• OPEN leaf: an open‐source cloud‐based phenotyping system for tracking dynamic changes at leaf‐specific resolution in Arabidopsis

  Swartz, Landon G.; Liu, Suxing; Dahlquist, Drew; Kramer, Skyler T.; Walter, Emily S.; McInturf, Samuel A.; Bucksch, Alexander; Mendoza‐Cózatl, David G.; School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona (Wiley, 2023-09-21)

  The first draft of the Arabidopsis genome was released more than 20 years ago and despite intensive molecular research, more than 30% of Arabidopsis genes remained uncharacterized or without an assigned function. This is in part due to gene redundancy within gene families or the essential nature of genes, where their deletion results in lethality (i.e., the dark genome). High-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) offers an automated and unbiased approach to characterize subtle or transient phenotypes resulting from gene redundancy or inducible gene silencing; however, access to commercial HTPP platforms remains limited. Here we describe the design and implementation of OPEN leaf, an open-source phenotyping system with cloud connectivity and remote bilateral communication to facilitate data collection, sharing and processing. OPEN leaf, coupled with our SMART imaging processing pipeline was able to consistently document and quantify dynamic changes at the whole rosette level and leaf-specific resolution when plants experienced changes in nutrient availability. Our data also demonstrate that VIS sensors remain underutilized and can be used in high-throughput screens to identify and characterize previously unidentified phenotypes in a leaf-specific time-dependent manner. Moreover, the modular and open-source design of OPEN leaf allows seamless integration of additional sensors based on users and experimental needs.
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  Using Badging to Promote Makerspace Participation and Engineering Identity Development: Emergent Themes and Lessons Learned from a Pilot

  Budinoff, H.D.; Berger, E.J.; Bushra, J.; Shivers-McNair, A.; The University of Arizona (American Society for Engineering Education, 2023-06)

  Engineering identity development is crucial for engineers' professional performance, personal fulfillment, and organization's success. Various factors including recognition by others, interest, and competence can affect the development of engineering identity. Participation in engineering-related activities, such as involvement in makerspaces, can lead to increases in engineering self-efficacy and can provide opportunities for students' to be recognized as engineers, potentially promoting the development of their engineering identity. However, participation in makerspaces is not necessarily equal across all student groups, with the potential for white, man-dominated cultures of engineering to be replicated in makerspaces, preventing students from marginalized groups from feeling welcome or participating. Earning microcredentials and digital badges in makerspaces has the potential to encourage participation and provide a means for recognition. The goal of this two-year project (funded by NSF's PFE: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation program) is to study engineering students' engineering identity development and how makerspaces and digital badges can contribute to this development process. Towards this goal, we interviewed a diverse cohort of eight first-year engineering students at a large, land-grant, Hispanic-Serving Institution in the U.S. during the Fall 2022 semester. Students participated in two one-hour interviews at the start and end of the semester on topics including their making skills, experiences in the makerspace, participation level in groups, perceived recognition as engineers, and feeling of belongingness in the engineering community and makerspaces. This paper presents lessons-learned from the interview implementation process, including dealing with disruptions from the ongoing pandemic and traumatic campus events. We also present emerging themes from qualitative analysis of the interviews. We expect the implications of this work to guide instructors and administrators in developing more motivating and interactive engineering courses and makerspace experiences for diverse students.
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  Board 319: Inclusive, Asset-Based Instructional Strategies in Engineering Design: Empowering Faculty with Professional Development

  Budinoff, H.D.; Subbian, V.; Shivers-McNair, A.; The University of Arizona (American Society for Engineering Education, 2023-06)

  To better support engineering students and to create an inclusive and welcoming educational context, it is necessary to reimagine instructional methods and approaches. In contrast to deficit educational models that focus on perceptions of what students lack, asset-based practices focus on how students' lived experiences can be used to enrich and strengthen their educational experiences. There is a need to support faculty in adopting existing techniques or developing new techniques in undergraduate courses, as most existing literature related to asset-based practices is focused on K-12 settings. Engineering design courses provide an ideal context for asset-based practices because the design process requires a diverse set of knowledge, experiences, and skills. Guided by self-determination theory, an understanding of implicit bias and stereotype threat, and the large existing body of research on asset-based pedagogy, we seek to support engineering student outcomes by empowering faculty with tools and strategies to incorporate asset-based practices in their courses. We are engaged in a three-year project focused on assessing the impact of asset-based practices in engineering design courses a large, public, land-grant, Hispanic-serving institution in the southwestern United States, funded by the NSF IUSE:EDU program. Here, we will summarize the design and results from our professional development for faculty, including theoretical frameworks and evidence guiding our work. We share content from our professional development, summarizing learning objectives, presentation content, and activities. Additionally, we present comments shared by instructors related to our professional development, including common barriers to implementing educational innovations in their courses. Our work will provide insights to practitioners interested in promoting inclusive classroom practices in engineering education and researchers who are translating research to practice, especially through professional development.
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  Linearly-Polarized Mode-locked Yb3+- doped Phosphate Fiber Ring-Cavity Laser at 976 nm

  Lee, Joshua K.; Zhu, Xiushan; Fu, Shijie; Li, Lizhu; Norwood, Robert A.; Peyghambarian, N.; College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2023-09-11)

  Compact and robust linearly-polarized pulsed laser sources at 976 nm are in great demand for high-efficiency harmonic generation of blue and deep ultraviolet lasers. In this paper, we report a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror mode-locked fiber ring-cavity laser at 976 nm, in which only 2.4 cm highly ytterbium-doped phosphate fiber was used as the gain fiber. Fundamental mode-locking operation with 5-ps pulses at a repetition rate of 16.53 MHz and with average output power of 2 mW was obtained at a pump power of 215 mW. The pulse energy and peak power of the mode-locked pulses were estimated to be 0.12 nJ and 24.4 W, respectively. The polarization extinction ratio was measured to be 21.5 dB.
• Superheavy elements and ultradense matter

  LaForge, Evan; Price, Will; Rafelski, Johann; Department of Physics, The University of Arizona (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2023-09-15)

  In order to characterize the mass density of superheavy elements, we solve numerically the relativistic Thomas–Fermi model of an atom. To obtain a range of mass densities for superheavy matter, this model is supplemented with an estimation of the number of electrons shared between individual atoms. Based on our computation, we expect that elements in the island of nuclear stability around Z= 164 will populate a mass density range of 36.0–68.4 g/cm 3 . We then extend our method to the study of macroscopic alpha particle nuclear matter condensate drops.

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