Consistent Model Research Articles

Instrumentation of students’ experience through the active content of science: from epistemic contact to idealizations and back again in school classrooms

ABSTRACT The paper presents an in-depth exploration of the process of the instrumentation of experience within the context of teaching and learning in schools. We focus on the role of cultural instruments, such as scientific tools and practices, in mediating human cognition and transforming students´ experience into active scientific content. The study draws on the concepts of dual mediation and the interplay between denotative and expressive aspects of cognition. We aim to (1) characterise the process of instrumentalizing students’ experience into active scientific content within the classroom and (2) propose a theoretically consistent model of instrumentation of experience for micro-level analysis of teaching and learning based on the construct of content transformation. We propose a micro-level model for analyzing the instrumentation of experience in educational settings, highlighting the interaction between the subjective, intersubjective, and objective content modalities, Kvasz's typology of cultural genesis in science and its operationalisation through five epistemic categories (e.g. cognitive penetrability of imagination). The operational grounding of these categories is illustrated through case study examples. This model serves for micro-analysis of content transformations during teaching and learning and thus to contribute to the enhancement of teaching and learning quality through classroom observations and analytical reflection.

Deep joint inversion of multiple geophysical data with U-net reparameterization

Joint inversion integrates a variety of geophysical data in a unified framework to reveal different subsurface properties. Existing methods often require predefined correlations through mathematical equations or training data sets, heavily relying on prior information. In addition, integrating multiphysics data with different sensitivities is challenging. To address these limitations, we develop a novel approach that uses U-net to autonomously establish correlations during inversion, which yields consistent inverted models across different resolutions. Different properties are represented by U-net parameters and solved by minimizing multimodality data misfits simultaneously. We validate our approach through structure-constrained electromagnetic inversion, joint seismic and gravity inversion, and joint electromagnetic, seismic, and gravity inversion with synthetic data. This study affirms the feasibility of leveraging machine intelligence to autonomously integrate multiple geophysical data for precise subsurface characterization.

Modelling of planetary accretion and core-mantle structure formation

Abstract We advance a thermodynamically consistent model of self-gravitational accretion and differentiation in planets. The system is modeled in actual variables as a compressible thermoviscoelastic fluid in a fixed, sufficiently large domain. The supply of material to the accreting and differentiating system is described as a bulk source of mass, volume, impulse, and energy localized in some border region of the domain. Mass, momentum, and energy conservation, along with constitutive relations, result in an extended compressible Navier–Stokes-Fourier-Poisson system. The centrifugal and Coriolis forces are also considered. After studying some single-component setting, we consider a two-component situation, where metals and silicates mix and differentiate under gravity, eventually forming a core-mantle structure. The energetics of the models are elucidated. Moreover, we prove that the models are stable, in that self-gravitational collapse is excluded. Eventually, we comment on the prospects of devising a rigorous mathematical approximation and existence theory.

Planar or Spatial: Exploring Design Aspects and Challenges for Presentations in Virtual Reality with No-coding Interface

The proliferation of virtual reality (VR) has led to its increasing adoption as an immersive medium for delivering presentations, distinct from other VR experiences like games and 360-degree videos by sharing information in richly interactive environments. However, creating engaging VR presentations remains a challenging and time-consuming task for users, hindering the full realization of VR presentation's capabilities. This research aims to explore the potential of VR presentation, analyze users' opinions, and investigate these via providing a user-friendly no-coding authoring tool. Through an examination of popular presentation software and interviews with seven professionals, we identified five design aspects and four design challenges for VR presentations. Based on the findings, we developed VRStory, a prototype for presentation authoring without coding to explore the design aspects and strategies for addressing the challenges. VRStory offers a variety of predefined and customizable VR elements, as well as modules for layout design, navigation control, and asset generation. A user study was then conducted with 12 participants to investigate their opinions and authoring experience with VRStory. Our results demonstrated that, while acknowledging the advantages of immersive and spatial features in VR, users often have a consistent mental model for traditional 2D presentations and may still prefer planar and static formats in VR for better accessibility and efficient communication. We finally shared our learned design considerations for future development of VR presentation tools, emphasizing the importance of balancing of promoting immersive features and ensuring accessibility.

The reflux phase in monetary circuit theory and stock–flow consistent models

Stock–flow consistent (SFC) modelling and monetary circuit theory (MCT) have many similarities. However, an important difference concerns the reflux phase, during which the credits issued by banks are repaid. This phase is constitutive of MCT models, but does not generally appear explicitly in SFC models. The authors propose here to develop an SFC model in which the bank loans issued at the beginning of a period are explicitly repaid at the end of it. The repayment of long-term bank loans financing investments will then represent a leakage outside the monetary circuit and affect the level of aggregate demand and the dynamics of the model. The authors show that considering these repayments could have a lasting effect on corporate profits, corporate indebtedness, and growth of production. This result suggests that it could be interesting to focus more on the reflux phase within SFC models, taking inspiration from MCT.

View-based axiomatic reasoning for the weak memory models PSO and SRA

Weak memory models describe the semantics of concurrent programs in modern multicore architectures. As these semantics deviate from the commonly assumed model of sequential consistency, reasoning techniques like Owicki-Gries-style proof calculi need to be adapted to specific memory models. To avoid having to design a new proof calculus for every new memory model, a uniform approach for axiomatic reasoning has recently been proposed. This approach bases reasoning on memory-model independent axioms about thread views and how they are changed by program actions like reads and writes. It allows to prove program correctness based on axioms only. Such proofs are valid for all memory models instantiating the axioms.In this paper, we study instantiations of the axioms for two memory models, the Partial Store Order (PSO) and the Strong Release Acquire (SRA) model. We see that both models fulfil all but one axiom, a different one though. For PSO, the missing axiom refers to message-passing abilities of memory models; for SRA, the missing axiom refers to the independence of actions on executing threads. We discuss the consequences of these missing axioms and illustrate the reasoning technique on a specific litmus test.

The Miocene to Quaternary evolution of the Vienna Basin (northeastern part): geodynamics, eustasy, stratigraphy and depositional systems

Long-term research of the Vienna Basin (Central Europe) has resulted in multiple stratigraphic concepts, although these are at least in part mutually exclusive. This contribution aims to reconsider the available information on the northeastern Vienna Basin, located in Slovakia, to create a consistent stratigraphic model. Lithostratigraphic correlations based on benthic taxa – widely used elsewhere – are omitted, since these include inherently diachronous palaeoecological zones. This presumption of diachroneity is further supported by the evidence of shelf-slope scale clinoforms. The following sequences were identified: (1) the Early Miocene wedge-top basin, genetically unrelated to the subsequently formed Vienna Basin – Eggenburgian–Ottnangian cycles are still obscured, and the Karpatian includes two transgressive–regressive cycles; (2) Middle Miocene early Badenian rifting including the Kúty Fm lowstand and Lanžhot Fm, together with the Devínska Nová Ves Fm, comprising transgression and a highstand; (3) Middle Miocene late Badenian rifting including lowstand offshore Jakubov Mbr and transgressive littoral Stupava Fm, followed by the highstand offshore Studienka Mbr passing to normal regressive Matzen delta; (4) Middle Miocene Sarmatian rifting including the basal Kopčany and Radimov Mbrs, the offshore transgressive to regressive Holíč Fm and the highstand normal regressive deltaic Skalica Fm; and (5) supposed Late Miocene rifting with Lake Pannon transgression resulting in the lacustrine Bzenec Fm, followed by the highstand normal regressive deltaic Čáry and alluvial Gbely Fms.

It is not la vie en rose: new insights from Graziani’s theory of the monetary circuit

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it shows how a standard stock–flow consistent model (SFCM) can be modified to embed some fundamental insights from Graziani’s theory of the monetary circuit (TMC). Second, it aims to address some common misconceptions about the TMC. More precisely, it is argued that: (a) a market-clearing price mechanism does not necessarily imply a neoclassical-like closure of the model; (b) the ways in which SFCMs and the TMC define bank loans are mutually consistent, although they are based on different accounting periods; (c) consumer credit is final finance, not initial finance; (d) the paradox of profit is not a logical conundrum, but an abstract counter-factual that allows the shedding of light on a neglected role of government spending; and (e) overall, the TMC can be regarded as a ‘Marxian’ rendition of Keynes’s method of aggregates.

The Role of Servant Leadership, School Culture and Supervision System on Teacher Performance Mediated by Teacher Competence and Moderated by Good Scholl Governance

The research is an observational study aiming to test a model in which the effect of servant leadership as exogenous constructs; school culture and supervision system will affect teacher performance by mediating factor: competency, with oversight moderation variable. If anything, the need for leadership consistency and governance models which described by Inceoglu et al launched differs greatly according to institution of higher education executing research (Indonesian educational context) because how various cultural norms operate in relation to one another impacts teacher efficacy. This study uses a sample that involves different types of schools within Indonesia and applies Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) for the data analysis with focus on measurement properties as well correlations among variables. Results indicate that while effective supervision and governance, servant leadership as well as organizational culture contributes significantly to teaching performance at school; the combination of these elements are needed in nurturing a high-performing education system. Importantly, provision of effective leadership and governance at all levels of the system for ensuring optimum teacher effectiveness is strongly accorded here by this research. Further research is encouraged to investigate these trends and their influence on teacher performance over time using longitudinal methods.

Do gravity data justify a rifted “Liguro-Provençal Basin”?

The geodynamic evolution of the Liguro-Provençal Basin and its crust and upper mantle structure remain debated, especially regarding the role of rifting in continental break-up and seafloor spreading. Our study incorporates updated datasets, including new gravity maps from the AlpArray Gravity Working Group (complete Bouguer, free air, and isostatic anomalies) for 3D modeling and gravity field analysis, seismic data from Lobster offshore campaigns for direct comparison, and geodynamic models, supplemented by seismic profiles from previous French and Italian campaigns to constrain the interpretation. We used GFZ’s IGMAS + software for interactive 3D modeling, creating a density model extending to 300 km depth that includes crustal and upper mantle inhomogeneities based on prior geodynamic models. This hybrid approach, with polygonal structures for the crust and voxels for the upper mantle, clarifies individual contributions to the gravity field. Extending initial gravity modeling from the SPP MB4D project INTEGRATE, our work provides a consistent 3D density model for the Alps and Ligurian Basin. The constrained 3D modeling and numerical analyses (terracing, clustering, filtering, curvature), along with vertical stress and gravitational potential energy calculations, suggest that rifting has significantly influenced the basin’s geological evolution.

Divine foreknowledge, evidence and epistemic responsibility

AbstractIn several recent publications, John Martin Fischer proposed a new solution to the problem of divine foreknowledge, which he dubbed the bootstrapping view. On this view, God can have limited knowledge of contingent future based on a combination of (a) God's knowledge of inconclusive evidence about the contingent world available to humans and (b) divine self‐knowledge and more specifically God's knowledge of His essential infallibility. On the basis of the former, God obtains knowledge about contingent future, and by virtue of the latter, God bootstraps this knowledge to certainty. Fischer acknowledges that the mechanism of bootstrapping remains opaque to us, but maintains that his view offers a consistent model of God's limited foreknowledge of contingent future in an indeterministic world. The essay examines the bootstrapping view and some problems it gives rise to, as well as presents a related model of divine foreknowledge that is consistent and simpler and gives God comprehensive foreknowledge.

Toward reproducible and interoperable environmental modeling: Integration of HydroShare with server-side methods for exposing large-extent spatial datasets to models

Reproducible environmental modelling often relies on spatial datasets as inputs, typically manually subset for specific areas. Yet, models can benefit from a data distribution approach facilitated by online repositories, and automating processes to foster reproducibility. This study introduces a method leveraging diverse state-scale spatial datasets to create cohesive packages for GIS-based environmental modelling. These datasets were generated and shared via GeoServer and THREDDS Data Server connected to HydroShare, contrasting with conventional distribution methods. Using the Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System (RHESSys) across three U.S. catchment-scale watersheds, we demonstrate minimal errors in spatial inputs and model streamflow outputs compared to traditional approaches. This spatial data-sharing method facilitates consistent model creation, fostering reproducibility. Its broader impact allows scientists to tailor the method to various use cases, such as exploring different scales beyond state-scale or applying it to other online repositories using existing data distribution systems, eliminating the need to develop their own.

A Multi-Decadal Hourly Coincident Wind and Solar Power Production Dataset for the Contiguous United States

As renewable energy continues its rapid expansion in the Unites States, multi-decadal hourly datasets of electricity production are needed to asses reliability and resource adequacy of power grids. Recent years have seen the release of grid-cell-level simulated meteorological variables, however these are not extended to the power domain, are not developed from a dynamically consistent numerical weather model, and only cover a historical baseline of less than a decade. To fill this gap, this work provides a dataset of 43 years of coincident plant-level wind and solar power production data. The dataset is designed to be aggregated to appropriate scales of interest for bulk system studies such as Balancing Authorities (BAs), states, and nodes of a production cost model. The dataset covers every plant in the contiguous U.S. that is reported in the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Form 860 as of 2020. When compared with the EIA-923 monthly generation, we find minimal bias (less than 5%). When compared with BA-reported hourly generation, we find low bias in solar (less than 7%), and slight underdispersion in wind. This coincident multi-decadal historical dataset provides a documented and evaluated multi-resource baseline for studies on reliability, resource adequacy, climate change impacts, and characterization of emergent climate threats on renewable resources.

Exploring the decision-making process in model development: focus on the Arctic snowpack

Abstract. The Arctic poses many challenges for Earth system and snow physics models, which are commonly unable to simulate crucial Arctic snowpack processes,such as vapour gradients and rain-on-snow-induced ice layers. These limitations raise concerns about the current understanding of Arctic warming and its impact on biodiversity, livelihoods, permafrost, and the global carbon budget. Recognizing that models are shaped by human choices, 18 Arctic researchers were interviewed to delve into the decision-making process behind model construction. Although data availability, issues of scale, internal model consistency, and historical and numerical model legacies were cited as obstacles to developing an Arctic snowpack model, no opinion was unanimous. Divergences were not merely scientific disagreements about the Arctic snowpack but reflected the broader research context. Inadequate and insufficient resources, partly driven by short-term priorities dominating research landscapes, impeded progress. Nevertheless, modellers were found to be both adaptable to shifting strategic research priorities – an adaptability demonstrated by the fact that interdisciplinary collaborations were the key motivation for model development – and anchored in the past. This anchoring and non-epistemic values led to diverging opinions about whether existing models were “good enough” and whether investing time and effort to build a new model was a useful strategy when addressing pressing research challenges. Moving forward, we recommend that both stakeholders and modellers be involved in future snow model intercomparison projects in order to drive developments that address snow model limitations currently impeding progress in various disciplines. We also argue for more transparency about the contextual factors that shape research decisions. Otherwise, the reality of our scientific process will remain hidden, limiting the changes necessary to our research practice.

Multi-physics modeling of phase change memory operations in Ge-rich Ge2Sb2Te5 alloys

One of the most widely used active materials for phase-change memories (PCM), the ternary stoichiometric compound Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST), has a low crystallization temperature of around 150°C. One solution to achieve higher operating temperatures is to enrich GST with additional germanium. This alloy crystallizes into a polycrystalline mixture of two phases, GST and almost pure germanium. In a previous work [R. Bayle et al., J. Appl. Phys. 128, 185 101 (2020)], this crystallization process was studied using a multi-phase field model (MPFM) with a simplified thermal field calculated by a separate solver. Here, we combine the MPFM and a phase-aware electrothermal solver to achieve a consistent multi-physics model for device operations in PCM. Simulations of memory operations are performed to demonstrate its ability to reproduce experimental observations and the most important calibration curves that are used to assess the performance of a PCM cell.

Automated Robustness Verification of Concurrent Data Structure Libraries against Relaxed Memory Models

Clients reason about the behavior of concurrent data structure libraries such as sets, queues, or stacks using specifications that capture well-understood correctness conditions, such as linearizability. The implementation of these libraries, however, focused as they are on performance, may additionally exploit relaxed memory behavior allowed by the language or underlying hardware that weaken the strong ordering and visibility constraints on shared-memory accesses that would otherwise be imposed by a sequentially consistent (SC) memory model. As an alternative to developing new specification and verification mechanisms for reasoning about libraries under relaxed memory model, we instead consider the orthogonal problem of library robustness , a property that holds when all possible behaviors of a library implementation under relaxed memory model are also possible under SC. In this paper, we develop a new automated technique for verifying robustness of library implementations in the context of a C11-style memory model. This task is challenging because a most-general client may invoke an unbounded number of concurrently executing library operations that can manipulate an unbounded number of shared locations. We establish a novel inductive technique for verifying library robustness that leverages prior work on the robustness problem for the C11 memory model based on the search for a non-robustness witness under SC executions. We crucially rely on the fact that this search is carried out over SC executions, and use high-level SC specifications (including linearizability) of the library to verify the absence of a non-robustness witness. Our technique is compositional - we show how we can safely preserve robustness of multiple interacting library implementations and clients using additional SC fences to guarantee robustness of entire executions. Experimental results on a number of complex realistic library implementations demonstrate the feasibility of our approach.

Thermodynamically consistent model of dislocation-mediated plasticity

ABSTRACT We present a thermodynamically consistent damage theory of deformation where the damage mechanism is determined by the presence of dislocations and their motion is the origin of plasticity. The damage parameter is proportional to the square root of the dislocation density of a network. For the evolution of damage, a gradient-flow equation, which describes the relaxation process of plastic deformation, is derived. Analysis shows that the dislocation-mediated plasticity is an activated process with upper and lower yield points, as opposed to a barrierless plasticity with a single yield point, which may be realised by other mechanisms of deformation. Dislocation nucleation is not a limiting factor of the dislocation-mediated plasticity because the free energy barrier for the nucleation is rather low. Application of the theory to the description of uniaxial deformation revealed many features of the experimentally observed deformation processes of metals, e.g. three stages of strain hardening with various characteristics dependent on the material and rate of loading. Applications of the theory to processes of dynamic loading of materials, which simultaneously undergo phase transformations, can bring deeper understanding of the material behaviour.

A Novel Preclinical Murine Model of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus-Like Cardiovascular Disease.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) affects nine women to every man worldwide, and these patients are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Clinical studies have demonstrated that patients with SLE are more likely to develop CVD, including cardiac and vascular dysfunction. Although many preclinical models of SLE are available, including treatment with Toll-like receptor (TLR) 7/8 agonists, a consistent preclinical model of SLE-like CVD with systemic, cardiac, renal, and cerebral endothelial activation and cardiac dysfunction has yet to be described. Here, we hypothesize that acceleration of SLE with the TLR7/8 agonist resiquimod (R848) will promote cardiac and endothelial activation with subsequent end-stage organ damage in the SLE-prone B6.Nba2 mouse model. Female and male SLE-prone B6.Nba2 mice were treated with R848 or acetone, administered topically twice weekly over a four-week period, to accelerate the development of SLE-like pathophysiology. Echocardiography was performed at baseline, 4 weeks, and 16 weeks. At 16 weeks, tissues were harvested, weighed, and analyzed by histology, immunofluorescence, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. We found that female R848-treated mice had increased serum anti-Smith and immunoglobulin G complex deposition in the kidney, heart, and brain consistent with SLE-like etiology. Tissue analysis revealed significant enlargement of the spleen in both female and male R848-treated mice, with only cardiac and renal enlargement in females compared to their respective controls. Echocardiographic imaging revealed left ventricular wall thickening by 4 weeks that was followed by a progressive increase in left ventricular internal diameters and subsequent decrease in ejection fraction over the 16-week time course in female mice. We found that circulating levels of soluble vascular adhesion molecule-1 and soluble intracellular adhesion molecule-1 were increased in both female and male R848-treated mice, whereas cardiac and renal fibrosis were significantly increased in only female R848-treated mice. Our data demonstrate that R848 treatment of SLE-prone B6.Nba2 mice is a novel preclinical model to study the sex-dependent pathophysiologic mechanisms of SLE-like CVD.

The Effect of Ethanol on Rotator Cuff Repairs in a Rodent Model

BackgroundAlcohol consumption is a significant risk factor for both the occurrence and severity of rotator cuff tears. However, there is limited supporting evidence to suggest alcohol use is associated with suboptimal outcomes following operative repair of rotator cuff tears. Rat shoulders have been demonstrated as consistent and reliable models for studying rotator cuff disease. Hypothesis/PurposePerioperative alcohol exposure will negatively impact biomechanical and histologic properties of surgically repaired rotator cuffs in rats. MethodsRats were randomized to receive a 20% ethanol or isocaloric control solution as their primary source of drinking water. A tenotomy of the supraspinatus tendon from bone was performed surgically and then immediately repaired with a transosseous technique. Following surgery, rats were continued on the same exposure solution until animals were humanely euthanized at 7, 14, or 21 days postoperatively. The surgically-repaired shoulders underwent biomechanical testing to assess load to failure and failure strain. Histological evaluation of tendon-to-bone healing was performed by a blinded pathologist using a qualitative grading system. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) on total RNA from tendon-to-bone interface tissue was performed to quantify the mRNA expression of Type I & III collagen, and transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-B1) & 3 (TGF-B3) at the repair site. ResultsBiomechanical testing showed that repaired shoulder constructs in rats exposed to ethanol had significantly lower load to failure at 7 days postop relative to repairs in rats exposed to a control solution. No other biomechanical parameters or time points reached statistical significance. TGF-B3 mRNA expression was found in significantly higher quantities at the repair sites of rats exposed to ethanol at 7 days postop relative to control rat repair sites. No other time points or factors reached statistical significance. No significant differences were identified amongst time points or groups at the healing tendon-to-bone interface. ConclusionAlcohol exposure significantly decreases biomechanical load to failure of rotator cuff repairs in the early postoperative period in rat models. In the later postoperative period, alcohol exposure was not associated with a decrease in biomechanical load to failure compared to controls. Additionally, rats exposed to ethanol have significantly higher TGF-B3 expression at repair sites on postoperative day 7. This data suggests that ethanol consumption does deleteriously affect rotator cuff and bone healing. Future study is needed to validate the clinical significance of these findings in humans.

Collaborative Teaching and Curricular Integration in Pre-Intern Clinical Placements: Insights from the Greater Bay Area.

The rising demand for knowledge updates and technological innovations in China has made clinical placement teaching challenging. Reforms for innovative teaching models through pilot classes have shown to improve students' academic performance. This novel integration led to the announcement of healthcare collaboration in the Guangdong-Hong-Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for projects within China's "Global-Innovation-Hub" zones. First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) in Guangzhou and the Faculty of Medicine (FMD) of Macau University of Science & Technology (MUST) in Macau have developed an inaugural project for FMD/MUST medical students to perform pre-internships at FAH-SYSU. This study aimed to reflect on students' experiences with collaborative teaching and learning through medical curricular integration in the "Global-Innovation-Hub" zones designed by both institutions for developing integrated curriculum. FMD/MUST students attended medical clerkships at FAH-SYSU using a system-integrated curriculum in China's "Global-Innovation-Hub" zones, allowing different education systems at different locations. Post-clerkship surveys ranked teaching models in conjunction with written reflections in response to post-clerkship questionnaires for all participating students. The teaching models were defined by the way supervisors' interaction with students, and written reflections in response to the post-clerkship questionnaire were descriptively and semantically analysed. The top-ranked teaching models include first "Student-led consultation under supervision in observers' chair with discussion", second "Observe consultation and discuss with the teacher in-between patients in observers' chair" and third "Student-led consultation under supervision in consultants' chair with discussion". The post-clerkship questionnaires showed positive outcomes. This study demonstrates the successful delivery of collaborative teaching and learning through medical curricular integration in China's "Global-Innovation-Hub" zones. This integration enables the development of a consistent and student-preferred teaching model being introduced into clinical placement curriculum. The unique location of China's "Global-Innovation-Hub" zones in the Guangdong-Hong-Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area allows this integration to significantly improve students' clinical reasoning learning.