3,760 research outputs found
Oven temperature controller for electronic components
Simple, inexpensive circuit has been developed which provides active temperature control to certain precision electronic components such as crystal oscillators and Zener diodes
Using generative artificial intelligence to catalyse further interdisciplinarity across higher education
An international challenge, and opportunity, facing academics in these early decades of the 21st century is the inception of complex computational machines that are capable of imitating human-like learning and thinking; often described as Artificial Intelligence, or AI. One such form of AI is generative AI (GenAI), an algorithm capable of producing text, collages and other overviews of information and data gathered from multiple online sources. This offers challenges, such as students generating and submitting essays and reports from GenAI alone, but also opportunities, as a platform for further discussion and reflection as knowledge is uncovered and developed. Of particular interest is its capability in picking up information and data from multiple fields and presenting it in a digestible and interdisciplinary initial format, albeit it typically requiring further analysis, reflection, and modification. In response to this, a new AI-focused academic journal is proposed in this study, the drive being to enhance interdisciplinarity by bringing together postgraduate students and staff to research, explore, analyse, and critically reflect upon the challenges and opportunities that AI presents in their fields of study
Adaptive Transmission Techniques for Mobile Satellite Links
Adapting the transmission rate in an LMS channel is a challenging task
because of the relatively fast time variations, of the long delays involved,
and of the difficulty in mapping the parameters of a time-varying channel into
communication performance. In this paper, we propose two strategies for dealing
with these impairments, namely, multi-layer coding (MLC) in the forward link,
and open-loop adaptation in the return link. Both strategies rely on
physical-layer abstraction tools for predicting the link performance. We will
show that, in both cases, it is possible to increase the average spectral
efficiency while at the same time keeping the outage probability under a given
threshold. To do so, the forward link strategy will rely on introducing some
latency in the data stream by using retransmissions. The return link, on the
other hand, will rely on a statistical characterization of a physical-layer
abstraction measure.Comment: Presented at the 30th AIAA International Communications Satellite
Systems Conference (ICSSC), Ottawa, Canada, 2012. Best Professional Paper
Awar
VICAR-DIGITAL image processing system
Computer program corrects various photometic, geometric and frequency response distortions in pictures. The program converts pictures to a number of elements, with each elements optical density quantized to a numerical value. The translated picture is recorded on magnetic tape in digital form for subsequent processing and enhancement by computer
Thermalisation of Local Observables in Small Hubbard Lattices
We present a study of thermalisation of a small isolated Hubbard lattice
cluster prepared in a pure state with a well-defined energy. We examine how a
two-site subsystem of the lattice thermalises with the rest of the system as
its environment. We explore numerically the existence of thermalisation over a
range of system parameters, such as the interaction strength, system size and
the strength of the coupling between the subsystem and the rest of the lattice.
We find thermalisation over a wide range of parameters and that interactions
are crucial for efficient thermalisation of small systems. We relate this
thermalisation behaviour to the eigenstate thermalisation hypothesis and
quantify numerically the extent to which eigenstate thermalisation holds. We
also verify our numerical results theoretically with the help of previously
established results from random matrix theory for the local density of states,
particularly the finite-size scaling for the onset of thermalisation.Comment: 22 pages, 23 figure
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Secondary students' values and perceptions of science-related careers: responses to vignette-based scenarios.
There has been concern about the attractiveness of science-based careers to many adolescent learners, and it has been suggested that school science may not always recognise or engage personal values that are important to young people in making life choices. The present study discusses interview comments made by upper secondary level students in England when 15 young people were asked to give their personal responses to brief vignettes describing scientific careers. Using an interview-about-scenarios approach, the students were asked about whether they would feel comfortable working in the scientific careers represented. The career areas were purposefully selected because they might be considered to potentially raise issues in relation to personal values or commitments that some students might hold. A range of student perceptions relating to the mooted careers were elicited (positive, negative and indifferent), but all of the participants raised issues that impacted on the acceptability or attractiveness of at least one of the mooted scientific careers, in terms of aspects of their own personal beliefs and values systems. It is recommended that teachers and career advisors should be aware of the range of value-related considerations that influence student views of science-related careers and should consider exploring aspects of science-based careers that link to values commonly shared by young people. This exploratory study also offers indications for directions for further research exploring how learners' value systems impact upon their perceptions of science and scientific work.We acknowledge the support of the John Templeton Foundation under grant number: 15389
An early warning indicator for atmospheric blocking events using transfer operators
The existence of persistent midlatitude atmospheric flow regimes with
time-scales larger than 5-10 days and indications of preferred transitions
between them motivates to develop early warning indicators for such regime
transitions. In this paper, we use a hemispheric barotropic model together with
estimates of transfer operators on a reduced phase space to develop an early
warning indicator of the zonal to blocked flow transition in this model. It is
shown that, the spectrum of the transfer operators can be used to study the
slow dynamics of the flow as well as the non-Markovian character of the
reduction. The slowest motions are thereby found to have time scales of three
to six weeks and to be associated with meta-stable regimes (and their
transitions) which can be detected as almost-invariant sets of the transfer
operator. From the energy budget of the model, we are able to explain the
meta-stability of the regimes and the existence of preferred transition paths.
Even though the model is highly simplified, the skill of the early warning
indicator is promising, suggesting that the transfer operator approach can be
used in parallel to an operational deterministic model for stochastic
prediction or to assess forecast uncertainty
Local 4/5-Law and Energy Dissipation Anomaly in Turbulence
A strong local form of the ``4/3-law'' in turbulent flow has been proved
recently by Duchon and Robert for a triple moment of velocity increments
averaged over both a bounded spacetime region and separation vector directions,
and for energy dissipation averaged over the same spacetime region. Under
precisely stated hypotheses, the two are proved to be proportional, by a
constant 4/3, and to appear as a nonnegative defect measure in the local energy
balance of singular (distributional) solutions of the incompressible Euler
equations. Here we prove that the energy defect measure can be represented also
by a triple moment of purely longitudinal velocity increments and by a mixed
moment with one longitudinal and two tranverse velocity increments. Thus, we
prove that the traditional 4/5- and 4/15-laws of Kolmogorov hold in the same
local sense as demonstrated for the 4/3-law by Duchon-Robert.Comment: 14 page
Transfer Entropy as a Log-likelihood Ratio
Transfer entropy, an information-theoretic measure of time-directed
information transfer between joint processes, has steadily gained popularity in
the analysis of complex stochastic dynamics in diverse fields, including the
neurosciences, ecology, climatology and econometrics. We show that for a broad
class of predictive models, the log-likelihood ratio test statistic for the
null hypothesis of zero transfer entropy is a consistent estimator for the
transfer entropy itself. For finite Markov chains, furthermore, no explicit
model is required. In the general case, an asymptotic chi-squared distribution
is established for the transfer entropy estimator. The result generalises the
equivalence in the Gaussian case of transfer entropy and Granger causality, a
statistical notion of causal influence based on prediction via vector
autoregression, and establishes a fundamental connection between directed
information transfer and causality in the Wiener-Granger sense
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Secondary school teachers' perspectives on teaching about topics that bridge science and religion
The question of where to locate teaching about the relationships between science and religion has produced a long-running debate. Currently, Science and Religious Education (RE) are statutory subjects in England and are taught in secondary schools by different teachers. This paper reports on an interview study in which 16 teachers gave their perceptions of their roles and responsibilities when teaching topics that bridge science and religion and the extent to which they collaborated with teachers in the other subject area. We found that in this sample, teachers reported very little collaboration between the curriculum areas. Although the science curriculum makes no mention of religion, all the science teachers said that their approaches to such topics were affected by their recognition that some pupils hold religious beliefs. All the RE teachers reported struggling to ensure students know of a range of views about how science and religion relate. The paper concludes with a discussion about implications for curriculum design and teacher training
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