National Science Foundation Research Papers (original) (raw)

In recent years, several New England projects have promoted professional development and curriculum design in optics and photonics. Funded in part by the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF), these projects have prepared middle and high school teachers, college faculty and career counselors from more than 100 New England institutions to introduce fiber optics, telecommunications and photonics technology education. Four of these projects will be discussed here: (1) The New England Board of Higher Education's (NEBHE) Fiber Optics Technology Education Project, (FOTEP) was designed to teach fiber optics theory and to provide laboratory experiences at the secondary and postsecondary levels. (2) Springfield Technical Community College's Northeast Center for Telecommunications Technologies (NCTT) is developing curricula and instructional materials in lightwave, networking and wireless telecommunications technologies. (3) The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics project ComTech developed a 12-week, hands-on curriculum and teaching strategies for middle and high school science and technology teachers in telecommunications and focused on optical communication (fiber optics). (4) NEBHE's project PHOTON is preparing middle, secondary and postsecondary instructors to introduce theory and laboratory experiences in photonics, including geometric and wave optics as well as principles of lasers and photonics applications.

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- Optics, Curriculum Design, Fiber Optics, Telecommunications
- by John Hiller
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- Physics, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, National Science Foundation

Snowflakes and silicate mushes are two examples of the terrestrial regimes that may be characterized as partially solidified systems. Change of phase in clouds and magma chambers as well as in the earth's mantle and core introduces a variety of phenomena to challenge both the mathematical modeler and the experimentalist intent upon understanding the nature of such processes. Paralleling the efforts of researchers in the natural sciences, metallurgists and materials scientists have extensively investigated solidification in alloy melts to discover the controlling mechanisms for undesirable behavior such as melt segregation, freckling (Figure 1), and crystal dislocation. Unfortunately, most of the studies, whether in the geosciences or in material sciences, have focused on highly specialized problems with little or no attempt at generalizing the results or methods to other physical systems. During May 12-16, 1986, at the Stanford University Conference Center at Fallen Leaf Lake, ...

- by Charles Carrigan
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- Mineralogy, Materials Science, Petrology, Crystal Growth

There is a critical shortage of women in computer science (CS) careers and higher education degree programs. In their landmark study of gender and CS, Margolis and Fisher (2001) noted that male dominance in information technology can be linked to social, cultural, and educational influences and patterns formed in childhood. Research shows that although girls are as talented as boys in math and science, and although most girls are excited about science during childhood, these same girls begin to lose interest in math and science in middle school (Catsambis, 1994; Chu Clewell, 2002). By the eighth grade, twice as many boys as girls show an interest in science, engineering, and mathematics careers (CAWMSET, 2000). Although opportunities for CS-related careers are broadening, and programming skills are required in many diverse fields, fewer and fewer girls are attracted to CS related activities; fewer than 33% of participants in computer courses and related activities are girls (CAWMSET). New approaches and resources are clearly needed to engage girls in computer programming activities. The RAPUNSEL project The goal of this three-year, NSF-funded research project was to design a software environment for real-time, applied programming for underrepresented students' early literacy (RAPUNSEL). The objective was to develop an engaging environment in which to teach computer programming to middle school girls in a scalable, approachable manner that appeals to girls' senses of curiosity and play, as well as their desire to communicate with one another. Game AERA 2007 Paper-RAPUNSEL: How a computer game design based on educational theory can improve girls' self-efficacy and self-esteem

- by Ricki Goldman
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- Computer Science, Game Design, National Science Foundation, Self Efficacy

In this paper we present work on a project funded by the National Science Foundation with a goal of unifying the Artificial Intelligence (AI) course around the theme of machine learning. Our work involves the development and testing of an adaptable framework for the presentation of core AI topics that emphasizes the relationship between AI and computer science. Several hands-on laboratory projects that can be closely integrated into an introductory AI course have been developed. We present an overview of one of the projects and describe the associated curricular materials that have been developed. The project uses machine learning as a theme to unify core AI topics in the context of the N-puzzle game. Games provide a rich framework to introduce students to search fundamentals and other core AI concepts. The paper presents several pedagogical possibilities for the N-puzzle game, the rich challenge it offers, and summarizes our experiences using it.

Rapid advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology are profoundly influencing the ways in which we conceptualize the world of the future, and human ability to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular levels offers previously unimagined possibilities for scientific discovery and technological applications. The convergence of nanotechnology with biotechnology, information technology, cognitive science, and engineering may hold promise for the improvement of human performance at a number of levels. Based on a National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program in nanoscience and nanotechnology at the University of Central Florida (summer 2002), a variety of social and ethical issues associated with these advances is discussed. Implications for the future of science-technology-society studies and K-16 science education also are presented.

- by Aldrin E. Sweeney
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- Sociology, Cognitive Science, Information Technology, Science Education

Over the last decades Nanotechnology has promised to advance science and technology in many areas. Within medicine, Nanomedicine promises to deliver new methods for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. As the amount of available information is rapidly growing, new Biomedical Informatics approaches have to be developed to satisfy the increasing demand on data and knowledge management. In 2007, a new sub-discipline, already named "Nanoinformatics", was created with support from the US National Science Foundation. In Europe, a project named ACTION-Grid was launched in 2008 with support from the European Commission to analyze the challenges and agenda for developing Nanoinformatics as a discipline related to Nanotechnology, Biomedicine and Informatics. For MIE 2009, members of this consortium proposed a workshop to discuss the scientific and strategic issues associated with this topic. Nanoinformatics aims to create a bridge between Nanomedicine and Information Technology applyin...

- by Vassilis Moustakis
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- Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, Medical Informatics

The optimization of the interface between science and economy has become one of the most important guidelines of technology policy. The article argues that developer's networks play an important role in the innovation process and... more

- by Andreas Balthasar
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- Marketing, Technology transfer, Technological Innovation, CONTINUING EDUCATION

Over the last 10 years there has been a rapid increase in the development and use of digital maps for teaching and learning in Higher Education. There is also a political drive to encourage and foster best practice in this area. This is part of a more general initiative on fostering the development and demonstrating the impact of the use of digital resources in education, as evidenced by recent funding programmes by JISC 1 in the UK and NSF 2 in the US. This paper presents and discusses the evaluation of digital resources to support the use of digital maps for learning. First it reviews the use of digital maps for learning, outlining the features that make them powerful tools, before then considering the more general literature on learnersÕ use of maps which suggests that although they have great potential, the use of digital maps by learners may not be straightforward. The paper then discusses a project called Ôe-MapScholarÕ, which was funded by JISC 3. The Ôe-Map-ScholarÕ project has been developing tools and learning and teaching materials to enhance and support the use of geo-spatial data currently available within tertiary education, including digital map data. The project includes teaching case studies of how such resources can be used and have been used in practice. The e-MapScholar project serves to illustrate the possibilities of learning with digital maps and the challenge of delivering on this possibility. The final two sections of the paper discuss the outcomes of the e-MapScholar evaluation and conclude with prospects for the use of digital maps in education.

- by Ann Jones
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- Information Technology, Teaching and Learning, Educational Technology, Higher Education

The Open Source DataTurbine Initiative is an international community of scientists and engineers sharing a common interest in real-time streaming data middleware and applications. The technology base of the OSDT Initiative is the DataTurbine open source middleware. Key applications of DataTurbine include coral reef monitoring, lake monitoring and limnology, biodiversity and animal tracking, structural health monitoring and earthquake engineering, airborne environmental monitoring, and environmental sustainability. DataTurbine software emerged as a commercial product in the 1990's from collaborations between NASA and private industry. In October 2007, a grant from the USA National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Cyberinfrastructure allowed us to transition DataTurbine from a proprietary software product into an open source software initiative. This paper describes the DataTurbine software and highlights key applications in environmental monitoring.

- by Tony Fountain and +1
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- Earthquake Engineering, Open Source Software, Environmental Monitoring, Structural Health Monitoring

This paper surveys the current research literature on the stochastic lot scheduling problem which deals with scheduling production of multiple products with random demand on a single facility with limited production capacity and signi"cant change-overs between products. The deterministic version of this problem has received signi"cant coverage in the literature; however, the stochastic problem has been addressed only recently. Furthermore, a range of distinctly di!erent analytical methods have been applied to this problem. This paper provides a unifying framework for discussing these approaches and o!ers some explanation and clari"cation of the di!erent analytical methods for this problem. After discussing some of the modeling and managerial implications of this problem, a detailed review of both continuous and discrete time control strategies is given, and areas for further research are outlined.

- by Alan Bowman
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- Modeling, Scheduling, Multidisciplinary, National Science Foundation

Despite powerful advances in yield curve modeling in the last twenty years, comparatively little attention has been paid to the key practical problem of forecasting the yield curve. In this paper we do so. We use neither the no-arbitrage approach, which focuses on accurately fitting the cross section of interest rates at any given time but neglects time-series dynamics, nor

- by Dimitris Korobilis
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- Mathematics, Economics, Time Series, Portfolio Management

The prediction of gravitational waves (GWs), oscillations in the space–time metric that propagate at the speed of light, is one of the most profound differences between Einstein's general theory of relativity and the Newtonian theory of gravity that it replaced. GWs remained a theoretical prediction for more than 50 years until the first observational evidence for their existence came with the discovery and subsequent observations of the binary pulsar PSR 1913+ 16, by Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor.

- by Darwn Muhamad
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- Nonlinear dynamics, Science, Early Universe, Astrophysics

Since the end of World War II, a distinct community of organizations has emerged in high-income countries to promote `development' in the low-income countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This paper examines some of the effects of these organizations and the professionals they have produced on international educational norms and conventions, as typified by the 1990 World Conference on Education for All. I suggest that organizational variables, such as professionalism and resource dependence, rather than nation-state interests and dominance alone, explain the standardization of Western models of mass education in international conventions and declarations.

- by Neli Zlatareva and +1
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- Game Theory, Computer Science Education, Machine Learning, National Science Foundation
- by Ross Nehm
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- Science Education, International Education, Human Capital, Dominican Republic

There is an emerging consensus that existing layout configurations do not meet the needs of the multi-product enterprise and that there is a need for a new generation of factory layouts that are more flexible, modular, and more easily reconfigurable. In this article, we offer a review of state of the art in the area of design of factory layouts for dynamic environments. We report on emerging efforts in both academia and industry in developing alternative layout configurations, new performance metrics, and solution methods for designing the "next generation" of factory layouts. In particular, we focus on describing efforts by the Consortium on Next Generation Factory Layouts (NGFL) to address some of these challenges. The consortium, supported by the National Science Foundation, involves multiple universities and several manufacturing companies. The goal of the consortium is to explore alternative layout configurations and alternative performance metrics for designing flexible and reconfigurable factories.

We propose a Smart Trend-Traversal (STT) protocol for RFID tag arbitration, which effectively reduces the collision overhead occurred in the arbitration process. STT, a Query Tree-based scheme, dynamically issues queries according to the online learned tag density and distribution; and therefore, it significantly reduces delay and energy consumption comparing with the existing Tree-based and Aloha-based protocols. Our analytic studies further show that the optimality of STT does not rely on any presumed network conditions, which is in sharp contrast to other available schemes and renders it a highly desirable and practical solution.

- by Hongyi Wu
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- Energy Consumption, Online Learning, National Science Foundation, Protocols

Written by an international assembly of distinguished philosophers, the Blackwell Philosophy Guides create a groundbreaking student resource -a complete critical survey of the central themes and issues of philosophy today. Focusing and advancing key arguments throughout, each essay incorporates essential background material serving to clarify the history and logic of the relevant topic. Accordingly, these volumes will be a valuable resource for a broad range of students and readers, including professional philosophers.

who pushed for the scientific integration of children and their real-world environments. The goal of the CDMCs is to both carry out and seed long-term research in the area of digital media, which is a huge and understudied component of children's and adolescents' lives. We also would like to thank our collaborators and research assistants on the individual projects: Jerel Calzo, Lindsey Reynolds, and Ellen Rogelberg. 2 Teens On the Internet: Interpersonal Connection, Identity, and Information When the New York Times Magazine looked to teenagers to herald the dawn of the twenty-first century, it found them online. In an article in the magazine's Millenium issue, journalist Camille Sweeney (1999) marveled at the nature, speed, and sheer abundance of communication among teenagers that she had observed in chat rooms and message boards throughout AOL and the Web. In the ensuing years, teenagers' use of the Internet (and in particular Instant Messaging) has grown to the point where today's youth are referred to as the Internet (Tapscott, 1998) and Instant Message generation (Pew, 2001). Though about 75% of young people in the US are estimated to have Internet access, there is very little research on aspects of their Internet use such as "its nature and quality, its social conditions, cultural practices, and personal meanings" (Livingstone, 2003, p. 159). The unique social and communicative environment of the Internet gives rise to intriguing research questions about its use among youth: how do teenagers typically spend their time online? How important is communication in this total picture, and by what means do adolescents communicate on the

- by Brendesha Tynes
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- Digital Media, National Science Foundation

Participants will be engaged in proven strategies and techniques for writing proposals to and managing projects for the National Science Foundation (NSF) divisions of Undergraduate Education (DUE) and Engineering Education and Centers (EEC). Through hands-on activities, participants will learn how to a) analyze a program announcement/solicitation, b) align their project ideas with program goals, c) identify relevant prior work, and d) craft responsive engineering education proposals. Participants will also look forward to receipt of an award and learn how to effectively manage an on-going project with due attention to budgeting, evaluation, sustainability, and reporting requirements. Workshop participants will receive a new handbook, fusing attention to research, engineering education, and project management into a seamless whole. The handbook and workshop build upon guidance developed by NSF program officers and grantees. This workshop is being offered as a project of the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) consistent with its emphasis on enhancing excellence in engineering education including education research.

- by Teri Reed
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- Engineering Education, Education Research, National Science Foundation, Project manager

Problem: The prospect that urban heat island (UHI) effects and climate change may increase urban temperatures is a problem for cities that actively promote urban redevelopment and higher densities. One possible UHI mitigation strategy is to plant more trees and other irrigated vegetation to prevent daytime heat storage and facilitate nighttime cooling, but this requires water resources that are limited in a desert city like Phoenix. Purpose: We investigated the tradeoffs between water use and nighttime cooling inherent in urban form and land use choices. Methods: We used a Local-Scale Urban Meteorological Parameterization Scheme (LUMPS) model to examine the variation in temperature and evaporation in 10 census tracts in Phoenix's urban core. After validating results with estimates of outdoor water use based on tract-level city water records and satellite imagery, we used the model to simulate the temperature and water use consequences of implementing three different scenarios. Results and conclusions: We found that increasing irrigated landscaping lowers nighttime temperatures, but this relationship is not linear; the greatest reductions occur in the least vegetated neighborhoods. A ratio of the change in water use to temperature impact reached a threshold beyond which increased outdoor water use did little to ameliorate UHI effects. Takeaway for practice: There is no one design and landscape plan capable of addressing increasing UHI and climate effects everywhere. Any one strategy will have inconsistent results if applied across all urban landscape features and may lead to an inefficient allocation of scarce water resources. Research Support: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant SES-0345945 (Decision Center for a Desert City) and by the City of Phoenix Water Services Department. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.

- by Ray Quay
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- Climate Change, Urban And Regional Planning, National Science Foundation, Urban form

The U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) recently published a document presenting "Grand Challenges for Engineering". This list was proposed by leading engineers and scientists from around the world at the request of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Fourteen topics were selected for these grand challenges, and at least seven can be addressed using the tools and methods of biological engineering. Here we describe how biological engineers can address the challenge of providing access to clean drinking water. This issue must be addressed in part by removing or inactivating microbial and chemical contaminants in order to properly deliver water safe for human consumption. Despite many advances in technologies this challenge is expanding due to increased pressure on fresh water supplies and to new opportunities for growth of potentially pathogenic organisms.

In this paper we start from Mark Solovey's Social Science for What? to analyze the place and the role of the social sciences in the US National Science Foundation from the mid-1940s to the end of the 1980s. The book highlights the tensions that built up around the epistemic status of the social sciences vis-à-vis the natural sciences and the reputational debates surrounding their role and fate during and after the postwar period. We mostly focus our attention on structures, actors and processes not addressed by Solovey: relationships, networks, and patterns of stratification within and across disciplines; the emergence of novel approaches outside the scientistic and positivistic framework sponsored by the NSF; alternative sources of funding, such as the National Endowment for the Humanities; and a set of broader, long-term processes in the macro-field of the social and behavioral sciences. We present some preliminary data suggesting that a wider, theoretically-oriented approach might be fruitful in casting a more complex and dynamic portrayal of the development of American social science.

Four new bathymetric maps of the Tonga Trench and forearc between 14 • S and 27 • S display the important morphologic and structural features of this dynamic convergent margin. The maps document a number of important geologic features of the margin. Major normal faults and fault lineaments on the Tonga platform can be traced along and across the upper trench slope. Numerous submarine canyons incised in the landward slope of the trench mark the pathways of sediment transport from the platform to mid-and lower-slope basins. Discontinuities in the trench axis and changes in the morphology of the landward slope can be clearly documented and may be associated with the passage and subduction of the Louisville Ridge and other structures on the subducting Pacific Plate. Changes in the morphology of the forearc as convergence changes from normal in the south to highly-oblique in the north are clearly documented. The bathymetric compilations, gridded at 500-and 200-m resolutions and extending along ∼500 km of the landward trench slope and axis, provide complete coverage of the outer forearc from the latitude of the Louisville Ridge-Tonga Trench collision to the northern terminus of the Tonga Ridge. These maps should serve as a valuable reference for other sea-going programs in the region, particularly the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and the National Science Foundation MARGINS initiative.

- by Dawn J Wright
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- Geophysics, Oceanography, National Science Foundation, Sediment transport

A little over three years ago, two brand new assistant professors successfully earned funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at Mississippi State University. In the time that the "Chemistry / Chemical Engineering: The Bonds Between Us" program ran, much was learned about how to organize for a ten week intensive research program, how to ensure each student had a meaningful, positive experience, how to promote camaraderie among participants, and how to streamline participant logistics. In this manuscript and corresponding presentation, a description of the program and its goals will be discussed. This contribution will benefit anyone considering developing an REU program. It will provide guidance on how to structure student projects so that student learning and productivity is maximized. Further, organized professional development activities will be outlined in addition to a summary of structured social act...

This is a proposal for a half day tutorial on Weka, an open source Data Mining software package written in Java and available from www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/weka/index.html. The goal of the tutorial is to introduce faculty to the package and to the pedagogical possibilities for its use in the undergraduate computer science and engineering curricula. The Weka system provides a rich set of powerful Machine Learning algorithms for Data Mining tasks, some not found in commercial data mining systems. These include basic statistics and visualization tools, as well as tools for pre-processing, classification, and clustering, all available through an easy to use graphical user interface.

- by Zdravko Markov
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- Bioinformatics, Machine Learning, Data Mining, Web Mining

The objective of this paper is to review research conducted over the past decade on the application of multi-temporal remote sensing for monitoring changes of Arctic tundra lands. Emphasis is placed on results from the National Science Foundation Land–Air–Ice Interactions (LAII) program and on optical remote sensing techniques. Case studies demonstrate that ground-level sensors on stationary or moving track platforms

- by John Gamon
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- Remote Sensing, Time Series, National Science Foundation, Aerial Photography

The introductory chapter in my book Social Science for What?

- by Robert Wolpert
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- Statistics, Bayesian Analysis, National Science Foundation, Bayesian statistics

An encryption method is presented with the novel property that publicly revealing an encryption key does not thereby reveal the corresponding decryption key. This has two important consequences: (1) Couriers or other secure means are not needed to transmit keys, since a message can be enciphered using an encryption key publicly revealed by the intended recipient. Only he can decipher the message, since only he knows the corresponding decryption key.

- by c m
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- Privacy, Security, Digital Signature, Cryptography

Concept Inventory use came to the education literature in 1985 through the first publication of the Force Concept Inventory. Since that time, there have been multiple inventories developed in all areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. For the past three decades, adoption and utilization of the inventories has not progressed to the instrument's full potential. Participants will learn of the results of a recently held meeting called Assessing the State of STEM Concept Inventories: A National Workshop sponsored by the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation (DUE-0731232).

There is an urgent need to develop the underlying theory and principles of “sustainability science,” based on an understanding of the fundamental interactions between nature and humans. This requires a new research and education paradigm that embraces biocomplexity, integrates the physical, biological, and social sciences, and uses a coupled, human–natural systems approach. An initiative aligned with this paradigm and approach, and centered on the Hawaiian Island’s unique mountain-to-sea ecosystems, is developing at the University of Hawai‘i. These ecosystems, extending from upland tropical forests to the fringing coral reefs, correspond to the roughly wedge-shaped catchments, traditionally called ahupua‘a in the Hawaiian language. Despite the collapse of the ahupua‘a system and, tragically, the Native Hawaiian population, its legacy of ecological and cultural stewardship remains. This legacy, and the potential of these ecosystems as microcosms for addressing the core questions of sustainability science, has provided the impetus for a growing number of projects employing a social–ecological systems perspective. An overview of three projects that employ a “learning community” approach and cultural stewardship perspective inspired by the ahupua‘a system is provided. These include the Ecosystems Thrust Area of Hawai‘i EPSCoR, a U.S. National Science Foundation research infrastructure program, focused on ecosystem research and monitoring activities; a sustainability curriculum program, Mālama I Ka ‘Āina, of the College of Education; and a project that builds on programs of the Division of Ecology and Health and its affiliated Asia-Pacific Center for Infectious Disease Ecology, linking ecosystem resilience and infectious diseases.

- by Kristin Duin
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- Ecohealth, Disease ecology, Ecology, National Science Foundation

There is an urgent need to develop the underlying theory and principles of ''sustainability science,'' based on an understanding of the fundamental interactions between nature and humans. This requires a new research and education paradigm that embraces biocomplexity, integrates the physical, biological, and social sciences, and uses a coupled, human-natural systems approach. An initiative aligned with this paradigm and approach, and centered on the Hawaiian Island's unique mountain-to-sea ecosystems, is developing at the University of Hawai'i. These ecosystems, extending from upland tropical forests to the fringing coral reefs, correspond to the roughly wedge-shaped catchments, traditionally called ahupua'a in the Hawaiian language. Despite the collapse of the ahupua'a system and, tragically, the Native Hawaiian population, its legacy of ecological and cultural stewardship remains. This legacy, and the potential of these ecosystems as microcosms for addressing the core questions of sustainability science, has provided the impetus for a growing number of projects employing a socialecological systems perspective. An overview of three projects that employ a ''learning community'' approach and cultural stewardship perspective inspired by the ahupua'a system is provided. These include the Ecosystems Thrust Area of Hawai'i EPSCoR, a U.S. National Science Foundation research infrastructure program, focused on ecosystem research and monitoring activities; a sustainability curriculum program, M alama I Ka ' Aina, of the College of Education; and a project that builds on programs of the Division of Ecology and Health and its affiliated Asia-Pacific Center for Infectious Disease Ecology, linking ecosystem resilience and infectious diseases.

- by Pauline Chinn
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- Ecohealth, Disease ecology, Ecology, National Science Foundation

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of sonification research, including the current status of the field and a proposed research agenda. This paper was prepared by an interdisciplinary group of researchers gathered at the request of the National Science Foundation in the fall of 1997 in association with the International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD).

- by John Neuhoff
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- Auditory Display, Sonification, Research Agenda, National Science Foundation

We consider the C * -algebras O q 2 and A q 2 generated, respectively, by isometries s 1 , s 2 satisfying the relation s * 1 s 2 = qs 2 s * 1 with |q| < 1 (the deformed Cuntz relation), and by isometries s 1 , s 2 satisfying the relation s 2 s 1 = qs 1 s 2 with |q| = 1. We show that O q 2 is isomorphic to the Cuntz-Toeplitz C * -algebra O 0 2 for any |q| < 1. We further prove that A q 1 2 ≃ A q 2 2 if and only if either q 1 = q 2 or q 1 = q 2 . In the second part of our paper, we discuss the complexity of the representation theory of A q 2 . We show that A q 2 is * -wild for any q in the circle |q| = 1, and hence that A q 2 is not nuclear for any q in the circle.

An introductory Artificial Intelligence (AI) course provides students with basic knowledge of the theory and practice of AI as a discipline concerned with the methodology and technology for solving problems that are difficult to solve by other means. It is generally recognized that an introductory Artificial Intelligence course is challenging to teach. This is, in part, due to the diverse and seemingly disconnected core AI topics that are typically covered. Recently, work has been done to address the diversity of topics covered in the course and to create a theme-based approach. Russell and Norvig present an agent-centered approach . Others have been working to integrate Robotics into the AI course [1, 2, 3].

- by Zdravko Markov
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- Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Mining

The representation of agreement is a crucial aspect of current syntactic theory, and therefore should apply in both signed and spoken languages. Neidle et al. (2000) claim that all verb types in American Sign Language (agreeing, spatial, and plain) can occur with abstract syntactic agreement for subject and object. On this view, abstract agreement can be marked with either manual agreement morphology (verb directed toward locations associated with the subject/object) or non-manual agreement (eye gaze toward the object/head tilt toward the subject). Non-manual agreement is claimed to function independently as a feature-checking mechanism since it can occur with plain verbs not marked with overt morphological agreement. We conducted a language production experiment using head-mounted eye-tracking to directly measure signers’ eye gaze. The results were inconsistent with Neidle et al.’s claims. While eye gaze accompanying (manually/morphologically) agreeing verbs was most frequently directed toward the location of the syntactic object, eye gaze accompanying plain verbs was rarely directed toward the object. Further, eye gaze accompanying spatial verbs was toward the locative argument, rather than toward the object of transitive verbs or the subject of intransitive verbs as predicted by Neidle et.al. Additionally, we found a consistent difference in the height of directed eye gaze between spatial and agreeing verbs. Gaze was directed lower in signing space for locative marking than for object marking, thus clearly distinguishing these two argument types. Plain verbs occurring with null object pronouns were not marked by gaze toward the location of the object and always occurred with an overt object topic. Thus, Neidle et.al.’s analysis of null objects as licensed by agreement (manual or non-manual) was not supported. Rather, the data substantiated Lillo-Martin’s (1986) claim that null arguments for plain verbs are licensed by topics. To account for the observed patterns of eye gaze, we propose an analysis of eye gaze agreement for agreeing and spatial verbs as marking the ‘lowest’ available argument on a noun phrase accessibility hierarchy.

- by Robert Kluender
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- Cognitive Science, Languages and Linguistics, Sign Language, Eye tracking

With the rise to authority of the social sciences after World War II, the division of knowledge between science and the humanities has gradually lost relevance and the differentiation of three, instead of two, cultures is now widely accepted. Needless to say, the increased significance of the social sciences in public life since 1945 has been achieved at the expense of the humanities, if only because the former often impinge on the turf of the latter. Likewise, the formidable reputation of the physical sciences in the wake of the war played no minor role in prompting social scientists to take them as a template for establishing their credentials as scientists. Caught between two lumbering elders, the social sciences have often met with the indifference of one, for failing to catch up, and the criticism of the other, for forgetting their origins. Because of conflicting attractions, disciplinary idiosyncrasies, and political temptations, the social sciences have suffered from an uncertain self-image. Mark Solovey's book title is reminiscent of Robert S. Lynd's Knowledge for What? (1939), which considered the place of social science in American culture at a time when the National Science Foundation (NSF) had yet to be created, and when private foundations still served as the main source of funding for social research. Like Lynd's book, Social Science for What? examines the central question of the social sciences' utility, but it does so in a different way. Once the NSF was established, indeed, public attention shifted: away from the critique of social science for its putative lack of serviceability and toward the evaluation of its scientific legitimacy as a precondition for its practical relevance. Starting with discussions predating the NSF's founding in 1950 and closing with the end of Ronald Reagan's second mandate, Solovey offers a lively, balanced, and powerful analysis of the changing status of the social sciences within

- by Debbie Denise Reese and +2
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- National Science Foundation, Student Learning, Intelligent Learning Environment, Educational Assessment