Active paper for active learning

Recent research into distance learning and the virtual campus has focused on the use of electronic documents and computer‐based demonstrations to replace or reinforce traditional learning material. We show how a computer‐augmented desk, the DigitalDesk, can provide the benefits of both paper and electronic documents using a natural interface based on real paper documents. Many electronic documents, particularly those created using the guidelines produced by the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), include detailed semantic and linguistic information that can be used to good effect in learning material. We discuss potential uses of TEI texts, and describe one simple application that allows a student's book to become an active part of a grammar lesson when placed on the DigitalDesk. The book is integrated into an interactive point‐and‐click interface, and feedback is related to the currently visible pages of the boo

New technology for interactive CAL: The origami project

Origami is a three‐year EPSRC project that forms part of a general research programme on human‐computer interaction. The goal of this research is to investigate and implement new methods for human‐computer interaction, and to apply and evaluate their use. The research centres on the DigitalDesk, an ordinary desk augmented with a computer display using projection television and a video camera to monitor inputs. The DigitalDesk allows electronic and printed documents to be combined to give richer presentation and interaction possibilities than are possible with either separate medium. This paper examines the implications of such a system for CAL, and presents two prototype applications that demonstrate the possibilities

Crystalline optical cavity at 4 K with thermal noise limited instability and ultralow drift

Crystalline optical cavities are the foundation of today's state-of-the-art ultrastable lasers. Building on our previous silicon cavity effort, we now achieve the fundamental thermal noise-limited stability for a 6 cm long silicon cavity cooled to 4 Kelvin, reaching $6.5\times10^{-17}$ from 0.8 to 80 seconds. We also report for the first time a clear linear dependence of the cavity frequency drift on the incident optical power. The lowest fractional frequency drift of $-3\times10^{-19}$/s is attained at a transmitted power of 40 nW, with an extrapolated drift approaching zero in the absence of optical power. These demonstrations provide a promising direction to reach a new performance domain for stable lasers, with stability better than $1\times10^{-17}$ and fractional linear drift below $1\times10^{-19}$/s

Bimodal winter haul-out patterns of adult Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) in the southern Weddell Sea

Hauling out is an essential component of pinniped life-history. Haul-out behaviour may be affected by biological (e.g. sex, age and condition) and physical factors (e.g. food availability and environmental conditions), and identifying these factors may help explain the spatio-temporal distribution and habitat use of pinnipeds. The aim of this study is to describe observed winter haul-out patterns of adult Weddell seals in the Weddell Sea and investigate the role of potential predictors to gain insight into the way these animals interact with the physical environment in this region. We examined the haul-out behaviour in relation to available biological (i.e., diving effort, sex) and physical information (i.e., sun angle). Thirty-three satellite telemetry tags were deployed on adult Weddell seals in the southern Weddell Sea during February 2007, 2009 and 2011, following their annual moult recording information on the behavioural mode of the animal: at surface, hauled out or diving. At the end of the austral summer Weddell seals spent, on average, more than 40% of their time hauled out on the ice. Under constant light conditions, it appears that physiological factors drive sex differences in the timing and duration of haul-out behaviour, with females spending on average more time hauled out than males during daylight hours. This time spent hauled-out declined to around 15% in both sexes by the beginning of autumn and remained at this level with a clear nocturnal haul-out pattern during the winter. The time spent diving increased during this period, indicating an increase in foraging effort during the winter months, and led to a common haul-out pattern in both sexes over winter. We found a positive relationship between haul-out duration and the percentage of time spent diving prior to a haul-out in both sexes, with the exception of female daytime haul-outs early in the year

The age-redshift relation for Luminous Red Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We present a detailed analysis of 17,852 quiescent, Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) selected from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release Seven (DR7) spanning a redshift range of 0.0 < z < 0.4. These galaxies are co-added into four equal bins of velocity dispersion and luminosity to produce high signal-to-noise spectra (>100A^{-1}), thus facilitating accurate measurements of the standard Lick absorption-line indices. In particular, we have carefully corrected and calibrated these indices onto the commonly used Lick/IDS system, thus allowing us to compare these data with other measurements in the literature, and derive realistic ages, metallicities ([Z/H]) and alpha-element abundance ratios ([alpha/Fe]) for these galaxies using Simple Stellar Population (SSP) models. We use these data to study the relationship of these galaxy parameters with redshift, and find little evidence for evolution in metallicity or alpha-elements (especially for our intermediate mass samples). This demonstrates that our subsamples are consistent with pure passive evolving (i.e. no chemical evolution) and represent a homogeneous population over this redshift range. We also present the age-redshift relation for these LRGs and clearly see a decrease in their age with redshift (5 Gyrs over the redshift range studied here) which is fully consistent with the cosmological lookback times in a concordance Lambda CDM universe. We also see that our most massive sample of LRGs is the youngest compared to the lower mass galaxies. We provide these data now to help future cosmological and galaxy evolution studies of LRGs, and provide in the appendices of this paper the required methodology and information to calibrate SDSS spectra onto the Lick/IDS system.Comment: 26 pages, with several appendices containing data. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Interviews with Harry Robinson, Elsie Berkey, and Maude Franklin

Interviews with Harry and Helen Robinson, Elsie Berkey, and Maude Franklin 00:00:01 - Introduction, Harry Robinson of Easton, KS on Thanksgiving Day, 1971 in Russell, Ks 00:00:33 - Millwood raids 00:01:36 - Lynching an African American man in Easton, KS in the 1890s 00:03:30 - Corn thief 00:04:45 - Easton Saloon 00:06:23 - Millwood Saloon 00:06:56 - Story about his grandfather 00:07:42 - Introduction, Helen Robinson 00:08:04 - Family stories 00:11:24 - Introduction, Elsie Berkey of Russell, KS on December 8, 1971 00:11:38 - Biographical information 00:11:53 - Proverbs 00:13:49 - Information about her family 00:14:55 - Recipes 00:15:57 - Family stories 00:20:58 - Games played 00:22:37 - Song, Old Dan Tucker , vocal 00:24:03 - Childhood stories 00:37:23 - Marriage and children 00:48:22 - Church 00:54:16 - Square dancing 00:55:14 - Gathering walnuts 00:56:31 - Poem, Remember when hippy meant big in the hips 00:59:02 - Poem, The Year of 1969 01:05:46 - Christianity 01:07:58 - Introduction, Maude Franklin of Russell, KS 01:08:22 - Listening to William Jennings Bryan speak at a Chautauqua 01:09:39 - Personal memories of Tonkawa, Oklahoma 01:12:23 - Teaching school in 1919 01:13:39 - Chautauquas 01:15:12 - A skunk 01:17:09 - Her childhood as an only child 01:20:31 - Games and dances 01:24:16 - Wearing long underwear 01:27:16 - Remedies 01:30:57 - Horse and buggy 01:32:14 - Recipes 01:33:32 - More childhood stories 01:35:58 - Sayings and proverbshttps://scholars.fhsu.edu/sackett/1141/thumbnail.jp