Releasing the power: research led learning in a professional practice undergraduate curriculum

There is a challenge for vocational programmes in Higher Education in addressing the needs of a practice based discipline while developing enquiry based abilities in students. Ongoing research is being carried out into the use and suitability of student research-led learning within Built Environment curriculum at Northumbria University. This is aimed at undergraduate professional practice education and its perceived value by staff and students as compared to the use of the more traditional perceived transmission-based pedagogy. A focus group based survey of final years students was carried out to obtain an improved understanding of the value of research-led learning and to seek to highlight and extend staff opportunities and motivation to employ such methods across a wider range of curriculum activity, thus helping to justify the “release” of curriculum ownership to the student. It appears that students struggle to see the value of work which is not directly related to employment and it is suggested that more work is needed in measuring and understanding the enquiry based skills which are being used in the workplace already and using pedagogical approaches in language and practice which are more easily digested by students because research led learning is seen to be practical and have real results in what they perceive as the “real world”. Research-led learning needs to be carefully and sensitively embedded within the student learning experience at undergraduate level

Large N limit of orbifold field theories

We consider certain orbifoldization of the ${\cal N}=4$ field theories that leads to ${\cal N}=2,1,0$ field theories in 4 dimensions. These theories were recently analyzed using the string theory perturbation technique. It was found that in the large $N$ limit all correlation functions of the orbifold theories coincide with those of ${\cal N}=4$, modulo the rescaling of the gauge coupling constant. In this paper we repeat the same analysis using the field theoretical language.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, harvmac. Minor change

Testing Hypotheses in an I(2) Model with Applications to the Persistent Long Swings in the Dmk/$ Rate

This paper discusses a number of likelihood ratio tests on long-run relations and common trends in the I(2) model and provide new results on the test of overidentifying restrictions on β’xt and the asymptotic variance for the stochastic trends parameters, α⊥1: How to specify deterministic components in the I(2) model is discussed at some length. Model specification and tests are illustrated with an empirical analysis of long and persistent swings in the foreign exchange market between Germany and USA. The data analyzed consist of nominal exchange rates, relative prices, US inflation rate, two long-term interest rates and two short-term interest rates over the 1975-1999 period. One important aim of the paper is to demonstrate that by structuring the data with the help of the I(2) model one can achieve a better understanding of the empirical regularities underlying the persistent swings in nominal exchange rates, typical in periods of floating exchange ratesPPP puzzle; forward premium puzzle; cointegrated VAR; likelihood inference

Part I: Synthesis of Pyrrolo[1,2-A]Indoles Part II: Studies Towards Arboflorine

Part one of this thesis focuses on the synthesis of pyrrolo[1,2-a]indoles from nitrones and 1,1-cyclopropanediesters, by way of tetrahydro-1,2-oxazines. A five step synthetic sequence through tetrahydro-1,2-oxazine synthesis, intramolecular Heck reaction, Krapcho dealkoxycarbonylation, reductive N-O bond cleavage, and acid catalyzed transannular alcohol displacement, is developed to access the desired pyrrolo[1,2-a]indoles. Part two of this thesis details the functionalization of indoles by installation of a malonate moiety, by means of copper catalyzed carbenoid reactivity. A wide range of malonyl indoles with varying substitution patterns is shown to be accessible through the developed method. The final chapter focuses on the application of this reaction in a biomimetic approach towards the total synthesis of the indole alkaloid arboflorine. This reaction provided access to an advanced intermediate which allowed for the study of a key Mannich ring closure step that was proposed in the postulated biogenesis of the natural product. The current synthetic sequence includes the copper catalyzed malonyl carbenoid insertion, reduction of a pyridinium salt, reductive ammination, and a Polonovski-Potier reaction to install and mask an iminium motif. As of yet, the proposed Mannich reaction has been unsuccessful in securing the required azepane ring

A Resolution of the Purchasing Power Parity Puzzle: Imperfect Knowledge and Long Swings

Asset prices undergo long swings that revolve around benchmark levels. In currency markets, fluctuations involve real exchange rates that are highly persistent and that move in near-parallel fashion with nominal rates. The inability to explain these two regularities with one model has been called the "Purchasing Power Parity puzzle". In this paper, we trace the puzzle to exchange rate modelers' use of the "Rational Expectations Hypothesis". We show that once imperfect knowledge is recognized, a monetary model is able to account for the puzzle, as well as other salient features of the data, including the long-swings behavior of exchange rates.PPP puzzle; long swings; imperfect knowledge; rational expectations hypothesis

NASA Dust Mitigation Strategy

No abstract availabl

Arctic HARE: A Machine Learning-Based System for Performance Analysis of Cross-Country Skiers

Advances in sensor technology and big data processing enable new and improved performance analysis of sport athletes. With the increase in data variety and volume, both from on-body sensors and cameras, it has become possible to quantify the specific movement patterns that make a good athlete. This paper describes Arctic Human Activity Recognition on the Edge (Arctic HARE): a skiing-technique training system that captures movement of skiers to match those against optimal patterns in well-known cross-country techniques. Arctic HARE uses on-body sensors in combination with stationary cameras to capture movement of the skier, and provides classification of the perceived technique. We explore and compare two approaches for classifying data, and determine optimal representations that embody the movement of the skier. We achieve higher than 96% accuracy for real-time classification of cross-country techniques