Undergraduates lived experience of project-/problem-based learning in Introductory Biology

Recommendations for enhancing scientific literacy, inclusivity, and the ecosystem for innovation call for transitioning from teacher-centered to learner-centered science classrooms, particularly at the introductory undergraduate level. Yet, little is documented about the challenges that undergraduates perceive in such classrooms and on students' ways of navigating them. Via mixed methods, we studied undergraduates' lived experience in one form of learner-centered teaching, hybrid project-/problem-based learning (PBL), in introductory organismal biology at a baccalaureate institution. Prominent in qualitative analyses of student interviews and written reflections were undergraduates' initial expectation of and longing for an emphasis on facts and transmission of them. The prominence diminished from semester's middle to end, as students came to value developing ideas, solving problems collaboratively, and engaging in deep ways of learning. Collaboration and personal resources such as belief in self emerged as supports for these shifts. Quantitative analyses corroborated that PBL students transformed as learners, moving toward informed views on nature of science, advancing in multi-variable causal reasoning, and more frequently adopting deep approaches for learning than did students in lecture-based sections. The qualitative and quantitative findings portray the PBL classroom as an intercultural experience in which culture shock yields over time to acceptance in a way supported by students' internal resources and peer collaboration. The findings have value to those seeking to implement PBL and other complex-learning approaches in a manner responsive to the lived experience of the learner.

From being “disadvantaged” to becoming the most advantaged

Since Merton defined the self-fulfilling prophecy in 1948, it has been adopted to several disciplines, and yet, only a small proportion of researches was built on its original complete notion accurately. Empirical papers even met challenges in proving an important part of it, notably that the initial expectation, that came true unwittingly through the behaviour of participants, had to be “false”. That crucial point is the Achilles heel of self-fulfilling prophecy researches, including its special cases, the Galatea, Golem and Pygmalion effect experiments. The research gave an overview on the self-fulfilling prophecies’ related themes in Educational Research, Psychology and Sociology: interactions/stereotypes–stigmas and performance/ achievement; and aimed to examine the (aggregate) role/potential of “disadvantaged” people (i.e. people with mental, physical, psychological problems, disadvantaged socioeconomic/ familial backgrounds) in inducing the special cases of self-fulfilling prophecy – compared to other participants’ aggregate role/potential across all formerly reviewed studies. To this end, an umbrella review method was implemented, that has been unprecedented in social science. A research evidence-based inclusion–exclusion criteria, a PRISMA 2020-based search strategy, and a two-phase quality appraisal ((1) an author-led PRISMA 2020 assessment, (2) a two-researcher 10-step protocol; results: 4.3–4.4/5) were carried out, leading to a sample of two meta-analyses. The data collection and summary were based on qualitative and quantitative findings. The results showed that the effect sizes in “disadvantaged” experiments (d between 1.38–2.20) exceeded overall effect sizes of meta-analyses (d1 = 0.81, d 2 = 1.13) and of most studies in their samples. With regard to that Merton’s “initially false conceptions” can/could be completely incorporated into the research design only when the “disadvantaged” are/were the subject of these experiments – i.e. indeed a self-fulfilling prophecy is/was measured –, the final conclusion is that the “disadvantaged” are actually “the most advantaged” people in inducing the positive cases of self-fulfilling prophecy, particularly Pygmalion effect.

Lithosphere–Atmosphere–Ionosphere Coupling Effects Based on Multiparameter Precursor Observations for February–March 2021 Earthquakes (M~7) in the Offshore of Tohoku Area of Japan

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere coupling (LAIC) effects with the use of multiparameter precursor observations for two successive Japanese earthquakes (EQs) (with a magnitude of around 7) in February and March 2021, respectively, considering a seemingly significant difference in seismological and geological hypocenter conditions for those EQs. The second March EQ is very similar to the famous 2011 Tohoku EQ in the sense that those EQs took place at the seabed of the subducting plate, while the first February EQ happened within the subducting plate, not at the seabed. Multiparameter observation is a powerful tool for the study of the LAIC process, and we studied the following observables over a 3-month period (January to March): (i) ULF data (lithospheric radiation and ULF depression phenomenon); (ii) ULF/ELF atmospheric electromagnetic radiation; (iii) atmospheric gravity wave (AGW) activity in the stratosphere, extracted from satellite temperature data; (iv) subionospheric VLF/LF propagation data; and (v) GPS TECs (total electron contents). In contrast to our initial expectation of different responses of anomalies to the two EQs, we found no such conspicuous differences of electromagnetic anomalies between the two EQs, but showed quite similar anomaly responses for the two EQs. It is definite that atmospheric ULF/ELF radiation and ULF depression as lower ionospheric perturbation are most likely signatures of precursors to both EQs, and most importantly, all electromagnetic anomalies are concentrated in the period of about 1 week–9 days before the EQ to the EQ day. There seems to exist a chain of LAIC process (cause-and-effect relationship) for the first EQ, while all of the observed anomalies seem to occur nearly synchronously in time for the send EQ. Even though we tried to discuss possible LAIC channels, we cannot come to any definite conclusion about which coupling channel is plausible for each EQ.

Assessing the inhibitory properties of a latent inhibitor in flavor-aversion learning

In Experiment 1, rats received 16 nonreinforced trials of exposure to a flavor (A) that was subsequently used as the conditioned stimulus in flavor-aversion conditioning. In the critical condition, Flavor A was presented in compound with a different novel flavor on each of the eight daily trials. This treatment produced latent inhibition, in that this preexposure retarded conditioning just as did 16 trials with A alone. Rats in the control conditions, given no preexposure or exposure just to the sequence of novel flavors, learned readily. Experiment 2 examined the effects of these forms of preexposure on performance on a summation test, in which Flavor A was presented in compound with a separately conditioned flavor (X). The preexposure procedure in which A was presented along with novel flavors rendered A effective in inhibiting the response conditioned to X on that test. The conclusion, that this form of training can establish the target stimulus as a conditioned inhibitor, is predicted by the account of latent inhibition put forward by Hall and Rodríguez (2010) which proposes that the latent inhibition effect is a consequence both of a reduction in the associability of the stimulus and of a process of inhibitory associative learning that opposes the initial expectation that a novel event will be followed by some consequence.

Post-Soviet Agricultural Restructuring: A Success Story After All?

Challenging the initial expectation that all post-Soviet economies will evolve from collective toward fully individualized farming, I argue that they separated into two different reform paths. In the European successor countries and Kazakhstan, corporate and family farms coexist, labor exited agriculture, and capital inflow boosted labor productivity (a “Westernization”). In the Transcaucasian and the other Central Asian countries, complete farm individualization did not increase labor productivity much, in turn keeping rural incomes depressed (a “Southernization” akin to the Global South). Future policies should promote income alternatives to agriculture and improve the flexibility and transparency of farm consolidation processes.

4-Phenethyl-1-Propargylpiperidine-Derived Dual Inhibitors of Butyrylcholinesterase and Monoamine Oxidase B

The multi-target-directed ligands (MTDLs) strategy is encouraged for the development of novel modulators targeting multiple pathways in the neurodegenerative cascade typical for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Based on the structure of an in-house irreversible monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) inhibitor, we aimed to introduce a carbamate moiety on the aromatic ring to impart cholinesterase (ChE) inhibition, and to furnish multifunctional ligands targeting two enzymes that are intricately involved in AD pathobiology. In this study, we synthesized three dual hMAO-B/hBChE inhibitors 13–15, with compound 15 exhibiting balanced, low micromolar inhibition of hMAO-B (IC50 of 4.3 µM) and hBChE (IC50 of 8.5 µM). The docking studies and time-dependent inhibition of hBChE confirmed the initial expectation that the introduced carbamate moiety is responsible for covalent inhibition. Therefore, dual-acting compound 15 represents an excellent starting point for further optimization of balanced MTDLs.

Three-Axis Level with WiFi Connection

The Three-Axial Level (TAL) device measures the angular inclination around the three axes of the orthogonal system. It consists of a tripleaxis magnetometer sensor with I2C transmission and a NodeMCU V3 development board with WiFi module integrated. The device processes data from sensor, displays it on its screen and also transmits the angular values to various PADs (Portable Access Device). The experimental testing confirmed the initial expectation, showing the properly on-site operation of the designed device. This device is useful in the supervising process to avoid perturbing the worker that performs the leveling operation or when the working place is hard to reach.

The effects of coating culture dishes with collagen on fibroblast cell shape and swirling pattern formation

Motile human-skin fibroblasts form macroscopic swirling patterns when grown to confluence on a culture dish. In this paper, we investigate the effect of coating the culture-dish surface with collagen on the resulting pattern, using human-skin fibroblast NB1RGB cells as the model system. The presence of the collagen coating is expected to enhance the adherence of the fibroblasts to the dish surface, and thereby also enhance the traction that the fibroblasts have as they move. We find that, contrary to our initial expectation, the coating does not significantly affect the motility of the fibroblasts. Their eventual number density at confluence is also unaffected. However, the coherence length of cell orientation in the swirling pattern is diminished. We also find that the fibroblasts cultured in collagen-coated dishes are rounder in shape and shorter in perimeter, compared with those cultured in uncoated polystyrene or glass culture dishes. We hypothesise that the rounder cell-shape which weakens the cell–cell nematic contact interaction is responsible for the change in coherence length. A simple mathematical model of the migrating fibroblasts is constructed, which demonstrates that constant motility with weaker nematic interaction strength does indeed lead to the shortening of the coherence length.

Do You Forgive Past Mistakes of Animated Agents? A Study of Instances of Assistance by Animated Agents

Many studies on human–computer interaction have demonstrated that the visual appearance of an agent or a robot significantly influences people’s perceptions and behaviors. Several studies on the appearance of agents/robots have concluded that consistency between expectations from an agent’s or a robot’s appearance and performances was an important factor to the continuous use of these agents/robots. This is because users would stop interacting with the agents/robots when predictions are not met by actual experiences. However, previous studies mainly focused on the consistency between an initial expectation and a performance of a single instance of a task. The influence of the orders of successes or failures for more than one instance of a task has not been examined in detail. Therefore, in this study, we investigate the order effects of how the timing of sufficient or insufficient results of animated agents affects user evaluation. This will lead to the contribution to fill the lack of studies regarding more than one task in the field of human–computer interaction and to realize the continuous use of agents/robots as long as possible and to avoid stopping to use the agents/robots owing to their successful design. We create a simulated retrieval website and conduct an experiment using retrieval assistant agents that show both sufficient and insufficient results for more than one instance of retrieval tasks. The experimental results demonstrated a recency effect wherein the users significantly revised their evaluations of the animated agents based on new information more than that based on initial evaluations. The investigation of the case of repeated instances of a task and the influence of successes or failures is important for designing intelligent agents that may show incomplete results in intelligent tasks. Furthermore, the result of this study will contribute to build strategies to design behaviors of agents/robots that have a high or low evaluation based on their appearance in advance to prevent users from stopping use of the agents/robots.

Nonadiabatic Energy Fluctuations of Scale-Invariant Quantum Systems in a Time-Dependent Trap

We consider the nonadiabatic energy fluctuations of a many-body system in a time-dependent harmonic trap. In the presence of scale-invariance, the dynamics becomes self-similar and the nondiabatic energy fluctuations can be found in terms of the initial expectation values of the second moments of the Hamiltonian, square position, and squeezing operators. Nonadiabatic features are expressed in terms of the scaling factor governing the size of the atomic cloud, which can be extracted from time-of-flight images. We apply this exact relation to a number of examples: the single-particle harmonic oscillator, the one-dimensional Calogero-Sutherland model, describing bosons with inverse-square interactions that includes the non-interacting Bose gas and the Tonks-Girdardeau gas as limiting cases, and the unitary Fermi gas. We illustrate these results for various expansion protocols involving sudden quenches of the trap frequency, linear ramps and shortcuts to adiabaticity. Our results pave the way to the experimental study of nonadiabatic energy fluctuations in driven quantum fluids.