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Authors: Armine Vahanyan

Abstract:

Humanity has been still coping with the new COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare providers, economists, psychologists, and other specialists speak about the impact of the virus on different spheres of our life. In the list of similar discussions, the impact of pandemics on global education is of utmost importance. Ideally, providing quality education services should be crucial, and the ways education programs are being adapted will determine the success or failure of the service providers. The paper aims to summarize the research touching upon the current situation of higher education in Armenia. The research includes data from official reports, surveys among education leads, faculty, and students, as well as personal observations and consideration. Through descriptive analysis, the findings of the research are being presented from various aspects. Interim results of the research unveiled two major issues in the sector of higher education in Armenia. On the one hand, the entire compulsory digitization of instruction, assessment, and grading has evoked serious gaps related to the lack of technical competencies. There is an urgent need for professional development programs that will address most of the concerns due to the shift to the online instruction mode. On the other hand, online teaching and learning require revision and adaptation of the existing curricula. Given that the content of certain programs may not be compromised, the teaching methods, the assignments, and evaluation require profound transformation, which will still be in line with course learning outcomes and student learning outcomes. The given paper focuses on the ways the mentioned issues are being addressed in Armenia. The extent of commitment for changes and adaptability to the new situation varies from the government-funded and private universities. In particular, the paper compares and contrasts activities and measures taken at the Armenian State Pedagogical University and the American University of Armenia. Thus, the Pedagogical University focused on the use of Google Classroom as the only means for teaching and learning as well as adopted the compulsory synchronous instruction mode. The American University, on the contrary, kept practicing the academic freedom, enabling both synchronous and asynchronous instruction modes, ensuring alignment of the course learning outcomes and student learning outcomes. The State University utilized the assignments and assessment, which would work for the on-campus instruction mode, while the American university employed a variety of assignments applicable for online teaching mode. The latter has suggested the utilization of multiple apps, internet sources, and online library access for a better online instant. Discussions with faculty through online forums and/or professional development workshops also facilitate restructuring and adaptation of the courses. Finally, the paper will synthesize the results of the undertaken research and will outline the e-learning perspectives and opportunities boosted by the known devastating healthcare issue.

Keywords: assessment, compulsory digitization of education services, online teaching, instruction mode, program restructuring

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: Anwar Beg, Sireetorn Kuharat, Rashid Mehmood, Rabil Tabassum, Meisam Babaie

Abstract:

Nano-polymeric solar paints and sol-gels have emerged as a major new development in solar cell/collector coatings offering significant improvements in durability, anti-corrosion and thermal efficiency. They also exhibit substantial viscosity variation with temperature which can be exploited in solar collector designs. Modern manufacturing processes for such nano-rheological materials frequently employ stagnation flow dynamics under high temperature which invokes radiative heat transfer. Motivated by elaborating in further detail the nanoscale heat, mass and momentum characteristics of such sol gels, the present article presents a mathematical and computational study of the steady, two-dimensional, non-aligned thermo-fluid boundary layer transport of copper metal-doped water-based nano-polymeric sol gels under radiative heat flux. To simulate real nano-polymer boundary interface dynamics, thermal slip is analysed at the wall. A temperature-dependent viscosity is also considered. The Tiwari-Das nanofluid model is deployed which features a volume fraction for the nanoparticle concentration. This approach also features a Maxwell-Garnet model for the nanofluid thermal conductivity. The conservation equations for mass, normal and tangential momentum and energy (heat) are normalized via appropriate transformations to generate a multi-degree, ordinary differential, non-linear, coupled boundary value problem. Numerical solutions are obtained via the stable, efficient Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg scheme with shooting quadrature in MATLAB symbolic software. Validation of solutions is achieved with a Variational Iterative Method (VIM) utilizing Langrangian multipliers. The impact of key emerging dimensionless parameters i.e. obliqueness parameter, radiation-conduction Rosseland number (Rd), thermal slip parameter (α), viscosity parameter (m), nanoparticles volume fraction (ϕ) on non-dimensional normal and tangential velocity components, temperature, wall shear stress, local heat flux and streamline distributions is visualized graphically. Shear stress and temperature are boosted with increasing radiative effect whereas local heat flux is reduced. Increasing wall thermal slip parameter depletes temperatures. With greater volume fraction of copper nanoparticles temperature and thermal boundary layer thickness is elevated. Streamlines are found to be skewed markedly towards the left with positive obliqueness parameter.

Keywords: non-orthogonal stagnation-point heat transfer, solar nano-polymer coating, MATLAB numerical quadrature, Variational Iterative Method (VIM)

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Amanda Kavner, Richard Lamb

Abstract:

Faster growth in science and technology of other nations may make staying globally competitive more difficult without shifting focus on how science is taught in US classes. An integral part of learning science involves visual and spatial thinking since complex, and real-world phenomena are often expressed in visual, symbolic, and concrete modes. The primary barrier to spatial thinking and visual literacy in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields is representational competence, which includes the ability to generate, transform, analyze and explain representations, as opposed to generic spatial ability. Although the relationship is known between the foundational visual literacy and the domain-specific science literacy, science literacy as a function of science learning is still not well understood. Moreover, the need for a more reliable measure is necessary to design resources which enhance the fundamental visuospatial cognitive processes behind scientific literacy. To support the improvement of students’ representational competence, first visualization skills necessary to process these science representations needed to be identified, which necessitates the development of an instrument to quantitatively measure visual literacy. With such a measure, schools, teachers, and curriculum designers can target the individual skills necessary to improve students’ visual literacy, thereby increasing science achievement. This project details the development of an artificial neural network capable of measuring science literacy using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIR) data. This data was previously collected by Project LENS standing for Leveraging Expertise in Neurotechnologies, a Science of Learning Collaborative Network (SL-CN) of scholars of STEM Education from three US universities (NSF award 1540888), utilizing mental rotation tasks, to assess student visual literacy. Hemodynamic response data from fNIRsoft was exported as an Excel file, with 80 of both 2D Wedge and Dash models (dash) and 3D Stick and Ball models (BL). Complexity data were in an Excel workbook separated by the participant (ID), containing information for both types of tasks. After changing strings to numbers for analysis, spreadsheets with measurement data and complexity data were uploaded to RapidMiner’s TurboPrep and merged. Using RapidMiner Studio, a Gradient Boosted Trees artificial neural network (ANN) consisting of 140 trees with a maximum depth of 7 branches was developed, and 99.7% of the ANN predictions are accurate. The ANN determined the biggest predictors to a successful mental rotation are the individual problem number, the response time and fNIR optode #16, located along the right prefrontal cortex important in processing visuospatial working memory and episodic memory retrieval; both vital for science literacy. With an unbiased measurement of science literacy provided by psychophysiological measurements with an ANN for analysis, educators and curriculum designers will be able to create targeted classroom resources to help improve student visuospatial literacy, therefore improving science literacy.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, artificial neural network, machine learning, science literacy, neuroscience

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Cynthia K. Burzell

Abstract:

Aequor's Founder, a Marine and Medical Microbiologist, discovered novel, non-toxic chemicals in the ocean that uniquely remove biofilm in minutes and prevent its formation for days. These chemicals and over 70 synthesized analogs that Aequor developed can replace thousands of toxic biocides used in consumer and industrial products and, as new drug candidates, kill biofilm-forming bacteria and fungi Superbugs -the antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) pathogens for which there is no cure. Cynthia Burzell, PhD., is a Marine and Medical Microbiologist studying natural mechanisms that inhibit biofilm formation on surfaces in contact with water. In 2002, she discovered a new genus and several new species of marine microbes that produce small molecules that remove biofilm in minutes and prevent its formation for days. The molecules include new antimicrobials that can replace thousands of toxic biocides used in consumer and industrial products and can be developed into new drug candidates to kill the biofilm-forming bacteria and fungi -- including the antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) Superbugs for which there is no cure. Today, Aequor has over 70 chemicals that are divided into categories: (1) Novel natural chemicals. Lonza validated that the primary natural chemical removed biofilm in minutes and stated: "Nothing else known can do this at non-toxic doses." (2) Specialty chemicals. 25 of these structural analogs are already approved under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Toxic Substances Control Act, certified as "green" and available for immediate sale. These have been validated for the following agro-industrial verticals: (a) Surface cleaners: The U.S. Department of Agriculture validated that low concentrations of Aequor's formulations provide deep cleaning of inert, nano and organic surfaces and materials; (b) Water treatments: NASA validated that one dose of Aequor's treatment in the International Space Station's water reuse/recycling system lasted 15 months without replenishment. DOE validated that our treatments lower energy consumption by over 10% in buildings and industrial processes. Future validations include pilot projects with the EPA to test efficacy in hospital plumbing systems. (c) Algae cultivation and yeast fermentation: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) validated that Aequor's treatment boosted biomass of renewable feedstocks by 40% in half the time -- increasing the profitability of biofuels and biobased co-products. DOE also validated increased yields and crop protection of algae under cultivation in open ponds. A private oil and gas company validated decontamination of oilfield water. (3) New structural analogs. These kill Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and fungi alone, in combinations with each other, and in combination with low doses of existing, ineffective antibiotics (including Penicillin), "potentiating" them to kill AMR pathogens at doses too low to trigger resistance. Both the U.S. National Institutes for Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD) has executed contracts with Aequor to provide the pre-clinical trials needed for these new drug candidates to enter the regulatory approval pipelines. Aequor seeks partners/licensees to commercialize its specialty chemicals and support to evaluate the optimal methods to scale-up of several new structural analogs via activity-guided fractionation and/or biosynthesis in order to initiate the NIH and DOD pre-clinical trials.

Keywords: biofilm, potentiation, prevention, removal

Procedia PDF Downloads 67