Pacing and time allocation at the micro- and meso-level within the class hour : why pacing is important, how to study it, and what it implies for individual lesson planning

The topic of pacing at the level of the individual class hour has received relatively little coverage in research literature. In order to provide a research-based take on the issue, the current work surveys the existing literature, develops terminology and draws a key distinction between macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of pacing, sequencing, grading, and transitioning. In order to focus on one of pacing's constituent sub-topics-the allocation of classroom time-this article presents a case study of a first semester college-level introductory German class at a top-tier American university. The data come from two hours of class, one each from the beginning and end of the semester, in an attempt to discover not only how pacing affects teaching synchronically but also how it might change diachronically. Utterances and gestures were transcribed in order to segment the class into activities and sub-activities, and a model for using verbal and gestural cues to perform this kind of segmentation is proposed. The paper also discusses how the teacher allocates time to different kinds of activities, considering pacing strategies that help keep students focused and "on plan" and how these pacing strategies can allow for more time and activities spent on communicative, pair-based work. It is argued that because of the case study teacher's focus on pacing and use of various strategies to pace the class, not only researchers but also teachers might be able to generalize the micro- and meso-pacing model described in this study to the pacing of individual lessons in their own classrooms.L'anàlisi detallada del pacing en una hora de classe és un aspecte poc tractat en la literatura científica. Per garantir una perspectiva basada en resultats empírics, aquest estudi es proposa fer un repàs a la literatura ja publicada sobre el tema, desenvolupar-ne la terminologia i distingir clarament entre els nivells macro-, meso- i micro- de pacing, grading, seqüenciació i transicions. Per tal de centrar-nos en un dels subtemes principals del pacing, la distribució del temps de l'hora de classe, presentem un estudi de cas basat en una assignatura d'introducció a l'alemany impartida en una prestigiosa universitat nord-americana. Les nostres dades provenen de dues hores de classe gravades en dos moments diferents del semestre (inici i final), per intentar esbrinar com afecta el pacing a la docència no només sincrònicament, sinó també diacrònicament. S'han transcrit tots els enunciats i gestos per tal de segmentar cada sessió en activitats i subactivitats, i, així, proposem un model de segmentació basat en l'anàlisi d'elements verbals i gestuals. Aquesta recerca també considera la manera de distribuir els diferents tipus d'activitats en una sessió després de prendre en consideració estratègies de pacing que contribueixen a mantenir els estudiants atents i "on plan". També es vol analitzar en quina mesura aquestes estratègies poden afavorir que es dediquin més estones i activitats a exercicis de tipus més comunicatiu, basats en la interacció entre parelles. Es considera que si el docent empra diferents estratègies per anar guiant el ritme de la classe i adopta metodologies de treball basades en el pacing, tant el professorat com la comunitat científica podran generalitzar el model de micro-pacing i meso-pacing definit en aquest article per a contemplar el pacing de cada hora lectiva a nivell individual.El análisis detallado del pacing en una hora de clase es un aspecto apenas tratado en la literatura científica. Para garantizar una perspectiva basada en resultados empíricos, este estudio se propone repasar la literatura ya publicada sobre dicha cuestión, desarrollar su terminología y distinguir claramente entre los niveles macro-, meso- y micro- de pacing, grading, secuenciación y transiciones. Para centrarnos en uno de los subtemas principales del pacing, la distribución del tiempo en la hora de clase, presentamos un estudio de caso basado en una asignatura de introducción al alemán impartida en una prestigiosa universidad estadounidense. Nuestros datos provienen de dos horas de clase grabadas en dos momentos diferentes del semestre (al inicio y al final), para intentar averiguar cómo afecta el pacing a la docencia no sólo sincrónicamente, sino también diacrónicamente. Se han transcrito todos los enunciados y gestos para segmentar cada sesión en actividades y subactividades, y, así, proponer un modelo de segmentación basado en el análisis de elementos verbales y gestuales. Dicha investigación también considera la manera de distribuir los diferentes tipos de actividades en una sesión después de tener en cuenta estrategias de pacing que contribuyen a mantener a los estudiantes atentos y "on plan". También se quiere estudiar en qué grado afectan dichas estrategias para permitir que se dediquen más ratos y actividades a ejercicios de tipo más comunicativo, basados en la interacción entre parejas. Se considera que si el docente emplea diferentes estrategias para ir guiando el ritmo de la clase y adopta metodologías de trabajo basadas en el pacing, tanto el profesorado como la comunidad científica podrán generalizar el modelo de micro-pacing y meso-pacing definido en este artículo para contemplar el pacing de cada hora lectiva a nivel individual

Lessons Learned from Development of a Software Tool to Support Academic Advising

We detail some lessons learned while designing and testing a decision-theoretic advising support tool for undergraduates at a large state university. Between 2009 and 2011 we conducted two surveys of over 500 students in multiple majors and colleges. These surveys asked students detailed questions about their preferences concerning course selection, advising, and career paths. We present data from this study which may be helpful for faculty and staff who advise undergraduate students. We find that advising support software tools can augment the student-advisor relationship, particularly in terms of course planning, but cannot and should not replace in-person advising.Comment: 5 Figures, revised version including more figures and cross-referencin

Heterogeneity in susceptibility dictates the order of epidemiological models

The fundamental models of epidemiology describe the progression of an infectious disease through a population using compartmentalized differential equations, but do not incorporate population-level heterogeneity in infection susceptibility. We show that variation strongly influences the rate of infection, while the infection process simultaneously sculpts the susceptibility distribution. These joint dynamics influence the force of infection and are, in turn, influenced by the shape of the initial variability. Intriguingly, we find that certain susceptibility distributions (the exponential and the gamma) are unchanged through the course of the outbreak, and lead naturally to power-law behavior in the force of infection; other distributions often tend towards these "eigen-distributions" through the process of contagion. The power-law behavior fundamentally alters predictions of the long-term infection rate, and suggests that first-order epidemic models that are parameterized in the exponential-like phase may systematically and significantly over-estimate the final severity of the outbreak

Convergence in Water Use Efficiency Within Plant Functional Types across contrasting climates

Water use efficiency (WUE) provides a direct measure of the inextricable link between plant carbon uptake and water loss, and it can be used to study how ecosystem function varies with climate. We analysed WUE data from the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS), leveraging the high spatial resolution of ECOSTRESS to study the distribution of WUE values both within and among regions with different plant functional types. Our results indicate that despite wide local variability of WUE estimates, WUE tended to converge to common global optima (peaked distributions with variance \u3c0.5 g C per kg H2O, kurtosis \u3e3.0) for five of nine plant functional types (grassland, permanent wetland, savannah, deciduous broadleaf and deciduous needleleaf forest), and this convergence occurred in functional types that spanned distinct geographic regions and climates

Mu Opioid Signaling Protects Against Acute Murine Intestinal Injury in a Manner Involving Stat3 Signaling

Opiates have long been used as analgesics to relieve pain associated with various medical conditions. Here, we evaluated the effect and mechanism of mu opioid signaling on the intestinal wound healing response and assessed downstream pathways known to be protective against intestinal injury. Mice (C57BL/6) were exposed to 3% dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) for 7 days or 4% DSS for 5 days followed by 7 days of water. The mu opioid receptor (MOR)-specific agonist [D-Arg2,Lys4]dermorphin-(1,4)-amide (DALDA) and the antagonist cyprodime were injected s.c. daily for in vivo studies or used for in vitro analysis. We found that MOR activation attenuated DSS-induced histologic and gross intestinal injury and weight loss; diminished Ifng, Tnf, and Il6 mRNA expression; and promoted intestinal healing during recovery. DALDA also enhanced colonocyte proliferation (Ki-67 staining) by 350%. MOR activation increased Stat3 phosphorylation in both DALDA-treated mice and the CMT-93 cell line. Importantly, DALDA-induced colonocyte migration was completely ablated by shStat3 knockdown. Together, this work shows that MOR activation protects against and enhances recovery from DSS-induced intestinal injury. This is associated with an increase in Stat3 activation. Furthermore, Stat3 is required for DALDA-induced colonocyte migration. Consequently, manipulation of MOR signaling may represent a novel means to promote mucosal healing and to maintain intestinal homeostasis after intestinal injury

A natively fixed-point run-time reconfigurable FIR filter design method for FPGA hardware

We present a natively fixed-point filter design method that targets FPGA-based Reconfigurable Finite Impulse Response (RFIR) filters for Software Defined Radio applications. The Filter Designer is capable of reconfiguring cut-off frequencies on-the-fly at run-time; with other parameters, such as filter length and window type, configurable at compile-time. The ability to compute filter coefficients directly on FPGAs is compelling, as much lower latencies can be achieved when compared to RFIRs programmed with embedded processors. In this work we discuss several filter design techniques from the literature and investigate their suitability for implementation on FPGAs. A hybrid method combining window and frequency sampling methods is developed and implemented on a Xilinx Zynq-7000 SoC. We explore the limitations of designing filters in fixed-point arithmetic and consider the effects filter length and wordlength have on filter quality. Results show that the proposed algorithm generates good-quality filters that display stopband attenuation up to 88dB, transition bandwidths less than 1% of the sample rate, and low resource utilisation. Most notably, we found that our method is up to three orders of magnitude faster than an equivalent software implementation, with execution times as low as 2.52 µs, enabling radio applications in which latency is a principal constraint

The seasonal origins and ages of water provisioning streams and trees in a tropical montane cloud forest

Determining the sources of water provisioning streams, soils, and vegetation can provide important insights into the water that sustains critical ecosystem functions now and how those functions may be expected to respond given projected changes in the global hydrologic cycle. We developed multi-year time series of water isotope ratios (δ18O and δ2H) based on twice-monthly collections of precipitation, lysimeter, and tree branch xylem waters from a seasonally dry tropical montane cloud forest in the southeastern Andes mountains of Peru. We then used this information to determine indices of the seasonal origins, the young water fractions (Fyw), and the new water fractions (Fnew) of soil, stream, and tree water. There was no evidence for intra-annual variation in the seasonal origins of stream water and lysimeter water from 1 m depth, both of which were predominantly comprised of wet-season precipitation even during the dry seasons. However, branch xylem waters demonstrated an intra-annual shift in seasonal origin: xylem waters were comprised of wet-season precipitation during the wet season and dry-season precipitation during the dry season. The young water fractions of lysimeter (&lt; 15 %) and stream (5 %) waters were lower than the young water fraction (37 %) in branch xylem waters. The new water fraction (an indicator of water ≤ 2 weeks old in this study) was estimated to be 12 % for branch xylem waters, while there was no significant evidence for new water in stream or lysimeter waters from 1 m depth. Our results indicate that the source of water for trees in this system varied seasonally, such that recent precipitation may be more immediately taken up by shallow tree roots. In comparison, the source of water for soils and streams did not vary seasonally, such that precipitation may mix and reside in soils and take longer to transit into the stream. Our insights into the seasonal origins and ages of water in soils, streams, and vegetation in this humid tropical montane cloud forest add to understanding of the mechanisms that govern the partitioning of water moving through different ecosystems.</p

Control and visualisation of a software defined radio system on the Xilinx RFSoC platform using the PYNQ framework

The availability of commercial Radio Frequency System on Chip (RFSoC) devices brings new possibilities for implementing Software Defined Radio (SDR) systems. Such systems are of increasing interest given the pace of innovation in wireless technology, and the pressure on RF spectrum resources, leading to a growing need to access the spectrum in more dynamic and innovative ways. In this paper, we present an SDR demonstration system based on the Xilinx RFSoC platform, which leverages the Python- based 'PYNQ' (Python Productivity for Zynq) software framework. In doing so, we highlight features that can be extremely useful for prototyping radio system design. Notably, our developed system features Python-based control of hardware processing blocks and Radio Frequency (RF) data converters, as well as direct visualisation of communications signals captured within the chip. The system architecture is reviewed, hardware and software components are discussed, functionality is demonstrated, and aspects of the system's performance are evaluated. Finally, it is noted that this combined RFSoC + PYNQ approach is readily extensible for other SDR systems; we highlight our online shared resources, and invite other engineers to investigate and build upon our work