Reducing Hardships: Student Motivations, Educational Workflows, and Technology Choices in Academic Settings

Objective – This study examines The University of Manitoba student attitudes toward technology’s role in University study spaces and in their own educational workflows. Methods - A series of semi-structured group interviews were conducted with current undergraduate and graduate students at The University of Manitoba. Three group interviews were conducted with questions about individual technology and space use while studying in the library, and three group interviews were conducted with questions about group collaboration using technologies and tools in group study spaces. Transcripts were coded iteratively and separately by the researchers, analyzed for interrater reliability, categorized, and reviewed using axial coding to identify major themes. Through continued examination of these themes, a single theory emerged. Results - The participants expressed a strong need for independence and feelings of control over their workflows, technological tools, and environments. They discussed how interpersonal concerns and anxieties motivated their workflow choices and acknowledged the (often conflicting) motivational forces of personal necessity and personal preference. When examining the motivations behind the selection of technologies and work practices, it became clear that the respondents make technology and workflow decisions in an attempt to minimize their experience of perceived hardships. These perceived hardships could be social, emotional, educational, environmental, or temporal in nature, and the weight of any one hardship on decision making varied according to the individual. Conclusions - Libraries should be aware of this foundational user motivation and make choices accordingly - identifying and minimizing hardships whenever possible, unless they are necessary to achieve learning or service-specific goals. Additional research is required to help articulate the nuances experienced by particular student demographics. Librarians and future researchers should also consider investigating the potential disconnect between librarian and user attitudes toward technology, the prioritization of user-centered decision-making, and whether or not systematically disadvantaged social groups have different attitudes toward technology and its place in library spaces and academic work.https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/view/545

Fast Variations of Gamma-Ray Emission in Blazars

The largest group of sources identified by EGRET are Blazars. This sub-class of AGN is well known to vary in flux in all energy bands on time-scales ranging from a few minutes (in the optical and X-ray bands) up to decades (radio and optical regimes). In addition to variations of the gamma-ray flux between different viewing periods, the brightest of these sources showed a few remarkable gamma-ray flares on time-scales of about one day, confirming the extension of the ``Intraday-Variability (IDV)'' phenomenon into the GeV range. We present first results of a systematic approach to study fast variability with EGRET data. This statistical approach confirms the existence of IDV even during epochs when no strong flares are detected. This provides additional constraints on the site of the gamma-ray emission and allows cross-correlation analyses with light curves obtained at other frequencies even during periods of low flux. We also find that some stronger sources have fluxes systematically above threshold even during quiescent states. Despite the low count rates this allows explicit comparisons of flare amplitudes with other energy bands.Comment: 5 pages including figures, LaTex, uses aipproc.sty, to appear in the proceedings of the 4th Compton Symposium at Williamsburg, V

Modula-2*: An extension of Modula-2 for highly parallel programs

Parallel programs should be machine-independent, i.e., independent of properties that are likely to differ from one parallel computer to the next. Extensions are described of Modula-2 for writing highly parallel, portable programs meeting these requirements. The extensions are: synchronous and asynchronous forms of forall statement; and control of the allocation of data to processors. Sample programs written with the extensions demonstrate the clarity of parallel programs when machine-dependent details are omitted. The principles of efficiently implementing the extensions on SIMD, MIMD, and MSIMD machines are discussed. The extensions are small enough to be integrated easily into other imperative languages

A comprehensive literature review of juvenile programs, policies, and monitoring systems

This paper investigates past literature on juvenile-based programs, policies, and monitoring systems. It shows what strides practitioners have taken to reduce recidivism and how programs have tried to limit past failures. By showing what has worked and what has failed, we can develop future research and designs, measure the effects of different theories, and even add more important categories to future programs. This research presents information that may assist practitioners who work directly with juveniles and those who are involved in researching and developing future juvenile programs and policies

Loopless Gray Code Enumeration and the Tower of Bucharest

We give new algorithms for generating all n-tuples over an alphabet of m letters, changing only one letter at a time (Gray codes). These algorithms are based on the connection with variations of the Towers of Hanoi game. Our algorithms are loopless, in the sense that the next change can be determined in a constant number of steps, and they can be implemented in hardware. We also give another family of loopless algorithms that is based on the idea of working ahead and saving the work in a buffer

Effect of drying on corn seed quality

Characteristics of drying injury and drying tolerance of corn (Zea mays L.) seed were investigated on the inbred lines A632, B73, and Mo17. Only minor injury occurred during the initial 4-24 hours of drying when ears were harvested at 48% and 38% seed moisture and dried at 50 C in a thin-layer drying system. Evaporation did not provide enough cooling to the seed to explain the injury lag. After the lag phase, germination dropped linearly with prolonged 50 C drying;Initial low-temperature drying (preconditioning) to 30-39% seed moisture rendered high moisture seed tolerant to subsequent high-temperature drying. Preconditioning may accelerate the maturation process normally occurring in the field. This result offers an opportunity for more effective seed corn drying and a challenge to explain drying tolerance. Moderate drying at 20 or 35 C resulted in more rapid and complete preconditioning of ear samples than storage at slow- or non-drying conditions. More moisture loss was required to obtain tolerance with slow field drying than with preconditioning at 35 C. Physiological factors other than moisture content are important criteria of high temperature tolerance. These so far unknown factors could be responsible for the change in drying susceptibility over years;Shelled seed samples could be safely dried at 35 C though samples dried more rapidly than with drying on the ear at 50 C. However, seed lost viability during 50 C drying much more rapidly when dried as shelled samples than when dried on the ear. Deterioration was reduced when ear samples were dried at 50 C and 60% relative humidity as compared with 50 C and 20% relative humidity. Thus both temperature and drying rate are factors in drying injury;Excised embryos germinated well in modified warm tests after being dried at 22-50 C even though excessive drying rates up to 40% per hour were observed. This high degree of drying tolerance suggests that embryos dried before injury could occur. However, embryo death in the cold test indicates that imbibitional chilling had been increased;Correlations between conductivity test values (indicators of membrane damage) and germination values were clearly significant. But the use of conductivity values to predict germination was not reliable except for Mo17

Statement from Herter Brothers to Ogden Goelet

https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/goelet-interior/1100/thumbnail.jp