Using artificial intelligence to control fluid flow computations

Computational simulation is an essential tool for the prediction of fluid flow. Many powerful simulation programs exist today. However, using these programs to reliably analyze fluid flow and other physical situations requires considerable human effort and expertise to set up a simulation, determine whether the output makes sense, and repeatedly run the simulation with different inputs until a satisfactory result is achieved. Automating this process is not only of considerable practical importance but will also significantly advance basic artificial intelligence (AI) research in reasoning about the physical world

Warehouses in the Inland Empire: Displacing Land and Life

The Inland Empire in Southern California embodies unique spatial and social configurations as a consequence of how settler colonialism has manifested locally in the region since the Spanish Mission Period. This work uses GIS software to estimate patterns of land conversion for residential, agricultural, and warehouse land from 2012 to 2022. Preliminary analysis suggests that thousands of people have been displaced by warehouse expansion over the ten-year period. In the twenty-first century, the Southern California logistics industry continues processes of land dispossession and racialized labor exploitation through displacing agricultural and residential land, exposing disproportionately low-income Black and Latine communities living near warehouses to air pollution, and denying living wages to warehouse workers, who are also predominantly poor people of color

Cleopatra: The Defiance of Feminine Virtue

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph: William Shakespeare\u27s Antony and Cleopatra is a tragic love story that interlaces empire and political responsibility with lust and licentious sexuality. Throughout the play, Cleopatra represents otherness. She is a woman in power, of darker complexion, and is the embodiment Orient Empire. Cleopatra is belittled, humiliated, and degraded throughout the entirety of the play. These harsh representations, along with her highly sexualized and manipulative nature, make it difficult for her to succeed in a patriarchal society. Originally published in 1616, shortly after the death of Queen Elizabeth, it is through Antony and Cleopatra that Shakespeare depicts many of the frequent anxieties held about women during this time period

Intelligent automated surface grid generation

The goal of our research is to produce a flexible, general grid generator for automated use by other programs, such as numerical optimizers. The current trend in the gridding field is toward interactive gridding. Interactive gridding more readily taps into the spatial reasoning abilities of the human user through the use of a graphical interface with a mouse. However, a sometimes fruitful approach to generating new designs is to apply an optimizer with shape modification operators to improve an initial design. In order for this approach to be useful, the optimizer must be able to automatically grid and evaluate the candidate designs. This paper describes and intelligent gridder that is capable of analyzing the topology of the spatial domain and predicting approximate physical behaviors based on the geometry of the spatial domain to automatically generate grids for computational fluid dynamics simulators. Typically gridding programs are given a partitioning of the spatial domain to assist the gridder. Our gridder is capable of performing this partitioning. This enables the gridder to automatically grid spatial domains of wide range of configurations

"What Was the War Like?" Experiencing Surrender; Talking with Josh Fox

International WOW Company's 'Surrender' combines elements of avantgarde performance, dramatic karaoke, and audience participation to create an immersive portrait of urban combat and communicate the challenges soldiers face reintegrating into civilian life. Director Josh Fox reflects on making theatre out of the experience of being a soldier in 21st-century Iraq

Talking Black: Destigmatizing Black English and Funding Bi-Dialectal Education Programs

During colonial and antebellum American history, slaveholding states enacted anti-literacy laws that prohibited teaching enslaved people how to read or write. Later iterations of these laws criminalized the education of African Americans—enslaved or free—in response to conspiracies and insurrections led by literate enslaved and free African Americans. These enactments along with the customs of violence on slave plantations inevitably resulted in a mostly illiterate enslaved population. The legacy of literacy proscription, through segregated schools, continued to impair the quality of education that Black children received. Because of unresolved opportunity gaps, the low literacy rates of Black children and the disparity in academic achievement between Black and White children remain pressing issues for school reformers. Anti-literacy statutes also prevented enslaved Africans from formally learning the rules and grammar of standard American English. Consequently, enslaved Africans created their own English dialect—African American Vernacular English (“AAVE”). AAVE is an English language variety whose structure and grammar conflicts with standard English, at times. Today, many Black children enter school speaking AAVE. Furthermore, linguistic research documents the academic challenges faced by Black children who speak AAVE. Current education law does not explicitly account or provide remedial support for children who speak AAVE. This Note argues that the often overlooked linguistic barriers presented by children who speak AAVE is the primary driver of low literacy rates among black children. This Note recommends allocating federal funding for the implementation of bi-dialectal programs for AAVE-speaking children to ensure that Black children have access to equal educational opportunities

The extension agent of the future

The Community of Practice in Data-Driven Agronomy (Big Data Platform – CGIAR) and the Feed the Future Developing Local Extension Capacity (DLEC) have joined forces to explore and define the future of agricultural extension far beyond sustainable crop production. The findings highlight the main knowledge, skills and attitudes that the Extension Agent of the Future should have

The Dual Enrollment Playbook: A Guide to Equitable Acceleration for Students

More than a million high school students across the nation participate in dual enrollment each year. Dual enrollment students are more likely to graduate from high school, enroll in college, and complete college degrees. But students from historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups and low-income backgrounds do not have equitable access to or success in dual enrollment. This playbook examines nine dual enrollment programs in Florida, Ohio, and Washington that have narrowed or closed equity gaps in dual enrollment for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander students. These programs—developed by partnerships between high schools and community colleges—show that it is possible to close equity gaps when intentional strategy is paired with innovation and commitment. The playbook identifies five principles and the supporting strategies and practices through which community colleges and K-12 leaders can advance equity in high-quality dual enrollment: Set a shared vision and goals that prioritize equity. Expand equitable access. Provide advising and supports that ensure equitable student outcomes. Provide high-quality instruction that builds students’ competence and confidence. Organize teams and develop relationships to maximize potential

Evaluating a mobile-based short virtual course on family planning for frontline health workers in India

One of the ways to address the critical gap of trained human resources in health is to train frontline workers (FLW) on health prevention and health promotion. The FLW play an important role in community mobilization, outreach activities, and service delivery at the last mile. In rural India, the number of internet and smartphone users is rapidly increasing, presenting an opportunity to reach and virtually train FLW. The current evidence base shows progress towards creating and using mobile-based training, but significant work is needed to improve the quality of mobile-based training programs. This study showcases Project *Samvad*’s experience in creating and rolling out a virtual training course for FLW, highlighting the feasibility of virtual training at scale and the quality of engagement of the participants with the course content. The method for this descriptive study is divided into two broad categories: (i) course development, promotion, and rollout processes, and (ii) course evaluation. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to collect and analyze data. We found that the overall average course completion rate was 82% (992 out of 1211 registrants). The average increase in the endline question accuracy was around 15 percentage points from the baseline. We conclude that mobile-based virtual training of FLW is feasible and program managers and policymakers should consider creating hyperlocal course content, ensure participation of partners at various stages of development and rollout of the course and use a peer-to-peer and community-led system to support the learners