Real readers, real writers and a home-grown experience

As with many good innovations, it began with a real and pressing problem. We wanted the students at St Ninians Primary, a large city school for children aged 5-12 years, to develop a sense of audience for their writing. In Scotland, story writing is commonly taught using story frames and planning sheets that ask students to identify the characters, the setting, the initiating problem/event and the resolution. Despite this support, students often omit important details and find it hard to 'decentre' and consider their writing from the reader's perspective. This is a vital part of becoming an author: "A sense of authorship comes from the struggle to put something big and vital into print, and from seeing one's own printed words reach the heats and minds of readers." (Calkins, 1986

Exploring Physicality in the Design Process

The design process used in the development of many products we use daily and the nature of the products themselves are becoming increasingly digital. Although our whole world is turning ever more digital, our bodies and minds are naturally conceived to interact with the physical. Very often, in the design of user-targeted information appliances, the physical and digital processes are formulated separately and usually, due to cost factors, they are only brought together for user testing at the end of the development process. This not only makes major design changes more difficult but it can also significantly affect the users’ level of acceptance of the product and their experience of use. It is therefore imperative that designers explore the relationship between the physical and the digital form early on in the development process, when one can rapidly work through different sets of ideas. The key to gaining crucial design information from products lies in the construction of meaningful prototypes. This paper specifically examines how physical materials are used during the early design stage and seeks to explore whether the inherent physical properties of these artefacts and the way that designers interpret and manipulate them have a significant impact on the design process. We present the findings of a case study based on information gathered during a design exercise. Detailed analysis of the recordings reveals far more subtle patterns of behaviour than expected. These include the ways in which groups move between abstract and concrete discussions, the way groups comply with or resist the materials they are given, and the complex interactions between the physicality of materials and the group dynamics. This understanding is contributing to ongoing research in the context of our wider agenda of explicating the fundamental role of physicality in the design of hybrid physical and digital artefacts. Keywords: Physicality; Digitality; Product Design; Design Process; Prototyping; Materials</p

Aspects of vibrational band contours

An infra-red study was made of the molecular complex of hexafluorobenzene (HFB) in benzene solutions. Interactions between HFB and benzene lead to a frequency shift and a broadening of the band arising from the out of plane C-F bending vibration It is deduced that the intermolecular interactions are short lived, stochastic, are not simple polar interactions, and that the resulting forces are directed perpendicular to the ring plane. The band contours of the vibrational Raman band of chlorine in benzene/tetrachloromethane solution mixtures have been studied. Band fitting analysis of the complexed chlorine band using two Lorentzians, each with their isotopic sub bands, produced good simulations of the observed spectra. The consistency of the relative intensities suggests that they arise from complexes of the samestoichiometry. It is concluded that chlorine forms a 1:2 complex with benzene, with an equilibrium constant K = .095 elm mol . Entropy imply that there is a large molecular ordering compatible with the idea of specific structure of the complex. The vibrational Raman band of liquid chlorine was studied to shifts of 130 cm from the band centre. The second moment of the anisotropic component is about 15 above the theoretical value. Good exponential decays of the second order orientational correlation function are observed from t> 0.2 ps. The resulting relaxation times are well reproduced by a microviscosity equation. The results are in reasonable accord with n.m.r. relaxation times. Absolute intensity measurements have been made on the fundamental vibrations of methyl iodide, by integrating the optical density over the absorption band. Exact band fitting of the theoretical spectra, to the experimental spectra was not possible, no explanation can be offered. The intensity measurements were analysed in terms of the dipole moment derivatives with respect to symmetry coordinates, using three formulations of the vibrational angular momentum correction. Gribov's formulation is considered superior to the earlier Crawford hypothetical isotope method. Barrow and Crawford also derived a formulation similar to Gribov's.<p

Joubert Syndrome Presenting with Motor Delay and Oculomotor Apraxia

We describe two sisters who presented in early childhood with motor delay and unusual eye movements. Both demonstrated hypotonia and poor visual attention. The older girl at 14 weeks of age showed fine pendular horizontal nystagmus more pronounced on lateral gaze, but despite investigation with cranial MRI no diagnosis was reached. The birth of her younger sister four years later with a similar presentation triggered review of the sisters' visual behaviour. Each had developed an unusual but similar form of oculomotor apraxia (OMA) with head thrusts to maintain fixation rather than to change fixation. MRI of the older sibling demonstrated the characteristic “molar tooth sign” (MTS) of Joubert syndrome which was subsequently confirmed on MRI in the younger sibling. We discuss the genetically heterogeneous ciliopathies now grouped as Joubert syndrome and Related Disorders. Clinicians need to consider this group of disorders when faced with unusual eye movements in the developmentally delayed child

An impact assessment methodology for urban surface runoff quality following best practice treatment

The paper develops an easy to apply desk-based semi-quantitative approach for the assessment of residual receiving water quality risks associated with urban surface runoff following its conveyance through best practice sustainable drainage systems (SUDS). The innovative procedure utilises an integrated geographical information system (GIS)-based pollution index approach based on surface area impermeability, runoff concentrations/loadings and individual SUDS treatment performance potential to evaluate the level of risk mitigation achievable by SUDS drainage infrastructure. The residual impact is assessed through comparison of the determined pollution index with regulatory receiving water quality standards and objectives. The methodology provides an original theoretically based procedure which complements the current acute risk assessment approaches being widely applied within pluvial flood risk management

Point Estimation of States of Finite Quantum Systems

The estimation of the density matrix of a $k$-level quantum system is studied when the parametrization is given by the real and imaginary part of the entries and they are estimated by independent measurements. It is established that the properties of the estimation procedure depend very much on the invertibility of the true state. In particular, in case of a pure state the estimation is less efficient. Moreover, several estimation schemes are compared for the unknown state of a qubit when one copy is measured at a time. It is shown that the average mean quadratic error matrix is the smallest if the applied observables are complementary. The results are illustrated by computer simulations.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Recent developments in setting and using objective tests in mathematics using QM Perception

This short paper builds upon work described at the last CAA Conference, Greenhow & Gill (2004), in setting objective tests in various areas of mathematics using Question Mark Perception. Current activities continue to exploit the QML language and template files, coupled with MathML mathematics mark-up and the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) syntax for producing diagrams. There are many advantages to using such mark-up languages, primarily the use of random parameters at runtime that thereby produce dynamic equations, distracters, feedback and diagrams. An unlooked for, but welcome, advantage, is that one can also resize and recolour these elements by reading the preferences that have been set up in a user-defined cookie. This means that “reasonable provision” for disabled students as required by the SENDA legislation, is built-in. The MathML and SVG technology can be exported to any web-based system, or indeed ordinary web pages that can provide an inexhaustible set of realisations at the click of the reload button. Being central to the display of mathematics on the web, MathML’s WebEQ applet has recently been considerably extended to include graphing of MathML expressions, naturalistic input of equations with syntax checking and math-action tags. These math-action tags can be used to define a specific part of an equation, and mouse actions can then be acted upon, for example to provide a commentary on that part of the equation, toggle to another equation (perhaps a derivation of the tagged term or similar) or, possibly, to set a variable that can be used for marking (as in a hot spot question). The first part of this paper will show how these new facilities can be input into new question types for effective questions and feedback design. It is clear that much useful technology already exists, but setting effective questions that benefit students’ learning requires equal attention to their content and pedagogy. The second part of this paper looks at a possible methodology for setting much more advanced questions than hitherto, looking closely at an example from the ordinary differential equations section of Mathletics. The third part of this paper looks at a series of experiments with a first year mechanics group at Brunel University, as part of the Formative Assessment and Feedback (FAST) project. Students’ reactions were studied, especially the effect of the feedback on their subsequent behaviour when faced with similar/dissimilar questions after a variable time delay. Students spent a lot of time and energy considering the feedback provided, sometimes copying it down or printing it out. Somewhat surprisingly, it seems that a “learning resource” has actually been written, whose formative nature is of equal or more importance than the assessment function originally intended. It can be concluded that plentiful formative feedback is of great importance in the students’ ability to learn mathematics from the tests, rather than simply get their grades or marks in an efficient manner