment: Extended abstract accepted at the 2024 AIAA SciTec

Age- and sex-based differences in the moral intuitions of American early adolescents

This study sought to explore the validity of a latent-factor model of moral intuition development during early adolescence. The 3-Factor Character Foundations Survey (CFS-3) was used to assess the moral intuitions of early adolescents (n = 850, mean = 12.4 years old, SD = 0.96) under a moral foundations theory framework. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the psychometric validity of the three latent factor constructs (autonomy, loyalty and empathy), and partial metric invariance was established to allow for the comparison of latent factor means between four age- and sex-based groups coinciding with averages for pubertal onset. Results support prior findings of greater latent factor means for females in all three factors when compared with males in the 11–12-year-old age group. Additionally, 13–14-year-old females exhibited lower latent factor means in autonomy and loyalty factors when compared with 11–12-year-old females. This resulted in 13–14-year-old females remaining higher in empathy and autonomy but showing no difference in loyalty when compared with 13–14-year-old males. The results are interpreted through the lens of attachment theory, socio-cultural influence and certain limitations of the survey instrument itself. Suggestions for future studies are proposed

Adolescent Development in Context: Social, Psychological, and Neurological Foundations

This project was funded by KU Libraries’ Parent’s Campaign with support from the David Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright and the Open Educational Resources Working Group in the University of Kansas Libraries.Increasingly, there is a tendency to characterize the teenage years as a time of general moral degeneration and deviance. This is unfortunate because the teenage years represent a key developmental period of the typical human lifespan, and from an evolutionary point of view, the actual characteristics that define adolescence represent critical learning opportunities. The increased sensitivity to social influences, identity formation, and social-emotional skills are just a few of such opportunities that require appropriate environments and contexts for optimal, healthy outcomes. Research in the field of adolescent development has not been immune to the negative stereotypes surrounding adolescence, and it is common to see researchers, either implicitly or explicitly, refer to adolescence as a high-risk, anomalous developmental stage that must be controlled, managed, or simply endured until adult-level abilities emerge spontaneously as a result of having survived an intrinsically tumultuous developmental time. More enlightened views of adolescence recognize that all biological adaptations have a cause and a purpose, and that the purpose of adolescence can be discerned from understanding the complex evolutionary history of humans as a group-based, family-based, highly social, sometimes competitive, abstract-thinking species. Understanding the biological foundations of adolescence is meaningless if one does not also consider how biology and environment interact. In humans, these interactions are highly complex and involve not only immediate physical realities, but also social, cultural, and historical realities that create complex contexts and webs of interactions. Therefore, this textbook seeks to reconcile the biological and neurological foundations of human development with the psychological and sociological mechanisms that formed and continue to influence human developmental trajectories. To this end, we have divided the textbook into three main sections. The first, Foundations of Adolescent Development, introduces the historical science of studying adolescence and the biological foundations of puberty. The second section, Contexts of Adolescent Development, considers the primary contextual factors that influence developmental outcomes during adolescence. These include work and employment, peers, in-school and out-of-school contexts, leisure time, and the family. The final section, Milestones of Adolescent Development, addresses the primary psychological milestones that represent healthy adjustment to adult roles and responsibilities in society. The domains of these milestones include cognition and decision-making; identity, meaning, and purpose, moral development, and sexuality. From an educational point of view, the objective of this textbook is to provide a resource that is capable of fostering advanced conceptual change and learning in the field of adolescent development in order to go beyond stereotypical portrayals of adolescence as a pathological condition. Organized in a manner designed to scaffold increasingly complex ideas, the textbook redefines adolescence a sensitive period of development characterized by phylogenetically derived experience-expectant states and complex interactions of biological, psychological, and social factors. The textbook draws from the latest advances in neuroscience and psychology to construct a practical framework for use in a wide range of academic and professional contexts, and it presents historical as well as contemporary research to accomplish a radical redefining of an often misunderstood and maligned developmental period

Control of Many Agents Using Few Instructions

Abstract — This paper considers the problem of controlling a group of agents under the constraint that every agent must be given the same control input. This problem is relevant for the control of mobile micro-robots that all receive the same power and control signals through an underlying substrate. Despite this restriction, several examples in simulation demonstrate that it is possible to get a group of micro-robots to perform useful tasks. All of these tasks are derived by thinking about the relationships between robots, rather than about their individual states. I