Programming as Design: The Role of Programming in Interactive Media Curriculum in Art and Design

The number of university undergraduate courses in the area of interactive media is increasing. Many of these courses are based in the schools of art and design that have traditionally valued and focused on developing the aesthetic and artistic design skills of their students. However, because of the rapid changes in new technology the relation between the technology and design has become complex. This poses new challenges for the educators in this field. The main challenge is defining the role of programming in the curriculum and the relationship between ‘coding’ skills and ‘design’ skills. The article examines different conceptual models of programming and suggests that the concept of programming as artistic and creative practice and ‘programming as design’ would be more suitable for the art and design curriculum.     

An exact analytical solution for convective heat transfer in rectangular ducts

An exact analytical solution is obtained for convective heat transfer in straight ducts with rectangular cross-sections for the first time. This solution is valid for both H1 and H2 boundary conditions, which are related to fully developed convective heat transfer under constant heat flux at the duct walls. The separation of variables method and various other mathematical techniques are used to find the closed form of the temperature distribution. The local and mean Nusselt numbers are also obtained as functions of the aspect ratio. A new physical constraint is presented to solve the Neumann problem in non-dimensional analysis for the H2 boundary conditions. This is one of the major innovations of the current study. The analytical results indicate a singularity occurs at a critical aspect ratio of 2.4912 when calculating the local and mean Nusselt numbers.     

An efficient hybrid evolutionary optimization algorithm based on PSO and SA for clustering

The K-means algorithm is one of the most popular techniques in clustering. Nevertheless, the performance of the K- means algorithm depends highly on initial cluster centers and converges to local minima. This paper proposes a hybrid evolutionary programming based clustering algorithm, called PSO-SA, by combining particle swarm optimization （PSO） and simulated annealing （SA）. The basic idea is to search around the global solution by SA and to increase the information exchange among particles using a mutation operator to escape local optima. Three datasets, Iris, Wisconsin Breast Cancer, and Ripley＇s Glass, have been considered to show the effectiveness of the proposed clustering algorithm in providing optimal clusters. The simulation results show that the PSO-SA clustering algorithm not only has a better response but also converges more quickly than the K-means, PSO, and SA algorithms.     

The Remarkable Roles of the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products (RAGE) and Its Soluble Isoforms in COVID-19: The Importance of RAGE Pathway in the Lung Injuries

The respiratory symptoms of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is associated with accumulation of pre-inflammatory molecules such as advanced glycation end-products (AGES), calprotectin, high mobility group box family-1 (HMGB1), cytokines, angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), and other molecules in the alveolar space of lungs and plasma. The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGEs), which is mediated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), plays a critical role in the severity of chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes mellitus (DM) and ARDS. The RAGE gene is most expressed in the alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) of the pulmonary system. Several clinical trials are now being conducted to determine the possible association between the levels of soluble isoforms of RAGE (sRAGE and esRAGE) and the severity of the disease in patients with ARDS and acute lung injury (ALI). In the current article, we reviewed the most recent studies on the RAGE/ligands axis and sRAGE/esRAGE levels in acute respiratory illness, with a focus on COVID-19–associated ARDS (CARDS) patients. According to the research conducted so far, sRAGE/esRAGE measurements in patients with CARDS can be used as a powerful chemical indicator among other biomarkers for assessment of early pulmonary involvement. Furthermore, inhibiting RAGE/MAPK and Angiotensin II receptor type 1 (ATR1) in CARDS patients can be a powerful strategy for diminishing cytokine storm and severe respiratory symptoms.     

Action control,L2 motivational self system,and motivated learning behavior in a foreign language learning context

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Theoretical developments in second or foreign language motivation research have led to a better understanding of the convoluted nature of motivation in...     

Contextualizing Nature of Science Instruction in Socioscientific Issues

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two learning contexts for explicit-reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction, socioscientific issues (SSI) driven and content driven, on student NOS conceptions. Four classes of 11th and 12th grade anatomy and physiology students participated. Two classes experienced a curricular sequence organized around SSI (the SSI group), and two classes experienced a content-based sequence (the Content group). An open-ended NOS questionnaire was administered to both groups at the beginning and end of the school year and analyzed to generate student profiles. Quantitative analyses were performed to compare pre-instruction NOS conceptions between groups as well as pre to post changes within groups and between groups. Both SSI and Content groups showed significant gains in most NOS themes, but between-group gains were not significantly different. Qualitative analysis of post-instruction responses, however, revealed that students in the SSI group tended to use examples to describe their views of the social/cultural NOS. The findings support SSI contexts as effective for promoting gains in students’ NOS understanding and suggest that these contexts facilitate nuanced conceptions that should be further explored.