Brooks Institute

Immigrant and newcomer students often experience challenges as they seek to assimilate in the new country. As such, this theme remains significantly under-researched and continues to hinder our understanding of newcomer students’ most urgent needs. This article focuses on the perspectives given by newcomer high school students as they discuss, through open dialogue and social media, their main challenges living in a new country. The scholars employed a collaborative action research approach and were guided by two questions: (1) How can newcomer students’ lived experiences inform best practices in the field of education? and (2) How did the social isolation brought on by COVID-19 affect the mental health/well-being of newcomer students? The results highlighted the racial, cultural, linguistic, and religious challenges these students face in their education as well as the considerable mental/emotional impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on this demographic. The data hold major implications for best practice in the field of education, with specific emphasis on newcomer students.

Research is often conducted to investigate footwear mechanical properties and their effects on running biomechanics, but little is known about their influence on runner satisfaction, or how well the shoe is perceived. A tool to predict runner satisfaction in a shoe from its mechanical properties would be advantageous for footwear companies. Data in this study were from a database (n = 615 subject-shoe pairings) of satisfaction ratings (gathered after participants ran on a treadmill), and mechanical testing data for 87 unique subjects across 61 unique shoes. Random forest and elastic net logistic regression models were built to test if footwear mechanical properties and subject characteristics could predict runner satisfaction in 3 ways: degree-of-satisfaction on a 7-point Likert scale, overall satisfaction on a 3-point Likert scale, and willingness-to-purchase the shoe (yes/no response). Data were divided into training and validation sets, using an 80–20 split, to build the models and test their accuracy, respectively. Model accuracies were compared against the no-information rate (i.e. proportion of data belonging to the largest class). The models were not able to predict degree-of-satisfaction or overall satisfaction from footwear mechanical properties but could predict runner’s willingness to purchase with 68–75% accuracy. Midsole Gmax at the heel and forefoot appeared in the top five of variable importance rankings across both willingness-to-purchase models, suggesting its role as a major factor in purchase decisions. The negative regression coefficient for both heel and forefoot Gmax indicated that softer midsoles increase the likelihood of a shoe purchase. Future models to predict satisfaction may improve accuracy with the addition of more subject-specific parameters, such as running goals or foot proportions.

The objective of this study was to develop generic domains of competence (DoC) with associated competencies and milestones for physical therapist residency education. This work was intended to culminate in establishing validity evidence to support a competency-based assessment instrument that could be used by residency programs to evaluate resident achievement of the competencies, regardless of specialty area. Employing the modified Delphi method, a residency education work group developed an evaluation instrument that included 7 DoC and 31 associated competencies with 6 milestones as rating scales for each competency. The instrument was distributed to mentors and residents in accredited physical therapist residency programs to establish validity evidence. Evaluations (measured by milestones) and demographics were collected at 3 time points (program entry, midterm, and final). Scores across these time points were compared using Kruskal-Wallis tests. Reliability was assessed with kappa statistics (interrater reliability) and alpha reliability coefficients (internal consistency). Construct validity was examined using confirmatory factor analysis via structural equation modeling. Overall, 237 mentors and 228 residents completed 824 evaluations (460 by mentors and 364 resident self-evaluations) across the time points. Scores significantly increased from entry through final time points. The interrater reliability of the associated behaviors ranged from moderate to substantial agreement (κ = 0.417-0.774). The internal consistency was high for all DoC at every time point (α reliability coefficients = .881-.955 for entry, .857-.925 for midterm, and .824-.902 for final). After confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling was performed, a model that included 7 DoC and 20 associated competencies was proposed. The residency assessment instrument developed demonstrates interrater reliability and validity evidence and therefore supports competency-based assessment of resident clinical performance across specialty areas. Additionally, the instrument aligns the physical therapy profession with other professions, such as medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy, that have transitioned to competency-based education. This study outlines the benefits of moving to competency-based education for physical therapist residents, using a sound evaluation tool that evaluates residents across specialty areas. The instrument will allow for transition to competency-based education in physical therapist residency education programs.

Renowned robotics engineer Rodney Brooks has built a career engineering behaviourally intelligent machines for scientific research, military-industrial applications, and domestic service. Drawing lessons from biology and ethology, Brooks designs embodied, responsive robots that he provocatively calls "artificial creatures." He has also been vocal about the broad implications his research carries for the future, making bold predictions about a technological society increasingly shaped by ecologies of animated machines. This dissertation examines a number of popular and academic texts in which Brooks discusses his artificial creatures, his design methodology, and his futurological speculations. Focusing on key moments from these texts, I discuss how he constructs a rhetorical and narrative framework through which he ascribes a sense of "life" to his robots in order to probe the distinction between the living and the nonliving and deliberately unsettle the bounds of the biological and the technological. As he highlights the lifelike qualities of his robots that raise them to the status of creatures, he simultaneously emphasizes the machine-like qualities of human beings, leading him to charge people with "overanthropomorphizing" themselves. I argue that these contrapuntal shifts call into question models of subjectivity derived from modern liberal humanism, insofar as they destabilize traditional relations between machines, animals, and human beings. In order to develop the broader theoretical implications of Brooks' work, I engage in comparative readings that place him in dialogue with philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Bernard Stiegler, Jacques Derrida, and René Descartes, early cyberneticists Norbert Wiener and W. Grey Walter, and an offbeat video game called Chibi Robo! These readings afford opportunities to challenge modes of thinking and acting that assume human mastery over nature and technology, and subsequently to reevaluate our intimate connections to nonhuman beings that make human life livable in the first place. Ultimately, I endeavour to lay the groundwork for a bioethics that is responsive to redefinitions of life by technological means, one that eschews anthropocentrism in order to suggest a concern for different ways of living and belonging between humans and nonhumans, rather than for the lives of human beings alone.

Background:Situs inversus is an uncommon condition caused by a single autosomal recessive gene of incomplete penetration. A potential diagnostic dilemma can occur in the young female patient with a history of situs inversus who presents with pelvic pain.Methods:A 32-year-old multiparous patient with a known history of situs inversus presented with complaints of pelvic pain. A medical history and full physical examination were indicative of possible endometriosis.Results:The patient underwent an operative laparoscopy, which revealed stage II pelvic endometriosis based on the American Fertility Society Revised Classification for Endometriosis (R-AFS), with appendicular and periappendicular adhesions involving the cecum. Ablation of endometriosis and an appendectomy were performed.Conclusion:The authors believe the laparoscopic approach to an appendectomy is ideal in a patient with situs inversus and should be performed at the time of laparoscopy performed for another reason.

We report Hf isotope compositions of 79 lavas that record the early (∼5–95 Ma) history of the Galápagos plume volcanism. These include lavas from the Caribbean Large Igneous Province (CLIP; ∼95–70 Ma), the accreted Galápagos paleo‐hot spot track terranes (54–65 Ma) of Costa Rica (Quepos, Osa and Burica igneous complexes), and the Galápagos hot spot tracks (<20 Ma) located on the Pacific seafloor (Cocos, Carnegie, Malpelo, and Coiba Ridges and associated seamounts). These samples have previously been well characterized in terms of major and trace elements, Sr‐Nd‐Pb isotopes and Ar/Ar ages. As a result of the relative immobility of the high field strength and rare earth elements during syn‐ and post‐emplacement hydrothermal activity and low‐temperature alteration, combined Lu‐Hf and Sm‐Nd isotope systematics, when used in conjunction with Pb isotopes, provide a particular powerful tool, for evaluating the source compositions of ancient and submarine lavas. The combined Nd‐Hf isotope data suggest that three of the isotopically distinct source components found today in the Galápagos Islands (the Floreana‐like southern component, the Fernandina‐like central component, and the depleted Genovesa‐like eastern component) were present in the CLIP already by 95–70 Ma. The fourth Pinta‐like northern component is first recorded at about 83–85 Ma by volcanism taking place during the transition from the plume head/CLIP to plume tail stage and has then been present in the hot spot track continuously thereafter. The identification of the unique northern and southern Galápagos Plume Hf‐Nd‐Pb isotope source signatures within the CLIP and the oldest hot spot track lavas provides direct evidence that the CLIP represents the plume head stage of the Galápagos hot spot. Hafnium isotopes are consistent with the possibility that two types of sediment components may have contributed to the Hf, Nd and Pb isotope compositions of the Galápagos plume lavas. One component, characterized by Δ207Pb/204Pb ≈ 0 and high positive ΔεHf has an isotope signature indicative of relatively recently recycled pelagic sediment, a signature typical of the southern Galápagos island Floreana. The other component has an EM like isotopic composition resembling modern seafloor sediments with positive Δ207Pb/204Pb and lower ΔεHf, a signature typical of the northern Galápagos island Pinta.