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This session will engage participants in an activity to explore pancake engineering that connects to middle school math, science, and ELA content. Assessment and the CER framework will be discussed. Bring your own fork and coffee and join us!

This work sought to enforce aromatic interactions between compatible π-molecular orbital systems with ionic bonding. In this case the interacting partners are oppositely charged discotic triangulene derivatives. The observed properties of the heterodimeric ion-pairs likely arise due to a hypothetical synergy between electrostatics and π-interactions. The work presented here describes investigation of putative covalency arising from this hypothetical synergy in the electrostatics driven π-stacking. In order to probe this, various hypotheses were made and experiments were designed to test their validity. The results from the experiments show existence of contact ion-pairs and complex solvent-separated discotic ions in solution. The formation of complex ion-pairs arise due to the fact that the electrostatic interaction that brings the discotic ions together is strong, but does not neutralize when the contact is made. So, the dipole created by the monopoles in a dimeric contact ion-pair can attract ions at both termini forming oligomers. This process apparently continues towards highly aggregated states and then to nanometric species and at some point the material precipitates. The propensity to aggregate and form complex-ions limited our approach to the measurement of the energetics of the ion-pairing for two reasons: (1) the observables had a complex dependence on temperature, solvent, concentration and ionic strength; and (2) the mass in solution was undergoing kinetic evolution towards solid states. The turbidimetric effects arising due to aggregate formation further complicated the extraction of weak interactions between the ions and hence effects determination of ion-pairing constants.

As AI has begun to reach out beyond its symbolic, objectivist roots into the embodied, experientialist realm, many projects are exploring different aspects of creating machines which interact with and respond to the world as humans do. Techniques for visual processing, object recognition, emotional response, gesture production and recognition, etc., are necessary components of a complete humanoid robot. However, most projects invariably concentrate on developing a few of these individual components, neglecting the issue of how all of these pieces would eventually fit together. The focus of the work in this dissertation is on creating a framework into which such specific competencies can be embedded, in a way that they can interact with each other and build layers of new functionality. To be of any practical value, such a framework must satisfy the real-world constraints of functioning in real-time with noisy sensors and actuators. The humanoid robot Cog provides an unapologetically adequate platform from which to take on such a challenge. This work makes three contributions to embodied AI. First, it offers a general-purpose architecture for developing behavior-based systems distributed over networks of PC's. Second, it provides a motor-control system that simulates several biological features which impact the development of motor behavior. Third, it develops a framework for a system which enables a robot to learn new behaviors via interacting with itself and the outside world. A few basic functional modules are built into this framework, enough to demonstrate the robot learning some very simple behaviors taught by a human trainer. A primary motivation for this project is the notion that it is practically impossible to build an "intelligent" machine unless it is designed partly to build itself. This work is a proof-of-concept of such an approach to integrating multiple perceptual and motor systems into a complete learning agent.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 201 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-198).

Ron Rash’s Serena and Ann Pancake’s Strange as This Weather Has Been are two contemporary Appalachian novels that have yet to be analyzed from a biblical ecocritical perspective. While some literary scholars acknowledge the environmental aspects of the novels, little of their research goes beyond examining the land and its resources as commodities or metaphorical extensions for the characters. In this thesis, I elaborate on those interpretations by scrutinizing the natural descriptions in both novels and comparing those findings to some of the landscapes and environmental verses located within the Bible. Unlike the pastoral ideal found in a portion of the literature preceding the twentieth century, contemporary Appalachian writers such as Rash and Pancake have moved away from such a bucolic, prelapsarian idealization in favor of limning a more industrialized, postlapsarian Appalachia. Following both analyses, I conclude by predicting how emerging Appalachian writers will portray the landscape in future works.

De nos jours, le sarrasin ou « blé noir », est toujours associé aux fameuses galettes bretonnes, cependant, son histoire demeure méconnue. Introduit comme culture vivrière dans l’ouest de la France (Bretagne et Normandie occidentale) au cours des XVe et XVIe siècles, le sarrasin y devient la principale culture et denrée alimentaire à partir du XVIIe siècle. Cette étude s’intéresse au rôle du sarrasin dans les différents pans des sociétés de l’Ouest du XVIe au XXe siècle, autour de quatre grandes parties : l’introduction et la diffusion du sarrasin en Europe, sa place dans les systèmes agraires du Massif armoricain, son incidence dans l’alimentation des populations de cette région, et son utilisation dans l’atténuation des crises de subsistances. Au fil des chapitres, les pratiques bretonnes et normandes font l’objet d’une comparaison, afin d’identifier les éléments constitutifs d’une identité commune aux populations de l’Ouest et ceux qui relèvent de particularismes territoriaux. Cette approche comparative est reproduite au sein même de ces deux espaces, pour appréhender leurs spécificités locales. / Today, buckwheat is unavoidably associated with the famous Breton galettes (buckwheat pancakes), yet we know little of its history. Introduced as a subsistence crop in western France (Brittany and west Normandy) during the 15th and 16th centuries, buckwheat became the predominant crop and foodstuff in the region from the 17th century. This study examines the role of buckwheat in various aspects of societies in western France from the 16th century to the 20th century, via four main sections: the introduction and spread of buckwheat in Europe, its place in the agrarian systems of the Armorican Massif, its impact on the diets of populations in this region and its use in relieving subsistence crises. The chapters compare practices in Brittany and Normandy, to identify elements of a common identity among populations in western France, and elements that are specific to territories. This comparative approach is repeated within these two spaces, to identify local particularities.

Les fluides stratifiés présentent deux types principaux de mouvement : les ondes de gravité internes et des mouvements tourbillonnaires quasi-bidimensionnels (ou modes de vorticité potentielle). Les ondes évoluent sur une échelle de temps rapide T_N = 1 / N, où N est la fréquence de Brunt-Väisälä, une fréquence naturelle déterminée par la force de la stratification, tandis que les mouvements tourbillonnaires sont régis par une échelle lente T_A = L / U, où U et L sont des échelles horizontales de vitesse et longueur caractéristiques des structures tourbillonnaires. La différence entre ces deux modes peut être illustrée par la décroissance d'une zone turbulente en présence d'une stratification de fond stable : pendant l'effondrement de la turbulence initiale, l'énergie est soit rayonnée sous la forme d'ondes internes qui se propagent loin de la région turbulente initiale, soit transmise aux mouvements d'advection quasi-horizontaux qui s'organisent comme patches de vorticité potentielle. Cette thèse aborde d'un point de vue expérimental et théorique le problème de l'interaction des ondes de gravité internes et tourbillons pancake dans un fluide fortement stratifié ainsi que l'étude des mécanismes diffusifs des tourbillons pancake.

In this thesis, superconducting nanostructures for quantum detection of electromagnetic radiation are studied. In this regard, electrodynamics of topological excitations in 1D superconducting nanowires and 2D superconducting nanostrips is investigated. Topological excitations in superconducting nanowires and nanostrips lead to crucial deviation from the bulk properties. In 1D superconductors, topological excitations are phase slippages of the order parameter in which the magnitude of the order parameter locally drops to zero and the phase jumps by integer multiple of 2\pi. We investigate the effect of high-frequency field on 1D superconducting nanowires and derive the complex conductivity. Our study reveals that the rate of the quantum phase slips (QPSs) is exponentially enhanced under high-frequency irradiation. Based on this finding, we propose an energy-resolving terahertz radiation detector using superconducting nanowires. In superconducting nanostrips, topological fluctuations are the magnetic vortices. The motion of magnetic vortices result in dissipative processes that limit the efficiency of devices using superconducting nanostrips. It will be shown that in a multi-layer structure, the potential barrier for vortices to penetrate inside the structure is elevated. This results in significant reduction in dissipative process. In superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs), vortex motion results in dark counts and reduction of the critical current which results in low efficiency in these detectors. Based on this finding, we show that a multi-layer SNSPD is capable of approaching characteristics of an ideal single photon detector in terms of the dark count and quantum efficiency. It is shown that in a multi-layer SNSPD the photon coupling efficiency is dramatically enhanced due to the increase in the optical path of the incident photon.