Toward Standard Interpreter Education Program Admission Criteria

In the United States,signed language interpreter education programs (IEPs) must strike a balance between attracting a sufficient number of students and admitting only high-quality applicants who possess foundational language skills,can graduate in a timely manner and acquire professional credentials expediently. The Commission on Collegiate Interpreter Education (2014) asserts that all students entering U.S. IEPs should have strong language skills in both American Sign Language(ASL)and English before beginning to acquire interpreting skills. One way to measure a student’s readiness to enter a program of instruction is through the use of admission criteria. I examined online documents and surveyed52 baccalaureate-granting IEPs in North America 1) to identify their admission criteria, 2) to assess how these criteria were measured, and 3) to investigate which configuration of criteria, if any,had a positive impact on program completion by students and their subsequent time to credential

Hydrophobic counter ion effects on the formation of mesh and reversed phases in the perfluorodecanoate/water system

The tetramethylammonium perfluorodecanoate (C10TMA)/water system forms both random, Mh1(0) and correlated mesh, Mh1(R[3 with combining macron]m) phases over a wide range of concentration and temperature. Whilst the random mesh phase is found in the ammonium homologue, the extensive correlated mesh phase seems to be a result of the hydrophobic nature of the tetramethylammonium (TMA) counter ion. In order to explore the reasons for the occurrence of these mesh phases and the effects of hydrophobic counter ions on phase structure the counter ion has been substituted by a series of increasing hydrophobicity namely butyltrimethylammonium (BTMA), dibutyldimethylammonium (DBDMA), and methyltributylphosphonium (MTBP). The phases and their structures were identified by small angle X-ray scattering. Increasing counter ion hydrophobicity causes a change from mesh, to lamellar, and finally to reversed phases. All the hydrophobic counter ions are strongly bound to the water/fluorocarbon interface and, in the case of those with butyl chains, there is penetration of between 50 and 60% of the total number of counter ion methyl groups into the fluorocarbon region of the lamellar phase. These bound counter ions reduce the accessibility of the head group region to solvent water. As the number of butyl chains on the counter ion increases the lamellar phase is progressively lost and is replaced by a reversed micelle phase either as a single phase or as part of an extensive two phase region

EnsembleSVM: A Library for Ensemble Learning Using Support Vector Machines

EnsembleSVM is a free software package containing efficient routines to perform ensemble learning with support vector machine (SVM) base models. It currently offers ensemble methods based on binary SVM models. Our implementation avoids duplicate storage and evaluation of support vectors which are shared between constituent models. Experimental results show that using ensemble approaches can drastically reduce training complexity while maintaining high predictive accuracy. The EnsembleSVM software package is freely available online at http://esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/ensemblesvm.Comment: 5 pages, 1 tabl

Step away from the CAD station: A hands-on and immersive approach to second year teaching of Mechanical Engineering design

The purpose of this paper is to present a new methodology to enhance creativity within the context of learning and teaching in an engineering design module in the College of Engineering at Swansea University. The challenges to introducing creativity into an engineering undergraduate course are explored, with the main intervention—Virtual Reality for concept development—investigated through pre- and post-intervention surveys, student interviews and a focus group. Additional interventions to enhance creativity are discussed and future improvements to module design put forward