Search Results (38)

This paper reviews social science studies of emergency evacuations to point to the difficulties in associating them with panic formulations stressing irrationality and to show how the misunderstandings that how the conceptualization of one of these approaches on panic flight, which assumes the prevalence of nonsocial and self-centered behaviors and movements, has been transformed by recent studies of emergency evacuations from buildings, which show that the evacuation is best understood as social behavior in which people exhibit means-end rationality and social solidarity and act as socialized individuals moving towards sources of actual or perceived safety. The conclusion suggests first that the continued usage of the irrationality formulation by a minority of engineers and computer scientists writing on the topic of emergency evacuation and their use of “herding,” or the notion that during dangerous conditions, people follow the actions of others, leading to conformity, is not supported by a majority of findings in the social sciences, and second, that a likely solution to the disconnect between the two science communities is the adoption of transdisciplinary collaborative efforts. Full article

Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled the creation of AI-generated characters modeled after historical figures, offering new opportunities for reflective and interactive engagement in both cultural heritage and education. This study explores the development and evaluation of a large language model representation of Joseph Lister (1827–1912), a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, within a retrieval-augmented generation framework. The purpose was to examine the model’s accuracy, authenticity, and reliability, highlighting challenges, best practices, and ethical considerations. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, including Lister’s writings, the model was constructed using OpenAI’s GPT-4o and refined through iterative validation. Prompts were categorized by cognitive complexity, and responses were evaluated against historical materials. The findings revealed a strong fidelity to Lister’s voice, with appropriate tone, diction, and temporal limits. Moreover, the model demonstrated behavioral control, reflective depth, and consistency across the different prompts. However, minor lapses in temporal framing and occasional embellishments were noted. The findings suggest that, when developed with care, AI-generated characters can support ethically grounded, historically sensitive learning experiences. At the same time, this approach warrants continued scrutiny and underscores the need for further interdisciplinary research and responsible implementation. Full article

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming medical education by enabling adaptive tutoring, interactive simulation, diagnostic enhancement, and competency-based assessment. This narrative review explores how AI has influenced learning processes in undergraduate and postgraduate medical training, focusing on methodological rigor, educational impact, and implementation challenges. The literature reveals promising results: large language models can generate didactic content and foster academic writing; AI-driven simulations enhance decision-making, procedural skills, and interprofessional communication; and deep learning systems improve diagnostic accuracy in visually intensive tasks such as radiology and histology. Despite promising findings, the existing literature is methodologically heterogeneous. A minority of studies use controlled designs, while the majority focus on short-term effects or are confined to small, simulated cohorts. Critical limitations include algorithmic opacity, generalizability concerns, ethical risks (e.g., GDPR compliance, data bias), and infrastructural barriers, especially in low-resource contexts. Additionally, the unregulated use of AI may undermine critical thinking, foster cognitive outsourcing, and compromise pedagogical depth if not properly supervised. In conclusion, AI holds substantial potential to enhance medical education, but its integration requires methodological robustness, human oversight, and ethical safeguards. Future research should prioritize multicenter validation, longitudinal evaluation, and AI literacy for learners and educators to ensure responsible and sustainable adoption. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education by offering new strategies to address persistent challenges in equity, access, and instructional capacity—particularly within Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). This review documents a faculty-led, interdisciplinary initiative at the University of La Verne (ULV), an HSI in Southern California, to explore GenAI’s integration across biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Adopting an exploratory qualitative design, this study synthesizes faculty-authored vignettes with peer-reviewed literature to examine how GenAI is being piloted as a scaffold for inclusive pedagogy. Across disciplines, faculty-reported benefits such as simplifying complex content, enhancing multilingual comprehension, and expanding access to early-stage research and technical writing. At the same time, limitations—including factual inaccuracies, algorithmic bias, and student over-reliance—underscore the importance of embedding critical AI literacy and ethical reflection into instruction. The findings highlight equity-driven strategies that position GenAI as a complement, not a substitute, for disciplinary expertise and culturally responsive pedagogy. By documenting diverse, practice-based applications, this review provides a flexible framework for integrating GenAI ethically and inclusively into undergraduate STEM instruction. The insights extend beyond HSIs, offering actionable pathways for other minority-serving and resource-constrained institutions. Full article

Objectives: The present study examined the sensory preferences adopted by students over three years of training in a specialized training program for security forces (STPSF). It determines their impact on karate performance metrics. Methods: Thirty-one students aged 20 to 26 (SD = 0.81) completed the modified Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic questionnaire (VARK), a tool designed to help identify students’ preferred learning styles. This research suggests a theoretical model in which the balanced and optimal engagement of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities rather than a strict mathematical equation might provide an optimal foundation for improving proficiency in martial arts. Balanced engagement of these sensory modalities can foster a deeper understanding of karate techniques, improve performance, minimize dependence on a single sensory channel, and bolster real-time adaptability. The students were tested at two points: once at the beginning of their enrolment and again after completing their three-year training program. Results: After a relatively intensive intervention over three years, the findings suggest a positive shift in the ratio of the primary modalities, moving toward an optimal balance. Considering the ideal sensory balance of 50:50:50%, the visual modality increased from 45.8 to 50.4, approaching the optimal value. The auditory modality, initially above the ideal level at 53.8, adjusted closer to balance, reaching 51.9. In contrast, the kinesthetic modality slightly decreased from 50 to 47.5, indicating a minor deviation from the ideal state. It was further confirmed that a higher technical level, such as the third kyu, exhibits an equal distribution, approaching the optimal use of the three modalities: visual 51.5 auditory 47.6 and kinesthetic 50.7. Moreover, the progress toward an optimal synergy and a more efficient evaluation of situational possibilities within the decision-making process was more frequently noted in females than in male students. Conclusions: Acknowledging students’ sensory processing preferences can assist the teacher, trainer, coach, and student in advancing interaction, optimizing learning strategies, improving performance, promoting analytical skills, and fostering self-assurance and determination. Full article

This paper examines Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s reflections on knowledge and universities over sixty-five years, focusing on the constant features in his thought by analyzing his first and last pronouncements on these topics. Rather than summarizing all his writings, the author provides a comparative analysis of Ratzinger’s early address in 1959 as a newly appointed professor at the University of Bonn and his later speeches as Pope. In the 1959 lecture, Ratzinger talked about the challenge of modern secularism, emphasizing an increasing split between faith and reason and the growth of “neo-paganism” within the Church, while also highlighting the implication of technological globalization that was going to reshape the role of Christian universities in the modern world. The paper further develops how Ratzinger’s concerns evolved, particularly his critique of the rupture between faith and reason and the secularization of the Church, up to his reflections in 2022 on how Christian universities must maintain a connection with faith and reason. Drawing on Ratzinger’s lifelong exploration of these issues, this paper points out three constant features of his thought: the imperative of the integration of faith and reason at universities, “creative minorities” as an imperative internally, both in the Church and at the level of academia; and the specific chance given by contemporary secularization to Christian universities for a renewal of their educational mission. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools developed to support teaching and learning are widely available. Trustworthiness concerns, however, have prompted calls for researchers to study their effectiveness and for educators and educational researchers to be involved in their creation and piloting processes. This study investigated one type of GenAI created to support educators: multiple-choice question generators (MCQ GenAI). Among the nine MCQ GenAI tools investigated, a variety of useful options were available, but only one indicated teacher involvement and none mentioned testing experts in development processes. MCQ GenAI-created items (n = 270) were coded based on MCQ quality item-writing guidelines. Results showed 80.00% of items (n = 216) violated at least one guideline, with 73.70% (n = 199) likely to produce major measurement error (should not use without revision), 6.30% (n = 17) likely to elicit minor measurement error (consider modifying), and 20.00% (n = 54) acceptable (usable as created). Implications suggest multidisciplinary teams are needed in educational GenAI tool development. Full article

The critical charge of sensitive nodes decreases as transistors scale down with the advancement of CMOS technology, making SRAM cells more susceptible to soft errors in the space industry. When a radiation particle strikes a sensitive node of a conventional 6T SRAM cell, a single event upset (SEU) can occur, flipping in the stored data in the cell. Additionally, charge sharing between transistors can cause single-event multi-node upsets (SEMNUs), where data in multiple nodes are flipped simultaneously due to a single particle strike. Therefore, this paper proposes a radiation-hardened high stability 16T (RHHS16T) cell for space applications. The characteristics of RHHS16T are evaluated and compared with previously proposed radiation-hardened SRAM cells such as QUCCE12T, WEQUATRO, RHBD10T, RHD12T, RSP14T, RHPD14T, and RHBD14T. Simulation results for RHHS16T indicated that the proposed cell demonstrates improved performance in read stability, write access time, and write stability compared to all comparison cells. These improvements in the proposed cell are achieved with higher power consumption and a minor area penalty. Notably, isolating the storage node from the bit line during read operations and the feedback loop between nodes during write operations enables the proposed RHHS16T to achieve enhanced read stability and write stability, respectively. The proposed integrated circuit was implemented using a 90 nm CMOS process and operates at a supply voltage of 1V. Furthermore, RHHS16T provides high immunity against SEUs and SEMNUs. Through its enhanced read and write stability, it ensures reliable data retention for space applications. Full article

The absence of female writing forms a particularly striking gap in the historiography of German-language literature in the Czech Lands during the decades around 1900. Women participated significantly in the literary scene of the period but were largely forgotten. Our article will discuss the conditions and discourses that enabled women to be active in the public space but later led to their absence in literary history. Approaches are sought that make future inclusion possible again. The first step for (re-)establishing a female presence in this area is to reconstruct biographies with a focus on female-specific social realities at the time and on the interaction of cultural, social and historical factors. In the next step, attention is brought to the “minor” or “simple”, rather non-canonical literary genres that were often used by women authors at the fin de siècle. Full article

Thermoresponsive hydrogels were 3D-printed with embedded gold nanorods (GNRs), which enable shape change through photothermal heating. GNRs were functionalized with bovine serum albumin and mixed with a photosensitizer and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) macromer, forming an ink for 3D printing by direct ink writing. A macromer-based approach was chosen to provide good microstructural homogeneity and optical transparency of the unloaded hydrogel in its swollen state. The ink was printed into an acetylated gelatin hydrogel support matrix to prevent the spreading of the low-viscosity ink and provide mechanical stability during printing and concurrent photocrosslinking. Acetylated gelatin hydrogel was introduced because it allows for melting and removal of the support structure below the transition temperature of the crosslinked PNIPAAm structure. Convective and photothermal heating were compared, which both triggered the phase transition of PNIPAAm and induced reversible shrinkage of the hydrogel–GNR composite for a range of GNR loadings. During reswelling after photothermal heating, some structures formed an internally buckled state, where minor mechanical agitation recovered the unbuckled structure. The BSA-GNRs did not leach out of the structure during multiple cycles of shrinkage and reswelling. This work demonstrates the promise of 3D-printed, photoresponsive structures as hydrogel actuators. Full article

In this work, a 3D printing methodology based on the robocasting of catalytic ink pastes was applied to obtain structured matrix-like cylinders as innovative materials for an effective utilization of carbon dioxide. The influence of three different binders (i.e., PEI, HPMC and MC) on the physio-chemical, mechanical and catalytic properties of multi-channel monoliths was studied against a reference binder-free powdered system in order to envisage the effectiveness of the printing procedure in realizing hybrid advanced materials at a higher control and reproducibility than from traditional preparation techniques. In terms of textural and structural properties, the micro-extruded 3D cylinders only evidenced a slight difference in terms of relative crystallinity, with minor effects on the surface area exposure in relation to the specific binder used during the direct ink writing process. More importantly, the typology of binder significantly affected the rheological properties of the catalytic ink, with the need of a controlled viscosity to ensure a suitable thixotropic behaviour of the extrudable pastes, finally determining an optimal mechanical resistance of the final 3D monolith. The experimental validation of the hybrid multi-channel cylinders under conditions of CO₂ hydrogenation demonstrated the great potential of additive manufacturing in the realization of catalyst architectures characterized by unique features and fidelity scarcely reproducible via conventional synthetic techniques. Full article

Antilogies, or pairs of symmetrically opposed speeches or arguments, were generally ignored by Plato, Isocrates, Aristotle, Cicero, and Diogenes Laertius, and, later, by Eduard Norden, Hermann Diels, and most modern scholars of antiquity. As a consequence, until the end of the twentieth century CE, antilogies have been ignored or, at best, treated as a minor literary device to be mentioned only with reference to individual writings. Nevertheless, during the second half of the fifth century, antilogies were a crucially important form of argument and persuasion in ‘sophistic’ thought, philosophy, historiography, comedy and tragedy, and other fields. In order to redress the historical neglect of the art of antilogy, this essay provides an inventory (doubtless incomplete) of some 30 antilogies composed by playwrights such as Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides, and, most importantly, ‘sophists’ such as Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus and Antiphon (in addition to a few other writers of the same period). Building on this inventory, the second part of the essay seeks to establish identifying features of antilogy and assess its cultural significance in the Athenian context (in the second half of the fifth century BCE). Full article

The ubiquity of mobile technologies has sparked interest in their potential impact. However, current research predominantly concentrates on adults, neglecting the younger demographic that is more profoundly immersed in mobile technologies. To bridge this gap, this study introduces a specialized instructional design, integrating the widely used application Duolingo into English classes, to explore the ramifications of mobile technologies on the academic performance and social presence of high school students in their initial years. Conducted within a private school where English is mandatory, the research adopts a mixed-method approach, with quantitative and qualitative facets. Data collection comprises a needs analysis, a standardized English test (KET), a social presence scale and follow-up interviews. Participants were selected using purposive sampling, 16 students each for the experimental and control groups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight voluntary participants. Analysis techniques, including t-tests for the social presence scale, descriptive analysis for interviews, and grading for exam results were applied. Noteworthy distinctions in students’ academic performances were revealed through effect size measurements in writing (0.78), listening (1.01), and speaking (0.82), with a minor change in reading (−0.1). Additionally, a significant variation in social presence emerged (t = −9.194; p < 0.05). Qualitative themes emerged, highlighting Duolingo’s entertainment value, curriculum alignment, content diversity, accessibility, parental consent, and teacher guidance. Quantitative results demonstrated Duolingo’s positive impact on academic performance, while qualitative insights reflected students’ enthusiasm for its integration. Findings invite a critical examination of the role of such technologies, prompting inquiries into their potential advantages and challenges. Full article

The colonial visual archive has occupied in recent decades the work of scholars and artists from indigenous and racial minority communities, who revealed it as a major apparatus of historical meta-narratives. This article aims at pushing forward this preoccupation by revealing an additional scene: the art of Mizrahi women, descendants of Jewish communities of Arab and Muslim countries. Relying on a visual culture approach and focusing on an analysis of artworks by Mizrahi artist Vered Nissim, as well as on photographs of Mizrahi women, fund in Zionist archives, I demonstrate how Nissim’s work challenges the racial category of Mizrahi women as “natural workers”, constructed in the Zionist historical meta-narrative. Nissim does so by re-enacting the category’s paradigmatic visual image—the Mizrahi women cleaning worker—in a different way, visually and discursively. Body, voice, and visual image, three instances of the subjectivity of Mizrahi women cleaning workers that were separated, shaped, and mediated through Zionist colonial visual archives unite in Nissim’s work when embodied by a real Mizrahi woman cleaning worker: her mother, Esther Nissim. By casting her mother to play herself over the past twenty years, Nissim creates political conditions for the appearance of her mother as the author of her own history as she orally, bodily, and visually writes it in front of her daughter’s camera. Thus, Nissim joins a transnational phenomenon of global south artists who create political conditions enabling the self-imaging of colonized peoples, empowering the reading of colonial imagery and the historical meta-narratives attached to it through their situated knowledge and lived experience and, thus, constructing a counter history communicated visually. Full article

Background: Enhancement of diversity within the U.S. research workforce is a recognized need and priority at a national level. Existing comprehensive programs, such as the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI), have the dual focus of building institutional research capacity and promoting investigator self-efficacy through mentoring and training. Methods: A qualitative comparative analysis was used to identify the combination of factors that explain the success and failure to submit a grant proposal by investigators underrepresented in biomedical research from the RCMI and non-RCMI institutions. The records of 211 participants enrolled in the NRMN Strategic Empowerment Tailored for Health Equity Investigators (NRMN-SETH) program were reviewed, and data for 79 early-stage, underrepresented faculty investigators from RCMI (n = 23) and non-RCMI (n = 56) institutions were included. Results: Institutional membership (RCMI vs. non-RCMI) was used as a possible predictive factor and emerged as a contributing factor for all of the analyses. Access to local mentors was predictive of a successful grant submission for RCMI investigators, while underrepresented investigators at non-RCMI institutions who succeeded with submitting grants still lacked access to local mentors. Conclusion: Institutional contexts contribute to the grant writing experiences of investigators underrepresented in biomedical research. Full article