Going Deep into Mechanisms for Moral Reasoning Growth: How Deep Learning Approaches Affect Moral Reasoning Development for First-year Students

The purpose of this paper was to determine the effects of deep approaches to learning on the moral reasoning development of 1,457 first-year students across 19 institutions. Results showed a modest positive relationship between our measures of deep approaches to learning and moral reasoning at the end of the first year of college even after controlling for precollege moral reasoning. After accounting for a host of demographic and relevant student characteristics and for the natural clustering of students, we found that the integrative learning subscale, which captures students’ participation in activities designed to integrate information from varied sources and diverse perspectives, positively affected moral reasoning among first-year students. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Competency beliefs,positive affect,and gender stereotypes of elementary students and their parents about science versus other school subjects

Iowa students and parents completed related attitude and belief questionnaires about school subjects. Grade K–3 students received simpler questionnaires than did Grade 4–6 students or parents. Among Grade 4–6 children, girls perceived higher competence in reading than did boys, but boys perceived higher competence in physical science. All children perceived physical science competence lower than reading or math competence. Parents perceived boys as more competent in science. Girls like reading more than boys did; boys and girls did not differ in liking of science. Grade 4–6 children also expected lower grades in and attached lower importance to physical science than to reading. Parents perceived science as more important for boys and expected higher performance of boys. Jobs related to math or science were seen as more male dominated. These results provided a more comprehensive picture of attitudes and beliefs about science in the elementary school than had existed and suggested that attitudinal gender differences related to physical science begin to develop by the earliest elementary school years. Policy implications are that intervention programs designed to promote gender equity should be extended to the early elementary school years and also should address parental attitudes. Additional implications for policy and research are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 719–747, 1999     

Two-parameter characterization of low cycle, hysteretic fatigue data

The aim of this research is to characterize the development of fatigue damage by means of stress-strain hysteresis. Experiments were conducted on 14 specimens made of cold-finished unannealed AISI 1018 steel. Results demonstrate that the mechanical hysteresis loop areas, when plotted as a function of the number of loading cycles, show significant variations and demonstrate the three principal stages concerning the progress of the fatigue failure--initial accommodation, accretion of damage and terminal failure. These three stages of fatigue are marked by the transitions at cycles N2 and N3. Experimental results show that although fatigue life Nf ranges from 2644 cycles to 108 992 cycles, the ratios of N2/Nf and N3/Nf tend to be stable： N2/Nf=I 0.7%, N3/Nf=91.3%.     

Evaluating R&D investment efficiency in China's high-tech industry

Research and development (R&D) investment activity plays a crucial role in developing high-tech industries. In recent decades, China has made sustained investments in its domestic high-tech industries, with the goal of increasing their productivity. This paper investigates the effect of this investment on relative R&D efficiency across China's high-tech sectors. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to generate quantitative indices for sector comparisons. The analysis of this study indicates that overall R&D investment efficiency did not increase from 1998 to 2009, despite R&D expenditure increasing by 2188%. Over the same period, most sectors suffered from decreasing returns to scale (DRS), presumably also reflecting the inefficient R&D investment. Most of the sectors showed significant fluctuation on R&D investment efficiency. This research result indicates that the problem of China's high-tech industry may be from the inefficiency of its technology commercialization processes, and therefore represents a critical parameter for policy makers and managers.     

Defining'science-based targets'

The 2015 Paris Agreement to keep global warming well below 2℃above pre-industrial levels and aim towards limiting warming to 1.5℃marked a wa-tershed in planetar...     

Sorting of circulating tumor cells (MV3-melanoma) and red blood cells using non-inertial lift

We demonstrate the method of non-inertial lift induced cell sorting (NILICS), a continuous, passive, and label-free cell sorting approach in a simple single layer microfluidic device at low Reynolds number flow conditions. In the experiments, we exploit the non-inertial lift effect to sort circulating MV3-melanoma cells from red blood cell suspensions at different hematocrits as high as 9%. We analyze the separation process and the influence of hematocrit and volume flow rates. We achieve sorting efficiencies for MV3-cells up to E_MV3 = 100% at Hct = 9% and demonstrate cell viability by recultivation of the sorted cells.     

Robust observer-based fault estimation and accommodation of discrete-time piecewise linear systems

In this paper a new integrated observer-based fault estimation and accommodation strategy for discrete-time piecewise linear (PWL) systems subject to actuator faults is proposed. A robust estimator is designed to simultaneously estimate the state of the system and the actuator fault. Then, the estimate of fault is used to compensate for the effect of the fault. By using the estimate of fault and the states, a fault tolerant controller using a PWL state feedback is designed. The observer-based fault-tolerant controller is obtained by the interconnection of the estimator and the state feedback controller. We show that separate design of the state feedback and the estimator results in the stability of the overall closed-loop system. In addition, the input-to-state stability (ISS) gain for the closed-loop system is obtained and a procedure for minimizing it is given. All of the design conditions are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMI) which can be solved efficiently. Also, performance of the estimator and the state feedback controller are minimized by solving convex optimization problems. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by means of a numerical example.     

Kinematic differences of elite and high-performance tennis players in the cross court and down the line forehand

This study identified and compared the full body kinematics of different skill levels in the forehand groundstroke when balls were hit cross court and down the line. Forty-three three-dimensional retro-reflective marker trajectories of six elite and seven high-performance players were recorded using an eight-camera 400 Hz, Vicon motion analysis system. The six highest horizontal velocity forehands with reliable kinematics of all participants were analysed for each specific situation (a total of 156 analysed shots). Significant differences (p < 0.01) and large effect sizes were observed between elite and high-performance players in linear velocity of the shoulder (2.0 vs. 1.2 m/s), angular velocity of the pelvis (295 vs. 168 °/s), and angular velocity of the upper trunk (453 vs. 292 °/s) at impact. The elite group showed a tendency towards higher racquet velocities at impact (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found in angular displacement of the racquet, hip alignment, or shoulder alignment at the completion of the backswing; nor did angular displacement vary significantly at impact. Irrespective of the group, different shoulder, hip, and racquet angles were found at impact, depending on the situation. The results should assist coaches when striving to improve their players' forehand.