Learning Outcomes For Economists

Articulating thoughtful learning outcome statements for courses and majors improves teaching and learning and satisfies accreditation requirements. After reading this paper, economists will be able to construct learning outcome statements that guide and enhance teaching and learning in their courses and programs. We present a framework for developing learning outcomes based on a set of five fundamental competencies in economics. We then provide another public good, offering a complete set of learning outcomes for an introductory microeconomics course, which instructors can include in their syllabi. For additional guidance, we construct examples of lesson-specific learning outcomes as well

Increased temperature in urban ground as source of sustainable energy

This paper is part of the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability (Sustainable City 2015). http://www.witconferences.comDensely urbanized areas are characterized by special microclimatic conditions with typically elevated temperatures in comparison with the rural surrounding. This phenomenon is known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect, but not restricted exclusively to the atmosphere. We also find significant warming of the urban subsurface and shallow groundwater bodies. Here, main sources of heat are elevated ground surface temperatures, direct thermal exploitation of aquifers and heat losses from buildings and other infrastructure. By measuring the shallow groundwater temperature in several European cities, we identify that heat sources and associated transport processes interact at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The intensity of a subsurface UHI can reach the values of above 4 K in city centres with hotspots featuring temperatures up to +20°C. In comparison with atmospheric UHIs, subsurface UHIs represent long-term accumulations of heat in a relatively sluggish environment. This potentially impairs urban groundwater quality and permanently influences subsurface ecosystems. From another point of view, however, these thermal anomalies can also be seen as hidden large-scale batteries that constitute a source of shallow geothermal energy. Based on our measurements, data surveys and estimated physical ground properties, it is possible to estimate the theoretical geothermal potential of the urban groundwater bodies beneath the studied cities. For instance, by decreasing the elevated temperature of the shallow aquifer in Cologne, Germany, by only 2 K, the obtained energy could supply the space-heating demand of the entire city for at least 2.5 years. In the city of Karlsruhe, it is estimated that about 30% of annual heating demand could be sustainably supplied by tapping the anthropogenic heat loss in the urban aquifer. These results reveal the attractive potential of heated urban ground as energy reservoir and storage, which is in place at many places worldwide but so far not integrated in any city energy plans.This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under grant number 200021L 144288, and the German Research Foundation (DFG), under grant number BL 1015/4-1

Phenotypic and Genotypic Characteristics of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Related to Persistent Endovascular Infection.

Persistent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia (PB) represents an important subset of S. aureus infection and correlates with poor clinical outcomes. MRSA isolates from patients with PB differ significantly from those of resolving bacteremia (RB) with regard to several in vitro phenotypic and genotypic profiles. For instance, PB strains exhibit less susceptibility to cationic host defense peptides and vancomycin (VAN) killing under in vivo-like conditions, greater damage to endothelial cells, thicker biofilm formation, altered growth rates, early activation of many global virulence regulons (e.g., sigB, sarA, sae and agr) and higher expression of purine biosynthesis genes (e.g., purF) than RB strains. Importantly, PB strains are significantly more resistant to VAN treatment in experimental infective endocarditis as compared to RB strains, despite similar VAN minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) in vitro. Here, we review relevant phenotypic and genotypic characteristics related to the PB outcome. These and future insights may improve our understanding of the specific mechanism(s) contributing to the PB outcome, and aid in the development of novel therapeutic and preventative measures against this life-threatening infection

Superhydrophobic Coatings from Ecofriendly Materials and Processes: A Review

AbstractSo far, scientists have successfully mimicked superhydrophobicity based on careful observation and study of such surfaces found in nature. The key outcome is the fact that water‐repellent plant or insect surfaces have unique hierarchical scale texture. Embedded in such textures, existence of unique waxy protrusions or structures is also found which can easily trap air underneath water droplets. Today, researchers can duplicate such surface textures and render them more sophisticated with advanced nanofabrication, lithographic, and wet chemistry techniques. In doing so, synthetic materials having very low affinity to water are extensively utilized. Among them, perfluorinated compounds pose some environmental concerns. Moreover, most of the superhydrophobic coating formulations and processing are deemed not ecofriendly enough to sustain large‐scale fabrication or prohibitively expensive to transform into a standard industrial practice. Recently, however, significant efforts are made to fabricate superhydrophobic coatings by using natural materials and sustainable processes with lower potential environmental footprint. This review introduces, reviews, and discusses such advances, their performance compared to conventional ones while acknowledging the challenges and stressing the need to dedicate more resources to develop robust and long‐lasting superhydrophobic coatings originating from intelligent processing of natural materials or synthetic biodegradables with ecofriendly technologies

Biopolymer/Nanocomposite materials in medicine

A large number of recent studies deal with the application of biopolymer nanomaterials to different medicinal applications that led to a new discipline known as nanomedicine. It comprises the processes of diagnosing, treating, curing, preventing diseases and also dealing with traumatic injury, relieving pain and preserving/improving human health by using nanoscale materials. Among nanoscale materials, an important place belongs to the group of natural and synthetic polymer nanocomposites. These are made up of an organic polymer matrix and mineral, organic or metallic nanofiller. The properties of polymer nanocomposites depend on the characteristics of the components and on the interaction polymer nanofiller. Polymer nanocomposites offer to modern medicine new opportunities for generate products. Hence, this talk will present recent advances in biomedical applications of nanostructured biopolymer nanocomposites including antibacterial treatments, tissue engineering, cancer treatment and drug delivery. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Prescribed pattern transformation in swelling gel tubes by elastic instability

We present a study on swelling-induced circumferential buckling of tubular shaped gels. Inhomogeneous stress develops as gel swells under mechanical constraints, which gives rise to spontaneous buckling instability without external force. Full control over the post-buckling pattern is experimentally demonstrated. A simple analytical model is developed using elastic energy to predict stability and post-buckling patterns upon swelling. Analysis reveals that height to diameter ratio is the most critical design parameter to determine buckling pattern, which agrees well with experimental and numerical results.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure