24,837 research outputs found
Letting it all spill out: the benefits of venting for creative writing teachers and students
The need to provide solutions to pandemic deterritorialized teaching took effect almost overnight in early spring 2020. There was an immediate amplification of digital literacy requirements. The need for multi-modal fluency and connectivity intensified throughout the pandemic and its effects were felt nowhere near as profoundly as in education. Overnight new learning systems had to be designed and implemented. New technology needed to rapidly be acquired and shared. Teachers had to redesign teaching curricula so that content would be fit for the new modes of delivery that was emerging. Students and teachers were inundated with ānewā as innovation became a key force underpinning the production and consumption of pedagogy. The challenges were many, and how we approached the challenges became vital to our survival and success within a period of monumental distress. This research looks at three models that were used to assist teachers in managing expectations during the pandemic
Heat transport in stochastic energy exchange models of locally confined hard spheres
We study heat transport in a class of stochastic energy exchange systems that
characterize the interactions of networks of locally trapped hard spheres under
the assumption that neighbouring particles undergo rare binary collisions. Our
results provide an extension to three-dimensional dynamics of previous ones
applying to the dynamics of confined two-dimensional hard disks [Gaspard P &
Gilbert T On the derivation of Fourier's law in stochastic energy exchange
systems J Stat Mech (2008) P11021]. It is remarkable that the heat conductivity
is here again given by the frequency of energy exchanges. Moreover the
expression of the stochastic kernel which specifies the energy exchange
dynamics is simpler in this case and therefore allows for faster and more
extensive numerical computations.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure
Non-equilibrium Lorentz gas on a curved space
The periodic Lorentz gas with external field and iso-kinetic thermostat is
equivalent, by conformal transformation, to a billiard with expanding
phase-space and slightly distorted scatterers, for which the trajectories are
straight lines. A further time rescaling allows to keep the speed constant in
that new geometry. In the hyperbolic regime, the stationary state of this
billiard is characterized by a phase-space contraction rate, equal to that of
the iso-kinetic Lorentz gas. In contrast to the iso-kinetic Lorentz gas where
phase-space contraction occurs in the bulk, the phase-space contraction rate
here takes place at the periodic boundaries
Phase diagram of orbital-selective Mott transitions at finite temperatures
Mott transitions in the two-orbital Hubbard model with different bandwidths
are investigated at finite temperatures. By means of the self-energy functional
approach, we discuss the stability of the intermediate phase with one orbital
localized and the other itinerant, which is caused by the orbital-selective
Mott transition (OSMT). It is shown that the OSMT realizes two different
coexistence regions at finite temperatures in accordance with the recent
results of Liebsch. We further find that the particularly interesting behavior
emerges around the special condition and J=0, which includes a new type
of the coexistence region with three distinct states. By systematically
changing the Hund coupling, we establish the global phase diagram to elucidate
the key role played by the Hund coupling on the Mott transitions.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
A model checking approach to the parameter estimation of biochemical pathways
Model checking has historically been an important tool to
verify models of a wide variety of systems. Typically a model has to exhibit
certain properties to be classed āacceptableā. In this work we use
model checking in a new setting; parameter estimation. We characterise
the desired behaviour of a model in a temporal logic property and alter
the model to make it conform to the property (determined through
model checking). We have implemented a computational system called
MC2(GA) which pairs a model checker with a genetic algorithm. To
drive parameter estimation, the fitness of set of parameters in a model is
the inverse of the distance between its actual behaviour and the desired
behaviour. The model checker used is the simulation-based Monte Carlo
Model Checker for Probabilistic Linear-time Temporal Logic with numerical
constraints, MC2(PLTLc). Numerical constraints as well as the
overall probability of the behaviour expressed in temporal logic are used
to minimise the behavioural distance. We define the theory underlying
our parameter estimation approach in both the stochastic and continuous
worlds. We apply our approach to biochemical systems and present
an illustrative example where we estimate the kinetic rate constants in
a continuous model of a signalling pathway
Ratio control in a cascade model of cell differentiation
We propose a kind of reaction-diffusion equations for cell differentiation,
which exhibits the Turing instability. If the diffusivity of some variables is
set to be infinity, we get coupled competitive reaction-diffusion equations
with a global feedback term. The size ratio of each cell type is controlled by
a system parameter in the model. Finally, we extend the model to a cascade
model of cell differentiation. A hierarchical spatial structure appears as a
result of the cell differentiation. The size ratio of each cell type is also
controlled by the system parameter.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Regulating Access to Adult Content (with Privacy Preservation)
In the physical world we have well-established mechanisms for keeping children out of adult-only areas. In the virtual world this is generally replaced by self declaration. Some service providers resort to using heavy-weight identification mechanisms, judging adulthood as a side effect thereof. Collection of identification data arguably constitutes an unwarranted privacy invasion in this context, if carried out merely to perform adulthood estimation. This paper presents a mechanism that exploits the adult's more extensive exposure to public media, relying on the likelihood that they will be able to recall details if cued by a carefully chosen picture. We conducted an online study to gauge the viability of this scheme. With our prototype we were able to predict that the user was a child 99% of the time. Unfortunately the scheme also misclassified too many adults. We discuss our results and suggest directions for future research
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