The future of higher education (HE) hangs on innovating our assessment – but are we ready, willing and able?

Graduates are entering a sociotechnological world, with teaching and assessment needing to reflect that, by shifting from a ‘recall-on-paper’ to ‘do-it-for-real’. With increasing student numbers, it is not feasible to have staff-student ratios and round-the-clock availability required to provide instant feedback and ever-more interactive teaching sessions, so digital solutions are the only option. There is already growing comfort with using computers in formal assessment; however, more work is required to extend beyond performance indicators enabling digital assessments, to addressing how students apply their learning to relevant work-based scenarios. This opinion piece discusses the issues HE currently face to ensure students develop the employability skills that equip them to be proficient in the skills directly related to their degree subject but also transferable to other graduate careers. It raises possible solutions to current technological problems in developing more computer-based assessment, to enable academics to design assessments that develop the capabilities students need

Electron transport in gated InGaAs and InAsP quantum well wires in selectively-grown InP ridge structures

The purpose of this work is to fabricate ribbon-like InGaAs and InAsP wires embedded in InP ridge structures and investigate their transport properties. The InP ridge structures that contain the wires are selectively grown by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) on pre-patterned InP substrates. To optimize the growth and micro-fabrication processes for electronic transport, we explore the Ohmic contact resistance, the electron density, and the mobility as a function of the wire width using standard transport and Shubnikov-de Haas measurements. At low temperatures the ridge structures reveal reproducible mesoscopic conductance fluctuations. We also fabricate ridge structures with submicron gate electrodes that exhibit non-leaky gating and good pinch-off characteristics acceptable for device operation. Using such wrap gate electrodes, we demonstrate that the wires can be split to form quantum dots evidenced by Coulomb blockade oscillations in transport measurements.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, additional references and improved Fig. 4c, MSS-14 conference, submitted to Physica

Fast variability from black-hole binaries

Currently available information on fast variability of the X-ray emission from accreting collapsed objects constitutes a complex phenomenology which is difficult to interpret. We review the current observational standpoint for black-hole binaries and survey models that have been proposed to interpret it. Despite the complex structure of the accretion flow, key observational diagnostics have been identified which can provide direct access to the dynamics of matter motions in the close vicinity of black holes and thus to the some of fundamental properties of curved spacetimes, where strong-field general relativistic effects can be observed.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Also to appear in hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI "The Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes" (Springer Publisher

Post-fire salvage logging reduces carbon sequestration in Mediterranean coniferous forest

Post-fire salvage logging is a common silvicultural practice around the world, with the potential to alter the regenerative capacity of an ecosystem and thus its role as a source or a sink of carbon. However, there is no information on the effect of burnt wood management on the net ecosystem carbon balance. Here, we examine for the first time the effect of post-fire burnt wood management on the net ecosystem carbon balance by comparing the carbon exchange of two treatments in a burnt Mediterranean coniferous forest treated by salvage logging (SL, felling and removing the logs and masticating the woody debris) and Non-Intervention (NI, all trees left standing) using eddy covariance measurements. Using different partitioning approaches, we analyze the evolution of photosynthesis and respiration processes together with measurements of vegetation cover and soil respiration and humidity to interpret the differences in the measured fluxes and underlying processes. Results show that SL enhanced CO2 emissions of this burnt pine forest by more than 120 g C m−2 compared to the NI treatment for the period June–December 2009. Although soil respiration was around 30% higher in NI during growing season, this was more than offset by photosynthesis, as corroborated by increases in vegetation cover and evapotranspiration. Since SL is counterproductive to climate-change and Kyoto protocol objectives of optimal C sequestration by terrestrial ecosystems, less aggressive burnt wood management policies should be considered.This work was financed by INIA Project SUM2006-00010-00-00, by the Autonomous Organism of National Parks (MMA) Project 10/2005 and in part by the Spanish national CO2 flux tower network (Carbored-II; CGL2010-22193-C04-02), CGL 2008-01671, Consolider-Ingenio MONTESCSD2008-00040 and the European Community 7th 9 Framework Programme Project GHG-Europe (FP7/2007-2013; Grant Agreement 244122)

Customer emotions in service failure and recovery encounters

Emotions play a significant role in the workplace, and considerable attention has been given to the study of employee emotions. Customers also play a central function in organizations, but much less is known about customer emotions. This chapter reviews the growing literature on customer emotions in employee–customer interfaces with a focus on service failure and recovery encounters, where emotions are heightened. It highlights emerging themes and key findings, addresses the measurement, modeling, and management of customer emotions, and identifies future research streams. Attention is given to emotional contagion, relationships between affective and cognitive processes, customer anger, customer rage, and individual differences

The On-orbit Calibrations for the Fermi Large Area Telescope

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on--board the Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope began its on--orbit operations on June 23, 2008. Calibrations, defined in a generic sense, correspond to synchronization of trigger signals, optimization of delays for latching data, determination of detector thresholds, gains and responses, evaluation of the perimeter of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), measurements of live time, of absolute time, and internal and spacecraft boresight alignments. Here we describe on orbit calibration results obtained using known astrophysical sources, galactic cosmic rays, and charge injection into the front-end electronics of each detector. Instrument response functions will be described in a separate publication. This paper demonstrates the stability of calibrations and describes minor changes observed since launch. These results have been used to calibrate the LAT datasets to be publicly released in August 2009.Comment: 60 pages, 34 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic

The Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative (ANGI): Overview and methods

Background: Genetic factors contribute to anorexia nervosa (AN); and the first genome-wide significant locus has been identified. We describe methods and procedures for the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative (ANGI), an international collaboration designed to rapidly recruit 13,000 individuals with AN and ancestrally matched controls. We present sample characteristics and the utility of an online eating disorder diagnostic questionnaire suitable for large-scale genetic and population research. Methods: ANGI recruited from the United States (US), Australia/New Zealand (ANZ), Sweden (SE), and Denmark (DK). Recruitment was via national registers (SE, DK); treatment centers (US, ANZ, SE, DK); and social and traditional media (US, ANZ, SE). All cases had a lifetime AN diagnosis based on DSM-IV or ICD-10 criteria (excluding amenorrhea). Recruited controls had no lifetime history of disordered eating behaviors. To assess the positive and negative predictive validity of the online eating disorder questionnaire (ED100K-v1), 109 women also completed the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), Module H. Results: Blood samples and clinical information were collected from 13,363 individuals with lifetime AN and from controls. Online diagnostic phenotyping was effective and efficient; the validity of the questionnaire was acceptable. Conclusions: Our multi-pronged recruitment approach was highly effective for rapid recruitment and can be used as a model for efforts by other groups. High online presence of individuals with AN rendered the Internet/social media a remarkably effective recruitment tool in some countries. ANGI has substantially augmented Psychiatric Genomics Consortium AN sample collection. ANGI is a registered clinical trial: clinicaltrials.govNCT01916538; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01916538?cond=Anorexia+Nervosa&draw=1&rank=3