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Online professional development (PD) can support broader accessibility than traditional face-to- face PD. However online delivery presents challenges for characteristics of high-quality PD, such as collaborative knowledge building and community development, that have proven positive outcomes in face-to- face modes. A few comparative studies have demonstrated equivalent outcomes when PD activities have been translated from a successful face-to-face implementation to an online format. This study investigates whether an online version of PD for high school biology teachers on using computer-supported complex systems curriculum and instruction can achieve the same high impact as the face-to-face version. We describe changes in design decisions to accommodate the online mode and measure impact on teachers’ perceptions of their experiences and student outcomes. The results show positive teacher perceptions in both PD formats and roughly equal student outcomes. However, teachers articulated other benefits to online activities that indicate opportunities for improved access to high-quality PD. 

Polymer networks crosslinked with spring-like ortho -phenylene ( o P) foldamers were developed. NMR analysis indicated the o P crosslinkers were well-folded. Polymer networks with o P-based crosslinkers showed enhanced energy dissipation and elasticity compared to divinylbenzene crosslinked networks. The energy dissipation was attributed to the strain-induced reversible unfolding of the o P units. Energy dissipation increased with the number of helical turns in the foldamer. 

Many researchers have identified the need for a more holistic understanding of the role of feedback in supporting learning in online environments. This study explores how our design, development, and implementation of an online feedback facilitation system influenced high school science teachers’ learning in an asynchronous teacher professional development online course. We then describe teachers’ and facilitators’, i.e., feedback providers’, perceptions of the effectiveness of the system’s features for supporting participants’ learning and engagement. Our work also responds to recent calls for developing a more nuanced understanding of how the complexity of feedback influences learning and the need for more qualitative research on online facilitators’ and learners’ experiences working with new technologies. Results demonstrated that, despite the difficulty of analyzing the complex variables influencing learners’ interactions and perceptions of the feedback system, designing adaptive feedback systems that draw on the principles of design- based implementation research (DBIR) offer promise for enhancing the systems’ contributions to teacher learning. 

Neutrino-nucleus cross section measurements are needed to improve interaction modeling to meet the precision needs of neutrino experiments in efforts to measure oscillation parameters and search for physics beyond the Standard Model. We review the difficulties associated with modeling neutrino-nucleus interactions that lead to a dependence on event generators in oscillation analyses and cross section measurements alike. We then describe data-driven model validation techniques intended to address this model dependence. The method relies on utilizing various goodness-of-fit tests and the correlations between different observables and channels to probe the model for defects in the phase space relevant for the desired analysis. These techniques shed light on relevant mismodeling, allowing it to be detected before it begins to bias the cross section results. We compare more commonly used model validation methods which directly validate the model against alternative ones to these data-driven techniques and show their efficacy with fake data studies. These studies demonstrate that employing data-driven model validation in cross section measurements represents a reliable strategy to produce robust results that will stimulate the desired improvements to interaction modeling. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

We report the first double-differential cross section measurement of neutral-current neutral pion ( $\mathrm{NC}{\pi }^0$) production in neutrino-argon scattering, as well as single-differential measurements of the same channel in terms of final states with and without protons. The kinematic variables of interest for these measurements are the ${\pi }^0$momentum and the ${\pi }^0$scattering angle with respect to the neutrino beam. A total of 4971 candidate $\mathrm{NC}{\pi }^0$events fully contained within the MicroBooNE detector are selected using data collected at a mean neutrino energy of $\sim 0.8\mathrm{GeV}$from $6.4\times {10}^{20}$protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. After extensive data-driven model validation to ensure unbiased unfolding, the Wiener-singular-value-decomposition method is used to extract nominal flux-averaged cross sections. The results are compared to predictions from commonly used neutrino event generators, which tend to overpredict the measured $\mathrm{NC}{\pi }^0$cross section, especially in the $0.2–0.5\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}$ ${\pi }^0$momentum range and at forward scattering angles. Events with at least one proton present in the final state are also underestimated. This data will help improve the modeling of $\mathrm{NC}{\pi }^0$production, which represents a major background in measurements of charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector and in searches for new physics beyond the standard model.