249 research outputs found
The Potential for Student Performance Prediction in Small Cohorts with Minimal Available Attributes
The measurement of student performance during their progress through university study provides academic leadership with critical information on each studentâs likelihood of success. Academics have traditionally used their interactions with individual students through class activities and interim assessments to identify those âat riskâ of failure/withdrawal. However, modern university environments, offering easy on-line availability of course material, may see reduced lecture/tutorial attendance, making such identification more challenging. Modern data mining and machine learning techniques provide increasingly accurate predictions of student examination assessment marks, although these approaches have focussed upon large student populations and wide ranges of data attributes per student. However, many university modules comprise relatively small student cohorts, with institutional protocols limiting the student attributes available for analysis. It appears that very little research attention has been devoted to this area of analysis and prediction. We describe an experiment conducted on a final-year university module student cohort of 23, where individual student data are limited to lecture/tutorial attendance, virtual learning environment accesses and intermediate assessments. We found potential for predicting individual student interim and final assessment marks in small student cohorts with very limited attributes and that these predictions could be useful to support module leaders in identifying students potentially âat risk.â.Peer reviewe
Performance of the EUDET-type beam telescopes
Test beam measurements at the test beam facilities of DESY have been
conducted to characterise the performance of the EUDET-type beam telescopes
originally developed within the EUDET project. The beam telescopes are equipped
with six sensor planes using MIMOSA26 monolithic active pixel devices. A
programmable Trigger Logic Unit provides trigger logic and time stamp
information on particle passage. Both data acquisition framework and offline
reconstruction software packages are available. User devices are easily
integrable into the data acquisition framework via predefined interfaces.
The biased residual distribution is studied as a function of the beam energy,
plane spacing and sensor threshold. Its standard deviation at the two centre
pixel planes using all six planes for tracking in a 6\,GeV
electron/positron-beam is measured to be
(2.88\,\pm\,0.08)\,\upmu\meter.Iterative track fits using the formalism of
General Broken Lines are performed to estimate the intrinsic resolution of the
individual pixel planes. The mean intrinsic resolution over the six sensors
used is found to be (3.24\,\pm\,0.09)\,\upmu\meter.With a 5\,GeV
electron/positron beam, the track resolution halfway between the two inner
pixel planes using an equidistant plane spacing of 20\,mm is estimated to
(1.83\,\pm\,0.03)\,\upmu\meter assuming the measured intrinsic resolution.
Towards lower beam energies the track resolution deteriorates due to increasing
multiple scattering. Threshold studies show an optimal working point of the
MIMOSA26 sensors at a sensor threshold of between five and six times their RMS
noise. Measurements at different plane spacings are used to calibrate the
amount of multiple scattering in the material traversed and allow for
corrections to the predicted angular scattering for electron beams
The CMS Tracker Readout Front End Driver
The Front End Driver, FED, is a 9U 400mm VME64x card designed for reading out
the Compact Muon Solenoid, CMS, silicon tracker signals transmitted by the
APV25 analogue pipeline Application Specific Integrated Circuits. The FED
receives the signals via 96 optical fibers at a total input rate of 3.4 GB/sec.
The signals are digitized and processed by applying algorithms for pedestal and
common mode noise subtraction. Algorithms that search for clusters of hits are
used to further reduce the input rate. Only the cluster data along with trigger
information of the event are transmitted to the CMS data acquisition system
using the S-LINK64 protocol at a maximum rate of 400 MB/sec. All data
processing algorithms on the FED are executed in large on-board Field
Programmable Gate Arrays. Results on the design, performance, testing and
quality control of the FED are presented and discussed
Kinstate intervention in ethnic conflicts : Albania and Turkey compared
Albania and Turkey did not act in overtly irredentist ways towards their ethnic brethren in neighboring states after the end of communism. Why, nonetheless, did Albania facilitate the increase of ethnic conflict in Kosovo and Macedonia, while Turkey did not, with respect to the Turks of Bulgaria? I argue that kin-states undergoing transition are more prone to intervene in external conflicts than states that are not, regardless of the salience of minority demands in the host-state. The transition weakens the institutions of the kin-state. Experiencing limited institutional constraints, self-seeking state officials create alliances with secessionist and autonomist movements across borders alongside their own ideological, clan-based and particularistic interests. Such alliances are often utilized to advance radical domestic agendas. Unlike in Albania's transition environment, in Turkey there were no emerging elites that could potentially form alliances and use external movements to legitimize their own domestic existence or claims
Networked learning, stepping beyond the net generation and digital natives
This chapter critically examines the idea that young people have undergone a change in which exposure to digital and networked technologies has caused a step change in the character of a whole generation. The empirical and theoretical basis for this argument is reviewed and critical theoretical perspectives are assessed. Evidence from earlier research is compared and contrasted with evidence gathered from students who are said to be part of the new generation. The chapter explores the consequences of these ideas from the standpoint of networked learning. One aim of the chapter is to suggest ways in which the changes that have taken can be more adequately theorized in relation to the idea of networked learning. Arguments used to support generational change rely on a technological determinism and alternative accounts understand young people as active agents. I suggest ex-panding the notion of the agent to include persons enacting roles in collective or-ganizations. Overall the importance of the debate is that determinist arguments can close down debate and networked learning would be impoverished if this occurs
Infrastructure for Detector Research and Development towards the International Linear Collider
The EUDET-project was launched to create an infrastructure for developing and
testing new and advanced detector technologies to be used at a future linear
collider. The aim was to make possible experimentation and analysis of data for
institutes, which otherwise could not be realized due to lack of resources. The
infrastructure comprised an analysis and software network, and instrumentation
infrastructures for tracking detectors as well as for calorimetry.Comment: 54 pages, 48 picture
Adaptive Evolution in Ecological Communities
Multi-species interactions can influence evolution in ways that are unpredictable from studies that focus on simpler communities because direct and indirect species interactions alter the strength and direction of selection
EUDAQ - A data acquisition software framework for common beam telescopes
EUDAQ is a generic data acquisition software developed for use in conjunction with common beam telescopes at charged particle beam lines. Providing high-precision reference tracks for performance studies of new sensors, beam telescopes are essential for the research and development towards future detectors for high-energy physics. As beam time is a highly limited resource, EUDAQ has been designed with reliability and ease-of-use in mind. It enables flexible integration of different independent devices under test via their specific data acquisition systems into a top-level framework. EUDAQ controls all components globally, handles the data flow centrally and synchronises and records the data streams. Over the past decade, EUDAQ has been deployed as part of a wide range of successful test beam campaigns and detector development applications
- âŠ