Establishing a National Hydrographic Service with United Nations Technical Co-Operation

The Report of the Group of Experts on Hydrographic Surveying and Nautical Charting, published by the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1978 [1], advised developing countries to examine the need for hydrographic services and to ascertain what aid they could expect from the United Nations in establishing a national hydrographic service. This paper deals with certain aspects of the Report, explains, in general terms, the financial and technical assistance which may be provided and the United Nations agencies which may be involved. The concept of a UN-assisted project is discussed and its application in the planning of a hydrographic project is explained. A case study of a hydrographic project with United Nations Technical Co-operation, in which the author is involved, is presented to give some indication of the time scale involved, the problems which may be encountered and methods of solving them. The paper begins with the assumption that the Government of a developing country has realised the need to establish a hydrographic service and has identified the department to run it. It presents no arguments for or against such a decision but aims to give some insight into the formulation of a hydrographic project with United Nations Technical Co-operation

Using technology to encourage student engagement with feedback: a literature review

This article presents a review of the literature over the past 10 years into the use of technological interventions that tutors might use to encourage students to engage with and action the feedback that they receive on their assessment tasks. The authors hypothesise that technology has the potential to enhance student engagement with feedback. During the literature review, a particular emphasis was placed on investigating how students might better use feedback when it is published online. This includes where an adaptive release technique is applied requiring students to submit an action plan based on their feedback to activate the release of their grade, and electronic generation of feedback using statement banks. Key journals were identified and a snowball technique was used to select relevant literature. The use of technology to support and enhance student learning and assessment is well documented in the literature, and effective feedback practices are similarly well published. However, in terms of the use of technology to support and enhance feedback processes and practices (i.e. production, publication, delivery and students making use of feedback through technology), we found the literature to be limited

Engaging students with feedback through adaptive release

Feedback to students has been highlighted in the literature as an area where improvements are needed. Students need high quality, prompt feedback, but they also need guidance and tools to help them engage with and learn from that feedback. This case study explores staff and student perceptions of a tool at Sheffield Hallam University which releases electronic feedback to students before allowing them to access their grades. This approach was designed to encourage feedback engagement and connection with future assessments. The methods employed were student interviews and staff questionnaires about their experiences. The data were analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, create recommendations for institutions looking to improve feedback engagement and identify areas for further development

A role for technology in enhancing students’ engagement with feedback

This paper explores the potential of technology-enabled feedback to improve student learning. 'Technology, Feedback, Action!:The impact of learning technology upon students' engagement with their feedback' aimed to evaluate how a range of technical interventions might encourage students to engage with feedback and formulate actions to improve future learning. The study used qualitative methods and worked in partnership with 23 undergraduate students to explore their experiences of receiving different forms of feedback with varying degrees of technical intervention including, but not limited to, electronic feedback with grades withheld, online grade publication, criteria-based feedback and more traditional feedback methods. Through a series of semi-structured interviews student participants were encouraged to articulate their experiences of feedback. The online publication of grades and feedback and the adaptive release of grades were found to significantly enhance students' engagement with their feedback. Data were analysed using a thematic approach and the main themes were used to inform the development of a series of good practice guides. The findings are discussed in the context of current literature. Keywords: Feedback; technology; engagement; reflection; innovatio

ROTOЯ Transdisciplinary Dialogue and Debate: A Public Engagement Case Study

In 2011, the University of Huddersfield commenced a partnership with Huddersfield Art Gallery, to offer a public engagement exhibitions programme, entitled “ROTOЯ”. Featuring the art and design work of University staff, this series of exhibitions, public events and talks acts as a platform for disseminating and communicating practice-based-research, showcasing a community of artists, designers and curators whose ideas and connective practices migrate and span art and design production. For ROTOЯ, interpretation acts as a pivot between academic research, interpretation and public engagement, where points of intersection are considered and debated from multiple perspectives. In 2013, we hosted a symposium at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, which questioned how we measure the role and effects of public engagement in art and design. This paper presents the ROTOЯ public engagement exhibitions programme as a case study of public engagement in light of these questions

Major Merging: The Way to Make a Massive, Passive Galaxy

We analyze the projected axial ratio distribution, p(b/a), of galaxies that were spectroscopically selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (DR6) to have low star-formation rates. For these quiescent galaxies we find a rather abrupt change in p(b/a) at a stellar mass of ~10^{11} M_sol: at higher masses there are hardly any galaxies with b/a<0.6, implying that essentially none of them have disk-like intrinsic shapes and must be spheroidal. This transition mass is ~3-4 times higher than the threshold mass above which quiescent galaxies dominate in number over star-forming galaxies, which suggests these mass scales are unrelated. At masses lower than ~10^{11} M_sol, quiescent galaxies show a large range in axial ratios, implying a mix of bulge- and disk-dominated galaxies. Our result strongly suggests that major merging is the most important, and perhaps only relevant, evolutionary channel to produce massive (>10^{11} M_sol), quiescent galaxies, as it inevitably results in spheroids.Comment: Minor changes to match published version in ApJ Letter

The Red Sequence Luminosity Function in Massive Intermediate Redshift Galaxy Clusters

We measure the rest-frame B-band luminosity function of red-sequence galaxies (RSLF) of five intermediate-redshift (0.5 950 km/s) clusters. Cluster galaxies are identified through photometric redshifts based on imaging in seven bands (five broad, and two narrow) using the WIYN 3.5m telescope. The luminosity functions are well-fit down to M_B^*+3 for all of the clusters out to a radius of R_200. For comparison, the luminosity functions for a sample of 59 low redshift clusters selected from the SDSS are measured as well. There is a brightening trend (M_B^* increases by 0.7 mags by z=0.75) with redshift comparable to what is seen in the field for similarly defined galaxies, although there is a hint that the cluster red-sequence brightening is more rapid in the past (z>0.5), and relatively shallow at more recent times. Contrary to other claims, we find little evidence for evolution of the faint end slope. Previous indications of evolution may be due to limitations in measurement technique, bias in the sample selection, and cluster to cluster variation. As seen in both the low and high redshift sample, a significant amount of variation in luminosity functions parameters alpha and M^* exists between individual clusters.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Chandra Detection of a TypeII Quasar at z=3.288

We report on observations of a TypeII quasar at redshift z=3.288, identified as a hard X-ray source in a 185 ks observation with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and as a high-redshift photometric candidate from deep, multiband optical imaging. CXOJ084837.9+445352 (hereinafter CXO52) shows an unusually hard X-ray spectrum from which we infer an absorbing column density N(H) = (4.8+/-2.1)e23 / cm2 (90% confidence) and an implied unabsorbed 2-10 keV rest-frame luminosity of L(2-10) = 3.3e44 ergs/s, well within the quasar regime. Hubble Space Telescope imaging shows CXO52 to be elongated with slight morphological differences between the WFPC2 F814W and NICMOS F160W bands. Optical and near-infrared spectroscopy of CXO52 show high-ionization emission lines with velocity widths ~1000 km/s and flux ratios similar to a Seyfert2 galaxy or radio galaxy. The latter are the only class of high-redshift TypeII luminous AGN which have been extensively studied to date. Unlike radio galaxies, however, CXO52 is radio quiet, remaining undetected at radio wavelengths to fairly deep limits, f(4.8GHz) < 40 microJy. High-redshift TypeII quasars, expected from unification models of active galaxies and long-thought necessary to explain the X-ray background, are poorly constrained observationally with few such systems known. We discuss recent observations of similar TypeII quasars and detail search techniques for such systems: namely (1) X-ray selection, (2) radio selection, (3) multi-color imaging selection, and (4) narrow-band imaging selection. Such studies are likely to begin identifying luminous, high-redshift TypeII systems in large numbers. We discuss the prospects for these studies and their implications to our understanding of the X-ray background.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures; to appear in The Astrophysical Journa

Lewy Body Dementia Association\u27s Research Centers of Excellence Program: Inaugural Meeting Proceedings.

The first Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) Research Centers of Excellence (RCOE) Investigator\u27s meeting was held on December 14, 2017, in New Orleans. The program was established to increase patient access to clinical experts on Lewy body dementia (LBD), which includes dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson\u27s disease dementia (PDD), and to create a clinical trials-ready network. Four working groups (WG) were created to pursue the LBDA RCOE aims: (1) increase access to high-quality clinical care, (2) increase access to support for people living with LBD and their caregivers, (3) increase knowledge of LBD among medical and allied (or other) professionals, and (4) create infrastructure for a clinical trials-ready network as well as resources to advance the study of new therapeutics