2,002 research outputs found
âIt gave me a much more personal connectionâ: Student generated podcasting and assessment in teacher education
This paper reports on a qualitative case study of an online initial teacher education class in New Zealand, exploring the potential of student-generated podcasts as a form of interactive formative assessment. Findings from interviews with teaching staff indicate that podcasting was useful for supporting multimodal learning valuing student voice and reflections. Podcasting enhanced the affective and relational connections in the online class, and empowered students to develop technical skills and confidence relevant in their teaching careers. As such, this study positions educators as future makers and as leaders in a climate of change. We suggest implications for student-generated podcasts in similar contexts
Adoption of innovative e-learning support for teaching: A multiple case study at the University of Waikato
In response to recent social, economic, and pedagogical challenges to tertiary-level teaching and learning, universities are increasingly investigating and adopting elearning as a way to engage and motivate students. This paper reports on the first year of a two-year (2009-2010) qualitative multiple case study research project in New Zealand. Using perspectives from activity theory and the scholarship of teaching, the research has the overall goal of documenting, developing, and disseminating effective and innovative practice in which e-learning plays an important role in tertiary teaching. A âsnapshotâ of each of the four 2009 cases and focused findings within and across cases are provided. This is followed by an overall discussion of the context, âwithinâ and âacrossâ case themes, and implications of the research
Thermal performance of a buried nuclear waste storage container storing a hybrid mix of PWR and BWR spent fuel rods; Revision 1
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will design, model, and test nuclear waste packages for use at the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. One such package would store tightly packed spent fuel rods from both pressurized and boiling water reactors. The storage container provides the primary containment of the nuclear waste and the spent fuel rod cladding provides secondary containment. A series of transient conduction and radiation heat transfer analyses was run to determine for the first 1000 yr of storage if the temperature of the tuff at the borehole wall ever falls below 97{degrees}C and whether the cladding of the stored spent fuel ever exceeds 350{degrees}C. Limiting the borehole to temperatures of 97{degrees}C or greater helps minimize corrosion by assuring that no condensed water collects on the container. The 350{degrees}C cladding limit minimizes the possibility of creep- related failure in the spent fuel rod cladding. For a series of packages stored in a 8 {times} 30 m borehole grid where each package contains 10-yr-old spent fuel rods generating 4.74 kW or more, the borehole wall stays above 97{degrees}C for the full 10000-yr analysis period. For the 4.74-kW load, the peak cladding temperature rises to just below the 350{degrees}C limit about 4 years after emplacement. If the packages are stored using the spacing specified in the Site Characterization Plan (15 ft {times} 126 ft), a maximum of 4.1 kW per container may be stored. If the 0.05-m-thick void between the container and the borehole wall is filled with loosely packed bentonite, the peak cladding temperature rises more than 40{degrees}C above the allowed cladding limit. In all cases the dominant heat transfer mode between container components is thermal radiation
Effect of Optaflexx and days on feed on feedlot performance, carcass characteristics, and skeletal muscle gene expression in yearling steers
Two-thousand two-hundred fifty-two yearling
steers (690 lb) were used to evaluate the
effects of Optaflexx and days on feed on finishing steer performance and carcass characteristics. Treatment groups included serial harvest dates of 150, 171, or 192 days. Within each harvest date, steers either received Optaflexx (200 mg/steer daily of ractopamine-HCl) for the final 28 days, or did not receive Optaflexx. All steers were initially implanted with Revalor-IS and were re-implanted with Revalor-S after 75 days on feed. At harvest, muscle samples from the inside round were obtained for mRNA analysis of the β- adrenergic receptors (AR). Optaflexx increased daily gains, hot carcass weight, and ribeye area, and improved feed efficiency. Optaflexx
did not affect dressing percentage, USDA yield grade, or quality grade. Optaflexx
did not change overall feed intake across the entire feeding period, but feed intake
was increased during the 28-day period that steers received Optaflexx. As expected,
greater days on feed decreased daily gains,
overall feed intake, and the number of yield
grade 1 and 2 carcasses, and worsened feed
efficiency. Also, greater days on feed increased hot carcass weight, dressing percentage, and the number of prime and choice carcasses, as well as the number of yield grade 4 and 5 carcasses. Increasing days on feed decreased the abundance of mRNA for β1-AR and β3-AR, and increased the abundance of β2-AR mRNA. Optaflexx had no effect on abundance of mRNA for β1-AR or β3-AR, but it increased the abundance of mRNA for β2-AR. Optaflexx may affect expression of the β2-AR gene in skeletal muscle, which could impact the performance responses to Optaflexx feeding in steers
Fitting a sum of exponentials to lattice correlation functions using a non-uniform prior
Excited states are extracted from lattice correlation functions using a
non-uniform prior on the model parameters. Models for both a single exponential
and a sum of exponentials are considered, as well as an alternate model for the
orthogonalization of the correlation functions. Results from an analysis of
torelon and glueball operators indicate the Bayesian methodology compares well
with the usual interpretation of effective mass tables produced by a
variational procedure. Applications of the methodology are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 8 tables, major revision, final versio
MaxEnt power spectrum estimation using the Fourier transform for irregularly sampled data applied to a record of stellar luminosity
The principle of maximum entropy is applied to the spectral analysis of a
data signal with general variance matrix and containing gaps in the record. The
role of the entropic regularizer is to prevent one from overestimating
structure in the spectrum when faced with imperfect data. Several arguments are
presented suggesting that the arbitrary prefactor should not be introduced to
the entropy term. The introduction of that factor is not required when a
continuous Poisson distribution is used for the amplitude coefficients. We
compare the formalism for when the variance of the data is known explicitly to
that for when the variance is known only to lie in some finite range. The
result of including the entropic measure factor is to suggest a spectrum
consistent with the variance of the data which has less structure than that
given by the forward transform. An application of the methodology to example
data is demonstrated.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, major revision, final version,
Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Reexamining nonstandard interaction effects on supernova neutrino flavor oscillations
Several extensions of the standard electroweak model allow new four-fermion
interactions (nu_a nu_b * ff) with strength eps_ab*G_F, where (a,b) are flavor
indices. We revisit their effects on flavor oscillations of massive
(anti)neutrinos in supernovae, in order to achieve, in the region above the
protoneutron star, an analytical treatment valid for generic values of the
neutrino mixing angles (omega,phi,psi)=(theta_12,theta_13,theta_23). Assuming
that eps_ab<<1, we find that the leading effects on the flavor transitions
occurring at high (H) and low (L) density along the supernova matter profile
can be simply embedded through the replacements phi-->phi+eps_H and
omega-->omega+eps_L, respectively, where eps_H and eps_L are specific linear
combinations of the eps_ab's. Similar replacements hold for eventual
oscillations in the Earth matter. From a phenomenological point of view, the
most relevant consequence is a possible uncontrolled bias (phi-->phi+eps_H) in
the value of the mixing angle phi inferred by inversion of supernova neutrino
data. Such a drawback, however, does not preclude the discrimination of the
neutrino mass spectrum hierarchy (direct or inverse) through supernova neutrino
oscillations.Comment: Text clarified, one figure added. To appear in PR
- âŚ