Taking our learning and teaching strategy to the next level through technology enhanced campus development

Over the last three years Abertay University has radically evolved its strategy for teaching and supporting learning. This paper outlines Abertay’s journey over the last few years, including the key features of our new pedagogic approach and its impact so far. For example, in 2016 Abertay was the highest ranked modern Scottish University in the National Student Survey (NSS) and shortlisted for the prestigious Times Higher Education “University of the Year” award.In order to further enhance our students’ progression, attainment and employability we have recognized the need to invest further in two key (and related) areas: technology enhanced learning and estate development in order to create a so-called “sticky campus” i.e. somewhere our students will want to come and stay. This has included full implementation of electronic management of assessment (EMA); blended learning; new technology-rich collaborative learning environments and science laboratories which promote richer student-staff interactions and new ways of learning; and a planned complete refurbishment of the University library which will provide a variety of learning environments (formal and informal) from summer 2017.The paper will detail the drivers for these changes; the change management processes involving a staff-student partnership involving management, academic and professional services; successes;challenges; lessons learned and future plans

A simple model for the short-time evolution of near-surface current and temperature profiles

A simple analytical/numerical model has been developed for computing the evolution, over periods of up to a few hours, of the current and temperature profile in the upper layer of the ocean. The model is based upon conservation laws for heat and momentum, and employs an eddy diffusion parameterisation which is dependent on both the wind speed and the wind stress applied at the sea surface. Other parameters such as the bulk-skin surface temperature difference and CO$_2$ flux are determined by application of the Molecular Oceanic Boundary Layer Model (MOBLAM) of Schluessel and Soloviev. A similar model, for the current profile only, predicts a temporary increase in wave breaking intensity and decrease in wave height under conditions where the wind speed increases suddenly, such as, for example, during gusts and squalls. The model results are compared with measurements from the lagrangian Skin Depth Experimental Profiler (SkinDeEP) surface profiling instrument made during the 1999 MOCE-5 field experiment in the waters around Baja California. SkinDeEP made repeated profiles of temperature within the upper few metres of the water column. Given that no tuning was performed in the model, and that the model does not take account of stratification, the results of the model runs are in rather good agreement with the observations. The model may be suitable as an interface between time-independent models of processes very near the surface, and larger-scale three-dimensional time-dependent ocean circulation models. A straightforward extension of the model should also be suitable for making time-dependent computations of gas concentration in the near-surface layer of the ocean.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. In press at Deep-Sea Research II. Uses a modified form of elsart.cls. Proof correction

Homological algebra of twisted quiver bundles

Several important cases of vector bundles with extra structure (such as Higgs bundles and triples) may be regarded as examples of twisted representations of a finite quiver in the category of sheaves of modules on a variety/manifold/ringed space. We show that the category of such representations is an abelian category with enough injectives by constructing an explicit injective resolution. Using this explicit resolution, we find a long exact sequence that computes the Ext groups in this new category in terms of the Ext groups in the old category. The quiver formulation is directly reflected in the form of the long exact sequence. We also show that under suitable circumstances, the Ext groups are isomorphic to certain hypercohomology groups.Comment: 20 pages; v2: substantially revised version; v3: minor clarifications and correction

The Implications of Ignorance for Quantum Error Correction Thresholds

Quantum error correcting codes have a distance parameter, conveying the minimum number of single spin errors that could cause error correction to fail. However, the success thresholds of finite per-qubit error rate that have been proven for the likes of the Toric code require them to work well beyond this limit. We argue that without the assumption of being below the distance limit, the success of error correction is not only contingent on the noise model, but what the noise model is believed to be. Any discrepancy must adversely affect the threshold rate, and risks invalidating existing threshold theorems. We prove that for the 2D Toric code, suitable thresholds still exist by utilising a mapping to the 2D random bond Ising model.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Title change enforced by journa

Reply to comment on `A simple model for the short-time evolution of near-surface current and temperature profiles'

This is our response to a comment by Walter Eifler on our paper `A simple model for the short-time evolution of near-surface current and temperature profiles' (arXiv:physics/0503186, accepted for publication in Deep-Sea Research II). Although Eifler raises genuine issues regarding our model's validity and applicability, we are nevertheless of the opinion that it is of value for the short-term evolution of the upper-ocean profiles of current and temperature. The fact that the effective eddy viscosity tends to infinity for infinite time under a steady wind stress may not be surprising. It can be interpreted as a vertical shift of the eddy viscosity profile and an increase in the size of the dominant turbulent eddies under the assumed conditions of small stratification and infinite water depth.Comment: 4 pages. Accepted for publication in Deep-Sea Research II. Uses a modified form of elsart.cl

Digitally manipulating memory : effects of doctored videos and imagination in distorting beliefs and memories

In prior research on false autobiographical beliefs and memories, subjects have been asked to imagine fictional events and they have been exposed to false evidence that indicates the fictional events occurred. But what are the relative contributions of imagination and false evidence toward false belief and memory construction? Subjects observed and copied various simple actions, then viewed doctored videos that suggested they had performed extra actions, and they imagined performing some of those and some other actions. Subjects returned two weeks later for a memory test. False evidence or imagination alone was often sufficient to cause belief and memory distortions; the two techniques in combination appeared to have additive or even superadditive effects. The results bear on the mechanisms underlying false beliefs and memories, and we propose legal and clinical applications of these findings