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1. Framing Executive Function as a Construct and its Relation to Academic Achievement

   https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12360  

   Cirino, Paul T. (May 2023, Mind, Brain, and Education)

   The goal of this work is to provide a framework for understanding the relationship between executive function (EF) to reading and other academic achievements to promote future work in this area. After briefly reviewing extant theoretical and empirical support about what is known in this area, we then more deeply evaluate the construct of EF itself. This is necessary because EF means any number of things to any number of individuals, scientists included. Review of several pertinent conceptualizations of EF, including our own, reveals agreement that EF is domain general (although the meaning of domain generality is varied); additional commonalities include a focus on control/management and goal direction. However, there is less agreement on whether EF is singular or plural, or whether EF is one or more “thing(s)” versus process(es). These alternatives are discussed with a focus on the implications for understanding the role of EF for important functional outcomes. 

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2. Disentangling the Relative Drivers of Seasonal Evapotranspiration Across a Continental‐Scale Aridity Gradient

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JG006916  

   Young, Adam M.; Friedl, Mark A.; Novick, Kimberly; Scott, Russell L.; Moon, Minkyu; Frolking, Steve; Li, Xiaolu; Carrillo, Carlos M.; Richardson, Andrew D. (August 2022, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences)

   Abstract Evapotranspiration (ET) is a significant ecosystem flux, governing the partitioning of energy at the land surface. Understanding the seasonal pattern and magnitude ofETis critical for anticipating a range of ecosystem impacts, including drought, heat‐wave events, and plant mortality. In this study, we identified the relative controls of seasonal variability inET, and how these controls vary among ecosystems. We used overlapping AmeriFlux and PhenoCam time series at a daily timestep from 20 sites to explore these linkages (# site‐years >100), and our study area covered a broad climatological aridity gradient in the U.S. and Canada. We focused on disentangling the most important controls of bulk surface conductance (G_s) and evaporative fraction (EF = LE/[H + LE]), whereLEandHrepresent latent and sensible heat fluxes, respectively. Specifically, we investigated how vegetation phenology varied in importance relative to meteorological variables (vapor pressure deficit and antecedent precipitation) as a driver ofG_sandEFusing path analysis, a framework for quantifying and comparing the causal linkages among multiple response and explanatory variables. Our results revealed that the drivers ofG_sandEFseasonality varied significantly between energy‐ and water‐limited ecosystems. Specifically, precipitation had a much higher effect in water‐limited ecosystems, while seasonal patterns in canopy greenness emerged as a stronger control in energy‐limited ecosystems. Given that phenology is expected to shift under future climate, our findings provide key information for understanding and predicting how phenology may impact 21st‐century hydroclimate regimes and the surface‐energy balance. 

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3. Vertical dependence of horizontal variation of cloud microphysics: observations from the ACE-ENA field campaign and implications for warm-rain simulation in climate models

   https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3103-2021  

   Zhang, Zhibo; Song, Qianqian; Mechem, David B.; Larson, Vincent E.; Wang, Jian; Liu, Yangang; Witte, Mikael K.; Dong, Xiquan; Wu, Peng (January 2021, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract. In the current global climate models (GCMs), the nonlinearity effect ofsubgrid cloud variations on the parameterization of warm-rain process, e.g.,the autoconversion rate, is often treated by multiplying the resolved-scalewarm-rain process rates by a so-called enhancement factor (EF). In thisstudy, we investigate the subgrid-scale horizontal variations andcovariation of cloud water content (qc) and cloud droplet numberconcentration (Nc) in marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds based on thein situ measurements from a recent field campaign and study the implicationsfor the autoconversion rate EF in GCMs. Based on a few carefully selectedcases from the field campaign, we found that in contrast to the enhancingeffect of qc and Nc variations that tends to make EF > 1, the strong positive correlation between qc and Nc results in asuppressing effect that tends to make EF < 1. This effect isespecially strong at cloud top, where the qc and Nc correlation canbe as high as 0.95. We also found that the physically complete EF thataccounts for the covariation of qc and Nc is significantly smallerthan its counterpart that accounts only for the subgrid variation ofqc, especially at cloud top. Although this study is based on limitedcases, it suggests that the subgrid variations of Nc and itscorrelation with qc both need to be considered for an accuratesimulation of the autoconversion process in GCMs. 

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4. Origins of Fermi Level Pinning for Ni and Ag Metal Contacts on Tungsten Dichalcogenides

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.3c06494  

   Wang, Xinglu; Hu, Yaoqiao; Kim, Seong Yeoul; Addou, Rafik; Cho, Kyeongjae; Wallace, Robert M (October 2023, ACS Nano)

   Tungsten transition metal dichalcogenides (W-TMDs) are intriguing due to their properties and potential for application in next-generation electronic devices. However, strong Fermi level (EF) pinning manifests at the metal/W-TMD interfaces, which could tremendously restrain the carrier injection into the channel. In this work, we illustrate the origins of EF pinning for Ni and Ag contacts on W-TMDs by considering interface chemistry, band alignment, impurities, and imperfections of W-TMDs, contact metal adsorption mechanism, and the resultant electronic structure. We conclude that the origins of EF pinning at a covalent contact metal/W-TMD interface, such as Ni/W-TMDs, can be attributed to defects, impurities, and interface reaction products. In contrast, for a van der Waals contact metal/TMD system such as Ag/W-TMDs, the primary factor responsible for EF pinning is the electronic modification of the TMDs resulting from the defects and impurities with the minor impact of metal-induced gap states. The potential strategies for carefully engineering the metal deposition approach are also discussed. This work unveils the origins of EF pinning at metal/TMD interfaces experimentally and theoretically and provides guidance on further enhancing and improving the device performance. 

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5. Exploring potential cognitive foundations of scientific literacy inpreschoolers: Causal reasoning and executive function

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.09.007  

   Bauer, Jessie-Raye; Booth, Amy E. (January 2019, Early childhood research quarterly)

   Despite increasing emphasis in the United States on promoting student engagement and achievement inscience, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, the origins of scientific literacy remainpoorly understood. We begin to address this limitation by considering the potential contributions oftwo distinct domain-general skills to early scientific literacy. Given their relevance to making predic-tions and evaluating evidence, we consider the degree to which causal reasoning skills relate to scientificliteracy (as measured by an adaptive standardized test specifically designed for preschoolers). We alsoconsider executive function (EF) as a potentially more fundamental contributor. While previous researchhas demonstrated that EF is predictive of achievement in other core academic domains like reading andmath, its relationship to scientific literacy, particularly in early childhood, has received little attention. Toexamine how causal reasoning and EF together potentially relate to the development of scientific literacyin young children, we recruited 125 3-year-olds to complete three causal reasoning tasks, three EF tasks,and the aforementioned measure of scientific literacy. Results from a series of hierarchical regressionsrevealed that EF, and one measure of causal reasoning (causal inferencing) were related to scientific liter-acy, even after controlling for age, ethnicity, maternal education, and vocabulary knowledge. Moreover,causal inferencing ability was a significant partial mediator between EF and scientific literacy. Althoughadditional research will be required to further specify the nature of these relationships, the current worksuggests that EF has the potential to support scientific literacy, perhaps in part, by scaffolding causalreasoning skills. 

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