A Tale of Two Colleges

This story of two community colleges tells how they have dealt with the demands for data that state-mandated accountability requires. The story is based on research conducted at a large community college district in California. On the surface, the story might seem straightforward: accountability mandates led to the expansion of the Institutional Research Department, causing the schools to try to replace an outdated Student Information System in order to improve the district's overall access to data. However, the underlying story is more complicated. If it had a headline, it might be one of these: Why can't we get the data we need? A new system? What system? Is access to data really that important? This story looks at the community college district on multiple levels, weaving together anecdotes and experiences along with the underlying themes and tensions. It is an attempt to look at one component of the educational environment -- the one that links state policy-makers to the schools they oversee -- tracing the drive toward accountability through to its consequences in practice

Research Perspectives on Social Tagging

Social tagging has emerged as one of the most popular social software tools available online. Originating from Del.icio.us, social tagging capabilities can now be found on a number of major music, news, video, and commercial websites, as well as on social network sites and enterprise systems. Although social tagging allows individuals to organize content utilizing user-generated vocabulary, the power of social tagging stems from the ability to view and share resources with other users of the system. Through the sharing of tags and resources, social tagging systems facilitate network connections and perhaps even the creation of communities. In this panel, an exciting group of young researchers will present their ongoing work on social tagging. This panel will present a variety of perspectives on social tagging ranging from qualitative ethnographic work to quantitative visualizations. Additionally, the panel will cover topics such as: the definition of a tag, the role that tags play in social network sites, as well as tags in corporate and organizational settings. The research and the varying methods presented in this panel will present viewers with an exciting array of perspectives on social tagging. Additionally, in order to further engage the audience, the panelists will also participate in a point-counterpoint discussion with the participants which will help illuminate both the advantages and disadvantages of social tagging, as well as further highlight the multiple perspectives and approaches available for continuing social tagging research

Reimagining Online Safety Education through the Eyes of Young People: Co-Design Workshops with Young People to Inform Digital Learning Experiences

Online safety education is typically designed by adults for young people. As a consequence, it often reflects adult perspectives and concerns. While existing education has been somewhat successful in raising young people’s awareness about online harms, young Australians report gaps in their online safety skills and knowledge. This is particularly true when it comes to managing difficult experiences online and supporting others through negative experiences.1 Young people also describe feeling misunderstood and disempowered by current online safety messaging.2 With funding from the eSafety Commissioner’s Online Safety Grants, and in partnership with the PROJECT ROCKIT Foundation, this project aimed to create online safety learning experiences with and for young people to better meet their needs and address their concerns. To inform the design of these learning experiences, the Young and Resilient Research Centre (Y&R) at Western Sydney University (WSU) led a survey and a creative and participatory process to co-design youth-centred online safety education with young people

Efficient learning of Sparse Pauli Lindblad models for fully connected qubit topology

The challenge to achieve practical quantum computing considering current hardware size and gate fidelity is the sensitivity to errors and noise. Recent work has shown that by learning the underlying noise model capturing qubit cross-talk, error mitigation can push the boundary of practical quantum computing. This has been accomplished using Sparse Pauli-Lindblad models only on devices with a linear topology connectivity (i.e. superconducting qubit devices). In this work we extend the theoretical requirement for learning such noise models on hardware with full connectivity (i.e. ion trap devices).Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Cice Magazine, No. 8

I am From... Operation Save: A Volunteer\u27s Reflection Big Girls Climb Too: Dismantling Exclusionary Outdoor Culture The Forgotten: Low-Income and Indebted at Puget Soundhttps://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/cicemagazine/1007/thumbnail.jp

Neurological status of low-risk Vietnamese newborns: a comparison with a British newborn cohort.

A shortened version of the Dubowitz newborn neurological examination, recently reassessed in rural Thailand, was applied to a group of 58 Vietnamese newborns. The aim was to establish the neurological status of newborns in this population for use in further studies and to compare with groups previously studied. Compared to the original British cohort, the Vietnamese newborns showed significantly lower scores in 10 of 25 items, including several related to truncal tone. Evidence was sought of thiamine and long-chain fatty acid deficiency as a possible cause for these findings, but no correlation was found between the neurological status and the maternal or infant blood levels of these nutritional indicators. The findings suggest that the neurological status of low-risk Vietnamese newborns appears to lie between that of British newborns and those ethnic minority Karen newborns in refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border tested previously. Although no specific nutritional cause has been identified in the study, the findings may still reflect sub-optimal intake of some important nutrients

Deep observations of CO line emission from star-forming galaxies in a cluster candidate at z=1.5

We report results from a deep Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) search for CO 1-0 line emission from galaxies in a candidate galaxy cluster at z~1.55 in the COSMOS field. We target 4 galaxies with optical spectroscopic redshifts in the range z=1.47-1.59. Two of these 4 galaxies, ID51613 and ID51813, are nominally detected in CO line emission at the 3-4 sigma level. We find CO luminosities of 2.4x10^10 K km/s pc^2 and 1.3x10^10 K km/s pc^2, respectively. Taking advantage from the clustering and 2-GHz bandwidth of the JVLA, we perform a search for emission lines in the proximity of optical sources within the field of view of our observations. We limit our search to galaxies with K<23.5 (AB) and z_phot=1.2-1.8. We find 2 bright optical galaxies to be associated with significant emission line peaks (>4 sigma) in the data cube, which we identify with the CO line emission. To test the reliability of the line peaks found, we performed a parallel search for line peaks using a Bayesian inference method. Monte Carlo simulations show that such associations are statistically significant, with probabilities of chance association of 3.5% and 10.7% for ID 51207 and ID 51380, respectively. Modeling of their optical/IR SEDs indicates that the CO detected galaxies and candidates have stellar masses and SFRs in the range (0.3-1.1)x10^11 M_sun and 60-160 M_sun/yr, with SFEs comparable to that found in other star-forming galaxies at similar redshifts. By comparing the space density of CO emitters derived from our observations with the space density derived from previous CO detections at z~1.5, and with semi-analytic predictions for the CO luminosity function, we suggest that the latter tend to underestimate the number of CO galaxies detected at high-redshift. Finally, we argue about the benefits of future blind CO searches in clustered fields with upcoming submm/radio facilities.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Abstract has been slightly shortened compared to original pdf versio

Neurological Status of Low-risk Vietnamese Newborns: A Comparison with a British Newborn Cohort

A shortened version of the Dubowitz newborn neurological examination, recently re-assessed in rural Thailand, was applied to a group of 58 Vietnamese newborns. The aim was to establish the neurological status of newborns in this population for use in further studies and to compare with groups previously studied. Compared to the original British cohort, the Vietnamese newborns showed significantly lower scores in 10 of 25 items, including several related to truncal tone. Evidence was sought of thiamine and long-chain fatty acid deficiency as a possible cause for these findings, but no correlation was found between the neurological status and the maternal or infant blood levels of these nutritional indicators. The findings suggest that the neurological status of low-risk Vietnamese newborns appears to lie between that of British newborns and those ethnic minority Karen newborns in refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border tested previously. Although no specific nutritional cause has been identified in the study, the findings may still reflect sub-optimal intake of some important nutrients