Flipping Without the Cold Turkey

Flipping is an appealing method to engage students for meaningful and active learning. However, the work needed to generate the content the students will use outside the classroom and to coordinate the activities the students will do inside the classroom seems daunting. This paper provides ideas to reduce the start-up costs in time and energy, essential elements to include in the implementation of the flip, and instructor and student behaviors that may need adjusting for a more effective flipped experience. These helpful hints are based on the author’s experience in flipping her sophomore-level chemical engineering required course for the first time last fall

Applying Leventhal's self-regulatory model to pregnancy: Evidence that pregnancy-related beliefs and emotional responses are associated with maternal health outcomes

This study explored whether women’s beliefs about, and emotional responses to, pregnancy could account for variations in maternal mental and physical health outcomes, using the self-regulatory model as a theoretical framework. Women in the last trimester of pregnancy (N = 408) completed an online survey including measures of representations of pregnancy, coping, and physical and mental health. Results revealed that representations of pregnancy accounted for up to 30 and 39 per cent of the variance in indicators of physical and mental health, respectively. Findings suggest that beliefs about pregnancy may have important implications for maternal health

C18O (3-2) observations of the Cometary Globule CG 12: a cold core and a C18O hot spot

The feasibility of observing the C18O (3-2) spectral line in cold clouds with the APEX telescope has been tested. As the line at 329.330 GHz lies in the wing of a strong atmospheric H2O absorption it can be observed only at high altitude observatories. Using the three lowest rotational levels instead of only two helps to narrow down the physical properties of dark clouds and globules. The centres of two C18O maxima in the high latitude low mass star forming region CG 12 were mapped in C18O (3-2) and the data were analyzed together with spectral line data from the SEST. The T_MB(3-2)/T_MB(2-1) ratio in the northern C18O maximum, CG 12 N, is 0.8, and in the southern maximum, CG 12 S, ~2. CG 12 N is modelled as a 120'' diameter (0.4pc) cold core with a mass of 27 Msun. A small size maximum with a narrow, 0.8 kms-1, C18O (3-2) spectral line with a peak temperature of T_MB ~11 K was detected in CG 12 S. This maximum is modelled as a 60'' to 80'' diameter (~0.2pc) hot (80 K < Tex < 200 K) ~1.6 Msun clump. The source lies on the axis of a highly collimated bipolar molecular outflow near its driving source. This is the first detection of such a compact, warm object in a low mass star forming region.Comment: APEX A&A special issue, accepte

Childhood injury in Tower Hamlets: Audit of children presenting with injury to an inner city A&E department in London.

Childhood injury is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide with the most socio-economically deprived children at greatest risk. Current routine NHS hospital data collection in England is inadequate to inform or evaluate prevention strategies. A pilot study of enhanced data collection was conducted to assess the feasibility of collecting accident and emergency data for national injury surveillance

Direct CP Violation in Angular Distribution of B→J/ψK∗B\to J/\psi K^{*} Decays

We show that the study of certain observables in the angular distribution in $B\to J/\psi K^*$ provide clear test for CP vioaltion beyond the Standard Model. These observables vanish in SM, but in models beyond SM some of them can be large enough to be measured at B factories.Comment: 7 pages, Revte

Linking Twitter and Survey Data: The Impact of Survey Mode and Demographics on Consent Rates Across Three UK Studies

In light of issues such as increasing unit nonresponse in surveys, several studies argue that social media sources such as Twitter can be used as a viable alternative. However, there are also a number of shortcomings with Twitter data such as questions about its representativeness of the wider population and the inability to validate whose data you are collecting. A useful way forward could be to combine survey and Twitter data to supplement and improve both. To do so, consent within a survey is first needed. This study explores the consent decisions in three large representative surveys of the adult British population to link Twitter data to survey responses and the impact that demographics and survey mode have on these outcomes. Findings suggest that consent rates for data linkage are relatively low, and this is in part mediated by mode, where face-to-face surveys have higher consent rates than web versions. These findings are important to understand the potential for linking Twitter and survey data but also to the consent literature generally

Struggling and juggling: a comparison of assessment loads in research and teaching-intensive universities

In spite of the rising tide of metrics in UK higher education, there has been scant attention paid to assessment loads, when evidence demonstrates that heavy demands lead to surface learning. Our study seeks to redress the situation by defining assessment loads and comparing them across research-and teaching intensive universities. We clarify the concept of ‘assessment load’ in response to findings about high volumes of summative assessment on modular degrees. We define assessment load across whole undergraduate degrees, according to four measures: the volume of summative assessment; volume of formative assessment; proportion of examinations to coursework; number of different varieties of assessment. All four factors contribute to the weight of an assessment load, and influence students’ approaches to learning. Our research compares programme assessment data from 73 programmes in 14 UK universities, across two institutional categories. Research-intensives have higher summative assessment loads and a greater proportion of examinations; teaching-intensives have higher varieties of assessment. Formative assessment does not differ significantly across both university groups. These findings pose particular challenges for students in different parts of the sector. Our study questions the wisdom that ‘more’ is always better, proposing that lighter assessment loads may make room for ‘slow’ and deep learning

OSCAR4: a flexible architecture for chemical text-mining

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract The Open-Source Chemistry Analysis Routines (OSCAR) software, a toolkit for the recognition of named entities and data in chemistry publications, has been developed since 2002. Recent work has resulted in the separation of the core OSCAR functionality and its release as the OSCAR4 library. This library features a modular API (based on reduction of surface coupling) that permits client programmers to easily incorporate it into external applications. OSCAR4 offers a domain-independent architecture upon which chemistry specific text-mining tools can be built, and its development and usage are discussed.Peer Reviewe

Exclusive Hadronic D Decays to eta' and eta

Hadronic decay modes $D^0\to(\bar K^0, \bar K^{*0})\eta,\eta'$ and $(D^+,D_s^+)\to(\pi^+,\rho^+)\eta,\eta'$ are studied in the generalized factorization approach. Form factors for $(D,D_s^+)\to(\eta,\eta')$ transitions are carefully evaluated by taking into account the wave function normalization of the eta and eta'. The predicted branching ratios are generally in agreement with experiment except for $D^0\to\bar K^0\eta', D^+\to\pi^+\eta$ and $D_s^+\to\rho^+\eta'$; the calculated decay rates for the first two decay modes are too small by an order of magnitude. We show that the weak decays $D^0\to K^-\pi^+$ and $D^+\to K^+\bar K^0$ followed by resonance-induced final-state interactions (FSI), which are amenable technically, are able to enhance the branching ratios of $D^0\to\bar K^0\eta'$ and $D^+\to\pi^+\eta$ dramatically without affecting the agreement between theory and experiment for $D^0\to\bar K^0\eta$ and $D^+\to\pi^+\eta'$. We argue that it is difficult to understand the observed large decay rates of $D_s^+\to \rho^+\eta'$ and $\rho^+\eta$ simultaneously; FSI, W-annihilation and the production of excess eta' from gluons are not helpful in this regard. The large discrepancy between the factorization hypothesis and experiment for the ratio of $D_s^+\to\rho^+ \eta'$ and $D_s^+\to\eta' e^+\nu$ remains as an enigma.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev. D. Form factors for D to eta and eta' transitions are slightly change