The Role of Virtual Avatars in Supporting Middle School Students from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds on Science in After School Programs

Students who receive additional educational supports in afterschool programs were the focus of the investigation. This study was conducted to measure what effects a TeachLivE avatar, a mixed-reality virtual environment, used in combination with a video game, had on the activation of prior knowledge in science for students in rural middle school. The delivery of the biology science lessons on cell structures and processes were delivered using the video game, Cell Command. The TeachLivE adult avatar was customized as a biologist who spoke to students in the treatment group about science concepts prior to playing the science video game. Unexpected attrition rates and low numbers of participants in the targeted area of research providing consent affected the original research design to conduct the research study. Therefore, a pivot was made from the original research design. The initial target population was students with a learning disability who were culturally and linguistically diverse from low socioeconomic backgrounds in rural communities. By the end of the study, only one student with a learning disability consented and completed the study, with attrition rates in the original school approaching 90% due to various factors, which are discussed. Descriptive statistics were used to measure the effects between students in the control group who only played the Cell Command video game, compared to students in the treatment condition who played the Cell Command science video game, and had four, five minute conversations with a TeachLivE avatar. The analysis indicated varied differences between the treatment and control conditions. The analysis of a STEM-CIS survey, that measures career interests, sum means were included in the descriptive analysis along with the unique challenges presented in conducting research in a rural Title I school

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders Who Participate in FIRST Robotics

One of the challenges of educating adolescents with autism spectrum disorders is to find activities that are interesting and engaging. Researchers have shown that adolescents with autism often are attracted to technology. Using an exploratory research method, the experiences of three students with autism who participated in after school robotics clubs were analyzed. Common themes to emerge were the students with ASD were engaged and interested in FIRST robotics and technology. Specifically, they enjoyed coming up with ideas, inventions, and creating or solving missions. Their confidence increased and they learned to work better on teams. Additionally, they needed significant supports to participate in FIRST Robotics

Soft-core processor study for node-based architectures.

Node-based architecture (NBA) designs for future satellite projects hold the promise of decreasing system development time and costs, size, weight, and power and positioning the laboratory to address other emerging mission opportunities quickly. Reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based modules will comprise the core of several of the NBA nodes. Microprocessing capabilities will be necessary with varying degrees of mission-specific performance requirements on these nodes. To enable the flexibility of these reconfigurable nodes, it is advantageous to incorporate the microprocessor into the FPGA itself, either as a hardcore processor built into the FPGA or as a soft-core processor built out of FPGA elements. This document describes the evaluation of three reconfigurable FPGA based processors for use in future NBA systems--two soft cores (MicroBlaze and non-fault-tolerant LEON) and one hard core (PowerPC 405). Two standard performance benchmark applications were developed for each processor. The first, Dhrystone, is a fixed-point operation metric. The second, Whetstone, is a floating-point operation metric. Several trials were run at varying code locations, loop counts, processor speeds, and cache configurations. FPGA resource utilization was recorded for each configuration. Cache configurations impacted the results greatly; for optimal processor efficiency it is necessary to enable caches on the processors. Processor caches carry a penalty; cache error mitigation is necessary when operating in a radiation environment

Road‐risk: metodología para la identificación de puntos conflictivos por riesgos múltiples en infraestructuras viarias tras episodios torrenciales

La comunicación recoge los contenidos de una metodología aplicada que permite cartografiar aquellos puntos en el recorrido de una infraestructura viaria que pueden quedar bloqueados por riesgos múltiples de funcionamiento simultáneo, tras unos episodios de precipitaciones de alta intensidad. Se incorporan dos modelos predictivos para identificar los puntos con riesgo de movimientos en masa, descalzamiento del firme y/o encharcamiento y generación de balsas. Se ha diseñado igualmente una aplicación informática que permite aplicar los criterios de predicción obtenidos y cartografiar de forma automatizada los puntos conflictivos en infraestructuras distintas a las utilizadas como área de estudio.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Black Box Spring 2022/2023

The Black Box is a creative publication dedicated to displaying the talented work of the Embry-Riddle Prescott community - endless creativity and ingenuity flow throughout the Prescott area and our goal is to display it

Effect of the irrigation regime on the susceptibility of pepper and tomato to post-harvest proliferation of Salmonella enterica

Raw produce is increasingly recognized as a vehicle of human gastroenteritis. Non-typhoidal Salmonella, pathogenic Escherichia coli, and other human pathogens have been isolated from fruits and vegetables in the field and in the marketplace, which led to the hypothesis that these microbes can use plants as alternate hosts. However, environmental and physiological factors that facilitate persistence of these bacteria in the crop production environment and make produce more vulnerable to post-harvest contamination have not been fully delineated. This study tested the effect of irrigation regimes on the susceptibility of peppers and tomatoes to post-harvest proliferation of Salmonella. The experiments were carried out over three experimental seasons in two locations using seven strains of Salmonella. The irrigation regime per se did not affect susceptibility of tomatoes and peppers to post-harvest proliferation of Salmonella; however, in some of the seasons, irrigation regime-dependent differences were observed. Red peppers and tomatoes were more conducive to proliferation of Salmonella than green fruit in all seasons. Inter-seasonal differences were the strongest factors affecting proliferation of Salmonella in peppers

Bulk Vitrification Performance Enhancement: Refractory Lining Protection Against Molten Salt Penetration

Bulk vitrification (BV) is a process that heats a feed material that consists of glass-forming solids and dried low-activity waste (LAW) in a disposable refractory-lined metal box using electrical power supplied through carbon electrodes. The feed is heated to the point that the LAW decomposes and combines with the solids to generate a vitreous waste form. This study supports the BV design and operations by exploring various methods aimed at reducing the quantities of soluble Tc in the castable refractory block portion of the refractory lining, which limits the effectiveness of the final waste form

The Effect of Real-World Personal Familiarity on the Speed of Face Information Processing

Background. Previous studies have explored the effects of familiarity on various kinds of visual face judgments, yet the role of familiarity in face processing is not fully understood. Across different face judgments and stimulus sets, the data is equivocal as to whether or not familiarity impacts recognition processes. Methodology/Principal Findings. Here, we examine the effect of real-world personal familiarity in three simple delayed-match-to-sample tasks in which subjects were required to match faces on the basis of orientation (upright v. inverted), gender and identity. We find that subjects had a significant speed advantage with familiar faces in all three tasks, with large effects for the gender and identity matching tasks. Conclusion/Significance. Our data indicates that real-world experience with a face exerts a powerful influence on face processing in tasks where identity information is irrelevant, even in tasks that could in principle be solved via low-level cues. These results underscore the importance of experience in shaping visual recognition processes

Optimal design of water treatment processes

Predicted water shortages assign water treatment a leading role in improving water resources management. One of the main challenges associated with the processes remains early stage design of techno-economically optimised purification. This work addresses the current gap by undertaking a whole-system approach of flowsheet synthesis for the production of water at desired purity at minimum overall cost. The optimisation problem was formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear programming model. Two case studies were presented which incorporated the most common commercial technologies and the major pollution indicators, such as chemical oxygen demand, dissolved organic carbon, total suspended solids and total dissolved solids. The results were analysed and compared to existing guidelines in order to examine the applicability of the proposed approach

Draft Genome Sequence of Streptomyces sp. Strain ventii, Isolated from a Microbial Mat near Hydrothermal Vents within the Axial Seamount in the Pacific Ocean, and Resequencing of the Type Strains Streptomyces lonarensis NCL 716 and Streptomyces bohaiensis 11A07

The draft genome of Streptomyces sp. strain ventii, an environmental isolate recovered from deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, is presented along with the resequenced draft genomes of the type strains Streptomyces bohaiensis 11A07 and Streptomyces lonarensis NCL 716