2,577 research outputs found
Implementing summative assessment with a formative flavour: a case study in a large class
Teaching a large class can present real challenges in design, management, and standardization of assessment practices. One of the main dilemmas for university teachers is how to implement effective formative assessment practices, with accompanied high quality feedback consistently over time with large classroom groups. This article reports on how elements of formative practices can be implemented as part of summative assessment in very large undergraduate cohorts (n = 1500 in one semester), studying in different modes (on- and off-campus), with multiple markers, and under common cost and time constraints. Design features implemented include the use of exemplars, rubrics and audio feedback. The article draws on the reflections of the leading teacher, and discusses that for summative assessment to benefit learners, it should contain formative assessment elements. The teaching practices utilised in the case study provide some means to resolve the tensions between formative assessment and summative assessment that may be more generally applicable
Unconditionally verifiable blind computation
Blind Quantum Computing (BQC) allows a client to have a server carry out a
quantum computation for them such that the client's input, output and
computation remain private. A desirable property for any BQC protocol is
verification, whereby the client can verify with high probability whether the
server has followed the instructions of the protocol, or if there has been some
deviation resulting in a corrupted output state. A verifiable BQC protocol can
be viewed as an interactive proof system leading to consequences for complexity
theory. The authors, together with Broadbent, previously proposed a universal
and unconditionally secure BQC scheme where the client only needs to be able to
prepare single qubits in separable states randomly chosen from a finite set and
send them to the server, who has the balance of the required quantum
computational resources. In this paper we extend that protocol with new
functionality allowing blind computational basis measurements, which we use to
construct a new verifiable BQC protocol based on a new class of resource
states. We rigorously prove that the probability of failing to detect an
incorrect output is exponentially small in a security parameter, while resource
overhead remains polynomial in this parameter. The new resource state allows
entangling gates to be performed between arbitrary pairs of logical qubits with
only constant overhead. This is a significant improvement on the original
scheme, which required that all computations to be performed must first be put
into a nearest neighbour form, incurring linear overhead in the number of
qubits. Such an improvement has important consequences for efficiency and
fault-tolerance thresholds.Comment: 46 pages, 10 figures. Additional protocol added which allows
arbitrary circuits to be verified with polynomial securit
Using formative assessment to influence self- and co-regulated learning: the role of evaluative judgement
Recently, the concept of evaluative judgement has gained attention as a pedagogical approach to classroom formative assessment practices. Evaluative judgement is the capacity to be able to judge the work of oneself and that of others, which implies developing knowledge about one’s own assessment capability. A focus on evaluative judgement helps us to better understand what is the influence of assessment practices in the regulation of learning. In this paper, we link evaluative judgement to two self-regulated learning models (Zimmerman and Winne) and present a model on the effects on co-regulation of learning. The models help us to understand how students can be self-regulated through developing their evaluative judgement. The co-regulation model visualises how the learner can become more strategic in this process through teacher and peer assessment in which assessment knowledge and regulation strategies are shared with the learner. The connections we make here are crucial to strengthening our understanding of the influence of assessment practices on students’ learnin
Remote Sensing of Aboveground Biomass in Tropical Secondary Forests: A Review
Tropical landscapes are, in general, a mosaic of pasture, agriculture, and forest undergoing various stages of succession. Forest succession is comprised of continuous structural changes over time and results in increases in aboveground biomass (AGB). New remote sensing methods, including sensors, image processing, statistical methods, and uncertainty evaluations, are constantly being developed to estimate biophysical forest changes. We review 318 peer-reviewed studies related to the use of remotely sensed AGB estimations in tropical forest succession studies and summarize their geographic distribution, sensors and methods used, and their most frequent ecological inferences. Remotely sensed AGB is broadly used in forest management studies, conservation status evaluations, carbon source and sink investigations, and for studies of the relationships between environmental conditions and forest structure. Uncertainties in AGB estimations were found to be heterogeneous with biases related to sensor type, processing methodology, ground truthing availability, and forest characteristics. Remotely sensed AGB of successional forests is more reliable for the study of spatial patterns of forest succession and over large time scales than that of individual stands. Remote sensing of temporal patterns in biomass requires further study, in particular, as it is critical for understanding forest regrowth at scales useful for regional or global analyses
Anonymous quantum communication
We present the first protocol for the anonymous transmission of a quantum
state that is information-theoretically secure against an active adversary,
without any assumption on the number of corrupt participants. The anonymity of
the sender and receiver is perfectly preserved, and the privacy of the quantum
state is protected except with exponentially small probability. Even though a
single corrupt participant can cause the protocol to abort, the quantum state
can only be destroyed with exponentially small probability: if the protocol
succeeds, the state is transferred to the receiver and otherwise it remains in
the hands of the sender (provided the receiver is honest).Comment: 11 pages, to appear in Proceedings of ASIACRYPT, 200
Non-adaptive Measurement-based Quantum Computation and Multi-party Bell Inequalities
Quantum correlations exhibit behaviour that cannot be resolved with a local
hidden variable picture of the world. In quantum information, they are also
used as resources for information processing tasks, such as Measurement-based
Quantum Computation (MQC). In MQC, universal quantum computation can be
achieved via adaptive measurements on a suitable entangled resource state. In
this paper, we look at a version of MQC in which we remove the adaptivity of
measurements and aim to understand what computational abilities still remain in
the resource. We show that there are explicit connections between this model of
computation and the question of non-classicality in quantum correlations. We
demonstrate this by focussing on deterministic computation of Boolean
functions, in which natural generalisations of the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger
(GHZ) paradox emerge; we then explore probabilistic computation, via which
multipartite Bell Inequalities can be defined. We use this correspondence to
define families of multi-party Bell inequalities, which we show to have a
number of interesting contrasting properties.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, final version accepted for publicatio
Universal Formulae for Percolation Thresholds
A power law is postulated for both site and bond percolation thresholds. The
formula writes , where is the space
dimension and the coordination number. All thresholds up to are found to belong to only three universality classes. For first two
classes for site dilution while for bond dilution. The last one
associated to high dimensions is characterized by for both sites and
bonds. Classes are defined by a set of value for . Deviations
from available numerical estimates at are within and
for high dimensional hypercubic expansions at . The
formula is found to be also valid for Ising critical temperatures.Comment: 11 pages, latex, 3 figures not include
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