Digital Badges: A Focus on Skill Acquisition

Statement of the issue: There has been a trend in higher education to focus less on content coverage and to instead focus on student skill development. Digital badges represent one approach to focus on student demonstration of skill. Badges provide students with opportunities to learn, practice and ultimately be assessed on demonstration of a skill. Description of the project: Social work faculty designed two social work courses to incorporate badging exercise. The course required students to complete badges in areas such as self-care, utilization of APA citations, uploading videos into Canvas, and other skills necessary for students to succeed. Rather than have class discussion or lecture on this content, students completed a series of exercises outlined in the badge requirements to receive credit in the course. Description of the outcome: Students who completed the requirements of a badge actually had to demonstrate the desired skill. As students practiced and demonstrated this skill, they left the course not just knowing about a specific content area such as self-care, but with an ability to actually practice self-care. Additionally, the social work department has considered utilizing badges to ensure student capacity around skills that are not specifically covered in any single course Importance: Attendees will be able to describe how they could develop badges to enhance their courses Attendees will be able to articulate how badges can shift the focus from content to be covered to skills to be demonstrated Attendees will be able to outline the benefits of badges to assist students in acquiring necessary skills in a given discipline and document actual mastery of a given skill Suggested Audience: Faculty Presentation Needs: Non

Development and characterization of MgO and TiO2 reinforced Steel Ceramic Composites resistant to long-term contact with liquid aluminum alloys

The PhD thesis provides detailed description of a successful development of MgO and TiO2 particle reinforced Steel Ceramic Composites (SCC) for molten aluminum alloy applications. For this purpose, the influence of MgO and TiO2 addition and subsequent pre-oxidation surface treatment on the structure of SCCs and their corrosion resistance against long-term contact with liquid aluminum alloys was investigated. The initiation and progression of corrosion processes were thoroughly analyzed by means of newly developed DSC-aided corrosion tests, high temperature electrochemical studies and adapted wettability measurements. The gained insights led to the recognition of most important factors contributing to the corrosion, including both the electrochemical and the chemical driving forces arising between the SCCs and aluminum alloy. The evaluation of long-term corrosion resistance was performed with the help of finger immersion tests, crucible corrosion tests and subsequent SEM/EDS/EBSD and XRD analyses aiming at the determination of elements most prone to the dissolution in the liquid aluminum alloy and formation of corrosion phases. The pre-oxidized MgO reinforced SCC revealed superior corrosion resistance, being capable of withstanding more than 168 h of contact with liquid aluminum alloy.:Table of content 1 Introduction 1 2 Theoretical background 5 2.1 Wettability measurements 5 2.2 Electrochemical behavior of SCC/molten aluminum alloy material pair 8 2.3 Steel-based materials/molten aluminum alloy reaction 13 2.4 Long-term corrosion mechanisms 16 2.5 Differential Scanning Calorimetry for corrosion precipitation analysis 18 2.6 Corrosion of steel and SCCs during long-term contact with aluminum alloys 19 2.7 Protective coatings and surface treatment of steel and Steel Ceramic Composites 21 2.7.1 Protective coatings against molten aluminum alloys 21 2.7.2 Oxidation kinetics 22 3 Materials and Methods 25 3.1 Materials and Composites Manufacturing 26 3.2 Investigation of corrosion phase formation via DSC-aided corrosion tests 29 3.3 High temperature electrochemical studies 30 3.4 Elaboration of suitable surface pre oxidation for SCCs 33 3.5 Wettability Tests 34 3.6 Finger immersion tests 35 3.7 Crucible Corrosion Tests 36 4 Results and Discussion 41 4.1 Investigation of corrosion phase formation using DSC-aided corrosion tests 41 4.1.1 Determination of reference information for DSC-aided corrosion test 41 4.1.2 Influence of the sample/melt contact duration on the alteration of DSC signal – elaboration of suitable corrosion test conditions. 44 4.1.3 Investigation of 120 min contact time between 316L40TiO2 and 316L40MgO Steel Ceramic Composites with aluminum alloy on the formation of corrosion phases in the melt 47 4.1.4 SEM/EDS microscopical analysis of 316L sample after DSC-aided corrosion test with AlSi7Mg0.3 aluminum alloy for 120 min 51 4.1.5 SEM/EDS microscopical analysis of 316L40TiO2 sample after DSC-aided corrosion test with AlSi7Mg0.3 aluminum alloy for 120 min 53 4.1.6 SEM/EDS microscopical analysis of 316L40MgO sample after DSC-aided corrosion test with AlSi7Mg0.3 aluminum alloy for 120 min 55 4.2 High temperature electrochemical studies of SCCs 60 4.2.1 Evaluation of thermal and chemical stability of selected three-electrode cell materials 60 4.2.2 Differential Potential 61 4.2.3 Impedance Spectroscopy and Potentiodynamic Polarization 64 4.2.4 Microscopical analysis of WE after the electrochemical experiment 68 4.3 Surface treatment of SCCs 79 4.3.1 Dilatometry and Thermogravimetry of SCCs during pre-oxidation 79 4.3.2 Preliminary evaluation of morphology of the SCCs cross-section after pre oxidation at different temperatures and for different durations 83 4.3.3 Detailed SEM/EDS/XRD structure analysis of selected pre-oxidized SCCs 87 4.4 Wettability of aluminum alloy on SCCs 102 4.4.1 Characterization of substrates surface 102 4.4.2 Wetting angle at the drop release 102 4.4.3 Wetting angle 30 min after reaching 850 °C 104 4.4.4 Evaluation of the droplet/substrate cross-section 105 4.5 Finger Immersion Tests 107 4.5.1 Preliminary evaluation of peroxidized SCCs after immersion test 107 4.5.2 Analysis of 316L40TiO2 immersion sample pre oxidized at 850 °C for 24 h 111 4.5.3 Analysis of 316L40TiO2 immersion sample pre-oxidized at 1000 °C for 24 h 112 4.5.4 Analysis of 316L40MgO immersion sample pre oxidized at 850 °C for 24 h 113 4.5.5 Analysis of 316L40MgO immersion sample pre-oxidized at 1000 C for 24 h 114 4.6 Crucible Corrosion Tests 115 4.6.1 Preliminary evaluation of crucible corrosion test results 115 4.6.2 Analysis of 316L40TiO2 sample pre oxidized at 850 °C for 24 h after the crucible corrosion test for 24 h 119 4.6.3 Analysis of 316L40TiO2 sample pre-oxidized at 1000 °C for 24 h after the crucible corrosion test for 168 h 120 4.6.4 Analysis of 316L40MgO sample pre-oxidized at 850 °C for 24 h after the crucible corrosion test for 24 h 122 4.6.5 Analysis of 316L40MgO sample pre-oxidized at 1000 °C for 24 h after the crucible corrosion test for 168 h 125 4.6.6 Analysis of the microstructure of aluminum alloy after crucible corrosion tests 128 4.6.7 Evaluation of contamination of aluminum alloy after crucible corrosion tests 133 Conclusions 137 References 145 Appendixes 161 Appendix A: Preliminary Investigations 161 A.1: Preparation of SCC granulates 161 A.2: Evaluation of properties of composites pressed from granulates 162 Appendix B: Constructions and Designs 169 B.1. Three-Electrode Cell – for high temperature electrochemical measurements with molten aluminum alloys as reference electrode 169 B.2. Capillary System – for capillary purification technique wettability measurements with aluminum alloys 177 Appendix C: Auxiliary Investigations 184 C.1 Detailed SEM/EDS analysis of pre-oxidized SCCs 184 C.2 SEM/EDS analysis of SCCs after 96 h Finger Immersion Tests in aluminum alloy 20

A Lock Upon All Conduct: Modesty in German Courtly Literature (c. 1175-1220)

This dissertation examines notions of modesty in behavior and appearance as represented in romance and conduct literature of the German Middle Ages. I look to the Winsbecke poems and Thomasin von Zirclaria\u27s Der Welsche Gast as representative samples of conduct literature, considering them alongside the four core courtly romances: Hartman von Aue\u27s Iwein and Erec, Gottfried von Strassburg\u27s Tristan, and Wolfram von Eschenbach\u27s Parzival. The project is guided by four central areas of inquiry. First, I investigate the cleavage between the two genres of romance and conduct literature, exploring the ways in which they cling to each other as reference points and split off from the other\u27s constructs. Second, I pay close attention to gender differences in the practice of modesty, investigating precisely what they are and how they structure gender roles and courtly identity. My third area of emphasis traces the ways in which sight and the body engage with notions of modesty. Finally, I examine the relevant changes the German romance authors make to their French source material. My analysis relies on three primary keywords in locating medieval modesty (zuht, kiusch, and scham), and explores the intersections between scham shame and scham modesty. I show that, compared to the French originals, the German romances demonstrate a far greater interest in the display of the naked or partially naked body. These scenes, which appear with regularity, follow particular patterns according to gender: for example, a naked man is uncourtly, but a partially-naked woman has a high status. Gender is also a determining factor in the overall importance of modesty, particularly as seen in conduct literature: for a man, it is one of several critical components for knightly success, while for a woman, it provides the fundamental structure for her life. I also find unexpected complexities in the relationship between romance and conduct literature. Each genre has its distinct areas of permissiveness and regulation with regard to modest behavior

The study of the vocal cords in the process of stuttering

Stuttering is a disorder of fluency, occurring in both children and adults. It prevents free and smooth transition from one articulation to another, and to maintain an appropriate pace, rhythm and intonation of speech. Pathological stuttering is accompanied by physiological symptoms, often combined with co-movements of the body, face, hyperactivity and spasticity. Emotionally it affects communication and social language. Inability to speak liquid leads to tension and stress of speaking. In problems of medical diagnosis, including planning and monitoring the therapy and rehabilitation of voice organs or speech-related organs, it is necessary to evaluate the qualitative features of the acoustic signal of deformed speech

Development of an intelligent motion controller and its application to the automation of a McBain-Bakr balance

This paper presents a modular approach to motion control using a microconlroller-based stepper motor driver. As an application of the driver, an inexpensive and portable one-dimensional robot was built to automate an existing experimental setup for measurement of adsorption isotherms using the McBain-Bakr technique. Automatic recording of position versus time yields data for the sludy of adsorption/desorption dynamics

Data-driven inverse dynamics modeling using neural-networks and regression-based techniques

This research proposes a novel approach for the residual modeling of inverse dynamics employed to control a real robotic device. Specifically, we use techniques based on linear regression for residual modeling while a nominal model is discovered by physics-informed neural networks such as the Lagrangian Neural Network and the Feedforward Neural Network. We introduce an efficient online learning mechanism for the residual models that utilizes rank-one updates based on the Sherman–Morrison formula. This enables faster adaptation and updates to effects not captured by the neural networks. While the time complexity of updating the model is comparable to other successful learning methods, the method excels in prediction complexity, which depends solely on the model dimension. We propose two online learning strategies: a weighted approach that gradually diminishes the influence of past measurements on the model, and a windowed approach that sharply excludes the oldest data from impacting the model. We explore the relationship between these strategies, offering recommendations for parameter selection and practical application. Special attention is given to optimizing the computation time of the weighted approach when recomputation techniques are implemented, which results in comparable or even lower execution times of the weighted controller than the windowed one. Additionally, we assess other methods, such as the Woodbury identity, QR decomposition, and Cholesky decomposition, which can be implicitly used to update the model. We empirically validate our approach using real data from a 2-degrees-of-freedom flexible manipulator, demonstrating consistent improvements in feedforward controller performance.</p

Enhancing Machine Learning-Based Feedforward Control of 2-DOF Flexure Manipulator: Benefits of Time-Delay Embedding

This research uses machine learning techniques to enhance a feedforward controller for a fully actuated 2 degrees of freedom manipulator with flexure joints. The foundation of the controller is a combination of the Lagrangian Neural Network to model the system’s conservative forces and the Feedforward Neural Network to simulate non-conservative ones. To address the limitations of both networks in precisely modeling the reproducible part of these forces, we introduce the weighted least-squares method with regularization, which maps the system’s configurations to the residue of control signals (error) and adjusts the model with rank-1 updates. Inevitable trade-offs apply when one uses Time-Delay Embedding, but the preliminary results indicate its feasibility in application to improve the used error learning approach