Empowerment by Design: Classroom Innovation and Inquiry Through Design Thinking and Action Research

Increasingly standardized and assessment-driven educational systems are failing to meet the needs of many students, replacing their love of learning with a fear of failure. Importantly, the fear of failure is a common mindset of not only students but also teachers, administrators, and policymakers. This qualitative, action research study is situated in a design thinking/growth mindset conceptual theory that posits that the design thinking process can serve as a meaningful growth mindset opportunity for teachers and students. The prototyping mindset inherent in design thinking may mitigate the fear of failure by focusing on rapid iteration rather than striving for perfection. The purpose of this action research study was to use the design thinking process to collaborate with a team of eight educators to build a virtual community of practice that supports innovation and inquiry. The research questions that guided the study focused on (1) obstacles to innovation in education, (2) strategies to overcome the obstacles, and (3) any perceived shift in mindset that occurred in participants throughout the study. Conducted over four months in the winter/spring of 2021, the study used a design thinking/action research methodology that moved through four phases of Question, Imagine, Make, and Share. The findings revealed the primary obstacle to innovation to be an oppressive system characterized by its tradition of white supremacy and its resistance to change. Further obstacles included inadequate teacher training, outdated instructional models, overly standardized instruction and assessment, and a lack of resources. Strategies to overcome the obstacles focused on the protective nature of a community of practice, especially when sharing the goal of empowerment by design and supporting the development of the mindsets of action, growth, and inquiry. Participants perceived mindset shifts in either themselves or their students in the areas of growth, awareness, and empathy. The study contributes to the literature by exploring the practical applications of growth mindset and design thinking within the context of a supportive community of practice. As action research, it gave participants the tools and courage to become empowered research practitioners

Design and Synthesis of Novel Nucleoside Analogues: Oxidative and Reductive Approaches toward Synthesis of 2\u27-Fluoro Pyrimidine Nucleosides

Fluorinated nucleosides, especially the analogues with fluorine atom(s) in the ribose ring, have been known to exert potent biological activities. The first part of this dissertation was aimed at developing oxidative desulfurization-fluorination and reductive desulfonylation-fluorination methodologies toward the synthesis of 2\u27-mono and/or 2\u27,2\u27-difluoro pyrimidine nucleosides from the corresponding 2\u27-arylthiopyrimidine precursors. Novel oxidative desulfurization-difluorination methodology was developed for the synthesis of α,α-difluorinted esters from the corresponding α-arylthio esters, wherein the arylthio group is present on a secondary internal carbon. For the reductive desulfonylation studies, cyclic voltammetry was utilized to measure the reduction potentials at which the sulfone moiety of substrates can be cleaved. The 5-bromo pyrimidine nucleosides and 8-bromo purine nucleosides act as crucial intermediates in various synthetic transformations. The second part of the present dissertation was designed to develop a novel bromination methodology using 1,3-dibromo-5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DBH). Various protected and deprotected pyrimidine and purine nucleosides were converted to their respective C5 and C8 brominated counterparts using DBH. The effect of Lewis acids, solvents, and temperature on the efficiency of bromination was studied. Also, N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) or DBH offered a convenient access to 8-bromotoyocamycin and 8-bromosangivamycin. Third part of this research work focuses on the design and synthesis of 6-N-benzylated derivatives of 7-deazapurine nucleoside antibiotics, such as tubercidin, sangivamycin and toyocamycin. Target molecules were synthesized by two methods. First method involves treatment of 7-deazapurine substrates with benzylbromide followed by dimethylamine-promoted Dimroth rearrangement. The second method employs fluoro-diazotization followed by SNAr displacement of the 6-fluoro group by a benzylamine. The 6-N-benzylated 7-deazapurine nucleosides showed type-specific inhibition of cancer cell proliferation at micromolar concentrations and weak inhibition of human equilibrative nucleoside transport protein (hENT1). In the fourth part of this dissertation, syntheses of C7 or C8 modified 7-deazapurine nucleosides, which might exhibit fluorescent properties, were undertaken. 8-Azidotoyocamycin was synthesized by treatment of 8-bromotoyocamycin with sodium azide. Strain promoted click chemistry of 8-azidotoyocamycin with cyclooctynes gave the corresponding 8-triazolyl derivatives. Alternatively, 7-benzotriazolyl tubercidin was synthesized by iodine catalyzed CH arylation of tubercidin with benzotriazole

Road Safety in Great Britain: An Exploratory Data Analysis

Great Britain has one of the safest road networks in the world. However, the consequences of any death or serious injury are devastating for loved ones, as well as for those who help the severely injured. This paper aims to analyse Great Britain's road safety situation and show the response measures for areas where the total damage caused by accidents can be significantly and quickly reduced. For the past 30 years, the UK has had a good record in reducing fatalities over the past 30 years, there is still a considerable number of road deaths. The government continues to scale back road deaths empowering responsible road users by identifying and prosecuting the parameters that make the roads less safe. This study represents an exploratory analysis with deep insights which could provide policy makers with invaluable insights into how accidents happen and how they can be mitigated. We use STATS19 data published by the UK government. Since we need more information about locations which is not provided in STATA19, we first expand the features of the dataset using OpenStreetMap and Visual Crossing. This paper also provides a discussion regarding new road safety methods

Ethical and Privacy Concerns in Data Analytics

This article explores the ethical and privacy concerns that arise in the field of data analytics. With the increasing use of data for decision-making and insights, it is crucial to address the ethical considerations and privacy implications associated with data analytics. This article discusses various aspects of ethical data handling, including data collection, usage, security, and compliance with regulations. It also highlights privacy concerns and discusses methods to ensure responsible and ethical data analytics

Learning to Estimate: A Real-Time Online Learning Framework for MIMO-OFDM Channel Estimation

In this paper we introduce StructNet-CE, a novel real-time online learning framework for MIMO-OFDM channel estimation, which only utilizes over-the-air (OTA) pilot symbols for online training and converges within one OFDM subframe. The design of StructNet-CE leverages the structure information in the MIMO-OFDM system, including the repetitive structure of modulation constellation and the invariant property of symbol classification to inter-stream interference. The embedded structure information enables StructNet-CE to conduct channel estimation with a binary classification task and accurately learn channel coefficients with as few as two pilot OFDM symbols. Experiments show that the channel estimation performance is significantly improved with the incorporation of structure knowledge. StructNet-CE is compatible and readily applicable to current and future wireless networks, demonstrating the effectiveness and importance of combining machine learning techniques with domain knowledge for wireless communication systems

User perceptions on security and usability of mobile “tap-and-pay”

Apple launched their first “tap-and-pay” mobile payment solution called “ApplePay” in October 2014 in the United States. Quickly catching up with the popularity of Apple Pay, Google launched their own mobile “tap-and-pay” paymentsolution called “Android Pay”. Both the companies claim that their tap-and-paysolutions are more convenient and more secure than swipe-and-pay with traditional debit or credit cards. In this work, we investigated security, privacy andusability aspects of why people use and do not use mobile tap-and-pay in stores.We used both qualitative and quantitative approaches for cross validation andmethodological triangulation.The results of our online survey with 860 participants (349 for Apple Pay and511 for Android Pay) suggest that the top reason for not using mobile tap-and-payis security. However, Apple Pay users did not feel insecure using it in stores. Acommon security misconception we found among the non-users was that they feltstoring card information on their phones is less secure than physically carryingcards inside their wallets. Our security knowledge questions revealed that suchparticipants lack knowledge about the security mechanisms being used to protectcard information. This suggests the possibility that technology adoption rates mayimprove with increased awareness of security protections, given that our studyresults show usability was the most important reason for using tap-and-pay overtraditional swipe-and-pay.We also found a positive correlation between the participants gender and adoption rate, suggesting that males are more likely to prefer and use tap-and-pay thanfemales.Keywords: tap-and-pay, mobile, perception, usability, securit

Nanomedicine: towards development of patient-friendly drug-delivery systems for oncological applications

The focus on nanotechnology in cancer treatment and diagnosis has intensified due to the serious side effects caused by anticancer agents as a result of their cytotoxic actions on normal cells. This nonspecific action of chemotherapy has awakened a need for formulations capable of definitive targeting with enhanced tumor-killing. Nanooncology, the application of nanobiotechnology to the management of cancer, is currently the most important area of nanomedicine. Currently several nanomaterial-based drug-delivery systems are in vogue and several others are in various stages of development. Tumor-targeted drug-delivery systems are envisioned as magic bullets for cancer therapy and several groups are working globally for development of robust systems