The principles of Educational Robotic Applications (ERA): a framework for understanding and developing educational robots and their activities

The original educational robots were the Logo Turtles. They derived their rationale from constructionism. How has this changed? This paper postulates ten principles that underpin the effective utilisation of robotic devices within education settings. We argue that they form a framework still sympathetic to constructionism that can guide the development, application and evaluation of educational robots. They articulate a summary of the existing knowledge as well as suggesting further avenues of research that may be shared by educationists and designers. The principles also provide an evaluative framework for Educational Robotic Applications (ERA). This paper is an overview of the ideas, which we will develop in future papers

Genetic Studies of Sulfadiazine-resistant and Methionine-requiring \u3cem\u3eNeisseria\u3c/em\u3e Isolated From Clinical Material

Deoxyribonucleate (DNA) preparations were extracted from Neisseria meningitidis (four isolates from spinal fluid and blood) and N. gonorrhoeae strains, all of which were resistant to sulfadiazine upon primary isolation. These DNA preparations, together with others from in vitro mutants of N. meningitidis and N. perflava, were examined in transformation tests by using as recipient a drug-susceptible strain of N. meningitidis (Ne 15 Sul-s Met+) which was able to grow in a methionine-free defined medium. The sulfadiazine resistance typical of each donor was introduced into the uniform constitution of this recipient. Production of p-aminobenzoic acid was not significantly altered thereby. Transformants elicited by DNA from the N. meningitidis clinical isolates were resistant to at least 200 μg of sulfadiazine/ml, and did not show a requirement for methionine (Sul-r Met+). DNA from six strains of N. gonorrhoeae, which were isolated during the period of therapeutic use of sulfonamides, conveyed lower degrees of resistance and, invariably, a concurrent methionine requirement (Sul-r/Met−). The requirement of these transformants, and that of in vitro mutants selected on sulfadiazine-agar, was satisfied by methionine, but not by vitamin B12, homocysteine, cystathionine, homoserine, or cysteine. Sul-r Met+ and Sul-r/Met− loci could coexist in the same genome, but were segregated during transformation. On the other hand, the dual Sul-r/Met− properties were not separated by recombination, but were eliminated together. DNA from various Sul-r/Met− clones tested against recipients having nonidentical Sul-r/Met− mutant sites yielded Sul-s Met+ transformants. The met locus involved is genetically complex, and will be a valuable tool for studies of genetic fine structure of members of Neisseria, and of genetic homology between species

Effective vanishing order of the Levi determinant

On a smooth domain in complex n space of finite D'Angelo q-type at a point, an effective upper bound for the vanishing order of the Levi determinant \text{coeff}\{\partial r \wedge \dbar r \wedge (\partial \dbar r)^{n-q}\} at that point is given in terms of the D'Angelo q-type, the dimension of the space n, and q itself. The argument uses Catlin's notion of a boundary system as well as techniques pioneered by John D'Angelo.Comment: 22 pages; typos in example from p.20 fixed in the second versio

The e-Robot Project: a longitudinal on-line research collaboration to investigate ERA principles

The Educational Robotic Application (ERA) Principles provides a framework for evaluating Educational Robots and their activities. This paper presents the rationale behind the proposed e-Robot Project, an online community based research resource aimed at gathering data on the use of educational robotics. Collating the data against ERA is an iterative process that will simultaneously verify and improve ERA, which in turn will inform the design and application of educational robotics. e-Robot involves all aspects of the research process from research design to meta-analysis. The project can run indefinitely and will encourage participation from student teachers, teachers, researchers, developers, administrators, politicians and other interested parties

Plurisubharmonic polynomials and bumping

We wish to study the problem of bumping outwards a pseudoconvex, finite-type domain \Omega\subset C^n in such a way that pseudoconvexity is preserved and such that the lowest possible orders of contact of the bumped domain with bdy(\Omega), at the site of the bumping, are explicitly realised. Generally, when \Omega\subset C^n, n\geq 3, the known methods lead to bumpings with high orders of contact -- which are not explicitly known either -- at the site of the bumping. Precise orders are known for h-extendible/semiregular domains. This paper is motivated by certain families of non-semiregular domains in C^3. These families are identified by the behaviour of the least-weight plurisubharmonic polynomial in the Catlin normal form. Accordingly, we study how to perturb certain homogeneous plurisubharmonic polynomials without destroying plurisubharmonicity.Comment: 24 pages; corrected typos, fixed errors in Lemma 3.3; accepted for publication in Math.

Entire curves avoiding given sets in C^n

Let $F\subset\Bbb C^n$ be a proper closed subset of $\Bbb C^n$ and $A\subset\Bbb C^n\setminus F$ at most countable ($n\geq 2$). We give conditions of $F$ and $A$, under which there exists a holomorphic immersion (or a proper holomorphic embedding) $\phi:\Bbb C\to\Bbb C^n$ with $A\subset\phi(\Bbb C)\subset\Bbb C^n\setminus F$.Comment: 10 page

Using Educational Robotics Research to Transform the Classroom Establishing a Robotics Community of Evidenced-based Practice using MESH Guides and the TACTICS Framework

Trends in the USA and UK insist that classroom interventions are supported by evidence of their efficacy. The body of evidence supporting the value of educational robots is growing. However, a perennial problem remains, how can such evidence impact everyday teaching and the use of educational robots in the classroom? MESHGuides are created by an international network of educators who are mapping the research base underpinning educational practice and making it readily available to teachers anywhere in the world. The TACTICS Framework sets a standard for how research information should be integrated into evidenced-based activities and how these activities can be used to inform research. This paper introduces these ideas and shows how they have been applied to the Turtle type educational robot, Roamer