Zeros of weakly holomorphic modular forms of levels 2 and 3

Let $M_k^\sharp(N)$ be the space of weakly holomorphic modular forms for $\Gamma_0(N)$ that are holomorphic at all cusps except possibly at $\infty$. We study a canonical basis for $M_k^\sharp(2)$ and $M_k^\sharp(3)$ and prove that almost all modular forms in this basis have the property that the majority of their zeros in a fundamental domain lie on a lower boundary arc of the fundamental domain.Comment: Added a reference, corrected typo

A preliminary evaluation of using WebPA for online peer assessment of collaborative performance by groups of online distance learners

Collaborative assessment has well-recognised benefits in higher education and, in online distance learning, this type of assessment may be integral to collaborative e-learning and may have a strong influence on the student’s relationship with learning. While there are known benefits associated with collaborative assessment, the main drawback is that students perceive that their individual contribution to the assessment is not recognised. Several methods can be used to overcome this; for example, something as simple as the teacher evaluating an individual’s contribution. However, teacher assessment can be deemed as unreliable by students, since the majority of group work is not usually done in the presence of the teacher (Loddington, Pond, Wilkinson, & Wilmot, 2009). Therefore, students’ assessment of performance/contribution of themselves and their peer group in relation to the assessment task, also known as peer moderation, can be a more suitable alternative. There are a number of tools that can be used to facilitate peer moderation online, such as WebPA, which is a free, open source, online peer assessment tool developed by Loughborough University. This paper is a preliminary evaluation of online peer assessment of collaborative work undertaken by groups of students studying online at a distance at a large UK university, where WebPA was used to facilitate this process. Students’ feedback on the use of WebPA was mixed, although most of the students found the software easy to use, with few technical issues and the majority reported that they would be happy to use this again. The authors reported WebPA as a beneficial peer assessment tool

Basic Knowledge Training for VFX Production Assistants and Coordinators

Visual Effects (VFX) is a part of the film-making process that takes place during the broader phase of film-making known as post-production. There are two broad groups of individuals who are responsible for the outcome of the VFX project - artists and production. The groups work in conjunction to achieve the team goals. At present, there is no formalized training available for production individuals and much of the required learning is done on the job. This projects explores a basic training course for individuals looking to increase their basic knowledge of VFX production. Grounded in industry research conducted by the author, this project recommends a learner-based approach, using industry mentors and industry experts to provide adequate context for learners to apply newly gained knowledge on the job

Linking the Social Science Classroom with the Community: A Sample Curriculum Project

Among the goals frequently cited for courses in History and the Social Sciences across Canada are the development of a sense or\u27 self worth, an attitude of personal responsibility, the skills necessary to be successful in the working world and an understanding of the role of the individual within the family. These goals clearly have some merit. The problem is, however, to create curricula that actually develop such attitudes and skills in students. The following project suggests some ideas towards achieving these laudable goals

Place-Based Education and Teaching about Marin County Birds: Curriculum Development for Teachers

Compelling evidence illustrates place-based education (PBE) as a catalyst for inspiring teachers to create dynamic curricula that energizes the student. PBE curriculum typically encompasses all traditional subjects and entails hands-on classroom and field studies utilizing the natural world and local community. The purpose of this literature review is to introduce and explain the benefits of PBE. Specifically I will summarize and evaluate PBE science curricula with regard to Marin County bird species. The literature review outlines four components: an introduction to PBE, information about the birds of Marin County, examples of current PBE in Marin County, and interviews with Marin County educators that are presently teaching about the local birds of Marin. Summaries of bird curricula available through local and national organizations, and through academic research are also included. This paper serves as an introduction and explanation of PBE and identifies and evaluates PBE science curricula with regard to Marin County bird species. The ultimate goal of this review is to furnish educators with organized and easily obtainable natural history information, curricula and resources about Marin County birds

Publishing Trends in Economics across Colleges and Universities, 1991-2007

There is good reason to think that non-elite programs in economics may be producing relatively more research than in the past: Research expectations have been ramped-up at non-PhD institutions and new information technologies have changed the way academic knowledge is produced and exchanged. This study investigates this question by examining publishing productivity in economics (and business) using data from the Web of Science (Knowledge) for a broad set of institutions – both elite and non-elite – over a 17-year period, from 1991 through 2007. Institutions are grouped into six tiers using a variety of sources. The analysis provides evidence that non-elite institutions are gaining on their more elite counterparts, but the magnitude of the gains are small. Thus, the story is more of constancy than of change, even in the face of changing technology and rising research expectations.higher education, research productivity, publishing trends, inequality

Transitioning between Convolutional and Fully Connected Layers in Neural Networks

Digital pathology has advanced substantially over the last decade however tumor localization continues to be a challenging problem due to highly complex patterns and textures in the underlying tissue bed. The use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to analyze such complex images has been well adopted in digital pathology. However in recent years, the architecture of CNNs have altered with the introduction of inception modules which have shown great promise for classification tasks. In this paper, we propose a modified "transition" module which learns global average pooling layers from filters of varying sizes to encourage class-specific filters at multiple spatial resolutions. We demonstrate the performance of the transition module in AlexNet and ZFNet, for classifying breast tumors in two independent datasets of scanned histology sections, of which the transition module was superior.Comment: This work is to appear at the 3rd workshop on Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis (DLMIA), MICCAI 201