Library Search UX report summer 2016

During Summer 2016, Imperial College London's Library Information Systems team ran a round of user experience research into the information-seeking behaviour of undergraduate and postgraduate students with a specific focus on the use of the library catalogue and discovery interface. The purpose of the work was to understand user behaviours and preferences to target development of practical improvements to the Library Search interface

Suing in the Right of the Corporation: A Commentary and Proposal for Legislative Reform

This Article is premised on the belief that the derivative action is uniquely susceptible to strike suit litigation-that is, actions with little or no substantive merit but pursued to exploit the nuisance value inherent in litigation. Although there is historic support for the notion of pernicious and vexing derivative litigation, some modern evidence suggests that the vast majority of publicly held companies experience no derivative litigation. Commentators, however, have questioned both the validity of the modern evidence and the conclusions derived from it. Despite these criticisms, observers of the present vitality of the derivative action, far from characterizing it as an effective litigation technique, opine that the action may face extinction. Because recent decisions such as Burks v. Lasker, Zapata Corp. v. Maldonado, and Auerbach v. Bennett have witnessed courts deferring to board decisions to terminate ongoing derivative actions on the grounds that the actions were not in the corporation\u27s best interest, commentators suggest that directors may now possess a veto power over derivative claims. In such a climate, [t]he strike suit . . . may very well be no more than an over-the-hill dragon, puffed into life to frighten the courts away from deciding substantive issues

Training for Evidence-Based Youth Physical Activity Leader Practices

Purpose: From a social ecological viewpoint, the way in which individuals interact with their surrounding environment, has a direct effect on their actions. One approach to modify behavior change is to strive to change the environment, thus driving behavior change. Participating in physical activity (PA) is a behavior to be targeted, due to its numerous health benefits. A population to consider targeting for increasing PA is children, as creating PA habits in childhood has been shown to track into adulthood . Change at a population level should begin by focusing efforts on the environments in which children are spending their time. As many youths spend time in school and other extracurricular activities, these settings offer an opportunity to insert an intervention that would increase children’s accumulation of PA. The purpose of this capstone project was to successfully create a training program that built the capacity and development of group place leaders to create an environment that is conducive to optimizing the promotion of PA in youth settings.Through the use of informed practices derived from evidence-based frameworks such as SAAFE, LET US Play, and BASICS, leaders will increase time spent in moderate-to -vigorous physical activity (MVPA), decrease time spent sedentary, and improve quality of PA delivered to children, while in group opportunity settings. Training Program Intervention: An initial brief recruitment presentation that provides a foundational understanding of the growing issue of inactivity is targeted toward group place leaders of all types (i.e., school teachers, after school leaders, club leaders, and youth sport coaches).This initial introductory presentation serves as a means to engage with the audience on the importance and benefits of regular PA. Group place leaders who express interest in the program receive access to the subsequent series of online educational modules and other resources. The online modules will educate group place leaders through introduction and elaboration of evidence-based practices. Impact: As of 2016, only 21.6% of children in America were reaching the recommended guidelines for MVPA. Creating a training program that builds the capacity of group place leaders couldn’t potentially result in an increased amount of time children spend in MVPA per day. This would be achieved throught building the leaders capacity to insert segments of physical activity into their session, as well as educating them on how to implement evidence-based practices in order to ensure high quality physical activity is being delivered

The Relationship between Religiosity and Educational Pursuit and Perception Among College Students at Utah State University

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of religiosity on the pursuit of education and the perceptions towards education among college students at Utah State University (USU). The study focused on what religious variables were useful in predicting postsecondary educational pursuit and either positive or negative educational perceptions among students at USU. From a systematic random sample of 1,460 USU students, a correlational research design was used for this study. Multiple linear regression (MLR) techniques were used to determine which of the various measures of religiosity provided the greatest degree of predictive value for ascertaining educational pursuit and educational perception. A stepwise multiple regression model was used to determine statistical significance of the predictors. Survey methods were used to gather the necessary data. From the results of MLR, seven independent variables (gender, religious practice, parental education, marital status, religious affiliation, positive religious experience, and ethnicity) correlate significantly with four constructs concerning educational perceptions and pursuits (school experience, academic attainments, family pressure, and influences). Of the seven independent variables revealed by MLR to be significant predictors of educational pursuits and perceptions, the measured constructs concerning religiosity were found to be generally less important than the demographic factors

Relevance of similitude parameters for drag reduction in sport aerodynamics

AbstractIt is possible to improve the aerodynamics of an athlete by influencing the location at which the boundary layer transition occurs on the body. The state of the boundary layer and therefore the drag coefficient depend mainly, in the critical Reynolds number range, on the shape, the aspect ratio and the 3-dimensionality of the body, the fabric properties and the wind turbulence. When planning a wind tunnel experiment, some of these factors are sometimes neglected. In this research, it was observed that each parameter was relevant and had a relatively large impact on the drag coefficient. Wind-tunnel tests on a 1:1 scale mannequin of an elite athlete were conducted in a fully controlled environment. They allowed the proper representation of the body proportions and cross-section dimensions as well as the 3-dimensionality aspect. It was observed that the flow interaction between the limbs dictated which fabric provided the lowest drag for each part of the body for a desired range of wind speed. An inappropriate simulation of the conditions can optimise the drag reduction for an erroneously targeted Reynolds number range. The research provided a quantitative evaluation of the relevance of correctly simulating parameters for drag reduction in sport aerodynamics

Stability of Monitoring Weak Changes in Multiply Scattering Media with Ambient Noise Correlation: Laboratory Experiments

Previous studies have shown that small changes can be monitored in a scattering medium by observing phase shifts in the coda. Passive monitoring of weak changes through ambient noise correlation has already been applied to seismology, acoustics and engineering. Usually, this is done under the assumption that a properly reconstructed Green function as well as stable background noise sources are necessary. In order to further develop this monitoring technique, a laboratory experiment was performed in the 2.5MHz range in a gel with scattering inclusions, comparing an active (pulse-echo) form of monitoring to a passive (correlation) one. Present results show that temperature changes in the medium can be observed even if the Green function (GF) of the medium is not reconstructed. Moreover, this article establishes that the GF reconstruction in the correlations is not a necessary condition: the only condition to monitoring with correlation (passive experiment) is the relative stability of the background noise structure

Lunar subsurface investigated from correlation of seismic noise.

International audienceBy correlating seismic noise recorded by four sensors placed on the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission, we have retrieved a well-defined dispersed Rayleigh wave pulse. Inversion of its group velocity provides new constraints on the lunar subsurface structure. The estimated ”signal-to-noise” ratio (SNR) of the retrieved Rayleigh wavetrain is strongly dependent on solar illumination, effectively making solar heating a source of seismic noise on the Moon. This result suggests that in future planetary missions it is feasible to extract information on the internal structure of extraterrestrial objects by correlating seismic noise even when natural quakes are absent

Algebraic Properties of Valued Constraint Satisfaction Problem

The paper presents an algebraic framework for optimization problems expressible as Valued Constraint Satisfaction Problems. Our results generalize the algebraic framework for the decision version (CSPs) provided by Bulatov et al. [SICOMP 2005]. We introduce the notions of weighted algebras and varieties and use the Galois connection due to Cohen et al. [SICOMP 2013] to link VCSP languages to weighted algebras. We show that the difficulty of VCSP depends only on the weighted variety generated by the associated weighted algebra. Paralleling the results for CSPs we exhibit a reduction to cores and rigid cores which allows us to focus on idempotent weighted varieties. Further, we propose an analogue of the Algebraic CSP Dichotomy Conjecture; prove the hardness direction and verify that it agrees with known results for VCSPs on two-element sets [Cohen et al. 2006], finite-valued VCSPs [Thapper and Zivny 2013] and conservative VCSPs [Kolmogorov and Zivny 2013].Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1207.6692 by other author

A combinatorial approach to knot recognition

This is a report on our ongoing research on a combinatorial approach to knot recognition, using coloring of knots by certain algebraic objects called quandles. The aim of the paper is to summarize the mathematical theory of knot coloring in a compact, accessible manner, and to show how to use it for computational purposes. In particular, we address how to determine colorability of a knot, and propose to use SAT solving to search for colorings. The computational complexity of the problem, both in theory and in our implementation, is discussed. In the last part, we explain how coloring can be utilized in knot recognition

On the reduction of the CSP dichotomy conjecture to digraphs

It is well known that the constraint satisfaction problem over general relational structures can be reduced in polynomial time to digraphs. We present a simple variant of such a reduction and use it to show that the algebraic dichotomy conjecture is equivalent to its restriction to digraphs and that the polynomial reduction can be made in logspace. We also show that our reduction preserves the bounded width property, i.e., solvability by local consistency methods. We discuss further algorithmic properties that are preserved and related open problems.Comment: 34 pages. Article is to appear in CP2013. This version includes two appendices with proofs of claims omitted from the main articl