Making Memories: Why Time Matters

In the last decade advances in human neuroscience have identified the critical importance of time in creating long-term memories. Circadian neuroscience has established biological time functions via cellular clocks regulated by photosensitive retinal ganglion cells and the suprachiasmatic nuclei. Individuals have different circadian clocks depending on their chronotypes that vary with genetic, age, and sex. In contrast, social time is determined by time zones, daylight savings time, and education and employment hours. Social time and circadian time differences can lead to circadian desynchronization, sleep deprivation, health problems, and poor cognitive performance. Synchronizing social time to circadian biology leads to better health and learning, as demonstrated in adolescent education. In-day making memories of complex bodies of structured information in education is organized in social time and uses many different learning techniques. Research in the neuroscience of long-term memory (LTM) has demonstrated in-day time spaced learning patterns of three repetitions of information separated by two rest periods are effective in making memories in mammals and humans. This time pattern is based on the intracellular processes required in synaptic plasticity. Circadian desynchronization, sleep deprivation, and memory consolidation in sleep are less well-understood, though there has been considerable progress in neuroscience research in the last decade. The interplay of circadian, in-day and sleep neuroscience research are creating an understanding of making memories in the first 24-h that has already led to interventions that can improve health and learning

Cutting tracks, making CDs: a comparative study of audio time-correction techniques in the desktop age.

Producers have long sought to “tighten” studio performances. Software-based DAW’s now come with proprietary functions to facilitate this, but only the latest generation of platforms allow relative ease of use on longer takes. Each method has advantages and disadvantages in terms of ease and speed of use, transient preservation, implied subsequent workflow and (usually) unwanted artifacts. Whilst rhythmically consistent material with clear transients is readily controllable with contemporary tools, working with complex mixtures of note-values still presents a challenge and requires much user intervention. This paper performs a comparative study of different audio quantize techniques on percussive material, often on rhythmically complex performances. It will seek to compare necessary methodologies and workflow implications through the use of several contemporary systems: Recycle, Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Live, Melodyne, and Nuendo. The current level of man-machine interaction will be explored, and the best features from each platform will be collated. A model for the future will be speculatively presented

Making time for great teaching

The report examines the timetables and budgets of six diverse schools across the country to identify ways they can change their practices in order to free up time for teacher development. Overview School education in Australia is slipping. We are falling down the international rankings and our students are performing at a lower level in some subjects than they were a decade ago, according to the OECD. How we respond is vital for our students’ future. High-performing systems around the world know that improving the effectiveness of teaching is the way to lift school performance. They seek to increase the quality – not the quantity – of teaching. They know teaching improves when teachers learn from each other. So they ensure teachers are mentored and teach classes in front of skilled observers, who provide constructive feedback. They make time for teachers to undertake practical research in their schools on how to lift student learning. Governments and many schools have tried to implement similar professional learning programs. But success has been limited. A major stumbling block is finding the resources and time in the school week. Each year we ask schools and teachers to do more. In fact, we need to get them to do less, so they have more time to improve their teaching. This report shows how. We worked extensively with six diverse schools across the country that are striving to give teachers more time. We talked to their teachers and school leaders to develop, fully cost and find time for intensive programs such as intensive mentoring, observation of teachers and feedback on their work, active collaboration and school-based research. Ideally, teachers would have at least three extra school periods a week for these programs. Most of the time can be found by reducing the time teachers spend on ineffective professional development, staff meetings, school assemblies, extra subjects and extra-curricular activities. Schools must make difficult but crucial trade-offs in how teachers and school leaders spend their time. We must be explicit that every time we ask teachers to perform extra activities we are decreasing the quality of teaching and learning in schools. Education strategy must change. Governments must lead the way and prioritise how money is spent at all levels of education. They are still funding ineffective professional learning that lacks accountability. Government regulations restrict schools. Enterprise bargaining agreements restrict changes to work schedules, and duty of care requirements restrain schools that want to free their teachers from child minding to focus on improving teaching. We cannot expect teachers to lift our students to the world’s best while also insisting they spend time on yard duty, pastoral care, and supervising extra-curricular activities. Similarly, we should not follow low-performing systems around the world that have tried to improve schools by decreasing class sizes and increasing the time teachers spend in the classroom. Instead, we must make time for programs that develop teacher skills and deliver great teaching. Some Australian schools, even those with scarce resources and high levels of disadvantage, are making hard choices right now. For the sake of our students all schools and school systems should follow their lead

Making Cold Molecules by Time-dependent Feshbach Resonances

Pairs of trapped atoms can be associated to make a diatomic molecule using a time dependent magnetic field to ramp the energy of a scattering resonance state from above to below the scattering threshold. A relatively simple model, parameterized in terms of the background scattering length and resonance width and magnetic moment, can be used to predict conversion probabilities from atoms to molecules. The model and its Landau-Zener interpretation are described and illustrated by specific calculations for $^{23}$Na, $^{87}$Rb, and $^{133}$Cs resonances. The model can be readily adapted to Bose-Einstein condensates. Comparison with full many-body calculations for the condensate case show that the model is very useful for making simple estimates of molecule conversion efficiencies.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures; talk for Quantum Challenges Symposium, Warsaw, Poland, September 4-7, 2003. Published in Journal of Modern Optics 51, 1787-1806 (2004). Typographical errors in Journal article correcte

Ecosystem Services in Decision Making: Time to Deliver

Over the past decade, efforts to value and protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the last, best hope for making conservation mainstream – attractive and commonplace worldwide. In theory, if we can help individuals and institutions to recognize the value of nature, then this should greatly increase investments in conservation, while at the same time fostering human well-being. In practice, however, we have not yet developed the scientific basis, nor the policy and finance mechanisms, for incorporating natural capital into resource- and land-use decisions on a large scale. Here, we propose a conceptual framework and sketch out a strategic plan for delivering on the promise of ecosystem services, drawing on emerging examples from Hawai‘i. We describe key advances in the science and practice of accounting for natural capital in the decisions of individuals, communities, corporations, and governments

Making the Most of Out-of-School Time

Evaluates the MOST initiative, which was launched in 1994 in Boston, Chicago, and Seattle, to improve the quantity and quality of before- and after-school programs for 5- to 14-year-olds, especially for families in low-income communities