10,981 research outputs found
The development of a rich multimedia training environment for crisis management: using emotional affect to enhance learning
PANDORA is an EU FP7-funded project developing a novel training and learning environment for Gold Commanders, individuals who carry executive responsibility for the services and facilities identified as strategically critical e.g. Police, Fire, in crisis management strategic planning situations. A key part of the work for this project is considering the emotional and behavioural state of the trainees, and the creation of more realistic, and thereby stressful, representations of multimedia information to impact on the decision-making of those trainees. Existing training models are predominantly paper-based, table-top exercises, which require an exercise of imagination on the part of the trainees to consider not only the various aspects of a crisis situation but also the impacts of interventions, and remediating actions in the event of the failure of an intervention. However, existing computing models and tools are focused on supporting tactical and operational activities in crisis management, not strategic. Therefore, the PANDORA system will provide a rich multimedia information environment, to provide trainees with the detailed information they require to develop strategic plans to deal with a crisis scenario, and will then provide information on the impacts of the implementation of those plans and provide the opportunity for the trainees to revise and remediate those plans. Since this activity is invariably multi-agency, the training environment must support group-based strategic planning activities and trainees will occupy specific roles within the crisis scenario. The system will also provide a range of non-playing characters (NPC) representing domain experts, high-level controllers (e.g. politicians, ministers), low-level controllers (tactical and operational commanders), and missing trainee roles, to ensure a fully populated scenario can be realised in each instantiation. Within the environment, the emotional and behavioural state of the trainees will be monitored, and interventions, in the form of environmental information controls and mechanisms impacting on the stress levels and decisionmaking capabilities of the trainees, will be used to personalise the training environment. This approach enables a richer and more realistic representation of the crisis scenario to be enacted, leading to better strategic plans and providing trainees with structured feedback on their performance under stress
Formation of the Galactic globular clusters with He-rich stars in low-mass halos virialized at high redshift
Recent observations have reported that the Galactic globular clusters (GCs)
with unusually extended horizontal-branch (EHB) morphologies show a
significantly lower velocity dispersion compared with that of the entire
Galactic GC system. We consider that the observed distinctive kinematics of GCs
with EHB has valuable information on the formation epochs of GCs and
accordingly discuss this observational result based on cosmological N-body
simulations with a model of GC formation. We assume that GCs in galaxies were
initially formed in low-mass halos at high redshifts and we investigate final
kinematics of GCs in their host halos at . We find that GCs formed in
halos virialized at z>10 show lower velocity dispersions on average than those
formed at z>6 for halos with GCs at z=0. We thus suggest that the origin of the
observed lower velocity dispersion for the Galactic GCs with EHBs is closely
associated with earlier formation epochs (z>10) of halos initially hosting the
GCs in the course of the Galaxy formation. Considering that the origin of EHBs
can be due to the presence of helium-enhanced second-generation stars in GCs,
we discuss the longstanding second parameter problem of GCs in the context of
different degrees of chemical pollution in GC-forming gas clouds within
low-mass halos virialized at different redshifts.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted by MNRAS Letter
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Exploring first year undergraduate students’ conceptualisations of critical thinking skills
The development of critical thinking skills forms an important part of many higher education courses and has become increasingly visible in syllabi and assessment criteria. Yet, in spite of this, students often struggle to understand what it is and to demonstrate it in their work. This paper aims to explore how students understand the term critical thinking and to identify some of the key factors which influence this. An in-depth case study was conducted with four first year undergraduate students in the Education faculty of a university in England. Data were collected through thematic interviews and stimulated recall interviews. Key findings highlight that students believe strongly in the importance of developing critical thinking skills, yet while they can speak relatively easily about more abstract definitions of the term, they often find it difficult to do and to identify in their own work. Findings suggest that their conceptualisations are influenced by their prior educational experiences and vary according to discipline. Implications for pedagogy include the need for explicit guidance on critical thinking, the provision of substantial opportunities for practice and the need to engage in dialogue across disciplines to highlight opportunities for promoting connection-making and transfer between different contexts
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Teaching for transfer between first and foreign language classroom contexts: developing a framework for a strategy-based, cross-curricular approach to writing pedagogy
Writing is a skill which is actively taught in both first (L1) and foreign language (FL) classrooms, yet surprisingly few cross-curricular links are made. This paper, aimed at both practitioners and researchers, presents a framework for designing and implementing a strategy-based, cross-curricular approach to writing pedagogy in schools. It firstly considers the factors which should be taken into account when designing such an intervention in both L1 and FL classrooms. It then outlines the key steps in the implementation of such a programme of strategy-based instruction. To exemplify this, the paper reports on data throughout from an empirical study involving a classroom intervention of explicit strategy-based instruction which was delivered firstly in the German FL classroom, and later also in the English classroom of a Year 9 (age 13-14) class in a secondary school in England. The aim was to help students to develop their writing strategies and to encourage transfer between languages. Findings suggest that while a programme of strategy-based instruction can improve strategy use and attainment in writing within a particular language context, effects are most powerful when there is collaboration between L1 and FL teachers. Evidence therefore calls for a multilingual approach to writing pedagogy.I am grateful to the ESRC for providing funding for the PhD study from which this paper is drawn
Influence of cell surface and nanomechanical properties on the flocculation ability of industrial <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> strains
In the past few years, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has provided novel information on the ultrastructural and nanomechanical properties of yeast cell walls that play a major role in determining the flocculation characteristics of the yeasts. In this study, we used AFM to visualize at the nanoscale the cell surface topography and to determine cell wall nanomechanical properties (e.g. elasticity) of different strains of S. cerevisiae employed for brewing, winemaking and fuel alcohol production. Cell surface topography was found to correlate with the flocculation behaviour of these strains during their late stationary phase, with the cell surface of flocculent cells being rougher than that of weakly flocculent cells. The elastic modulus of the yeast cell walls showed that weakly flocculent strains had a more rigid cell wall than highly flocculent strains. This difference in elasticity seemed to have an effect on the adhesive properties of the yeast cell walls, with weakly flocculent yeasts displaying higher adhesion energy than the highly flocculent strains. These findings seem to indicate that yeast cell surface nanomechanical properties play an important role in governing flocculation
The neutron polaron as a constraint on nuclear density functionals
We study the energy of an impurity (polaron) that interacts strongly in a sea
of fermions when the effective range of the impurity-fermion interaction
becomes important, thereby mapping the Fermi polaron of condensed matter
physics and ultracold atoms to strongly interacting neutrons. We present
Quantum Monte Carlo results for this neutron polaron, and compare these with
effective field theory calculations that also include contributions beyond the
effective range. We show that state-of-the-art nuclear density functionals vary
substantially and generally underestimate the neutron polaron energy. Our
results thus provide constraints for adjusting the time-odd components of
nuclear density functionals to better characterize polarized systems.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2 corresponds to the published versio
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