Assigning English change ringing patterns (permutation) in acoustic and EA music.

Change Ringing has been developed in English church towers since the 16th century. The number of towers in England dominates other countries in the British Isles - hence English, rather than British Change Ringing. Strangely, it occurred in few places other than former British colonies. Bells have provided symbolic and cultural messages for civilisations throughout the centuries. They can provide signals and important information (someone’s coming, bring out your dead…). Composers’ have used bells for a corresponding amount of time, whether it is to investigate the spectral content (the very sound of a bell) or the envelope or pattern created through a peal of bells (Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies [1], Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Anthony Gilbert most notably in the 20th and 21st Centuries). Permutations found in English Change Ringing Patterns can be very beautiful as a pure selfcontained logical entity. They are not rung to sound a melody but rather create different mathematical patterns using the permutations on the set of available bells. This paper discusses a variety of applications within musical composition

ACT to improve ICT use for learning: a synthesis of studies of teacher confidence in using ICT in two Queensland schooling systems

A review of the literature about student use of ICT and the impact of ICT use on learning reveals a complexity of rationales and terminology that underwrite ICT initiatives; various dimensions and stages of integration; inherent methodological difficulties; obstacles to integration such as teacher ICT confidence, expertise and beliefs about the potential for ICT to make a difference to student learning; teacher professional development; school technological infrastructure and support; and the need for ICT leadership (Jamieson-Proctor, Burnett, Finger, & Watson, 2006). This paper investigates the overarching research question - Are ICT initiatives having the desired impact on teaching and learning in schools? It provides a synthesis of the results of recent investigations by us in Queensland State and Catholic schools involving 2652 teachers from 168 schools across the two systems. Significant statistical findings that link teachers’ confidence in using ICT with students, to the quantity and quality of students’ use of ICT for learning are highlighted. The findings support the hypothesis that current ICT initiatives are having less than the desired result in both Queensland systems. The paper concludes with a call for Australia-wide research to unpack and address the factors, such as teacher confidence, that are currently constraining the use of ICT within Australian schooling systems

The triple task technique for studying writing processes : on which task is attention focused ?

The triple task technique measures the time and cognitive effort devoted to specific writing processes by combining directed retrospection with secondary task reaction time (RT). Writing a text is the primary task and rapidly detecting auditory probes to index cognitive effort is the secondary task. The third task is retrospecting and categorizing the contents of working memory at the time of each probe. The present paper reviews studies on the reactivity and validity of the technique. Further, one recent criticism of the method's validity is tested here: namely, that the primary task for the experimenter is not the primary task for the writer, thus distorting the time and effort measurements. We found that time and effort allocated to planning, translating, executing, evaluating, and revising was the same when the writer was encouraged by instructions to focus either on the speed of responding or the accuracy of retrospection instead of the text itself. Because writing requires sustained thought and attention to produce a cumulative product, it is apparently difficult to make text production anything but the primary task. The triple task technique offers a useful alternative to pause analysis and verbal protocols for investigating the functional features of writing

Combinatorics in the Art of the Twentieth Century

This paper is motivated by a question I asked myself: How can combinatorial structures be used in a work of art? Immediately, other questions arose: Whether there are artists that work or think combinatorially? If so, what works have they produced in this way? What are the similarities and differences between art works produced using combinatorics? This paper presents the first results of the attempt to answer these questions, being a survey of a selection of works that use or contain combinatorics in some way, including music, literature and visual arts, focusing on the twentieth century.Postprint (published version

Integrating explanation-based and empirical learning methods in OCCAM

This paper discusses an approach to integrating empirical and explanation based learning techniques. The paper focuses on OCCAM, a program that has the capability to acquire via empirical means the knowledge needed for analytical learning. Two examples of this capability are discussed:The ability to use empirical techniques to acquire a domain theory for explanation based learning.The ability to use empirical learning techniques to find common patterns for causal relationships. These patterns encode a theory of causality (i.e., a set of general principles for recognizing causal relationships). Once acquired, a theory of causality can facilitate later learning by focusing on hypotheses which are consistent with the theory

Switching ferromagnetic spins by an ultrafast laser pulse: Emergence of giant optical spin-orbit torque

Faster magnetic recording technology is indispensable to massive data storage and big data sciences. {All-optical spin switching offers a possible solution}, but at present it is limited to a handful of expensive and complex rare-earth ferrimagnets. The spin switching in more abundant ferromagnets may significantly expand the scope of all-optical spin switching. Here by studying 40,000 ferromagnetic spins, we show that it is the optical spin-orbit torque that determines the course of spin switching in both ferromagnets and ferrimagnets. Spin switching occurs only if the effective spin angular momentum of each constituent in an alloy exceeds a critical value. Because of the strong exchange coupling, the spin switches much faster in ferromagnets than weakly-coupled ferrimagnets. This establishes a paradigm for all-optical spin switching. The resultant magnetic field (65 T) is so big that it will significantly reduce high current in spintronics, thus representing the beginning of photospintronics.Comment: 12 page2, 6 figures. Accepted to Europhysics Letters (2016). Extended version with the supplementary information. Contribution from Indiana State University,Europhysics Letters (2016