TY - JOUR A1 - Huang, Yizhen A1 - Richter, Eric A1 - Kleickmann, Thilo A1 - Wiepke, Axel A1 - Richter, Dirk T1 - Classroom complexity affects student teachers’ behavior in a VR classroom JF - Computers & education : an international journal N2 - Student teachers often struggle to keep track of everything that is happening in the classroom, and particularly to notice and respond when students cause disruptions. The complexity of the classroom environment is a potential contributing factor that has not been empirically tested. In this experimental study, we utilized a virtual reality (VR) classroom to examine whether classroom complexity affects the likelihood of student teachers noticing disruptions and how they react after noticing. Classroom complexity was operationalized as the number of disruptions and the existence of overlapping disruptions (multidimensionality) as well as the existence of parallel teaching tasks (simultaneity). Results showed that student teachers (n = 50) were less likely to notice the scripted disruptions, and also less likely to respond to the disruptions in a comprehensive and effortful manner when facing greater complexity. These results may have implications for both teacher training and the design of VR for training or research purpose. This study contributes to the field from two aspects: 1) it revealed how features of the classroom environment can affect student teachers' noticing of and reaction to disruptions; and 2) it extends the functionality of the VR environment-from a teacher training tool to a testbed of fundamental classroom processes that are difficult to manipulate in real-life. KW - Augmented and virtual reality KW - Simulations KW - Improving classroom KW - teaching KW - Media in education KW - Pedagogical issues Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.104100 SN - 0360-1315 SN - 1873-782X VL - 163 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Huang, Yizhen A1 - Richter, Eric A1 - Kleickmann, Thilo A1 - Richter, Dirk T1 - Class size affects preservice teachers' physiological and psychological stress reactions BT - an experiment in a virtual reality classroom JF - Computers & education : an international journal N2 - Teachers frequently express stress associated with teaching in large classrooms. Despite the timehonored tradition in teacher stress research of treating class size as a job-related stressor, the underlying premise that class size directly impacts teachers' stress reactions remains untested. In this randomized controlled experiment targeted at preservice teachers, we utilized a standardized virtual reality (VR) classroom to examine whether class size (number of student avatars) directly affected physiological (heart rate) or psychological (subjective rating) stress reactions among 65 preservice teachers. Results from linear mixed-effects modeling (LMM) showed that class size significantly predicted both their physiological and psychological stress reactions in the simulated environment: Average heart rate and subjective stress ratings were both significantly higher in the large class size condition. Further investigations into the causes of this association has been proposed. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the effects of classroom features on preservice teachers' emotional experiences and well-being. KW - Augmented and virtual reality KW - Simulations KW - Improving classroom teaching KW - Media in education KW - Pedagogical issues Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104503 SN - 0360-1315 SN - 1873-782X VL - 184 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Leib, Julia A1 - Ruppel, Samantha T1 - The learning effects of United Nations simulations in political science classrooms JF - European Political Science N2 - How do active learning environments—by means of simulations—enhance political science students’ learning outcomes regarding different levels of knowledge? This paper examines different UN simulations in political science courses to demonstrate their pedagogical value and provide empirical evidence for their effectiveness regarding three levels of knowledge (factual, procedural and soft skills). Despite comprehensive theoretical claims about the positive effects of active learning environments on learning outcomes, substantial empirical evidence is limited. Here, we focus on simulations to systematically test previous claims and demonstrate their pedagogical value. Model United Nations (MUNs) have been a popular teaching device in political science. To gain comprehensive data about the active learning effects of MUNs, we collect data and evaluate three simulations covering the whole range of simulation characteristics: a short in-class simulation of the UN Security Council, a regional MUN with different committees being simulated, and two delegations to the National Model United Nations, for which the students prepare for 1 year. Comparative results prove that simulations need to address certain characteristics in order to produce extensive learning outcomes. Only comprehensive simulations are able to achieve all envisioned learning outcomes regarding factual and procedural knowledge about the UN and soft skills. KW - Active learning KW - Education KW - Negotiation KW - Simulations KW - UN KW - International relations Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-020-00260-3 SN - 1682-0983 SN - 1680-4333 VL - 19 IS - 3 SP - 336 EP - 351 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Jeon, J. -H. A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. T1 - Non-Brownian diffusion in lipid membranes: Experiments and simulations JF - Biochimica et biophysica acta : Biomembranes N2 - The dynamics of constituents and the surface response of cellular membranes also in connection to the binding of various particles and macromolecules to the membrane are still a matter of controversy in the membrane biophysics community, particularly with respect to crowded membranes of living biological cells. We here put into perspective recent single particle tracking experiments in the plasma membranes of living cells and supercomputing studies of lipid bilayer model membranes with and without protein crowding. Special emphasis is put on the observation of anomalous, non-Brownian diffusion of both lipid molecules and proteins embedded in the lipid bilayer. While single component, pure lipid bilayers in simulations exhibit only transient anomalous diffusion of lipid molecules on nanosecond time scales, the persistence of anomalous diffusion becomes significantly longer ranged on the addition of disorder through the addition of cholesterol or proteins and on passing of the membrane lipids to the gel phase. Concurrently, experiments demonstrate the anomalous diffusion of membrane embedded proteins up to macroscopic time scales in the minute time range. Particular emphasis will be put on the physical character of the anomalous diffusion, in particular, the occurrence of ageing observed in the experiments the effective diffusivity of the measured particles is a decreasing function of time. Moreover, we present results for the time dependent local scaling exponent of the mean squared displacement of the monitored particles. Recent results finding deviations from the commonly assumed Gaussian diffusion patterns in protein crowded membranes are reported. The properties of the displacement autocorrelation function of the lipid molecules are discussed in the light of their appropriate physical anomalous diffusion models, both for non-crowded and crowded membranes. In the last part of this review we address the upcoming field of membrane distortion by elongated membrane-binding particles. We discuss how membrane compartmentalisation and the particle-membrane binding energy may impact the dynamics and response of lipid membranes. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Biosimulations edited by Ilpo Vattulainen and Tomasz Rog. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. KW - Lipid bilayer KW - Protein crowding KW - Anomalous diffusion KW - Simulations KW - Stochastic modelling KW - Non-Gaussian Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamem.2016.01.022 SN - 0005-2736 SN - 0006-3002 VL - 1858 SP - 2451 EP - 2467 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - THES A1 - Szklarski, Jacek T. T1 - Helical magnetorotational instability in MHD Taylor-Couette flow T1 - Helikale Magnetorotationsinstabilität in MHD Taylor-Couette Strömung N2 - Magnetorotational instability (MRI) is one of the most important and most common instabilities in astrophysics. Today it is widely accepted that it serves as a major source of turbulent viscosity in accretion disks, the most energy efficient objects in the universe. The importance of the MRI for astrophysics has been realized only in recent fifteen years. However, originally it was discovered much earlier, in 1959, in a very different context. Theoretical flow of a conducting liquid confined between differentially rotating cylinders in the presence of an external magnetic field was analyzed. The central conclusion is that the additional magnetic field parallel to the axis of rotation can destabilize otherwise stable flow. Theory of non-magnetized fluid motion between rotating cylinders has much longer history, though. It has been studied already in 1888 and today such setup is usually referred as a Taylor-Couette flow. To prove experimentally the existence of MRI in a magnetized Taylor-Couette flow is a demanding task and different MHD groups around the world try to achieve it. The main problem lies in the fact that laboratory liquid metals which are used in such experiments are characterized by small magnetic Prandtl number. Consequently rotation rates of the cylinders must be extremely large and vast amount of technical problems emerge. One of the most important difficulties is an influence of plates enclosing the cylinders in any experiment. For fast rotation the plates tend to dominate the whole flow and the MRI can not be observed. In this thesis we discuss a special helical configuration of the applied magnetic field which allows the critical rotation rates to be much smaller. If only the axial magnetic field is present, the cylinders must rotate with angular velocities corresponding to Reynolds numbers of order Re ≈ 10^6. With the helical field this number is dramatically reduced to Re ≈ 10^3. The azimuthal component of the magnetic field can be easily generated by letting an electric current through the axis of rotation, In a Taylor-Couette flow the (primary) instability manifests itself as Taylor vortices. The specific geometry of the helical magnetic field leads to a traveling wave solution and the vortices are drifting in a direction determined by rotation and the magnetic field. In an idealized study for infinitely long cylinders this is not a problem. However, if the cylinders have finite length and are bounded vertically by the plates the situation is different. In this dissertation it is shown, with use of numerical methods, that the traveling wave solution also exists for MHD Taylor-Couette flow at finite aspect ratio H/D, H being height of the cylinders, D width of the gap between them. The nonlinear simulations provide amplitudes of fluid velocity which are helpful in designing an experiment. Although the plates disturb the flow, parameters like the drift velocity indicate that the helical MRI operates in this case. The idea of the helical MRI was implemented in a very recent experiment PROMISE. The results provided, for the first time, an evidence that the (helical) MRI indeed exists. Nevertheless, the influence of the vertical endplates was evident and the experiment can be, in principle, improved. Exemplary methods of reduction of the end-effect are here proposed. Near the vertical boundaries develops an Ekman-Hartmann layer. Study of this layer for the MHD Taylor-Couette system as well as its impact on the global flow properties is presented. It is shown that the plates, especially if they are conducting, can disturb the flow far more then previously thought also for relatively slow rotation rates. N2 - Die magnetische Scherinstabilitaet (engl. MRI) ist eine sehr häufig in der Astrophysik anzutreffende Instabilität. Es wird heute weithin angenommen, dass sie die Ursache für die turbulente Viskosität in Akkretionsscheiben ist, den Objekten mit der höchsten Energieeffizienz im Kosmos. Die Bedeutung der MRI ist erst in den letzten fünfzehn Jahren klargeworden. Entdeckt wurde sie jedoch schon viel früher, im Jahre 1959 in einem völlig anderen physikalischen Kontext. Die Strömung in einer leitfähigen Flüssigkeit zwischen differentiell rotierenden Zylindern unter dem Einfluss eines externen Magnetfeldes wurde theoretisch untersucht. Die Schlussfolgerung war, dass das zugesetzte Magnetfeld eine sonst stabile Strömung destabilisieren kann. Die Geschichte der Theorie von Strömungen zwischen Zylindern reicht bis ins Jahr 1888 zurück. Heute wird ein solcher Aufbau üblicherweise als Taylor-Couette-Strömung bezeichnet. Ein System rotierender Zylinder, zwischen denen sich flüssiges Metall befindet, war Gegenstand des kürzlich durchgeführten Experiments PROMISE. Die Ergebnisse belegen zum ersten Mal experimentell die Existenz der MRI. Um die notwendigen Drehzahlen gering zu halten, wurde ein spezielles, helikales Magnetfeld angelegt. Gegenstand dieser Dissertation ist die theoretische Behandlung der magnetohydrodynamischen Taylor-Couette-Strömung, ähnlich der des Experiments PROMISE. Insbesondere der Einfluss der vertikalen Ränder (Deckel) wird untersucht. Es wird gezeigt, dass die MRI auch in Zylindern mit endlicher Höhe und mit begrenzenden Deckeln einsetzt. In der Nähe der vertikalen Ränder bildet sich eine Ekman-Hartmann-Schicht. Die Untersuchung dieser Schicht im Zusammenhang mit dem MHD-Taylor-Couette-System sowie ihr Einfluss auf die globalen Strömungseigenschaften werden vorgestellt. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Deckel - insbesondere wenn sie elektrisch leitend sind - die Strömung stärker beeinflussen können als bisher angenommen, selbst bei den geringen Drehzahlen. Es werden Methoden zur Verringerung dieser unerwünschten Effekte vorgeschlagen. KW - MHD KW - Simulationen KW - Taylor-Couette KW - Akkretion KW - MHD KW - Simulations KW - Taylor-Couette KW - Accretion Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-16002 ER -