Direct Observation of Decoupled Structural and Electronic Transitions and an Ambient Pressure Monoclinic-Like Metallic Phase of VO2_2

We report the simultaneous measurement of the structural and electronic components of the metal-insulator transition of VO$_2$ using electron and photoelectron spectroscopies and microscopies. We show that these evolve over different temperature scales, and are separated by an unusual monoclinic-like metallic phase. Our results provide conclusive evidence that the new monoclinic-like metallic phase, recently identified in high-pressure and nonequilibrium measurements, is accessible in the thermodynamic transition at ambient pressure, and we discuss the implications of these observations on the nature of the MIT in VO$_2$

The hedgehog pathway and ocular developmental anomalies.

Mutations in effectors of the hedgehog signaling pathway are responsible for a wide variety of ocular developmental anomalies. These range from massive malformations of the brain and ocular primordia, not always compatible with postnatal life, to subtle but damaging functional effects on specific eye components. This review will concentrate on the effects and effectors of the major vertebrate hedgehog ligand for eye and brain formation, Sonic hedgehog (SHH), in tissues that constitute the eye directly and also in those tissues that exert indirect influence on eye formation. After a brief overview of human eye development, the many roles of the SHH signaling pathway during both early and later morphogenetic processes in the brain and then eye and periocular primordia will be evoked. Some of the unique molecular biology of this pathway in vertebrates, particularly ciliary signal transduction, will also be broached within this developmental cellular context

Process as Outcome: Methods of Engagement with the Nonhuman Object/thing/material

Through creative practice and exegetical writing, this research communicates two main propositions: 1) objects, things, and materials of the material world should be seen as “nonhuman”; and 2) doing so impacts the methods that come to be used in thinking, making, and showing art

Automatic concept learning via information lattices

Concept learning is about distilling interpretable rules and concepts from data, a prelude to more advanced knowledge discovery and problem solving in creative domains such as art and science. While concept learning is pervasive in humans, current artificial intelligent (AI) systems are mostly good at either applying human-distilled rules (rule-based AI) or capturing patterns in a task-driven fashion (pattern recognition), but not at learning concepts in a human-interpretable way similar to human-induced rules and theory. This thesis introduces a new learning problem---Automatic Concept Learning (ACL)---targeting self-explanation and self-exploration as the two principal pursuits; correspondingly, it proposes a new learning model---Information Lattice Learning (ILL)---combining computational abstraction and probabilistic rule learning as the two principal components. Woven around the core idea of abstraction, the entire ACL framework is presented as a generalization of Shannon’s information lattice that further brings learning into the picture. The core idea of abstraction is cast as a hierarchical, interpretable, data-free, and task-free clustering problem, seeded from universal priors such as simple algebra and symmetries. The main body of the thesis comprises three self-contained yet close-knit parts: theory, algorithms, and applications. The theory part presents the mathematical exposition of ACL, formalizing the key notions of abstraction, concept, probabilistic rule, and further the entire concept learning problem. The goal is to lay down a solid path towards algorithmic means that are computationally feasible, reliable, and human-interpretable. The algorithms part presents the computational development of ACL, that is, ILL. It puts together computational abstraction and statistical learning in the same algorithmic picture, creating a bridge that connects deductive (rule-based) and inductive (data-driven) approaches in AI. Aiming for human interpretability and model transparency in particular, ILL in many ways mimics human learning. This includes mechanism-driven abstraction generation, as well as a "teacher-student" loop that can distill customizable traces of rules for data summarization and data explanation. The applications part recapitulates the theory and algorithms through concrete examples. Music is used for demonstration and automatic music concept learning is thoroughly studied. This part details the implementation of MUS-ROVER, an automatic music theorist that distills music composition rules from sheet music. To better support music ACL and music AI in general, the twin system MUS-NET is built as a crowdsourcing platform for making and serving digital sheet music data sets

Speaking spontaneously : an examination of the University of Cumbria approach to the teaching of modern foreign languages

Communicative Language Teaching in the modem foreign languages (MFL) curriculum in English schools has become the norm and yet is relatively under-theorised. This thesis sets out to explore through an in-depth case study of one school, the theory and practice of a model of CLT developed by the University of Cumbria. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in English secondary schools typically involves pupils learning to communicate around set topics, for example 'holidays.' Activities such as role plays and listening exercises focus on this topic language. However, despite this communicative focus, studies have shown pupils lack confidence, creativity and spontaneity in speaking and interacting in the target language. Modem foreign languages lessons which employ the University of Cumbria Approach (UCA) immediately strike the observer as being different. The teacher and pupils speak the target language almost exclusively, with constant interaction in the target language. Lessons feature songs, mimes, a team competition, and competitive activities and are well-paced and dynamic. More traditional lessons may feature these, but rarely together. This study set out to identify if the UCA had a unique combination of features, through transcription and analysis of lesson observations and interviews with pupils and teachers. The most striking feature of the lessons was pupils' use of the target language: spontaneous, fluent, playful, argumentative, often not about the lesson's focus but about apparently trivial matters. Pupils clearly had things they wanted to communicate in the here and now. The first central conclusion of this study is that pupils were beginning to engage in spontaneous, unpredictable, real-time conversation in the classroom. The second main conclusion is that the teacher is key in creating the conditions for this to happen. She promotes and facilitates this conversation through management of both the target language and the creation of a communicative classroom context. Finally, it is argued that the DCA is unique in that it is a form of CLT which combines product (pupils learn the target language) with process (pupils engage in spontaneous, interactive communication). The two combine to create a rich and dynamic learning experience

Speaking spontaneously: an examination of the University of Cumbria approach to the teaching of modern foreign languages

Communicative Language Teaching in the modem foreign languages (MFL) curriculum in English schools has become the norm and yet is relatively undertheorised. This thesis sets out to explore through an in-depth case study of one school, the theory and practice of a model of CL T developed by the University of Cumbria. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in English secondary schools typically involves pupils learning to communicate around set topics, for example 'holidays.' Activities such as role plays and listening exercises focus on this topic language. However, despite this communicative focus, studies have shown pupils lack confidence, creativity and spontaneity in speaking and interacting in the target language. Modem foreign languages lessons which employ the University of Cumbria Approach (UCA) immediately strike the observer as being different. The teacher and pupils speak the target language almost exclusively, with constant interaction in the target language. Lessons feature songs, mimes, a team competition, and competitive activities and are well-paced and dynamic. More traditional lessons may feature these, but rarely together. This study set out to identify if the UCA had a unIque combination of features, through transcription and analysis of lesson observations and interviews with pupils and teachers. The most striking feature of the lessons was pupils' use of the target language: spontaneous, fluent, playful, argumentative, often not about the lesson's focus but about apparently trivial matters. Pupils clearly had things they wanted to communicate in the here and now. The first central conclusion of this study is that pupils were beginning to engage in spontaneous, unpredictable, real-time conversation in the classroom. The second main conclusion is that the teacher is key in creating the conditions for this to happen. She promotes and facilitates this conversation through management of both the target language and the creation of a communicative classroom context. Finally, it is argued that the UCA is unique in that it is a form of CLT which combines product (pupils learn the target language) with process (pupils engage in spontaneous, interactive communication). The two combine to create a rich and dynamic learning experience