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Financial literacy is an important life skill, yet the impact of financial education has often been found to be modest. We conducted a field experiment to assess the effectiveness of a postinstruction intervention using a smartphone app that incorporated cognitive science principles aimed at improving learning. College students who completed a required credit review workshop during their sophomore year used the smartphone app in one of three practice conditions: control (no practice), massed, or spaced retrieval practice with elaborative feedback. On a final assessment about 5 months later, students who engaged in spaced retrieval practice were superior to those in the control and massed practice conditions in terms of knowledge. Given the ubiquity of smartphones today, the results highlight the potential of harnessing easily accessible technology as learning tools to augment the retention and transfer of knowledge.

The seismic performance of a ductile rod system for exterior precast concrete beam-to-column connections was experimentally evaluated. Five full-scale precast concrete beam-to-column subassemblies connected with ductile rods were fabricated, considering various aspects (ductile rod size, prestressing, and flexural/shear capacities). Lateral cyclic loading tests were conducted for the precast concrete connections along with two monolithic reinforced concrete connections. Despite their relatively lower lateral stiffness, most precast concrete connections showed sufficient moment capacities with peak moments at approximately 3% to 4% interstory drifts. The prestressing tendons were effective at enhancing moment and shear strengths of the precast concrete connections, as well as in reducing slip of the ductile rods. The precast concrete specimens generally showed satisfactory seismic performance, fulfilling acceptance criteria specified by the American Concrete Institute. The test results demonstrated that careful considerations are required in the design of ductile rods and high-strength threaded bars to induce stable flexural responses of the precast concrete connections.

Approximately half-scale tests were conducted to inves­tigate the behavior of indeterminate prestressed concrete T beams with two different unbonded tendon profiles. Three T beams were employed for the tests: T beam specimen 1 (TB1) was the control specimen and had no eccentricity at the interior support and T beam speci­mens 2a and 2b (TB2a and TB2b) had eccentricity at the interior support. The results indicate that the specimens with eccentricity at the interior support had a greater number of cracks than the control specimen at the ten­sion zone of the support. This finding was explained by hyperstatic moment reducing the negative moment in the control. The trend in the slope of the strain-applied load tension relationship was different in TB1 than in TB2a due to a difference between the specimens in terms of the distance from the extreme compression fiber to the centroid of reinforcement at the support. Although the interior support was a roller with no vertical restraint, hyperstatic moment at the support occurred due to a cold welding effect, creating a partial roller condition. The hyperstatic action then decreased as the loading was increased. The authors conclude that the effect of hyperstatic moment should be accounted for in the calculation of concrete stress at the service level for continuous prestressed concrete beams with unbonded tendons and a vertically unconfined support condition.

During learning, interleaving exemplars from different categories (e.g., ABCBCACAB) rather than blocking by category (e.g., AAABBBCCC) often enhances inductive learning, especially when the categories are highly similar. However, when allowed to select their own study schedules, learners overwhelmingly tend to block rather than interleave. Category similarity has been shown to moderate the relative benefit of interleaved versus blocked study. We investigated whether learners were sensitive to category similarity when choosing exemplars for study, and whether these choices predicted their learning outcomes. In Experiment 1, learners interleaved more often when the categories were highly similar (difficult to discriminate from each other), compared with when similarity was low. In Experiment 2, learners were presented with two sets of categories to learn; categories within each set were similar to each other, but categories were dissimilar across sets. When learners chose to interleave, they tended to switch to a similar rather than dissimilar category. Importantly, learners' study choices predicted their subsequent categorization performance. Our findings suggest that learners are strategic in their search for commonalities within versus differences among categories and can regulate their study behaviors based on category similarity.

The ability to recognize and distinguish among varying musical styles is essential to developing aural skills and musicianship. Yet, this task can be difficult for music learners, particularly nonexperts. To address this challenge and guide music education practice, this study drew on cognitive psychological principles to investigate the effect of interleaved presentation of music pieces by various classical music composers on learning to identify these composers’ styles. Participants with 4 or fewer years of musical experience were presented with music pieces from six composers in an interleaved manner (alternating between listening to different composers’ works) and music pieces from another six composers in a blocked fashion (listening to works by one composer at a time before moving on to the next). A later test in which participants had to classify novel pieces by the same 12 composers revealed the superiority of interleaved over blocked presentation, although most participants misjudged blocking to be more effective than interleaving. This finding provides evidence for the utility of interleaving in teaching music composers’ styles and extends the literature on the interleaving effect in category induction to the auditory domain. Practical implications and future directions for the use of interleaving in music education are discussed.

Due to the increasing tendency to construct taller and more slender buildings, the need to address aerodynamic and induced dynamic forces (inertial forces) under both service and strength-l...

Renovation and maintenance of heritage buildings to establish the cultural credibility of a country is an essential national task. To protect and maintain these structures, study of rehabil...

This experimental study was conducted to evaluate the impact behavior of relatively rigid projectiles with conical and hemispherical nose shapes on normal to high-strength and ultrahigh per...

Performance-based wind design (PBWD) allowing inelastic behavior under extreme wind load has only been recently considered for design of high-rise buildings. Unlike performance-based seismi...

Although previous research on retrieval practice (RP) has predominantly featured stimuli with discrete right-or-wrong answers, continuous measures offer potentially greater sensitivity in assessing the effects of RP on memory precision. The present study used a colour gradient (125 points ranging from magenta to yellow) as a continuous response variable. The colours of different images were learned through either RP or restudy and either one or three cycles of practice after initial study. On a delayed final test, participants' memory was assessed for each item's colour. Participants also created per-item intervals representing the region where they believed the correct colour most likely to have been. We found that repeated rounds of RP enhanced the correspondence between responses and the correct colour. In addition, RP led to participants creating more accurate (correct answers were more likely to be within the participant-specified intervals) and more precise (narrower) intervals relative to restudy, suggesting that RP enhances the precision of memories.

Reinforced concrete (RC) flat plates are vulnerable to punching shear failure due to small effective area for shear resistance. To strengthen the behavior of existing flat plates, use of ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) as a laminate has been pursued. This study focuses on punching shear behavior of RC flat plates retrofitted with UHPFRC overlay (i.e., UHPFRC-RC composite flat plates). To model the axisymmetric UHPFRC-RC composite flat plate, use of the unified strength theory-based punching shear strength model was proposed. Predictions using the proposed model, when compared to existing test results of UHPFRC-RC composite flat plates under concentric load and nonlinear analysis results using ABAQUS, agreed well with the results. Additionally, from the parametric analysis results using the proposed model and nonlinear analysis, the effects of UHPFRC overlay thickness and tensile strength on the punching shear strength were identified.

The proper assembly of underground precast concrete structures is often critical in the construction of underground structures. In particular, interfacial waterproofing between precast concrete segments is a key factor influencing use, safety, and life span. Current practice is to incorporate waterproofing rubber strips in the design. During the installation process, compressive stress is applied to the strip by post-tensioning to achieve performance. For this paper, lateral constraint compression tests were carried out on composite rubber seal strips that utilize putty. Special waterproofing and sealing test devices were designed to investigate corresponding relationships between water pressure and compressive stress (or strain). A relationship between water resistance pressure and compression stress and strain of the putty-based composite rubber strip was proposed based on the series tests and the control target of the minimum compression strain of the putty composite rubber strip was then suggested. Finally, full-scale waterproofing tests on tunnel joints were conducted. The experimental results provide a scientific reference for the engineering application and design of composite sealing rubber strips putty for underground post-tensioned precast concrete structures.

This study experimentally investigates the effects of the unbonded post-tensioning on the response of reinforced concrete (RC) beams under impact loads. A total of fifteen specimens were cast and tested. All specimens had identical longitudinal reinforcement, but varying shear rein forrement ratios designed to be both flexural-and shear-deficient in static conditions according to the ACI code. In particular; thirteen unbonded post-tensioned (PT) beams were tested under drop weight impact applied at the midspan in simply supported conditions and compared with conventional type RC beams. The main variables investigated include increasing levels of PT force and the application of two different impact energies per each specimen type, shear- or flexural-deficient. The experimental results showed that the levels of PT force and shear reinforcements of the specimens played an important role in their overall behavior: With respect to beneficial design recommendations, relationships between the impact resistance and the static capacity are provided; a general increase in strength of around three times that of the static capacity is observed when impacted. Additionally, relationships between the ratio of the impact energy to static capacity are developed with regard to the maximum and residual member displacements.

During last decade, various deep learning algorithms successfully broke the thick ice of AI winter so that they became an important part both in industries and daily lives [1]. They also invoked the development of AI accelerators (NPUs: neural processing units) that became a standard computing unit. This paper gives perspectives on various types of AI computing and device technology developments supporting them. An overview is given regarding how AI has widened its scope in material and semiconductor developments, and some important considerations are pointed out. Finally, the status of applying NISQ (noisy intermediate scale quantum) to material calculations is briefly discussed.

The science of learning is a relatively new label referring to an exciting field that studies learning from a multi-disciplinary perspective, chiefly drawing from neuroscience, psychology, and education. Human beings are capable of social imitative learning that is qualitatively different from the learning exhibited by even our closest primate relatives. Since science of learning is a fairly recent term, it is important to define what it means. In the prologue Hattie and Nugent provide a nice historical perspective of how other related interdisciplinary fields involving education came to be, and how the science of learning might be distinguished from them. Technology and education have always been intricately linked from the beginning. In the Bronze and Iron Ages, the use of bronze (and later iron) to construct tools revolutionised agriculture, leading to a surge in agricultural productivity that made possible the division of labour.

Numerous formulae are available for predicting the scabbing limit and perforation limit thicknesses subjected to impact loading, but no formula has yet been proposed for estimating the scabbing depth, which is the damaged depth at the rear face when the back of the concrete panel is peeled. In this paper, a new energy-based impact formula along with a theoretical background is proposed to estimate the scabbing depth, scabbing limit, and perforation limit. Based on the scabbing theory, energy&ndash, depth relation, and energy conservation law, the new formula is developed and verified with test results. Compared to other impact formulae, the proposed impact formula is found to be more effective.

During learning, interleaving exemplars from different categories (e.g., ABCBCACAB) rather than blocking by category (e.g., AAABBBCCC) often enhances inductive learning, especially when the categories are highly similar. However, when allowed to select their own study schedules, learners overwhelmingly tend to block rather than interleave. Category similarity has been shown to moderate the relative benefit of interleaved versus blocked study. We investigated whether learners were sensitive to category similarity when choosing exemplars for study, and whether these choices predicted their learning outcomes. In Experiment 1, learners interleaved more often when the categories were highly similar (difficult to discriminate from each other), compared with when similarity was low. In Experiment 2, learners were presented with two sets of categories to learn; categories within each set were similar to each other, but categories were dissimilar across sets. When learners chose to interleave, they tended to switch to a similar rather than dissimilar category. Importantly, learners' study choices predicted their subsequent categorization performance. Our findings suggest that learners are strategic in their search for commonalities within versus differences among categories and can regulate their study behaviors based on category similarity.

In the onshore and offshore chemical industries, a gas explosion is a major accident in terms of damage scale and frequency. To prevent disastrous damages, the Task Committee on Design of B...

Granite is one of the most common stones used historically in Korean architecture. Given the abundance of high-quality granite, more than 90% of the pagoda structures in Korea–tiered towers...

Predicting the damage to a concrete panel under impact loading is difficult due to the complexity of the impact mechanism of concrete. Based on the experimental results obtained by various researchers, the energies involved in the impact mechanism are classified into seven categories: Kinetic energy, deformed energy of a projectile, elastic penetration resistance energy of the panel, overall deformed energy of the panel, spalling-resistant energy, tunneling-resistant energy, and scabbing-resistant energy. Using these impact mechanisms and the energy conservation law, a new energy-based penetration depth formula is proposed to predict the penetration depth. This is validated using 402 impact test results, which include those with high-strength concrete, ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC), or steel fiber-reinforced concrete, those under very high-velocity impact, and those with a very low ratio of target panel thickness to projectile diameter. It is found that the new impact formula predicts the penetration depth quite well.

Wind load is one of the main concerns for engineers in the design of tall buildings. In contrast to seismic demand, the wind load spectrum has more energy at lower frequencies, which is why...