96,668 research outputs found
Modeling student pathways in a physics bachelor's degree program
Physics education research has used quantitative modeling techniques to
explore learning, affect, and other aspects of physics education. However,
these studies have rarely examined the predictive output of the models, instead
focusing on the inferences or causal relationships observed in various data
sets. This research introduces a modern predictive modeling approach to the PER
community using transcript data for students declaring physics majors at
Michigan State University (MSU). Using a machine learning model, this analysis
demonstrates that students who switch from a physics degree program to an
engineering degree program do not take the third semester course in
thermodynamics and modern physics, and may take engineering courses while
registered as a physics major. Performance in introductory physics and calculus
courses, measured by grade as well as a students' declared gender and ethnicity
play a much smaller role relative to the other features included the model.
These results are used to compare traditional statistical analysis to a more
modern modeling approach.Comment: submitted to Physical Review Physics Education Researc
A Generalised Quantifier Theory of Natural Language in Categorical Compositional Distributional Semantics with Bialgebras
Categorical compositional distributional semantics is a model of natural
language; it combines the statistical vector space models of words with the
compositional models of grammar. We formalise in this model the generalised
quantifier theory of natural language, due to Barwise and Cooper. The
underlying setting is a compact closed category with bialgebras. We start from
a generative grammar formalisation and develop an abstract categorical
compositional semantics for it, then instantiate the abstract setting to sets
and relations and to finite dimensional vector spaces and linear maps. We prove
the equivalence of the relational instantiation to the truth theoretic
semantics of generalised quantifiers. The vector space instantiation formalises
the statistical usages of words and enables us to, for the first time, reason
about quantified phrases and sentences compositionally in distributional
semantics
A Calculus of Looping Sequences with Local Rules
In this paper we present a variant of the Calculus of Looping Sequences (CLS
for short) with global and local rewrite rules. While global rules, as in CLS,
are applied anywhere in a given term, local rules can only be applied in the
compartment on which they are defined. Local rules are dynamic: they can be
added, moved and erased. We enrich the new calculus with a parallel semantics
where a reduction step is lead by any number of global and local rules that
could be performed in parallel. A type system is developed to enforce the
property that a compartment must contain only local rules with specific
features. As a running example we model some interactions happening in a cell
starting from its nucleus and moving towards its mitochondria.Comment: In Proceedings DCM 2011, arXiv:1207.682
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