652 research outputs found
Researching teachersâ time use: Complexity, challenges and a possible way forward
In the context of global concerns about teacher workload and the relationship between workload and attrition, understanding the nature, quantity and intensity of teachersâ work is an essential first step in formulating robust solutions to this significant problem. Understanding teachersâ work, however, is a complex undertaking, and prior attempts have largely been focused on the quantity rather than the intensity or quality of work required and undertaken. This article reports on a pilot study of the Teacher Time Use app, a bespoke tool developed by the research team to âget insideâ teachersâ subjective experience of time through a focus on both workload and intensity. Our analysis shows that the app provides a simple, non-demanding way for teachers to record their work in a timely and efficient way. It also highlights the capacity of this approach to understand both the range and quantum of tasks that comprise teachersâ work and consequently the nature and subjective experience of work intensification. We argue the need for a more nuanced empirical understanding of the layering and multi-tasking of teachersâ work that characterises work intensity, and suggest that the Teachersâ Time Use app provides an effective means for recording and representing the complex dimensions of teachersâ work and time use
MOSFiT: Modular open source fitter for transients
Much of the progress made in time-domain astronomy is accomplished by
relating observational multi-wavelength time series data to models derived from
our understanding of physical laws. This goal is typically accomplished by
dividing the task in two: collecting data (observing), and constructing models
to represent that data (theorizing). Owing to the natural tendency for
specialization, a disconnect can develop between the best available theories
and the best available data, potentially delaying advances in our understanding
new classes of transients. We introduce MOSFiT: the Modular Open-Source Fitter
for Transients, a Python-based package that downloads transient datasets from
open online catalogs (e.g., the Open Supernova Catalog), generates Monte Carlo
ensembles of semi-analytical light curve fits to those datasets and their
associated Bayesian parameter posteriors, and optionally delivers the fitting
results back to those same catalogs to make them available to the rest of the
community. MOSFiT is designed to help bridge the gap between observations and
theory in time-domain astronomy; in addition to making the application of
existing models and creation of new models as simple as possible, MOSFiT yields
statistically robust predictions for transient characteristics, with a standard
output format that includes all the setup information necessary to reproduce a
given result. As large-scale surveys such as LSST discover entirely new classes
of transients, tools such as MOSFiT will be critical for enabling rapid
comparison of models against data in statistically consistent, reproducible,
and scientifically beneficial ways
Principals of audit: Testing, data and âimplicated advocacyâ
Historically, school leaders have occupied a somewhat ambiguous position within networks of power. On the one hand, they appear to be celebrated as what Ball (2003) has termed the ânew hero of educational reformâ; on the other, they are often âheld to accountâ through those same performative processes and technologies. These have become compelling in schools and principals are âdoubly boundâ through this. Adopting a Foucauldian notion of discursive production, this paper addresses the ways that the discursive âfieldâ of âprincipalâ (within larger regimes of truth such as schools, leadership, quality and efficiency) is produced. It explores how individual principals understand their roles and ethics within those practices of audit emerging in school governance, and how their self-regulation is constituted through NAPLAN â the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy. A key effect of NAPLAN has been the rise of auditing practices that change how education is valued. Open-ended interviews with 13 primary and secondary school principals from Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales asked how they perceived NAPLAN's impact on their work, their relationships within their school community and their ethical practice
Calibration of the Logarithmic-Periodic Dipole Antenna (LPDA) Radio Stations at the Pierre Auger Observatory using an Octocopter
An in-situ calibration of a logarithmic periodic dipole antenna with a
frequency coverage of 30 MHz to 80 MHz is performed. Such antennas are part of
a radio station system used for detection of cosmic ray induced air showers at
the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory, the so-called
Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA). The directional and frequency
characteristics of the broadband antenna are investigated using a remotely
piloted aircraft (RPA) carrying a small transmitting antenna. The antenna
sensitivity is described by the vector effective length relating the measured
voltage with the electric-field components perpendicular to the incoming signal
direction. The horizontal and meridional components are determined with an
overall uncertainty of 7.4^{+0.9}_{-0.3} % and 10.3^{+2.8}_{-1.7} %
respectively. The measurement is used to correct a simulated response of the
frequency and directional response of the antenna. In addition, the influence
of the ground conductivity and permittivity on the antenna response is
simulated. Both have a negligible influence given the ground conditions
measured at the detector site. The overall uncertainties of the vector
effective length components result in an uncertainty of 8.8^{+2.1}_{-1.3} % in
the square root of the energy fluence for incoming signal directions with
zenith angles smaller than 60{\deg}.Comment: Published version. Updated online abstract only. Manuscript is
unchanged with respect to v2. 39 pages, 15 figures, 2 table
Multi-resolution anisotropy studies of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory
We report a multi-resolution search for anisotropies in the arrival
directions of cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory with local
zenith angles up to and energies in excess of 4 EeV ( eV). This search is conducted by measuring the angular power spectrum
and performing a needlet wavelet analysis in two independent energy ranges.
Both analyses are complementary since the angular power spectrum achieves a
better performance in identifying large-scale patterns while the needlet
wavelet analysis, considering the parameters used in this work, presents a
higher efficiency in detecting smaller-scale anisotropies, potentially
providing directional information on any observed anisotropies. No deviation
from isotropy is observed on any angular scale in the energy range between 4
and 8 EeV. Above 8 EeV, an indication for a dipole moment is captured; while no
other deviation from isotropy is observed for moments beyond the dipole one.
The corresponding -values obtained after accounting for searches blindly
performed at several angular scales, are in the case of
the angular power spectrum, and in the case of the needlet
analysis. While these results are consistent with previous reports making use
of the same data set, they provide extensions of the previous works through the
thorough scans of the angular scales.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report
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Ultrahigh-energy neutrino follow-up of Gravitational Wave events GW150914 and GW151226 with the Pierre Auger Observatory
On September 14, 2015 the Advanced LIGO detectors observed their first
gravitational-wave (GW) transient GW150914. This was followed by a second GW
event observed on December 26, 2015. Both events were inferred to have arisen
from the merger of black holes in binary systems. Such a system may emit
neutrinos if there are magnetic fields and disk debris remaining from the
formation of the two black holes. With the surface detector array of the Pierre
Auger Observatory we can search for neutrinos with energy above 100 PeV from
point-like sources across the sky with equatorial declination from about -65
deg. to +60 deg., and in particular from a fraction of the 90% confidence-level
(CL) inferred positions in the sky of GW150914 and GW151226. A targeted search
for highly-inclined extensive air showers, produced either by interactions of
downward-going neutrinos of all flavors in the atmosphere or by the decays of
tau leptons originating from tau-neutrino interactions in the Earth's crust
(Earth-skimming neutrinos), yielded no candidates in the Auger data collected
within s around or 1 day after the coordinated universal time (UTC)
of GW150914 and GW151226, as well as in the same search periods relative to the
UTC time of the GW candidate event LVT151012. From the non-observation we
constrain the amount of energy radiated in ultrahigh-energy neutrinos from such
remarkable events.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report
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Azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of the surface detector signals of the Pierre Auger Observatory
The azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of signals in Auger surface detector
stations is a source of information on shower development. The azimuthal
asymmetry is due to a combination of the longitudinal evolution of the shower
and geometrical effects related to the angles of incidence of the particles
into the detectors. The magnitude of the effect depends upon the zenith angle
and state of development of the shower and thus provides a novel observable,
, sensitive to the mass composition of cosmic rays
above eV. By comparing measurements with predictions from
shower simulations, we find for both of our adopted models of hadronic physics
(QGSJETII-04 and EPOS-LHC) an indication that the mean cosmic-ray mass
increases slowly with energy, as has been inferred from other studies. However,
the mass estimates are dependent on the shower model and on the range of
distance from the shower core selected. Thus the method has uncovered further
deficiencies in our understanding of shower modelling that must be resolved
before the mass composition can be inferred from .Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
The ontological plurality of digital voice: a schizoanalysis of Rate My Professors and Rate My Teachers
Evidence for a mixed mass composition at the `ankle' in the cosmic-ray spectrum
We report a first measurement for ultra-high energy cosmic rays of the
correlation between the depth of shower maximum and the signal in the water
Cherenkov stations of air-showers registered simultaneously by the fluorescence
and the surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Such a correlation
measurement is a unique feature of a hybrid air-shower observatory with
sensitivity to both the electromagnetic and muonic components. It allows an
accurate determination of the spread of primary masses in the cosmic-ray flux.
Up till now, constraints on the spread of primary masses have been dominated by
systematic uncertainties. The present correlation measurement is not affected
by systematics in the measurement of the depth of shower maximum or the signal
in the water Cherenkov stations. The analysis relies on general characteristics
of air showers and is thus robust also with respect to uncertainties in
hadronic event generators. The observed correlation in the energy range around
the `ankle' at differs significantly from
expectations for pure primary cosmic-ray compositions. A light composition made
up of proton and helium only is equally inconsistent with observations. The
data are explained well by a mixed composition including nuclei with mass . Scenarios such as the proton dip model, with almost pure compositions, are
thus disfavoured as the sole explanation of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray
flux at Earth.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report
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