The development of a curriculum for a course in basic firefighting technology

The lack of a current fire technology training program limits the employment possibilities of Inland Empire Job Corps Center trainees. The fire technology curriculum will provide Job Corps trainees with one more valuable skill to aid to their goal to gain and maintain meaningful employment after graduating from the Job Corps training program

Technology use in everyday life: Implications for designing for older users

This study examines the experience and attitudes of older adults towards technology and how they compare with younger age groups. Two hundred and thirty seven participants completed an extensive questionnaire exploring their daily lifestyle, use of technology, attitudes towards technology, and perceived difficulty of household devices. The main findings from the study were; (1) there was a strong motivation to learn or to continue learning to use computers by the older group; (2) social connectedness influenced how the older group used or would like to use technology and also why some preferred not to use it; and finally (3) there was an age-related increase in perceived difficulty for many household devices, however some devices maintained intergenerational usability. These finding can be used to inform the design of future intergenerational household technologies

A modified version of the Gregory-Loredo method for Bayesian periodic signal detection

The detection of planetary transits in stellar photometric light-curves is poised to become the main method for finding substantial numbers of terrestrial planets. The French-European mission COROT (foreseen for launch in 2005) will perform the first search on a limited number of stars, and larger missions Eddington (from ESA) and Kepler (from NASA) are planned for launch in 2007. Transit signals from terrestrial planets are small (Delta_F/F approx 10^{-4}), short (Delta_t approx 10 hours) dips, which repeat with periodicity of a few months, in time series lasting up to a few years. The reliable and automated detection of such signals in large numbers of light curves affected by different sources of noise is a statistical and computational challenge. We present a novel algorithm based on a Bayesian approach. The algorithm is based on the Gregory-Loredo method originally developed for the detection of pulsars in X-ray data. In the present paper the algorithm is presented, and its performance on simulated data sets dominated by photon noise is explored. In an upcoming paper the influence of additional noise sources (such as stellar activity) will be discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, uses bibtex and the macros aa.cls and aa.bst. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Positive Integers Represented by Regular Primitive Positive-Definite Integral Ternary Quadratic Forms

In 1997 Jagy, Kaplansky and Schiemann determined that there are at most 913 (classes of) primitive, positive-definite, integral ternary quadratic forms ax2 + by2 + cz2 + dyz + ezx + fxy which are regular. In this paper the positive integers represented by these 913 ternary forms are given

International partnerships in developing and deploying health open educational resources

Lack of training opportunities for new and practicing health care professionals constitutes a major barrier to patient care in many developing countries. Open Educational Resources (OER) hold the potential to provide more training materials and alternative learning opportunities for health professionals. OER are teaching and learning materials made freely and openly available for students, faculty, and self learners around the world. OER is not an online distance learning program. The focus of OER is on scaling up teaching and learning capacity in partner institutions by co-creating new learning materials and converting existing materials into OER. The context for which OER content is produced is often different from the contexts in which it is used. Thus, one of the major challenges of OER is to understand how to create a sustainable OER model to ensure that OER production and use fit different learning and teaching environments. The panel will share their perspectives on the following issues: - How are different types of OER created and packaged for delivery and use? - What are the challenges brought about by different contexts of knowledge creation and use? - How do we design new tools and leverage the existing tools (Sakai course management system, Adobe Connect and similar web conferencing systems, OpenCast and lecture capture systems) to facilitate the creation and use of knowledge? - How can we produce sustainable models of OER creation and use?Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78320/1/1450460148_ftp.pd

Leading Through Partnership: An Examination of Longitudinal Trends in a School-University Partnership

The purpose of this manuscript is to detail pre- and post- changes that occurred after a principal, Dr. D, was moved from one middle school to another. Dr. D brought an established partnership with him to his new school including a teacher residency program, UTeach replication program, and an on-site course. The results of ANOVAs are presented regarding the school climate according to student and teacher perspectives. Significant results were found on a number of variables including student belonging, bullying, and teacher autonomy. This manuscript addresses the National Association for Professional Development Schools Essential #5: Research and Results

CAutoCSD-evolutionary search and optimisation enabled computer automated control system design

This paper attempts to set a unified scene for various linear time-invariant (LTI) control system design schemes, by transforming the existing concept of 'Computer-Aided Control System Design' (CACSD) to the novel 'Computer-Automated Control System Design' (CAutoCSD). The first step towards this goal is to accommodate, under practical constraints, various design objectives that are desirable in both time and frequency-domains. Such performance-prioritised unification is aimed to relieve practising engineers from having to select a particular control scheme and from sacrificing certain performance goals resulting from pre-committing to the adopted scheme. With the recent progress in evolutionary computing based extra-numeric, multi-criterion search and optimisation techniques, such unification of LTI control schemes becomes feasible, analytically and practically, and the resultant designs can be creative. The techniques developed are applied to, and illustrated by, three design problems. The unified approach automatically provides an integrator for zero-steady state error in velocity control of a DC motor, meets multiple objectives in designing an LTI controller for a non-minimum phase plant and offers a high-performing LTI controller network for a nonlinear chemical process

Crafting Medical Education Differently: An Innovative Pedagogical Approach to Enhance Deep Learning in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

In this article we explore an innovative pedagogical approach initiated during the COVID-19 lockdown period to support student learning in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town. Student isolation and the lack of exposure to clinical cases during this period brought many challenges to the teaching platform. However, the global disruption enabled an ontological opening for imaginative and creative experimentation, an aspect of teaching rarely brought into medical training. We take up the unusual work of a clinician educator and others to describe the process of developing novel video recordings for undergraduate medical students. These videos, used as pedagogical tools, enabled new ways of engaging with core curricular needs in this discipline: for the teacher, new ways of producing teaching materials, and for the students, new ways of learning medical content. The videos drew on a range of creative modes including drawing and acting, to augment student learning. As authors, we suggest that the collision of the clinical content and the performative delivery in the videos fostered deep learning and made the curricular material alive and engaging. The existence of the videos enables a sustainable blended learning approach moving forward. The uploading of the videos as Open Educational Resources onto a YouTube channel and a public website now also contribute to teaching resources extending beyond institutional boundaries