OER Evidence Report 2013-2014

The Open Educational Resources Research Hub (OER Research Hub) provides a focus for research, designed to give answers to the overall question ‘What is the impact of OER on learning and teaching practices?’ and identify the particular influence of openness. We do this by working in collaboration with projects across four education sectors (K12, college, higher education and informal) extending a network of research with shared methods and shared results. The project combines: – Targeted research collaboration with high profile OER projects – A programme of international fellowship – Global networking and expertise in OER implementation and evaluation – A hub for research data and excellence in practice This report is an interim review of evidence recorded against the key hypotheses that focus the research of the OER Research Hub project

Evaluation of elicitation methods to quantify Bayes linear models

The Bayes linear methodology allows decision makers to express their subjective beliefs and adjust these beliefs as observations are made. It is similar in spirit to probabilistic Bayesian approaches, but differs as it uses expectation as its primitive. While substantial work has been carried out in Bayes linear analysis, both in terms of theory development and application, there is little published material on the elicitation of structured expert judgement to quantify models. This paper investigates different methods that could be used by analysts when creating an elicitation process. The theoretical underpinnings of the elicitation methods developed are explored and an evaluation of their use is presented. This work was motivated by, and is a precursor to, an industrial application of Bayes linear modelling of the reliability of defence systems. An illustrative example demonstrates how the methods can be used in practice

Double bubble secondary building units used as a structural motif for enhanced electron-hole separation in solids

A structural motif designed for enhancing electron–hole separation in semiconducting composite materials, the so-called double bubble, is introduced. The addition of silicon carbide in the construction of heterogeneous double bubble systems, along with zinc oxide and gallium nitride, yields electronic structures that are favourable for electron–hole separation. The standard formation enthalpies of such systems are comparable with those of fullerenes, suggesting that these systems would be achievable and of direct benefit to photovoltaic and electrochemical applications such as water splitting; with the (SiC)12@(ZnO)48 proving to be the most promising building block for future functional composite materials

Purification and characterization of Taq polymerase: A 9-week biochemistry laboratory project for undergraduate students

We have developed a 9-week undergraduate laboratory series focused on the purification and characterization of Thermus aquaticus DNA polymerase (Taq). Our aim was to provide undergraduate biochemistry students with a full-semester continuing project simulating a research-like experience, while having each week\u27s procedure focus on a single learning goal. The laboratory series has been taught for the past 7 years, and survey-based assessment of the effectiveness of the laboratory series was completed during the 2006 and 2007 fall semesters. Statistical analysis of the survey results demonstrate that the laboratory series is very effective in teaching students the theory and practice of protein purification and analysis while also demonstrating positive results in more broad areas of scientific skill and knowledge. Amongst the findings, the largest reported increases in knowledge were related to students\u27 understanding of how patent law relates to laboratory science, a topic of great importance to modern researchers that is readily discussed in relation to Taq polymerase. Overall, this laboratory series proves to be a very effective component in the curricula of undergraduate biology and chemistry majors and may be an appropriate laboratory experience for undergraduates. © 2010 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Systematic perturbation approach for a dynamical scaling law in a kinetically constrained spin model

The dynamical behaviours of a kinetically constrained spin model (Fredrickson-Andersen model) on a Bethe lattice are investigated by a perturbation analysis that provides exact final states above the nonergodic transition point. It is observed that the time-dependent solutions of the derived dynamical systems obtained by the perturbation analysis become systematically closer to the results obtained by Monte Carlo simulations as the order of a perturbation series is increased. This systematic perturbation analysis also clarifies the existence of a dynamical scaling law, which provides a implication for a universal relation between a size scale and a time scale near the nonergodic transition.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, v2; results have been refined, v3; A figure has been modified, v4; results have been more refine

The dependence of intrinsic alignment of galaxies on wavelength using KiDS and GAMA

The outer regions of galaxies are more susceptible to the tidal interactions that lead to intrinsic alignments of galaxies. The resulting alignment signal may therefore depend on the passband if the colours of galaxies vary spatially. To quantify this, we measured the shapes of galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts from the GAMA survey using deep gri imaging data from the KiloDegree Survey. The performance of the moment-based shape measurement algorithm DEIMOS was assessed using dedicated image simulations, which showed that the ellipticities could be determined with an accuracy better than 1% in all bands. Additional tests for potential systematic errors did not reveal any issues. We measure a significant difference of the alignment signal between the g,r and i-band observations. This difference exceeds the amplitude of the linear alignment model on scales below 2 Mpc/h. Separating the sample into central/satellite and red/blue galaxies, we find that that the difference is dominated by red satellite galaxies.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, accepted, to appear in A&

Using GAMA to probe the impact of small-scale galaxy physics on nonlinear redshift-space distortions

We present improved modelling of the redshift-space distortions of galaxy clustering that arise from peculiar velocities. We create mock galaxy catalogues in the framework of the halo model, using data from the Bolshoi project. These mock galaxy populations are inserted into the haloes with additional degrees of freedom that govern spatial and kinematical biases of the galaxy populations relative to the dark matter. We explore this generalised halo model with an MCMC algorithm, comparing the predictions to data from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, and thus derive one of the first constraints on the detailed kinematic degrees of freedom for satellite galaxies within haloes. With this approach, the distortions of the redshift-space galaxy autocorrelations can be accounted for down to spatial separations close to 10 kpc, opening the prospect of improved RSD measurements of the perturbation growth rate by the inclusion of data from nonlinear scales.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, comments are welcom

Embedded-Cluster Calculations in a Numeric Atomic Orbital Density-Functional Theory Framework

We integrate the all-electron electronic structure code FHI-aims into the general ChemShell package for solid-state embedding (QM/MM) calculations. A major undertaking in this integration is the implementation of pseudopotential functionality into FHI-aims to describe cations at the QM/MM boundary through effective core potentials and therewith prevent spurious overpolarization of the electronic density. Based on numeric atomic orbital basis sets, FHI-aims offers particularly efficient access to exact exchange and second order perturbation theory, rendering the established QM/MM setup an ideal tool for hybrid and double-hybrid level DFT calculations of solid systems. We illustrate this capability by calculating the reduction potential of Fe in the Fe-substituted ZSM-5 zeolitic framework and the reaction energy profile for (photo-)catalytic water oxidation at TiO2(110).Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure